Having no self serve laundry on RCI sucks!

[oz5]

I love cruising with RCI but there is one thing that really annoys me- why oh why do they not have any self serve laundries on board the ships? When you are a family of 5 you NEED a laundry. Paying $20 for a tiny paper bag full of washing does not suffice.

Both Carnival and Princess had laundries on them. I really wish RCI had them. Do any of their ships have them?

[rummenroman]

I love cruising with RCI but there is one thing that really annoys me- why oh why do they not have any self serve laundries on board the ships? When you are a family of 5 you NEED a laundry. Paying $20 for a tiny paper bag full of washing does not suffice.

Both Carnival and Princess had laundries on them. I really wish RCI had them. Do any of their ships have them?

 

No Royal does not have a ship with self serve laundry facilities on board.

[wocheez]

I love cruising with RCI but there is one thing that really annoys me- why oh why do they not have any self serve laundries on board the ships? When you are a family of 5 you NEED a laundry. Paying $20 for a tiny paper bag full of washing does not suffice.

Both Carnival and Princess had laundries on them. I really wish RCI had them. Do any of their ships have them?

 

I agree!!! On princess we knew we could do laundry so we didn't have to bring as many clothes...Now on our next cruise which is with RCI I'm going to have to pack a lot more...sucks!!

[Ashland]

Have sailed for many years with only RCI..so I never thought having a self-service laundry was a big deal...after all who wants to do laundry on a cruise...Well after just recently sailing with PCL for the first time I went in to see one of these laundry rooms for myself...WOW..I just wish I would have had some laundry or ironing to do...This would be a great feature for RCI to have...:)

[Paulxyz2004]

Having cruised on lines that have them and on lines that don´t. Doesn´t make a difference to me. I never used them and have no intend to use them anyway.

 

Afterall it´s a corporate decision to have them or not. If I´d run a cruiseline I´d not have them. I would rather use that space for another cabin to generate more income, instead of a wasted space that just cost money.

[dmwnc1959]

I can sort of see the OP's point especially coming all the way from Down Under with a family of five, that packing less and having the 'luxury' of being able to do your own laundry without paying an arm and leg would truly make a huge difference. If the cruise is just an extension of a much longer holiday here in the states maybe the OP could do laundry just before (or after) the cruise to keep the family happy and in clean clothes.

[rkmw]

why dont they do what princess do and once you have reached Elite status the laundry is free....surely it wouldnt cost that much more

[Paulxyz2004]

why dont they do what princess do and once you have reached Elite status the laundry is free....surely it wouldnt cost that much more

 

Probably because they follow a different marketing strategy than Princess.:rolleyes:

[hubofhockey]

Princess also has much longer itineraries and the need for the self serve laundry rooms. The need for them on 12-day itineraries is greater than on the typical 7-day itineraries. For example, we welcome it on our 12-day Princess British Isles cruise this summer (with four pre-cruise days in Paris) and won't miss not having it on The Allure next Spring It's one of the reasons we like Princess for the longer European cruises. But Princess is behind the times in other areas.

[AuzzieCruiser]

One big gripe of most Aussies is the lack of self service laundries. I think every other ship that sails from Australia has self serve laundries.

I also think it's a problem for most cruises from Australia are that 90% of them are longer than a week.

Laundry bills were a killer on our 5 week B2B cruise on the Rhapsody 3 years ago, even with the heavy discounting!

I've used the laundries on Princess, Carnival and P&O Australia and think they were all fantastic. Though we did look a bit odd on Carnival last year. Day one and we headed straight to the laundry lol :p

[Paulxyz2004]

I´ve never cruised less than a week and most of my cruises are over two weeks with added pre and post cruise parts. So I´m usually travelling anywhere between 3-4 weeks total per trip. I´ve never needed laundry on any of those trips, be it ashore or onboard.

[beachnative]

Have sailed for many years with only RCI..so I never thought having a self-service laundry was a big deal...after all who wants to do laundry on a cruise...Well after just recently sailing with PCL for the first time I went in to see one of these laundry rooms for myself...WOW..I just wish I would have had some laundry or ironing to do...This would be a great feature for RCI to have...:)

 

Totally agree.

[BND]

Don't miss it. We've sailed on Carnival and Princess and NEVER did laundry on them either. Hey, when I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation from EVERYTHING. Laundry is something we do because we have to. On vacation I don't have to do anything.;)

 

We've done 4,5,7 8, 9, and 12 night cruises and the most we've done is the $25 bag of laundry once during the cruise. With the Emerald coupon it's only $20 for the bag. All we launder is underwear and socks.

[Cpt Des]

I love cruising with RCI but there is one thing that really annoys me- why oh why do they not have any self serve laundries on board the ships? When you are a family of 5 you NEED a laundry. Paying $20 for a tiny paper bag full of washing does not suffice.

Both Carnival and Princess had laundries on them. I really wish RCI had them. Do any of their ships have them?

 

Looks like they don't......but having said that, most people have just accepted everything thrown at them and paid for it.

 

Think it's about time RCI were told that if they want to remain in Oz and keep bookings up.....then they had better look at having a Laundromat for the pax, after all clean clothes are one of the most basic requirements.

 

If Jane and I rocked up to dinner in scruffy, unkempt dirty clothes, I am sure it would be frowned on (might even be asked to leave ?:eek:), and it would not look good for us either.

[Big_G]

Don't miss it. We've sailed on Carnival and Princess and NEVER did laundry on them either. Hey, when I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation from EVERYTHING. Laundry is something we do because we have to. On vacation I don't have to do anything.;)

 

We've done 4,5,7 8, 9, and 12 night cruises and the most we've done is the $25 bag of laundry once during the cruise. With the Emerald coupon it's only $20 for the bag. All we launder is underwear and socks.

 

Agree. Laundry is not even a consideration when booking a cruise. It's so far out of of consideration it doesn't even make the infamous 'Last Thing I Ever Wanna' Do On Cruise' list.

[Wilda]

Have sailed for many years with only RCI..so I never thought having a self-service laundry was a big deal...after all who wants to do laundry on a cruise...Well after just recently sailing with PCL for the first time I went in to see one of these laundry rooms for myself...WOW..I just wish I would have had some laundry or ironing to do...This would be a great feature for RCI to have...:)

 

Completely agree! The set up is fabulous and the pricing is reasonable. I'm an early riser and can have all my laundry done by 7:00 am!

 

Having cruised on lines that have them and on lines that don´t. Doesn´t make a difference to me. I never used them and have no intend to use them anyway.

 

Afterall it´s a corporate decision to have them or not. If I´d run a cruiseline I´d not have them. I would rather use that space for another cabin to generate more income, instead of a wasted space that just cost money.

 

Sounds like a corporate standpoint:rolleyes: Wouldn't it be great if RCI looked at it from a customer satisfaction viewpoint instead...? And although it would not generate as much money, it would certainly still be a revenue stream. There will always be passengers that send their laundry out...just think a choice would be nice.

[HokiePoq]

I personally like having a laundry as it keeps the luggage under weight limits. I wash far more than will fit in the little bags. If you are on a long cruise, you will be sending laundry and handwashing a lot if there are no coin laundries There are items I would launder myself in a machine or in the sink but not trust the ship's laundry to do. We mainly send heavier items like socks, tshirts, and DH's underwear, all of which take a long time to dry if handwashed. It seems like a trend, though, on several lines, that coin laundries are not being included on the newer ships. I've heard that they are a lot of trouble in maintenance. And I imagine, the thinking is that there is money to be made charging for laundry and using the laundry space for a few more cabins.

[Hunwolf]

$$$

 

/end of thread

[klingoncruiser]

I really don't miss have having to do laundry on the ship. I have done it on Princess.... but find it easier to use the laundry service on the ship, but we are Diamond so we get it for free. If it was a longer than 7 day cruise, I can understand easily how a do it yourself laundry would be a big help.

[cruz4natic]

I've sailed both, with and without self-laundries, and love having the self-laundries on board. When RCCI started conviscating irons, they should have added self-laundries, at least on every other deck. I used them each a.m. and p.m. for ironing. On longer cruises, I did wash to keep from packing so much. It was so convenient. It is a moneymaker also. The machines were coin, and even if they charged for ironing, it would so be worth it.

[DaveG99]

if you really need to you can do laundry in your sink the old fashioned way

[negc]

I love cruising with RCI but there is one thing that really annoys me- why oh why do they not have any self serve laundries on board the ships? When you are a family of 5 you NEED a laundry. Paying $20 for a tiny paper bag full of washing does not suffice.

Both Carnival and Princess had laundries on them. I really wish RCI had them. Do any of their ships have them?

 

None of RCI's ships have laundries nor do NCL ships or Celebrity ships and probably several others. People seem able to cope with their absence pretty well, including families with five members and most of us can find better ways to spend our vacation time than doing laundry while on the ship. NCL actually removed their self-serve laundries in order to add more revenue generating staterooms.

With proper planning, you can survive and if you include laundry costs in your cruise budget you shouldn't have a serious problem. Having observed the problems on Princess when some guests didn't return to the laundry room to remove their clothes in a timely fashion, or returned to find that someone else had actually removed their clothes, I think that many lines have decided that they are better off not having the self-serve laundries.:)

[dutchess43]

The longest cruise I sailed on was 18 days last year on Princess & even though I said I was going to the self service washing machines I never made it.

[Paulxyz2004]

Sounds like a corporate standpoint:rolleyes: Wouldn't it be great if RCI looked at it from a customer satisfaction viewpoint instead...? And although it would not generate as much money, it would certainly still be a revenue stream. There will always be passengers that send their laundry out...just think a choice would be nice.

 

It sure is from the corporate standpoint. Sure it would be great for the customer if they looked at it from their point of view.

A company is in the business to make money though and they need to look at everything from a corporate standpoint. If they didn´t they wouldn´t be in the business for long.

Of course every business needs to keep the customer satisfaction in mind, but that doesn´t relate to offering every little tidbit a fraction of their customers would like.

As long as they don´t lose customers over something there´s no need to change something.

I don´t see how it would be a revenue stream though. I´m pretty sure those coin operated machines cost the cruiselines much more than they generate as income. Machines like that are quite expensive to begin with, they need power and water, which is both at a premium to produce on a cruise ship and then they need maintenance, which I guess is rather expensive too. All of that is not even taking into account the space that could be used for another cabin to be sold.

 

Yep it´s a corporate standpoint of view and I think it´s not cost effective to run those laundry rooms. At that point it starts to effect the cruisers again as those costs need to be paid by someone - the cruiser.

[negc]

It sure is from the corporate standpoint. Sure it would be great for the customer if they looked at it from their point of view.

A company is in the business to make money though and they need to look at everything from a corporate standpoint. If they didn´t they wouldn´t be in the business for long.

Of course every business needs to keep the customer satisfaction in mind, but that doesn´t relate to offering every little tidbit a fraction of their customers would like.

As long as they don´t lose customers over something there´s no need to change something.

I don´t see how it would be a revenue stream though. I´m pretty sure those coin operated machines cost the cruiselines much more than they generate as income. Machines like that are quite expensive to begin with, they need power and water, which is both at a premium to produce on a cruise ship and then they need maintenance, which I guess is rather expensive too. All of that is not even taking into account the space that could be used for another cabin to be sold.

 

Yep it´s a corporate standpoint of view and I think it´s not cost effective to run those laundry rooms. At that point it starts to effect the cruisers again as those costs need to be paid by someone - the cruiser.

 

Your points are quite valid, especially those points about the costs to install and maintain those machines. If they were the moneymaker some claim, RCI would be quick to install them. If they were such a great revenue source and the preponderance of guests were demanding them, RCI would do so. The fact that they don't is very telling. Apparently RCI succeeds in filling their ships every week without offering self-serve laundries and there is, therefore, little or no incentive for them to change course.