Self-Service Laundry on Celebrity Ships

[BlueCat1105]

Whether or not hotels have self-service laundries isn't quite an apples to apples comparison, because 1) you can, if desired, go to a laundromat on land, and 2) many times on a land trip, you move from one hotel to another during the course of your vacation.

[richstowe]

[quote name='BlueCat1105']Whether or not hotels have self-service laundries isn't quite an apples to apples comparison, because 1) you can, if desired, go to a laundromat on land, and 2) many times on a land trip, you move from one hotel to another during the course of your vacation.[/quote]
Exactly. Most hotels don't have infirmaries, a security force or a duty free shop either.

As has been said, if you don't want it, you don't have to use it. If Celebrity doesn't feel it make financial sense,
they won't put self serve laundry machines in.
I would never rock climb but would not be against the installation of this activity. How is this different?

[kyriecat]

I was on Silhouette's Sept 29 - Oct. 11 sailing. I spent 2 days pre-cruise and 3 days post-cruise around Rome so I was away from home for 17 days. While not having a self-serve laundry onboard played no role in my decision for this itinerary, I admit having a self-serve laundry would have been nice. I could have used it a couple times.

I used the ship's laundry services a couple of times. However, they don't take care of my clothes the same way that I would. Ship laundry is intended to run as many things together as possible, not caring much about the outcome. For example, my husband was having food spillage problems on this cruise and stained a couple of his shirts. I had a Tide stain stick that I used to pre-treat the stain and pinned a note on the shirt that there was a stain. However, the stain stick is not perfect so the shirts ended up going through the dryer with some residual stain. If I had washed the shirts myself, I would have examined them to make sure the stains were removed before putting them in the dryer and setting the stains.

For those that say I could wash laundry in my sink, my cabin on Silhouette (1669) did not have a retractable laundry line (first time I haven't had one). I had no place to hang anything in the bathroom other than the double robe hook on the door. I usually rinse and hang wet swimwear on the line in the shower so it can drip without making a mess. I also hand-wash my lingerie, both at home and while away, and hang it in the bathroom to dry. Since I had no place in the bathroom to dry things, I used clothes pins to secure my wet swimwear to a chair on the balcony but was told it is against Celebrity policy to dry clothes on the balconies. Based on the photo, I'm blaming [B]Aussie Claire [/B]for this policy. ;):p

The only towel bars in my cabin were inside the shower. I assume Celebrity thought people could use the towel bar for hanging wet things as well as towels, but putting towel bars inside a shower is not the best of ideas. If I didn't remember to move the towels to the sink cabinet before showering, I ended up with wet towels. I used more towels than normal because I would accidentally drench one while showering if I forgot to move it so it was unusable for drying. This isn't intended to be a whine, but rather my engineering mind attempting to improve on a design. There was space on the wall beside the toilet just outside of the shower to place a towel bar where the towels wouldn't get wet while showering and still be convenient. Why didn't Celebrity do that and put a retractable line in the shower?

I made a comment about location of the towel bars and lack of laundry line but I don't know if will do any good.

[gmjc2]

Last time then moving on!

If you cannot spare 2 hours once every 5 or 6 days to do laundry on your cruise, then you must be the Roadrunner! We enjoy some activities on board but 24/7 ???? Do you sleep?

Just because most visitors of the thread didnot vote ,doesnot mean they do not have an opinion! Most people make their opinion known to family or friends but do not make it "official", it happens all too often. Many do not even post, they just read! The fact is that a large percentage of those that DID VOTE want self service laundry and we should continue to request it from those cruise lines that do not have them!

Lighten up! Live and Let Live! All that good stuff! Bye!

[BlueCat1105]

Richstowe made a good point. They use up a whole lot of deck space with things and activities that I would never use, but I don't make such a fuss about them. No one would force a passenger do a load of whites just because they had a self-serve washer and dryer, and those laundries don't take up a whole lot of room, so why deny the passengers who want to be in control of their own washing to do so? :confused:

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='Mercury']In "fact" have you considered that the same person opens the thread a number of times, but is only able to vote once? Your numbers are laughable.[/quote]

Hi Mercury, I do believe this thread results speak for itself, in that a majority of people want self service laundry facilities, unfortunately there will always be people who don't agree and will twist words, statistics and results to benefit their own needs.:(

I can't understand why people who don't want this facility can obsess over people who do, it wont affect them in any way as they wont be using it. It is merely a service to be used or not used at will, the same as drinking, playing poker machines or smoking.

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='kyriecat']I was on Silhouette's Sept 29 - Oct. 11 sailing. I spent 2 days pre-cruise and 3 days post-cruise around Rome so I was away from home for 17 days. While not having a self-serve laundry onboard played no role in my decision for this itinerary, I admit having a self-serve laundry would have been nice. I could have used it a couple times.

I used the ship's laundry services a couple of times. However, they don't take care of my clothes the same way that I would. Ship laundry is intended to run as many things together as possible, not caring much about the outcome. For example, my husband was having food spillage problems on this cruise and stained a couple of his shirts. I had a Tide stain stick that I used to pre-treat the stain and pinned a note on the shirt that there was a stain. However, the stain stick is not perfect so the shirts ended up going through the dryer with some residual stain. If I had washed the shirts myself, I would have examined them to make sure the stains were removed before putting them in the dryer and setting the stains.

For those that say I could wash laundry in my sink, my cabin on Silhouette (1669) did not have a retractable laundry line (first time I haven't had one). I had no place to hang anything in the bathroom other than the double robe hook on the door. I usually rinse and hang wet swimwear on the line in the shower so it can drip without making a mess. I also hand-wash my lingerie, both at home and while away, and hang it in the bathroom to dry. Since I had no place in the bathroom to dry things, I used clothes pins to secure my wet swimwear to a chair on the balcony but was told it is against Celebrity policy to dry clothes on the balconies. Based on the photo, I'm blaming [B]Aussie Claire [/B]for this policy. ;):p

The only towel bars in my cabin were inside the shower. I assume Celebrity thought people could use the towel bar for hanging wet things as well as towels, but putting towel bars inside a shower is not the best of ideas. If I didn't remember to move the towels to the sink cabinet before showering, I ended up with wet towels. I used more towels than normal because I would accidentally drench one while showering if I forgot to move it so it was unusable for drying. This isn't intended to be a whine, but rather my engineering mind attempting to improve on a design. There was space on the wall beside the toilet just outside of the shower to place a towel bar where the towels wouldn't get wet while showering and still be convenient. Why didn't Celebrity do that and put a retractable line in the shower?

I made a comment about location of the towel bars and lack of laundry line but I don't know if will do any good.[/quote]

I am happy to shoulder the blame.:D I had no idea there was a rule about hanging your laundry on the balcony,:confused: mind you as long as there is no self service laundry on the ship I will continue to hang my laundry on the balcony. Our cabin steward saw our laundry hanging there and never said a word.

[Christine Frances]

[quote name='Aussie Claire']I am happy to shoulder the blame.:D I had no idea there was a rule about hanging your laundry on the balcony,:confused: mind you as long as there is no self service laundry on the ship I will continue to hang my laundry on the balcony. Our cabin steward saw our laundry hanging there and never said a word.[/quote]

It is stressed at every Muster Drill that I have been on:confused: Credit to Andreas for photo
[IMG]http://www.depping-design.de/test/albums/2012_10_refl_room6303/c3_6303_0013.jpg[/IMG]

[Aussie Claire]

Christine, that sign doesn't say you can't [B]hang (pegged)[/B] your washing on the balcony, it clearly says [B]"don't leave your towels or personal belongings on the balcony." I always bring them in as soon as they are dry.[/B]

I wouldn't dream of leaving my towel on the balcony, there is a towel rail in the bathroom for this, plus there wouldn't be enough room for my laundry.:D Just kidding,:)

[Christine Frances]

[quote name='Aussie Claire']Christine, that sign doesn't say you can't [B]hang (pegged)[/B] your washing on the balcony, it clearly says [B]"don't leave your towels or personal belongings on the balcony."I always bring them in as soon as they are dry.[/B]

I wouldn't dream of leaving my towel on the balcony, there is a towel rail in the bathroom for this, plus there wouldn't be enough room for my laundry.:D Just kidding,:)[/quote]

If nothing else it is a fire hazard, albeit less so now that there is no smoking allowed on balcony's but there are still people who will try and hope they don't get caught. They don't want you to "leave" clothes on the balcony and I would take that as hung over the railing, hanging on a chair or "pegged"

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='Christine Frances']It says "towels or personal belongings". They don't have to specify underwear, socks etc If nothing else it is a fire hazard, albeit less so now that there is no smoking allowed on balcony's but there are still people who will try and hope they don't get caught.[/quote]

I suspect Celebrity are more concerned that their towels don't fly off the balconies, my washing is always pinned and I have a hump cabin behind the hump, so no wind.

I would be so happy not to hang my washing on the balcony, this could be easily rectified with self service facility.:)

[boogs]

:eek:[quote name='Aussie Claire']I am happy to shoulder the blame.:D I had no idea there was a rule about hanging your laundry on the balcony,:confused: mind you [B]as long as there is no self service laundry on the ship I will continue to hang my laundry on the balcony[/B]. Our cabin steward saw our laundry hanging there and never said a word.[/QUOTE]

What an attitude! You aren't happy that there aren't self service laundry facilities for you to use, so now you think it's OK to break the rules for your convenience. Figures. :rolleyes:

[quote name='Aussie Claire']I suspect Celebrity are more concerned that their towels don't fly off the balconies, my washing is always pinned and I have a hump cabin behind the hump, so no wind.

[B]I would be so happy not to hang my washing on the balcony, this could be easily rectified with self service facility[/B].:)[/QUOTE]

It is quite amazing how you are interpreting the rules to suit your own personal preferences.

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='boogs']:eek:

What an attitude! You aren't happy that there aren't self service laundry facilities for you to use, so now you think it's OK to break the rules for your convenience. Figures. :rolleyes:



It is quite amazing how you are interpreting the rules to suit your own personal preferences.[/quote]

As you do.:D

The rules say nothing about pegging.

[Denny01]

This poll is more than a bit flawed, the OP as most of us acknowledge this, but those that think a laundry is a must seem to ignore that. So this is not some poll that Celebrity could use.

But beyond that, those that want self-service laundry have emphasized one issue which I think is worth thinking about: if you don't want it, then don't use it, but let those that want it have access to one. A very good point if that was only issue. But in reality, that really isn't how it works. A Line has to decide if adding a laundry is worth the extra cost that they won't recoup, or is it more important to their customer over other options that may cost the LIne.

That is why I tried another poll that made each voter decide if they wanted laundry service more than some other option. That poll showed laundry service wasn't that important. It wasn't a yes or no on laundry, but it made us pick what we thought was highest priority. Self-Serve Laundry came in 3 out of 4.

I cant see how a poll that asks us 'do you want this or not' really matters, there has to be some loss, some price. It is to the Line...we could end up saying 'yes' to just about anything put this way, so I think it works better if you have to pick an option over others, just as the LIne has to. My poll is probably just as flawed as any, but I think it has some positive that at least it requires us to choose versus just saying 'I want'.

And by the way, not having self-laundry is not an excuse for hanging stuff on the balcony. I can't see how anyone can't see who really bad that is.....It not just against the ship rules, but tacky, not matter who many times someone keeps posting here.

Den

[Ma Bell]

[quote name='Aussie Claire']As you do.:D

The rules say nothing about pegging.[/QUOTE]

Are you serious?

[richstowe]

Den I saw your thread and your point has merit .It falls into the "there is no such thing as a free lunch" camp.

[B]Your Options[/B]
Increase quality of meals in the MDR/BLU
Add Self-Service Laundry facilities
Add a major act or famous speaker to extended cruises
Free soft drinks and/or specialty coffees

I think that self-serve laundry is the out-lier in that it's the cheapest of the 4 options on a ongoing basis. By far!
The free drinks/coffees option would entail a great loss in revenue.
The third and first options would also be very expensive depending on the level of the food upgrade.
The high-end speaker/performer choice ,besides great expense, has the problem of never satisfying all the customers.

Putting in machines is relatively inexpensive and would be a revenue source. I am pretty sure the machines would be
paid off by the second cruise at $2 a load and yes that is more then your corner Laundromat.

There is data for about 0 % of my "facts" but having been in the hospitality industry I feel confident
that the laundry option stands out as relatively low cost.

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='Ma Bell']Are you serious?[/quote]

Very.:)

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='Denny01']This poll is more than a bit flawed, the OP as most of us acknowledge this, but those that think a laundry is a must seem to ignore that. So this is not some poll that Celebrity could use.

But beyond that, those that want self-service laundry have emphasized one issue which I think is worth thinking about: if you don't want it, then don't use it, but let those that want it have access to one. A very good point if that was only issue. But in reality, that really isn't how it works. A Line has to decide if adding a laundry is worth the extra cost that they won't recoup, or is it more important to their customer over other options that may cost the LIne.

That is why I tried another poll that made each voter decide if they wanted laundry service more than some other option. That poll showed laundry service wasn't that important. It wasn't a yes or no on laundry, but it made us pick what we thought was highest priority. Self-Serve Laundry came in 3 out of 4.

I cant see how a poll that asks us 'do you want this or not' really matters, there has to be some loss, some price. It is to the Line...we could end up saying 'yes' to just about anything put this way, so I think it works better if you have to pick an option over others, just as the LIne has to. My poll is probably just as flawed as any, but I think it has some positive that at least it requires us to choose versus just saying 'I want'.

And by the way, not having self-laundry is not an excuse for hanging stuff on the balcony. I can't see how anyone can't see who really bad that is.....It not just against the ship rules, but tacky, not matter who many times someone keeps posting here.

Den[/quote]

Denny01, how is the Poll flawed?

Hanging out the washing is necessary if there are no self service laundry facilities. The general laundry does a bad job, most of my clothing cannot be washed at high temperatures. So what is your next expense free suggestion?

[Denny01]

[quote name='Aussie Claire']Denny01, how is the Poll flawed?

Hanging out the washing is necessary if there are no self service laundry facilities. The general laundry does a bad job, most of my clothing cannot be washed at high temperatures. So what is your next expense free suggestion?[/QUOTE]
Oh come on now. A poll that lists 2 choices supporting having laundry service, 1 neutral and the one that says no is worded so outlandishly?? I realize self-serve laundry seems to be the main point for you going on a cruise, but please, you can see the obvous flaw. Even the OP stated they worded it as a joke.

And the other flaw in this type of poll that asks do you want something or not. Obviously (again), a poll that just asks if you want something without any consequences has problems. To implement it and keep it up, the Line has to spend money and it loses money taking at least some SRs away, and it loses money on its landry services. We'd say yes to most anything added if there wasn't consequenes for saying yes to some option. Consequences such as increased SR costs or another option you might want more won't be implemented.

Thats why I tried that other poll that give various options, and self-serve laundry came in a poor 3rd. People want other options added more than doing their own laundry. And yes, on Princess we did some laundry. It was handy, but it is not something we are big on.

I didnt vote on this poll, as I didnt vote on that very strange poll asking us to rate Eclipse against Reflection, a ship no one had been on yet. And I didnt put any words on my poll suggesting what I thought was the 'right' option, another problem with many of our polls...the OP immedately expresses an opinion. Kind of lke asking, "You Do like this dont you????"

So that is the problem with this poll. You see that dont you?

As to hanging clothes on the balcony, I'm afraid my opinion is if you dont see the problem with that, there is no response from me that will suffice, especailly via postings which can be misconstrued as being mean or a putdown.

Enjoy your cruising, and Really Really rethink hanging your clothes out on the balcony. Trust me on this (well, you dont even know me, but...), I doubt you'd find 2 people on your cruise who'd think that was OK.

Den

[Mercury]

[quote name='Denny01']
Enjoy your cruising, and Really Really rethink hanging your clothes out on the balcony. Trust me on this (well, you dont even know me, but...), I doubt you'd find 2 people on your cruise who'd think that was OK.

Den[/quote]

I must laugh when I read this. On our recent Silhouette cruise, there were MANY cabins where people had hung laundry out to dry. This was a port intensive cruise (only 1 sea day out of 12) so it was possible to see the laundry regularly hanging on balconies.

Aussie Clare's looks neat and tidy compared to what I saw.

You are living in la-la land if you think that there would only be 2 people on an entire cruise hanging laundry on their balcony.

[Mercury]

[quote name='Denny01']I didnt vote on this poll, as I didnt vote on that very strange poll asking us to rate Eclipse against Reflection, a ship no one had been on yet. And I didnt put any words on my poll suggesting what I thought was the 'right' option, another problem with many of our polls...the OP immedately expresses an opinion. Kind of lke asking, "You Do like this dont you????"

Den[/quote]

I don't agree at all. There are two options for those who would like laundries and two options for those who wouldn't.

[Mercury]

[quote name='Denny01']Thats why I tried that other poll that give various options, and self-serve laundry came in a poor 3rd. People want other options added more than doing their own laundry. And yes, on Princess we did some laundry. It was handy, but it is not something we are big on.

[/quote]

I just had a look at your poll. You offer the choice of free soft drinks and specialty coffees and you think this will be a choice equal in popularity to a self-service laundry? Heck, I just picked this option on your poll. The free coffee on board is awful and at 4.50 a pop the specialty coffees are pricey so I would LOVE free coffees.

[boogs]

[quote name='richstowe']
I think that self-serve laundry is the out-lier in that it's the cheapest of the 4 options on a ongoing basis. By far!

Putting in machines is relatively inexpensive and would be a revenue source. I am pretty sure the machines would be paid off by the second cruise at $2 a load and yes that is more then your corner Laundromat.

There is data for about 0 % of my "facts" but having been in the hospitality industry I feel confident
that the laundry option stands out as relatively low cost.[/QUOTE]

I get it. You want Celebrity to modify their ships so you can do your own laundry instead of paying to have it done. You have made yourself perfectly clear on this matter, and you are claiming that there will be a minimal financial cost to the Cruise Line to do so.

But, how can you ignore the fact that to add a self service laundry area on each deck, at least six staterooms would be eliminated. Consider that each of those staterooms probably earn $50 per day per person (and that is conservative), we're looking at $600 lost revenue per day. Add to that the lost revenue from the missing occupants of those six rooms not spending money on drinks, specialty restaurants, spa services, photos, excursions, and you could easily double that lost revenue to at least $1000 or more. And, on top of all of that, the lost revenue for laundry services from all the people who would now do their own laundry instead of sending it out. It isn't unreasonable to expect the cruise line to lose out at least $1500 per day, or calculated for an entire year, almost $550,000 per ship - or $5,500,000 over the entire fleet! And that doesn't take into account the cost of supplying water to those machines, the maintenance costs to keep them running, the cost of treating the waste water which can't be dumped into the ocean, and the cost to keep the area clean.

How can you claim with a straight face that adding a laundry option stands out as relatively low cost. :confused::confused::confused:

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='Denny01']Oh come on now. A poll that lists 2 choices supporting having laundry service, 1 neutral and the one that says no is worded so outlandishly?? I realize self-serve laundry seems to be the main point for you going on a cruise, but please, you can see the obvous flaw. Even the OP stated they worded it as a joke.

And the other flaw in this type of poll that asks do you want something or not. Obviously (again), a poll that just asks if you want something without any consequences has problems. To implement it and keep it up, the Line has to spend money and it loses money taking at least some SRs away, and it loses money on its landry services. We'd say yes to most anything added if there wasn't consequenes for saying yes to some option. Consequences such as increased SR costs or another option you might want more won't be implemented.

Thats why I tried that other poll that give various options, and self-serve laundry came in a poor 3rd. People want other options added more than doing their own laundry. And yes, on Princess we did some laundry. It was handy, but it is not something we are big on.

I didnt vote on this poll, as I didnt vote on that very strange poll asking us to rate Eclipse against Reflection, a ship no one had been on yet. And I didnt put any words on my poll suggesting what I thought was the 'right' option, another problem with many of our polls...the OP immedately expresses an opinion. Kind of lke asking, "You Do like this dont you????"

So that is the problem with this poll. You see that dont you?

As to hanging clothes on the balcony, I'm afraid my opinion is if you dont see the problem with that, there is no response from me that will suffice, especailly via postings which can be misconstrued as being mean or a putdown.

Enjoy your cruising, and Really Really rethink hanging your clothes out on the balcony. Trust me on this (well, you dont even know me, but...), I doubt you'd find 2 people on your cruise who'd think that was OK.

Den[/quote]

Denny01, your whole answer is flawed, so is your other Poll.

This Poll gives you 4 options, if you remove option 1 & 3 you get a "[B]do you,[/B] [B]don't you want, yes and no answer"[/B]......look at the results.

Last year I did a Med Cruise with Celebrity and people I spoke to on our Roll Call about laundry agreed with me, the main reason being they didn't want their clothing destroyed by the Celebrity laundry, (most were previous Celebrity cruisers), I was the only Aussie in this Roll Call, the majority of people came form North America.

[Aussie Claire]

[quote name='Mercury']I just had a look at your poll. You offer the choice of free soft drinks and specialty coffees and you think this will be a choice equal in popularity to a self-service laundry? Heck, I just picked this option on your poll. The free coffee on board is awful and at 4.50 a pop the specialty coffees are pricey so I would LOVE free coffees.[/quote]

I agree with you the coffee is terrible, I take my own and order hot water.

I wonder if the coffee is bad so people will buy the coffee packages?

I put a request in on my Med cruise to please improve the coffee before Celebrity start their Aussie cruises because we Aussies wont drink it.