Room Steward Horror Stories

[nitro2448]

I also don't expect the room stewards to be my personal butler. I don't mind doing things myself.

 

One question with regards to the fridge. I have read that if a passenger does not have the steward remove the chargeable items that are in the fridge the passenger runs the risk of being charged for some or even all the items. Can anyone confirm this?

 

You only get charged if you use any of it. The room steward does an inventory of the items, if any is missing, they will replace it, and charge you

[Room Service!]

I also don't expect the room stewards to be my personal butler. I don't mind doing things myself.

 

One question with regards to the fridge. I have read that if a passenger does not have the steward remove the chargeable items that are in the fridge the passenger runs the risk of being charged for some or even all the items. Can anyone confirm this?

 

I cannot confirm, but we always have the steward remove the items.

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Sounds to me like you had "high maintenance" expectations.

 

The room steward has lots of other cabins to service.....he isn't at your beck and call.

 

I'm not seeing any "horror" here......just someone who paid $ for a vacation and expected to be treated as if he spent $$$$.

 

Expecting the sheets to be at least changed once during a cruise isnt being needy.

 

Even if they were asking a lot, the Steward didnt need to be condescending. Ever.

[CRUZBUDS]

We always empty the frig ourselves and let the steward know. If everything disappears the first day and there are no empties in the trash... they can figure out that you emptied it. ;)

 

We've never had trouble keeping our cooler full of ice, but we keep it next to the ship's ice bucket, rather than the shower. We have the type with the solid plastic liner, so leaking is not an issue.

 

We've had some stewards better than other -- I agree some of the other posts of horror stories far eclipse the OP's problems.

 

Isn't it nice to have "First World Problems"

 

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Post you're own opinion and look out, here comes the " CHEERLEADER " comments. Lol, please

 

Its that the sarcastic and condescending opinions and comments are usually common with the Carnival cheerleaders. I guess the sarcasm of the poster caused them to feel they the other were a cheerleader.

[qbanrican84]

Our Cabin stewart would HIDE our trash cans! I would have to literraly get on my hands and knees to get it out from way back underneath the sink, and the vanity in the room lol it was ridiculous. We ran out of tissues and he never replaced them, and I think there were a few more little issues that just enfruriated me...but the very next year, we chose to go on the exact samecruise again, but with a different attitude and minset.

Sometimes you just have to check yourself, at least I know I had to in my case because my expectations got to high and I had a "cruise snob" mentalilty...once I just changed my expectations, we wer egood to go :)

The cabin stewarts attitude though, that's another story, I don't have patience for their attitudes when I pay over $1,000 for each cruise we go on...but luckily we haven't had to deal with that.

[klmorg]

Not alot to say about the "horror" story, but.........

 

Hopefully the OP reported any dissatisfaction to the proper authority(s) on board, i.e. the Hotel Director and/or Guest Services, and tried to remedy the problems before removing all of the stewards gratuities.

[nitro2448]

Its that the sarcastic and condescending opinions and comments are usually common with the Carnival cheerleaders. I guess the sarcasm of the poster caused them to feel they the other were a cheerleader.

 

You could be right, but I didn't see the quoted poster defending Carnival in their statement. But it just seems to me that more often than not, when someone who throws out the cheerleader comment its a Carnival hater, not always, but usually.

[Cruisin 4 Ever]

Sounds to me like you had "high maintenance" expectations.

 

The room steward has lots of other cabins to service.....he isn't at your beck and call.

 

I'm not seeing any "horror" here......just someone who paid $ for a vacation and expected to be treated as if he spent $$$$.

I disagree. Yes the room steward is at your "beck and call" if that's how you want to refer to it. He/she is there to ensure you have everything you need, and to keep your room clean. They got alot of attitude from teh guy so why are tehy "high maintenance"?

[crusinpsychRN]

Most of the OP complaints seemed trivial. He needs a better cooler. Mine kept ice 20 hours, a lot of it melted but still had ice. My steward always kept it full. I kept in in the shower b/c you never know when they'll start to leak. Had one from Carnival and it didn't in 3 trips and on the 4th it leaked badly.

 

Sleeping until after 1 will not get you twice a day service. Makeup on the sheet early in the week not noticed until last night, couldn't have been too bothersome.

 

Sheets in the nightstand--first I ever heard of that. I threw out my room service menu as I thought there was still a book. Called room service and they said they'd bring the book. They were surprised too they were no more.

 

Door stop messes up AC for the floor.

 

The poster who said her husband cut up a towel for a washcloth was out of line! Just use the hand towel as a big washcloth, no big deal.

 

I had a steward who was way too flirtatious with my 16 y/o daughter. He also gave us his pager # and told us only to page between certain hours. He never answered when we did call during certain hours anyway. He was very creepy and I reported him to guest services and removed his portion of the gratuity. Never saw him after the first day except to make eyes at my daughter, never in the cabin to clean. His assistant did a fairly good job but I had to get ice from Lido.

 

Another steward came to the cabin to introduce himself and give me his spiel just as I was leaving to go to muster. I had waited long enough not to be crushed and really needed to go. He was oblivious to it and I had to tell him I had to get to muster. He ended up one of the better stewards I've ever had.

 

They always call me by my name. I wish they'd use last rather than first though. No big deal.

[cardqb]

Very interesting stories, thanks everyone for sharing them!

 

Obviously our experience wasn't that horrible, but you do spend a lot of money for a cruise and you expect some sort of customer service, which they are supposed to be trained for and provide.

 

Regarding the mini bar/fridge, we will NEVER touch anything in there or be risked being charged for it. Some places have a separate person who comes in and inventories the mini bar, some have automatic sensors. I'm not going to get something added to my bill (let alone a whole mini bar) and have to go down to guest services to correct this and argue about it. Our previous room stewards emptied them, no questions asked and removed the contents from the room. We just left ours full this time. It's the whole attitude that was the problem there.

 

As for the cooler that we needed ice for, sure we have no problem filling it OURSELVES. Now think people, before spouting off... there is no ice access on the ship for guests to fill their own ice bucket, let alone your cooler. The expectation is for the room steward to provide it. Unless you just happen to bring your own plastic bag, they don't provide one to get ice like at hotels. If they did, we'd use it just like we do at the hotel. We don't ask the hotel maid to get us ice, we do it ourselves.. BECAUSE WE CAN. I got some weird looks from the staff cleaning the dining area when I used my bag to get ice at the Lido dispenser next to the drinks. Next I'll hear it was unsanitary to do so, but the bag was clean folks and didn't touch where the ice came out.

 

Sheets... oh my. LOL! Um, well... we've been together 21 years, married for 15 and we still go at it. Yes, we do need to get clean sheets because we use them for more than sleeping. Other things may get the sheets dirty besides makeup, but wasn't going to bring that up on here in the original post. I will NEVER pull up sheets and ball them up to get changed. Just gross to get near that mattress. Yuck. Besides, this is a vacation I pay a lot of money for, it's not a place that I do housework or the room steward's job for them. Nobody does my job at my work, why should I do the room steward's?

 

We don't expect to be pampered or have a personal maid. We keep our room spotless and all the room steward needs to do is fix up the bed, change out towels and fill the ice. That's it. He couldn't ask for cleaner guests.

 

We did manage to see all the other room stewards in the rooms, hall ways, etc as we went back and forth to our room and they all were cleaning, vacuuming and very pleasant. Our room steward was hardly visible, never buzzing around like the rest. Perhaps he was good at re-making beds and hanging new towels and that's it? Who knows. Oh, but he was an expert with attitude towards guests.

 

It's just the whole attitude we received and lack of basic service that Carnival provides that we were upset about. And not to start a tipping war, but when we had his portion of the tips removed it totalled to almost $50 for the week. Um, that may not seem like much to you, but it is to us. We still provided our own tips to his assistants. But his attitude and lack of proper courteous customer service was why we removed his. We're not tipping just to pay his salary.

 

Plus there were several other minor things that we didn't mention to keep the original post shorter.. but we examined it all, weighed the reasons, how big of a deal each was, before deciding to remove tips from him. It wasn't an easy decision because we know they can use the money.

 

Oh, and the wife doesn't mind me referring to her like that.. I just asked her. She said she doesn't give a s__t. She has even more colorful ways to refer to me that I can't post here and we don't take it seriously.

 

Peace!

:D

[PittsburghGirlee]

OP,

Sorry for your crappy Room Steward and that is EXACTLY what he was. People on these threads are the ones that set the bar high..

They tell you:

Bring a cooler - Room Steward will be more than happy to fill it with ice for you...

Ask your Room Steward to empty the fridge if you want to fill it with personal items -He/She will be more than happy to do it for you...

Leave a Post-It note - He/She will be more than happy to take care of it for you...

I feel.....and it is JMHO;), that the way a Room Steward treats you and acts is one of the selling points for cruising. You are to be "waited on hand and foot" and treated like royality. I know this is what I tell my friends and family when I come back from a cruise...

It is right????? maybe not.....but that is how Crusiing is being sold.

ok, off of my soapbox:)

[fergusonvt]

I don't care how my husband refers to me as long as he doesn't call me anything from this list:

 

The old ball and chain

The Bit$%

DumbA%^

or anything that starts with the letter "C" (unless it's cutie of course).

 

You get the picture. I know people who say "the wife" and "the husband" and it doesn't bother me at all, why should it?

[MsTabbyKats]

OP,

 

Sorry for your crappy Room Steward and that is EXACTLY what he was. People on these threads are the ones that set the bar high..

 

They tell you:

 

Bring a cooler - Room Steward will be more than happy to fill it with ice for you...

 

Ask your Room Steward to empty the fridge if you want to fill it with personal items -He/She will be more than happy to do it for you...

 

Leave a Post-It note - He/She will be more than happy to take care of it for you...

 

I feel.....and it is JMHO;), that the way a Room Steward treats you and acts is one of the selling points for cruising. You are to be "waited on hand and foot" and treated like royality. I know this is what I tell my friends and family when I come back from a cruise...

It is right????? maybe not.....but that is how Crusiing is being sold.

 

ok, off of my soapbox:)

 

I hope your joking.....

 

If not....I can just imagine what "your servants" say about you on their forum :)

[boowaaccaa]

I am surprized there was only one comment about the poster who thought it was ok to to literally cut the towel into 4 so that they had face towels.

I wonder if they got charged for wrecking it like you would if you lost/stole a beach towel?

[cruzinlisa]

I've only had ONE steward from hell. It was on my first Carnival cruise back in 1994 aboard the Tropicale. It almost made me choose to NEVER cruise on Carnival again.

 

It all started on the first day as we were getting ready to disembark at our first port of call, and I knocked a glass on the floor as I was walking out of the room. The cabin steward was in the hallway and heard the glass shatter so he walked right over. I was expecting for him to say something like "don't worry, I'll take care of it!". Instead he said something along the lines of "You are not going anywhere until YOU clean that up!". I was a bit dumbfounded, but I told him that if he wasn't cleaning it, I would need to do so after I returned from my shore excursion (I was hurrying out the door). He would not have it and physically blocked the door to prevent me from leaving the room. This was the only time I've ever felt the need to put a cabin steward in his place. I told him that I was paying HIM to clean that up and that I was leaving. I pushed my way out of the room, fuming.

 

That night, I decided to stay in the cabin and study (I was in my last year of college, taking summer courses and I had actually taken a week off school to go on this family cruise) and needless to say, I needed to keep up with my studies if I wanted to pass my classes. Well, the next morning, an officer knocks on the door and claims that there were many complaints of loud partying coming from my cabin late into the night. :confused: I explained to the officer that I had been in the cabin studying all by myself and that not even the TV was on. He didn't believe me. So I asked who had filed the complaint, and the officer said that our CABIN STEWARD had received the complaints and reported them!:mad:

 

I was angry, and I explained to this officer that apparently this steward had some bone to pick with me and that the accusation was bogus. I demanded to speak to the Hotel Director so I was able to have a sit down conversation in his office. I explained to him what had occurred the day before and that I did not want someone like him cleaning my cabin and having access to my things (call me paranoid, but if this steward had lied about me partying it up, next thing he could "find drugs" in my cabin or some other bogus charge). I demanded to be moved to a different cabin but the ship was full. The Hotel Director agreed to give us a different cabin steward though.

 

Even though we had a new cabin steward, the old one kept lurking and stalking us. He would stand in the hallway and give us a "what?!" attitude with arms up, trying to intimidate us. If our new cabin steward was around, the old steward would say something to our new steward in his ear and point at us.

 

Even though that was the extent of his intimidating behavior for the rest of the cruise. It made for a very uncomfortable rest of the week. I couldn't relax, and I was always returning to the cabin to search and make sure that all of my things were there, or that nothing out of the ordinary had been left in the cabin.

 

Thankfully, this experience was a ONE time thing, and I've never experienced anything remotely like it. For many years, I shied away from Carnival due to the experience, but thankfully I returned. If I hadn't, I would've missed on many wonderful cruises since that first experience. :)

 

Wow. :eek: I hope you wrote to corporate to complain about this guy. I would have been upset too.

[nitro2448]

OP,

Sorry for your crappy Room Steward and that is EXACTLY what he was. People on these threads are the ones that set the bar high..

They tell you:

Bring a cooler - Room Steward will be more than happy to fill it with ice for you...

Ask your Room Steward to empty the fridge if you want to fill it with personal items -He/She will be more than happy to do it for you...

Leave a Post-It note - He/She will be more than happy to take care of it for you...

I feel.....and it is JMHO;), that the way a Room Steward treats you and acts is one of the selling points for cruising. You are to be "waited on hand and foot" and treated like royality. I know this is what I tell my friends and family when I come back from a cruise...

It is right????? maybe not.....but that is how Crusiing is being sold.

ok, off of my soapbox:)

 

You might be right, it's posters that are setting the bar to high. But not the ones you mentioned. It's ones like you, the ones who think they should be waited on " hand and foot ". Would you wait on someone hand and foot for about $3 a day ? You don't have you're own personal butler on board, the RS has several rooms and people to care for. And for those who those who are saying " I paid thousands for this cruise ", and think you should be waited on hand and foot. You're PP price is not that much, most people are taking 7 day or less cruises, my cruise in April is at $739, if it stays at that price it will be the most I have ever paid for a 7 day cruise. A cruise is the best vacation you can go on for that price with all that's included. If you want waited on hand and foot, go stay at the Waldorf Astoria for a week, see what that sets ya back. A Room Steward is NOT at anyone's beck and call, and should NOT wait on anyone hand and foot. But they do fill my ice bucket :)

[Rottweiler Puppy]

OP,

Sorry for your crappy Room Steward and that is EXACTLY what he was. People on these threads are the ones that set the bar high..

They tell you:

Bring a cooler - Room Steward will be more than happy to fill it with ice for you...

Ask your Room Steward to empty the fridge if you want to fill it with personal items -He/She will be more than happy to do it for you...

Leave a Post-It note - He/She will be more than happy to take care of it for you...

So So So very true yet the OP gets told they are very demanding when all they did was what was suggested to do hundreds of times on this board.

[ronandannette]

You might be right, it's posters that are setting the bar to high. But not the ones you mentioned. It's ones like you, the ones who think they should be waited on " hand and foot ". Would you wait on someone hand and foot for about $3 a day ? You don't have you're own personal butler on board, the RS has several rooms and people to care for. And for those who those who are saying " I paid thousands for this cruise ", and think you should be waited on hand and foot. You're PP price is not that much, most people are taking 7 day or less cruises, my cruise in April is at $739, if it stays at that price it will be the most I have ever paid for a 7 day cruise. A cruise is the best vacation you can go on for that price with all that's included. If you want waited on hand and foot, go stay at the Waldorf Astoria for a week, see what that sets ya back. A Room Steward is NOT at anyone's beck and call, and should NOT wait on anyone hand and foot. But they do fill my ice bucket :)

 

Lucky you...on my last Carnival cruise our room steward flat-out refused saying it had to be ordered from room service now. Oh, and BTW, regardless of what I pay, I expect to get what I was sold. Here's a link to Carnival's website. Scroll down to the "Service & Care" section and see how THEY describe the attention you can expect to receive:

http://www.carnival.com/cms/about-cruising/cruising-on-carnival.aspx#jump=service-care

[nitro2448]

Lucky you...on my last Carnival cruise our room steward flat-out refused saying it had to be ordered from room service now. Oh, and BTW, regardless of what I pay, I expect to get what I was sold. Here's a link to Carnival's website. Scroll down to the "Service & Care" section and see how THEY describe the attention you can expect to receive:

http://www.carnival.com/cms/about-cruising/cruising-on-carnival.aspx#jump=service-care

 

Ok, I did as you requested, what did I miss ? I did not see or hear a " the cabin steward will wait on you hand and foot ", if that's what you expect so be it. Sorry for you're future disappointment.

 

Oh, BTW, I love how people post links to pages, like anyone can't go look it up

[Room Service!]

Ok, I did as you requested, what did I miss ? I did not see or hear a " the cabin steward will wait on you hand and foot ", if that's what you expect so be it. Sorry for you're future disappointment.

 

Oh, BTW, I love how people post links to pages, like anyone can't go look it up

 

Come on. Makes it a little easier doesn't it? What's the harm? :rolleyes:

I appreciate a good link. ;)

[GypsySoul82]

You might be right, it's posters that are setting the bar to high. But not the ones you mentioned. It's ones like you, the ones who think they should be waited on " hand and foot ". Would you wait on someone hand and foot for about $3 a day ? You don't have you're own personal butler on board, the RS has several rooms and people to care for. And for those who those who are saying " I paid thousands for this cruise ", and think you should be waited on hand and foot. You're PP price is not that much, most people are taking 7 day or less cruises, my cruise in April is at $739, if it stays at that price it will be the most I have ever paid for a 7 day cruise. A cruise is the best vacation you can go on for that price with all that's included. If you want waited on hand and foot, go stay at the Waldorf Astoria for a week, see what that sets ya back. A Room Steward is NOT at anyone's beck and call, and should NOT wait on anyone hand and foot. But they do fill my ice bucket :)[/quo

 

 

 

 

Not saying that I would expect to be waited on hand and foot, but really I paid $3,000 for my son, boyfriend and I to go on our up coming cruise, i do expect service with a smile, and not an attitiude.

[nitro2448]

You might be right, it's posters that are setting the bar to high. But not the ones you mentioned. It's ones like you, the ones who think they should be waited on " hand and foot ". Would you wait on someone hand and foot for about $3 a day ? You don't have you're own personal butler on board, the RS has several rooms and people to care for. And for those who those who are saying " I paid thousands for this cruise ", and think you should be waited on hand and foot. You're PP price is not that much, most people are taking 7 day or less cruises, my cruise in April is at $739, if it stays at that price it will be the most I have ever paid for a 7 day cruise. A cruise is the best vacation you can go on for that price with all that's included. If you want waited on hand and foot, go stay at the Waldorf Astoria for a week, see what that sets ya back. A Room Steward is NOT at anyone's beck and call, and should NOT wait on anyone hand and foot. But they do fill my ice bucket :)[/quo

 

 

 

 

Not saying that I would expect to be waited on hand and foot, but really I paid $3,000 for my son, boyfriend and I to go on our up coming cruise, i do expect service with a smile, and not an attitiude.

 

I agree 100%, service with a smile. But there's a difference between smile, and hand and foot. While I agree there's RS with attitudes, there's also passengers with attitudes. And $3000 for 3 ppl, still not that bad, should it get you service with a smile, yes, waited on hand an foot, no.

[cruise_pirate]

Guess we have been lucky. We have had some that were top notch and some that well,.. were not. but no horror stories.:)

[Cruachan]

...I absolutely hate it when someone refers to "the wife" as the "old lady" - I will instantly call them an old goat and will continue to do so until they stop.

 

Or even worse - "the little woman" :eek::eek:

 

J