Room Steward Horror Stories

[Room Service!]

I'm not bothered by "the wife". The "little woman", ... really don't care for that.

 

I've got your "little woman", right here. ;)

[kristy29]

@Kristy29, Just out of curiosity, what do you think you might see ? Possibly a " vomit " stain from the previous passenger ? And don't you think it would be gross for the room steward to remove sheets you're brother in-law vomited in ? Out of courtesy I think I'd remove them.

 

Oh we would have gladly removed the sheets. The problem was that he refused to give us new ones. So my sister couldn't even clean the bed herself because she didn't have new sheets to put on. It's not like we were at home and could go in the linen closet and get new sheets, we needed him to get them for us and he refused.

 

And yes, I am afraid that's what I might see which is why I would never ever take the sheets off e bed at a hotel or on a cruise.

[nitro2448]

Oh we would have gladly removed the sheets. The problem was that he refused to give us new ones. So my sister couldn't even clean the bed herself because she didn't have new sheets to put on. It's not like we were at home and could go in the linen closet and get new sheets, we needed him to get them for us and he refused.

 

And yes, I am afraid that's what I might see which is why I would never ever take the sheets off e bed at a hotel or on a cruise.

 

O ok, you're first post you said you would not remove sheets because it was gross. And if he refused to change them, then go to CS and I bet they get changed.

[James81]

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?

 

This surprises me as well! I am mortified that anyone can think it is appropriate to destroy any sort of product provided by somewhere you are visiting to suit your needs- rather than just using what IS available to you. I am sure the poster did not stop to consider that it was this sort of selfish behavior that is probably the reason why there were no face-washers available in the first place! I am sure that if your serva.. room steward HAD the face-washers available he would have gladly got them for you. I assure you denying something simple like this is NOT how crew get their kicks. But if there really were none available, what do you propose he do? Sew one for you?*sigh*

[maggie cruises]

I'm a woman and personally, I would rather be called "the wife" than "DW":eek:

 

DW is used for messge board purposes. Do you really think that any man actually says..DW...when speaking to someone?

[maggie cruises]

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?

 

never mind..it's not worth it

[mikel24m]

Maybe I just had unrealisitc higher expectations from our last steward? Met him briefly day 1, saw hime one other time from afar. Mumbled his name in a rush day one and left. Then again, in 3 cruises I never had a steward smile, shake hand and greet any of my family by name. I am always amazed when I read people saying their steward or waiter called them by name???

 

One night we were skipped...no turn down and wet towels from 6AM shower on bathroom floor remained.

 

The only other complaint came from my daughter whishing she had towel animals everynight instead of thrice.

 

Overall, not too bad...better than our distracted crabby waiter sad to say :(

 

One of many reasons we prefer the buffet

 

Our last cruise on the Liberty our waitstaff called us by name the first day as we sat down ,I was impressed

 

The first thing I do when we see our steward is smile,intoduce myself and give a hand shake and have always had great stewards.Our favorites are the ninja stewards,I think they hide in the ceiling and once you walk out of your cabin they work their magic :)

 

I guess alot of people look at them as their servant and not a person.A little respect goes a long way

[mikel24m]

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 :)

 

I asked our cabin steward last month and he said he had 25 cabins.Maybe not being truthful but thats alot of work even for 10 cabins to make everyone happy

[bonnys]

. The one question I have of some posters is why do we need our sheets changed even on a 7 days cruise - how often do you change yours at home. I am totally fine with sleeping on the same sheets for a week unless there is a reason for changing (makeup smudge does not count as a reason for me).

 

 

I change my sheets at home every other day. I HATE sleeping on dirty sheets.

[Tbay-eh]

I change my sheets at home every other day. I HATE sleeping on dirty sheets.

 

I admire you but with cost hydro, water, detergents in environment and most importantly my time I can never see ME doing this. Do you hang to dry or machine dry just curious

[GTO-Girl]

I asked our cabin steward last month and he said he had 25 cabins.Maybe not being truthful but thats alot of work even for 10 cabins to make everyone happy

 

this is probably true.....on our last cruise we asked our steward how many cabins he had and he said 27 :eek:

 

I always saw him in the hall working as hard as he could. We were the last cabin in his group and there was a couple of times we didn't get our turn-down until after 9:00pm.

 

Didn't bother us because we knew he was doing the best he could.

[vacruizer]

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?

 

I was pretty disgusted by that. I started to post then decided I'd go by the "if you can't say anything nice rule." :p I wish I could say a post like that surprised me. People think damaging property is ok because it doesn't belong to them but they are "entitled" because they are paying for a vacation. Hotels lose a HUGE amount of money each year in damaged property and stolen items.

 

I worked in a hotel at one time -room service, waitressing, and bartending. This was a historic, 4 diamond property - not someplace that attracted riff-raff. People will do all sorts of stuff on vacation and when the property doesn't belong to them. I've seen it all.... right down to human waste left in an elevator. Not kidding. People are disgusting. They have one thing go wrong or not to their liking and it's like they get a vendetta against the hotel and/or the staff.

 

There's a reason the hair dryers are bolted to the wall. People steal them, along with towels, pillows, and dishes. I can't tell you how many times people would ask about purchasing china in the formal dining room where I worked (it's a famous old Virginia pattern with the hotel logo in gold on it) and then would act shocked at the prices. Next thing you knew, you came back to an empty table missing salt shakers, cream pitchers, or even plates. :mad:

 

Sad, but it just drives up prices for the rest of us the more loss and damage a place has.

[bonnys]

I admire you but with cost hydro, water, detergents in environment and most importantly my time I can never see ME doing this. Do you hang to dry or machine dry just curious

 

Well, I am a bit of a sheet "collector".:o I can't resist when I find very high quality sheets for a great price...so I have 12 sets. Granted they will fit both our bed and the guest room. So that being the case I remove them, put them in the hamper, and wait for the next time to wash both dirty sets. So I only wash sheets every 4 days. Our washer is HE and the dryer is gas. In the summer I will hang dry if possible because I really prefer that. Winter it is too cold so I use the dryer exclusively.

[Hotdog 52]

In 25 cruises, one stewert was going off duty, going home. Poor guy couldn't concentrate on his duties. Another stewert, a lady, was returning from home and was having trouble getting back into the groove. Neither was enough to aggrivate us.

[petesweet]

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. :)

 

While I found OP's complaints to be a tad picky, I find your report to be disturbing. So glad you could look past it for ensuing cruises.

Kathy

[LandlockedCruiser01]

I'm planning to cruise again in early 2013, and this thread is getting me a little worried. Hopefully, those horror stories are sensationalism, rather than common occurences.

 

I had a good steward on my last cruise. When he saw me the first day, he introduced himself, and wrote down my name and specific preferences. He did what was required very well, and filled my Bon Voyage cooler with ice. I returned the favor by leaving an extra cash tips on top of the pre-paid one. When he greeted me, he called me "Landlocked", rather than "Mr. Cruiser", but honestly, I didn't care, especially considering that he was about my age.

 

Only one time, he made a mistake and forgot to put a clean pool towel after picking up a used one, putting me at risk of getting charged $25 for it. Not wanting to get him in trouble undeservedly (I figured the crew probably fears for their jobs, given how big corporations treat their workers), I decided to ask him directly first. When I approached him in the hallway, he apologized profusely and handed me a clean towel. Problem solved.

[nitro2448]

I'm planning to cruise again in early 2013, and this thread is getting me a little worried. Hopefully, those horror stories are sensationalism, rather than common occurences.

 

I had a good steward on my last cruise. When he saw me the first day, he introduced himself, and wrote down my name and specific preferences. He did what was required very well, and filled my Bon Voyage cooler with ice. I returned the favor by leaving an extra cash tips on top of the pre-paid one. When he greeted me, he called me "Landlocked", rather than "Mr. Cruiser", but honestly, I didn't care, especially considering that he was about my age.

 

Only one time, he made a mistake and forgot to put a clean pool towel after picking up a used one, putting me at risk of getting charged $25 for it. Not wanting to get him in trouble undeservedly (I figured the crew probably fears for their jobs, given how big corporations treat their workers), I decided to ask him directly first. When I approached him in the hallway, he apologized profusely and handed me a clean towel. Problem solved.

 

I don't think I'd worry if I was you, most of these " horror " stories are, IMO, just nit picking passengers looking for a reason to withhold their tips. I'll bet you have a great RS.

[frito58]

Our room steward made the worst towel animals I have ever seen in 13 cruises , it just ruined our last cruise we had nothing to look foward to each night when we went back to our room , I suggested they fire him but he did clean our room and make our bed do all of that other piddly stuff . So we did tip him and gave him extra to get some lessons on towel animal making 101 . ;);)

[LOVECRUISING100%]

Sorry, to hear about your steward.. Thankfully I've never had a bad one, but I've had bad waiters .. : (

[Cruisin'Doc]

We have had some so-so room stewards, some less than stellar, and some fantastic. No true horror stories, however.

 

Regarding the sheets in the nightstand: the night before a cruise ends, when the stewards come in for turn-down service, it is not uncommon for them to stash clean sheets, new robes, and fresh beach towels in the room for the next day. If you'll notice, your robes often disappear around this time, as do your beach towels :)

[BeagleOne]

Wow, I wish/hope the towel-vandalism poster was joking. I can't believe (well, sadly, I can) that someone would destroy another's property because they didn't get what they wanted, and then would remove tips and report the steward, thereby putting his job at risk. Over WASH CLOTHS. Why not just to use a corner of the hand towel as a wash cloth? That's just incredibly sad.

[Brenna's Mom1]

When I read about all the "troubles" and "complaints" so many posters on these threads have I just thank my lucky stars that I haven't experienced a single one, or if I have they probably weren't important enough for me to even remember. I must be one of those peeps who "fall into the butter" (an old European term for lucky) whenever I cruise because I never have had the misfortune to run into any of those unhappy, sour faced, lazy cruise staff no matter what ship or what line I have traveled on. I know I couldn't even begin to do the excellent kind of job they do day after day while being away from friends and family. I really appreciate that people still get involved in the service industry so that I can keep sailing and traveling and dining out.

[Baylee]

The assistant steward took my camera the last night of our cruise. It magically found it's way back when I told the steward I was going down to file a complaint and get security.

[babsee101]

When I read about all the "troubles" and "complaints" so many posters on these threads have I just thank my lucky stars that I haven't experienced a single one' date=' or if I have they probably weren't important enough for me to even remember. I must be one of those peeps who "fall into the butter" (an old European term for lucky) whenever I cruise because I never have had the misfortune to run into any of those unhappy, sour faced, lazy cruise staff no matter what ship or what line I have traveled on. I know I couldn't even begin to do the excellent kind of job they do day after day while being away from friends and family. I really appreciate that people still get involved in the service industry so that I can keep sailing and traveling and dining out.[/quote']

 

Love your attitude! The service industry is greatly under appreciated. Thanks for recognizing these hard working underpaid folks! :)

[loxley]

When I read about all the "troubles" and "complaints" so many posters on these threads have I just thank my lucky stars that I haven't experienced a single one' date=' or if I have they probably weren't important enough for me to even remember. I must be one of those peeps who "fall into the butter" (an old European term for lucky) whenever I cruise because I never have had the misfortune to run into any of those unhappy, sour faced, lazy cruise staff no matter what ship or what line I have traveled on. I know I couldn't even begin to do the excellent kind of job they do day after day while being away from friends and family. I really appreciate that people still get involved in the service industry so that I can keep sailing and traveling and dining out.[/quote']

 

They are out there and if you cruise enough you will probably run into one sooner or later.

 

I would not call mine a horror story, but we did have one that was pretty lazy. My son said he had been "americanized" because instead of getting the usual fantastic service, this one did just barely enough to get by. We didn't complain because we are pretty low maintance people, but it was just odd.

 

I don't care if they know my name but I do expect my room to be tidied and supplies to be available and my ice bucket filled. He made the bed I guess, but all he did was pull the covers up. No tucking or anything. No towel animals which was no big deal, but still, sort of expected.

 

The first day I left a note asking for the beds to be separated on the mirror. Came back after supper and they were not done. Stopped him in the hall and asked again. Came back from the welcome aboard show, still not fixed. He was not happy to be called and asked again. I honestly think he was hoping we would just give up and let it go.

 

I did remove his tips. He is paid by carnival to do a job and he is tipped by me for doing that job well. He completely failed in that respect. If the problem had only been that first day, I would have forgotten about it by the end of the cruise, but his work was just subpar the whole cruise. His name was Ralph and I do not know what his problems were, but he had some. You could just see the hate in his eyes. He is also the only one we know nothing about because although I am not a chatty cathy with the room steward, we do usually exchange a few pleasantaries over the course of the week.