How come rooms not ready?

[karl_nj]

On HAL they had a staffed area on the Lido deck where they would hold your carryons for you, but you could still access them as needed and then pick them up when the rooms were ready. We didnt use it because we had minimal carryons, but it was nice that there weren't suitcases in the already crowded windjammer

 

I've seen that on NCL too. What is also nice about NCL is they have one of the MDR's open for lunch on embarkation day. When I sail on NCL, we usually head there for lunch and by the time we are done the rooms are ready and open.

 

It's interesting to see how different cruise lines handle these things. It's one of the reasons why I don't limit myself to sailing on one specific cruise line.

[cruzincurt]

Maybe my mind is a bit slow today but if the last people aren't off until 10:00 how can they know to have YOUR cabin ready by 11:00?

 

I just wonder what time the ones commenting drag their butts off when its their turn so they can turn the cabin over for the next occupant?

[LMaxwell]

I am out of my room never later than 8:15AM; usually before 8AM. We are off the ship by 9AM.

[Paulette3028]

You have to vacate your room by 8AM on Princess final morning. On RCI you don't. That's the trade off.

 

So departing cruisers must be out of their rooms by 8am so that the housekeeping staff can begin their turn-around of cabins for next set of cruisers. If Royal doesn't begin their housekeeping turn-around work until 9:30am (based on waiting for the last passengers to be off the ship), that would account for the later time that cabins will be ready for the next set of cruisers on Royal.

 

What Royal could do is have all departing cruisers be required to be out of their cabins by 8am.....and they could start earlier.....but those Royal cruisers who now ENJOY the luxury of a later departure from the ship, WON'T have that.

 

Personally, I don't mind the way it is now....and don't want to be rushed out of my cabin before 8am on that last morning.

 

Simply put, it can't work both ways.

[Cruzin-K]

On all four of my Princess cruises the cabin was completely ready when I boarded. However, on most of those cruises we weren't allowed to board until around 12:15 - 12:30 or so. I think my first cruise with them on the Ruby was the only one where I was on before 12, and that was just before 12. I've been on board on RCI as early as 11 or 11:15 (my memory gets fuzzy these days :o )

 

I'm not happy with the decision to have the beds together no matter what. It's easier to unpack if you have your own bed to put your suitcase on, and dump stuff out. We had to take turns on my last couple cruises because there was only one bed and two people (women :D ) with two suitcases open, trying to move stuff around the cabin would have been ridiculous. We had to take turns, so it took longer to get settled.

[negc]

I've seen that on NCL too. What is also nice about NCL is they have one of the MDR's open for lunch on embarkation day. When I sail on NCL, we usually head there for lunch and by the time we are done the rooms are ready and open.

 

How well that works may depend on the ship and its personnel. When we sailed on the Norwegian Dawn out of Boston in early August, my wife, Daughter, Son in Law, three grandkids and myself,(7 people in all) went to the dining room around noon. It took them ten minutes to seat us despite the fact that the dining room was practically empty. The waitress took our orders but we waited an hour for our food to arrive and that only happened because a ship's officer noted we had been waiting for quite some time and came over to ask if there was a problem. When we explained how long we had to wait he disappeared into the kitchen and shortly afterwards our meals began to arrive. My youngest grand-daughter had ordered a PB&J and I would hate to think that this was the reason (they cut off the crusts):rolleyes: The rest of us ordered standard items off the menu - no special requests.

Service from then on ranged from excellent to poor depending on the venue and the staff involved. All in all, if we were to sail again on NCL, it would probably not be on the Dawn unless the staff had a significant attitude adjustment. Too many seemed to be counting down the days until their contract was over.

[RevSmith]

budgeting, stewards have too many cabins

[LMaxwell]

 

Simply put, it can't work both ways.

 

I agree with this statement.

 

And you are entitled to your opinion that you prefer having use of the cabin until 930 on departure day. I think on departure day most people just want to grab breakfast and get off and onto their final destinations as efficiently as possible.

 

Since I am generally out of the room right around 8AM I'd have no problem if Royal said 8AM it is, get out; go eat, go sit in the centrum, go sit on deck, but out of the room; provided the tradeoff were rooms ready at boarding. That's my personal opinion. I have mine, you have yours, neither of us is wrong. Just our personal preferences. :cool:

[Paulette3028]

I agree with this statement.

 

And you are entitled to your opinion that you prefer having use of the cabin until 930 on departure day. I think on departure day most people just want to grab breakfast and get off and onto their final destinations as efficiently as possible.

 

Since I am generally out of the room right around 8AM I'd have no problem if Royal said 8AM it is, get out; go eat, go sit in the centrum, go sit on deck, but out of the room; provided the tradeoff were rooms ready at boarding. That's my personal opinion. I have mine, you have yours, neither of us is wrong. Just our personal preferences. :cool:

 

I also want to have breakfast on departure day and be off to returning to my regular world....I just don't want to have to start that process at 7am that morning, after a very fun filled vacation. When I finish breakfast I make my way to leave the ship and wave good bye until the next cruise I take. I don't want to amuse myself sitting in the centrum or on deck.

 

Different points of view are fine.....I am not anxious to change the way they do it....you on the other hand want it changed, and that will negatively affect ME. To me on embarkation day the ship activities are open for use, when I board the ship and I can be prepared to use them as soon as I board. That's just fine.

 

Now if we could keep the final morning the way it is, and have access to our cabins when we board (and I am on board usually by 11:30am) -- I am all for it. But it can't work both ways....somewhere you have to find that 90 minutes of 'worktime'.

 

Enjoy writing your letter as you said you would do in a previous post in this thread.

[DandDM]

I've cruised Princess a bit and I really like having the rooms available when I board. But I agree there are trade offs - they stewards get a little pushy to get you out of the room at 8AM, and only once have I gotten on a Princess ship prior to noon (they start boarding a little later in my experience). On that occasion, the room wasn't completely ready, but that worked out fine because we had a chance to meet our steward and he was done quickly.

 

In general, we will drop our bags off, check out the room, poke our head out onto the balcony, then we are off to enjoy the ship. But I like the ability to dump my bags.

 

A couple comments about being out of the room by 8AM: 1) we usually leave later, and have been in the room until 9AM with no real issues; and 2) we have talked to the steward about leaving our carry ons, then left to do whatever, and later came back for the bags when we are ready to leave the ship. I guess there could be a security concern as the door is open and the steward is coming in and out, but not a big deal to us.

 

Do I prefer how Princess does it? Yes.

Does this really make any difference when I am deciding on a cruise? No.

[iheartbda]

I'm absolutely with you! Very well said.

 

Who did you check with for that answer that you've decided is 100% authoritative (because you heard what you wanted to hear)?

 

It was not "a poster" that stated their Princess room was not 100% completed, it was MULTIPLE posters with the same experience.

I didn't keep track of how many on this thread whose cabin was not ready so I don't know exactly how many made up those MULTIPLE posters.

 

Did you read the resposnes on the Princess thread? You'll find that there are far more who said their cabin was always ready. I don't doubt that the ones here did not have a ready cabin but it is not the norm for Princess.

 

BTW, our cabins have been ready and secure on Princess.:)

[Paulette3028]

I've cruised Princess a bit and I really like having the rooms available when I board. But I agree there are trade offs - they stewards get a little pushy to get you out of the room at 8AM, and only once have I gotten on a Princess ship prior to noon (they start boarding a little later in my experience). On that occasion, the room wasn't completely ready, but that worked out fine because we had a chance to meet our steward and he was done quickly.

 

In general, we will drop our bags off, check out the room, poke our head out onto the balcony, then we are off to enjoy the ship. But I like the ability to dump my bags.

 

A couple comments about being out of the room by 8AM: 1) we usually leave later, and have been in the room until 9AM with no real issues; and 2) we have talked to the steward about leaving our carry ons, then left to do whatever, and later came back for the bags when we are ready to leave the ship. I guess there could be a security concern as the door is open and the steward is coming in and out, but not a big deal to us.

 

Do I prefer how Princess does it? Yes.

Does this really make any difference when I am deciding on a cruise? No.

 

Just to be clear, we have never cruised on the Princess line so what we have learned is totally from others. From my perspective I don't want to leave bags in rooms that are in some way open, nor not fully ready for the new guests. I wish that when the bags were delivered they were simply put into the cabin and not left out in the hallway. But that isn't done....I have gotten over it....we don't have valuables in those suitcases.

[Thetrail]

How often or where do you travel? Almost every hotel in the universe advises that rooms aren't available until 3:00PM. Sometimes the rooms are ready sooner but there are no guarantees and it's very common to not get a hotel room until sometime in the afternoon:rolleyes: RCCL should be commended on cleaning and preparing thousands of rooms and having them all ready by 1:00PM, which they almost always are. If that isn't acceptable I guess Princess is the way to go...........

My sentiments exactly!....K.O....:)

[iluvit!]

Why would you leave your carryons in the room prior to doing a bedbug inspection? We put our bags in the bathroom (all hard surfaces) til I make sure the cabin is pest-free.

 

 

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[Thetrail]

Quite a few have explained to you that the rooms on Princess are often NOT ready when you're given access, but you continue to just ignore that? Given those posters' experiences, I'm not sure that RCI's service isn't every bit as good as Princess, just different.

Some people will make a post and if you don't agree with with it they become defensive at times. If you keep reminding a poster long enough they sometimes revert to snarky nasty replies, it happens....Just generalizing here not pointing fingers, thank you very much...:):);)

[LMaxwell]

Some people will make a post and if you don't agree with with it they become defensive at times. If you keep reminding a poster long enough they sometimes revert to snarky nasty replies, it happens....Just generalizing here not pointing fingers, thank you very much...:):);)

 

I have twice provided a link for LGW to see that it is Princess normal policy for rooms available for full usage at boarding. Feel free to read the link or verify with Princess for yourself if you do not care to take my word on it. One poster here had a below standard experience on Princess and even though I do believe them, it is not right to continue to perpetuate that substandard experience with it being the normal ways of operation.

 

LGW has not returned to this thread to follow up on the facts of the matter; or perhaps has and simply chosen not to reply further as they have nothing further to add to the discussion. With this new information perhaps LGW might take a different stance in insisting I am wrong and ignorant of the view points of other. Have a wonderful weekend and bless your heart.

[cruisenfever]

Very interesting indeed...So wonder if that means all the cabin doors will be wide open...:confused:

We've heard that the cabin doors will be closed and SeaPass Cards will be in an envelope taped to the door.

[bigeagle12]

In defense of Princess .. we have cruised with them 3 times .. boarded between 10:30 and 11am .. and went immediately to our cabin .. which was clean and spotless each time.

 

 

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[time4u2go]

Why would you leave your carryons in the room prior to doing a bedbug inspection? We put our bags in the bathroom (all hard surfaces) til I make sure the cabin is pest-free.

 

 

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Who said they did this?

[PerferWarmWeather]

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people complaining about getting into their cabins early are the same ones who are the last to depart the ship.

[LMaxwell]

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people complaining about getting into their cabins early are the same ones who are the last to depart the ship.

 

Have never gotten off ship later than 9AM in over 20 years of cruising. Earliest was probably 7:45AM

[Royal2464]

Now we know how Princess accomplishes the "cabin ready" process earlier than Royal. Princess requires you to vacate your room no later than 8:00 a.m., which gives them the 3 hours or so to accomplish their turnaround duties before 11 - 11:30. Whereas Royal has no "vacate" time and some passengers stay in their cabins until last call, which usually occurs around 9:30 a.m. No magic here, just different schedules. Even though I most often get off the ship between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m., I would still cast my vote for Royal's system. Different strokes for different folks!

[time4u2go]

Now we know how Princess accomplishes the "cabin ready" process earlier than Royal. Princess requires you to vacate your room no later than 8:00 a.m., which gives them the 3 hours or so to accomplish their turnaround duties before 11 - 11:30. Whereas Royal has no "vacate" time and some passengers stay in their cabins until last call, which usually occurs around 9:30 a.m. No magic here, just different schedules. Even though I most often get off the ship between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m., I would still cast my vote for Royal's system. Different strokes for different folks!

Same here. Usually we are up late on the last night of the cruise, and like to sleep in on the final morning.

[LMaxwell]

Whereas Royal has no "vacate" time and some passengers stay in their cabins until last call, which usually occurs around 9:30 a.m.

 

But if you ask on here, most people will say you need to be out of your room by 8:00AM - 8:30AM on Royal. I've not actually seen any published policy. That might be because, as you state, they don't have an actual vacate time. :confused:

[LMaxwell]

Same here. Usually we are up late on the last night of the cruise, and like to sleep in on the final morning.

 

This juxtaposed with your screen name gave me a laugh. :D