self service laundry

[hubofhockey]

You are still arranging your plans around laundry, so you are given up some of your vacation time for it.

 

I take vacations to get away from doing chores, not to continue doing them when I should be relaxing. I just throw mine in a bag and the next day it magically appears, all cleaned and either on hangers or folded and ready to be put away. That's just about the most amount of "choreing" I am interested in doing. ;)

 

I don't think it's much of a big deal at all. I don't enjoy going to the gym, but I do that too. ;) Let's just say that, for many of us, it's nice to have the option and 5 to 10 minutes of my time to pack less or save $35 to $50 (that's a meal in a specialty restaurant).

[SantaFeFan]

I don't think it's much of a big deal at all. I don't enjoy going to the gym, but I do that too. ;) Let's just say that, for many of us, it's nice to have the option and 5 to 10 minutes of my time to pack less or save $35 to $50 (that's a meal in a specialty restaurant).

 

If it only take 5 or 10 minutes for you to do your laundry, then you have developed an extraordinarily efficient system. Please share your technique with the rest of us.

 

I do the laundry here at home (the wife is not yet retired) and I can assure you , that even at home, with the laundry room only a few steps away, not half a ship length away, it takes me much more than 10 minutes. Sure, the physical time loading and unloading the machines may only take that, but while I am doing laundry, I cannot run errands, go to a movie, spend time at the beach, go visit a friend. I am watching the clock in order to be available to do that loading and unloading "chore", instead of having the total freedom to so anything else that would take me away from the laundry room.

 

And I prefer to have my clothes folded, plus ironed when needed. There is no way in the world I can do all of that in less than 10 minutes time.

 

So, what is your secret? :D

Edited June 13, 2015 by SantaFeFan

[Grandma Dazzles]

Have never tried to do laundry on a ship but I agree that it would be hard to do in 10 minutes. Have also heard a lot of complaints about people leaving stuff in machines and others having to wait.

[ohiogymrat]

On the ships I have sailed on, the washers and dryers are on a timer,so it's easy to put the time in my stopwatch and know exactly when it will be done.

 

I do mine very early in the morning. I would say 10 mins is about right.

 

It's really up to each person if they want to do it.I don't see it as such a arduous chore,but I can see why some wouldn't want to do it.

 

If I needed something pressed,I have no problem sending that out.

 

 

Usually bring this with me to speed up the process

 

Edited June 13, 2015 by ohiogymrat

[hubofhockey]

If it only take 5 or 10 minutes for you to do your laundry, then you have developed an extraordinarily efficient system. Please share your technique with the rest of us.

 

I do the laundry here at home (the wife is not yet retired) and I can assure you , that even at home, with the laundry room only a few steps away, not half a ship length away, it takes me much more than 10 minutes. Sure, the physical time loading and unloading the machines may only take that, but while I am doing laundry, I cannot run errands, go to a movie, spend time at the beach, go visit a friend. I am watching the clock in order to be available to do that loading and unloading "chore", instead of having the total freedom to so anything else that would take me away from the laundry room.

 

And I prefer to have my clothes folded, plus ironed when needed. There is no way in the world I can do all of that in less than 10 minutes time.

 

So, what is your secret? :D

 

 

Secret is getting a machine early and then heading to breakfast. As you can see by the time of this post, it's a summer weekend and I'm up early. It makes it seamless. Two minutes to load wash. Return 45 minutes later after breakfast to load dryer. That takes another couple of minutes.

 

If you can't be bothered with this, then save your precious time and send your clothes out. Those rooms are pretty popular on longer cruises and that's why I get mine done before the rooms get crowded. I'd rather pack a couple of was pods than another piece of luggage. That makes my vacation easier.

[hubofhockey]

Oh, we do more casual cruising and only bring on "no iron" shirts and pants. I rarely iron at home and never on ships. I see lots of people do laundry on Princess and hardly any do ironing. It's in and out.

[Bonnie J.]

On Carnival have free laundry and when we send it out we check the hang vs. fold. Everything came back on hangers- even underwear!

[ontheweb]

Our experience with self service laundry:

 

2007 Star Princess on a Baltic cruise---St. Petersburg was about midway through the cruise. No one could do laundry then or send out laundry even if they wanted to because of water restrictions. (I do not know if this always occurs there or was peculiar to that year.) Due to that everyone seemed to be doing their laundry the next day (Helsinki port). Long, long wait for both washers and dryers. When I finally got a washing machine, there would have been an hour wait at least for a dryer without heat. I found a laundry room on another floor with a lesser wait for a hot dryer. That laundry room, however, had a layer of water on the floor. We missed a dance lesson and had dinner too late to make the show because of the long waits.

 

2014 Ocean Princess on a British Isles cruise--the washing machine refused to take out last quarter. There was a phone that seemed to get used a lot to call the main desk with problems. They sent someone, but he could not seem to get it to work. Just kept trying, and it did eventually take that quarter.

Edited June 14, 2015 by ontheweb

[PTMary]

Secret is getting a machine early and then heading to breakfast. As you can see by the time of this post, it's a summer weekend and I'm up early. It makes it seamless. Two minutes to load wash. Return 45 minutes later after breakfast to load dryer. That takes another couple of minutes.

 

If you can't be bothered with this, then save your precious time and send your clothes out. Those rooms are pretty popular on longer cruises and that's why I get mine done before the rooms get crowded. I'd rather pack a couple of was pods than another piece of luggage. That makes my vacation easier.

 

I can see your side of the argument. By getting up early and investing 10 minutes of your time, you have a bundle of clean clothes. However, I much prefer clothes that are not only clean, but folded and pressed, and on hangers when appropriate.

 

I guess we are different in that way. :)

Edited June 14, 2015 by PTMary

[tip]

Okay, I get it. Some folks don't want to spend their time doing laundry on vacation. I can understand that. I want to relax on vacation too. My idea of relaxing is not feeding the slot machines in the casino nor spending time drinking in a lounge. On the other hand, some folks like it do that. I don't want to spend $60 or so on a long cruise to have my underwear, socks, casual shorts, and tee shirts washed in the ship's laundry. I would rather do it myself and take that $60 and treat me darling wife to a nice dinner in a specialty restaurant.

 

It is quite simple. You can decide how to spend your time and money and I shall decide how to spend mine.

[Cruisin' Chick]

As I said before, we have to deal with an allergy to regular detergent. A few cruises ago, one passenger who decided he didn't need to do more washings offered my hubby the rest of his Tide. I was on my way to the laundry room at this time and just missed being able to stop hubby...he had already loaded the detergent and the clothes. And of course, after wearing the just washed clothes, the one of us who is allergic, got a skin rash.:rolleyes:

 

Most people don't have this problem. Some people would pack only ready wear. Or pack a lot of clothes. Or stick with shorter cruises. But if you're not in these categories and want to do a wash or two, it's good to have this option. We would often time it for when we're going to grab a quick meal or a short activity. The machines on Princess now have the timer function so you can find out how long your wash is going to take. It's not a daily task (unless you're going with a big group and you have offered to take care of this for everyone).

 

And count me in with those who don't want to spend a dollar each item to wash one's undies, etc.