Linen Shortage

[rdsqrl]

And you believed him?

 

Want to buy a bridge?

Only if the asphalt has been changed since the last car went over it.

[gregjm]

Well that explains the hairs on our sheets on Embarkation day on our cruise last April and the mascara stains on the duvet on our cruise a couple of weeks ago on the Crown.

 

We were on the 11/28 - 12/5 sailing of the Crown. Unfortunately, this does not surprise me and explains the stray hairs we had on our duvet cover when we arrived on the ship.

 

Also---we requested robes and they were never delivered.

[FritzG]

I would tend to take the statement of failure to change linen on turn around day with a very few grains of salt.

 

This may be a short term problem, caused by an unexpected loss of stock. I remember when we were running short of dinner napkins, and the HD told me that they had just received a new stock of napkins, but that they were becoming "rotten" and tearing within a couple of weeks. He was blaming the washing machines, so we checked their programming, and got the representative of the laundry chemical company down to check their equipment and discuss the problem.

 

Because most ships use the condensation from the A/C units for the laundry, the water tends to have trace amounts of copper in it from the cooler coils. When used in a washer on hot setting, with bleach, for whites, this turns the copper green and stains the linens the same. So, the machines are programmed to meter a small amount of acid into the machines when on "whites" cycle to counteract the copper.

 

Well, the laundry supervisor didn't feel that the machines were adding enough acid, so rather than asking the engineers or the chemical rep to adjust the metering, she was just bunging a cupful of acid into each white load. This acid was eating the cloth fibers, causing the napkins (as only the first indicator of the problem, it eventually showed up in all linens) to rot out. It took a few weeks to get enough stock out to the ship to fully build the inventory back up to where it was, which meant the laundry was working overtime to catch up.

 

Interesting explanation. On our Royal British Isles/TA this past Aug./Sept. the towels were very grey and stained, and every sheet we got both top and bottom had small pinholes holes in them. We asked our steward for only clean, unstained towels, but that rarely happened. When they were stained or very grey we just threw them in the shower with the dirty towels without using them.

We're on the Royal again next month, and we were hoping that the towel/sheet situation had been worked out. This thread doesn't give me much confidence that anything has changed.

[capriccio]

Interesting explanation. On our Royal British Isles/TA this past Aug./Sept. the towels were very grey and stained, and every sheet we got both top and bottom had small pinholes holes in them. We asked our steward for only clean, unstained towels, but that rarely happened. When they were stained or very grey we just threw them in the shower with the dirty towels without using them.

We're on the Royal again next month, and we were hoping that the towel/sheet situation had been worked out. This thread doesn't give me much confidence that anything has changed.

 

We were on the Royal for 20 days in October and had absolutely no problem with the bed or bath linens. I hope you experience the same!

[Retiring cajun]

I've only been on 7 day cruises. I didn't realize they change linens?! once?

[Aus Traveller]

I've only been on 7 day cruises. I didn't realize they change linens?! once?

I believe they are changed roughly every three days, so one change during a 7-night cruise.

 

I wonder if the comment about the steward deciding which cabins to change the linen, meant that some B2B cruisers would not get a change a linen that day. I doubt that anyone would expect people to sleep in a bed that had linen from a previous passenger.:)

[floridalover5623]

We were on the Royal for 20 days in October and had absolutely no problem with the bed or bath linens. I hope you experience the same!

Except for being as soft as a burlap bag. :D;)

[Lucky TGO]

I believe they are changed roughly every three days, so one change during a 7-night cruise.

 

I wonder if the comment about the steward deciding which cabins to change the linen, meant that some B2B cruisers would not get a change a linen that day. I doubt that anyone would expect people to sleep in a bed that had linen from a previous passenger.:)

 

I was told a long time ago that the linens are changed every three days.

I always check and it has always been dune. I do B2B cruises all the time and the linens have been changed on the turn around days.

Tony

[Putterdude]

Interesting explanation. On our Royal British Isles/TA this past Aug./Sept. the towels were very grey and stained, and every sheet we got both top and bottom had small pinholes holes in them. We asked our steward for only clean, unstained towels, but that rarely happened. When they were stained or very grey we just threw them in the shower with the dirty towels without using them.

 

 

I guess you got what you got but we were on the same cruise as you and had absolutely no problem with linens or towels.

 

Over the years we have occasionally been shorted a hand towel or face cloth but really never had any thing to make an issue about.

[more cruises]

I've never been on a ship that ran out of linen but we've been short sheeted a couple times - steward's explanation was that he brought up sheets for the single bed and never went back to get the queen/king sheet. Yah, that didn't fly with me.

 

Now, I can understand them running out of towels - I've seen stacks of them tucked under the mattress trying to fill out the lumps:confused:

[Aus Traveller]

I've never been on a ship that ran out of linen but we've been short sheeted a couple times - steward's explanation was that he brought up sheets for the single bed and never went back to get the queen/king sheet. Yah, that didn't fly with me.

 

Now, I can understand them running out of towels - I've seen stacks of them tucked under the mattress trying to fill out the lumps:confused:

I put a folded pool towel. :D

[wmwmarmstrong]

[quote name=more cruises;48475459

 

Now' date=' I can understand them running out of towels - I've seen stacks of them tucked under the mattress trying to fill out the lumps:confused:[/quote]

 

Are you serious?? Oh my, I am getting worried now.

[cruisequeen4ever]

This is horrifying!! I would hope Princess would be shut down for public health issues if they were in fact allowing dirty sheets to be used! That's now even 1 star hotel level! I really really hope this is not true!!

[Shelly97060]

I was on Crown in November and I am happy to say we had no problem at all related to linens.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Shelly97060

[chengkp75]

Interesting explanation. On our Royal British Isles/TA this past Aug./Sept. the towels were very grey and stained, and every sheet we got both top and bottom had small pinholes holes in them. We asked our steward for only clean, unstained towels, but that rarely happened. When they were stained or very grey we just threw them in the shower with the dirty towels without using them.

We're on the Royal again next month, and we were hoping that the towel/sheet situation had been worked out. This thread doesn't give me much confidence that anything has changed.

 

We had so many problems with the laundry staff it was almost laughable. The HD complained one day that the big roll ironing machine was "burning" the dinner napkins. Not anything else, just the napkins. So we went down to look and found that it was actually food stains that had not been cleaned from the napkin in the wash, and was then "set" into the cloth by the ironer. We looked further, and found that the napkins were being put into the washing machines still balled up from dinner service, and the washers were so overloaded that there was no room for them to open up in the agitation of the washer, so they weren't getting cleaned.

 

Also, we had towel folding machines in the laundry, but they were never used, since the laundry staff could not be counted on to remove stained or torn towels before folding, so the cabin stewards had to unfold them, check them, and refold before putting them in the cabins.

 

Incredible domino effect where one department's poor performance spilled over the entire ship.

[crochetcruise]

We had that situation with washcloths, and, to a lesser extent hand towels last winter on the Caribbean Princess. I had never heard of such a thing before. Our steward was waiting until nearly 10pm some nights to get washcloths to place in cabins even though he had serviced them for the evening hours earlier.

 

THANK YOU for the "Heads Up" to put a face washer on my Cruise Packing List. Pre-cruise, I'm at a hotel in my State Capitol, then staying with my cousins. I DO usually, put a face washer in my sponge bag, but have noted to double-check my packing!

 

I'm in Australia, does anyone know what type of shops would be likely to sell the small, super-absorbent-think it's micro-fibre but not sure-towels please? I have over 10 months still to go, so could look out for 1, if I knew what type of shop to check. Am used to motels where towels are provided.

[capriccio]

We will attempt to speak with senior officers tonight about this disturbing change.

 

OP - did you get any explanations?

[floridalover5623]

I' thinking the comment was to mean that they don't change them for people in B2B cabins on turnaround day.

[capriccio]

I' thinking the comment was to mean that they don't change them for people in B2B cabins on turnaround day.

 

I know we have always told our steward not to even worry about making up the room that morning since they have more than enough to do to get ready for embarking passengers. Of course that is what we've told them but in both cases of our B2Bs where we stayed in the same cabin we returned to a made bed with new bedding and new towels.

[floridalover5623]

I know we have always told our steward not to even worry about making up the room that morning since they have more than enough to do to get ready for embarking passengers. Of course that is what we've told them but in both cases of our B2Bs where we stayed in the same cabin we returned to a made bed with new bedding and new towels.

 

Of course, but if there was a temporary shortage of linens for whatever reason the only logical thing to do is leave the sheets on the beds for an extra day for the B2B people. I was surprised that there wasn't a shortage of pool towels with the way people were using them. I guess it's typical but I've never seen so many being used before as on the Royal.

[SadieN]

THANK YOU for the "Heads Up" to put a face washer on my Cruise Packing List. Pre-cruise, I'm at a hotel in my State Capitol, then staying with my cousins. I DO usually, put a face washer in my sponge bag, but have noted to double-check my packing!

 

 

 

I'm in Australia, does anyone know what type of shops would be likely to sell the small, super-absorbent-think it's micro-fibre but not sure-towels please? I have over 10 months still to go, so could look out for 1, if I knew what type of shop to check. Am used to motels where towels are provided.

 

 

Daiso. It's a Japanese store where everything is $1.50. Otherwise an outfitting store. There must be something like REI or MEI in Australia. Walmart might even have something.

[wmwmarmstrong]

Well that explains the hairs on our sheets on Embarkation day on our cruise last April and the mascara stains on the duvet on our cruise a couple of weeks ago on the Crown.

 

If I encountered that mess, the room steward would find all the bed linens in the middle of the floor in a heap. So disgusting!

[PescadoAmarillo]

I put a folded pool towel. :D

Best fix ever when the sides of the mattress are saggy is to place rolled up pool towels along the side between the metal bed frame and the mattress.

 

Honestly, it's a good thing we like Princess so much because we do have some interesting stories to tell about ripped linens, missing facecloths and towels, ridiculously poor pillows and mattresses and shredded personal laundry. And don't even get me started on the 'one size fits no one' robes!

[Astro Flyer]

And don't even get me started on the 'one size fits no one' robes!

On the Crown in October we had a new type of robe which was better than the ones we've had previously. They weren't the old worn out ones that were short after shrinkage from too many washings.

[davekathy]

If I encountered that mess, the room steward would find all the bed linens in the middle of the floor in a heap. So disgusting!

 

...and wouldn't be taking care of our cabin for the rest of the Cruise!