Midnight Knock on our cabin door

[Roktory]

My wife and I sailed on the  Rotterdam March 3-10, we were staying in a Neptune Suite.

 

The last night of the cruise at 12Midnight we were awoken by knocking on the door. I got out of bed answered the door expecting some kind of emergency.

 

what I found was a guest services steward who explained "he was sent by guest services supervisor to pick up a borrowed DVD".

 

I told him we did not borrow any DVD he insisted,  showing me a note with my state room hand written on it by his supervisor. 

 

after talking to him for a little while I final got him to leave.

 

My wife and I  tried to get back to sleep which if you ever been abruptly awoken that is not all that easy.

 

This was compounded by the fact we were driving home early the next morning to NJ

 

The next morning at 6:30AM I told the concierge in the Neptune lounge what happened, and she called guest services and found out they had written down the wrong room number on the slip, IThe concierge gave me the typical HAL "I'm Sorry". 

 

I then asked for the night supervisor name and she was reluctant to give it to me after I pressed her I finaly got the name "Jeff" I wanted this for the survey.

[Mr. Boston]

That’s just wrong.  Who in the name of hospitality would ever think it appropriate to disturb a guest for something so inane in the middle of the night!  Unbelievable.

 

[Cruising-along]

Wow!  I'm glad you got the name for the survey.  I'm not sure how I would have reacted, being woken at midnight for this, but I probably wouldn't have been as kind as you were.

 

[*Miss G*]

What the... ?!!!  That is outrageous!!

[Krazy Kruizers]

That is absolutely terrible!!

 

I know that neither of us would have been able to get back to sleep after having been awakened in the middle of the night.

[puppycanducruise]

That's terrible. 

I would have trouble going back to sleep after that interaction.

It would certainly leave a bad impression about HAL.  Not sure about future bookings.

[Despegue]

Be glad that it wasn’t  a booty call 🤪.

but seriously, bad hospitality service. Some people have no common sense.

[kazu]

Unbelievable they did this. (And, no, I don’t disbelieve you).

 

Rude in my book, to bang at anyone’s door at that time unless it is REAL emergency.  A DVD is not.

 

[ger_77]

I'm surprised that someone showed up at the room at that time of night; I would have thought if a DVD had not been returned, after the room had been cleaned and it didn't turn up, it would have been added to the final bill.  Most unusual.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[sevenseasnomad]

1 hour ago, ger_77 said:

I'm surprised that someone showed up at the room at that time of night; I would have thought if a DVD had not been returned, after the room had been cleaned and it didn't turn up, it would have been added to the final bill.  Most unusual.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Sounds like a much better solution to the problem of a missing DVD.  From our experience with the Rotterdam DVD list, who would want any of those DVDs?  The movies and TV shows were several years old.  

[VennDiagram]

That is completely unacceptable 😞 

[3rdGenCunarder]

It's giving me the creeps just to think about this. I would be wide awake for hours. That's something your concierge should have handled in the morning. Or someone could have written a note and slipped it under the door so you'd be sure to see it in the morning if they were so desperate over the loss of a DVD.

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by 3rdGenCunarder

[ON cruiser]

Like others, I find what happened to the original poster outrageous. Its hard to know if, at the time, having been woken up, I would have had the presence of mind to do what comes to mind after reading about this: that is, with the steward in my room, to dial the front desk and ask for the supervisor on duty; and to tell him that I am perplexed and outraged about what he directed the steward to do.

 

In addition to speaking to the NS concierges the next morning, if time allowed I would have written a note to the Hotel Director.

 

Finally, in addition to noting this on my post-cruise survey, if this happened to me I would have sent an email to customer service, by way of the "office of the president" email address.

 

I hope the original poster lets us know what response he ultimately receives from HAL.  

[colbe]

A mistake was made. An apology was received.

[*Miss G*]

43 minutes ago, colbe said:

A mistake was made. An apology was received.

 

I think you’ve missed the point entirely.

[OlsSalt]

50 minutes ago, colbe said:

A mistake was made. An apology was received.

 

Thank you for your cool analysis of this incident.

 

Hard for any organization to operate at a zero tolerance level. Though we certainly hope the bridge operates at that level, it is unreasonable to demand this same standard across entire  ship's staffing levels.  As  always, it is good to get both sides of this report, before  anyone else calls out the torches and pitchforks. 

 

BTW: my deepest condolences to your wonderful country. 

Edited March 17, 2019 by OlsSalt

[ON cruiser]

Sorry, but I disagree that it is in any way "unreasonable to demand [the] standard across the entire ship's staffing level" that cabin/passenger doors not be knocked on after midnight, save for a genuine emergency. In fact, I would say that this is a quite reasonable and expected standard to be applied to all HAL ships.

 

As for an apology, I did not read the original posters' report that he received a genuine apology, and certainly not from the person(s) responsible. It is not the worst thing from a poor service perspective that can happen on a ship, yet it is by no means a good thing, nor should not be considered normal or acceptable, and in my view senior ship and other management ought be made aware of the incident to ensure re-training occurs. Or, the next time this happens, who knows, it could be to those people who seem to want to minimize it.

[RuthC]

Was the "Privacy Please" sign in your door key slot? If so, they are not supposed to knock on your door. To do so would be a violation of their own policy. They can call you, but not knock on the door. Had they called, at least there would have been an opportunity to resolve the situation without you needing to get up.

In any case, it was poor judgment disturbing you at a late hour. I hope they learned their lesson.

[AncientWanderer]

From a practical standpoint, I would have told this person that they better clear out and that I was going to immediately call Security.  That late knock on the door would be too far out of normal bounds for my comfort.

[rkacruiser]

An odd situation to be sure.  While a note about the incident to the Hotel Director was warranted, a "face-to-face" meeting with the Guest Relations Manager would have been a good idea, if your time allowed.  He/she is the "Officer" in charge of the Front Office.

[AncientWanderer]

Along the lines of "late night knocks," we recently had an experience where there was a knock on the stateroom door at about 11:30 p.m.  When we opened the door, in our jammies, there was a room steward and a female ships officer of some stripe standing at the door.  They both kind of looked over our heads into the stateroom and said, "We just wanted to see if you needed anything," or something along those lines.  They kind of continued standing there for a few moments, looking around, and then departed.

 

Our thought was that something was amiss somewhere and they were doing some kind of security check.  We felt it was quite appropriate how they handled it, having two people, one an officer, as they disturbed us late in the evening.  Very different than what the OP experienced.

Edited March 17, 2019 by AncientWanderer

[rkacruiser]

3 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

Along the lines of "late night knocks," we recently had an experience where there was a knock on the stateroom door at about 11:30 p.m.  When we opened the door, in our jammies, there was a room steward and a female ships officer of some stripe standing at the door.  They both kind of looked over our heads into the stateroom and said, "We just wanted to see if you needed anything," or something along those lines.  They kind of continued standing there for a few moments, looking around, and then departed.

 

Our thought was that something was amiss somewhere and they were doing some kind of security check.  We felt it was quite appropriate how they handled it, having two people, one an officer, as they disturbed us late in the evening.  Very different than what the OP experienced.

 

I think I would have asked "Why do you think we need anything at this time of the night?"  

 

I know, I know.  Don't tell me.  The answer you would have received would have been "a happy answer" that such questions provoke.

[SilvertoGold]

The last night of the cruise:  maybe HAL was trying, as a courtesy, to get the DVD back before the morning so the pax wouldn't be charged.  Disembarkation morning is hectic, to say the least, so not really the best of times to get anything done.

 

That said:  this should have been done long before midnight!  A phone message in the afternoon  might have been been indicated.

[Cruising-along]

30 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

Along the lines of "late night knocks," we recently had an experience where there was a knock on the stateroom door at about 11:30 p.m.  When we opened the door, in our jammies, there was a room steward and a female ships officer of some stripe standing at the door.  They both kind of looked over our heads into the stateroom and said, "We just wanted to see if you needed anything," or something along those lines.  They kind of continued standing there for a few moments, looking around, and then departed.

 

Our thought was that something was amiss somewhere and they were doing some kind of security check.  We felt it was quite appropriate how they handled it, having two people, one an officer, as they disturbed us late in the evening.  Very different than what the OP experienced.

How bizarre!  I would much rather they give the real reason than such an unbelievable story (why would I need anything and if I did, I would have asked for it!) I'm starting to realize how lucky we've been to never have been disturbed after we've gone to bed for the night ... with a big day the next day too, such as the OP had, there's no way I would get back to sleep.

 

As for a phone call, if it came at midnight that would be no better IMO.  It still would have ruined any sleep that night. 

[bennybear]

We experienced several late night phone calls and door knocks on our last night.   I had contracted influenza on the ship and they had quarantined me.  So we were Later informed our luggage should not be put out.   They had already picked it up. Then they brought it back and decided yet later it could go out.   Needless to say we were not very happy, as this caused a lot of disruption.  My poor DH!   

Edited March 17, 2019 by bennybear