Turn down service

[ninjacat123]

I became Platinum our last cruise and when we met our room steward the first thing he said was "since you are platinum you will have morning and evening service".  Before I was platinum, we had both services. Maybe it's the luck of the draw on room stewards? 

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I became Platinum our last cruise and when we met our room steward the first thing he said was "since you are platinum you will have morning and evening service".  Before I was platinum, we had both services. Maybe it's the luck of the draw on room stewards? 

Or just the way different RS address requesting what cruisers want.  

[glrounds]

A couple weeks ago on the PANORAMA I was asked morning, night, or both. I chose  morning only as I keep my cabin pretty neat and orderly. Angel did a great job once per day. YMMV, however. 🙂

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by glrounds

[Joe817]

6 minutes ago, glrounds said:

A couple weeks ago on the PANORAMA I was asked morning, night, or both. I chose  morning only as I keep my cabin pretty neat and orderly. Angel did a great job once per day. YMMV, however. 🙂

 

We did the same. Only morning service on our Dream cruise. We were very pleased. 

[Tapi]

On 2/1/2020 at 8:23 AM, jimbo5544 said:

There are threee options:  Morning, Evening or both.  Period. 

That may be true, but the way that some cabin stewards ask, they make it sound like it’s either morning OR evening, not both. On our last Carnival Cruise, our cabin steward did exactly that; he asked “morning OR evening“, to which I smilingly replied “both”. His smile faded. 

[ray98]

People seem to have problems with the smallest things.  If twice a day service is important to you just ask.

[coevan]

On 2/2/2020 at 7:02 AM, ccd228 said:

We just got off the Horizon. Deck 10 offered only morning or evening not both. He provided the hours he worked and morning and evening option not both.

 

 

and you bought it, it doesn't work on everyone

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

We are Diamond on Carnival over 48 cruises with them to date and on 17 different Carnival ships. 4 more coming. So I think I am well informed on what has and is now happening. To start I am not a Carnival lover. I like Carnival for the cost of the cruise, Halloween and the best steak house on the seas, lowest cost soda package. Now for the topic at hand. Before they removed the chocolate. Morning and evening were the norm as was ice without asking. Then the chocolate diapered and then you need to ask for ice or you did not get it. Now, as soon as we get to our cabion and the steward sees us, he introduces himself and double checks out name. Then we are asked on EVERY cruise is we want the room to be made up in the morning only or twice. We say yes, twice and ice always. Never a problem. If you have had a different experience, so be it. This is ours. 

[Organized Chaos]

7 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Carnival is geared towards the new, inexperienced cruiser

 

This is a false narrative spread by long-time cruisers who continually complain that Carnival doesn't care about them anymore and only care about new cruisers. Out of all the long-time cruisers on this forum, only a few of you make this claim. Please explain to us how Carnival is geared towards new, inexperienced cruisers? Are the food venues designed for new cruisers? Are all of the activities and entertainment designed for new cruisers? What about the itineraries? The excursions offered by Carnival? Explain how these things are geared towards new cruisers.

 

Those 1 liter bottles of water that customers get when they turn Red...boy, that's really taking care of those new cruisers. And how about that one free drink on the last night after 5pm for Gold...a clear indication that Carnival is geared towards new cruisers. You seem to be forgetting that all of the best perks are reserved for Carnival's long-time customers (with the exception of being able to buy a few of them with FTTF). Does Carnival want to attract new customers? You're darn right they do. Every good business on the planet wants that. Show me a company that doesn't want to bring in a continuous stream of new customers and I'll show you a company that won't last long. That's just good business sense, not indicative of a company that's only geared towards new customers. In addition, keeping existing customers coming back is also good business sense. That's one of the big reasons that tools like loyalty programs exist.

[AtSeaWithChris]

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

More often than not, they make it sound like it's one or the other. {deleted text} but most of the people I've seen talking about this topic don't just want once/day service. At best, it might be 50/50, but I'd say it sways easily in favor of wanting twice a day. {Deleted text}. Why do you think people keep asking the question of whether or not twice a day is still available? Because the stewards tend to mislead passengers into thinking it is no longer an option, that's why. I don't fault them for doing it, they're just trying to decrease a very heavy workload. One that Carnival piled onto them. I would even suspect that Carnival gives them their blessing to make the passengers think they have to choose one or the other, because if they weren't allowed to do it, Carnival would put an end to it. The tactic is so widespread throughout the fleet that it can't be coincidence. No matter how hard to try to paint people who know this to be true as conspiracy theorists, it's not a conspiracy theory when so many people have experienced exactly this.

 I think this way too on this subject. This has been my experience since 2015.

[AtSeaWithChris]

13 hours ago, Tapi said:

That may be true, but the way that some cabin stewards ask, they make it sound like it’s either morning OR evening, not both. On our last Carnival Cruise, our cabin steward did exactly that; he asked “morning OR evening“, to which I smilingly replied “both”. His smile faded. 

This is my experience since 2015.

[Cushing985]

This is my take on this saga.  When Carnival first started this "once, twice or both" thing for cabin servicing I think they did it because so many people enjoy sleeping in; something they can't do at home.  The last thing they want is a cabin steward bugging them to leave the cabin in the morning.  Unfortunately, the card the stewards had was poorly designed (it didn't include the "both" option) giving the stewards some leeway on how to present the options.  They finally fixed the card and all three options are now clearly there.  In my experience, I've always asked for "both"; a good cleaning in the morning and just provide fresh towels in the evening.  I don't care if they do the towel animals or not and I don't need ice.  On a cruise we took a year ago the steward met with us the day we boarded.  The first thing he he told me was how many cabins he had to clean, hoping I guess, I would choose once a day.  I told him I didn't work for Carnival HR but wanted a standard cleaning in the morning and towels in the evening.  He obliged but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.  Will Carnival eventually offer just one cleaning per day?  I don't think so because  it is a cruising tradition (vs a hotel stay).  But who really knows?

[AtSeaWithChris]

On 1/31/2020 at 10:17 PM, Organized Chaos said:

I think most stewards these days won't even offer both as an option when they talk to you about it, but it's still available if you want it. Since they have an increased workload now, I think they somewhat sneakily offer one or the other in hopes that the guest doesn't realize both are still an option. Obviously Carnival doesn't mind that they do it because they've been doing it ever since the policy changed 2-3 years ago.

since 2015, on 3 out of 4 cruises, we were asked if we wanted morning or evening. on 1 out of 4 cruises, since 2015, we were asked if we wanted morning or evening... or both if you want it. We asked for both on all and got both times except for 2 days on a 7 day cruise on the Vista, where the steward either missed us or skipped us, and we had to ask for fresh towels so we could shower before dinner. This has been our experience.

[coevan]

13 minutes ago, Cushing985 said:

The last thing they want is a cabin steward bugging them to leave the cabin in the morning.

 

 

We have never been bugged by a room steward. We are late sleepers and he knows our or your schedule by the second day. Usually I explain it to him first, breakfast around 10 and he knows we eat dinner late, never a problem

[audcc77]

I don’t wait for the cabin steward to ask me anything about anything.  

 

When the steward comes to introduce himself, I say “It’s a pleasure to meet you! We’re very excited to sail on the xxx; I’d like an extra pillow, service both in the morning and evening, as well as ice twice a day.”

 

I steer the conversation.  

Given the fact that my last cabin steward showed up at 2 pm for morning service, I am now going to include “What time shall we expect you in the mornings?”  

Some people will think that immediately upon meeting someone is not the appropriate time to make requests.   To that I say ... that’s their job.  

[Capt_Sailormike]

Just got back off the Sunshine today and when our steward introduced himself we had to fill out a slip if we wanted morning night or both we did both and it was great. You now have to ask if you want towel animals 

 

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, Capt_Sailormike said:

Just got back off the Sunshine today and when our steward introduced himself we had to fill out a slip if we wanted morning night or both we did both and it was great. You now have to ask if you want towel animals 

 

You would be surprised at how many do not want them.  Which did you take?

[audcc77]

6 minutes ago, Capt_Sailormike said:

Just got back off the Sunshine today and when our steward introduced himself we had to fill out a slip if we wanted morning night or both we did both and it was great. You now have to ask if you want towel animals 

 

I always ask for no animals. I still sometimes get them though. 
 

I do like this idea. Seems a waste of the environment to have them every single day. 

[AtSeaWithChris]

11 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

You would be surprised at how many do not want them.  Which did you take?

I realize that in order to be environmentally responsible that the towel animals will probably go away. And we get that. But we do look forward to it so will request as long as it's available. 

[jimbo5544]

15 minutes ago, MamallamaAndDaddy said:

I realize that in order to be environmentally responsible that the towel animals will probably go away. And we get that. But we do look forward to it so will request as long as it's available. 

My wife loves them and in fact saves them during the week and lines them up.  We travel in groups a lot and some of our cruisers think they are silly.   My bet is the reason for asking is the amount of work they require to do.  That said, we have never been asked about them.  

[thesmiths]

10 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

My wife loves them and in fact saves them during the week and lines them up.  We travel in groups a lot and some of our cruisers think they are silly.   My bet is the reason for asking is the amount of work they require to do.  That said, we have never been asked about them.  

We always set them up during the week and add to them accordingly -

The Stewards get a kick out of it.

The Igloo I made kept falling over.

Chai was a great Steward.

 

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by thesmiths

[ray98]

The towel animal thing is no longer important for us.  It was neat the first 10 cruises, now it is just something I have to move off the bed to go to sleep.

[jimbo5544]

50 minutes ago, thesmiths said:

We always set them up during the week and add to them accordingly -

The Stewards get a kick out of it.

The Igloo I made kept falling over.

Chai was a great Steward.

 

 

They are cute seen a couple weird ones like the man they made out of towels sitting in a chair with a dim light when we returned at the end of the night

[jimbo5544]

29 minutes ago, ray98 said:

The towel animal thing is no longer important for us.  It was neat the first 10 cruises, now it is just something I have to move off the bed to go to sleep.

And that is why they ask.  

[Organized Chaos]

17 hours ago, Cushing985 said:

This is my take on this saga.  When Carnival first started this "once, twice or both" thing for cabin servicing I think they did it because so many people enjoy sleeping in; something they can't do at home.  The last thing they want is a cabin steward bugging them to leave the cabin in the morning.  Unfortunately, the card the stewards had was poorly designed (it didn't include the "both" option) giving the stewards some leeway on how to present the options.  They finally fixed the card and all three options are now clearly there.  In my experience, I've always asked for "both"; a good cleaning in the morning and just provide fresh towels in the evening.  I don't care if they do the towel animals or not and I don't need ice.  On a cruise we took a year ago the steward met with us the day we boarded.  The first thing he he told me was how many cabins he had to clean, hoping I guess, I would choose once a day.  I told him I didn't work for Carnival HR but wanted a standard cleaning in the morning and towels in the evening.  He obliged but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.  Will Carnival eventually offer just one cleaning per day?  I don't think so because  it is a cruising tradition (vs a hotel stay).  But who really knows?

 

It was started after Carnival cutback the number of stewards, leaving the ones that were left with a lot more cabins to tend to. My guess is, offering once/day service was an attempt to alleviate some of that heavy workload. Instead of looking for ways around it, I think a cruise line that boasts record profits should just employ a healthy number of stewards, as it was before, in order to take care of the crew who bust their butts for them and to give their passengers the attentiveness and experience that makes it so special. They may have fixed the card, as you put it, but the problem is, so many stewards aren't even giving their passengers the card. They're verbally asking guests instead, saying it in such a way that leads people to believe they have to choose one or the other. That's the whole crux of this debate.