A new perspective on Cabin Stewards not doing nightly turn down

[amajaa]

Now reading on here and other social media the main concern about the Cabin Stewards not servicing the cabins in the evenings is people saying they can't now get their towels changed twice a day, which personally I ( and others) find a bit rediculous with most people saying how often do you change them at home.  If they are that desperate to have clean towels twice a day go up to the pool deck and get clean ones from there.  Aren't we supposed to be saving the oceans or whatever it says on the leaflet in the bathrooms? 

 

Well read this - unbelievably a staggering 44% of people only change their towels every 3 months. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-66735226?xtor=ES-211-[64317_PANUK_NLT_37_ENG_StateOfChaos_RET_O35]-20230912-[bbcnewsbeat_howoftenshouldyouwashandchangeyourtowel_healthandwellbeing]

 

Now that's taking it to the other extreme. 

[Josy1953]

We all have different views about how often we should wash our towels, sheets and even clothes, it is a personal thing and so long as my towels and sheets are changed at least as often as they are changed at home I am happy.  If the time between changes is a problem for me then I will simply stop giving my money to whatever cruise company is not changing them often enough for me.

[Jazzytelly]

So there's a high chance the wingers who claim they want their towels changed twice a day are probably in the 44% who don't wash theirs very often at home. Same goes for those that want their sheets changed every day on cruises. 

[jeanlyon]

Ha ha.  I change mine about every week to 10 days at home, so I certainly don't need them changed more than that on a cruise  Same goes for bed sheets.

[yorkshirephil]

Towels are the main cause of dry skin.

[amajaa]

I think my main point of this post was to say I think some people moan and winge about P & O just because they can. Perhaps they think it gives them some sort of street cred, especially on social media where they post under their own name, to say hey look at me aren't I good I change my towels twice a day and my sheets once a day. When in reality they don't actually do either.

Now for anyone that does actually do that don't jump on me but I'm just saying most people don't. Poor P & O you can't please all of the people all of the time. 

 

When we cruise on Princess or other lines that still do a turndown service, we always tell them not to bother to do anything to our cabin. As long as we get the activity paper for the next day we are happy. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

We all have different views about how often we should wash our towels, sheets and even clothes, it is a personal thing and so long as my towels and sheets are changed at least as often as they are changed at home I am happy.  If the time between changes is a problem for me then I will simply stop giving my money to whatever cruise company is not changing them often enough for me.

But all cruise lines and hotels, will change your towels when you want them changing, you just need to leave them on the shower floor or in the bath.

[amajaa]

12 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But all cruise lines and hotels, will change your towels when you want them changing, you just need to leave them on the shower floor or in the bath.

 

Yes I know, my post was about the complaints about the night time cabin service bring abolished and people saying they can't get their towels changed twice a day now.  No point them leaving in the shower if they're not coming in. 

[lincslady]

Towel changing on a ship - sometimes nice when those you have are still damp.  Towels at home - for me once a week, but cannot believe that some people do not have two each, a smaller one for face etc and larger one for body.

[amajaa]

I always use a face towel as well , that is one thing I don't like about most cruise lines towels the face towels are really small and get damp quickly. However the P & O bath towels are nice and big , certainly bigger than on Princess. 

Edited September 12, 2023 by amajaa

[Jazzytelly]

1 hour ago, amajaa said:

 Perhaps they think it gives them some sort of street cred, especially on social media where they post under their own name, to say hey look at me aren't I good I change my towels twice a day and my sheets once a day. 

 

Haha hit the nail on the head.

 

Aren't we supposed to reducing our carbon footprint

[Ardennais]

I’m not bothered about changing sheets more once a week, but I am fussy with towels. I use mine once only and then wash them. I change the hand towel in the downstairs toilet every day too. My husband had cellulitis 20 years ago and was hospitalized for 10 days. It was recommended then that he had clean trousers and towels every day which is what he did even before then as a builder. So I expect plenty of clean towels on holiday. 

[Ardennais]

To reduce our carbon footprint, how about getting rid of tablecloths?! 

[Cloudyrain]

At home we change the hand/face towel daily, but not the bath towel - mine barely gets wet, maybe I shake off like a dog coming out of the river or something and I just haven’t noticed 😂

 

I can’t believe anyone actually wants their towels changing twice a day, and if they have an accident or something I am sure housekeeping will provide extra if the pool towel kiosk is closed.

 

As for beds, I wouldn’t expect them to change sheets more than once a week: again unless there is a particular problem/accident.

[Ardennais]

8 minutes ago, Cloudyrain said:

At home we change the hand/face towel daily, but not the bath towel - mine barely gets wet, maybe I shake off like a dog coming out of the river or something and I just haven’t noticed 😂

 

I can’t believe anyone actually wants their towels changing twice a day, and if they have an accident or something I am sure housekeeping will provide extra if the pool towel kiosk is closed.

 

As for beds, I wouldn’t expect them to change sheets more than once a week: again unless there is a particular problem/accident.

If we shower twice in a day at home, we use clean towels, so yes, I would want them changed twice a day on holiday. It’s not a case of having an accident. It’s a case of rubbing skin and shedding skin particles and just the yucky feeling of an used towel. 

[Ardennais]

During the winter, I change sheets once a week but I do change them more frequently during hot weather. 

[Dobbers]

We use the bath towels a couple of times before wanting fresh but do like clean hand towels daily. 
We haven’t missed the turndown service, just the chocolate. OH is diabetic so I got both chocs’ 😋

 

[Ginb56]

Another thing we miss from nightly turndown is the little card reminding you to change your clock that night. Wish they’d maybe leave it in the morning for the coming night…

 

Currently there’s the clocks instruction line at the bottom of Horizon front page which is easily missed - I’ve had several elderly people ask me what the real time is as they didn’t realise our zone had changed the night before and no tannoy message noticed either, by me or them.

 

Why the Horizon designer doesn’t now do it as a bold flash across the front corner of the relevant day news sheet, I don’t know…

[kruzgal]

The issue for me on a ship, unlike at home, is that the towels don’t dry from the morning so I end up using a wet towel if I want to shower again late afternoon after a day of sunbathing, at the beach etc. We got around it by asking for 2 sets of towels to be left when the cabin had its once a day clean in the morning. Problem solved. 

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, Ginb56 said:

Another thing we miss from nightly turndown is the little card reminding you to change your clock that night. Wish they’d maybe leave it in the morning for the coming night…

 

We had 4 clock changes on Arcadia last month and a little card delivered with Horizon each time.

[9265359]

14 hours ago, amajaa said:

If they are that desperate to have clean towels twice a day go up to the pool deck and get clean ones from there.

 

No you don't do that.

 

You simply ask your cabin steward to ensure your cabin has an extra set of towels every day, and they will do that when they service the cabin in the morning.

[FangedRose]

4 hours ago, Ginb56 said:

Another thing we miss from nightly turndown is the little card reminding you to change your clock that night. Wish they’d maybe leave it in the morning for the coming night…

 

Currently there’s the clocks instruction line at the bottom of Horizon front page which is easily missed - I’ve had several elderly people ask me what the real time is as they didn’t realise our zone had changed the night before and no tannoy message noticed either, by me or them.

 

Why the Horizon designer doesn’t now do it as a bold flash across the front corner of the relevant day news sheet, I don’t know…

Got the card left in the morning last July/September. Sometimes in the pigeon hole outside the cabin, or on the bed. It was obvious when walking down the corridor that there was cards in pigeon holes of "do not disturb" cabins.

 

It was also on the navigation channel on the TV, and in The Horizon. I think it was also announced in the theatre at the end of the show? The waiters also told us sometimes.

 

To my mind clock change announcements are hard to miss as it is, and going by the number of passengers who pick up their copy of the next day's Horizon before dinner then get confused about the evening's entertainment making a bigger announcement on the cover would lead to even more uncertainty. 

[amajaa]

29 minutes ago, FangedRose said:

Got the card left in the morning last July/September. Sometimes in the pigeon hole outside the cabin, or on the bed. It was obvious when walking down the corridor that there was cards in pigeon holes of "do not disturb" cabins.

 

It was also on the navigation channel on the TV, and in The Horizon. I think it was also announced in the theatre at the end of the show? The waiters also told us sometimes.

 

To my mind clock change announcements are hard to miss as it is, and going by the number of passengers who pick up their copy of the next day's Horizon before dinner then get confused about the evening's entertainment making a bigger announcement on the cover would lead to even more uncertainty. 

 

I was going to say exactly the same, you couldn't miss the fact you had to change your clocks on the 3 P & O cruises we have done since lockdown. 

[FangedRose]

1 minute ago, amajaa said:

 

I was going to say exactly the same, you couldn't miss the fact you had to change your clocks on the 3 P & O cruises we have done since lockdown. 

Mind you,  I've ran into people heading towards gangways for a port that had been cancelled two days before! There had been announcements, letters to the cabin, messages on the tv, The Horizon was showing sea day activities, countless moans from passengers etc, but it had still completely passed them by! There is no helping some people!

[Eglesbrech]

Re the question of towels there was an interesting session on BBC radio Scotland this morning (time stamp about 11.40 am if anyone wants to listen). It was a follow on to the survey @amajaa the op references.
 

They had a microbiologist on discussing just what collects on towels that are not washed often enough.

 

I don’t have a problem on P&O, if I need extra dry towels I simply ask for them.