How crowded are the Magic laundry rooms?

[ArloB]

We've done other DCL cruises but never tried doing laundry on board. This time, we will need to. How hard will it be to get machines when we aren't in port? How much of a pain is it to do laundry on board? I don't want to pay to send it out.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We've done other DCL cruises but never tried doing laundry on board. This time, we will need to. How hard will it be to get machines when we aren't in port? How much of a pain is it to do laundry on board? I don't want to pay to send it out.

It depends on when you are looking to do laundry. We typically are early risers, and have found it pretty easy to get a couple of loads done at that time. Also, big no-no: don't do laundry in the afternoon/evening of a formal/semi-formal night.

Another good method, put in wash, be sure to check time your load is supposed to be done (typically around 45 minutes). Go have a snack, or a walk around the ship. Be back in laundry room about 5 minutes before load is scheduled to be done. Move to dryer, same as before, note time and take a break. Be back before dryer is done.

It's real important to be there when you load is ready to be moved, removed otherwise those waiting will/can get ugly.

 

[tink1970]

It's real important to be there when you load is ready to be moved, removed otherwise those waiting will/can get ugly.

So true! There's nothing less magical than the mob mentality waiting for dryers, especially. It's ugly. I agree with getting up early and knocking it out as soon as possible during the trip.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So true! There's nothing less magical than the mob mentality waiting for dryers, especially. It's ugly. I agree with getting up early and knocking it out as soon as possible during the trip.

Here's a shot in the laundry room on our EBTA trip. Not my laundry, but someone's wet stuff just waiting for the owner to return.

 

[Dug720]

So true! There's nothing less magical than the mob mentality waiting for dryers, especially. It's ugly. I agree with getting up early and knocking it out as soon as possible during the trip.

Even in the laundromats in NYC. The worst is someone who crams ALL their clothes into one washer but sorts it into like 6 piles for drying. The places are set for one washer/one dryer! So if someone does that, you have 5 people without dryers. ANNOYING!!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Even in the laundromats in NYC. The worst is someone who crams ALL their clothes into one washer but sorts it into like 6 piles for drying. The places are set for one washer/one dryer! So if someone does that, you have 5 people without dryers. ANNOYING!!

And I found that dryers actually hold more than washers. So, while I might use 3 washers, it wind up only using 2 dryers in most laundry rooms (onshore and onboard).

 

[Dug720]

And I found that dryers actually hold more than washers. So, while I might use 3 washers, it wind up only using 2 dryers in most laundry rooms (onshore and onboard).

That would be totally cool with me. Sadly it is always the reverse at the place I go. I get weird looks for using one washer/one dryer.

 

[tink1970]

Here's a shot in the laundry room on our EBTA trip. Not my laundry, but someone's wet stuff just waiting for the owner to return

On our AK cruise, my mom folded the laundry that the poor henpecked husband had left in the dryer for more than an hour. The wife cursed out mom roundly. It made the rest of the trip awkward since they were our next door neighbors.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

On our AK cruise, my mom folded the laundry that the poor henpecked husband had left in the dryer for more than an hour. The wife cursed out mom roundly. It made the rest of the trip awkward since they were our next door neighbors.

Now, see, I might remove someone's things that were just sitting in the dryer (for some time), but I wouldn't fold them.

 

[lorimay]

Oh I have seen them packed with people, its so tight, people blocking the machines waiting to grab one
We are like @PrincessShmoo early risers and usually start a load or 2 and go grab a coffee nice and early, we are done before breakfast.
Once I took clothes out of a dryer, they were baby clothes, so I was ok with folding them. When the lady finally came back to take the load out of the dryer, I was folding my dry laundry, so she waited more than 40-45 minutes, she didn't appear pleased. I thought she was rude in so many ways.
Not to mention, there's almost always at least one machine "out of order"

 

[anricat]

As Shmoo said, mornings are great. Avoid sea days if at all possible. Later at night is also a good time. It also depends on how long your cruise it (and how many sea days). One nice thing is that the app now will alert you when your washer and/or dryer is done. Unfortunately, it's not always accurate. I got a notification 10 minutes into my wash cycle last time just as I sat down on Deck 9 with my book and a cup of coffee on a quiet morning earlier this year. I dashed down there only to find it to be a false alarm so I reset the timer on my phone and came back at the proper time. So there are clearly some kinks, but it seemed to work most of the time.

 

[CPME]

I did my laundry one afternoon on a sea day on the Magic, and it was busy in the sense that all machines were in use but there was only me and one other person waiting for our loads, the rest came and went. I will say that I had to nip back to my room for a short while and planned to be back way before my machine finished, but when I got back somebody had stopped my dryer early and chucked my half-wet stuff on the side! I was very angry and next time I think I'll take a book and just hang around in the vicinity to be safe.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I had good luck in our Deck 6 laundry room on the Wonder. I did laundry during first dinner seating a couple of days, and would change it to the dryer between the show and our late dinner. That seemed to work well. Laundry was busier toward the end of our 7-night cruise.

 

[jdb in AZ]

If the cruise is just a week long, we can get by without doing laundry. Toward the end of a 15-day cruise, the laundry rooms start "hopping" around 6 a.m.

I moved someone's dry clothes out of the dryer (after they had sat for at least an hour.) The clothes were still there on the last morning of the cruise, several days later.

 

[lorimay]

I did my laundry one afternoon on a sea day on the Magic, and it was busy in the sense that all machines were in use but there was only me and one other person waiting for our loads, the rest came and went. I will say that I had to nip back to my room for a short while and planned to be back way before my machine finished, but when I got back somebody had stopped my dryer early and chucked my half-wet stuff on the side! I was very angry and next time I think I'll take a book and just hang around in the vicinity to be safe.

That's why people sit there, ugh some people are so rude.

 

[chirogrrl]

On our last 2 cruises, we gave up the stress of the laundry rooms and used the the ship laundry service. We only sent the things we knew we wanted to wear again, not everything. It was worth every penny! We plan to do the same on our next cruise in January.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Another early riser doing the laundry. Very few, if anyone, around at 0600. Got the routine down to the moment the machines stop (timing is everything). Between the washer washing and the dryer drying, I can get about 3 miles walked before breakfast.

 

[Coss]

The only line that is longer on the boat is the taxi line after the cruise and the Disney Vacation Desk. It's horrible on these long European cruises

 

[mama&me]

After 5 days in Barcelona before our Mediterranean cruise, we had enough dirty laundry for 2 loads. We were able to get it done as soon as we had access to our stateroom on embarkation day. There were a few doing laundry as well.

 

[KDG]

My husband did 3 loads a few days into our cruise as we had spent nearly a week traveling prior to the cruise. He went early in the morning. He had to use machines on both deck 6 and 7 but there was an indicator in the first laundry room as to how many machines were available on the other decks. Very helpful. Also, he bought 3 tokens for the washer and 3 for the dryer. Then he realized the dryer did not require tokens. So he was able to get 3 tokens refunded to out card. Saved $9!