Stateroom issue question/input

[MickeyWaffles]

We just got back from the 3 night Halloween on the High Seas cruise (our first Disney cruise) and absolutely LOVED it! Really so much fun and can’t wait to do it again someday. We all had a blast.

We only had one hiccup and I’d love experienced Disney cruisers to weigh in. I don’t know if we did something wrong or if they did something wrong.

On Saturday, we woke up early and went to Cabanas when they opened at 7:30. We then stopped at the room for 10 minutes for everyone to use the restroom, explored the ship a little bit and got off the boat in Nassau to walk around until lunch time.

When we returned to the room at 12:15, the room was not cleaned yet. We ordered some room service lunch because the kids needed a little break. We figured housekeeping would just knock on the door. They never did. At 1:30, I called guest services and said our room hadn’t been cleaned yet and they said it was probably because we were in the room and they were probably waiting for us to leave. I then said we would be going to the pool deck until about 3:00 or a little later, and they said someone would come clean the room.

When we returned at 3:15 to shower and get ready for 4:15 trick or treat, our room was still not cleaned. I figured at that point it was just not happening. At 3:20, someone showed up and said he was the standby cleaner and he needed to clean our room by 3:30. We couldn’t leave at that point - we all needed to shower/get dressed in costumes, so I just asked if he could take the dirty towels and get us some new ones.

We were out of the room from 7:30-12:15 and 1:30-3:15 and no one cleaned while we were gone or stopped by our room to clean during that hour we were in the room. The stateroom host said she doesn’t knock on doors when people have small kids because she’s afraid to disturb their rest, but we didn’t have the room occupied sign out or anything.

It would have been nice to have everything freshened up, bunk put away, sofa bed closed up, but we got what we needed by exchanging towels.

Should we have set up a cleaning ahead of time with the stateroom host? Or did they drop the ball here?

Let me know your thoughts. Again, we had an awesome time — this was the only confusing situation.

 

[lklgoodman]

They dropped the ball. You don't need to set up a time for them to clean your cabin. You were out of your cabin all morning and a most of the early afternoon. There was plenty of time for them to clean your cabin. Perhaps your host was new and therefore a little slower. We've done 5 cruises and have never had this problem. There were times we were in the cabin when our host came by and they always knocked on the door. Glad the rest of your cruise went well.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

I agree you had bad luck & they dropped the ball, which isn't common on DCL. Sorry that happened.

Next time (if there's ever a recurrence), instead of calling guest services you might try just going out into the hallway and locating your stateroom host (they're frequently around), & tell them your room needs to be serviced.

 

[Marc D]

This never happened to us in 11 cruises. There were days where it was a bit later, usually because our host had to participate in safety exercises that day, but we’ve never had to call guests services or housekeeping or look for our host. Your host simply dropped the ball.

 

[ironz]

You didn't do anything wrong, but one other possibility is that your stateroom host may have been sick or had a medical issue. True, once you called Guest Services, they should have sent someone, but the stateroom attendants are humans, too, so could be that something kept him/her from getting to all of the rooms.
Saying this because we were on a DCL cruise once, where our stateroom host had a dental emergency and missed the better part of a day as he was off ship getting whatever it was fixed. He apologized later, but we were understanding.
(I used to work in a hospital in a cruise port town-- it was not uncommon to see crew members with injuries or illness; they sometimes need to get a little more care, or imaging, etc. that is not available on the ship)

 

[SamFaniam]

Since they sent a standby cleaner, I’m wondering if your state room host was ill that day, and perhaps it threw off the schedule. If one person is out, other people have to take up the rooms that they usually handle, and that could definitely create some scheduling challenges.

 

[SuperDry]

IIRC, there are two hang tags provided: Do Not Disturb, and Please Clean Room. I would take it at their word that your stateroom host doesn't knock if there's no tag and he knows there are small kids. Even if that's not official DCL policy, he may have had a recent bad experience with a guest that went ballistic when naptime was disturbed, and complained about it and cut his tip. Things happen.

While ordinarily not required, I would think that putting out the Please Clean Room hang tag would be more than enough to communicate that you're out of the room and that it's okay to clean.

 

[tvguy]

Since they sent a standby cleaner, I’m wondering if your state room host was ill that day, and perhaps it threw off the schedule. If one person is out, other people have to take up the rooms that they usually handle, and that could definitely create some scheduling challenges.

This would be my guess. The state room host on our Disney cruise always snuck in and out without us catching them. Actually, been that way on all 10 cruises I've been on on 5 different cruises until last week. We're just back from a Celebrity cruise, and we actually caught our state room host as he was leaving our state room after cleaning it.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

IIRC, there are two hang tags provided: Do Not Disturb, and Please Clean Room. I would take it at their word that your stateroom host doesn't knock if there's no tag and he knows there are small kids. Even if that's not official DCL policy, he may have had a recent bad experience with a guest that went ballistic when naptime was disturbed, and complained about it and cut his tip. Things happen.

While ordinarily not required, I would think that putting out the Please Clean Room hang tag would be more than enough to communicate that you're out of the room and that it's okay to clean.

Hmm, interesting. We just had one hang tag that said:
ROOM OCCUPIED
Quiet requested
(Included the disclaimer about how Disney reserves the right to enter at any time for security, maintenance, etc. etc.)

We did not have any other hang tags.

I agree that a previous guest may have scolded her for knocking when they were there, but if my kids were napping I would have put out the Room Occupied, Quiet Requested sign. Just an unusual situation, I guess!

 

[SamFaniam]

IIRC, there are two hang tags provided: Do Not Disturb, and Please Clean Room. I would take it at their word that your stateroom host doesn't knock if there's no tag and he knows there are small kids. Even if that's not official DCL policy, he may have had a recent bad experience with a guest that went ballistic when naptime was disturbed, and complained about it and cut his tip. Things happen.

While ordinarily not required, I would think that putting out the Please Clean Room hang tag would be more than enough to communicate that you're out of the room and that it's okay to clean.

I don’t think they have the “please clean” hang tags anymore.

 

[lklgoodman]

I don’t think they have the “please clean” hang tags anymore.

You can find them for sell on Ebay, you'd think I'm joking, but I'm not, they're actually on there, lol!

 

[SuperDry]

I don’t think they have the “please clean” hang tags anymore.

Well, that's disappointing if that's the case. Having a Please Clean tag IS useful, for exactly the kind of situation above. What would have been better is for the stateroom host to explain on the first day to the guests that they will knock if the Quiet Please tag is not hung, so that the guest can act accordingly.

 

[SamFaniam]

You can find them for sell on Ebay, you'd think I'm joking, but I'm not, they're actually on there, lol!

I believe you. I’ve also seen the very exclusive Disney cruise line soda cups.

 

[tvguy]

Hmm, interesting. We just had one hang tag that said:
ROOM OCCUPIED
Quiet requested
(Included the disclaimer about how Disney reserves the right to enter at any time for security, maintenance, etc. etc.)

We did not have any other hang tags.

I agree that a previous guest may have scolded her for knocking when they were there, but if my kids were napping I would have put out the Room Occupied, Quiet Requested sign. Just an unusual situation, I guess!

The whole Las Vegas shooting incident, where the gunman put the DO NOT DISTURB sign up for days has changed how everyone labels those door tags. I just got off a Celebrity cruise and their signs said DEEP SLEEP.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The whole Las Vegas shooting incident, where the gunman put the DO NOT DISTURB sign up for days has changed how everyone labels those door tags. I just got off a Celebrity cruise and their signs said DEEP SLEEP.

I'm not sure that's when it was. I believe there was a cruise where the husband & wife died (not sure about the specifics), and their room had the Do No Disturb out. They hadn't been seen for the majority of the cruise, and had been dead for a couple of days before they were found.

Disney properties (resorts & ships) started changing the "Do Not Disturb/Please Clean Room" signs in 2018.

 

[mevelandry]

We just got back from the 3 night Halloween on the High Seas cruise (our first Disney cruise) and absolutely LOVED it! Really so much fun and can’t wait to do it again someday. We all had a blast.

We only had one hiccup and I’d love experienced Disney cruisers to weigh in. I don’t know if we did something wrong or if they did something wrong.

On Saturday, we woke up early and went to Cabanas when they opened at 7:30. We then stopped at the room for 10 minutes for everyone to use the restroom, explored the ship a little bit and got off the boat in Nassau to walk around until lunch time.

When we returned to the room at 12:15, the room was not cleaned yet. We ordered some room service lunch because the kids needed a little break. We figured housekeeping would just knock on the door. They never did. At 1:30, I called guest services and said our room hadn’t been cleaned yet and they said it was probably because we were in the room and they were probably waiting for us to leave. I then said we would be going to the pool deck until about 3:00 or a little later, and they said someone would come clean the room.

When we returned at 3:15 to shower and get ready for 4:15 trick or treat, our room was still not cleaned. I figured at that point it was just not happening. At 3:20, someone showed up and said he was the standby cleaner and he needed to clean our room by 3:30. We couldn’t leave at that point - we all needed to shower/get dressed in costumes, so I just asked if he could take the dirty towels and get us some new ones.

We were out of the room from 7:30-12:15 and 1:30-3:15 and no one cleaned while we were gone or stopped by our room to clean during that hour we were in the room. The stateroom host said she doesn’t knock on doors when people have small kids because she’s afraid to disturb their rest, but we didn’t have the room occupied sign out or anything.

It would have been nice to have everything freshened up, bunk put away, sofa bed closed up, but we got what we needed by exchanging towels.

Should we have set up a cleaning ahead of time with the stateroom host? Or did they drop the ball here?

Let me know your thoughts. Again, we had an awesome time — this was the only confusing situation.

You’re not the only cabin they have to clean... If you are in the cabin when they go by, they will skip it and do other cabins.

So yes, you better arrange it in advance. Talk to your cabin steward.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

You’re not the only cabin they have to clean... If you are in the cabin when they go by, they will skip it and do other cabins.

So yes, you better arrange it in advance. Talk to your cabin steward.

Oh, yes. I’m aware they’re very busy. We didn’t even complain. The thing I’m confused about is that we were only there a little over an hour between 7:30 and 3:15 and I thought they would have knocked to ask instead of just passing by and not returning.

Just trying to understand better for future. I am a former Disney resort CM, frequent Disney resort guest and I know DCL is different, but this just felt off to me.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

I think it was off. Never has happened to us in 10 cruises. Sounds like your host had some sort of issues as they sent someone else.

 

[lklgoodman]

They should have returned. Yes, they are busy, but you should not have to track them down to tell them to come clean your room.

 

[disneyholic family]

Oh, yes. I’m aware they’re very busy. We didn’t even complain. The thing I’m confused about is that we were only there a little over an hour between 7:30 and 3:15 and I thought they would have knocked to ask instead of just passing by and not returning.

Just trying to understand better for future. I am a former Disney resort CM, frequent Disney resort guest and I know DCL is different, but this just felt off to me.

i've never had a DCL stateroom host knock when i was in the room.
None has ever come by when i am in the room, other than if i've requested something.
i have occasionally gone to find them to tell them that we are (finally) out of the room and they can clean it.
on our most recent disney magic cruise, a 7 night cruise, our stateroom host was wonderful, but clearly overwhelmed with work and exhausted.
I think the European cruises may have been exceptionally hard for them.

As someone said, they're people too and have good and bad days.

.