Spend about three minutes scrolling a cruise-related Facebook group and you’ll eventually see the post.
Someone has just boarded the ship, opened the door to their stateroom and started conducting what appears to be a full forensic investigation.
There’s a hair in the shower.
A candy wrapper has been discovered under the bed.
There’s dust behind the television.
And… a pair of someone else’s unmentionables has been located behind the nightstand.
Naturally, photos are immediately uploaded to Facebook before the luggage has even been delivered. Within minutes, the comments begin.
“Go straight to Guest Services!”
“Demand a supervisor!”
“I would never stay in that room!”
“They owe you compensation!”
Someone will inevitably recommend contacting the cruise line’s corporate office, the captain, the Coast Guard and possibly the United Nations.
Let’s all take a breath.
Finding something left behind by the previous guest isn’t pleasant. A bathroom that hasn’t been properly cleaned isn’t acceptable. And nobody wants to begin a vacation by discovering a stranger’s underwear hiding beside the bed.
But a missed candy wrapper doesn’t necessarily mean the entire stateroom is a biohazard. It usually means exactly what it appears to mean: somebody missed a candy wrapper.
Embarkation Day Is the Crew’s Biggest Turnaround
A cruise ship stateroom is really no different from a hotel room. One guest checks out, another checks in, and a housekeeping team has a limited amount of time to reset the room.
The biggest difference is the scale and the schedule.
At a hotel, guests leave and arrive throughout the day. On a cruise ship, thousands of passengers leave in the morning and another several thousand begin boarding only a few hours later, all in the same day.
Every occupied stateroom must be stripped, cleaned, inspected, restocked and prepared during that short window.
When I recently interviewed room steward I Pitu for my article, Behind the Stateroom Door: A Conversation with a Cruise Ship Room Steward, he described turnaround day as probably the hardest day of the cruise.
On a normal day, he may be responsible for approximately 18 to 22 staterooms. During regular service, an organized cabin may take 10 to 15 minutes to clean. Turnaround cleaning takes longer because the beds must be stripped, used linens removed, the bathroom sanitized, surfaces cleaned, drawers checked, supplies replenished, maintenance issues reported and the entire room inspected before the next guests arrive.
That’s happening in hundreds, and on larger ships thousands, of staterooms all at the same time.
The previous guests may not have left when they were supposed to. Another cabin may have required extra cleaning. A maintenance problem may have been discovered. Someone may have left the room looking like a flop house.
Meanwhile, the next group of passengers is already onboard asking why their rooms aren’t ready.
None of this excuses a dirty cabin. It does, however, explain how an item occasionally gets pushed beneath a bed or falls behind a piece of furniture without being noticed.
Room stewards are trained professionals, but they’re also human. Humans occasionally miss things, especially when they’re trying to turn over 20 cabins in a few hours while answering requests, helping with luggage and preparing for evening service.
Do You Really Need to Deep-Clean Your Cruise Cabin?
Probably not.
Cruise lines have housekeeping procedures, cleaning products and inspection standards. In most cases, your stateroom has been cleaned perfectly well before you arrive.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that cleaning with soap and water removes most germs in ordinary situations. Disinfection is more important when someone has been sick or when an occupant is particularly vulnerable. It also recommends paying more attention to frequently touched surfaces than to areas receiving very little contact.
In other words, you probably don’t need to bleach the walls.
But there’s also nothing wrong with doing a quick wipe-down of the surfaces you’ll be touching constantly. It takes only a few minutes, doesn’t require much luggage space and may make you feel more comfortable.
I’m not the person who travels with a black light and begins checking the ceiling for evidence. I also don’t believe every marketing claim about surfaces being protected by some magical, invisible antibacterial coating.
Take the television remote.
Maybe it was wiped down. Maybe it has some special coating. Maybe it was blessed by the ship’s environmental officer under a full moon.
I’m still cleaning it.
Just think about how many fingers have pressed those buttons and where those fingers may have been before someone decided to change to Channel 26.
What to Pack for a Quick Stateroom Cleaning
Disinfecting Wipes
These are the easiest option because they’re compact, don’t spill and can be used on most hard, nonporous surfaces.
Pack them in a resealable travel pack rather than hauling aboard a container large enough to disinfect the entire Lido Deck. Wet wipes are permitted in both carry-on and checked luggage by the TSA.
Read the package instructions. Many disinfecting products need to leave a surface visibly wet for a specific amount of time to work properly. Wiping something and immediately drying it may make you feel productive, but it may not actually disinfect anything.
A Small Microfiber Cloth
A clean microfiber cloth is useful for wiping dust, cleaning mirrors or drying a surface after the disinfectant’s required contact time has passed.
Keep it separate from your clothing and don’t use the same cloth on the toilet and then on your phone unless you enjoy creating problems where none previously existed.
Travel-Size Hand Sanitizer
Hand sanitizer is useful after boarding, using elevators, handling luggage or returning from the buffet.
For airline travel, containers in carry-on bags must comply with the TSA’s current liquids requirements, so stick with a travel-size bottle unless you’re putting it in checked luggage.
Most cruise lines have removed hand sanitizer stations throughout the ship after the pandemic panic subsided. You’ll still see them at buffet lines, so use them.
Disposable Gloves
These aren’t necessary for an ordinary wipe-down, but one or two pairs take almost no room and can be helpful if you encounter something particularly unpleasant.
Like, for example, the unmentionables behind the nightstand.
Resealable Plastic Bags
A few zip-top bags are useful for storing used cleaning cloths or temporarily containing something you don’t want touching the rest of your luggage.
What Should You Wipe Down?
Focus on frequently touched surfaces rather than attempting to sterilize every square inch of the room.
Start with the television remote. That one is nonnegotiable.
Then give some attention to:
- Door handles and locks
- Light switches
- Thermostat controls
- Telephone handset and buttons
- Safe keypad and handle
- Drawer and closet handles
- Desk and nightstand surfaces
- Bathroom faucet handles
- Toilet flush button or handle
- Hair dryer handle
- Mini-refrigerator handle
- Balcony door handle
- Cabin control tablets or touchscreens
Be careful with electronics. Don’t spray liquid directly onto a remote, telephone, television or touchscreen. Use an appropriate wipe or lightly dampened cloth.
You may also want to wipe the bedside reading-light controls, especially if they’re built into the headboard. Those buttons get used constantly and rarely receive the same attention as the bathroom sink.
What probably doesn’t require a personal disinfecting spree? The walls, ceiling, carpet and underside of the bed.
Unless something is visibly dirty, leave it alone.
Take a Look Before You Unpack
Before you empty your suitcase into every drawer, spend two minutes looking around the room.
Check the bathroom, shower and toilet.
Pull back the bedspread and inspect the sheets.
Open the drawers and closet.
Look beneath the bed, partly to check for anything left behind and partly to make sure there’s enough room for your luggage.
Check that the safe, lights, outlets, television and air conditioning are working.
This isn’t about trying to find a problem. It’s much easier to have an issue corrected before your clothes are hanging in the closet.
A strand of hair can be removed. A missing towel can be replaced. A bathroom can be cleaned again. A maintenance issue can be reported.
Most problems are minor and easily fixed when handled like an adult.
What If You Find Something Gross?
Let’s return to those unmentionables.
First, don’t pick them up with your bare hand.
Second, don’t carry them through the hallway looking for your room steward. Nobody needs to see that, particularly while trying to enjoy their first Guy’s Burger of the cruise.
Leave the item where it is and contact your room steward. Calmly explain what you found and ask that it be removed and the surrounding area cleaned.
That’s it.
You don’t need to interrogate the steward about how it happened. Chances are the item was pushed behind furniture where it wasn’t visible during the initial cleaning.
You also shouldn’t begin berating the person responsible for caring for your room for the rest of the cruise. Besides being unnecessary, it’s a lousy way to begin a relationship with one of the hardest-working crew members onboard.
If you can’t locate your steward, call housekeeping or Guest Services and ask for assistance.
There’s a big difference between reporting a legitimate cleaning problem and marching to Guest Services demanding compensation.
Compensation may be appropriate when a serious issue can’t be corrected, a room remains unusable or the cruise line fails to respond after being given a reasonable opportunity to fix the problem.
A crew member removing an overlooked item and immediately recleaning the area is the problem being resolved.
The first step should always be giving the crew a chance to correct the problem.
Most room stewards take pride in their work and will be embarrassed that something was missed. A polite conversation will usually result in the issue being handled quickly, often with an apology and an extra cleaning of the area.
If the problem isn’t corrected, then escalate it to the housekeeping supervisor or Guest Services.
Document the issue if necessary, particularly when it’s serious or ongoing. But you probably don’t need to upload 14 photographs to Facebook while standing in the doorway waiting for strangers to tell you how outraged you need to be.
Cruise ship staterooms are cleaned by people working under intense time pressure. Most rooms are turned over without a problem. Occasionally, something gets missed.
Report it. Ask for it to be corrected. Give the crew an opportunity to handle it.
Then change the channel with your freshly disinfected remote and start your cruise.
