Carnival Cruise Line passengers can be very demanding.
When cruisers browse through the posts on Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald’s popular Facebook page, they’re often shocked by not just the type of requests the cruise line receives but how insistent and entitled passengers can seem in their messages.
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Heald responds to hundreds of passenger questions, requests, and demands every day and shares some of them in Facebook posts to inform passengers of cruise line policies and discuss certain topics, often in a humorous but helpful way.
Not every Carnival cruise passenger request is demanding, but many are, like a recent one that Heald playfully noted “really sucks.”
In this case, the passenger seemed to believe that the burden of their own personal overpacking problem should be passed on to their cruise ship cabin attendant.
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Carnival cruise ship cabin attendants have demanding schedules that require them to clean a large number of staterooms every day.
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival passenger demands cleaning tool for overpacking problem
“Hey John why is it impossible for the cabin cleaners to loan me their vacuum cleaner?” the unidentified passenger asked the brand ambassador. “I admit it — I’m an over packer and I’m ok with it. I now use the space bags that you vacuum the air out of to make sure everything fits into my suitcase.”
The cruiser explained that other Carnival passengers say they offer their cabin attendants a tip in order to persuade them to hand over their vacuum.
“When it comes to getting a vacuum cleaner from the cabin cleaners they always give me a hard time,” the passenger continued. “I refuse to do what people on the Venezia Facebook page said and give the cabin cleaner $20 to let me borrow a vacuum to suck the air out to pack to come home.”
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In this passenger’s opinion, Carnival crew members should be required to comply with their request.
“There should be better customer service from Carnival Cruises. I only need 20 mins. Most cruisers use space bags. The crew people should be obligated to let a customer have access to the vacuum.”
Carnival’s brand ambassador didn’t agree, but was happy to explain why the cruise line’s cabin attendants aren’t quick to bend to the will of passengers when it comes to this request.
Carnival won’t make vacuum cleaners available for passenger use
“Thank you and please explain that the reason the cabin attendant is reluctant to give you his Henry or Henrietta is that they only have one or two at the most to use for all the cabins he and his or her assistant have,” Heald pointed out.
Cruise ship cabin attendants have many cabins to clean in a short period of time and lending out their vacuum cleaners to passengers would interrupt their work.
“Taking one out of service, even for 20 minutes will impact the cleaning of the cabins and therefor impact other guests as well,” Heald explained. “So please, yes you can ask but the cabin attendants are not expected or indeed ‘obligated’ to lend it to you. Thank you for your understanding.”
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As he explained the reason why cabin attendants are likely to say no to this passenger request, Heald also wondered if most cruisers really use space-saver bags to pack for their cruises, as the passenger argued.
According to the comments on the post, a number of cruisers do use some type of space-saving travel storage bags or packing cubes, while others roll their clothes to save space in their suitcases. For those who do use travel compression bags, removing the air from the bags doesn’t always require a vacuum cleaner, however.
“I use them but don’t need a vacuum. I put my clothes in, seal the opening, roll the bags to get out the air and pack away,” Barbara Vance Libengood explained.
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