Carnival Cruise Guest’s Vacuum Demand Fails to Impress
Packing can be more convoluted than a game of championship Tetris for some cruise travelers, especially on longer sailings or when guests might be a wee bit prone to overpacking.
Guests should know, however, that they are responsible for their own packing and cannot expect help from Carnival crew members or their equipment.
One frustrated guest has reached out to Carnival Cruise Line’s Brand Ambassador, John Heald, to express their disappointment that their request cannot be honored.
“Why is it impossible for the cabin cleaners to loan me their vacuum cleaner? 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 guest explained.
“When it comes to getting a vacuum cleaner from the cabin cleaners they always give me a hard time. I refuse to do what people on [social media] said and give the cabin cleaner $20 to let me borrow a vacuum to suck the air out to pack to come home.”
As with most of these types of outrageous requests, there’s a lot to “unpack” in this guest’s comment.
First of all, the title “cabin cleaner” is a bit disrespectful to the stateroom attendants, though admittedly, it is descriptive, as much of their duties do involve cleaning cabins. However, to clean a cabin, they need a vacuum cleaner available, not on loan for guests’ use.
The use of “space bags” likely refers to vacuum-assisted packing bags. These bags have one-way valves that permit vacuum hoses to be hooked up to suck the air out of the bag, compressing the contents and allowing much more to be packed in a smaller space.
“There should be better customer service from Carnival Cruises. I only need 20 [minutes],” the guest continued. “Most cruisers use space bags. The crew people should be obligated to let a customer have access to the vacuum.”
This is where there is even more to unpack. The insinuation that Carnival Cruise Line does not offer great customer service because one guest does not get their way is a poor reaction, at best.
Next, the assertion that “most cruisers use space bags” is an exaggeration, as it is doubtful that this commenter has examined the luggage of “most cruisers” even on a single ship. I’ve taken dozens of cruises, from 2-15 days, and never once used any such space bags.
Finally, the idea that “the crew people” (another disrespectful term) “should be obligated” to permit guests to use their cleaning equipment is nothing more or less than entitlement.
Heald does respond to the guest and explains exactly why it’s impossible for them to have access to the stateroom attendant’s cleaning equipment.
“The reason the cabin attendant is reluctant to give you his [vacuum] 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 said.
“Taking one out of service, even for 20 minutes, will impact the cleaning of the cabins and therefore impact other guests as well. 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.”
To be clear, Heald does not say the cabin attendants are forbidden from lending out their vacuums, but guests should not expect they can always use it.
Whether or not a cabin attendant agrees to the use will likely depend on how busy they are, how the request is made, whether the vacuum is already nearby, and other factors.
Why Can’t Guests Just Use the Vacuums?
In most cases, the reason why guests cannot conveniently use stateroom attendants’ vacuums is simply a numbers game.
While the original poster does not identify the ship they were sailing on, let’s assume even the very smallest Carnival ship with the lowest guest capacity – Carnival Paradise, which can welcome just 2,124 travelers at double occupancy.
This means the ship has 1,062 staterooms. If the assertion that “most cruisers” use space bags is true, that would mean more than 50% of travelers, or at least 532 staterooms.
The commenter said they “only” needed 20 minutes of vacuum use for their packing needs. This means that just three staterooms can use the vacuum per hour, or that it would take 177 hours or more than seven full days of continual vacuum use to meet the needs of all travelers on just one Carnival Paradise sailing.
Of course, this also assumes that only one cabin attendant and one vacuum are involved, which isn’t true. What is true, however, is that every cabin attendant has roughly 15-20 staterooms they are responsible to clean.
If just half those cabins each need to use the vacuum for 20 minutes to pack, that’s still 2.5-3.5 hours when the vacuum is in use by guests and not being used for stateroom or hallway cleaning duties.
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This would put an unfair burden on cabin attendants – loaning out the vacuum, ensuring it is returned, moving it from one stateroom to the next – all the while completing their regular duties.
This is especially true considering all that time would be on the last evening of the cruise, or even on debarkation morning as guests pack at different times (I’m a debarkation morning packer, myself).
Clearly, this is not a tenable option, and guests should never expect to be able to use cleaning equipment for their own needs. Instead, it may be wise to try to pack a little less, consider using packing cubes like the latest VIFP gift, or just use another bag so there’s no need for vacuum-assisted packing.