14 Things Your Cruise Cabin Steward Secretly Hates (And What To Do Instead)
On one of my cruises a few years ago, I was walking back to my cabin after breakfast when I heard a guy in the hallway going off on our steward. His room wasn’t done yet and he wanted to know why. The steward just nodded and kept saying “yes sir, sorry sir” until the guy stormed off to the pool.
Here’s the thing. His Do Not Disturb sign was still hanging on the door. It had been there since the night before.
Later that week I got to talking with our steward while he was dropping off some extra hangers, and I asked him if that happens alot. He laughed and said “every cruise.” Then he told me a few other things guests do that make his day way harder. None of them were people being mean on purpose, most people just dont know any better.
So I started paying attention on my cruises after that, and asking other stewards to. Here’s the stuff they really wish you’d quit doing, plus what to do instead.
Things Your Cruise Cabin Steward Secretly Hates
1. Leaving the Do Not Disturb Sign Up All Day
Everyone wants to sleep in on vacation, no shame there. The problem is when the sign goes up the night before and stays on the door while you’re at the pool, at lunch and on a shore excursion. Your steward isn’t allowed to come in while it’s up. Period. So they skip you, and by the time you get back their working on the other end of the hallway or on a break.
If the sign stays up too long, usually around a day, alot of cruise lines will send someone to do a welfare check. Super awkward if you were just at trivia.
What to do instead: Take the sign down when you leave, or flip it to the “make up my room” side if your ship has one.
2. Flushing Anything That Isn’t Ship Toilet Paper
Cruise toilets aren’t like the one at home. They use a vacuum system, thats why they make that loud WHOOSH that scares little kids (and some grown men). That system is made for human waste and the thin toilet paper the ship gives you. Nothing else.
That means no “flushable” wipes, no tampons or pads, no paper towels, and no fluffy toilet paper you packed from home because you hate the ship stuff. One clog can knock out the toilets for a whole row of cabins, not just yours. Now your steward and the plumbing crew are dealing with a gross mess plus a hallway full of cranky neighbors.
What to do instead: If it didn’t come off the ship’s toilet paper roll, it goes in the trash can.
3. Folding Your Used Towels
Most cruise lines go by a simple towel code. Towels on the floor or in the tub mean “please replace.” Towels hung up mean “I’m using this again.” When you fold a dirty towel all nice and hang it back up, your steward has no idea if it’s clean or not. And they’d rather not guess wrong.
What to do instead: Dirty towels go on the bathroom floor or in the shower. Only hang up the ones you plan on using again.
4. Hiding Dirty Plates and Room Service Trays
Nobody likes looking at yesterday’s nachos. But shoving plates under the bed, behind the curtain or in the closet (hi, it’s me) is way worse then just leaving them out. Your steward is cleaning fast and isn’t checking every hiding spot every visit. So that plate sits there. It starts to smell. And food sitting around in a warm cabin can bring bugs.
What to do instead: Leave plates and trays somewhere easy to see in the cabin, or call room service and ask them to come grab them. If your ship allows trays outside the door, you can leave them there for pickup too.
5. Using the White Towels as Makeup Wipes
Foundation, mascara, bronzer, self tanner, hair dye. All of that can be a pain to get out of a white cruise towel, and some stains might not come out completely. It also creates extra work for the laundry crew and your steward when there’s really no reason to use a bath towel to take your makeup off.
What to do instead: Pack makeup wipes or a couple dark washcloths from home. Some ships keep dark makeup cloths on hand too, so ask your steward. They’ll be glad you did.
6. Hanging Wet Stuff Everywhere (Especially the Sprinklers)
You come back from the pool and suddenly there’s a wet bikini on the lamp, wet towels on the bed and swim trunks hanging off the desk chair. Wet fabric leaves water marks, makes the room smell musty and can soak right through to the mattress.
The worst version is hanging stuff on the fire sprinkler. Yes, people really do this. Those sprinklers have a little glass bulb that can break, and if it does, you just flooded your cabin. Hanging things off the balcony rail is a bad idea too. They blow away or drip on the balcony below you, and most lines tell you not to do it.
What to do instead: Use the pull out clothesline in the shower if your bathroom has one, and ask your steward for extra hangers. Pool towels go back to the pool towel station, not your bed. Some lines even charge you for the ones that go missing.
7. Turning the Cabin Into a Closet Explosion
Cabins are small. When your clothes, shoes, chargers and shopping bags cover every surface, your steward can’t make the bed or vacuum without moving your stuff first. Most of them will carefully work around it, which takes way longer.
And a pile of clothes on the bed is not a laundry request. Laundry has to go in the laundry bag with the form filled out, or your steward has no clue what you want done with it.
What to do instead: Unpack on day one. The closets hold more then you’d think, and your empty suitcase can usually slide under the bed.
8. Making Them Guess Your Schedule
A lot of stewards look after 15 to 20 cabins, sometimes more, and on some lines they clean them twice a day. They plan their whole day around when people usually leave. So the guest who pops into the hallway asking “when is my room getting done?” every morning is throwing a wrench in things. Same with the guest who stays in the cabin till noon and then gets mad it isn’t clean yet.
What to do instead: Tell your steward your routine on the first day. Something like “we’re usually at breakfast by 8 and gone most of the day” helps them alot. Early riser or late sleeper, they can work around it, but only if they know.
9. Barging Into Your Cabin Before It’s Ready on Embarkation Day
Boarding day is total chaos for stewards. They’re flipping a whole hallway of cabins from the last group of guests to the new ones in just a few hours. On most ships cabins open in the early afternoon and the crew makes an announcement when they’re ready. Some guests see an open door and roll right in anyway, while the steward is still standing there with a trash bag.
What to do instead: Wait for the announcement. Go eat lunch, grab a drink, walk around the ship. Your carry on can come with you.
Read Next: 17 Things You MUST Do the Moment You Board Your Cruise Ship
10. Leaving Valuables Out in the Open
Cash on the dresser, jewelry on the nightstand, passports just sitting on the bed. Theft on cruise ships is pretty rare, but stewards hate this because if anything goes missing, they’re the first person people point at. Even when it just fell behind the desk.
What to do instead: Use the safe in your cabin for anything you’d be upset to lose. It takes two seconds.
11. Waiting Days to Report Something Broken
The shower drains slow, a light flickers, the toilet makes a weird noise. A lot of people notice on day one and just live with it until day five. By then it’s a bigger problem and your steward has to rush to get maintenance in. They don’t mind that something broke. They mind not hearing about it.
It also helps to know who to tell. Your steward is great for cabin stuff like extra pillows, a burnt out bulb or more towels. A billing question or a noisy neighbor should go to guest services. Complaining to your steward about it won’t get it fixed any faster.
What to do instead: Mention problems the first time you notice them, and send non cabin stuff to guest services.
12. Removing the Automatic Gratuities
This one’s touchy but it matters. On most big cruise lines, the daily gratuity on your bill gets split among crew like your steward, and its a big part of how they get paid. When someone takes it off because the steak was overcooked or the pool was crowded, you’re not just making a statement about whatever went wrong. Those gratuities are distributed among crew members, including people who had nothing to do with what you’re upset about.
What to do instead: Leave the gratuities on unless the service was truly bad. If your steward went above and beyond, extra cash in an envelope on the last night is always appreciated.
13. Dragging Your Feet on the Last Morning
Disembarkation day is a race. Your steward has a few hours to turn every cabin in their section for the next group of guests boarding that same afternoon. Most lines want you out of your cabin by around 8 a.m., but check your cruise line’s rules. Every guest who hangs around till the last minute pushes the whole schedule back.
What to do instead: Pack the night before, set your big bags out if you’re using luggage service, and go eat breakfast so the room is free.
14. Treating Them Like They’re Invisible
This is the one that actually hurts. Your steward says good morning and you walk right past without even looking up. They work long days, often for months at a time far away from their families, and being ignored over and over adds up.
You don’t need to be best friends. Please don’t hold them up for a 20 minute chat when they’re rushing a cart down the hall. But learn their name, say hi and say thank you. It cost nothing, and stewards remember the guests who are kind to them.
The Short Version
Most of this comes down to making your steward’s job easy to read. Dirty towels on the floor, trays outside the door, sign off when you leave, and say hi in the hallway. Do that and you’ll probably end up as one of their favorite cabins without even trying.
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