Behind the scenes, hundreds of crew members work in a tightly choreographed sprint to transform cruise ships between sailings.
Top 10 overlooked cruise packing items before you sail
Packing for a cruise made easy with 10 overlooked essentials and smart boarding day tips to help you stay organized and stress-free.
- Cruise ship cabins are cleaned and prepared for new guests in a matter of hours on turnaround day.
- Housekeeping staff deep clean, sanitize, and restock each stateroom between sailings.
- Each stateroom attendant prepares an average of 20 to 22 cabins on turnaround day.
When one cruise ends, another begins – almost immediately.
As guests head home on the morning of disembarkation, cruise lines can get ships ready for the next group of vacationers in a matter of hours, even on vessels carrying thousands of people. That includes the cabins, which serve as guests’ temporary homes for days, weeks or months at a time but look near brand-new by the time a new voyage starts.
“Turnaround day is one of the busiest days onboard, and one of the most impressive examples of teamwork and coordination at sea,” Maurizio Bedini, housekeeping director at MSC Cruises, told USA TODAY. He offered a behind-the-scenes peek at how that process works.
What happens to a cruise ship cabin between guests?
Housekeeping team members refresh each stateroom as guests vacate them, according to Bedini. They complete the following tasks:
- Collecting used towels, linens and any trash
- Inspecting cabins for any maintenance problems, damage, or items guests may have left behind
- Deep cleaning and sanitizing stateroom bathrooms, balconies and all other surfaces
- Vacuuming and dusting
- Replacing linens on the beds, towels and other guest supplies
Supervisors then review the rooms to make sure they’re ready for embarking travelers.
Passengers typically need to vacate their staterooms by 7:30 or 8 a.m. to allow time for that process, but may not need to be off the ship until 9 or 9:30 depending on the cruise line, according to RacQuelle Major-Holland, owner of Major Adventures Travel Agency. Guests who placed their luggage outside their door the night before to be offloaded can hang out elsewhere on the ship while they wait for their group to be called, while those carrying their own bags can typically get off as soon as the ship is cleared.
Guests with accessibility needs or high loyalty status may also receive earlier disembarkation times.
MSC passengers taking back-to-back cruises in the same cabin can generally keep their belongings in their staterooms, per Bedini. “In many cases, guests can simply head off for breakfast, enjoy an excursion or spend some time exploring the destination while the teams take care of everything behind the scenes,” he said.
How long does it take to turn cruise ship cabins around between sailings?
“For the ship as a whole, the cabin turnaround is generally completed in around six hours, although the exact timing depends on the itinerary, the number of guests disembarking and embarking, and the ship’s occupancy,” Bedini said. “During that relatively short window, hundreds of Housekeeping team members can be working simultaneously across thousands of staterooms.”
Major-Holland said travelers begin embarking as early as 10:30 a.m. and cabins usually aren’t ready until 1 or 1:30 p.m., though it varies by cruise line. “So, I tell guests that want to be able to go right to their cabin to select a later embarkation time,” she said.
Luggage checked at the port is typically delivered to staterooms by 4 or 5 p.m., though she said it often arrives much earlier. Major-Holland advised guests choosing earlier boarding times to be “strategic” about what they pack in their carry-ons, keeping medications or any other items they might need during that time with them.
How many cabins does each cruise stateroom attendant clean?
On turnaround day, each stateroom attendant prepares an average of about 20 to 22 cabins, according to Bedini. That can vary, however, depending on the vessel, how full it is and the room type.
“Suites and larger accommodations naturally require more time and attention, while additional support is allocated to areas where the workload is particularly high,” he said.
Cruise lines typically announce when cabins are ready, and may even reduce access to stateroom corridors until then. “And that becomes an issue because sometimes people don’t abide by that, where they will just bypass that and go in the room and start unpacking, and it really does disrupt the cabin steward and their processes and getting things prepared, because it’s a very, very quick turnover,” Major-Holland said.
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.