Options
Laundry sevice?
We will be coming into the riverboat trip from a Tauck Britian tour. Time to wash some clothes. Are there laundry services on board the riverboat?
David
0
We will be coming into the riverboat trip from a Tauck Britian tour. Time to wash some clothes. Are there laundry services on board the riverboat?
David
Comments
Yes, but it's expensive. I had pants laundered on a 2015 cruise. It was 6 euros each and took 24 hours. Per my price list for then men's pants were 8 euros, shirts 6, socks/underwear 2-3, etc. Its likely more now. We once did a Seine cruise ending in London followed by the England land tour. Found a self serve laundromat walking distance from the Savoy and washed all our clothes at once. Not ideal but sure was nice to start a tour with everything clean.
We were always horrified by the laundry prices on the boats and in hotels, so have always tried to pack enough stuff to last.
We did some laundry in our hotel room sink laundry during Classic Italy. Wet got started a bit late, so even with the help of the two room hair dryers, we had to take some damp items in a plastic bag to our next stop. Now, in hindsight, it would have been better to change our mindset and accept the fact that we will be paying a lot of money for laundry during the trip.
Pay whatever it costs for quality, convenience, piece of mind, and the amount of time it will free up. What is €50 or even €100 compared to what you are paying for the tour, especially if doing back-to-back tours? With back-to-back tours, you will already be saving a ton of money on airfare by needing only one set of flights. Also, I believe you only pay one insurance premium for both trips! The insurance premium alone will pay for laundry.
The time I used the ships laundry service was to wash heavy cotton slacks. Was an Oct cruise with a fair amount of chilly and wet weather so I ended up wearing them more than expected. Was quite happy to have them back all dry, pressed and ready to wear. You just can't wash heavy cotton garments and dry them quickly in a stateroom/hotel room. Not quite sure why Tauck's standard packing advice is to bring cotton garments. I generally avoid them for the laundry reasons and because they almost always weigh more than blends.
We try to plan our wardrobe so at least some of the items can be sink washed and dry quick enough. Aids to this - synthetic blend fabrics, rolling/wringing them in a towel, and heated towel racks. On land tours since you're moving hotels about every other day, if I want to do laundry I do it the first afternoon/evening we arrive there.
The 3 euros or more for underwear is ridiculous. I don't pay that much to buy them to begin with and if I did I certainly wouldn't trust them to a ship's laundry.
rotunddave,
Depending on your cabin choice, you may receive a shipboard credit that you can use for laundry services, gift shop purchases or spa services (not all riverboats have spas.) I agree that if you have quite a bit of laundry, you might wish to do it before embarking on your riverboat cruise.
While I still prefer not to do laundry abroad because I still think I need to watch every penny, Mr B is of the mindset like Alan these days and has gotten bits of laundry done on tours.
This past two weeks in Costa Rica, we moved hotels every two days, Basically, nothing dries in Costa Rica because of the humidity and not always air conditioning … we learned that the hard way on our first visit and after two days of still wet underwear, I spent a long time using a hairdryer on it.
We took lots of extra clothes this trip in case we were quarantined but decided halfway through the trip to get some laundry done. It was only what I call cheap adventure clothing so nothing precious. Not all the hotels did laundry so we checked and sent the laundry the minute we arrived at the hotel at 5pm. We sent all sorts, trousers, shirt, t shirts, socks, underwear, even two wet swimsuits and it was back in the room by the time we got back from dinner. It cost $22, that sure was a bargain
Kind of funny but when we did our back to back land tours last Sep we stayed a few days in between at a modestly priced hotel in Zurich called Hotel Bristol. Not fancy but in an excellent location. I knew ahead that they had laundry services for a fee - something like 10-15 swiss francs for a bag of laundry which is quite reasonable. When we arrived the front desk said just cram as much as we could in the bag and bring it down to the front desk. Late that afternoon they knocked on our door with a basket of warm laundry ready to fold. And never charged us anything. I don't usually do online reviews but I gave them one.
The Tauck prices sound inline with high-end hotels so no surprise there. However, if you’re in a cat.7 perhaps, then you probably have a $100 credit to spend. There’s not much else onboard to spend it on so it works great for laundry.
Wonder if the credit is good for the boutique? I might finally buy a piece of Coeur De Lion jewelry.
Some of the riverboats have some very nice items in their gift shops. That's where I usually spend my shipboard credit.
Claudia Sails--Yes, the credit works in the boutique. In fact, I used mine for some of that very same jewelry for my wife!
the best place to use a credit is in the spa. The only boat I see that has a spa is the big boats on the danube which i have used three times. Yes the massage was wonderful! Enjoy
The smaller ones often have a masseuse but not the full spa. I've never used them - too busy - but have taken some stretching classes when offered. Usually on morning when we were sailing for a while.