Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!

In an earlier thread, I asked experienced rtc'ers to list those things
they would eliminate from today's mass-market cruise experience. One of
the respondants wrote:

Towels, on every lounge ,even though there are only three people in
the pool!
BILL
To which I responded:

" This comes from a practice first introduced by the Princess line many
years ago. They issue pool towels in your stateroom and provide no
fresh towels by the pool, thus making pax responsible for carrying
around their own towel. I complained like hell on my first Princess
cruise ... to no avail. Many years later, Carnival introduced the same
practice, which has continued despite my complaints to them. I feel so
strongly about this (because it does result in lots of empty but
reserved deck chairs) that I encourage all of you who are bothered by
this to write to the cruise lines about the practice and include
complaints on your comment cards. RCCL, Celebrity, and HAL have not yet
followed suit but I really think they unless they hear from repeat pax.
Although these lines still provide fresh towels and pull towels from
empty chairs, I have noticed on my last few cruises, that there are more
and more empty towel bins out on deck these days."

Pam responded to my post with the following:

"On my RCCL cruise, last week on the Enchantment... Towels were issued
in the stateroom. Same on Explorer, in March..."

I would like ask those of you who enjoy laying out around a cruise ship
pool (in or out of the sun), if you would be willing to paticipate in an
organized attempt (perhaps an e-mail campaign to the guest relations
depts. of all the majors) to get the lines to either change or refrain
from this cost-cutting practice.

Howard





T

Hi:

There are plusses and minus's of the towels being issued to the cabin (with
a $25 fee if they aren't turned in at the end of the cruise) Plus: people
don't want to leave those $25 towels unattended (saving lounges) for long so
I have seen less lounge saving. Minus: As Howard said, keeping up with
them, i.e., hauling them around.

I just got back from a land tour at the Mayan Palace in Acapulco which was
almost like a cruise without leaving the dock as they had many planned
activities (but no free eats darn it). Anyway, what they did was issue
you a card and when you checked out a towel(s) pool side, they marked it
down on the card. When you were finished with the towel, you turned it in
and they took it off the card. If you had no towels out, they gave you back
the card. If you didn't turn your towel in, you got hit for $3 (keep in
mind, this is Mexico). If you wanted a fresh towel, you just took your wet
one and exchanged it. This might work on a cruise ship but it would require
an "attendant" there all the time.

Tucker in Texas

Howard Garland wrote:

In an earlier thread, I asked experienced rtc'ers to list those things
they would eliminate from today's mass-market cruise experience. One of
the respondants wrote:

Towels, on every lounge ,even though there are only three people in
the pool!
BILL
To which I responded:

" This comes from a practice first introduced by the Princess line many
years ago. They issue pool towels in your stateroom and provide no
fresh towels by the pool, thus making pax responsible for carrying
around their own towel. I complained like hell on my first Princess
cruise ... to no avail. Many years later, Carnival introduced the same
practice, which has continued despite my complaints to them. I feel so
strongly about this (because it does result in lots of empty but
reserved deck chairs) that I encourage all of you who are bothered by
this to write to the cruise lines about the practice and include
complaints on your comment cards. RCCL, Celebrity, and HAL have not yet
followed suit but I really think they unless they hear from repeat pax.
Although these lines still provide fresh towels and pull towels from
empty chairs, I have noticed on my last few cruises, that there are more
and more empty towel bins out on deck these days."

Pam responded to my post with the following:

"On my RCCL cruise, last week on the Enchantment... Towels were issued
in the stateroom. Same on Explorer, in March..."

I would like ask those of you who enjoy laying out around a cruise ship
pool (in or out of the sun), if you would be willing to paticipate in an
organized attempt (perhaps an e-mail campaign to the guest relations
depts. of all the majors) to get the lines to either change or refrain
from this cost-cutting practice.

Howard



T

On the Zenith they implemented an enhanced alternative.

They give you an oversize, ship logo towel to use for shore excursions,
or wherever you want.

Plus there are also smaller "regular" size pool towels availabe around
the pool area.

They DO say that they will charge you if you don't return the big logo
towel... but I'm not sure that they do... for example coming back from
Shelly Bay in Bermuda, we left with 4 towels and returned with 5. Our
group had about 15-20 people, so one of the cabins came back one short
(while we came back one extra). I don't think anybody got charged for
being one short.

I think that option is the best of both worlds.

--Tom

Howard Garland wrote:

In an earlier thread, I asked experienced rtc'ers to list those things
they would eliminate from today's mass-market cruise experience. One of
the respondants wrote:

Towels, on every lounge ,even though there are only three people in
the pool!
BILL
To which I responded:

" This comes from a practice first introduced by the Princess line many
years ago. They issue pool towels in your stateroom and provide no
fresh towels by the pool, thus making pax responsible for carrying
around their own towel. I complained like hell on my first Princess
cruise ... to no avail. Many years later, Carnival introduced the same
practice, which has continued despite my complaints to them. I feel so
strongly about this (because it does result in lots of empty but
reserved deck chairs) that I encourage all of you who are bothered by
this to write to the cruise lines about the practice and include
complaints on your comment cards. RCCL, Celebrity, and HAL have not yet
followed suit but I really think they unless they hear from repeat pax.
Although these lines still provide fresh towels and pull towels from
empty chairs, I have noticed on my last few cruises, that there are more
and more empty towel bins out on deck these days."

Pam responded to my post with the following:

"On my RCCL cruise, last week on the Enchantment... Towels were issued
in the stateroom. Same on Explorer, in March..."

I would like ask those of you who enjoy laying out around a cruise ship
pool (in or out of the sun), if you would be willing to paticipate in an
organized attempt (perhaps an e-mail campaign to the guest relations
depts. of all the majors) to get the lines to either change or refrain
from this cost-cutting practice.

Howard



T

No problem with the big logo towels for going ashore. The problem is
that when people are responsible for their towels at the pool, the ship
also eliminates the practice of pulling towels from empty chairs. On
those Celeb and RCCL where they still provide towels at the pool,
deckhands pull the towels periodically from empty chairs.

Tom & Linda wrote:

On the Zenith they implemented an enhanced alternative.

They give you an oversize, ship logo towel to use for shore excursions,
or wherever you want.

Plus there are also smaller "regular" size pool towels availabe around
the pool area.

They DO say that they will charge you if you don't return the big logo
towel... but I'm not sure that they do... for example coming back from
Shelly Bay in Bermuda, we left with 4 towels and returned with 5. Our
group had about 15-20 people, so one of the cabins came back one short
(while we came back one extra). I don't think anybody got charged for
being one short.

I think that option is the best of both worlds.

--Tom

Howard Garland wrote:

In an earlier thread, I asked experienced rtc'ers to list those things
they would eliminate from today's mass-market cruise experience. One of
the respondants wrote:

Towels, on every lounge ,even though there are only three people in
the pool!
BILL
To which I responded:

" This comes from a practice first introduced by the Princess line many
years ago. They issue pool towels in your stateroom and provide no
fresh towels by the pool, thus making pax responsible for carrying
around their own towel. I complained like hell on my first Princess
cruise ... to no avail. Many years later, Carnival introduced the same
practice, which has continued despite my complaints to them. I feel so
strongly about this (because it does result in lots of empty but
reserved deck chairs) that I encourage all of you who are bothered by
this to write to the cruise lines about the practice and include
complaints on your comment cards. RCCL, Celebrity, and HAL have not yet
followed suit but I really think they unless they hear from repeat pax.
Although these lines still provide fresh towels and pull towels from
empty chairs, I have noticed on my last few cruises, that there are more
and more empty towel bins out on deck these days."

Pam responded to my post with the following:

"On my RCCL cruise, last week on the Enchantment... Towels were issued
in the stateroom. Same on Explorer, in March..."

I would like ask those of you who enjoy laying out around a cruise ship
pool (in or out of the sun), if you would be willing to paticipate in an
organized attempt (perhaps an e-mail campaign to the guest relations
depts. of all the majors) to get the lines to either change or refrain
from this cost-cutting practice.

Howard



T

In article , Richard Whitlock
wrote:

There are plusses and minus's of the towels being issued to the cabin (with
a $25 fee if they aren't turned in at the end of the cruise) Plus: people
don't want to leave those $25 towels unattended (saving lounges) for long so
I have seen less lounge saving. Minus: As Howard said, keeping up with
them, i.e., hauling them around.

On Princess they don't charge a $25 fee.

--
Charles

Hi:

There are plusses and minus's of the towels being issued to the cabin (with
a $25 fee if they aren't turned in at the end of the cruise) Plus: people
don't want to leave those $25 towels unattended (saving lounges) for long so
I have seen less lounge saving. Minus: As Howard said, keeping up with
them, i.e., hauling them around.

I just got back from a land tour at the Mayan Palace in Acapulco which was
almost like a cruise without leaving the dock as they had many planned
activities (but no free eats darn it). Anyway, what they did was issue
you a card and when you checked out a towel(s) pool side, they marked it
down on the card. When you were finished with the towel, you turned it in
and they took it off the card. If you had no towels out, they gave you back
the card. If you didn't turn your towel in, you got hit for $3 (keep in
mind, this is Mexico). If you wanted a fresh towel, you just took your wet
one and exchanged it. This might work on a cruise ship but it would require
an "attendant" there all the time.

Tucker in Texas

Hi Tucker,

What you describe above, is exactly how Carnival handles their recently
implemented Princess-like towel policy, except that Carnival charges
$25. Having been on numerous cruises both before and after the change,
I still HATE the practice for three following reasons:

1. Based upon my experience (lots of cruises, lots of laying out at
pools, lots of cruise lines), the newer practice (old already on
Princess) definitely causes more chair hogging.

2. They used to (RCCL and Celebrity still do, at least they did on my
last cruises) have deck personnel pull towels from long-vacated chairs,
which they no longer do, for obvious reasons.

3. When I want to change a wet towel or take more than one towel to my
chair, I don't want to get on line and fill out a form.

Howard

In article , Howard Garland
wrote:

On those Celeb and RCCL where they still provide towels at the pool,
deckhands pull the towels periodically from empty chairs.

And on the Celebrity Summit last December that worked out well, there
were lots of chair saver types, but the attendents did remove the
towels, and there were plenty of towels available.

--
Charles

But can you get another towel by the pool, if you dont want to bring the
one from your room? As I remember (it's been over a year since I
cruised Princess), my trick was to get my towels from the gym on
Princess ships.

Howard

Charles wrote:

In article , Richard Whitlock
wrote:


There are plusses and minus's of the towels being issued to the cabin (with
a $25 fee if they aren't turned in at the end of the cruise) Plus: people
don't want to leave those $25 towels unattended (saving lounges) for long so
I have seen less lounge saving. Minus: As Howard said, keeping up with
them, i.e., hauling them around.


On Princess they don't charge a $25 fee.

That's exactly what I'm talking about, Charles. I guess the newer
practice bothers me more than it bothers most other people.

Charles wrote:

In article , Howard Garland
wrote:


On those Celeb and RCCL where they still provide towels at the pool,
deckhands pull the towels periodically from empty chairs.


And on the Celebrity Summit last December that worked out well, there
were lots of chair saver types, but the attendents did remove the
towels, and there were plenty of towels available.

In article , Howard Garland
wrote:

But can you get another towel by the pool, if you dont want to bring the
one from your room? As I remember (it's been over a year since I
cruised Princess), my trick was to get my towels from the gym on
Princess ships.

No you can't. You have to get the replacement from the cabin steward.
So I always request and get an extra towel from them the first day. I
like your trick though.

--
Charles