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#1
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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 |
#2
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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 |
#3
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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 |
#4
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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 |
#5
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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 |
#6
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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 |
#7
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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 |
#8
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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. |
#9
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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. |
#10
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Pool Towels on Cruise Ships - Please Help!
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 |
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