Towel Animals

[doublebzz]

Room stewards leaving towel animals on beds at night have been a fixture of cruising for as long as I can remember. During my first few years of cruising, they were a source of amusement and added to the cruise experience. Now, after 40 plus cruises, I find them a nuisance and add to the clutter in the cabin. During my last cruise, I was tempted to request the room steward not leave any of the towel animals in my cabin but thought otherwise as it might cause a problem for the steward. I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same and actually made this request and what the outcome was.

[puppycanducruise]

I haven't cruised enough to feel that the towel animals are a nuisance. But, knowing that the room stewards do whatever they can to please, I'm sure it would be no problem for you to make that request.

[peaches from georgia]

Yes, you can request no towel animals. But rather than make an issue of it by talking to the steward about the animals, you can always just take them apart and neatly fold the towels, putting them on the desk or a table for the stewards to take the next morning. That would take all of about 15 seconds to do and there would be no clutter in the room. The stewards do get a kick out of leaving the animals.

[sail7seas]

I disassemble the towel animals each evening and do as Peaches suggests. I fold the towels and leave them for the steward to remove next day. No problem.

[barbarah33]

After over 40 cruises I still enjoy returning to my cabin after dinner and a great evening on the ship to see what animal is waiting for me on my bed. As you said; it's a staple of cruising and I think they are cute. But I will agree that sometimes they can take up space to try and keep them all around. On my last cruise, which was 16 days, they were really starting to pile up on the sofa in our room so I just took them all apart and left the towels from them all folded on the sofa. They were taken away that night and after that each morning our towel animal from the night before was removed.

[Shmoo here]

I disassemble the towel animals each evening and do as Peaches suggests. I fold the towels and leave them for the steward to remove next day. No problem.

 

After over 40 cruises I still enjoy returning to my cabin after dinner and a great evening on the ship to see what animal is waiting for me on my bed. As you said; it's a staple of cruising and I think they are cute. But I will agree that sometimes they can take up space to try and keep them all around. On my last cruise, which was 16 days, they were really starting to pile up on the sofa in our room so I just took them all apart and left the towels from them all folded on the sofa. They were taken away that night and after that each morning our towel animal from the night before was removed.

 

On our recent cruise, I would disassemble the towel animals (usually after I took it's picture) and fold the towel/washcloth on the little table in the room. About every 3 or 4 days the stack of "dead" towel animals would finally disappear from the room.

[lastlook]

Since the room stewards are extra busy these days with more cabins to take care of than in the past, I would think it would save them a huge amount of time if they did not take the time to make the towel animals. I am neutral on them - they are cute, but I would not miss them. I'd rather have more attention paid to the cabin and verandah.

[peaches from georgia]

It takes the steward less than 30 seconds to make one animal. One cruise our steward showed my DH how to make some of them so DH could do a few for some of the grandkids. Steward said it was about 30 seconds, but it was less than that.

[ScriptOhio]

 

This just in, it has just been reported that the towels animals on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam have taken over the ship and are having a "wild pool party".

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is not yet known what has happened to the passengers.

[kakalina]

The towel animals are pretty cool and once in a great while we get one we haven't had before.

 

Our problem was getting the room stewards to stop leaving the pillow chocolates ( sorry Ruth) :o. Since we both despise milk chocolate we just put them in a drawer and left them when we disembarked.

It was finding out they have to throw them away once they leave the stewards hands that we asked to not get them at all. Most times they have a real problem remembering to not leave them.

[Fouremco]

We still find them cute, but normally they don't last beyond the next morning when we use them to wipe our chairs and table before enjoying breakfast on our balcony.

 

Edited November 15, 2013 by Fouremco

[Vict0riann]

I don't think we've ever had more than one animal in our room at a time. One time the same animal hung around for 3 days, until I finally put him in the fruit bowl, and then he left. I take a photo of the animal every evening, and the "elevator mat of the day" every morning. :D

[nana51]

 

This just in, it has just been reported that the towels animals on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam have taken over the ship and are having a "wild pool party".

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is not yet known what has happened to the passengers.

Okay, this is freaking adorable! How fun. Wonder the back story n this.

[sapper1]

Okay, this is freaking adorable! How fun. Wonder the back story n this.

 

These pictures were taken by Retired Mustang on his recent TA on the Eurodam. They were posted on his "live from" thread b

Edited November 15, 2013 by sapper1

[cruiseapril]

Fun photos! Those towel animals are cute and I was glad to read that they only take a little while to create.

[Vict0riann]

We had a similar "zoo" on our TA, and we were told the stewards got up at 4 a.m. to make all the animals!

[SilvertoGold]

We love the nightly creations and would never unfold them!

We put them in an unobtrusive place, usually by the lamp on the corner table or on the back of the sofa and enjoy them for the evening.

 

Simple pleasures and a nice tradition!

 

We let our room steward know how well they do them and which ones we like the best. We always go to the towel folding demonstration, too.

[RetiredMustang]

These pictures were taken by Retired Mustang on his recent TA on the Eurodam. They were posted on his "live from" thread b

 

Yes, I thought I recognized those photos :D. Here is the original post:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=39886437&postcount=362

 

It was totally unexpected, and a real treat to see the "pool party"!

 

Dave

[TracieABD]

That is about the cutest thing I have ever seen! The only towel animals I have ever received were on my one and only HAL cruise. In my live from for that cruise, I stated that I want my next job to be the little paper googly eye cutter-outer.

 

I am hoping on my next 'dam cruise, I get another towel animal!:)

 

By the way, if you don't want towel animals, sail on Princess. I have been on several PCL cruises and never received a towel animal (though the stewards are still very nice and helpful!):)

[RuthC]

Our problem was getting the room stewards to stop leaving the pillow chocolates ( sorry Ruth) :o. Since we both despise milk chocolate we just put them in a drawer and left them when we disembarked.

It was finding out they have to throw them away once they leave the stewards hands that we asked to not get them at all. Most times they have a real problem remembering to not leave them.

Let's make this easier on everyone. You collect the chocolates, so the steward doesn't have to remember to skip you, and they don't get thrown out---thereby filling the landfills even more than they are.

I'll send you my address, and you send the chocolates to me. I'll reimburse you for the postage and packing.

K? :D

[RuthC]

I don't care one way or the other about the towel animals, but do like the monkey when that is well done.

What I don't like is to have them left, and built up to a mess all over the room.

One time there were just too many of them taking all my sitting room, so I took them apart, folded them, and left them in neat piles, based on size of towel. You should have seen the brief look of despair that flashed across the steward's face. I guess he had a stack of them, and just reused them from night to night, cruise to cruise. All that work was going to have to be redone! Oops. :o

Next time I will just ask that they be removed after a day or two.

[Lovely other]

i had the opposite problem ...not enough towel animals :(. after the first two nights we didn't get another one until the last night 9 days later ...

[hpf]

Let's make this easier on everyone. You collect the chocolates, so the steward doesn't have to remember to skip you, and they don't get thrown out---thereby filling the landfills even more than they are.

I'll send you my address, and you send the chocolates to me. I'll reimburse you for the postage and packing.

K? :D

 

When I read that post Ruth, I thought to myself, "I just bet Ruth would love to have all that chocolate going to waste". And if you can't have it I would take it, after you all twisted my arm. LOL ;):D

 

And for the towel animals, I think they are great.:)

 

Helen

[Cruising-along]

We love the nightly creations and would never unfold them!

We put them in an unobtrusive place, usually by the lamp on the corner table or on the back of the sofa and enjoy them for the evening.

 

Simple pleasures and a nice tradition!

 

We let our room steward know how well they do them and which ones we like the best. We always go to the towel folding demonstration, too.

 

We are the same way, and also like to go to the demonstrations. One night when we happened to be in our cabin, our steward proudly showed how quickly he could make the towel animal. It really was amazing, and probably took only 30 seconds as has been mentioned.

[NMLady]

I don't care one way or the other about the towel animals, but do like the monkey when that is well done.

What I don't like is to have them left, and built up to a mess all over the room.

One time there were just too many of them taking all my sitting room, so I took them apart, folded them, and left them in neat piles, based on size of towel. You should have seen the brief look of despair that flashed across the steward's face. I guess he had a stack of them, and just reused them from night to night, cruise to cruise. All that work was going to have to be redone! Oops. :o

Next time I will just ask that they be removed after a day or two.

 

The only animal that has ever been left in our cabin was the monkey. All the other animals, on HAL and other cruise lines, have always been removed the next morning.

 

Since the monkey was hanging on our drapes, it wasn't in the way.