New Pool Towel Policy....Working Well

[seaofwonder]

I read about this a while ago on the boards. Carnival had a sticker that they would post on empty chairs that were covered with one towel and a flip-flop for example. After 30 minutes passed it was time-up and the chair was removed of its objects by the pool deck attendants. Chair hog 0, deck attendant 1.

 

Not sure if it worked and never really heard that much more about it.

 

It's really simple to implement and only needs one employee.

[davekathy]

Good news along with being able to bring wine aboard for in room consumtion.

[nanwel]

Yrs ago I was on a cruise that had boxes for your to put your stuff in towel too if you wanted to have a dip or sit in the hot tub, but did not want to use a chair - seems stupid to me to have to put my stuff on a chair when I have no need to use one, and probably will dry off and leave and not even sit down. I try to look for a dry spot that will work without someone knocking them down, but they are hard to find - a box of small open cubicals would work for me!!!

Sorry I have sometimes put stuff on a chair, when I know I will never sit and use it!!

[CAPTAINJOJO]

Never was a problem before they started the towel policy. it's not a problem in other cruises lines like Disney, when you can take as many towels as you need.

 

I was in the Allure's New years cruise and the card system was still in effect, where you pay a $2,000 a person to cruise and you have to walk to a station on the cold weather, show your room card to have a towel. Who's going to stuff this ugly $3 towels on a suitcase? And if they do, it's more than paid.

 

I'm glad it's over.

[evac93rd]

Did the same cruise in Dec and Jan on Freedom. Needed seapass to get towel in Dec no seapass in Jan.

 

Much better the new way

[meno]

Just off Oasis Jan. 11th. Loved not having to show a seapass to receive a pool towel. Must admit, I used more than 1 on a few days. Royal collects them on Labadee and on the ship, as you return. ( just toss them in a laundry bin.) Who has room in luggage to take them home????? Not many.

 

Who REALLY wants to take them home anyway! Never could figure that out!

[Goes Cruising]

I never really felt the towel policy was to discourage stealing. I agree, who would want them?

 

I can't say I ever waited in a long line for a towel, or ever had erroneous charges on my account. We checked towels out at the beginning of the cruise, and just kept exchanging them for clean until the last day, when we checked them back in. I was not offended by the process.

 

I do think it was intended to discourage chair hogs, but it never worked. Clearly, you just need to argue a little to get the charge backed off your seapass account. Since the policy did little to discourage chair hogs, what is the point of wasting staffing to man the stations. Hopefully it will free a few more up to referee chair arguments :D

[Sea Breeze]

Yeah I was charged for four towels when I returned them, They told me if the satellite is down you could get charged even if they were returned...what a pain to call when you get home... four towels... I would never have room in my bags.. I swear my clothes get larger when they go on a cruise.

[steveru621]

IMHO, I liked the old system of checking out/in towels.

 

No one can say with any certainty (including me) that this won't impact the chair hog situation once people realize there's no penalty. There is one thing I do know for certain, go to the Solarium at 4 pm and you'll find half of the chairs covered with wet towels. Before the check-out policy the pool attendants never cleaned up the towels until after the first dinner seating.

 

It's not my job to be (re)moving wet towels for any reason, and I really don't care how easy you all think it is to do the job of the pool attendant. Cheers to those who believe as I do, RCI should strictly enforce their 30 minute policy by whatever means they believe is efficient.

[PJADS]

We don't go to the pool very often, but when walking in the morning, we've always seen towels used to save chairs, whether or not there was a sign-out policy in effect. It sounds like the pool crew on Brilliance weren't doing their jobs, and I wouldn't be surprised if they simply didn't have anybody assigned to remove towels in an effort to save a little money.

 

I hope you mentioned it on your comment card, so that corporate is aware of the problem. In my experience, they are very good at following up on onboard issues.

 

 

As of Jan, no more COMMENT CARDS. ALL DONE BY EMAIL, WHEN YOU RETURN. One week to return comments. It is like a survey, with room to comment at the end.

[riclop]

Just off Oasis Jan. 11th. Loved not having to show a seapass to receive a pool towel. Must admit, I used more than 1 on a few days. Royal collects them on Labadee and on the ship, as you return. ( just toss them in a laundry bin.) Who has room in luggage to take them home????? Not many.

Glad its working.

[xpcdoojk]

i love the new towel policy. Of course, I never sit at the pool. I actually used the towels multiple days because I didn't feel the need to turn in the towel daily and get a new one daily. Since I surf on the flow rider every morning, it was a pain to go get a new towel, then at the end of the morning surf turn it back in... Now I take it to the cabin, lay it on a chair and the next morning it is nice and dry and go surf again. I probably used 5 towels this week and not 8 or 9.

 

jc

[glendon3281]

Just off the Jan. 11th Oasis sailing. I noticed that people are lazy with the new towel policy. Since people are not accountable for their towels anymore, they left their used towels everywhere....saw them all over the ship and not just near a pool. We even saw people leaving them on an excursion boat.

 

It was even harder to get a chair at the pools with people just leaving them there and not picking up after themselves. Plus it looked very messy with piles of used towels laying around. At least with the other policy, people took their towels with them when leaving the pool area for the day, so they didn't get charged.

[RoofingPrincess]

That's the one thing that Carnival does that makes sense. Gathering the towels as you ente the ship after a stop. It probably saves the room stewards a ton of work when people get back to the room and shake all that sand out in their rooms.

 

RCCL was doing this as well on my recent Adventure cruise. Every port. Right after security, there were big collection bins. I also thought that the cabin attendants must be thrilled to not have to deal with the sand and the soggy towels.

Edited January 20, 2014 by RoofingPrincess

[smeck]

I'm still of the mind they should leave the towels in your cabin on embarkation day. Why make you go to the pool deck for towels if needed for Labadee.

[cruisinck]

Just off the Jan. 11th Oasis sailing. I noticed that people are lazy with the new towel policy. Since people are not accountable for their towels anymore, they left their used towels everywhere....saw them all over the ship and not just near a pool. We even saw people leaving them on an excursion boat.

 

It was even harder to get a chair at the pools with people just leaving them there and not picking up after themselves. Plus it looked very messy with piles of used towels laying around. At least with the other policy, people took their towels with them when leaving the pool area for the day, so they didn't get charged.

 

 

We are also just off the Jan 11 Oasis sailing and completely agree with you about the towels being left every where. The elevators,hallways,windjammer, etc. I did feel that the pool attendants where alot quicker to remove the towels from the chairs after the 30 minutes.