Towel policy different on Med cruises?

[italia103]

Does anyone know if Royal makes you check out towels on European cruises? I've read many posts about this on Caribbean cruises but was wondering if it's the same on cruises that don't usually involve taking towels ashore. Also, is there a limit on number of towels you can take? Seems like a giant pain. Never had to worry about this on Celebrity!

[ONECRUISER]

4 minutes ago, italia103 said:

Does anyone know if Royal makes you check out towels on European cruises? I've read many posts about this on Caribbean cruises but was wondering if it's the same on cruises that don't usually involve taking towels ashore. Also, is there a limit on number of towels you can take? Seems like a giant pain. Never had to worry about this on Celebrity!

Had to check them out, I've had 4 at a time with no issues

[ditmar2007]

Oct 2918 on Rhapsody out of Venezia: Painless check out, no limit

Edited March 6, 2019 by ditmar2007

[Norwich Cruiser]

We’ve never found there to be any differences to the towel check in check out or taking them ashore in the Mediterranean to that in the Caribbean.

[tinkr2]

It seems like it will be a huge hassle but its one you quickly adapt to. You may have as many towels as you like. When Royal started it , it seemed crazy but all you had to do was ride in a taxi in Cozumel and see all the towels covering the seats , to understand why they started charging, probably just to get people to pay attention.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

3 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

 

 Actually the actually the towel checkout is totally fake you can easily check by asking them how many towels they have open for you... since you returned them all... they will always say "Oh no nothing open - your count is 0" even so you might have like 5 or 10 in your cabin...🙄

Edited March 6, 2019 by Thorben-Hendrik

[xxHadleyxx]

2 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

 Actually the actually the towel checkout is totally fake you can easily check by asking them how many towels they have open for you... since you returned them all... they will always say "Oh no nothing open - your count is 0" even so you might have like 5 or 10 in your cabin...🙄

Really?  That is not at all what we have experienced.  I have asked a few times, not knowing if DH still had towels out--and every time it turned out to be correct (sometimes zero---sometimes 1-3 that DH had back in the cabin).  

[ONECRUISER]

6 minutes ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

 Actually the actually the towel checkout is totally fake you can easily check by asking them how many towels they have open for you... since you returned them all... they will always say "Oh no nothing open - your count is 0" even so you might have like 5 or 10 in your cabin...🙄

No,  I have been reminded that I have towels to return and how many. I sail Royal B2B2B 2-3 times a yr. Been on Royal over 30yrs. How many Cruises a year do you sail on Royal and total number. Just curious with all this vast experience you share

Edited March 6, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[Thorben-Hendrik]

2 minutes ago, xxHadleyxx said:

Really?  That is not at all what we have experienced.  I have asked a few times, not knowing if DH still had towels out--and every time it turned out to be correct (sometimes zero---sometimes 1-3 that DH had back in the cabin).  

Interesting! 🤔

We always tested this on many cruises and always there was nothing open when we knew we had towels back in the cabin...

Anyway since they do not make you sign and there is no return slip either... no way can they enforce charges... 👍

[Saab4444]

But there are people who have been charged (correctly and incorrectly) for unreturned towels. We also received a letter on the last day to return towels but we had none left and had to argue this with Guest Relations which is always big fun....

[Thorben-Hendrik]

 That is all very interesting!

Maybe they only do it correctly on the smaller ships? 🤔

We always sail the big ships and it seems the whole thing is fake on them... and we have asked like on the last five or six cruises and never had any problems or would they  know how many towels we have!😱

We always ask out of curiosity to make sure we have all of them returned and mostly we do it on the 2nd two last day to make sure we find all the towels that have ended up in the cabin.... 🙄

Edited March 6, 2019 by Thorben-Hendrik

[Thorben-Hendrik]

Maybe or towel count is always off because we tend to keep them for a couple of days? 🤔

Edited March 6, 2019 by Thorben-Hendrik

[Clarea]

3 hours ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Interesting! 🤔

We always tested this on many cruises and always there was nothing open when we knew we had towels back in the cabin...

Anyway since they do not make you sign and there is no return slip either... no way can they enforce charges... 👍

 

We turned in our 4 towels on the afternoon of the last full day.  Asked the crewmember to double check that the count was zero, which he confirmed.  At 6am on disembarkation morning, I was in line at Guest Services getting the $100 towel charge taken off our bill.

[Saab4444]

There answer always comes so quick that I doubt they even check the count in the computer...

[Biker19]

4 hours ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

Maybe they only do it correctly on the smaller ships?

The one thing I noticed is that on some ships, the scanner which they use to scan your card was not attached to anything - it was powered but there was no connection to a computer or anything.

[Ourusualbeach]

11 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

The one thing I noticed is that on some ships, the scanner which they use to scan your card was not attached to anything - it was powered but there was no connection to a computer or anything.

Yep, we’ve seen that a few times.  As he scanned the cards we’d make a beeping noise, they just laughed knowing that we knew.  Eventually they stopped pretending with us.  

[Mikew0805]

I do not know why they cannot just leave a towel in the cabin for each person, and have the steward pick up and replace when needed. It's one of the refreshing things that happen on a CCL cruise, that I forget about until we board and find the towels waiting. 

[vickiw0318]

See the post about the number of towels in taxis.  I'll add the number of wet, sandy towels left on the beaches before the policy went into effect.  I also remember a post made after an inaugural cruise years ago when the poster mentioned taking towels home to friends as gifts.  More power to Carnival if they are able to continue their user friendly policy.

[steveru621]

11 hours ago, Thorben-Hendrik said:

 Actually the actually the towel checkout is totally fake you can easily check by asking them how many towels they have open for you... since you returned them all... they will always say "Oh no nothing open - your count is 0" even so you might have like 5 or 10 in your cabin...🙄

 

That is no longer true.

 

BTW on some ships there is a limit of four.

[cruznwithmom]

This whole keeping track of the towel thing seems so petty. Other cruises I have been on just left them on the pool deck in shelves,or better yet, put them on the individual chairs. Going on Silver Sea this summer and apparently an attendant waits by the pool to hand you towels as you exit. Might just bring my own darn beach towels on Royal to avoid the trauma and drama.

[steveru621]

4 minutes ago, cruznwithmom said:

This whole keeping track of the towel thing seems so petty. Other cruises I have been on just left them on the pool deck in shelves,or better yet, put them on the individual chairs. Going on Silver Sea this summer and apparently an attendant waits by the pool to hand you towels as you exit. Might just bring my own darn beach towels on Royal to avoid the trauma and drama.

 

Not petty when passengers just leave them on loungers by the pool.  Therefore there is no place to sit.

[proggieus]

13 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The one thing I noticed is that on some ships, the scanner which they use to scan your card was not attached to anything - it was powered but there was no connection to a computer or anything.

Someday they will have a system where hardware can connect to the servers without the need for wires.

[Biker19]

9 hours ago, proggieus said:

Someday they will have a system where hardware can connect to the servers without the need for wires.

Yup, they will, but are not there yet on some ships. The scanners I saw were so old they still used serial RS232 DB9 connectors - with the connector just laying on the ground.

[Saab4444]

12 hours ago, cruznwithmom said:

This whole keeping track of the towel thing seems so petty. Other cruises I have been on just left them on the pool deck in shelves,or better yet, put them on the individual chairs. Going on Silver Sea this summer and apparently an attendant waits by the pool to hand you towels as you exit. Might just bring my own darn beach towels on Royal to avoid the trauma and drama.

That is one of the difference between an 800 pax luxury ship and a 4000 pax mass market ship.. 

[nelblu]

23 hours ago, Mikew0805 said:

I do not know why they cannot just leave a towel in the cabin for each person, and have the steward pick up and replace when needed. It's one of the refreshing things that happen on a CCL cruise, that I forget about until we board and find the towels waiting. 

 

They tried this, but it proved cumbersome.  For instance in my case I had towels in my cabin and while finishing breakfast in the WJ, I decided to get towels by the pool and was refused as I was instructed that I had to use my cabin towels.  I was p...ed.