Beach Towels & shore tours

[cooki801]

Wasn't sure where to post this question but I will try here !:D

 

We are cruising RCI Western Caribbean and have a snorkel trip scheduled that asks us to bring our own towels. We had planned to use the ones provided by the ship but I understand there is a major extra charge if they come up missing! Don't need that so....

How many of you bring your own from home?

Buy a towel while on your excursion (how much would it cost in Playa Del Carmen?)?

or Take the one from the ship?

 

Thanks for your help as a first time cruiser these boards have been a life saver for our planning!

 

Cathie in UT

[PattyG12]

I was wondering the same thing. Thanks for asking it

[Barbee524]

Just take the ones from you cabins. I have forgotten my towel at the pool and never been charged. Also, quite often there are extra towels in the Solarium pool area. The charge they say they are going to give you is $20 per towel. I can't imagine a towel in Playa del Carmen would be more than $10.

Cathie, I'll see you on board!

[legalsec]

I have the same question. When we go on beach excursions, where do we get the ship towels? How do they know who took them and who brought them back? I've read about charge if you don't bring them back but I can't imagine how that would work? And, a stupid question, are they beach sized towels or regular bath towels?

[cooki801]

Thanks so much for the info Barb

Looks like I am not the only one who had questions like this! LOL

 

Looking forward to meeting you as well Barb

 

Cathie in Ut

[cb at sea]

The beach towels are pretty big--not huge, but big enough. Take them from the ship and just return them when you get back! You won't lose them! If you need more than 1 per person, you can get extras!

You don't want to pack your own towels--too bulky and once they get wet, you'll NEVER get them dry--it's too humid!

Let the ship do the work! Towels are included in your fare!

[Ryffian]

This is how it worked on our NCL cruise.

 

When you were getting off the ship in port, if you wanted to take a ship's towel with you, you stopped by a table set up either on the ship before you got off, or on the pier right after you get off. At the table, they took your ship pass card, wrote down some information (name or something, I'm not really sure), and gave you your towel(s) along with a receipt of some sort.

 

When you returned to the ship, you would return the towels and receipt at a similar type set up. The whole thing was quick and painless.

 

We didn't worry about losing them ashore, even when they were left on a beach unattended. They weren't that big or fancy at all, just "normal sized" and light blue.

 

The ship encouraged you not to take towels from your room or from the pool areas ashore with you, however there was no real way for them to enforce this, as far as I could tell.

 

I have heard from others on the message board that on other cruise lines you request towels from your room steward to take ashore with you.

 

Hope this helps a little!

[Jim_Iain]

On Celebrity they have pool towels that stay at the pool. They have large yellow beach towels your room steward puts out in your room before your first port.

 

You take your beach tow as you need and leave it on the bathroom floor after use. Your room steward replaces when they clean your room. They take a room inventory at the end of the cruise and if you decide not to return it you are charged for the towel.

[adamsmom]

RCI leaves a yellow, beach-sized towel for each person for you to take ashore, and you just return it to the bathroom floor when you return, and the cabin steward replaces them with fresh ones for the next port. If you are nervous about keeping up with the ships towels, take your own. I take it upon myself to keep up with them for all 4 of us when we go ashore, but it would be nice to just give the kids their towel to do whatever with and not have to worry about paying $20 if they lose it. And it will dry if you hang it in the bathroom long enough. But if you are ashore one day and debarking (is that a word?) the next day, you would have to bring something plastic to pack them in since they probably wouldn't have time to dry. But I guess you would have to do that with your swimsuits too, anyway.

[cooki801]

As usual everything you need to know about cruising is here on CC boards!

Thanks for all the great info everyone.

Hopefully dh and I can keep track of the towels and make sure we return them to the ship LOL

 

Happy Cruising everyone

Cathie in UT