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Where are Your Pool Towels?????


teacherman
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We recently returned from a TA on Freedom of the Seas. It was a great cruise...except:

 

We used pool towels for 2 days only. We checked them out, gave our Sea Pass card, returned them, and gave our Sea Pass card. The young man taking the towels scanned our card, then again, then again, then again, and finally returned it to me. I asked if everything was okay. He replied "Okay".

 

After having our final dinner and drinks with friends, we returned to our cabin at 9:00 to find a note on our bed from Guest Services saying we had not returned our towels and we would be charge if they were not returned ($25 per towel, which seemed excessive for some very thin and stained towels).

 

I then spent the next 20 minutes waiting in the guest services line, with many others who had the same note. When it was my turn, I explained it to the young lady, who then told me that I should go up to the pool deck and have them clear my name. I said that she had to be kidding. After 25 cruises on RCCL, I did not plan to steal some towels.

 

She then said she would "Check on it". She took my card and my note, went into the back room for a few moments, and then came back to tell me she cleared the towels.

 

I like RCCL, but they have a strange system for pool towels. The computer sits out all day, has missing keys, is very dirty, has to scan several times, etc. Not a pleasant way to end a great cruise.

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We recently returned from a TA on Freedom of the Seas. It was a great cruise...except:

 

We used pool towels for 2 days only. We checked them out, gave our Sea Pass card, returned them, and gave our Sea Pass card. The young man taking the towels scanned our card, then again, then again, then again, and finally returned it to me. I asked if everything was okay. He replied "Okay".

 

After having our final dinner and drinks with friends, we returned to our cabin at 9:00 to find a note on our bed from Guest Services saying we had not returned our towels and we would be charge if they were not returned ($25 per towel, which seemed excessive for some very thin and stained towels).

 

I then spent the next 20 minutes waiting in the guest services line, with many others who had the same note. When it was my turn, I explained it to the young lady, who then told me that I should go up to the pool deck and have them clear my name. I said that she had to be kidding. After 25 cruises on RCCL, I did not plan to steal some towels.

 

She then said she would "Check on it". She took my card and my note, went into the back room for a few moments, and then came back to tell me she cleared the towels.

 

I like RCCL, but they have a strange system for pool towels. The computer sits out all day, has missing keys, is very dirty, has to scan several times, etc. Not a pleasant way to end a great cruise.

 

We've never experienced your problem/issue (yet) but I agree with you.

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That really sucks, at least they took care of it. We were always worried about this, but on JOTS earlier this year, there were plenty of times that towels were just sitting there, clean, folded ready to use with nobody there to scan, so we just took some of those back to our room when we were done, and turned in probably 6 extra the last couple of days.

 

Heck - I think I should have gotten a credit for the 6 towels - where is my $150? :)

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There are always lots of clean towels on deck chairs around the pool in the morning. Next time just take a couple of those and you're good to go for the week.

Perfect. I definitely like this approach. Potentially solves two issues.

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Sometimes the scanner is not even plugged into the computer!

 

 

On my last Majesty cruise, they had so many of these there was a special line just for people trying to get off the ship. Nobody who returned their towels after 5pm got the credit until they stopped at the special line.

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There is a simple way around this. I go to the gym and pick up large towels in the locker room. On the ships I have sailed, these have always been the "old" beige beach towels. I refuse to play their silly towel game. Not all ships have towels on the loungers. I have only seen that on the reserved suite pool area.

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There is a simple way around this. I go to the gym and pick up large towels in the locker room. On the ships I have sailed, these have always been the "old" beige beach towels. I refuse to play their silly towel game. Not all ships have towels on the loungers. I have only seen that on the reserved suite pool area.

 

Have never seen a ship without chair hogs - which ship were you on?

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A few years ago on Allure you did not need a Seapass to get towels. In fact, the towels might have been in the room. Fast forward to Cozumel day and when we left the beach we saw SO many RCI towels left behind. I definitely see how this was an issue and on my latest cruises you needed your Seapass to get/return towels or same $25 fee was applied.

 

Carnival and MSC leave the towels in your room. If you need to exchange, they have exchanges on the deck and you just bring the towel back. At the end of the cruise leave them in your room.

 

NCL had a weird hybrid system; no card needed but you just give them a last name and the towels have to be checked back in at the pool deck. I wonder how many Smith's have pool towels checked out...

 

Anyways, an irritating way to end your trip and guest services didn't need to try to pawn you off or put on a show of disappearing into the back. If a customer is coming to the desk to dispute the towel charge I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the customer is being honest as well...

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I was on the FOTS immediately after its latest TA cruise. I received the same note outside my door on the last night but had returned all the towels. The room steward said to go straight to the pool deck, not GS, to resolve this. The pool attendant was quick to remove the erroneous towels on the account without fuss or explanation. At the time there was a steady number of folks having towels removed.

 

My DW may have returned towels that were checked out under my card, I’m unsure what exactly happened. They definitely were not souvenirs!

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I get mine up at the suite Sun deck. 😉

 

BTW, folks are now turning the towels sideways to hog two loungers with one towel. Unbelievable

Not unbelievable to me, I've seen it too many times.

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  • 6 months later...

We just got back from Oasis on June 10th. We had checked out 4 towels for Labadee and returned them at the gangway when we got back on the ship. Their scanner wasn't working so the guy wrote down our room number and said we were good. Our room steward did not give us a copy of our invoice on our last night, so I had to request one from Royal today. Of course, I find a $100 charge for 4 towels. I called them and they said it would take 3-4 days for them to research the sign in sheets and get back to me. I will fight this if they don't refund the money.

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How long have they been leaving notes in the cabins? I guess maybe a little credit should be given for addressing post cruise towel charges...I said little credit.

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

 

The first I saw this was on my last Adventure cruise - Early May of this year. We got that note in our cabin and it added "Your towel must be checked in by 9pm on the last night" We did have two towels out and had planned on a hot tub soak after 2nd seating dinner and before bed. I went to return our two towels, found a couple still on pool chairs with nobody around, so I turned them in. I left the two extras in our cabin.

 

A year ago on Majesty we didn't get the note, but after our 11pm hot tub soak, there was nobody to return the towels to. Ended up in Guest Services.

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