Steam Room Etiquette

[Scubagirl713]

Going on the Glory in a couple weeks and have a question about the steam rooms. We spent some time overseas where I was introduced to the concept of steam baths, but also where they use them with just a towel. Now I have been on Carnival cruises before, but have never gotten around to the steam rooms until this time. Can I use the steam facility with just a towel or do I have to wear a bathing suit? I just don't want to make anyone else uncomfortable.

[calliopecruiser]

Going on the Glory in a couple weeks and have a question about the steam rooms. We spent some time overseas where I was introduced to the concept of steam baths, but also where they use them with just a towel. Now I have been on Carnival cruises before, but have never gotten around to the steam rooms until this time. Can I use the steam facility with just a towel or do I have to wear a bathing suit? I just don't want to make anyone else uncomfortable.

 

I don't know Carnival specifically, but generally speaking, if the facilities are for a single sex (i.e. for women only), they are bathing suit optional. I once shared a sauna with a Muslim woman who was in a hijab and gown covering wrists to ankles - she told me she was not bothered by the fact that I was nekkid in just a towel (I asked - I didn't want her to be uncomfortable).

[Mizzouaholic]

Ive seen people naked in there(unfortunately) lol

[michellejed]

Just a towel is fine :)

[megessey]

Reminds me of Seinfeld, there's good nakid and bad nakid :D

 

Mizzouaholic -- my dad is also a mizzo fanatic. he painted his fire hydrant with tiger stripes..... he plants "black" and yellow tulips every year..... he straps a giant stuffed tiger to the roof of his car on game day ..... and even though they don't play Kansas anymore, he will never ever wear blue and red clothing at the same time. Ever. LOL

[Colorado Kat]

I would wear a bathing suit.

[ducklite]

I don't know Carnival specifically, but generally speaking, if the facilities are for a single sex (i.e. for women only), they are bathing suit optional. I once shared a sauna with a Muslim woman who was in a hijab and gown covering wrists to ankles - she told me she was not bothered by the fact that I was nekkid in just a towel (I asked - I didn't want her to be uncomfortable).

 

Interesting. I have a friend who is Muslim (she doesn't wear a burka but dresses very modestly and wears a hajib in public or when men who aren't her husband, brothers, or father are in her home. In the company of other women when she's sure no men will see her (like in her privacy fenced back yard pool when only her girlfriends are around) she rocks a bikini--and it's usually an itty-bitty one that I wouldn't have had the nerve to wear even in my younger years!

[calliopecruiser]

Interesting. I have a friend who is Muslim (she doesn't wear a burka but dresses very modestly and wears a hajib in public or when men who aren't her husband, brothers, or father are in her home. In the company of other women when she's sure no men will see her (like in her privacy fenced back yard pool when only her girlfriends are around) she rocks a bikini--and it's usually an itty-bitty one that I wouldn't have had the nerve to wear even in my younger years!

 

LOL! I know, but that was something I couldn't ask a stranger (so, why are you wearing that when many Muslim women are comfortable wearing a bathing suit among other women?).

[Scubagirl713]

Reminds me of Seinfeld, there's good nakid and bad nakid :D

 

LOL, I rememeber that episode. I'm pretty sure I fall into the bad nekkid these days :eek:. Thx for the input all, I'll go w/ the bathing suit the first day and if there are other nudies in there then its down to the "birthday" suit (wrapped in a towel of course...)

 

Just so happy I get to do the single digit dance as of TODAY!

[kitty9]

Or the episode on Designing Women where the guy said there are two kinds of naked. One N A K E D, means you don't have any clothes on and the other N E K K I D, means you don't have any clothes on and you're up to something. About says it all.

 

For me, I wear a bathing suit. Too many jiggly parts to keep under wraps.

[maryred]

To me a steam room or sauna is all about cleansing the pores and relaxing muscles, so being wrapped up in a terry cloth towel from collar bone to knee is no way to accomplish that.

I say go in with the smallest possible bathing suit you feel comfortable wearing and let these warm rooms work the way they are supposed to.

 

Just to let you know a small self enclosed saunas or steam huts for personal home use are available for under $1500. We're looking to get 1 of each installed on our deck this spring.

[beachchick]

It's funny, but I've noticed how many older women just don't give a hoot what anyone thinks when it comes to appropriate nudity (e.g, in a women's sauna), but younger women (me included, that is when I was one) are super body conscious. Man, my hubby pulled out a photo of me at 27 in a teeny, tiny bikini. At the time, all I could see were flaws; now, I'm saying, "Damn, what a hot looking chick!":D

 

True story. My mother went to Finland for a Christmas-New Year trip several years ago. It was an Elderhostel, so the folks were not exactly spring chickens. One of the Finnish customs is to take sauna together, single gender when it's not just family or close friends. So, all the ladies go into the sauna with their hostess, who promptly drops her towel and sits down on it. Shortly thereafter, all the other ladies did the same. My mother was thinking to herself that this is what I mean when I talk about true versus imposed modesty. There was no reason to not partake of sauna in the way it was intended because everyone was simply naked (not nekkid). It's the same at a local theraputic pool. The young women generally go into the individual showers (with dressing room and doors, etc.); the older ones just strip and head for the group showers. It's so refreshing to see these far from perfect bodies with their badges of honor (you know, cesarean scars, gravity affected parts, wrinkles and laugh lines) and women simply being women together.

 

beachchick

[iheartbda]

Oh man.......do I have a sauna story but I'm afraid I can't tell it here.:eek::p:D

[calliopecruiser]

It's funny, but I've noticed how many older women just don't give a hoot what anyone thinks when it comes to appropriate nudity (e.g, in a women's sauna), but younger women (me included, that is when I was one) are super body conscious.

 

Definately - I go to a local day spa about once a month for a soak/steam/sauna. It's women only and bathing suit optional, and the pool/steam/sauna is also available to those having any spa service performed (like a body scrub or massage). The percentage of women using the facility naked ranges from 25%-75% on different days, but I would say that about 75% of those women who do go naked are over 40 or 50 years old. I laughed when I read the comment about being wrapped in a towel in the sauna -- when I use the sauna there I am sitting on the towel but I'm naked, not covered up. I figure I'm too old to be embarrased about what I look like.

[Erik101]

Um, it's a steamroom so just about everyone going in the room is 1/2 or almost naked. Go with what you're comfortable wearing. What others think on what you're wearing (towel or bathing suit) is irrelevant.

[Scubagirl713]

Thanks all, you are right, at 44 I don't need to worry about it one way or another.