NCL Star - towel animals - the rest of the story

[banjineer]

Earlier I had posted about no towel animals on the Star this week.  That appeared to be resolved.

 

However, we just received a follow up call from the Star Hotel Director.   He told us that effective

this week (3/23/19) there would not be any more towel animals on the Star.  The reason given

is environmental concerns for all the additional towel cleaning just for the towel animal towels.

 

The Hotel Director also told my wife the room stewards would be recieving additional training in

answering passenger questions and concerns regarding the missing towel animals.   Since my wife

likes the towel animals, the Hotel Director said our room steward would be doing them for us the rest

of the week.

 

My wife talked with the Hotel Director so I can’t say if this is a new fleet wide change or just a trial

on the Star.

 

The Hotel Director also said we would be hearing from the Restaurant Manager about Specialty

Restaurant  Room Service for Suites.   I’ll post an update if there’s any changes in what the Suites can

expect.

 

I guess change happens...

[rpb718]

I wonder how much the "Towel Animal" package will be?

[Greenpea2]

Special Towel Animal promo coming up! (With a 20% service charge on the cost of each towel)

 

[Sauer-kraut]

Drat!  I always kill the towel animals to use the extra towels for drying purposes......

[Greenpea2]

You know, this is just stupid! So just have towel animals every couple of days. Cut the "environmental disrespect" in half. Just to stop it entirely is really cold to those who like having them. 😞 Yes, I know, it's not earth shattering, but it's just ONE MORE THING.

 

[Love my butler]

So NCL saves another nickel and dime by taking away another beloved tradition on a cruise.  Stripping us of our towel animals in the name of conservation...  Can NCL get any lower?

It's a rhetorical question.  Of course they can, and will.  Stay tuned.

[Greenpea2]

11 minutes ago, Love my butler said:

So NCL saves another nickel and dime by taking away another beloved tradition on a cruise.  Stripping us of our towel animals in the name of conservation...  Can NCL get any lower?

It's a rhetorical question.  Of course they can, and will.  Stay tuned.

I guess we shoulda seen it coming after the pillow-top mints went away about 10 (or more?) years ago. Maybe next they will replace lounge chairs with rubber mats. Or no more than 1 pillow per person in a cabin! The possibilities on that list are many.

 

[sparkygirlfamily]

My daughter will be very disappointed, we sail the Star in 2 weeks.  We might have to bring our towel animal book and make our own...

[kochleffel]

Last month on the Epic my cabin got a towel animal only two or three times.

 

The environmental cost is genuine, but it could be mitigated by disassembling the previous day's animal and using the towels in the bathroom of the same cabin to replace the already-used ones, if they're not hung up to use again as many hotels now advise.

[erdoran]

It takes TIME to make towel animals; time = money.  They can reduce staff if there are no more towel animals.  That’s the silent cost savings - along with the not so silent “environmental” (aka $$ to NCL for staff & laundry) cost of washing them.  I’m with the contingent who are for reusing the towel animal towels!

[Greenpea2]

1 minute ago, erdoran said:

It takes TIME to make towel animals; time = money.  They can reduce staff if there are no more towel animals.  That’s the silent cost savings - along with the not so silent “environmental” (aka $$ to NCL for staff & laundry) cost of washing them.  I’m with the contingent who are for reusing the towel animal towels!

Me too. Ridiculous to use a new one every time. Just seems like they are more into 1) doing away with things or 2) charging for more things. Much easier for them that way.

 

[luv2kroooz]

Typical NCL hypocrisy. They're concerned about environmental impact yet they have zero liquified natural gas powered ships in the works while their ships continue to spew heavy fuel oil while out at sea. Whatta bunch of BS. I couldn't care less about the towel animals, though. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about Norwegian Cruise Lines at this point. I am so over their ridiculous current business model.

[kochleffel]

14 minutes ago, blcruising said:

Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about Norwegian Cruise Lines at this point. I am so over their ridiculous current business model.

 

Thank you for sharing.

[AdoraBelle]

Disclaimer: don’t care for the towel animals. I don’t have kids and they can really clutter up a solo studio.

 

That said, 99% of the time an “environmental” excuse is used, it actually means “we don’t want to spend money on this anymore”. 

 

Based on a lot of recent reviews ... I think they’re also having staffing problems.

[Two Wheels Only]

PETA strikes again.....

[AdoraBelle]

25 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

PETA strikes again.....

 

Reminds me of this concerning towel animal situation in the Solo halls back on GA in 2016 ...

[DZcreature]

Very cute towel animal in the studio hall! Hopefully the stewards can sneak in a few fun towel animals. One evening on our cruise last May on Gem, I told the room steward we did not need turn down service. I told him all I needed was one fresh towel, and the Freestyle Daily. He insisted on also making a towel animal since my husband and I had told him how good his were! The room stewards name was Junmar, and he did an excellent job keeping our room clean and always greeted us with a smile. These little touches make cruises fun. Especially if you have children with you. I hope they still at least make them for the families.

[ziggyuk]

There should be no environmental impact from leaving towel animals, in a land hotel they simply use the bathroom ones, extra towels are simply unnecessary.

 

There is lost time but they take seconds to make, they are a way for the cabin steward to build a rapport, I'm sure the lost time is the stewards personal free time and they are happy to give those few seconds as it helps with tips.

 

This is my favorite, but it made us jump when we turned on the light.

[tallnthensome]

My kids like the towel animals. To be honest though, we could live just fine aboard without them. The cabin stewards are already worked to death 7 days a week and I'm sure after 15 hour days they're not super excited to make towel animals every night room after room after room ........ 

[david_sobe]

8 hours ago, blcruising said:

Typical NCL hypocrisy. They're concerned about environmental impact yet they have zero liquified natural gas powered ships in the works while their ships continue to spew heavy fuel oil while out at sea. Whatta bunch of BS. I couldn't care less about the towel animals, though. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about Norwegian Cruise Lines at this point. I am so over their ridiculous current business model.

As someone else posted, IMHO the "environmental" concern is B.S.  It takes time and money to make the towel animals.  This is a decision to cut costs. They can cut staff or have them cleaning instead of making towel animals.  NCL is getting every nickel and dime they can get out of passengers AND their own workers.

 

Edited March 28, 2019 by david_sobe

[FLcruisergrl]

Oh I can’t WAIT to hear the excuse for stopping specialty restaurant room service! 🙄

[david_sobe]

I remember when Del Rio stopped the fireworks off Getaway and Breakaway due to "Safety" concerns.  Then NCL stopped people from taking food to their cabin due to "safety" concerns.  Now towel animals are an environmental concern LOL.  All of this is rubbish. Its ways to save money plain and simple.

[slugg]

8 hours ago, blcruising said:

Typical NCL hypocrisy. They're concerned about environmental impact yet they have zero liquified natural gas powered ships in the works while their ships continue to spew heavy fuel oil while out at sea. Whatta bunch of BS. I couldn't care less about the towel animals, though. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about Norwegian Cruise Lines at this point. I am so over their ridiculous current business model.

Do you have a source to support the spewing of heavy oil out at sea?

[luv2kroooz]

No, just the time I have invested learning about the differences between heavy fuel oil and liquified natural gas. Heavy fuel oil is known as the dirtiest of the dirty. So much so, that ships are being banned from burning it near shore. Educate yourself, lots of info out there.

[ziggyuk]

55 minutes ago, slugg said:

Do you have a source to support the spewing of heavy oil out at sea?

 

48 minutes ago, blcruising said:

No, just the time I have invested learning about the differences between heavy fuel oil and liquified natural gas. Heavy fuel oil is known as the dirtiest of the dirty. So much so, that ships are being banned from burning it near shore. Educate yourself, lots of info out there.

 

I think the problem is the word spewing which suggests sea pollution which I don't think you meant.

 

I live a 30 minute drive from Southampton, this is an interesting article about the size of the pollution caused once out of port:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/21/the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-and-its-supersized-pollution-problem