NCL Star - towel animals - the rest of the story

[minniemulticar]

I have to be honest- I am devastated by this decision.

I have a photo of every towel animal that I have ever received.

I think this is outrageous.

The gratuities were just raised and the service is diminishing?!?!

 I do have 2 cruise booked already, but  I will look elsewhere to book in the future.

 

 

 

[newmexicoNita]

15 minutes ago, minniemulticar said:

I have to be honest- I am devastated by this decision.

I have a photo of every towel animal that I have ever received.

I think this is outrageous.

The gratuities were just raised and the service is diminishing?!?!

 I do have 2 cruise booked already, but  I will look elsewhere to book in the future.

 

 

 

so you think this is simply a move to save money, well, none of us know that, but it does take time to make the cute little guys. Has it dawned on you how much soap is wasted, how many towels have to be washed and what this does to our environment? I am anything but "a safe the environment" freak, but let's think about our waters if nothing else. Have you been reading about what is happening to our oceans lately? It will not affect you or us either, but think about future generations. Towel animals are cute, we all love them, but I would imagine about 1 in 10 million cruisers would think about changing cruise lines based on towels in cabin. 

[minniemulticar]

No, I don’t think about the logistics of running a successful vacation business.

 

I do think about higher fees and decreased services.

 

 

That is what I take issue with.

 

 

I am positive I am not the only one that sees this as a negative.

 

 

Another approach that they could have taken is eliminating the pool towels. 

I never use them, I bring my own, so that it coordinates with my accessories.

 

 

[ColeThornton]

1 hour ago, minniemulticar said:

I have to be honest- I am devastated by this decision.

I have a photo of every towel animal that I have ever received.

I think this is outrageous.

The gratuities were just raised and the service is diminishing?!?!

 I do have 2 cruise booked already, but  I will look elsewhere to book in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

Devastated and outraged?    You're joking, right?

[spanishguy1970]

On 3/28/2019 at 6:45 AM, david_sobe said:

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.

Amen and Hallelujah to that. The next thing to go would be the liquid soap, bring your own damn soap LOL

[minniemulticar]

I already bring my own shower gel. 

 

[minniemulticar]

9 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

 

Devastated and outraged?    You're joking, right?

Nope.

 

Totally disgusted.

 

[ziggyuk]

This could so easily be solved at no cost or damage to the environment.

 

A simple laminated card is leant against the towel animal saying it is constructed from bathroom towels and to deconstruct when the towels are needed.

If the instruction then said turn card over and leave on bed if towel animals are not needed, the other side saying "No towel animal please."

 

Simple, just like the card you leave on your bed in a hotel if you don't need the sheets changing.

 

Those who like them are happy, those that don't are happy, the steward is happy as they get tips from the lovers and no damage to the seas.

Edited April 3, 2019 by ziggyuk

[minniemulticar]

Just now, ziggyuk said:

This could so easily be solved at no cost or damage to the environment.

 

A simple laminated card it leant against the towel animal saying it is constructed from bathroom towels and to deconstruct when the towels are needed.

If the instruction then said turn card over and leave on bed if towel animals are not needed, the other side saying "No towel animal please."

 

Simple, just like the card you leave on your bed in a hotel if you don't need the sheets changing.

 

Those who like them are happy, those that don't are happy, the steward is happy as they get tips from the lovers and no damage to the seas.

Sounds like a great compromise!

[ziggyuk]

4 minutes ago, minniemulticar said:

Sounds like a great compromise!

 

They should be head hunting me right away!

 

Seriously, I worked in operations all my life, it was my job to introduce new working practices, policies and products with minimum disruption to the business and customers. It makes me wonder if anyone at NCL ever thinks these policies through, it appears to me they just test the level of backlash and reverse if it's not popular, It is no way to run a business!

[JamieLogical]

17 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

This could so easily be solved at no cost or damage to the environment.

 

A simple laminated card is leant against the towel animal saying it is constructed from bathroom towels and to deconstruct when the towels are needed.

If the instruction then said turn card over and leave on bed if towel animals are not needed, the other side saying "No towel animal please."

 

Simple, just like the card you leave on your bed in a hotel if you don't need the sheets changing.

 

Those who like them are happy, those that don't are happy, the steward is happy as they get tips from the lovers and no damage to the seas.

 

This seems like a really great compromise.

[MichaelCMTX]

OK, it had to be shared.  Nobody found this towel animal until a middle-of-the-night semi-drunken bathroom trip.  After seeing this, really no point seeing another towel animal, it'll never be topped.

As DW said "Good thing I was already sitting down, otherwise I'd have had an accident!!"  

Edited April 3, 2019 by MichaelCMTX

[spanishguy1970]

2 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

They should be head hunting me right away!

 

Seriously, I worked in operations all my life, it was my job to introduce new working practices, policies and products with minimum disruption to the business and customers. It makes me wonder if anyone at NCL ever thinks these policies through, it appears to me they just test the level of backlash and reverse if it's not popular, It is no way to run a business!

The thing is this, is about supply and demand. When NCL loses customers, less bookings then maybe they will care about things like this, so far they have not gotten any backlash. The implemented a charge for room service and people said Amen to that, they starting charging service charges for their " free beverage perk" and people said Amen to that, they raise their daily service charge every year and we continue to say Amen to that. I am waiting for the cruise bubble to burst and maybe we will see more appreciation for the customer. IMHO....

[Sauer-kraut]

6 hours ago, MichaelCMTX said:

 

 

I would lost 10 years of my life if I walked in to that!

Edited April 3, 2019 by Sauer-kraut

[richstowe]

On 3/28/2019 at 4:33 AM, tallnthensome said:

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 ........ 

Good point except this being NCL , my sneaking suspicion is that each steward will be assigned one more cabin .

On 3/28/2019 at 7:57 AM, kochleffel said:

Signing out of this thread. Too much anger about everything.

Please , you can't do that with your profile picture . 😉

On 3/29/2019 at 10:57 AM, ziggyuk said:

 

Zero extra towels if they use the fresh ones from the bathroom, just like land hotels do.

There may be a sanitation issue here . I'm not sure you can/should be putting reused towels on peoples beds . 

On 4/2/2019 at 5:46 AM, pcakes122 said:

Unpopular opinion here, but I am happy about this change.  I usually travel solo, I'm disabled AND I'm a neat freak.  Every night coming back to my cabin it has been a chore to get the towel animal off the bed and to another flat surface without it falling apart (because I don't want to hurt the room steward's feelings - another reason I don't ask them to please stop.)  Ultimately, my cabin winds up FULL of towel animals which is just clutter to me and drives me a little crazy. 🙂

 

Again, I know I could have asked the stewards to stop, but it just seemed like they took time to create them and leave them for me, and I didn't want to disappoint them by acting like I didn't appreciate it.  I DID appreciate the gesture, just not the extra work  (If you are not disabled, you won't understand that trying to "save them" actually took effort) or clutter.

Honestly pcakes , you will NOT be hurting their feeling by asking them to do less work especially if that's what you want . 

[lanceholt]

On 3/28/2019 at 7:57 AM, kochleffel said:

Signing out of this thread. Too much anger about everything.

Thank you, my thoughts exactly.  

 

[newmexicoNita]

On 4/3/2019 at 12:12 PM, MichaelCMTX said:

OK, it had to be shared.  Nobody found this towel animal until a middle-of-the-night semi-drunken bathroom trip.  After seeing this, really no point seeing another towel animal, it'll never be topped.

As DW said "Good thing I was already sitting down, otherwise I'd have had an accident!!"  

sober and early in the evening would be really funny: 1/2 blasted, after midnight pretty scary. Thanks for sharing. 

[newmexicoNita]

On 4/3/2019 at 2:55 PM, spanishguy1970 said:

The thing is this, is about supply and demand. When NCL loses customers, less bookings then maybe they will care about things like this, so far they have not gotten any backlash. The implemented a charge for room service and people said Amen to that, they starting charging service charges for their " free beverage perk" and people said Amen to that, they raise their daily service charge every year and we continue to say Amen to that. I am waiting for the cruise bubble to burst and maybe we will see more appreciation for the customer. IMHO....

and now RCI has added a charge for room service. I do not like the charges for most of what is added yearly but compared to most land vacations it is still a bargain. I am shocked at what drinks cost as well, but that is the going price and we keep paying for it. If people notice, the ships are still going out full or close, the stock on all cruise lines goes up more than down and if any line was losing money you wouldn't see this. Heck what about a soda in a fast food restaurant, talk about mark up, but people still pay the price. Now, back to the towel animals, I still can't not believe anyone would make a big deal out of whether they are in the room once during a cruise, twice, nightly or not at all. Come on people, life is too short to dwell on such issues. 

[Coffeechic11]

I was saddened to hear that the towel animals were going away. We enjoyed going back to our room just to see what animal we were made. We have photos of them all. If the guests used the towels in the morning it wouldn't create any additional waste because they would need to be washed anyway.

[spanishguy1970]

4 hours ago, newmexicoNita said:

and now RCI has added a charge for room service. I do not like the charges for most of what is added yearly but compared to most land vacations it is still a bargain. I am shocked at what drinks cost as well, but that is the going price and we keep paying for it. If people notice, the ships are still going out full or close, the stock on all cruise lines goes up more than down and if any line was losing money you wouldn't see this. Heck what about a% soda in a fast food restaurant, talk about mark up, but people still pay the price. Now, back to the towel animals, I still can't not believe anyone would make a big deal out of whether they are in the room once during a cruise, twice, nightly or not at all. Come on people, life is too short to dwell on such issues. 

no one is making a big deal about it, but people are entitled to feel how they feel. What you may see as idiotic some people may see it as part of their vacation. I for one don't need to drink to have a good time therefore i don't need the drinking package, if i want a drink i buy it pay the 20 % service charge and move on, others see cruising as an open border to drink as much as they want when they want because they see it as being on Vacation. The whole point is that there are little things that some people enjoy whether it was the chocolate on their bed, the towels, the room service ( for free) if you don't feel well, the movies on your tv, each person is not the same, so if someone likes to see the animal towels in their stateroom and they see it as being part of their cruise experience it needs to be respected. Is as simple as that.

[newmexicoNita]

4 minutes ago, spanishguy1970 said:

no one is making a big deal about it, but people are entitled to feel how they feel. What you may see as idiotic some people may see it as part of their vacation. I for one don't need to drink to have a good time therefore i don't need the drinking package, if i want a drink i buy it pay the 20 % service charge and move on, others see cruising as an open border to drink as much as they want when they want because they see it as being on Vacation. The whole point is that there are little things that some people enjoy whether it was the chocolate on their bed, the towels, the room service ( for free) if you don't feel well, the movies on your tv, each person is not the same, so if someone likes to see the animal towels in their stateroom and they see it as being part of their cruise experience it needs to be respected. Is as simple as that.

you have a right to your view and opinion and I have a right to mine. I can see getting upset about some things, to me, it is still over reacting when people start saying how they are devastated over this. As for the room service charge, Heck hotels do the same or even charge more, but I do understand people being upset about that, towel animals, absolutely over reacting in my opinion and I don't care what the reason is: saving money or saving extra work for everyone. I can remember when there were no towel animals. How many of you go back that far? We thought they were darling the first time we cruised on a ship that had them. We still smile when we walk into the cabin and see what is on our bed this time but no way, with all the other things worth worrying about would I let something like that bother me.  . 

[spanishguy1970]

3 minutes ago, newmexicoNita said:

you have a right to your view and opinion and I have a right to mine. I can see getting upset about some things, to me, it is still over reacting when people start saying how they are devastated over this. As for the room service charge, Heck hotels do the same or even charge more, but I do understand people being upset about that, towel animals, absolutely over reacting in my opinion and I don't care what the reason is: saving money or saving extra work for everyone. I can remember when there were no towel animals. How many of you go back that far? We thought they were darling the first time we cruised on a ship that had them. We still smile when we walk into the cabin and see what is on our bed this time but no way, with all the other things worth worrying about would I let something like that bother me.  . 

again that is you, and you are entitled to your opinion, just like others are entitled to theirs. You make it seem like your way should be the way everyone should feel, and i am telling you that's fine FOR YOU and you need to understand that for others it may not be the same way and that is ok too...

Edited April 6, 2019 by spanishguy1970

[newmexicoNita]

6 minutes ago, spanishguy1970 said:

again that is you, and you are entitled to your opinion, just like others are entitled to theirs. You make it seem like your way should be the way everyone should feel, and i am telling you that's fine FOR YOU and you need to understand that for others it may not be the same way and that is ok too...

of course it is ok, but you are missing my point as well: anyone can complain about anything but soe things are must not worth complaining about. Heck there is a whole other thread on this. Most people are just making jokes about them disappearing. 😉

[spanishguy1970]

3 minutes ago, newmexicoNita said:

of course it is ok, but you are missing my point as well: anyone can complain about anything but soe things are must not worth complaining about. Heck there is a whole other thread on this. Most people are just making jokes about them disappearing. 😉

oh boy!!! i will let you have the last word. Happy cruising.

[Greenpea2]

3 hours ago, spanishguy1970 said:

no one is making a big deal about it, but people are entitled to feel how they feel. What you may see as idiotic some people may see it as part of their vacation. I for one don't need to drink to have a good time therefore i don't need the drinking package, if i want a drink i buy it pay the 20 % service charge and move on, others see cruising as an open border to drink as much as they want when they want because they see it as being on Vacation. The whole point is that there are little things that some people enjoy whether it was the chocolate on their bed, the towels, the room service ( for free) if you don't feel well, the movies on your tv, each person is not the same, so if someone likes to see the animal towels in their stateroom and they see it as being part of their cruise experience it needs to be respected. Is as simple as that.

Well said. There is just way too much judging going on here. People are allowed their feelings whether or not someone else feels the same way. Being respectful of that shouldn’t be so hard to do.