Beach towels

[lovestocruisesue]

Sailing on the POA around Hawaii in February. Wondering if I need to pack beach towels or the ship has them to use?

[mcmomny]

No need, NCL has blue beach towels they will let you use on ship or off!

 

Enjoy the POA, still one of our favorite cruises!

[lovestocruisesue]

Mcmommy, thank you so much! Our first time on NCL and POA. We are excited!

[bamarobbie]

Just off the Epic, beach towels are no longer provided in your cabin.  You have to go to pool deck to sign them out. Very inconvenient.

[schmoopie17]

11 minutes ago, bamarobbie said:

Just off the Epic, beach towels are no longer provided in your cabin.  You have to go to pool deck to sign them out. Very inconvenient.

Still more convenient than taking up valuable luggage space with beach towels.

[bamarobbie]

True! 😄 Don't bring them from home, for sure! I just like the convenience of having towels already in my room before going ashore. Up to deck 15 and stand in line for your towels, then down to 4 to get off ship. Then back up to deck 15 to return them. Waste of time.

[Pitzel]

On many sailings, you can check out and return your towels to a booth that is set up on the pier. Also, there have been many, many instances when we brought our pool towels back to our room (esp. when used to wrap up in after swimming) and the room stewards have always taken them to the laundry for us and saved us a trip back to the pool deck to return them.

[JGmf]

Been on many NCL ships, always saw towel distribution staff and tables on lower decks adjacent to exiting stairwell as well as on the pier itself.  They ask you to provide room number and how many towels (illusion of accountability for ensuring return). 

 

Drop them of in the giant roll off bin on pier on way back. 

 

Can't imagine POA would be different. 

[Smitheroo]

I've seen warnings that if they are returned, there is a $25 charge per towel. (you sign them out) I've seen this on all 3 ships I've been on.  I brought my own, a thinnish beach towel that served as a coverup over the top of my clothes in my suitcase. It dried very quickly  But again, one person traveling alone is a lot easier than providing towels for a family. 

[shof515]

5 hours ago, bamarobbie said:

Just off the Epic, beach towels are no longer provided in your cabin.  You have to go to pool deck to sign them out. Very inconvenient.

 

this is good for the environment and the ship. the towels will be collecting dust in your room if you dont use it . then at the end of the cruise on disembarkation day the steward will still need to exchange it for fresh for the new guest and the ones you never used will need to be rewashed. This is also why they also cut back on making towel animals, to reduce the amount of towels that go unused. I sailed on other cruise lines that do the same thing where you need to collect the towels if needed

 

4 hours ago, bamarobbie said:

True! 😄 Don't bring them from home, for sure! I just like the convenience of having towels already in my room before going ashore. Up to deck 15 and stand in line for your towels, then down to 4 to get off ship. Then back up to deck 15 to return them. Waste of time.

 

on port days they will be a makeshift towel station setup either by stairs/elevator lobby area or on the pier near the gangway. no need to get towels at the towel station by the pool deck

[BirdTravels]

16 hours ago, bamarobbie said:

Just off the Epic, beach towels are no longer provided in your cabin.  You have to go to pool deck to sign them out. Very inconvenient.

It has been that way for a while (maybe started post pandemic... maybe before). 

 

I takes all of a minute to stop at the towel stand to get towels. 

[BirdTravels]

18 hours ago, lovestocruisesue said:

Sailing on the POA around Hawaii in February. Wondering if I need to pack beach towels or the ship has them to use?

Leave your towels at home. The ship will provide you with beach towels.

 

Hawaii is a magical place. And the POA is the absolute best way to cruise the islands. You're in port every day (2 over night port calls allowing you to get out to a luau or enjoy the local foods). Have a great cruise while the rest of us are shoveling snow. 🙂 

[hallux]

41 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

maybe before)

Mid-2019.  I sailed in April and there was a towel provided in the cabin.  By October when I sailed again (on the same ship) no pool towel.  Oddly enough - the April cruise was not one where a towel was needed but the October one was...

[Laszlo]

34 minutes ago, hallux said:

Mid-2019.  I sailed in April and there was a towel provided in the cabin.  By October when I sailed again (on the same ship) no pool towel.  Oddly enough - the April cruise was not one where a towel was needed but the October one was...

 

We had fresh towels provided everyday on our cruise on the GA in the Haven last January. They also had towels out in the Haven courtyard and on the sundeck 

[G-DawgMN]

1 hour ago, Laszlo said:

 

We had fresh towels provided everyday on our cruise on the GA in the Haven last January. They also had towels out in the Haven courtyard and on the sundeck 

But the haven is special. 🙂 

[zqvol]

1 hour ago, Laszlo said:

 

We had fresh towels provided everyday on our cruise on the GA in the Haven last January. They also had towels out in the Haven courtyard and on the sundeck 

 But 95% of cruisers are never near the Heaven

Edited January 23 by zqvol

[PATRLR]

13 hours ago, Smitheroo said:

I've seen warnings that if they are returned, there is a $25 charge per towel. (you sign them out) I've seen this on all 3 ships I've been on. 

But it only takes one port day to realize the sign-out list is a farce.  You may indeed sign out towels but no one is signing it back in when you get back to the ship and are told to throw your towels into the big bin.

[Laszlo]

17 minutes ago, zqvol said:

 But 95% of cruisers are never near the Heaven

Thats a good thing Lol

[Smitheroo]

30 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

But it only takes one port day to realize the sign-out list is a farce.  You may indeed sign out towels but no one is signing it back in when you get back to the ship and are told to throw your towels into the big bin.

yes, I realized that was the case.  I brought my own, no problem

[schmoopie17]

I've signed out towels at the pool and I've also seen some towel carts when you get off the gangway at the pier. Problem is, not all port stops have the cart and you won't know if they have them on the pier until after you've checked out and gotten off the ship. If not, you have to check back in (going against the sea of humanity exiting the ship) and go all the way up to the pool deck.

 

Best strategy is to check (at the CS desk??) before any port stop in the Caribbean (or anywhere else with beaches) to see if towels will be provided at the pier.

[shoptom]

On the Sky last month there was no sign out.  Just take and return as you please.  They were also setup at every port for easy access.  The best part was seeing the worker picking towels up from the entire line of unoccupied deck chairs in the middle of a sea day.

[Smitheroo]

53 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

I've signed out towels at the pool and I've also seen some towel carts when you get off the gangway at the pier. Problem is, not all port stops have the cart and you won't know if they have them on the pier until after you've checked out and gotten off the ship. If not, you have to check back in (going against the sea of humanity exiting the ship) and go all the way up to the pool deck.

 

Best strategy is to check (at the CS desk??) before any port stop in the Caribbean (or anywhere else with beaches) to see if towels will be provided at the pier.

Or avoid all of this and just bring your own. One of the advantages of traveling alone.  A beach towel fit nicely in my suitcase. It was on the thin side so it dried quickly.  I agree, sand would be a problem. i used mine poolside

[Smitheroo]

57 minutes ago, Smitheroo said:

yes, I realized that was the case.  I brought my own, no problem

I was also thinking of the sign  out and return poolside. I have no experience with taking towels off the ship.

[UKstages]

14 hours ago, shof515 said:

This is also why they also cut back on making towel animals, to reduce the amount of towels that go unused.

 

in the haven on the gem a couple of years ago, i received towel animals every night. one day, i wandered into my cabin attendant's storage area, looking for him to ask for something or other. i was surprised to see a menagerie of premade towel animals, ones i had already received, as well as ones i would receive on subsequent nights. monkeys, elephants, rabbits, dogs... they were all there. that led me to believe that he might have been reusing some of them from cruise to cruise. not the most hygienic practice, but this would certainly cut down on cleaning of towels!

[hallux]

1 hour ago, PATRLR said:

But it only takes one port day to realize the sign-out list is a farce

Could not be more true!  Several times I had to prompt the attendant to take down my cabin number when returning.  I can't imagine having to filter through the lists of handwritten cabin numbers to figure out who picked up and returned towels...