Do you bring your own beach towels on the cruise?

[VASOXFANN]

We do, just because we often plan our own shore excursions or just go to local beaches. We just pack one beach towel each so we don't have to deal with the hassle and crowds of checking out towels when in port.

[robanddiane]

Normally we would have no problem with the towel exchange on board other than the fact our towels were checked back in as required and when we got home we found out that a 50 dollar charge had been added to our account. On posting on here about it quite a few others had the same problem. The annoying thing is it was added after our final bill was posted into our cabin before departure. Genuine mistake or rip off we will never know but the fact lots of others had the problem makes me think rip off. We will now just take our own as it took calls to customer services to get resolved and also got a worse exchange rate on the refund so still out of pocket.

[cjdixon4]

Oh, but it most certainly is a big deal when a company sends an insulting message to its customers and treats them as suspected thieves.

 

It is an especially noticeable "big deal" when you have just been on another cruise line that treats its passengers as welcome guests and provides towels that are readily available. You just help yourself to as many towels as you need, whenever you want them, and toss them into a bin when you are through with them.

 

Then you come over to a cruise line that has an in-your-face policy of blatantly informing you that you are not to be trusted with their towels and need to check them out if you want to use them.

 

What next? Will they be requiring their passengers to check out the silverware before each meal?

 

 

 

 

C'mon, really?!? Just take the towels that you need. Scan your seapass. Give them back when you're done. That's not much to ask. Would you rather pay $25 bucks for a piece of terrycloth?

[J & G]

We have several beach-y towels that are not bulky so we could pack them (although they still take up a decent amount of room). I am wondering if there is a reason to bring them. I realize that you can get your own towels for the pool (although is this a hassle?) but what about leaving the ship for beach days? Is there a reason why you would want to have your own?

 

We have large travel towels that are made of something like faux chamois material. They fold up small and light, and dry quickly. We like them because we hate schlepping around heavy, wet towels after shore excursions. These are not heavy when rung out, even while still wet. Just our own preference.....we've done it both ways (ship towels vs. travel towels) and we love our travel towels! Also, we can identify them at the pool....

[mek]

I think the best thing to use on the beach is a queen size sheet. It's large, cool on the skin, dries quickly, and doesn't take up much room in a suitcase or beach bag.

[wassup4565]

We bring our own. After all the stories I've read here about people being charged for towels they never stole, I can't be bothered with the anxiety of keeping track of an RCI beach towel.

[UNV-IT!!!]

Yes I bring a set.then usually have them launder them.

[NanciRDH]

We never bring our own, dealing with the ships towels just isn't that big of a deal. And I've got 5 people to worry about. We usually swap out some of them as we leave the pool for the day so we have fresh for the next day. You're allowed 2 per seapass, so you can have one wet, one dry per person. Once we're back in the room getting ready, I'll usually send the one of the older kids back up with the wet ones to swap out if needed, and the last,night she will go with all of them and the seapasses to turn them all in. We've never lost a towel.

 

DCL does provide free towels, but they're not the nice ones you'll get with RCI...they're small and thin. Not worth stealing, lol. And not long enough to go around the Pooh shaped guests. :rolleyes:

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Never did just towel clips...

[alaska_planner]

i'm used to disney ships - take as many towels as you like....no sea pass, no penalties..

 

i think i might bring beach towels with us for our excusions......

 

$25 for a towel if i don't return it? i can buy a towel much cheaper than that, so i'm sure RCCL can as well...no way does a towel cost them $25....probably not even $5.....

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We always use the ship towels. It is a minor inconvenience to get towels if we are trying to do that at a busy time. We have learned to go to the pool deck in the evening to exchange our dirty towels for clean ones and bring them back to the room. Then we can use them without any wait the next day.

 

On our last cruise we noticed a charge for towels on our bill that they put under the door on the last night. We went down to GS and they took it right off. [we always check this before we leave the ship]

[Shak]

I bring my own mostly because I don't like to carry a bulky beach towel. I pack an Eagle Creek Travel Towel in medium (they offer other sizes). This towel is compact and will dry quickly. There are plenty of other brands but the Eagle Creek towel is more like a regular towel than a shammy.

 

Shak

 

http://www.ebags.com/product/eagle-creek/travel-towel-medium/54748

[alaska_planner]

I bring my own mostly because I don't like to carry a bulky beach towel. I pack an Eagle Creek Travel Towel in medium (they offer other sizes). This towel is compact and will dry quickly. There are plenty of other brands but the Eagle Creek towel is more like a regular towel than a shammy.

 

Shak

 

http://www.ebags.com/product/eagle-creek/travel-towel-medium/54748

 

 

nice! thanks for the link! i might get a couple of those for the cruise.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

We just sailed on the Oasis a few weeks ago and in Labadee, they did have a "towel return station" on the pier before we got back on the ship. It was nice to have right there, but it did clog up the pier more than usual towards the end of the day. I think RCCL would like to have these stations but logistically, it might not work for every port day. Just my own thoughts :)

They also had a return station set up in Cozumel. The only difference was the station on Labadee was on the dock, the one in Cozumel was on board (immediately after the seapass scanners, but before the escalators).

 

I didn't notice one at Falmouth, but we didn't take towels off the ship.

[iCruise717]

They also had a return station set up in Cozumel. The only difference was the station on Labadee was on the dock, the one in Cozumel was on board (immediately after the seapass scanners, but before the escalators).

 

I didn't notice one at Falmouth, but we didn't take towels off the ship.

 

I didn't see the one in Cozumel but I wasn't really looking :rolleyes:

[NJcruisenewbie]

I think checking towels in/out is very easy. My one recommendation, if you want to be one of the 1st groups off the ship at a port, is to get them the night before. Once the ship has docked the towel line at the pool can be pretty long.

[OCruisers]

Absolutely no way we'd bring our own!

So would NOT enjoy having to deal with wet and sometimes sandy beach towels. :rolleyes:

 

LuLu

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[LuvBNatC]

My cabinmate packed a beach towel for our recent Brilliance cruise and took it with her every day on shore excursions, even after it started getting funky...

 

But then came that excursion on a small boat, where she hung her trusty towel up somewhere on deck to dry. When it blew off, she got to wish it bon voyage as it gently floated away across the water.

 

After that, she was using ship's towels.

 

I'd hate to sacrifice precious suitcase space for a towel I wouldn't want to use after a few days of it soaking up seawater and sunscreen.

[DonnaK]

I think the best thing to use on the beach is a queen size sheet. It's large, cool on the skin, dries quickly, and doesn't take up much room in a suitcase or beach bag.

 

This is what we use when we go to the beaches at home! I agree that it works great!

[Shak]

nice! thanks for the link! i might get a couple of those for the cruise.

 

While this towel is very compact it does take up a small amount of space in either your luggage or carry on. I don't conceder it any big deal but that is me. It is also a good idea to take some cleaning product like CampSuds to wash it and any other clothing item for that matter. You can buy CampSuds at most camping/outdoor store. Wal-Mart also sell a generic version. CampSuds is a concentrated cleaning detergent many campers use. The 2oz version is perfect for travel.

 

If you mostly go on snorkel trips you may also want to consider those towels you see Olympic divers use. They are not much bigger than a wash cloth but they do dry you off. I have a Speedo Sports Towel also and it is shammy like.

 

Shak

http://www.amazon.com/Speedo-753528-004-Sports-Towel/dp/B000FH1G24/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

http://www.amazon.com/Sierra-Dawn-Campsuds-8oz/dp/B00194BOJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372281669&sr=8-1&keywords=campsuds

[Cruzin RN]

We usually use ship towels, but last cruise we saw some very cool, reasonable beach towels in St thomas and bought them to use on our next beach day. It was nice having larger, thicker ones and we had towels to bring home!!! They were not hard to pack, not any more sandy than our beach shoes... Dried nicely on our balcony.

[reallyitsmema]

We usually use ship towels, but last cruise we saw some very cool, reasonable beach towels in St thomas and bought them to use on our next beach day. It was nice having larger, thicker ones and we had towels to bring home!!! They were not hard to pack, not any more sandy than our beach shoes... Dried nicely on our balcony.

Yuck. I wonder how many people pawed over those towels in the store before you used them. We stick with the ship towels that hopefully, have been laundered with really hot water.

[akcruz]

We just sailed on the Oasis a few weeks ago and in Labadee, they did have a "towel return station" on the pier before we got back on the ship. It was nice to have right there, but it did clog up the pier more than usual towards the end of the day. I think RCCL would like to have these stations but logistically, it might not work for every port day. Just my own thoughts :)

 

We were on Allure last week and they also had the towel return as you boarded in each port. However, we never used it as we wanted to trade in our wet ones for dry and you could not do that there, only return. Maybe they are starting to listening to us!

 

We are in the camp of check out at the beginning of the cruise and swap out for clean dry ones as needed. No reason to take up my luggage space. Yes it does take a bit more effort, but mot enough to make it a hassle.

[LuvBNatC]

My druthers would be as it was on NCL (haven't sailed with them lately, so I don't know if/how this has changed). Clean beach towel in the cabin every day. If you use it, you return it to the cabin and it's replaced. Just like a bath towel.

 

Why did they decide to make beach towels so complicated?

 

Karen

[mommabean]

I always take my own towel. It's not about checking them out. I don't want to carry a thick heavy towel off the ship in port. I bring a large but thin and lightweight towel that rolls up very small. And I don't get sand on my towel so it's never a mess to pack. We rent lounge chairs and I rinse off before drying. Easy. :)

 

Gina