Towel bands?

[ruru107]

Towel bands: Are they really necessary or not? First time cruiser here, not sure if I should run out and buy some towel bands.

[sparks1093]

Since I've never heard of them I'm going to guess they aren't strictly necessary as we've gotten along without them.

 

[ldubs]

Approaching 40 cruises.  Maybe more than 40, I don't know.   

 

Never heard of a towel band.   Like Sparks1093, I don't think I would worry about it.   

[ruru107]

To clarify, they are like towel clips, to hold your towel to your chair. But if y'all say there is no need, I won't worry about it!

[Mum2Mercury]

Absolutely not necessary, but useful on a minor level.  

 

Someone gave me a set of the clips, and I keep them in my pool bag ... if they suddenly disappeared, I probably wouldn't replace them.  They do identify your chair in a sea of identical chairs, and they do prevent the wind from blowing your towel over into your face ... but that's not really a big problem.  

 

Pictures snagged from Amazon:  

Edited February 16, 2023 by Mum2Mercury

[Woody14]

it is one of those things that some people love some could care less.     I was never a fan of towel clips so I bought some towel bands as I thought that would be better.   so far I have only used them once and for me it wasn't worth it.     I guess I don't care if my towel slips down my chair.

 

[Ferry_Watcher]

One more tool in the bag of tricks of chair hogs.

 

Poolside staff might be reluctant to remove a seemingly abandon beach towel from a long time empty chair if it is attached with personal clips.  

Edited February 16, 2023 by Ferry_Watcher

[CruisingWalter]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:58 PM, ruru107 said:

To clarify, they are like towel clips, to hold your towel to your chair. But if y'all say there is no need, I won't worry about it!

 

Useful when the ship is at sea and it's quite windy. They are nice, we have the Shark Bands from *. Especially for the bottom of the towel to keep it from flipping around onto your legs. Clips are great to hold the top of the towel, but the bands on the both ends of the towel are really nice. Not entirely necessary though. 

[Aquahound]

I didn't know what they were either.  I guess those are nice to have, but no way would I say they're necessary.  

[ldubs]

On 2/15/2023 at 1:58 PM, ruru107 said:

To clarify, they are like towel clips, to hold your towel to your chair. But if y'all say there is no need, I won't worry about it!

 

Well, now that I know what they are I can see how they could be useful.   I personally have not had issues with towels and lounge chairs, so won't be adding them to my packing list.   

[Reina del Mar]

They take less room in your suitcase than towel pegs. We bought ours on Amazon.

However, on a windy January day in Tenerife the back if the seat dropped forward and the towel band split apart. As we were just experimenting with them, we’d taken towel pegs too. 

[Mum2Mercury]

On 2/18/2023 at 1:01 AM, ldubs said:

Well, now that I know what they are I can see how they could be useful.   I personally have not had issues with towels and lounge chairs, so won't be adding them to my packing list.   

It is a tiny issue.  If someone hadn't given me the towel clips, I never would have bought them.  More than keeping towels in place, they make it easy to find your chair in a sea of identical-colored towels.  But they are far, far from a need.  

[Sigyn]

I bring towel clips because they double as clothes pins to dry things on the chairs on the balcony without them blowing off in the wind.

[Cruise Kay]

Definitely not necessary. I've cruised many times and never use them. On super windy days when the towels are blowing everywhere, I fold my towel and stack my beach bag and flip-flops on top of it to hold it down while I go swimming. When I come back my towel is still sitting there. While I'm actually lying on my towel even on a windy day, just tucking it into the slats of the lounge chair and lying on it does the trick. 

[Longford]

On 2/15/2023 at 2:21 PM, ruru107 said:

Towel bands: Are they really necessary or not? First time cruiser here, not sure if I should run out and buy some towel bands.

 

I was a first-time solo cruiser in November 2022.  I bought towel bands to bring with me, and think they were important to my enjoying sitting in the loungers ... because the towels didn't slip and fall.  Some people had towel clips, but I liked the bands.

[Longford]

On 2/16/2023 at 11:59 AM, Ferry_Watcher said:

One more tool in the bag of tricks of chair hogs.  

 

Sounds like someone who doesn't know what they are, and how many people use them and/or the clips.

[Ferry_Watcher]

10 hours ago, Longford said:

Sounds like someone who doesn't know what they are, and how many people use them and/or the clips.

 

Agree that they are perfect for the beach, but could have dubious uses on a cruise ship filled with vacationers, many who may all want one of the limited lounge chairs by the pool.

 

IMO, what the cruise lines would really hate is if these beach towel clips became 'a thing', and all of a sudden all returning cruisers brought towel clips for the loungers because on the previous cruise many of the chairs were 'saved' by fellow passengers by the use of towel clips.  As a result of that, now more and more cruisers believe that they need to have these clips.

 

Let me share a story - my town (we nick-named it Bedford Falls)) has a wonderful 4th of July parade.  For decades, you could drop off your chair along the parade route around 7 am on the morning of the parade, then at  11am, return to your chair, and the kids would sit on the curb (easier to grab the candy thrown from the floats).  Then a few years ago my neighbor called me the night before the parade and asked if I got our chairs out.  I said 'no', and she told be that I should as all the spaces were nearly filled up.  What?  What had started as a few folks bucking the norms of getting the best spots along the parade route, morphed into this crazy run on getting chairs out earlier and earlier (up to 36 hours before the parade, which included spots in front of business and people's homes).  Finally, it got so out of control that the city actually had to step in (asked by both small business and homeowners who had to deal with all these chairs in front of their property), and the city decided that now chairs can be placed out at starting 7 pm on July 3rd.  Now all the spaces are gone by 7:30 PM on the 3rd.  This of course means that if you wanted to wait until the day of the parade to decide if you wanted to go, you could, but you would have to stand for the 2 hours of the parade

 

Anyway, it's a cautionary tale, and gives insight to how I view such things.

On a personal note, living in the PNW, we have so little sun that I am not use to lots of sun, so while I may enjoy seeing it, and like the 70-80 degrees of warmth, loungers are not my thing, but I know that they are important to others.  That said, it would be nice that loungers are available throughout the day, and not held/saved for long periods of time.

[Longford]

Lounge chairs are plentiful, not just at the pool or in the Sun.  I sat in the shade and towel bands helped me avoid the annoyance of towels constantly slipping down/ off the chairs - especially when lounge chairs are so close together.

[cruisegirl1]

I like the towel bands and use them for every cruise and also on land beach vacations.  They take up NO room in luggage, help identify the chairs, keep the towel in place,  fit on most every type of lounge chair and don't snap off.

 

M