When guests retire to their cabins after a day of shore excursions or onboard activities, there is usually a pleasant surprise awaiting them.
In one of cruising’s most charming traditions, there is often an adorable towel animal (or sometimes an entire menagerie) on their beds – carefully created by their cabin stewards.
Now, those cute and cuddly tokens may be in jeopardy, thanks to environmentalists who maintain they waste water because they have to be washed.
Norwegian Cruise Line, known for its amazing new ships and specialty dining, is trialling the removal of towel animals on some ships as well as reducing the number of times cabin stewards make them.
The only time you’ll get them is if you ask.
A spokesperson from the line said, “We are committed to being a responsible corporate citizen by fostering a culture of awareness and respect for our world’s resources. Our mission is to continually improve our sustainability culture through fresh innovation, progressive education and open collaboration.
“As such, from time to time we explore opportunities to expand our efforts. In this instance, we are assessing the impact of reducing the number of towel animals we showcase aboard a few of our ships. We understand that many of our guests enjoy them as part of the experience of cruising with us so towel animals remain available upon request.”
Family oriented cruise companies like P&O, Carnival Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Disney Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean are famed for them and it is believed that Carnival was the first to pioneer the craft.
It is unclear of the origin of the famed towel animal but it has become a time honoured cruise tradition and the stewards fashion animals like turtles, dogs, snakes, kangaroos, monkeys, dinosaurs, elephants, crocodiles, rabbits and more.
Cruise Passenger put the question to our Facebook group and asked whether they supported the move.
Billie Joe posted a picture of a rabbit from his cruise saying: “You know you’re on a cruise when you find the little critters around your cabin. Won’t be the same without them.”
Others like Freda Williams reflected on the impact that the towel animals might have on the environment.
“I love them and I get the impression the stewards get pleasure from making them. I hadn’t ever thought of the laundry aspect,” she wrote.
Robert and Ann Furber said that while the towel animals were fun, the cabin stewards already had enough on their plate.
Here’s a look at some of Cruise Passenger’s reader’s towel animals:
Just another platform for the dull minded greenies to waste their time and breath our clean air.They are not worthy of being on our planet to criticize every little whim that flashes thu their pint size pea brain.
For all u do gooders. in closing, just
Get a life and enjoy all that most people have never experienced.
OMG!! Greenies at work again, if they had their way we’d all be back in the caveman days. If they want to live like that then do it but don’t push your ridiculous ideas on to us normal people. We loved the towel recreations we kept them all the whole trip didn’t use them at all amazing talents by the awesome crews we had on all four cruises we have done. Get a life Greenies & leave us normal people alone to live our lives as we wish!!
We appreciate seeing the towel animals and it is a pleasure to return to your room and see them there, a nice touch at the end of the day!
Also as the towels are clean they can be folded afterwards and be used in the bathroom so no more extra laundry required.
P & O cruises are brilliant in their presentation of towel creations , not just animals and put on a great show for children and everyone cruising. Time the Greenies looked at something more constructive to justify their salaries !!
How many cruises do these stupid, mindless Greens go on?. They need a bloody life. I love the little towel animals. Talk about idiots , maybe someone should shove them over the deck so they can play with the sea life.
I agree with what everyone has said.
why don’t the miserable greens just find
a deserted island with no electricity or running
water and leave the rest of us alone
see how long they last!!
The towels are cute
Not a good idea,keep the Animals ignore the greenies.My grandchildren love the Animals at bedtime.
This surely is a joke. One only has to consider the difference not washing a few towels makes as a percentage of the overall energy consumption of a cruise to see what nonsense this argument is. If this really is an environmentalist concern, be prepared for CRUISES THEMSELVES to be the eventual target.
Please don’t ban these towel animals..after a day out on an excursion and you come back tired..they are a welcoming sight to behold..
This is pure BS, we took our daughter on a Royal Caribbean cruise for her 40th birthday, although she has been in the Royal Australian Navy for 22 years this was her first (civilian) cruise.
When we went back to the cabin the evening of her birthday there was a towel birthday cake on her bed, she was so excited it was like seeing a 1 year old with their first birthday cake.
I know she loved the cruise but she will never forget the elaborate towel birthday cake.
Once nice again the majority suffer because the minority’s scream the loudest like spoilt, nasty over privileged children.
I love the animals. Tell the Greenies to get lost. My towel gets used a few times and so far I have not contracted any disease from using it.
Love the towel animals. It’s part of the cruise experience and wouldn’t be the same without them.
Hurrah! I cannot abide those idiotic waste of time. Just clean the cabin and be gone. I usually just politely destroy the first one if I forget to tell them not to leave any in my cabin. Certainly do not use any of my possessions in doing so. I think it is crazy to stop and a lot of people like it they can use the towels before they are taken away. Just me personally not my thing.
How dare the greens to try and dictate what we can and can’t do they are in the same basket as the vegans who invade farms and restaurants demanding we don’t eat meat I don’t harass them so don’t harass me if you don’t want towel animals tick a box if you don’t want to eat meat don’t my grandchildren loved the towel animals and so do I they are part and parcel of cruising hand off the towel animals
Come on . Wake up and smell the coffee or as my father used to say ” follow the money trail ” This has nothing to do with greenies or the environment AND everything to do with saving costs :
1 the cost of laundry
2 the cost of stewards time
Watch this space when the over all number of stewards are reduced in the laundry on board and servicing cabins.
Does the line have a cash flow problem ? I note gratuatory charges are increaing at the same time they are reducing service. ” show me the money “
It is one of the things I look forward to when going back to my cabin wondering what surprise I will get and always photograph then it’s an art and so cleverly done how stupid to want to ban them been on many cruises and as I say a lovely surprise pat presch
We cruise with Holland america and we leave the towel animal in our room to be transformed into another amazing animal the next night…no laundry required and love the talent ..
I love the towel animals they the almost exciting thing you see them on your bed at night in your cabin I like to take photo of them on the bed at night when go on cruise on one cruise I went the cabin strewards made a special towel animals it was dolphin towel I was so surprised when I saw that took a photo of it I still have the photo of it they the most amazing animals they make I had elephant towel on princess cruise ship and a towel hippo . please keep the towel animals are good. they make my cruise a special when you see them.
Greenies are bloody STUPID
Don’t need to say more
I love finding the towel animals on the bed after a long days excursion. As usual the Greens are trying to wreck the enjoyment of anyone who appears to have fun or enjoy little things that don’t cause harm to anyone. As one person said, the water is from the desal, and just goes back to the sea, greenies should know all about that, after making Australians pay billions of dollars for un-needed desal plants on shore! But then, they are tightwads who just spend their money on lattes! As far as tipping, Aussies will tip if they think they have received good service, but still believe the crew should be paid an honest wage, not American slave wages from a country that is supposed to be a democracy and free.
I agree with everyone above. the animals are a special loving touch & to walk into your cabin and see the animals just instantly brings a smile to your dial, no matter how tired you are. I cruised on Princess 2 years ago, as much as a great time I had, it was disappointing to find nothing on the bed at the end of each day.
“TELL THOSE BLOODY GREENIES TO SOD OFF AND MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS!!!” Majority of people use the towel instead of the fresh ones but if you’re like me I would use the same towel for 3 days before discarding it. Don’t take away peoples small pleasure while on holiday and DON’T LET THE GREENS DICTATE TO YOU WHAT YOU DO ON “YOUR” SHIP. They **** up everything they stick their noses into, just like they do in Australia, If they don’t like it then they can always leave the ship and GO HOME or just don’t go at all. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO MAKE PEOPLE AS MISERABLE AS THEY ARE!!!!!!
Yes, once again the minority rules. Our green friends are most probably too mean to spend the money on a cruise in case they enjoy themselves.
What a lot of nonsense. We cruise regularly and love the way the towels are presented. As for extra towels and extra washing – piffle. The do not create extra washing, only if you ask for it. How sad is the life of a greenie these days. Drive battery powered cars – they forget you need electricity to power the batteries. Can’t have coal fired power stations – where do they think the power is going to come from to get these cars on the road. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. apart from the fact that if Australia fell off the map of the world noting would change – we don’t create enough greenhouse gasses to even register. They should be called the “Object to everything ” party.
Lets get this straight about towel animals, 1st & last day of a cruise would be enough for the average passenger, they are a nice thought but I would not stop cruising if the animal towels we’re discontinued, as for the water wastage that the so called do-gooders (the Greens) are worried about, its my belief that all the water at sea is via filtration from the sea any how and the waste I would assume goes back into the sea, so where is the problem !!!!
As for gratuities isn’t it time the crew were paid a reasonable wage and not made depend on tax payers from other countries to cover the deficit. Australians tip for a job well done or for someone who goes over & beyond the call of duty.
What a load of cod’s wallop about the towels I think it’s a great novelty to come into your cabin at night and see the effort the cabin boys or girls have put into doing these animals
I don’t care if you publish my email if I want to say something about this I will so there
Keep making the towel animals & also run courses on how to make them for the passengers & stop being controlled by green nitwits you also make your own water so where is the problem who are you trying to please fair paying customers i hope
animals are part of the cruise, stewards love doing them and we are grateful and love the work and effort they put into making.them.dont stop because this fuddy duddyssare having a winge keep doing it .we look forward to it each cruise..next it will be flushing toilets..it makes too much noise..get a life
Keep the towel animals, let’s ban the minority greenies views instead