Earlier this year both Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line made a major change to how room attendants service passenger rooms. Both cruise lines now ask passengers staying in rooms below a junior suite to pick whether they want their cabin serviced in the morning or the late afternoon/early evening.
That's a major change from the days before the covid pandemic when all Royal Caribbean (RCL) -) and Carnival cabins were cleaned twice daily. This may seem like a small change, but it's not because cruise cabins are small and many passengers are showering multiple times a day.
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Both cruise lines will bring passengers more towels or handle small requests in addition to the scheduled cleanings, but going from twice daily service to once was a hassle for some passengers.
When any cruise line makes a cut, passengers, at least the ones involved enough with the company to post on Facebook and other social media sites, tend to wonder what might get cut next.
A number of Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) -) customers have wondered whether a time-consuming, and some would say wasteful, cabin tradition — towel animals — might be the next thing to go.
For those who don't cruise, or cruise on more adult lines, towel animals are towels twisted into the shape of animals. They have long been popular on family-friendly cruise lines and at some land-based hotels.
And on cruise social media pages and message boards you'll often see posts asking whether to keep these or not, with some posters even saying that the cruise line has already cut this popular service.
Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald addressed the question in a recent post to his Facebook page.
Image Source: Daniel Kline/TheStreet
Carnival has not eliminated towel animals. Towel animals are more a tradition than something people can actually expect they are entitled to on a cruise. In most cases, however, on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruises, stateroom attendants will craft towel animals for passengers.
Some will be simple while in other cases they will be quite elaborate. It's not unusual for a towel animal to be wearing a passenger's sunglasses or some other accessory they left in the room.
Towel animals have generally been a popular little perk of cruising, but some have called the practice wasteful because the towels end up not being used and eventually must be washed.
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Carnival, it should be noted, has not eliminated towel animals, but Heald clearly sought to see how passengers felt about them.
"Do you agree that towel animals are 'a waste' and are for 'children only?'" he posted on his Facebook page. "It has been suggested that this is the case today while answering hundreds of questions, so I wondered what you think, do you agree with this?"
The responses, which numbered over 3,400, gave him a very clear picture.
Carnival cruisers speak out on towel animals
Heald's post generated a lot of responses, but nearly all of them were very similar.
"I love the towel animals and save them the whole cruise! When we walk in our cabin, the towel animals always bring a smile to our faces!" posted Pam Miller Downey.
Kathy Tremblay echoed those thoughts.
"I love coming in to my cabin to see what the team has created each day. I post a photo to social media every day! I think they’re for all ages."
Other commenters shared their ages and made clear that how old you are does not impact your enjoyment of towel animals.
"I am 65 and we look forward to opening our cabin door to see which towel animal I have sitting in our room. I love when they do the towels by the pool. They are amazing. Please Please never remove our towel animals," posted Tracy Joris Hightower Wiggs.
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It was hard to even find a measured comment among the hundreds of people speaking out about their love for towel animals.
"Although they are not a necessary thing ... I do look forward to seeing them in my cabin. There are some very creative folks out there," shared Andrea Crane Mathison.
