Cruisers Sound Off on Surprise Charges for Towels ...

Getting hit with an sudden towel cost on the finish of your cruise? You’re positively not alone, and one pissed off cruiser’s current expertise reveals simply how annoying this may be.

Charged for Towels That Had been Returned

Right here’s what they shared online after a current Royal Caribbean crusing:

“On the final night time of the cruise proper now. On my accounts tab I bought charged with 2 towels which I 100% returned and scanned the seapass for.”

Different cruisers within the social media put up stated they have been accustomed to this identical scenario.  Based on some feedback, it’s taking place to increasingly passengers, and it’s creating some severe complications for individuals who thought they adopted all the principles.

How the Towel Monitoring System Works (And The place It Goes Flawed)

Let me break down what’s really taking place behind the scenes. Most cruise strains that monitor towel utilization will scan your ship card to take a look at towels and scan it once more once you flip them in after use.

Sounds easy sufficient, proper?

However right here’s the place issues can get a little bit messy. The system depends on crew members (often on lido deck) to correctly scan towels each out and again in. When that doesn’t occur appropriately, you find yourself paying for towels you by no means took.

Take this Carnival passenger’s nightmare situation: “The room attendant saved taking our pool towels when he cleaned within the morning, however by no means marked them as returned on his finish.” So the towels have been bodily collected by employees, however the laptop system nonetheless thought they have been lacking.

The end result? An automated cost that shouldn’t have occurred.

Royal Caribbean’s Computerized Charging System

Royal Caribbean has taken this monitoring to the following degree with their cell app. The cruise line will really textual content you about unreturned towels and routinely hit your account with the cost.

One passenger said, “We have been charged and texted with RC on their app they usually eliminated it,” including that this “appears to be a typical downside” with Royal Caribbean.

The truth that passengers are calling it a “frequent downside” ought to in all probability elevate some pink flags about how nicely these methods are literally working.

Even Veteran Cruisers Aren’t Secure

You’d assume skilled cruisers would know keep away from these expenses, however even they’re getting caught up within the system’s glitches. One seasoned passenger shared, “I’ve cruised a ton of occasions and I’ve by no means been hit with lacking towel expenses till my final crusing.”

Whereas they bought it sorted out simply sufficient, they talked about getting “the ‘we’ll do that for you this time’ look as if I used to be really stealing the towels.” That’s bought to sting when you recognize you probably did nothing mistaken.

The System Can Really Penalize Harmless Folks

Right here’s the place it will get actually irritating. One cruiser identified this situation: “Let’s say I’m a lazy chair hog and go away my towels there all day. Then they’re eliminated by employees. Then I… steal another person’s towels to return. Then they get screwed.”

It’s like a towel shell recreation the place the mistaken individual finally ends up paying the value.

Visitor Companies Will Repair It (Normally)

The excellent news? Visitor providers departments are sometimes fast to resolve these bogus expenses. A number of cruisers confirmed {that a} easy journey to the visitor providers desk will get the issue sorted out. As one passenger put it, “Simply went to visitor providers they usually eliminated” the cost.

What’s the Actual Drawback Right here?

Cruise strains are often fairly good at holding monitor of their towel stock, and failure to return them can lead to an unwelcome shock in your stateroom invoice, which is usually round $25.

However one pissed off cruiser requested the query that different cruisers have been pondering: “Is that this towel [policy] as a result of they don’t need to have their workers selecting up towels or have been folks stealing towels to convey residence?”

That’s actually the center of the problem. Are these monitoring methods fixing an actual theft downside, or have cruise strains created an excessively difficult system that’s inflicting extra issues than it’s fixing?

Backside Line

When you get hit with certainly one of these shock towel expenses, don’t panic. Head straight to visitor providers they usually’ll doubtless maintain it with out a lot fuss.  For $25 you will get a fairly good seashore towel on Amazon, however for those who actually should have that cruise ship towel as a memento, get able to pay a slight premium for it.