No, not the towels in the bathroom – but the skimpy white souvenir towels. Many loyalty programs give you presents, perks or goodies as a thank you present. Cruise lines especially are heavy on the food and drinks side of that equation.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that RCCL has changed towels (that are gifted above a certain level in their loyalty program). When I first started cruising Royal, the towels were royal blue large beach towels with an inflatable pillow you could place in a pocket at one end. Then they changed to white towels with a logo. As the last few years progressed, the towels became steadily flimsier as well as smaller.
Imagine my surprise when I found a pair of these –
the new towels
awaiting me. They certainly are no lighter weight than the previous towels and are much less likely than white to show dirt. Especially in a household where things occasional go to the dogs.
Otherwise – the port today was George Town, Grand Cayman’s. One of the British overseas protectorates with a population of around 30K. I forgot my pounds sterling at home. Which would have been an issue if I had ever intended to get off the ship. It is a tender port; bobbing like a cork while packed in a fiberglass container like a sardine is pretty much not my thing. I still considered it till I looked out the windows on Deck 14. We are at anchor. So are a number of other ships (the following numbers are capacities)
Freedom of the seas ———————-4375 passengers—————–1360 crew
NCL Epic ————————————-4100…………………………………..1700
Celebrity Reflection ————————3030———————————-1250
Celebrity Silhouette ————————-2866———————————1250
Holland American Eurodam —————2044———————————-800
Disney Magic ———————————-2713———————————-950
Even if less than a quarter of the passengers chose to get off their ships just to wander around – it is an overwhelming load of tourists into a fairly small area.
Instead I hung out in the Diamond Lounge, having it and the new coffee machine to myself for most of the day while enjoying decent sunlight and cricket on the telly. I made decent progress on my Alternate 363 Fractal.
17 Jan 2017
Beautiful
My cross stitch – right?
Interesting Epic, my least favorite ship, has fewer passengers and way more crew than Freedom. Probably casino staff.
The towels look nice how big are they? Another friend from West Minister BC has a reservation on the Bliss and I talked to Helene from Ste Adele Quebec, she will send her deposit tomorrow.
Stu in Ottawa -2C ice pellets snow and freezing rain. One week till next cruise!
The towels are about 2m x 1m or pretty close to standard bath towel size. I just figure to wash them with jeans the first couple of times through the laundry.
The weather here has got to be nicer than Ottawa !
Good to see you taking some time out.
Had to laugh at your detailed stats on ships at Grand Cayman. I’m in a discussion about issues in Sydney with passenger numbers on a certain day (Ovation is in town as well as Radiance and a P&O ship). Australian cruisers don’t know the half of it when it comes to dealing with large numbers of passengers.
And then someone brought up the subject of there being track work on the rail network with trains being replaced by buses, “Bad planning Railcorp”. Well if she looked a little more closely she would see it hardly impacts cruise passengers, or at least only a minimal number.
Enjoying your musings. Stay strong.
Yes, nothing like Phillipsburg with more people getting off ships than live on the entire island….
The rail network will affect boarding passengers who are silly enough to attempt to fly in the day of a cruise and then take the Rail. But since most of them will be Aussies, rather than clueless foreigners (grin)
Given those sort of numbers I think that, should I ever actually want to sail somewhere, I’ll seek a cargo boat instead – just the crew and perhaps half a dozen passengers…
The challenge to cargo ships is that they do have a limited number of passengers. If you get along, it is fine. The bigger challenge is that they are not accessible. They don’t have to be – working ships with less than 10 passengers don’t have to provide anything in particular….
So lovely to get your latest update & hear that you are back sailing again.Lucky you.!!!!
Hooray for decent towels!
I love the look of white towels but they never stay the intense white they start off with and are easily dirtied.
You have done enough cruises to have pure gold ones…lol
No – that is just the lapel pin which RCCL sent me. Most expensive piece of jewelry I will ever own. Of course, I own almost no jewelry but that is besides the point.
I figure a couple of runs through the laundry with the jeans – white doesn’t stay white and dark blue could turn the former white towels (RCCL) grey – hummm might be better than dirt!
So glad they finally changed out the white beach towels. I have plenty of those, I liked the big Bluefield with the inflatable pillow. I think it was a wise decision not to go off the ship with that many ships in port.
I think these are an improvement as well. Now to see if they hold up to washing &/or dogs….
Are there rules to cricket????
Yes – actually – I reread the rules on Wiki!
Can you imagine that fractal pattern on white? I think it would be interesting. The new towel is much better than the old one. Is that a Diamond Plus perk?
I can imagine it on white – the challenge would be to keep the back clean enough (since threads across open sections would show through white.
Yes – towels kick in @ D+. I figure in a couple of years it will be down to a washcloth…
You understand cricket?
You’re even smarter than I thought!
Nah – I said I could “watch” cricket. The sound wasn’t on, I had no clue who was playing – but it definitely was cricket bats, pitch and guys running back and forth.
Before I went to a match in Wellington a couple of years ago – I went to Wiki and read the rules. It helps…
Sounds like a lovely trip.
Classy towels!!
Hope you are feeling . . . ‘ship-shape’!
Bad Pun…. Bad, bad pun…
Nice towels TY 4 the pic, have no need 4 them limited space, have some downstairs wish u were here 2 take them
Sounds like u need them