Getting hit with an unexpected towel charge at the end of your cruise? You’re definitely not alone, and one frustrated cruiser’s recent experience shows just how annoying this can be.
Charged for Towels That Were Returned
Here’s what they shared online after a recent Royal Caribbean sailing:
“On the last night of the cruise right now. On my accounts tab I got charged with 2 towels which I 100% returned and scanned the seapass for.”
Other cruisers in the social media post said they were familiar with this same situation. According to some comments, it’s happening to more and more passengers, and it’s creating some serious headaches for people who thought they followed all the rules.
How the Towel Tracking System Works (And Where It Goes Wrong)
Let me break down what’s actually happening behind the scenes. Most cruise lines that monitor towel usage will scan your ship card to check out towels and scan it again when you turn them in after use.
Sounds simple enough, right?
But here’s where things can get a little messy. The system relies on crew members (usually on lido deck) to properly scan towels both out and back in. When that doesn’t happen correctly, you end up paying for towels you never took.
Take this Carnival passenger’s nightmare scenario: “The room attendant kept taking our pool towels when he cleaned in the morning, but never marked them as returned on his end.” So the towels were physically collected by staff, but the computer system still thought they were missing.
The result? An automatic charge that shouldn’t have happened.
Royal Caribbean’s Automatic Charging System
Royal Caribbean has taken this tracking to the next level with their mobile app. The cruise line will actually text you about unreturned towels and automatically hit your account with the charge.
One passenger stated, “We were charged and texted with RC on their app and they removed it,” adding that this “seems to be a common problem” with Royal Caribbean.
The fact that passengers are calling it a “common problem” should probably raise some red flags about how well these systems are actually working.
Even Veteran Cruisers Aren’t Safe
You’d think experienced cruisers would know how to avoid these charges, but even they’re getting caught up in the system’s glitches. One seasoned passenger shared, “I’ve cruised a ton of times and I’ve never been hit with missing towel charges until my last sailing.”
While they got it sorted out easily enough, they mentioned getting “the ‘we’ll do this for you this time’ look as if I was actually stealing the towels.” That’s got to sting when you know you did nothing wrong.
The System Can Actually Penalize Innocent People
Here’s where it gets really frustrating. One cruiser pointed out this scenario: “Let’s say I am a lazy chair hog and leave my towels there all day. Then they are removed by staff. Then I… steal someone else’s towels to return. Then they get screwed.”
It’s like a towel shell game where the wrong person ends up paying the price.
Guest Services Will Fix It (Usually)
The good news? Guest services departments are typically quick to resolve these bogus charges. Multiple cruisers confirmed that a simple trip to the guest services desk gets the problem sorted out. As one passenger put it, “Just went to guest services and they removed” the charge.
What’s the Real Problem Here?
Cruise lines are usually pretty good at keeping track of their towel inventory, and failure to return them can result in an unwelcome surprise on your stateroom bill, which is generally around $25.
But one frustrated cruiser asked the question that other cruisers have been thinking: “Is this towel [policy] because they don’t want to have their employees picking up towels or were people stealing towels to bring home?”
That’s really the heart of the issue. Are these tracking systems solving a real theft problem, or have cruise lines created an overly complicated system that’s causing more problems than it’s solving?
Bottom Line
If you get hit with one of these surprise towel charges, don’t panic. Head straight to guest services and they’ll likely take care of it without much fuss. For $25 you can get a pretty nice beach towel on Amazon, but if you really must have that cruise ship towel as a memento, get ready to pay a slight premium for it.