Towel Origami

The name of our stateroom attendant was Alvin, as in the chipmunk. He was a really nice quiet kid probably no older than 20 or 21 years old from South America, I think.

One of the things these Royal Caribbean stateroom attendant do for fun is something Sue called Towel Origami. They would take towels and fold them into animals. Apparently, it’s a trademark of Royal Caribbean.

Here are his animals:

Elephant
Rabbit
Dinosaur
Sting Ray
Monkey
Bat
My own feeble attempt at a lobster. (Originally, it was supposed to a butterfly but everyone said it looked like a lobster so, I went with it.

Towel Origami is not difficult to learn, although the results often seem very elaborate. One of the most challenging aspects of towel origami is that you can't achieve crisp and even folds when you're working with a washcloth or bath towel. You must be a bit flexible in your approach, applying forceful manipulation and occasionally reinforcing the design with rubber bands or other accessories. Or, you can just throw the towels together in a heap, sprinkle some ketchup on it and call it road kill.

In researching towel origami, I discovered that Royal Caribbean is not the only cruise line that does this. Here’s a how-to video from Carnival.

We enjoyed coming back from dinner and seeing what animal awaited us on the bed. There was a towel-folding demonstration in one of the lounges on the last day.

If you get adapt at folding towels into animal, just think of the fun you can have scaring your neighbors.

“Honey, there’s a white monkey hanging from the tree on the front lawn!”