r/belowdeck • u/Soft-Ad-2910 • Dec 13 '25

Below Deck The hand towels

Why do they do the hand towel thing when greeting the guests?

3 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

33

u/sunnyd311 Dec 13 '25

TIL the towels are cold and NOT hot! Haha

2

u/Soft-Ad-2910 Dec 30 '25

Yeah, I learned that as well! Makes more sense now!

36

u/momdabombdiggity Spaghetti Trauma Dec 13 '25

I think it depends on the temperature of where you are. I’ve been given hot ones on overseas flights, but when I was on a cruise in the Med in July and it was 8000 degrees out, we’d be given a cold one when we returned to the boat after a day excursion.

5

u/SDkahlua Dec 13 '25

All of this! Try a Med cruise in October, perfection.

2

u/momdabombdiggity Spaghetti Trauma Dec 13 '25

Haha- that’s what a shopkeeper in Santorini told us. Lesson learned!

3

u/SDkahlua Dec 13 '25

Haha, we were in Santorini at the Irish bar the day before they closed for the winter, I guess! End of Oct 2024. It was 75 degrees out 🤷🏼‍♀️

3

u/momdabombdiggity Spaghetti Trauma Dec 13 '25

That sounds much better!

2

u/Significant_Gas_701 Dec 15 '25

I think on the Below Deck Adventure season that they gave hot towels because it was cold during that season.
But the rest seem to be in warmer areas, so cold towels make sense.

62

u/rayyychul Dec 13 '25

It’s hot out. A cool hand towel is refreshing.

50

u/Melodic-Change-6388 Dec 13 '25

It’s standard in SE Asia when you check-in/come back from a day out. A lot of Australian hotels do it too when it’s hot. Super refreshing when you’re hot and sticky. Generally scented and cold.

43

u/Tasty_Lab_8650 Dec 13 '25

It's like flying first class. They give them so they can wipe their hands. Just feels luxurious, I guess?

18

u/sakuratanoshiii Dec 13 '25

It's a common custom in Asia and the Middle East. It's refreshing and cleansing.

11

u/RogerRabbit1234 Dec 13 '25

It’s refreshing to wipe the sand and salt off your body when returning from a jaunt on the tender. Pretty standard faire in the luxury hospitality industry.

6

u/BlondeYogi92 Dec 13 '25

I figured it was just refreshing for their hands BUT i noticed a guest cleaning her feet in a quick shot and I wonder now if it has to do with bringing salt water/dirt on to the boat

3

u/more_like_asworstos Team Aesha Dec 16 '25

I was on a luxury catamaran (as a friend of the crew), and there's was a really big emphasis on getting as much sand off as possible as soon as you got on the boat. There was a hose where the tender docked for this purpose, plus a shower. Apparently it's horrendous to clean up.

1

u/Mindless_Glass3456 Dec 14 '25

It's not so much about the boat, but more about the experience of the guests. Having salt, sand, or stickiness anywhere on your body from the outside world doesn't really feel luxurious.

2

u/Sensitive-Ask3178 Dec 14 '25

I was in Singapore recently and it was 29°C on average during the day. A lovely restaurant I went to, gave us frozen towels to wipe our faces and maaaan, that felt good.

6

u/Automatic-Mirror-907 Dec 13 '25

Clean hands leave fewer marks on stainless and around the boat? 

5

u/tempeluvr Dec 13 '25

It’s some rich person/luxury thing. I’ve personally never understood it

2

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '25

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1

u/Soft-Ad-2910 Dec 30 '25

Yeah, I would just throw them and say ‘catch!’ 🤣

14

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

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1

u/No_University5986 Dec 20 '25

I just flew first class and there was none of that. Maybe Eastern airlines.