Leaving tips = towel animals??

[DizzDoll]

I tipped every day at Pop and got 2 towel animals.

 

[KristenHoneymooner]

Tipped $5 every day for the two of us at GF, got 1 towel animal over a 7 day trip. We figured it was because we didn't have kids. We did get a nice thank you note one day.

We got plenty of toiletries and clean towels, and that's what mattered to us

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) All WDW housekeepers are taught basic towel animals.
2) It is up to them if they want to make them for you.
3) However, WDW uses a lot of temp-agency maids.
4) They are not taught animals.
5) In either case, a tip will not assure a towel animal.

 

[vicki845]

We received an animal towel almost every day. The day before we left mousekeeping ask dh if we needed anything because she wouldn't be working on the day we would be leaving. He said no and gave her a tip. I guess she didn't like the tip and took two of the bigger animal towels away. I asked dh how much he tipped her and I am embrassed to say the amount because it was bad. Dh is very frugal especially when it comes to tipping. I always tip 20 percent when we go out to eat. I don't even know what he tips because I refuse to even look now. After being married for 10 years I learned not to check. This is a big pet peeve of mine! Thank God the kids weren't upset by it!

 

[queenofhartz]

We also left tips everyday, but we did not receive any towel animals. Honestly, I think the towel animals are cute, but we weren't disappointed at all because DH probably would have just ripped the sticky eyes off of them and lathered them up with soap in the shower. He still just doesn't get the cuteness of towel animals. I think they're a nice little touch tho.

 

[smfnj]

25 trips, all but one to Poly and BWI. We tip Mousekeeping every day, never received a towel animal and never expected one.

Steve

 

[MsAmerica]

Sorry, I just don't get the whole towel animal thing and think it's tacky. It is also a waste of a housekeepers time, I prefer a clean room!

JMO

MsA

 

[TDC Nala]

So I was thinking of leaving a daily tip each morning...hoping this will bring more towel animals upon our return? Wishful thinking??...

If I had a magic 8 ball it would say "Don't count on it"

 

[stitchlover]

I could care less about the towel animals...but I know my daughter would love it. We tip every time and have never received a towel animal. I was hoping that by staying at a deluxe this next trip would do the trick. But from reading here that doesn't appear to be the case!

 

[kirbsam]

Ditto. Left a tip every day. No animals. We were lucky when they actually vacuumed. Hoping for better luck (and housekeeping) next time.

dude, why did you leave a tip then?

 

[JudyS]

At AKL we were checked into a dirty room which hadn't been used (or cleaned) in weeks we later found out. But we did have a towel animal waiting for us when we arrived...too bad it was actually covered in a thick layer of brownish dust. Very disgusting!!....

Wow, I wonder why that room hadn't been used (or cleaned.) Was this recently? I'm wondering if the room was unused because of the AKL re-building.

We also left tips everyday, but we did not receive any towel animals. Honestly, I think the towel animals are cute, but we weren't disappointed at all because DH probably would have just ripped the sticky eyes off of them and lathered them up with soap in the shower....

This brings up a question I've been having. What do people here do with their towel animals? Leave them where they are? Use them as towels? If you have kids, do the kids expect to take them home, and do people here consider that ethical?

 

[Mr. Pig]

I have seen on other threads that CM's say that towel animals are not made by the actual person cleaning your room. They are made by mousekeeping staff beforehand when there is extra time. Not sure if this is true or not but I can believe that TA's are made only when mousekeeping has time not in response to tipping.

We have received towel animals sometimes and always tip the same amount. I have also gotten them when traveling without kids so I don't think that is a factor.

 

[wasabi girl]

I agree with tipping and towel animals not meshing. I always tip, we've gotten towel animals once at the Poly, a few times at AKL and not all at WL.

 

[jamstew]

So I was thinking of leaving a daily tip each morning...hoping this will bring more towel animals upon our return? Wishful thinking??...

This was my first time on-site, so I didn't know what to expect. I did tip every day and got 1 large animal at POFQ and 2 small ones at WL over a 7-night stay.

 

[PudgetteD]

Peg, I think that is such a sweet idea! You're bound to put a smile on your housekeepers face.

I read on this board about getting tips together before you leave home. For me it worked great! I had something for each day, just left the rest in the safe. No scurrying around trying to find ones or a five.

That's what I've done. We leave in about 20 hours and I already have mousekeeping envelopes with $5 tucked into each one. One less thing I have to think about. Oh, and here's a tip I've not seen. I keep a change jar (actually it's a huge plastic container, I think it had pretzel sticks from Sams in it originally), so this morning I rolled some change, took it to the bank to trade for ones and fives and presto...tips for everyone! Not only do I not have to think about tips now, I really didn't have to budget for them either!

 

[PudgetteD]

Do you keep the towel animals and take them home? We've gotten them before @ Pop and Contemporary but I didn't take them because I wasn't sure if we could. We got a really cute Dumbo that I would have liked to have taken home but didn't. My bathroom is all Fantasyland and Dumbo would have looked so cute on the shelf!

 

[Hawk]

I also could care less about towel animals. They clutter up the room and I would rather have the wash materials used properly. However, my children like them and are excited about them. We alway tip the mousekeeper for their housekeeping services and have always received these animals at least a few times during our stay.

I think the mousekeepers are more creative when they set the toys in the room to watch TV; read a Mickey magazine; or welcome us back to the room. Since our room is always full of toys (yes we bring x-tra suitcases), we a greeted with these creations often.

Tim/Hawk.

 

[yankebabie]

We recieved 3 towel animals during our stay at the CBR last week.

 

[Laren]

We have taken more than 40 family trips to WDW since it opened and it wasn't until I found the DIS that I even knew towel animals existed.

Out of all of our stays (and we always tip mousekeeping and leave thank you notes) we have only gotten towel animals on two trips: our GF trip in 2003 (got one towel animal at RPC- my husband was so attatched to it that I asked if I could reimburse them for the washcloths and take it home (it is a duckling) and they said for me to keep it. But I would never dream of taking home big ones like some of what I've seen and would always offer to pay for them before just doing so.

We also tipped separately at GF for turndown service- five dollars per day just in case anyone was wondering about that. I left the envelopes together once- will never do that again- one housekeeper took them both even though someone else was to turn down the room later in the day. After that, I tried to leave the turndown envelope AFTER the room had been made up for the day.

Now, on our last trip in 04, we stayed in a wing room (Whaaa, my beloved north wing, RIP 2007!) at CR and we happened to meet our mousekeeper in the hallway on our first day. She left us towel animals EVERY day. She was a sweet lady and took a shine to my little girl because my daughter thanked her every single time she saw her for our "beautiful clean room and all her hard work". She made her a 'doll' out of towels, that again I offered to pay for and CR staff said it was a gift.

We tip our mousekeepers well- towel animals or no we leave 10.00 a day in an envelope with a thank you note. (three adults and one child in the room and we try not to be tooo messy!) We did that for 8 nights last week at Poly and not a single towel animal. But my room was spotless, they always left extra towels by request and you should have SEEN how many bath products they left us LOL.

I want to learn to make them too now. I wonder if you can learn how to do it online?

I wonder how they'll handle it too with the new luxury towels just rolled out- they looked and felt really expensive- I wonder if they'll back off on towel animals not wanting people to want to take the new luxury towels home? Just wondering out loud. . .

 

[Disneynutbsv]

So I was thinking of leaving a daily tip each morning...hoping this will bring more towel animals upon our return? Wishful thinking??...

We always tip every morning just because of the job they do and I don't do it at the end of the stay because they might have different mousekeepers every day.
***meaning I don't leave all the tips at the end of the stay, I do tip for that day at the end of the stay***