It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas on the Lido deck of Carnival Sunshine!
While Carnival’s housekeeping teams are famous for delighting guests with fun towel animals, the crew members on Carnival Sunshine truly outdid themselves with a Christmas display on the Lido deck.
Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald shared a photo of the sizable display on his public Facebook page – which shows Santa steering a life-size reindeer (presumably Rudolph, but with a brown nose), with winter-themed friends like penguins and snowmen at the reindeer’s hooves.
But what makes this festive display especially unique is that the entire thing is made from towels.
“Santa, you do a brilliant job. I mean really fabulous. The joy you bring worldwide. Your leadership is extraordinary and it’s a true pleasure and an absolute privilege to be allowed to accompany you,” Heald quipped, writing from the perspective of Rudolph “the brown-nosed Reindeer.”
All jokes aside, Heald then commended the crew of the Sunshine-class ship with a shoutout.
“And here is Rudolph with Santa on the Carnival Sunshine as made by the outstanding Housekeeping Team,” Heald wrote at the bottom of the post.
It’s unclear if the display was part of a planned event or simply a seasonal surprise – although most Carnival sailings feature at least one morning where guests wake up to a towel animal “zoo” on the Lido deck.
While this display is specific to Carnival Sunshine, it’s possible that more festive towel animals will pop up on other Carnival ships in the coming days – if they haven’t already. In the meantime, the cruise line is making sure its holiday guests have a wonderful Christmas experience fleet-wide in other ways.
By December 8, 2024, every Carnival ship had been decorated for the season – with guests welcomed to add their own personal touch by decorating their cabin doors.
On Christmas Day, Carnival cruisers will also be treated to a special Christmas Gala dinner – which includes traditional favorites like honey glazed ham with herbed potatoes, as well as year-round favorites (including specialities from the popular Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse for an additional fee).
Last but not least, Carnival’s holiday sailings will feature some extra-special events, including tree lighting ceremonies, ugly sweater contests, and appearances from seasonal celebrities like Santa Claus and the Grinch.
Christmas Towel Display Sparks Joy
Surprisingly, something as simple as towel animals is often a source of controversy on Heald’s Facebook page – so it’s nice to see the Christmas creation met with an outpouring of positivity.
However, it wasn’t the cuteness of the display that was top-of-mind – but rather the talent of the crew members who created it.
“This is so awesome…the crew is so talented. Thank you for making my day happier,” one person wrote in the comments.
“Awesome! I can’t believe the crew can put together something like this,” another person replied.
A few said the display inspired them to book their own holiday cruise – with some musing that a cruise vacation might make a great Christmas gift for this year as something for their families to look forward to next year.
Read Also: Christmas on a Cruise Ship: What To Expect
But while this festive display has been met with much fondness, the end of the year is also a good time to look back on the events – or towel animal controversies – of the previous year.
Most recently, rumors spread that the towel animals were going to be discontinued after cabin attendants were temporarily unable to create new towel creations during a 7-night sailing to Bermuda that was operated by Carnival Venezia.
However, the missing towel animals could easily be explained by restrictions from an overnight port call to Bermuda.
“Yesterday I answered a few comments about the Carnival Venezia and her current cruise to Bermuda. She had an overnight stay and this meant that the Bermudian authorities insisted we close our laundry operations for environmental reasons,” Heald explained at the time.
“We of course complied but this meant that because of these restrictions the cabin attendants were not able to make the towel animals for a couple of evenings. And there was much disappointment plus some gnashing of teeth,” the brand ambassador continued.
It’s a rumor that Heald has had to squash more than once – but the towel animals have been present on Carnival’s ships since 1972 and aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The brand even has a towel animal elephant, named Ellie the Elephant, as a mascot.
