When I was a waitress at a sort of fancy restaurant while I was in college, I learned how to fold a linen napkin so it could stand up like a hat. I was so proud of my folding accomplishments. Turns out, turning a napkin into a hat is small potatoes. Carnival “Fun Ship” Cruises, for the past few years, has taken folding cloth into shapes several steps further. The stewards fold towels into animals.
Passengers find these towel animals in their cabins. Folding towel animals is not easy, as you might imagine. For this reason, there is 10 hours of towel folding training involved for people learning how to be stewards.
Because the animals are so popular, there is a book for sale so guests can fold their own cloth towels into animals at home. Even after a job ends, I can see how this would be a skill to have if you want to really wow household guests. I tend to just show people where we keep the towels and say “Help yourself” or might plop a neatly folded towel on the end of their bed if I’ve planned a head. But, a towel animal. That would be something.
If you want to order the book, you do need to find a passenger traveling on a Carnival Cruise ship and buy it through them. There’s an on-line ordering system, but you need to know the cabin number and name of the person traveling. Here’s a link to Linda Garrison’s photos of towel animals to give you a better idea of what they look like. Maybe you can figure out how to make one by looking at it.