canadiancow

The first two of these may have been posted on FT or one of my EYW logs, but the third is new. And there's now a downward trend.

My first incident was in YYZ domestic, 2-3 years ago. I asked for a shower, was walked over, let inside, and then I began my routine. I stripped down. As I was about to walk into the actual shower area, something caught my eye. The towel looked less "square" than usual. so I touched it. It was wet.

They hadn't cleaned the room, so it still had a dirty and wet towel in it. But it had been hung back up in a fairly neat manner, so it wasn't obvious.

I dressed myself, went back to the desk, and they moved me to the other shower. The staff were obviously informed of this.

That cost me 5 minutes, but it was fine. I was just glad I had noticed BEFORE showering. That would have been an awkward call to the concierge.

There was another incident in YUL international more recently. I was in a rush, with a friend, and we both wanted showers. I ran in, stripped down, and showered. When I finished, I noticed there was no towel at all. It was literally what I was worried about last time.

I called my friend. No answer. I texted him. No answer. I dialed the concierge. Before they answered, my friend finally responded. I hung up. I told him to go get me a clean towel. He did. Then he knocked on the door, I opened it, and he passed me the towel. The day was saved. That one was much more embarrassing than the first incident, but both were towel-related. I don't think we mentioned anything to the MLL desk staff (though obviously the cleaning staff were aware).

Today wins first prize. The same friend and I arrived at YYZ transborder. We had been concerned about traffic, unsure of whether it would take 2 hours or 4 hours, so we opted to forego our cottage showers and instead take them in the MLL, where we could parallelize. And it's better to be smelly than to miss your flight, right?

Traffic was good, we dropped off the rental, went to security (very short), pre-clearance (very short), and got to the MLL. Both showers were open, so my friend took number 1, and I took number 2.

It was going great. I brushed my teeth, laid out my clothes on the bench, reshuffled the contents of my bag, and then had a shower. I felt so refreshed. Driving 2-3 hours from cottage country as a passenger is actually more work than when you're the driver (I drove there, rode back). Anyway, I walked out of the shower, over to the little bench/table with my clothes. The towel rack was a few feet above it.

I pulled off the towel, and my brain processed the visual response much faster than it could send any signals to my body (for the record, I had not yet consumed any alcohol today).

The rack popped up, off its tiny, ridiculously insecure, clips. And down to the bench and floor.

For the record, the rack was made primarily of glass. It shattered. It went everywhere. Remember how I'd laid my clothes on the bench? There was now shattered glass in my pants.

So I'm now standing there naked, with shards of glass everywhere. I picked up my socks, ensured there were no shards on or attached to them, and put them on. Then my underwear, and jeans. The jeans had shards in them. I had to shake them. Glass fell out the bottoms of the legs. Then I did my shoes.

From there, it was easy and risk-free.

When I left the shower, there was a cleaning staff in the room across from shower 2, so I explained the situation. The point wasn't quite made, so I showed it to her. Then the point was made. She apologized, I said it was fine, and I walked back to the desk. As I tried to explain it to the lounge agent, the cleaning person came over and said "don't send anyone else to shower 2".

There was some discussion of cleaning it, but the cleaning person wanted to "call [her] boss".

Whatever, I was fine, I was clean, and I just wanted to sit down. So I did. My friend joined me fairly soon, and he found the story highly amusing.

When we left, which was earlier than I normally would, as I was going to walk him to his gate (wow the new F regional gates are much nicer than the old ones), the MLL agent who had walked me to the shower said "Mr. Kennedy, you're okay right?" "Yeah" "And your first name is Scott right?" "Yeah". Then someone more supervisory-looking jumped in. She wanted to know about any cuts or scratches (there were none), and said she was trying to get a "manager" on the phone. My understanding is the "manager" only works M-F, so that's actually interesting. And the only YYZ MLL manager I'm aware of knows me, so I hope I didn't ruin her Sunday.

Anyway, it was a cheap towel rack, and no one was hurt. Whatever. I walked my friend to his gate, then walked to mine, sat down, waited for boarding, boarded, flew to SFO, waited for the jet bridge, and walked off.

"Scott, are you okay?" said the concierge. (for the record, I have given them very strict instructions to address me by first name)
"Huh? Yeah? What?"
"I heard something fell on you in Toronto." (not a direct quote, but close enough)

Clearly the situation had been escalated enough that SFO is now aware. Some people have suggested it's the CYA mentality. I'd rather believe it's because someone thought I could actually be hurt, and they wanted to ensure I wasn't.

Anyway, those are my three MLL shower mishaps, ordered both chronologically, and from least serious to most serious.

This is meant to be a fun thread. I'm not writing in about any of these issues. This is not a complaining thread.

Feel free to comment on my MLL shower luck, or better yet, add your own stories!

Jebby_ca

expert7700

glad you are ok.

brings new meaning to "you aren't planning to break anything in the lounge, are you"

which you said a MLL lounge attendant asked you previously (from a prior MLL guesting thread)

Diabeetus

If you are hairy, then it would be okay.

global happy traveller

you remind me LH Senator lounge in FRA..... drank a glass of OJ and the glass cracked..... tried filing an incident report with them and they refused to citing i'm trying to cause a scene...... ended up complaining to their customer service and got 9000 miles in my AP account.....

then TK IAD...... they have foot towels but no shower towels.....

lesson learned, check check check before proceeding!

LeisureMiler

OP, I'm Glad this didn't result in any injuries!

Worse I've got to report is low shower pressure and hot water taking forever to get there. Don't remember where or when it was... Totally unhelpful: Canada, not more than 10 years ago.

Oh! And also once (and I think they've renovated that shower model since) somewhere they had one of these showers that was just the back last third of the floor (no sill) with a curtain you could draw from side wall to side wall... What a mess that made. I had put my shoes on the floor near the door (opposite side of the room from the shower side) and boy am I glad I did, and my bag also. I believe that was YYZ international side.

As I began showering, I noticed the shower wouldn't drain properly, even with poor water pressure... There might even have been a little water left from the previous shower. Beuark! And though I showered rapidly (maybe 5 - 6 minutes?), the floor was quickly flooded. About two thirds of the shower room, so part way through the sink. What a mess! I had to lay down my towel, once dry, as a bridge to the area that remained dry and use the hand towel to do a last drying of my feet...! I probably didn't report it, though, oups! Well, I think I was in a rush and thought it'd be quite obvious once the cleaning person went in, what happened.

What we go through, as frequent flyers, nobody really knows, nobody can understand the hardship.

Important: Posted in the same lighthearted spirit as the OP's original post! No harm done, no injuries sustained, was traveling alone, though, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to share

songsc

Lessons learned: Check for towel before showering, whether you are in MLL or not.

PS: I learned the above lesson the hard way (not in an airport lounge though).

jasdou

I once had to use pillow cases in lieu of towels after showering in a hotel room so I know how you feel. I will spare you all the details of why no towels were available.

LeisureMiler

I've often used a cotton t-shirt... works every time. The lesson I've learned: always bring your luggage into the shower, to ensure cotton t-shirt availability...

Bohemian1

The horror. The horror...

I've had soggy, missing towels and/or flooding issues at a variety of lounges around the planet, but nothing as potentially dangerous as the Cow's latest incident. Glad to hear that he's safe and glad to hear that AC seemed to care.

smallmj

Unless the shower drain is clogged - flooding the bathroom and soaking your luggage.

lcohen999

Darwin, Australia

Some ...... hotel

Had to use the comforter to make a land bridge between the bed and shower.

Was checked out of that flee trap at 4.30am and sat outside in the dark waiting for my ride

jc94

Cow's lucky here, he was travelling with a friend and can call the concierge. Consider how many of us travel often alone and without concierge access; having no towel or a wet one really isn't acceptable and as evidenced here it's not exactly a one off. Combined with the latest incident it sounds like AC should really initiate a "Press for aid" type button that could be pressed if one is unable to dry themselves or in extreme cases is showered in glass. I mean, stuff happens. It's unfortunate but in a hotel one can always call down to the desk and that's not really an option in a lounge. Luckily, no injuries and previous incidents were resolved due to travelling with a friend.

I'm certainly forgotten my towel in a hotel shower before but that's less an issue (especially when one can yell out for one )

A spare t-shirt is always a good idea. I've used one as a pillow case before.

canadiancow

There is definitely a "press for aid" button in YYZ TB showers.

Gig103

Not MLL, but I'm sharing anyway. Just off a 12.5 hour flight AMS-LAX, and hit up the T2 Delta Skyclub. Shower starts normally enough, I lather up, then I try to adjust the temperature and the handle spins right off. I can't get any torque on the screw and in the process of the handle falling off the shower went full-cold. I had soap in my hair so I had to persist, but it wasn't pleasant.