Has Princess cracked down seat savers yet?

[peachykiehn]

My experience has been that enforcement varies from ship to ship but my sense is that enforcement is improving and that is particularly true if you tell a pool attendant that a certain lounger(s) has been vacant for more than 30 mins...often they are aware of it as well and just need to be prodded a bit.

We have also found on some ships it has been enforced with deck staff removing the articles placing a tag on the chair and a matching tag on the items.

[antsp]

Hahaa no, I'll be on the same cruise and I'll be looking out for you ;)

 

Or are you kidding lol

 

I wll see you there, my deck chair is all set up and ready to go for when i board, it the 4 th on right by the middle pool. :)

[puggleperson]

I wll see you there, my deck chair is all set up and ready to go for when i board, it the 4 th on right by the middle pool. :)

 

Well save me a seat, would ya? Haha I'll be there around 10am...

Edited March 29, 2014 by puggleperson

[tequilasunrise]

I had a bad experience regarding the saving of chairs on the Royal. On our first sea day at about 9 am I could not find a shaded lounger around the pools. Most chairs were empty but had towels or something (books, etc.) on them. My wife and I sat in the sun next to 2 empty chairs that were shaded – these 2 chairs had one towel each on them and in between one Princess “blue giveaway bag” that contained a rolled towel only (bag was open). After about an hour with chairs still empty I talked to a pool steward and his boss. They told me this was a big problem on the ship but they could not remove any material. However, the stewards told me that I could remove the towels myself if it had been over 30 minutes, their max time allowed for empty chairs (plenty of signs to this effect around the deck). I followed their advice (never again) and swapped chairs (moved the 2 towels and Princess bag). All OK for an additional 1 hour. At about 11 am a Russian couple shows up and throws a big fit. I told them to talk to the attendants about the chair policy which they did. The man came back and told me that if I got up to stretch my legs he would grab my chair, and that I better not go to the bathroom (I ignored his comment, but very nasty comments continued as they sat next to us, my iPod helped). After about 30 minutes they got up to leave and the woman ostensibly “tripped” into me, hit me pretty hard on the leg and then “apologized” while laughing out loud (I felt like slugging the guy for sending his wife to do the dirty work but common sense prevailed and I ignored again). By then my wife and I were pretty uncomfortable - we waited until they left the area and moved to the aft portion of the ship. I regretted moving any towels – not worth the trouble it caused. Another couple (not the Russians) immediately grabbed our shaded chairs. About 30 minutes later I decided to check out the Retreat pool and as I was leaving the same man confronted me again with another tirade of threatening words. I ignored him again and fortunately he did not touch me. I went back to my seat and after thinking about it I decided to talk to Security. I went down to the Customer Desk and asked for Security. Ed, Head of Security, (not willing to provide his last name) took a full description and told me that he would go up and look for the man to tell him to “cool it”. I told Ed that I did not care what the man or his wife said to me, however I could not allow him or his wife to hit me (or God forbid my wife) again and that I would take action if they did - that is the reason I was there with Security. Ed told me that if the man confronted me again to dial 5000, ask for him, and they would take immediate action. He also told me that chair saving is a big problem. On the cruise 2 weeks prior to mine, Security decided to enforce the “no saving rule” on the Royal – Ed told stewards to remove towels and personal possessions if left unattended for more than 30 minutes. As a result Ed had a huge line of people outside his office complaining loudly and berating him and his stewards, so no more enforcing on the Royal.

 

Moral of this story for me…. I will not remove anything from a chair regardless of what a pool steward may tell me, not worth the trouble and aggravation. If no chairs are available I will sit on my balcony or do something else. However I do think that Princess should take action - as Ed and the stewards told me this is a big problem on every cruise. Princess enforces the “no smoking” rule very well. Smoking in a cabin or balcony carries a $250 penalty. Smoking bothers me but on this cruise I did not see a single smoker violating the smoking rules so Princess is able to enforce. Nonetheless I suspect that they had difficulties when they started this rule and they probably had to get tough/nasty in the beginning. We did were I worked but this subsided after a while. Seems to me that Princess should enforce the “no saving” rule and “tolerate” the difficulties while this is getting established. Regardless it will probably never happen!!! I am now on the market for an inflatable doll like the one “caribill” posted, great idea… :)

 

I suspected this would be a serious problem on the Royal in the Caribbean. It's a small deck area with a LOT of passengers. There's also limited promenade and no aft to divert people, and tall people don't fit well on their balconies. Has anyone who has sailed Royal and also others noted if it's worse or not?

[cruisealot54]

I am sailing on the Emerald in 10 days time, a friend has just left the Emerald a few weeks ago. I got them to leave a towel, 2 books and a Princess bag on my favorite deck chair for when I get on next week. It is ok to do this isn't it.

 

That's funny, but almost true. We are early raisers and when we get to the solarium after breakfast there are towels everywhere. I swear they set their alarm clocks at 4 in the morning to go lay out towels. But then they must be more important then me

[JEH]

I m afraid this thread along with whats proper formal night attire and can I smuggle booze on will be making the rounds on these boards for many years.

[lexdisic]

I m afraid this thread along with whats proper formal night attire and can I smuggle booze on will be making the rounds on these boards for many years.

 

Don't forget about tipping :D

[WisCruiser2]

If there is just a towel on a chair, I have no problem with sitting there -- if someone comes back & says they were using the chair, I will gladly give it back. Generally, if someone is in the pool, there would be more than just the towel left. I always wonder, too, how people can remember exactly WHICH lounger they have "saved"?

[bluesea321]

I suspected this would be a serious problem on the Royal in the Caribbean. It's a small deck area with a LOT of passengers. There's also limited promenade and no aft to divert people, and tall people don't fit well on their balconies. Has anyone who has sailed Royal and also others noted if it's worse or not?

 

You are wright that it is a small deck area with lots of passengers. I have sailed on several of the Crown class ships and the Royal has more problems. I always found empty loungers by the stern but there is no pool there and there is a big soot problem - people are showered by black tar particles from the stacks. Also the Retreat pool, while beautiful, is subject to strong winds as it is not protected very well. On 2 of our 3 sea days people would not stay there. This tends to congregate passengers in the middle.

[RetiredNTraveling]

I've moved items off chairs a couple of times. Each time I spent a couple of hours enjoying my time in the sun. Interestingly not once has anyone come to retrieve the items. I wonder how long till they returned. There really must be some way Princess could deal with this situation. Maybe when someone leaves to go to lunch, to the restroom or to take a dip in the pool a staff person could place a sign with the time clearly marked on the chair. After 30 minutes all items are put in a nearby bin and the chair is now available.

 

I couldn't have stated it better! But try using the circular file like we had at work!

 

Yes just where they need to be ! A bin! ;)

 

I believe you left out the first word, that being "Trash Bin"!

[Colo Cruiser]

 

I believe you left out the first word, that being "Trash Bin"!

 

The across the pond version. Same diff. :)

Edited March 29, 2014 by Colo Cruiser

[OCruisers]

It just wouldn't be worth it to me to get into any sort of confrontation over a chair. A couple of times on another cruise line I've actually seen people get into a physical fight. :rolleyes:

LuLu

~~~

[ronl]

I've moved items off chairs a couple of times. Each time I spent a couple of hours enjoying my time in the sun. Interestingly not once has anyone come to retrieve the items. I wonder how long till they returned. There really must be some way Princess could deal with this situation. Maybe when someone leaves to go to lunch, to the restroom or to take a dip in the pool a staff person could place a sign with the time clearly marked on the chair. After 30 minutes all items are put in a nearby bin and the chair is now available.

 

I am for this one

[SBGbrady]

Many years ago on a Celebrity cruise I saw 2 pool lounges with a book and a towel on them, this was at 10:30am. I asked the people who were sitting next to them if anyone was sitting there. The reply was "I have been here 2 hours and no one has come by". I put their things on a ledge and my husband and I sat down. About an hour later a woman comes by and says she was sitting there. Politely I said no one was here. She left.

 

Another time a man came up to me and said that was his "shade" chair, he already had one in the sun. Are you kidding me? This was Easter week.

 

I have found in the last few years people move around a lot more and don't sit in the same spot all day. Seems to be getting better.

[Colo Cruiser]

They call them chair handlers.

[caribill]

I suspected this would be a serious problem on the Royal in the Caribbean. It's a small deck area with a LOT of passengers. There's also limited promenade and no aft to divert people, and tall people don't fit well on their balconies. Has anyone who has sailed Royal and also others noted if it's worse or not?

 

I rarely have seen more than a handful of people on the loungers/chairs on the Promenade deck on other Princess ships.

 

People walking, yes. People standing and staring out at the sea or sunset, yes. But resting on a lounge/chair, very seldom.

[Packard]

I wish I could remember which Princess ship it was but I can't.....old age I guess! It was a couple of years ago BUT, the deck hands had slips of paper on which they recorded the time. For example, they would go to a "saved" chair, place the paper with 10am written on it just under the edge of the towel. After 30 to 45 minutes, they walked back around the deck, removed belongings from those chairs and put them on a table at one end of the pool. People soon learned that, if you were swimming in the pool, you had to be back on your chair in 30 minutes OR, if you were just a hog, your belongings would be on the table when you returned! Didn't take long to catch on!

[jean s]

I am totally favor of doing this. If this was done consistently I would think that all passengers would get the idea pretty quickly.

[MrJulius]

How about this?

Princess gets a little placard for each lounge chair. Each placard has the rules on it. When the hogs come back, just point to it. It would be a little tougher for the hogs to plead ignorance to the rules if every lounger had the rules on it.

 

 

Sent from my iPad Mini Retina

[FritzG]

How about this?

Princess gets a little placard for each lounge chair. Each placard has the rules on it. When the hogs come back, just point to it. It would be a little tougher for the hogs to plead ignorance to the rules if every lounger had the rules on it.

 

 

Sent from my iPad Mini Retina

 

I like this idea.

 

I remember when you would pay for a deck chair, and there would be a placard with your cabin number on it for the whole cruise. Maybe that would be the only way to stop the chair hogging, but I'm sure a lot of people would complain about that.

 

I agree that not having to give your room number to get a towel like other lines do might make a difference, but not a big difference.

[PescadoAmarillo]

DH has an idea he calls the "top of the hour" rule. Once an hour, a light, tinkly bell is sounded (like some ships do for the noon update). Any chair not being sat in at that moment is fair game. It would also get people out of the hot tubs and pools once an hour, not a bad practice. We once watched a lady sitting in a hot tub and drinking for four hours without getting out. Would never use that hot tub again.

[Putterdude]

How about this?

Princess gets a little placard for each lounge chair. Each placard has the rules on it. When the hogs come back, just point to it. It would be a little tougher for the hogs to plead ignorance to the rules if every lounger had the rules on it.

 

 

Sent from my iPad Mini Retina

 

I like the idea but I fear the little pieces of paper would get blown away.

[MrJulius]

Permanent placard made out of hard plastic or whatever. Heck have it written right onto the cushions, fabric or straps of each lounger. It could be tastefully done with the right color schemes ;)

 

I think that it would educate those that don't know and make it much easier for someone to remove the Princess towel, 5 year old paperback novel and the dollar store flip flops left behind by the "professional" chair hogs.

 

 

Sent from my iPad Mini Retina

[Colo Cruiser]

I think that it would educate those that don't know and make it much easier for someone to remove the Princess towel, 5 year old paperback novel and the dollar store flip flops left behind by the "professional" chair hogs.

 

 

There is no educating chair hogs. :rolleyes:

[ronl]

Those chair hogs. JUST DO NOT CARE