First time cruiser - question about chair hogs

[Big_G]

Actually, the best advice is to not waste your precious vacation time counting the minutes until a chair 'should' become available. When the owner returns at 29 minutes and 59 seconds, will you start timing another chair? :D

 

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[DrD]

You can usually find a chair a bit further away as others have stated.

 

Personally I've moved towels but not other property. Now that towels aren't signed out they're really not anyone's property but the cruise line.

 

I'd say I've done that maybe 5 times per 12 cruises and only once did someone come back, I just gave them the chair back.

 

If you speak another language you can pretend you don't understand English if they confront you. Of course you better hope you don't run into person later.

 

I tend to get up early to run, and if I see a bunch of loungers with towels on them I'll take them off. So if someone falsely accused you of taking their chair that might have been my fault.

[Rufferto]

Sometimes you don't have to look to be confrontational, sometimes it finds you deserving or not ;) I had one guy get to the point I thought he was going to get violent, but about that time his wife pointed out that their seats were somewhere else.

 

I had this happen to me too. The man looked like he was going to get very upset, but his wife pointed out they were seated port side when I was on the starboard side.

[Tammy296]

Actually, the best advice is to not waste your precious vacation time counting the minutes until a chair 'should' become available. When the owner returns at 29 minutes and 59 seconds, will you start timing another chair? :D

 

ROFL! I was thinking the same thing as I read these posts....

 

I'm a first time cruiser beginning this weekend and I'm already scared ...thankfully I've booked a balcony so worse comes to worse I'll read my book there!!

 

 

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[COMBOY]

First time cruiser here so not sure if this is a silly question.

I've been reading a few posts about "lounge chair hogs" that wake up early and put a towel over a chair, I guess, and then don't come back for a while. Or people will claim a chair for an entire day and barely use it. I've read that Royal Caribbean doesn't always enforce their 30 minute rule. So my question is...if my fiance and I notice that the same chair has been sitting empty for a long time and RCI employees are not doing anything about it, what would happen if we just moved the towels and stuff off and claimed the chairs?

 

Has anyone tried this? Is this a huge no-no? Would the people come back in a rage? I mean really, we could just say that there is a 30 minute rule and they couldn't say anything about it, could they?

 

I'm just curious why I haven't read about anyone doing something like that.

 

Sure, if it's just towels and over 30 minutes go ahead and move it. But if personal items then contact the pool staff. Don't you move it. If you were to move big Bubba's stuff he might not be too happy if you know what I mean. But in reality unless you really want to sit right by the pool there are hundreds of loungers on multi-decks. Usually sea days the pool area is pretty packed so you need to get a lounger early. But people are always leaving, going to lunch, spa so finding a lounger is not too difficult most of the time. Believe me if this is all we had to worry about in life - we have it pretty darn good. LOL Happy cruising.

[xrayjng]

As far as I am concerned, if the people have been gone for some period of time, dump the stuff on the deck and stretch out. Should they come back and give you a hard time, just point them to the 'deck patrol' person or tell them to call security for their complaint. It is a posted policy with signs posted that one can not "reserve" a chair, they will most likely just mumble a lot, take their stuff and wander off. Look at the episode as an educational experience for the violator....

 

"DUMP the stuff on the deck" Now that's confrontational!

[MaryL31]

I have been stressing out over this...will be on Freedom in a couple of weeks, and I know how bad the chair situation can get. DH and I have decided that we will just do what we want, and when the time comes to throw on the bathing suit and hit the pool, we intend to grab a cool one and walk...if we see even one chair available (I prefer the upper decks anyway), it will become "home base". We will have our young adult children with us, who will likely sleep until 11. At least one of us will stay with the chair. In the past, we have sought out chairs early in the day and at least one of us has stayed there. Makes it hard to do anything together, like eat breakfast or lunch. Not gonna happen this time. Worst case scenario? We get a lot of walking time in...

[BillOh]

I have been stressing out over this...will be on Freedom in a couple of weeks, and I know how bad the chair situation can get. DH and I have decided that we will just do what we want, and when the time comes to throw on the bathing suit and hit the pool, we intend to grab a cool one and walk...if we see even one chair available (I prefer the upper decks anyway), it will become "home base". We will have our young adult children with us, who will likely sleep until 11. At least one of us will stay with the chair. In the past, we have sought out chairs early in the day and at least one of us has stayed there. Makes it hard to do anything together, like eat breakfast or lunch. Not gonna happen this time. Worst case scenario? We get a lot of walking time in...

 

Please don't stress! For me cruising is about getting away from stress. I have seen on Voyager class where even the upper deck is filled on Sea Days, but Freedom and Oasis class does have an even bigger upper deck. On Freedom specifically we would go to the solarium pool and if nothing was available put our towel and clothes in a neat pile while we were in the pool. We would then watch and if we saw someone looking like they were about to leave, we would politely ask if we could have those chairs. This has worked well for us. Speaking of a place to put things. If they had some kind of cubby hole where I could put a dry towel, shoes and a shirt, I wouldn't even need a chair at all much of the time as I am a pool person.

 

On my cruise next week I intend on walking/swimming in the pool a lot as its the only excercise I'm allowed due to back surgery in January. I will probably find a place to stack my stuff and not take a chair at all.

[papaflamingo]

Get a Balcony and spend time on that. Prettier view, quieter, private, and no chair hogs (of course no lounger either). :)

I, too, am annoyed when I return from the gym at 7:00 and there are people in pajamas, bath robes, and slippers putting towels on chairs. I, too, am annoyed when there is one towel spread across 4 chairs. These are obviously not being used. I have never moved any, but one day I'm tempted, at 7:00 am to "move things around." You know, turn in towels, move personal items to other chairs, etc. Just to mess with their minds. I wouldn't do it, but it would be fun to watch the reactions when they finally come to their chairs 3 or 4 hours later.

Really unless you're bound and determined to lie in the midst of a thousand people on a crowded pool deck, there are generally chairs available in more secluded areas, up forward, back aft, on the Promenade deck outside, etc.

Or, as I said, private balcony.

[BillOh]

Get a Balcony and spend time on that. Prettier view, quieter, private, and no chair hogs (of course no lounger either). :)

 

Or sun for at least half the ship/day is tanning is what your after.