? About ppl reserving deck chairs and Obsv Lounge seats

[Calicoskies1234]

I’ve only cruised once previously, so please excuse my asking of a silly question. In reading reviews of the Encore many ppl claim that ppl will hold seats for hours just by laying a towel there, even in Obsv Lounge. If I’m there and I don’t see anyone come in the 5-10 min I’m looking for a seat why can’t I just remove the towel or item and sit? Is this going to provoke a fist fight? If someone just went to get food/drink/restroom ok, but if they are gone long periods it seems silly no one can sit there. I’m not looking for confrontation, just fairness in everyone getting seats sometimes. 

[hallux]

I wouldn't remove it myself, but I'd certainly find a crewmember to assist with securing the abandoned items so I could utilize the chair.  If the person comes back and claims you took their seat - "it was empty when I sat down, maybe that crewmember knows where your towel is"...

[RocketMan275]

15 minutes ago, hallux said:

I wouldn't remove it myself, but I'd certainly find a crewmember to assist with securing the abandoned items so I could utilize the chair.  If the person comes back and claims you took their seat - "it was empty when I sat down, maybe that crewmember knows where your towel is"...

Excellent advice.

[purplecow15]

I agree with the advice but question the op’s 5-10 minutes. I can think of numerous reasons I may be away from my lounge for more than 10 minutes. Bathroom break and grab something from buffet, running down to my cabin because I forgot my sunglasses. It sometimes takes time getting a drink from pool bar. 

[Two Wheels Only]

There is a time limit that NCL will state in the dailies. If an item is left in a chair beyond that limit, have NCL staff remove the items. When the person returns, tell them that the staff member removed the items after the time limit was reached. The dailies will also state where the items were taken.

 

The time limit stated in the dailies can vary by ship and even by cruise. It can be 15 minutes,  30 minutes, or 60 minutes. No matter what, removing someone's items after "5-10 min" would be wrong on your part.

[schmoopie17]

1 hour ago, Calicoskies1234 said:

 ppl will hold seats for hours just by laying a towel there,  

While they may be "ppl", the proper term is "chair hog".

[Capitan Obvious]

If I place something to hold my seat while I run an errand, or let's be honest...I have a chair and someone else wants what I have...I am a "chair hog".

 

However, if I sit in that seat and don't move for hours on end...nobody says a word. Not one peep.

 

Maybe a chair time limit...whether you are sitting in it or not...is what is needed?

[Panhandle Couple]

1 hour ago, Calicoskies1234 said:

I’ve only cruised once previously, so please excuse my asking of a silly question. In reading reviews of the Encore many ppl claim that ppl will hold seats for hours just by laying a towel there, even in Obsv Lounge. If I’m there and I don’t see anyone come in the 5-10 min I’m looking for a seat why can’t I just remove the towel or item and sit? Is this going to provoke a fist fight? If someone just went to get food/drink/restroom ok, but if they are gone long periods it seems silly no one can sit there. I’m not looking for confrontation, just fairness in everyone getting seats sometimes. 

Welcome to the world of cruising.

It happens on every mainstream line, and was done back in the 80s and 90s.

Human nature. Hard to change it.

[graphicguy]

4 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

There is a time limit that NCL will state in the dailies. If an item is left in a chair beyond that limit, have NCL staff remove the items. When the person returns, tell them that the staff member removed the items after the time limit was reached. The dailies will also state where the items were taken.

 

The time limit stated in the dailies can vary by ship and even by cruise. It can be 15 minutes,  30 minutes, or 60 minutes. No matter what, removing someone's items after "5-10 min" would be wrong on your part.

15 minutes is the limit....regardless of reason....per NCL policy.

 

If there's a towel or personal belongings on a chair couch in the pool area, Waterfront area, Observation/Horizon Lounge, let a crew member know and they'll remove it.

 

What someone says upon their return, if they return, is really an issue between them and the crew at that point.

[Two Wheels Only]

4 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

15 minutes is the limit....regardless of reason....per NCL policy.

 

If 15 minutes is now fleet-wide and is currently stated in the dailies, that's great. It would be an example of NCL being consistent and hopefully enforcement is also consistent. I have dailies from previous cruises that have the different time limits.

[hallux]

@Captain Obvious I don't consider it a 'chair hog' situation if you're actively sitting in the chair.  I don't even consider it that if you're sitting there and have one saved for your travel partner or new friend you met on board to join you at some point.  It's the people that are on deck as soon as the chairs are set up, stack of towels in hand, reserving rows of chairs (I saw it one time) with towels only to come back after having an 8 AM breakfast, participating in 9 AM trivia, then meandering back to their cabin to put on their swimsuit and finally appearing sometime around 10 or 10:30 that are the real issue. 

 

If the chair has just a towel, or a towel and a book but no indication it's been used and has been unused for over 20 minutes it should be fair game unless there's a living, breathing, soul in the chair next to it saying their spouse or friend is coming.

 

As a solo cruiser this gets even trickier - I either need to find a pool buddy or hope that someone sees my sandals under the chair to recognize that I'm somewhere in the area.  I will often spend 20-30 minutes at a time in the pool, but then I'll want a chair to sit on when I get out of the pool.

[Capitan Obvious]

2 minutes ago, hallux said:

I don't consider it

 

And that is where the train runs off of the rails. What "you consider" might not match up with what "someone else considers". Many, many, many people with different viewpoints...it becomes difficult to apply some cut-and-dried rule to everyone in the land of "consider".

 

Given what you claim happens, I don't know which is more strange...people allegedy doing this at the crack of dawn, or the people who are just there to witness it.

 

BTW...I don't know who you were trying to "@" your post to, but

7 minutes ago, hallux said:

@Captain Obvious 

 is not my screen name.

[Calicoskies1234]

Ty for good advice. I’ll wait the NCL req time and get staff to move items. I never sit for hours at a time, but I’d like an hour now and then to chat and hv cocktail. 

[Distinctive-Destinations]

I’d rather someone sit in a chair for 10 hours than have it empty with a towel laying on it for an hour.

[KansasTexan]

They are massive ships with plenty of places to sit - although those places may not be everyone's choice every time. I travel solo for most of my cruises and if I get up from a seat to: go to the bathroom, grab a bite, get a drink, whatever...I figure I'll get another seat somewhere else if another person wants that particular seat. I don't own that space and each person on the ship has as much right to it as do I. Why is this so hard?

[Distinctive-Destinations]

Just now, KansasTexan said:

They are massive ships with plenty of places to sit - although those places may not be everyone's choice every time. I travel solo for most of my cruises and if I get up from a seat to: go to the bathroom, grab a bite, get a drink, whatever...I figure I'll get another seat somewhere else if another person wants that particular seat. I don't own that space and each person on the ship has as much right to it as do I. Why is this so hard?

Just getting up a couple minutes for the bathroom, refill, etc doesn’t bother me personally. Leave your towel for that, in my opinion.

 

It’s the people who are clearly PLANNING to not sit there anytime soon that bother me. If you’re getting up at 7 and putting a towel on your chair so you can sunbathe at lunchtime, well…

[LatinaInTexas]

On the Encore last month on Glacier Day at 7am I went up to observation lounge just to scope out the situation. 

Every single chair/sofa was taken. Less than half the seating had people sitting in it. There were countless areas where one person was guarding the whole block of seating with everything you can imagine piled high up on the seats to deter people.

They had set up a few rows of plastic chairs up close to the windows here and there and a few of those were empty. 

Also because it was a rainy day the windows were fogged up so the view wasn't good. 

We had planned on being outside so it didn't bother us but just walking by seeing how selfish and inconsiderate people were behaving was sad.

[schmoopie17]

At least this is an issue that will be going away soon. Haven't you heard? NCL is going under/out of business/bankrupt. (If you read some of the discussion in the thread about the IT Department moving.)

[graphicguy]

1 hour ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

If 15 minutes is now fleet-wide and is currently stated in the dailies, that's great. It would be an example of NCL being consistent and hopefully enforcement is also consistent. I have dailies from previous cruises that have the different time limits.

It’s plastered on the big screen at the main pool area and I saw signs stating it in some other popular public areas.  So, it’s obvious what the policy is!

[julig22]

54 minutes ago, LatinaInTexas said:

On the Encore last month on Glacier Day at 7am I went up to observation lounge just to scope out the situation. 

Every single chair/sofa was taken. Less than half the seating had people sitting in it. There were countless areas where one person was guarding the whole block of seating with everything you can imagine piled high up on the seats to deter people.

There wasn't an available seat in the observation lounge when they had the presentation by the park ranger. Lots of empty seats tho. I asked people if I could sit in one of their saved seats just for the presentation and got some pretty rude replies, had to stand while those seats stayed empty. Extremely selfish IMHO.

[detroitlions]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

At least this is an issue that will be going away soon. Haven't you heard? NCL is going under/out of business/bankrupt. (If you read some of the discussion in the thread about the IT Department moving.)

Yea that thread the OP was clueless on a lot of things. NCL is actually spending more money by going to AWS. And the layoffs were IT folks working in there cooperate buildings and server rooms because they were replaced by AWS

[detroitlions]

Chair hogs and lines are the main reason I get Vibe pass when available.

I had a dude on the Belize private island put a shirt on a table between 2 chairs he thought that meant he owned the two chairs and the table LOL( we were sitting there for 25 mins).

After a exchange of words and a floating shirt in the pool I told him to keep the chairs in a not so pleasant way. 

He definitely avoided me on the ship when I saw him a few times.

[kitkat343]

2 hours ago, hallux said:

@Captain Obvious I don't consider it a 'chair hog' situation if you're actively sitting in the chair.  I don't even consider it that if you're sitting there and have one saved for your travel partner or new friend you met on board to join you at some point.  It's the people that are on deck as soon as the chairs are set up, stack of towels in hand, reserving rows of chairs (I saw it one time) with towels only to come back after having an 8 AM breakfast, participating in 9 AM trivia, then meandering back to their cabin to put on their swimsuit and finally appearing sometime around 10 or 10:30 that are the real issue. 

 

If the chair has just a towel, or a towel and a book but no indication it's been used and has been unused for over 20 minutes it should be fair game unless there's a living, breathing, soul in the chair next to it saying their spouse or friend is coming.

 

As a solo cruiser this gets even trickier - I either need to find a pool buddy or hope that someone sees my sandals under the chair to recognize that I'm somewhere in the area.  I will often spend 20-30 minutes at a time in the pool, but then I'll want a chair to sit on when I get out of the pool.

And this is exactly why you never want to touch anyone else's property.  If you need a chair, either ask a crew member to get another one (I was able to do this successfully on Cunard when all of the chairs near the one outdoor pool kids are allowed in were occupied and my kids were swimming) or ask a crew member for help in removing someone else's property.

 

And it's extra frustrating when people chair hog in front of kids' pools/spalsh pads because parents need to be close to their kids when they are in the water.  On NCL, I dragged a chair over from the adult section to in front of the kiddie splash zone so I could safely watch my kid in the water (I figured if they said anything to me I'd point out that half the chairs in the spash zone were taken up by people's stuff and not people and tell them to do something about that or let me stay.  The staff ignored me, along with the chair hogs). 

Edited Wednesday at 04:49 PM by kitkat343

[Two Wheels Only]

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

It’s plastered on the big screen at the main pool area and I saw signs stating it in some other popular public areas.  So, it’s obvious what the policy is!

 

NCL has also shown...

 

 

 

 

...so it's best to know what is in effect.

 

If they've gone down to 15 minutes for every ship, that's fine. 

[Capitan Obvious]

4 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

NCL has also shown...

 

 

 

...so it's best to know what is in effect.

 

If they've gone down to 15 minutes for every ship, that's fine. 

 

Now all you have to do is define the line between "unattended" and "attended", and then decide who is going to stare at each and every single chair for the entire 60 minute period to ensure that the chair was actually "unattended" for the ENTIRE time period. I hope they have enough crew for the needed number of chair monitors.