Pool Chair Hogs

[kruznfool]

One of these days maybe we will see the pool attendent walking around with a chalk stick like the meter people use...

I don't know what method they used, but on a March 2004 cruise, I did see Celebrity deck attendants removing towels from chairs that went unused for some period of time. They appeared to be monitoring them. Of course, towels were provided at the pool areas (instead of in your cabin), so they needed to be collected and laundered so that clean ones would always be available.

[cyberrat67]

I love this thread...I HATE chair hogs...

 

 

here's one you can use...just bring the chocolate they leave on your pillow...drop that into the beach bag/towel/hat/book they leave there "accidently"

 

I don't tolerate chair hogs...

[AlainBob]

We're just back from a cruise on the Dawn Princess and I can tell you that Princess takes the chair hogs vary seriously.

 

When we walked to the pool in the morning, we noticed that each and every chair has a little piece of paper stick on it. It says:

 

Sun Loungers

In consideration of your fellow passengers, do not reserve sun loungers by placing books or personal belongings on them. Deck Stewards have been instructed to remove any item left unattended for more than 30 minutes. Removed items can be collected from the Deck Locker, DECK 12 starboardside

 

... And I can tell you that it works. We regularly saw deck attendants remove towels and other items if a chair was unattended for more than 30 minutes...

 

I love Princess !!! ;)

 

Alain R.

[gopher's girl]

Alain - please let us know when your Dawn pictures are posted!

[Cat-Nik]

I was on a cruise in July 2004 (not on Princess) and trying to get a chair by the pool was ridiculous. I saw towels on lounge chairs literally all day with nobody using the chairs. One time I saw a woman in a chair and towels on the other 6 chairs next to her. I asked her if they were being used and she said yes, but nobody used them for several hours. The cruise line did not enforce the 30 minute policy. How do the rest of you handle the situation without having a confrontation? I'd appreciate any info you can provide.

 

You simply pick up the towels, fold them neatly and put them to one side. If the people come back, ask them if they would like you to move. They will always decline. And all those around you will support your actions 100%.

[UK Cruiser]

Cyberrat - I have been on these boards for a while now and I can honestly say that your post is the most disgusting thing I have ever read. :eek:

 

How could you suggest placing chocolate on the towels so that the chair hogs will come back to a melted mess? Don't you know that chocolate is not to be wasted? Try dropping ice cream on the towels - don't waste the chocolate! :D

[Cruisin' Chick]

'If someone comes back to it, I get up if they are polite, if they are are rude with " I was using that" I reply "not as well as I am".'

 

I see that this thread was started months ago but a very relevant topic. There's another thread that also had some great suggestions/complaints/comments. One woman said she thought it was okay for her to reserve her seat and then get a massage.:rolleyes: We laid into her for that. It's one thing to go for a dip (for a reasonable amount of time only) and be able to towel yourself off and take a rest but come on. It is inconsiderate to expect to save a chair all day. If people wouldn't do it, there wouldn't be much of a problem.

 

I'm glad to see Princess is doing something about the problem. I'm guessing they got lots of complaints.

[kryos]

How do the rest of you handle the situation without having a confrontation? I'd appreciate any info you can provide.

Real simple.

 

Stake out the chair you want for maybe half an hour.

 

If no one sits in it for that period of time, simply walk up to the chair ... remove all items on the chair ... and place your rump square into the middle of it. Anyone has a problem with that, refer them to the deck staff to deal with it. It's not your problem.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Ziggy7]

On the flip side, when I was on MOS, we put our books and towels down, went swimming for 20 minutes and came back and others had removed our items and took our chairs.

And there were lots of other chairs around not being used either, we just went and got our items (we were dripping wet) and went to another chair. DH was not a happy camper about doing that without wanting to say something :)

[Drew358]

When I was on NCL (no shame of using the name here), I couldn't find a empty chair anywhere that didn't have someone or something sitting there. When I did find one seat and sat down, my wife came over 45 minutes later, removed the towel that was there and placed it on the next seat over. Another 45 minutes went by and the "owners" of the towels came by and told my wife that she took their seat. I couldn't believe this. They brought their 4 or 5 y.o. daughter with them and they were demanding their seat back. I almost flipped out on those people, but their daughter being there prevented me from doing so. I did tell them that they were gone for over an hour and they said that they "had to go to the bathroom". I really don't enjoy nit-picking, but this one thing sticks out in my mind more then anything else with the cruise. It also really convinced me (along with some other issues) not to take NCL again since they don't seem to care about removing towels after a set peroid of time.

[Desertbelle]

I can assure you Drew358, that NCL is not the only cruise line that chooses to look away when it comes to chair hogs.

 

On our November cruise on the Dawn Princess, my husband looked for a long time to find a chair by the pool one day. After noticing that for over 30 minutes there was an unattended chair closer to the pool than where he had been sitting, he decided to take it. He was with our grandchild, and wanted to be close to the pool so he could attend to him while he played around the pool area.

 

More than an hour later (that's approximately 1 1/2 hours since my husband had been observing this chair) a woman returned and demanded her chair that she had saved. When this women approached my husband he was holding our grandson in his arms, and this women let loose with swear words (including the "F" word) and yelling. My husband asked her to please not speak like that around the child and she replied that the baby didn't understand what she was saying!!

 

My husband refused to give up the chair and the woman stormed away.

 

I've seen similiar scenes on Royal Caribbean also.

 

I applaud anything the cruise lines do to stop this. As with you Drew, this experience on the Dawn Princess left a bitter taste in our mouths.

 

I understand that the cruise lines are afraid to offend their paying guests, but I think that if rules are made, if the rules are CLEARLY posted AND if the rules are enforced across the board with no exceptions, that many more people will be happy than offended.

[kryos]

On the flip side, when I was on MOS, we put our books and towels down, went swimming for 20 minutes and came back and others had removed our items and took our chairs.

That wasn't right. You are allowed to leave the chair unattended for at least 30 minutes. I would only disturb someone's chair if they had left it for a minimum of 30 minutes, and then only if no one stopped me from taking it. If someone were in the pool, and called over to me, then I would leave it be. Being in the pool and leaving your chair is one thing ... that's acceptable. But leaving a chair reserved with towels for hours, while you are eating at the buffet, taking a nap in your cabin, or whatever ... is just wrong.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[texashms]

Okay I have to chime in here! HW and I had a rather traumatizing event on the Grand Princess 5 years ago. We went out at about 10:30 on day 1 (an at sea day) in search of chairs and we were so disappointed that we could not find one single chair that was not occupied or being saved. We walked around the entire ship 3 times (both floors that had pools) and were not able to find one single chair. while on the way trips we saw a group of chairs three rows of four chairs had towels on them. There were only two people on chairs two rows back. After our third trip around the WHOLE ship we decided to go for it and move the towels off of two of them (There were still 8 more un occupied chairs and 2 occupied chairs at this point). A lady came over and told us that those were being saved for her kids. We told her about the 30 min thing and she went off on us. That made us mad and we dug in for the long haul. She brought all her teenage kids (there were no where near enough people to fill up all the seats though) over and they harrassed us big time. She ended up going to one of the officers to "have us removed" He took their side. We chose not to move but it was so unpleasant. We were so traumatized that we have not even attempted to go near the pool again during prime hours.

Wish we had some aggressive pool lounge attendants on that cruise!