Deck chairs

i am onboard Seabourn Encore cruising from Barcelona. Today we were in Menorca and we decided to stay on board and enjoy the pool.

I found a lounge around 10.15 and was in and out of the pool until 1.15 when we decided to have lunch.

My husband found a table at the Grill and I went to the bathroom and returned to see my towels and bag had been removed from my lounge

Seabourn has a policy that if you are away from your deck chair more than 30 minutes you need to take your possessions from the chair, fair enough, but really.....not even 5 minutes !

I did approach the manager who apologised and offered to replace my property back on the lounge but unfortunately it was too late...someone had taken it

I realise that the cruise line has to have these policies but this is Seabourn not Costa or Princess that have thousands of guests!

So beware if you need to leave your lounge around the pool for any length of time

This may not be the response you are looking for but I am happy to see SB enforce the chair hog policy. I do agree that 5 minutes is ridiculously short and inappropriate since at the time you were not offside the policy. But perhaps they had not realized that you had returned to your chair after being in the pool and they thought the chair was not being used for a lengthier period of time.

Regardless, if you were going to lunch why would it matter that someone else took your chair? Presumably your lunch would have lasted longer than 30 minutes, so you would have had to give up the chair and found a new one after lunch. Yes it is inconvenient if you are actively using a chair by the pool all day (with the exception of lunch), but many people leave their belongings for extended periods without ever using the chair for hours at a time. If people were more considerate, then SB would not have to police the chairs.

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Your situation sounds a little unusual, only 5 minutes away from your chair and your possessions were gone! Perhaps lounge chairs were in high demand and the the staff had noticed your husband had taken a place at the grill table and assumed you would join him? They should have approached you with your items and explained that someone else had the use of your lounges as you had moved to the grill area for lunch.

However I am also one of the people very happy to hear that Seabourn are monitoring the use of lounges and removing personal possessions if they have not been used for a period of time. On many occasions I have seen people have 2 chairs in the sun and 2 chairs in the shade, moving from one group to the other over the course of the day. Or putting down books and towels at goodness knows what hour in the early morning and not turning up to use the lounges until after lunch.

If Seabourn has to help us all to be a little more considerate of each other, so be it.

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However I am also one of the people very happy to hear that Seabourn are monitoring the use of lounges and removing personal possessions if they have not been used for a period of time. On many occasions I have seen people have 2 chairs in the sun and 2 chairs in the shade, moving from one group to the other over the course of the day. Or putting down books and towels at goodness knows what hour in the early morning and not turning up to use the lounges until after lunch.

 

If Seabourn has to help us all to be a little more considerate of each other, so be it.

Plus one, also it would be more considerate if people removed their towels when they're leaving the pool area:D

Agree. I am glad Seabourn is doing this - well done!

Let’s see if the policy is consistently enforced

Plus one, also it would be more considerate if people removed their towels when they're leaving the pool area:D

I ALWAYS pick up my towels and put them in the "used bin" when I leave the pool area. On one occasion, a woman guest said to me, "Why are you doing that, there are people paid to clean up after us" !!!!! Absolutely a true story.

I ALWAYS pick up my towels and put them in the "used bin" when I leave the pool area. On one occasion, a woman guest said to me, "Why are you doing that, there are people paid to clean up after us" !!!!! Absolutely a true story.

My husband and I also pick up our towels and put it in the used bin when we are leaving. It makes it easier for someone to identify an available deck chair.

We are on this Barcelona sailing. Mahon was an interesting little port but as it was Sunday just about everything was closed. We enjoyed our walk around the town but it only took 1.5 hours and it was a very hot day.

Because it was so hot we went to the pool and it was very busy. We only stayed for about 40 minutes but lots of people were looking for loungers by the main pool area. The pool area on Deck 5 was just as busy.

Julie

I too am pleased that Seabourn is enforcing a policy that aims to allow those who want the chairs to have them when they are plainly not occupied. About 3 years ago on Sojourn there was a couple who had the 2 in the sun on deck 9 and 2 in the shade on deck 5 all the time, starting before 6 am, with the 5 deck chairs moved so that walkers there had to circumvent their "territory". These people also had airs and graces with special orders at lunches and dinners until, you guessed it, one of the walkers was insulted by them one afternoon for walking by them. A report to the HD took care of that....

Back to the original post, this is not a Costa or Princess story but it is one about not reserving deck chairs when others want to use what is, and let's be honest, a limited commodity that is meant to be shared. And bringing your own snap on sun parasol (which I have seen) won't help you claim your territory since Seabourn is enforcing the rule as best they can. Everyone benefits- if you believe that community norms hold precedent over yours- and we should therefore do our best to support Seabourn staff do so.

Happy and healthy sailing!

I too am pleased that Seabourn is enforcing a policy...

Is the right place to enquire what Seabourn do about checking people adhere to the dress code at dinner?:D:D;);):confused::confused:

sydney princess - were you actually going to vacate your lounger when you returned after 5 minutes?? I suspect not, and you would have been longer than half an hour having lunch, I guess. However, surprising that your things were moved; presumably the staff involved had noticed that you were about to go and have lunch. I suppose they have should have checked their watches, and then moved them after the half hour was up!

Amusing responses but the facts remain. Time limit had not been reached so removal was not warranted and when challenged the said they would replace my property. However, they were too incompetent to even replace it on the correct lounge.

Best wishes?

Is the right place to enquire what Seabourn do about checking people adhere to the dress code at dinner?:D:D;);):confused::confused:

That would be a 'no'

I ALWAYS pick up my towels and put them in the "used bin" when I leave the pool area. On one occasion, a woman guest said to me, "Why are you doing that, there are people paid to clean up after us" !!!!! Absolutely a true story.

Well we hope we get to cruise with you some day Cruising Kirby because we too put the towels in the used bin when we're finished because we want the next person to know the loungers are vacant and let the deck staff know they can clean up anything we've left behind.

I feel the original poster was a little unfortunate that staff, trying to keep the pool deck fair for all, and weed out the 'library books at 6.30 before we go on tour' crowd, made a mistake. It must be one of the least pleasant bits of their job which is why I feel often the guidelines are not enforced.

We always feel a bit bad about leaving our stuff on deck if we even go for lunch and hurry back as soon as we're done. If we spent 45 minutes eating and our things were moved I hope we'd find two new chairs and enjoy a different view. If we'd taken a 5 minute bathroom break, I'd be a little less sanguine, although I would wonder if the deck staff had been persuaded 'those chairs haven't been used all day' by another cruiser.

Amusing responses but the facts remain. Time limit had not been reached so removal was not warranted and when challenged the said they would replace my property. However, they were too incompetent to even replace it on the correct lounge.

Best wishes?

But you were leaving to go to lunch anyway so why did it matter which lounge it was replaced on?

Or were you planning to keep the lounge 'reserved' over lunch?

How do you know for sure it was staff that moved your stuff? Where was it moved to?

I have moved possessions off a chair in the past, but only after knowing the chairs were unoccupied for at hour or so, or if it looked like nothing but used towels were on the chairs.

You can’t expect to keep a lounger when you go off for lunch especially after you have had the use of it all morning.

Well done the member of staff that spotted this.

There are plenty of loungers to go around when you need one.

It’s not one of life’s hardships [emoji568]

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Is the right place to enquire what Seabourn do about checking people adhere to the dress code at dinner?:D;):confused:

Only if there is a scarcity of seating (or of oxygen at the level of upturned noses). ;p:D

We did observe on couple who dominated one of the canopied lounges on out recent Encore cruise in May on the Mediterranean. They were there when we boarded and were in the same spot each & every day......No one else could get near that lounger. We thought is was hilarious. In their defense, they were quite a bit older and did not seem to leave the ship very much....so more power to them.

And if all else fails you could always invest in a suite, complete with sunloungers on the balcony.Nobody ever removes the towels after 30mins there!

And if all else fails you could always invest in a suite, complete with sunloungers on the balcony.Nobody ever removes the towels after 30mins there!

Indeed. We always enjoy sitting out on the veranda although I don't recommend the Owners Suites or Signature Suites on the front of the ship. Too much wind when the ship is moving and not enough shade.

Bravo to Seabourn if they are truly enforcing their rule – evidently mistakes are made – but I would rather have an honest mistake made on me if it means they are enforcing the blasted deck chair controversy that is the bane of almost every cruise line/ship regardless of size or stars. We remove our towels when done to signal the loungers are free and, yes if we are not ordering lunch pool side we vacate for lunch. Yes, the deck steward made an honest mistake –but one - that if it happens to me – I would be applauding him for the effort.

BUT

I do have a question – OP said they “found a table at the Grill” – do you mean the area some people call the “Patio Grill” (which Seabourn calls just “The Patio”, which is in the same vicinity as the pool and the loungers? That one is a little bit of a quandary for me. If I was in the pool for 40 minutes I would not expect my chair to be taken as I am availing myself to the accouterments of that particular area – sun, food, drink, swim. I would not expect to have to get out of the pool and play tag with my chair to re-mark it with my DNA. The point of many people’s ire is about blatant chair hogs who stake a claim and are not to be found. My point is the Patio (if that

is the food area OP was talking about) is in the same area and part of the outside/pool area, steps away from many loungers? In my mind using the Patio is the same as swimming in the pool – I am there and actively using the area. If I went to the Colonnade or Restaurant different story. I could also make a mess of the area and have all my food from the Patio delivered to my lounging spot rather than walking 20 feet to a table at the Patio. I believe there are reasonable scenarios to the issue vs. outright absurd rude selfish chair hoginess. All this a minor point because I believe chair hogging is not a crisis on Seabourn as is it is on lesser lines – or is it? Never been on Seabourn - looking forward to two cruises coming up to find out.

Is the right place to enquire what Seabourn do about checking people adhere to the dress code at dinner?:D:D;);):confused::confused:

Seabourn can just issue a version of this and let guests patrol themselves. We can pilot it on the fall transatlantic. 😂

Here's what I think happened: a crew member working around the pool all morning knew that you had the lounge for some hours---and saw your husband take a table on the Patio for lunch. At that point, since you had left the lounge chair as well, he assumed that you were going to join your husband for lunch--and that your lounge chair should be available for another passenger.

I have seen many people that I would not consider “chair hogs”, get up from their deck chair and sit at the Patio for lunch...and then return to their chair. I have no real issue with this, since they have been using (and continue to intend to) use the chairs. This is much different than putting your book out on a chair early in the am and not showing up for hours later. In my view there is the hard 30 minute rule and the practical aspect where guests should be able to enjoy a luxury cruise without even thinking of about this kind of stuff. Unfortunately that is not the case.

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