Towel hogs

[1 HappyCruiser]

On my last cruise on the Oosterdam, I removed someone's stuff because I waited the 20 minutes.

 

When I take a chair and put my stuff on it, I only leave the chair to go to the pool. Even then, I am watching the clock the make sure I am not away from my chair for more than 15 minutes. Even if I go get some food at the buffet, I make sure my boyfriend is sitting on his chair, and that none of us leave for more that 20 minutes.

 

Why can't everyone be so rule-conscious!?

 

20 minutes is sure a little quick to remove any items. :mad: I'm surprised you didn't run into a confrontation.

I can easily go in the pool for over 20 minutes.

[PumpkinPatches]

20 minutes is sure a little quick to remove any items. :mad: I'm surprised you didn't run into a confrontation.

I can easily go in the pool for over 20 minutes.

20 minutes was the guideline advertised by HAL in the daily program. It said if a chair has been unoccupied for more than 20 minutes, you are free to remove the items. If someone confronted me I would have just pulled the program out of my beachbag and showed them.

[showmtway]

WoW...I agree with you 100% !!!! Thanks for putting it so well....I always put this problem onto my comment card concerning each Princess cruise I was on. Always hoping against hope that Princess management will finally take notice and some constructive action will be put into affect to make better availabilty of the deck/pool chairs ...Are you "listening" Princess ?

[Idratherbeatsea]

I just thought of a fun new game. Get up early go to pool area around 0730 and remove all the towels that are sitting alone on chairs.........

[PumpkinPatches]

I just thought of a fun new game. Get up early go to pool area around 0730 and remove all the towels that are sitting alone on chairs.........

 

I'm in! ;):p

[regnig]

I just thought of a fun new game. Get up early go to pool area around 0730 and remove all the towels that are sitting alone on chairs.........

 

I'm not at all sure any one individual could carry them all and think this ought to be at least a two person team. :D:eek::D

[carolmacey]

Just got back from an amazing cruise on the Emerald. Had the greatest time.

 

But someone needs to take all of you that drop your towels off on chairs at 6 am, and then don't show up until noon, and make you walk the plank.

 

So, let me tell you some truths about the world:

 

1) You aren't better than anyone else on the cruise.

 

2) You are not nearly as important as you think you are.

 

3) Reserving a chair with a towel is essentially something I would expect from a spoiled little child, not adults.

 

4) Just because "every one else" does it, doesn't make it right.

 

The reality of the situation is, that if people would just use the chairs when they were actually at the pool, the turnaround would allow for everyone that wants to sit there, to have a place to sit. I mean, you don't leave your car in the parking spot near the mall, so that if you decide you want to go to the mall, you have a good parking spot... right?

 

Princess told me that the policy is that after 20 minutes, towels are supposed to be removed. On my next cruise, I am going to just take a chair with a towel on it, and remove the towel after 20 minutes.. The revolution has begun!!

 

I started revolting many cruises ago. Especially if it is just a towel, but I just put the "forgotten" items on a planter, or bar, or chair, or whatever.

[shepp]

One time my daughter and I got out of our chairs for about 25 minutes to go get some pizza which was on the same deck and even near the pool....Moral of this story is...yes, people are rude, and yes, people hog the chairs. I do hope that the staff would help enforce but they don't. !

 

And the moral of this thread is - given the 20-minute rule that posters are referring to - you would have qualified as a chair hog. Sorry, but there it is.

[moonglum]

Recently on the Diamond Princess I was lying near to the pool one morning and this man and his friend were occupying 4 loungers between them. I was speaking to one of them and he decided to leave. I asked if he was taking his towel with him but he said he may return later that day. I said what about other people and he just shrugged and walked away.

 

A short time later his friend walked away in similar circumstances. A female appeared later and was very reluctant to take one of the loungers but was encourgaed to do so.

 

People reserving loungers and walking away was quite apparent at times on this cruise and Princess really do need to publish a policy and enforce it.

[Cruisin' Chick]

There was a HUGE thread regarding chair hogs recently which was interesting to read. I've cruised 7 times on 5 different cruiselines and for the most part it is always the same. People get up at O dark 30 to set a towel or something on MULTIPLE loungechairs to save them and don't show for hours. I have always gotten up by 8:00 AM (not because I wanted to but because I wanted a chair near the pool) and actually sat in the chair. One time my daughter and I got out of our chairs for about 25 minutes to go get some pizza which was on the same deck and even near the pool. We didn't want to eat in the sun so we just grabbed a table while we ate and then returned to our chairs only to find a lady sitting in my daughters chair and she had moved all her stuff to my chair. I nicely told her that both chairs were being used but that we had left to grab a bite to eat in the shade and she started in by telling me that there was nothing on the chair so she figured it was empty...blah blah blah! She never offered to move and it wasn't until it started getting a bit heated and everyone around me confirmed that we had been sitting in the two chairs all morning. She finally left but very rudely!!! We only stayed about an hour more and took our wet towels and stuff with us.

 

Moral of this story is...yes, people are rude, and yes, people hog the chairs.

I do hope that the staff would help enforce but they don't. My next cruise is on 4/3. I will definitely be writing a review when I return and I will definitely write about our chair/towel experience. Good luck!

 

I would have to agree with Shepp above. If you are going to leave for a half hour (and 25 minutes probably was more like 30 minutes), couldn't you have given up your chair so that someone else could have it. When you return, it may have been still unoccupied. But if someone else claimed it, then it was probably obvious to the other person that you were just doing what others have (sitting down the chair to reserve it for hours at a time).

[vinoblanco]

The worst case of chair hoggery I've experienced was on a beach holiday in Antigua. Every day DH and I went to find chairs, after breakfast, at around 8.30 am to find every single one was reserved with towels, but the beach was always deserted.

 

We had to travel to a public beach and pay for chairs.

 

On the last day, we were leaving in the afternoon but I wanted to sunbathe and swim until lunchtime, so I crept down to the beach at 7am, before breakfast, with my towels, ready to be a chair hog. I met a lady who was returning from doing the deed and she told me I was too late, all the chairs were "taken", she had just managed to get the last ones. We chatted and I said that all week we'd never managed to get sun chairs and that we were leaving at lunchtime so not enough time to go elsewhere. She told me, in a very kindly fashion, that if I just wanted chairs till lunch time I could use HERS, as she and hubby were going into town shopping and wouldn't be back till afternoon. I did take her up on the offer and even thanked her! In some weird way it was me who was at fault for not getting up early enough!

[moniquet]

Emerald is the worse ship we have cruised on for chair hogs. Many seemed to reserve them before they went ashore for the day! When we did manage to get chairs they were up in the gods in the horrible MUTS pool. So windy it blew an ice cream out of my hand.

 

I think the 20 minute rule is a bit strict though. As someone said if you like to swim, who wants to be checking the time....cruising is supposed to be relaxing, not queuing all the time and arguing about loungers.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I really don't like the stress of dealing with chair hogs while on vacation. DH and I take one sea day each cruise and get two chairs on the Terrace Deck (early, he is out by about 7; me by about 7:30), and we stay in them, both of us about 80% of the time, and one or the other of us gone about 20% of the time (usually for hot tub or pool, but also to go to the buffet to get food for both of us). We are never both gone. It's a lot of work, and I am of the opinion that it's not worth it, but he likes it, so...

 

The other days, I bring my trusty inflatable float, narrow and not too long, and set it either on the bleachers or along the pool when I'm there for just an hour or so. If I could figure out a way to bring my own lounger, I would do that.;)

 

But what I really don't understand are those folks who simply must have 3 or 4 or 5 chairs together, and then spend the day reading and sleeping and really not talking to each other anyways. Or those folks who re-arrange their loungers such that those of us who use those steps to get down to our cabins on the deck below have to grow wings and fly over them to get there. But dare to bump them, and it's quite a scene.

[Woobstr112G]

I really don't like the stress of dealing with chair hogs while on vacation. DH and I take one sea day each cruise and get two chairs on the Terrace Deck (early, he is out by about 7; me by about 7:30), and we stay in them, both of us about 80% of the time, and one or the other of us gone about 20% of the time (usually for hot tub or pool, but also to go to the buffet to get food for both of us). We are never both gone. It's a lot of work, and I am of the opinion that it's not worth it, but he likes it, so...

 

The other days, I bring my trusty inflatable float, narrow and not too long, and set it either on the bleachers or along the pool when I'm there for just an hour or so. If I could figure out a way to bring my own lounger, I would do that.;)

 

But what I really don't understand are those folks who simply must have 3 or 4 or 5 chairs together, and then spend the day reading and sleeping and really not talking to each other anyways. Or those folks who re-arrange their loungers such that those of us who use those steps to get down to our cabins on the deck below have to grow wings and fly over them to get there. But dare to bump them, and it's quite a scene.

 

They wouldn't have 5 chairs together, with only one occupied, if I was there.....

 

Bob

[cowprintrabbit]

With some envy, a day in the sun for all you leatherskined humans equals a few days of radiation pain for me. This chairhog issue actually annoys me more now than it will when we're on the Emerald next month.

 

My husband and I are the same way - must be a Pacific NW thing! We observe the curious behavior of the chair hogs while searching for those perfect two loungers that remain shaded from all angles for the few hours we are able to read by the pool before getting burnt anyway from the light reflecting off all that white paint...

[Loonbeam]

The one issue with the 20 minute rule is easily solved. If you are going somewhere where you will be away for maybe 25-30, like for food, let the attendant know. They can use the tags mentioned to make a note, and if you are not back when you say, off they go.

 

Fair and easy.

[1 HappyCruiser]

If we're going to be gone for a little more than 20 minutes we always let someone in the next seat know to hold our seat. Normally lunch takes 30 minutes in the Horizon.

[kazzaspal]

good reply. Kids are no excuse.

[shepp]

If you are going to leave for a half hour (and 25 minutes probably was more like 30 minutes)' date=' couldn't you have given up your chair so that someone else could have it.[/quote']

 

Yeah. Despite what it might look like on these boards, I don't think of myself as a paragon of virtue, and maybe I'm just dense. There are plenty of valid reasons for leaving your lounger for a few minutes: going for a dip, visiting the restroom, grabbing an iced tea or a slice of pizza. But I really don't understand, given the high feelings around desirable real estate, why grabbing a chair in the morning entitles you to go for a full-fledged lunch break and then re-occupy the same spot. I mean, I just don't get the concept.

[DrSch]

Yeah. Despite what it might look like on these boards, I don't think of myself as a paragon of virtue, and maybe I'm just dense. There are plenty of valid reasons for leaving your lounger for a few minutes: going for a dip, visiting the restroom, grabbing an iced tea or a slice of pizza. But I really don't understand, given the high feelings around desirable real estate, why grabbing a chair in the morning entitles you to go for a full-fledged lunch break and then re-occupy the same spot. I mean, I just don't get the concept.

 

Precisely.. and just because you wake up and grab a chair at 6:00 a.m, doesn't mean it's yours for the day. Most of us in this discussion are thrilled that your book got a nice sun tan, but we would have enjoyed using that chair..

[Woobstr112G]

If we're going to be gone for a little more than 20 minutes we always let someone in the next seat know to hold our seat. Normally lunch takes 30 minutes in the Horizon.

 

IMHO, this should not be allowed.....

 

Bob

[DrSch]

I think we are all in agreement..

 

The only reason that you should be leaving your towel and things on a chair, is when you are doing something in the area around the chair... getting a drink at the bar, using the restroom, grabbing a slice of pizza or other food in the pool area, going for a swim, or a hot tub (unless you plan on sitting in the pool / hottub for 2 hours), or if you need to run back to your cabin because you forgot something.

 

But if you are going to another part of the ship... the spa, the dining room, the piazza, gym,... give up the chair and get a new one one you get back.

[1 HappyCruiser]

IMHO, this should not be allowed.....

 

Bob

 

It's only slightly over the posted limit which isn't all that much. If it's a busy day my wife & I will take turns to guard the seat but it's not really necessary since no one ever needs only one seat.

Give up the seat for the difference of only 10 minutes means not getting one later. Even with the new tagging system I read about, it would probably be ten minutes before they even put the tag one it so what does it hurt- nothing, because I'd be back before the time was up. It's not like showing up at 6 AM then going to breakfast & returning at 8 AM for your reserved seat.

[Woobstr112G]

It's only slightly over the posted limit which isn't all that much. If it's a busy day my wife & I will take turns to guard the seat but it's not really necessary since no one ever needs only one seat.

Give up the seat for the difference of only 10 minutes means not getting one later. Even with the new tagging system I read about, it would probably be ten minutes before they even put the tag one it so what does it hurt- nothing, because I'd be back before the time was up. It's not like showing up at 6 AM then going to breakfast & returning at 8 AM for your reserved seat.

 

Ok, your point is well taken.....:):):)

 

Bob

[DrSch]

It's only slightly over the posted limit which isn't all that much. If it's a busy day my wife & I will take turns to guard the seat but it's not really necessary since no one ever needs only one seat.

Give up the seat for the difference of only 10 minutes means not getting one later. Even with the new tagging system I read about, it would probably be ten minutes before they even put the tag one it so what does it hurt- nothing, because I'd be back before the time was up. It's not like showing up at 6 AM then going to breakfast & returning at 8 AM for your reserved seat.

 

 

Sorry.. I completely disagree with you. You sat at the pool and enjoyed the area. You are now getting up and going to a different part of the ship.. the dining area. What if everyone went to the dining room, and put towels on the chair there, because they were going to eat lunch later that day.

 

The chairs by the pool aren't for your exclusitivity (word??).. If you are at the pool area, then you deserve to enjoy them. But if you go somewhere else on the ship, well.. you had your fun in the sun.. now it's someone else's turn. Just because you got there in the morning, doesn't mean the chair is yours all day..

 

When I get a chair by the pool, I lie out, go in the pool and then, when it's lunch time, I take my stuff and surrender the chair to other people. I find a different chair if I go back to the pool after lunch.

 

From what it sounds like you don't seem to be the person that leaves his towel on the chair at 6 am, and then shows up to the pool at 11, and I thank you for that.