Chair Hog Encounters Valor 2-26 and 3-3-12 sailings

[INTERLINER13]

I still think telling the pool attendant is most appropiate. You wouldnt pull some person over for speeding, but you might tell a cop. The cop may choose not to pull the person over it happens.

[INTERLINER13]

Why is it so necessary to be poolside to lay in the sun? The sun is the same if it's a few feet away or on another deck.

 

And there is plenty of seats in the other places it shines..

[LKYGSR]

Why is it so necessary to be poolside to lay in the sun? The sun is the same if it's a few feet away or on another deck.

 

Many factors. Poolside, is not a requirement for me, I just want a view of the stage so I can enjoy the music (semi live band) and watch the shows (entertainment). This can be done from many spots that have a view of the area and are not directly poolside. Problem comes when the 200 choices of loungers which meet that requirement are being hogged.

 

Also, the sun, based on ship position and direction, can be blocked by upper decks, as well, if you are a serious "tanner", you want to face the sun whenever possible, not having it hit you from behind or the side.

 

And I'll add the upper decks along the side of the ship get very very windy.

[Lily429]

Why is it so necessary to be poolside to lay in the sun? The sun is the same if it's a few feet away or on another deck.

 

True! But some of us have kids that want to be in the pool or on the slides....we like to be responsible parents and stick close by so we can watch them. So to all of those that don't have kids the ship has plenty of areas for you to relax in the sun and enjoy the view of the ocean....it's certainly where I'd rather be!

[nbsjcruiser]

I still think telling the pool attendant is most appropiate. You wouldnt pull some person over for speeding, but you might tell a cop. The cop may choose not to pull the person over it happens.

 

Yeah but what if the cop doesn't do anything about it? That's the problem with Carnival. They have a rule, they state it and they promptly ignore it. They have no trouble enforcing the no smuggling rule. Nobody complains about that yet for some reason though, they have trouble with the chair hog rule. All they need to do is place an attendant on the poolside at 6AM. When the chairs are all hogged, the attendant can remove their stuff. People would get the message pretty quick. The thing that gets me though is that if everyone would take a chair when and only when they plan on using it and release it when they're done with it, there would be no need to hog a chair. There would be tons of them free at all times. The stupidity of people sometimes astounds me.

 

The best story I heard about chair hogs came from my brother on a land based trip they were on. There were a group of Germans who had one spot every day near a couple shaded palm trees. Every day when they were done for the day, they stacked up their chairs, ran a lock and chain through them and locked them to the trees. Most times they wouldn't come down to the beach until the afternoon. Amazing. Anyway, didn't work too well once my brother and his friends saw this. They went to the front desk one night and asked if they had a set of lock cutters which they did. Next day they cut the chain, put the chairs out and sat in them enjoying their drinks. When the hogs showed up they smiled and enjoyed the rest of the day.

[treasure4two]

I think the best option is to do something I read once. Remove the items, take the chair and move it somewhere near. When the person comes back (if they do) they look around with no idea where their chair went.

 

That to me is the best solution plus I will get a laugh out of it when the person goes looking for their chair.:p

[fliprcruzr]

Why is it so necessary to be poolside to lay in the sun? The sun is the same if it's a few feet away or on another deck.

 

We had a pleasant time on the Valor week before you, decks 12 and 14 were pretty much wide open, except for teh Serenity areas. Secret deck 10 was also vacant.

 

Oh, I left my paperback on a chair when we got off, did you find it? :D

[truecruiser]

the picture in my signature was taken many years ago aboard the Elation. i only sailed that ship one time, and i have no idea if the sign is still there. but, this i can say, i do not ever remember seeing this sign (unless i missed it), on any other carnival ship.

 

you're correct that they do not enforce it, but the presence of these signs would be a nice thing to point to when sally sue or johnny jones comes back for the first time at noon from 7 am breakfast and gets irritated that you've moved their "single" flip flop.

[LKYGSR]

We had a pleasant time on the Valor week before you, decks 12 and 14 were pretty much wide open, except for teh Serenity areas. Secret deck 10 was also vacant.

 

Oh, I left my paperback on a chair when we got off, did you find it? :D

 

The oh so appropriate copy of Charolette's Web?, Yes, found it! LOL ;):D

[Silent Penguin]

True! But some of us have kids that want to be in the pool or on the slides....we like to be responsible parents and stick close by so we can watch them. So to all of those that don't have kids the ship has plenty of areas for you to relax in the sun and enjoy the view of the ocean....it's certainly where I'd rather be!

 

 

Who of us doesn't appreciate the importance of attentive parents? I move that the first few rows of chairs closest to the pool be the parent(or guardian)-of-small-children section. To use those chairs,one must have a special chair drape that is only issued to parties with children under a certain age and be accompanied by a child. On the unlikely occasion that one of those special chairs is clearly unclaimed and open for use, a non-child toting sunbathers can use it but must forfeit the chair when a designated occupant comes to claim it.

[wranglerguy]

I usually just push there stuff to the side and take a seat. If they show up I just sat the chair was empty or the person who was sitting in it before me said I can have it.

[wranglerguy]

Who of us doesn't appreciate the importance of attentive parents? I move that the first few rows of chairs closest to the pool be the parent(or guardian)-of-small-children section. To use those chairs,one must have a special chair drape that is only issued to parties with children under a certain age and be accompanied by a child. On the unlikely occasion that one of those special chairs is clearly unclaimed and open for use, a non-child toting sunbathers can use it but must forfeit the chair when a designated occupant comes to claim it.

 

I second this motion

[Eeyoregon]

I just move their stuff to a completely different part of the ship (different deck, different side, different end) and play dumb.

 

DON

 

I dig you Don!!! That is exactly how I roll.

[peanutzmom]

Why is it so necessary to be poolside to lay in the sun? The sun is the same if it's a few feet away or on another deck.

 

The sun is the same everywhere, but as a responsible parent, I want a chair close enough that I can supervise the kiddos in the pool. When hogs take all of the poolside seats but never use them, it make my job as a responsible parent that much harder, especially since these same chair hogs would be the first to complain if they thought my kids were unsupervised...

[peanutzmom]

True! But some of us have kids that want to be in the pool or on the slides....we like to be responsible parents and stick close by so we can watch them. So to all of those that don't have kids the ship has plenty of areas for you to relax in the sun and enjoy the view of the ocean....it's certainly where I'd rather be!

 

LOL! That's what I get for not reading ahead! You already said what I did, much more eloquently!

[Alzaman]

I left my stuff on a chair on the magic. I will be cruising on her again soon so it better still be there!!!!

[Jazz4324]

Recently returned from a B2B on Valor. As expected the chair hogs ran wild, by 730am every sea day the majority of loungers all around the main pool areas on deck 9 and deck 10 ten were hogged. Towels, books, sunscreen, shoes, etc, etc, but no one in the seats at 9am when we were ready to start our day in the sun.

 

As I frequent CC, I was well voiced in the antics and the possible remedies of these hogs. I tried 3 different approaches, here are my results:

 

Day 1: I took the belongings left by the hogs, placed them on the deck near the chairs; DW and I settled in. About an hour later (now 2 ½ hours after chairs were hogged) the Hogs appeared. Husband Hog told Wife Hog, we will just find other spots, took their belongings and wandered around looking for seats of which there were none to be found, all hogged. No confrontation.

 

Day 2: I took the belongings of the hog and went to the Towel Hut, where I handed them to the fellow in the white uniform and advised him I had removed them as they had been left unattended for over 2 hours. He tells me I am not allowed to remove their belongings, only he can, I should not have done that. I stated Carnival policy that chairs cannot be reserved more than 30 minutes. He tells me I need to come to him and then he will start watching clock for 30 minutes, then he will remove them and that I need to do that next time. This time he will let me go (the nerve, like I was the one at fault here) and to tell the Hog if they show up he removed their belongings to prevent confrontation.

 

Day 3: I notify the fellow in the white uniform and wait 35 minutes, he never shows up. At 45 minutes I go back to him and ask him to come get the Hogs belongings, tells me he will be right there. I then watch him walk off the deck into the hallway. At that point Hog’s belongings hit the deck, and I take the chairs. White uniformed officer never shows up. Really pissed me off, I follow his rules and he doesn’t comply. Hog never shows up for their stuff.

 

Bottom line, Carnival does not and will not enforce their own policy. If you follow the rules, then you get barked at. What a joke.

 

Other than this…..Great cruise!

 

So go figure... cruising on the Valor 04/14.... Guess we will be prepared :) I for the life of me cannot figure out why people cannot just be courteous... plain and simple, if you want a poolside or particular deck chair to lounge on then get up early order room service, and head to given area. Park your fanny on the lounger and stay there! Don't expect people to wait for a chair because your animalistic behavior of marking your territory by leaving behind a few personal posessions has taken over. It is simply rude! Use the chair or lose it :) It should not fall on the staff in the area to monitor the animal behaviors it should be common sense. I will hope that our cruise will limit said behavior and that everyone who wants to lounge by the pool or in that area will have the opportunity to do so. If we end up with a boat load of hoggers then we will have to incorporate one of your solutions to resolve the issue:) thanks for the heads up !

[Arizona cruisers]

We just returned from the Miracle last week and loved the new Serenity deck. I wanted to be able to use one single chair, anywhere in the Serenity area (my husband doesn't like the sun), just once. It did not need to be poolside, just anywhere with the nice plush pillows. I got out there early in the morning and every single chair was hogged. I decided to watch and after the allowed time, notify the security/towel people about this. I had my eye on two chairs that only had towels...no book, sunscreen, etc. There were six chairs in front of the pool with no one there watching, but all saved. After the 30 minutes, security and the pool attendant were very nice and removed the towels. Another lady that I did not know decided to take the other chair. Well...about 45 minutes later this group came down and they were furious! They asked if I was laying on their towel. I said no. They asked if I took their stuff. I said no. They had the other four chairs that were adjacent to the two with just towels. Let me just say - this ended up not being Serenity for me. I held my ground and stayed, but it wasn't enjoyable at all. They were having several cocktails, making comments, that continued to get louder and more rude. I was informed by rude woman #1 that the pool attendant had told her that I was the one that requested the towels moved. It was very windy and then a brief rain. During that time other people had left and they then pulled more chairs into the area where we were and had them squeezed all together. Most of this time they never used the chairs, but sat at the edge of the pool or stood around enjoying their cocktails and rude comments. At the point when it was time for me to leave I was trying to squeeze out of this small space and gather up my things with rude woman # 1 in a chair an inch from mine. There was a wind gust and apparently my towel touched rude woman #1's face. She sat up and screamed that the next time she saw me she would slap me across the face. I don't think anyone has threatened me since maybe middle school. This was our 12th cruise on Carnival and the first time (other than being in port) that we have used chairs near a pool or on a Serenity deck. After this experience I will never, ever get involved with moving someone's stuff, asking to have it moved, or any other such thing. It was also interesting that when I first looked, most of the clam shells were being used just to hold stuff for people in the adjacent loungers.

[Eeyoregon]

We just returned from the Miracle last week and loved the new Serenity deck. I wanted to be able to use one single chair, anywhere in the Serenity area (my husband doesn't like the sun), just once. It did not need to be poolside, just anywhere with the nice plush pillows. I got out there early in the morning and every single chair was hogged. I decided to watch and after the allowed time, notify the security/towel people about this. I had my eye on two chairs that only had towels...no book, sunscreen, etc. There were six chairs in front of the pool with no one there watching, but all saved. After the 30 minutes, security and the pool attendant were very nice and removed the towels. Another lady that I did not know decided to take the other chair. Well...about 45 minutes later this group came down and they were furious! They asked if I was laying on their towel. I said no. They asked if I took their stuff. I said no. They had the other four chairs that were adjacent to the two with just towels. Let me just say - this ended up not being Serenity for me. I held my ground and stayed, but it wasn't enjoyable at all. They were having several cocktails, making comments, that continued to get louder and more rude. I was informed by rude woman #1 that the pool attendant had told her that I was the one that requested the towels moved. It was very windy and then a brief rain. During that time other people had left and they then pulled more chairs into the area where we were and had them squeezed all together. Most of this time they never used the chairs, but sat at the edge of the pool or stood around enjoying their cocktails and rude comments. At the point when it was time for me to leave I was trying to squeeze out of this small space and gather up my things with rude woman # 1 in a chair an inch from mine. There was a wind gust and apparently my towel touched rude woman #1's face. She sat up and screamed that the next time she saw me she would slap me across the face. I don't think anyone has threatened me since maybe middle school. This was our 12th cruise on Carnival and the first time (other than being in port) that we have used chairs near a pool or on a Serenity deck. After this experience I will never, ever get involved with moving someone's stuff, asking to have it moved, or any other such thing. It was also interesting that when I first looked, most of the clam shells were being used just to hold stuff for people in the adjacent loungers.

 

Wowza!! Sorry about the group of rude, drunken, idiots that you encountered :(.

[agmomcruiser]

We just returned from the Miracle last week and loved the new Serenity deck. I wanted to be able to use one single chair, anywhere in the Serenity area (my husband doesn't like the sun), just once. It did not need to be poolside, just anywhere with the nice plush pillows. I got out there early in the morning and every single chair was hogged. I decided to watch and after the allowed time, notify the security/towel people about this. I had my eye on two chairs that only had towels...no book, sunscreen, etc. There were six chairs in front of the pool with no one there watching, but all saved. After the 30 minutes, security and the pool attendant were very nice and removed the towels. Another lady that I did not know decided to take the other chair. Well...about 45 minutes later this group came down and they were furious! They asked if I was laying on their towel. I said no. They asked if I took their stuff. I said no. They had the other four chairs that were adjacent to the two with just towels. Let me just say - this ended up not being Serenity for me. I held my ground and stayed, but it wasn't enjoyable at all. They were having several cocktails, making comments, that continued to get louder and more rude. I was informed by rude woman #1 that the pool attendant had told her that I was the one that requested the towels moved. It was very windy and then a brief rain. During that time other people had left and they then pulled more chairs into the area where we were and had them squeezed all together. Most of this time they never used the chairs, but sat at the edge of the pool or stood around enjoying their cocktails and rude comments. At the point when it was time for me to leave I was trying to squeeze out of this small space and gather up my things with rude woman # 1 in a chair an inch from mine. There was a wind gust and apparently my towel touched rude woman #1's face. She sat up and screamed that the next time she saw me she would slap me across the face. I don't think anyone has threatened me since maybe middle school. This was our 12th cruise on Carnival and the first time (other than being in port) that we have used chairs near a pool or on a Serenity deck. After this experience I will never, ever get involved with moving someone's stuff, asking to have it moved, or any other such thing. It was also interesting that when I first looked, most of the clam shells were being used just to hold stuff for people in the adjacent loungers.

Arizona, I wasn't going to comment on what happened to me two weeks ago on the Conquest, because it still upsets me to think about it. But your story is awful like mine - in 10 Carnival cruises I have never attempted to

remove a chair hog and after my experience this time, I vow to never again attempt it. The chair hogs showed up, the towel hut people told them we had turned in their towels, they screamed and called my daughter and I names, threw our bags and empty plate at us. Pool supervisor was scared of them. We left, never raised our voices, went

and talked to platinum guest services who were wonderful and head of security went over to speak to them. We don't know what happened from there as we went to another area with friendly people who found some

newly vacated chairs for us! I was determined to put it out of my mind as I don't believe you should let anyone ruin your cruise, but people can be

so ugly.

[Potstech]

Sorry to hear of your problems. The only reason they act like that is because as everyone says tpeople are afraid of them. If someone throws something at me or my family and gets rude like that then the staff would definitly be calling security. ANd I hope all thise cameras they have on the ships are rolling. Also there would be a complaint filed with the ship of the staff who pointed me out for asking that the stuff be removed. That is an uncalled for action by them.

 

I would appologize for the rude peopel but I can not see doing that as I do not knwo them. Hope your other cruises will be much more enjoyable.

[Eeyoregon]

If someone throws something at me or my family and gets rude like that then the staff would definitly be calling security. ANd I hope all thise cameras they have on the ships are rolling. Also there would be a complaint filed with the ship of the staff who pointed me out for asking that the stuff be removed. That is an uncalled for action by them.

 

Agreed! According to the cruise contract, physical assault of another passenger (throwing dishes at someone) should be grounds for removal from the ship.

 

And SHAME on the Carnival staff (in both of the above posts) for "narking" on the innocent parties!!! They should be better trained for this all too common situation.

[regansdad67]

I just move their stuff to a completely different part of the ship (different deck, different side, different end) and play dumb.

 

DON

 

I wouldn't do that, by the time you get back to the chair - some one else would be sitting at it. I agree with others - remove the hogs items, but to go as far as to place them on a different deck is more work then I would want to do, also it's more like vengeance then simply getting a chair.

[Markmom18]

Why is it so necessary to be poolside to lay in the sun? The sun is the same if it's a few feet away or on another deck.

 

Pefect, exactly! ."RuthlessBoss"?? I'd work for ya :)

[Markmom18]

Who of us doesn't appreciate the importance of attentive parents? I move that the first few rows of chairs closest to the pool be the parent(or guardian)-of-small-children section. To use those chairs,one must have a special chair drape that is only issued to parties with children under a certain age and be accompanied by a child. On the unlikely occasion that one of those special chairs is clearly unclaimed and open for use, a non-child toting sunbathers can use it but must forfeit the chair when a designated occupant comes to claim it.

 

Now, that is a wonderful idea! I totally support parents/guardians supervising their little one's when near the pool. When our son was small, we were always right there (this was land based vacations at resorts with pools). Heck, maybe we were 'hovering' parents of our only child. But, I recall checking on him at the pool area even till middle school. Just being 'mamma bear' I guess:o