Are pool hours being restricted now with lifeguards

[MAHA]

One of the things we have liked about Royal is the fact that at least one pool and one hot tub are open all night. Since they are adding lifeguards, are the specific pool hours? Is there still a pool and hot tub open all night? I know that Oasis started with lifeguards this past Sunday.

[MAHA]

Bumping this up as now the first group of cruisers with lifeguards on Oasis will be home. Hopefully someone can answer this question, please!

Thanks!

[luckyinpa]

i had no idea one was open all nite. on anthem which are open all nite

[ATG]

The Solarium pool was closed (roped off) early. I noticed later it was open and the lifeguard was there. I did wonder about the need for a lifeguard. The pool lists the depth as 3 foot 11 inches. The Solarium is restricted to 16 and older. Does the lifeguard just say "please stand up"? He looked REALLY bored.

[jamesboat]

On my Anthem cruise in January I noticed every pool had a de-facto lifeguard anyway. They werent dressed like a lifeguard, but paid more attention to the pool than most lifeguards Id ever seen

[Clarea]

On my Anthem cruise in January I noticed every pool had a de-facto lifeguard anyway. They werent dressed like a lifeguard, but paid more attention to the pool than most lifeguards Id ever seen

 

 

Saw the same on Rhapsody and Brilliance last month. There was someone assigned to watch the pools all day.

[OCruisers]

:confused: When did RCCL ships begin having Life Guards at their pools?

Are they now on every ship and at every pool?

Per the OP's question, does that restrict the times they are open?

[cruiselvr04]

It just started fleet wide. They had a drowning almost 2 years ago of a child in the kids area on one of the ships. When Liberty got an up grade we noticed they took the five foot pool out of the kids area and it is now three foot. We were very happy as grandparents that this was done.

 

We also loved the use of free life jackets for the kids which we made our grandkids wear. However we noticed that few people used them.

 

It has to be expensive to have the pools watched all,the time but I am glad they are taking this step. Kudos to Royal for this. My understanding is that the only other line to have life guards is Disney.

 

Hopefully at least one pool will be open late night. We will see for ourselves in a couple of weeks.

[willing292]

We are currently on the Radiance, and the pools and whirlpools are all closed by midnight.

 

 

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[Clarea]

We are currently on the Radiance, and the pools and whirlpools are all closed by midnight.

 

 

That's disappointing, I hope that is not a new fleetwide policy.

[time4u2go]

I posed this same question on the thread that mentioned that they are adding lifeguards. I would imagine they'd have to cut pool hours, unfortunately. I don't know why they can't just put up signs like other pools do stating what hours lifeguards are and are not on duty.

[moonltnite]

I'd be interested to hear if there are lifeguards now at all the Allure pools, and if the hours (particularly in the Solarium) have changed. We sail this coming Sunday.

[sky0000547]

Saw the same on Rhapsody and Brilliance last month. There was someone assigned to watch the pools all day.

 

 

Had that on Independence back in the summer. Noticed that each shift lasted 1 hour then a change of personnel.

[sockmonkeygirl]

On the Anthem 2/19-2/26 and the bartender told me the solarium pool closes at 2 am.

[MAHA]

So far, only Oasis has the lifeguards with the roll out coming through June to other ships.

 

This is the roll out schedule:

 

The full roll-out schedule

 

(subject to change)

 

Oasis of the Seas: February 26-March 5

Harmony of the Seas: March 7-11

Independence of the Seas: March 11-16

Anthem of the Seas: March 11-14

Liberty of the Seas: March 12-19

Freedom of the Seas: March 22-29

Allure of the Seas: March 23-26

Brilliance of the Seas: March 24-30

Quantum of the Seas: March 26-31

Ovation of the Seas: March 29-April 3

Navigator of the Seas: March 31-April 5

Serenade of the Seas: March 31-April 7

Jewel of the Seas: March 31-April 4

Rhapsody of the Seas: April 5-8

Majesty of the Seas: April 21-24

Empress of the Seas: April 24-29

Adventure of the Seas: April 26-29

Enchantment of the Seas: May 8-12

Grandeur of the Seas: May 13-18

Explorer of the Seas: May 15-26

Mariner of the Seas: May 26-June 4

Radiance of the Seas: May 28-June 6

Voyager of the Seas: June 5-12

Vision of the Seas: June 15-27

[camper51]

I just got off the Freedom and noticed safety crew at the Solarium pool. Was very happy to see this as this crew member was having to tell kids/parents that it was an adults only area. We were on this cruise without kids and really appreciated the adult only area. I don't know why some parents think the rules don't apply to their kids.

[KnightsFan]

Had that on Independence back in the summer. Noticed that each shift lasted 1 hour then a change of personnel.

 

 

That's a standard life guard rotation for resorts and water parks. Though what's probably happening is they're moving from one stand to another. They idea is to keep them from getting complacent staring at one patch of water for too long.

 

And as far as the necessity of lifeguards in shallow adults only pools, humans can drown in something like 3 inches of water.

[WisconsinFan]

Yes, moving the guards helps keep them fresh. My son worked at the world's largest water park and they had a special way to rotate. Still no answer to the question on hours.

 

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[MeHeartCruising]

I returned from the Harmony on March 4th. There was indeed a staff person "watching" each pool all day long in one hour shifts. They stood the entire time (there is not a lifeguard chair set up or anything like that). They usually stood at one end in the shade of a hot tub awning when they could. I didn't see much in the way of active "policing" of the pool for any particular behavior -- they don't have whistles to blow. However, at one point, I saw one of them showing concern for a little girl who was wandering near the pool without an obvious parent near her. He kept close watch on her while he tried to determine who she belonged to. As she got very close to the pool, he stepped between her and the pool just as the mother arrived from her seat. I didn't notice a specific time that they shut down the pools. I think it was more a decision made based on when people stopped using the pool. Somewhere between 8-10pm each night, it seemed that they shut down the pools and put netting over it. Hot tubs didn't get "watched" and stayed open a bit later. Each pool has a rack of child flotation vests for use, but I never saw one person wearing them.

[Cwusinbunny1]

There have been too many tragedies with children and pools on cruise ships in the past few years. Just off the Disney Dream - they have full blown lifeguards - whistles, walkie talkies, floatation device. Two lifeguards at the donald pool (deeper) and 1 to 2 in Mickey depending on how many kids - also, the waterslide and aquaduck had a lifeguard each.

 

They really worked as this was feb vacation - they kept tabs on which kids were not behaving - asked some to leave - pools were emptied every half hour or so and the lifeguards would test, skim, and clean - this is an area where Disney really does excel. Its about time the other lines followed suit. Sadly it did take a tragedy on teh Fantasy to get this rolling.

[Skippy]

Glad to hear there's a shallower pool on Liberty and vests. We sailed carnival last year and hardly used the pools cause the water was too deep even for me.

[ONECRUISER]

Yes, moving the guards helps keep them fresh. My son worked at the world's largest water park and they had a special way to rotate. Still no answer to the question on hours.

 

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Sounds like from above posts that pools will close at some point, that way no need have 24 hr lifeguards. Guess price to pay have safe pools while open. Years ago, can't remember when it changed all Royal pools closed at nite. Though do remember it was before 10pm every night, they'd drain them for all nite and cover with netting...

[CreativeCruiser119]

I was on the April 8th sailing of Harmony and can confirm that there are lifeguards around all the pools. Several nights of the cruise, I would head up to the pool deck for a late-night dip- keep in mind this was after I had finished watching the night's entertainment, so around 10-11 at night. I would usually go back and forth between the beach pool, cantilevered hot tubs, and solarium hot tubs. I don't know if the other pools were open (main pool was closed at night on Oasis and Allure, and I sailed those ships before lifeguards were even a thought). However, on Harmony, the beach pool was always open at night, with a lifeguard on duty. I would imagine it may close around midnight, however, given the fact that there is no pool in the solarium, I would imagine at least one of the hot tubs in there is open 24 hours. That's just a guess though. I hope I was able to help! This thread has me wondering about the pool hours on Freedom, as my next cruise is on her in March and I recall both of Liberty's main pools and the solarium pool being open at night in March 2016, and I enjoyed pool-hopping before heading to bed. Hoping I can still do this on Freedom! Happy cruising ��

[orville99]

We just got off of Oasis on Sunday, and there was at least one of the pools and a few hot tubs open as late as 1:00AM. And there as a lifeguard on duty at the open pool. We never saw a guard at any of the hot tubs at any time (day or night) during the cruise.

[NatsFanOnBoard]

On Adventure a few weeks ago, the pools had posted hours and were closed if no lifeguard was present. However, there was always at least one hot tub open on both the open pool deck and in the solarium 24 hours a day.