Reserving sunbeds ( old chestnut)

[kevboy]

Here we go again.Just come off Iona `s  southern shores cruise.  The weather was sunny and warm, and guess what ?   On one day at 9.0 am the entire starboard promenade deck ( sunny side) was covered in towels reserving them. There are dozens of loungers.  Only 3 passengers were lay on them. To the best of my knowledge only british citizens were allowed on the ship - Not any Germans aboard !   In my humble opinion we the british are the worst culprits for this behaviour. We are also very quick to blame others. I dread to think how things will be once cruising returns properly. How can this behaviour be defended by those perpetrators.?

[jeanlyon]

That was one of the things that drove me mad on Azura.  I removed someones towels and book and put them on a chair as they hadn't been there for 2 hours.  They came back and trried to tell me they had only been 20 minutes.  Luckily I was backed up by another passenger.

 

I don't find this a problem on the smaller ships like Aurora.

[lindylooellalouise]

absolutely agree we were on the Iona 21st August we had a conservatory suite on deck 9 so we had excellent views of the promenade deck and we saw passengers collecting 6 towels each and were reserving sun beds on both sides of the ship and then they left and went for lunch leaving all the towels and one time we noticed they never returned we are not sunbathers so didn’t affect us but really not fair when we saw people looking for beds.

[kalos]

As you say "That old chestnut"  and it's not just P&O is it ?  The companies will not 

stop it for fear of a bad review or loss of custom . So they make a token gesture by

saying the towels will be removed after a certain time if not in use . They seldom do it .

The Buffet gets the same treatment especially on sea days .They have little signs that

say "please vacate table after your meal " .Some will take this to mean sat reading a book 

for a couple of hour's .We called in once for an 11 ish snack and on our return later that 

day they will still sat there reading and gazing out the window whilst people struggled to 

find a seat to eat their meal . We have even seen a guy who thought the Glass house was 

a good place to catch upon his sleep . Then we have the people who save seats at the 

show's before some of them decide half way through the performance to leave .

Yes Kev, cruising can be hard work at times 

[Britboys]

48 minutes ago, lindylooellalouise said:

absolutely agree we were on the Iona 21st August we had a conservatory suite on deck 9 so we had excellent views of the promenade deck and we saw passengers collecting 6 towels each and were reserving sun beds on both sides of the ship and then they left and went for lunch leaving all the towels and one time we noticed they never returned we are not sunbathers so didn’t affect us but really not fair when we saw people looking for beds.

People's selfishness never ceases to amaze me and I find it really hard to understand why anyone thinks this is remotely acceptable. Heaven knows what it will be like with 5200 pax on board...

[lindylooellalouise]

18 minutes ago, Britboys said:

People's selfishness never ceases to amaze me and I find it really hard to understand why anyone thinks this is remotely acceptable. Heaven knows what it will be like with 5200 pax on board...

We were gobsmacked and couldn’t believe what they were doing just imagine if everyone took 6 towels and booked 2 beds each absolute chaos

[davecttr]

What I noticed about Iona was the promenade deck had large numbers of loungers and chairs compared to other P&O ships. Maybe this is to make up for the apparent lack of space on the higher decks. The blue towels were distributed along the deck with 'bins' for used ones.  This method may be just for COVID but if it replaces the old single towel per person in cabin I expect to see a sea of blue every day!. We even had blue towels clipped to loungers on Iona's Scottish cruise and there was a slow stampede across the ship as the sun changed position.

 

They have to go back to the one towel per person otherwise in long north/south sea days, say to the Canaries, both sides will be completely towelled all day.

[indiana123]

There can be a new hobby... instead of watching pier runners (as there are no ports)   we can watch all the selfish ones saving multiple sunbeds and clock when they are used!!!

 

 

There has to be a solution to this

Edited September 15, 2021 by indiana123

[davecttr]

2 minutes ago, indiana123 said:

There can be a new hobby... instead of watching pier runners (as there are no ports)   we can watch all the selfish ones saving multiple sunbeds and clock when they are used!!!

Or another hobby, take a stroll along the shady side of the prom deck and put all the towels in the used bin 😈

[Britboys]

15 minutes ago, davecttr said:

What I noticed about Iona was the promenade deck had large numbers of loungers and chairs compared to other P&O ships. Maybe this is to make up for the apparent lack of space on the higher decks. The blue towels were distributed along the deck with 'bins' for used ones.  This method may be just for COVID but if it replaces the old single towel per person in cabin I expect to see a sea of blue every day!. We even had blue towels clipped to loungers on Iona's Scottish cruise and there was a slow stampede across the ship as the sun changed position.

 

They have to go back to the one towel per person otherwise in long north/south sea days, say to the Canaries, both sides will be completely towelled all day.

Yes, it would make sense to have one towel per person in the cabin, which can be put in a bin on deck when used. New towels could be placed in the cabin at evening service.

[Ranchi]

Love the term ‘slow stampede’…completely catches the bovine/ovine attitude of the participants.  
Have faith! Believe in the sun bed god/fairy. Take  your book & your towel when you go for lunch and another vacant sun bed will become available in a favoured position as you arrive back on deck and the previous occupants decide to go for a mid afternoon ‘fly-cup’ in the buffet. 
Of course if the sun bed fairy lets you down you can always make an offering to the sun bed demon who apparently looks favourably upon those who sacrifice towels and books & sunspecs and oversized clothes pegs into the nearest swimming pool. 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Ranchi

[Bazrat]

28 minutes ago, Ranchi said:

Love the term ‘slow stampede’…completely catches the bovine/ovine attitude of the participants.  
Have faith! Believe in the sun bed god/fairy. Take  your book & your towel when you go for lunch and another vacant sun bed will become available in a favoured position as you arrive back on deck and the previous occupants decide to go for a mid afternoon ‘fly-cup’ in the buffet. 
Of course if the sun bed fairy lets you down you can always make an offering to the sun bed demon who apparently looks favourably upon those who sacrifice towels and books & sunspecs and oversized clothes pegs into the nearest swimming pool. 

You never had this problem in the good old days, people than knew how to behave, I blame the upbringing myself, and don’t get me started on the buffet 

[Denarius]

Maybe a sledgehammer to crack a nut but....

Have a little clock face with movable hands attached to each sun lounger, to be set with the current time when it is temporarily vacated. Have pool butlers to check the clocks on vacant sun loungers, any which have been vacant longer than the permitted maximun time to be cleared by them, as will any deliberately set at a later time in the hope of getting a longer absence.

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, Denarius said:

Maybe a sledgehammer to crack a nut but....

Have a little clock face with movable hands attached to each sun lounger, to be set with the current time when it is temporarily vacated. Have pool butlers to check the clocks on vacant sun loungers, any which have been vacant longer than the permitted maximun time to be cleared by them, as will any deliberately set at a later time in the hope of getting a longer absence.

In an ideal world, yes. On Iona however, they haven't even installed shaver/toothbrush charger sockets in the bathrooms, so I doubt they would lash out on sun lounger timers and a sufficient level of staff to have pool butlers... 

[Adawn47]

7 hours ago, Britboys said:

People's selfishness never ceases to amaze me and I find it really hard to understand why anyone thinks this is remotely acceptable. Heaven knows what it will be like with 5200 pax on board...

There are some people who have a strong sense of entitlement, and an abundance of bad manners.

Avril

[Adawn47]

7 hours ago, davecttr said:

What I noticed about Iona was the promenade deck had large numbers of loungers and chairs compared to other P&O ships. Maybe this is to make up for the apparent lack of space on the higher decks. The blue towels were distributed along the deck with 'bins' for used ones.  This method may be just for COVID but if it replaces the old single towel per person in cabin I expect to see a sea of blue every day!. We even had blue towels clipped to loungers on Iona's Scottish cruise and there was a slow stampede across the ship as the sun changed position.

 

They have to go back to the one towel per person otherwise in long north/south sea days, say to the Canaries, both sides will be completely towelled all day.

Think of all the washing too. Not very energy efficient for a company that's trying to save money is it?

Avril

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

There are some people who have a strong sense of entitlement, and an abundance of bad manners.

Avril

The answer lies with the cruise line, if they give responsibility to deck attendants to clear towels from sun loungers left unattended for 30 minutes, then people would soon realise it's no good trying to reserve them.

[Adawn47]

6 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

The answer lies with the cruise line, if they give responsibility to deck attendants to clear towels from sun loungers left unattended for 30 minutes, then people would soon realise it's no good trying to reserve them.

I'm sorry John, but I don't think that would stop them.  The selfish, determined and greedy sunbed hogs will always find a way around it.

Avril

Edited September 16, 2021 by Adawn47

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

I'm sorry John, but I don't think that would stop them.  The selfish, determined and greedy sunbed hogs will always find a way around it.

Avril

Yes I am sure they would be irate and upset, but if the policy was enforced by the senior managers on board,  then it would soon become accepted practise. Unfortunately I have seen several initiatives fail over my cruising years, simply because management did not support front line staff.

[kevboy]

When I posted this topic I thought it would get some replies and reactions from those I am trying to embarass. Unfortunately only the considerate caring and sensible cruisers have replied and I am not surprised that they share my views. Some have even stronger views than mine. Clearly, the selfish inconsiderate and rule breakers dont read this forum or even worse, couldn`t care less what we think.

Sadly,  Like the covid anti vacine brigade, we probably just have to live with them. It would be good if someone could think of a great way to highly embarass these people. Public humiliation is the greatest fear of rule breakers so come on everyone lets get our thinking caps on.

regards to all

kev

[Roger88]

11 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

There are some people who have a strong sense of entitlement, and an abundance of bad manners.

Avril

Try not to pay attention to those people. They don't worth your time and patience. When I come along and see such people I try to avoid them even if it costs me some discomfort. My time is more valuable

[Jennizor]

Like most of you, over the years we have seen this problem many times, not only on cruises . In Turkey there was a fight between two men. A French family would go down to the pool in the morning, put towels on four sun beds then go down to the beach for the morning. After a couple of days of this happening, an English family just removed the towels. They folded them neatly and put them on a wall. A fight between the men broke out and Security guards sorted it out. It didn’t happen again. On a Princess cruise there was a sign on deck saying any beds left vacant for more than an hour  would have their towels and belongings removed. We did see this enforced on one occasion, we guessed that some passengers had reported to security. 

[Adawn47]

48 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

Try not to pay attention to those people. They don't worth your time and patience. When I come along and see such people I try to avoid them even if it costs me some discomfort. My time is more valuable

Unfortunately they are so loud and obnoxious it's practically impossible to ignore them.

Avril

[lindylooellalouise]

2 hours ago, kevboy said:

When I posted this topic I thought it would get some replies and reactions from those I am trying to embarass. Unfortunately only the considerate caring and sensible cruisers have replied and I am not surprised that they share my views. Some have even stronger views than mine. Clearly, the selfish inconsiderate and rule breakers dont read this forum or even worse, couldn`t care less what we think.

Sadly,  Like the covid anti vacine brigade, we probably just have to live with them. It would be good if someone could think of a great way to highly embarass these people. Public humiliation is the greatest fear of rule breakers so come on everyone lets get our thinking caps on.

regards to all

kev

Yes I agree would have been interesting to find out how they can justify their actions and why they are not considerate to their fellow cruisers.

[SargassoPirate]

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I stay at a resort in Hawaii approximately every other year for several years.  As chair hogs started to proliferate, the resort solved it.  The resort has a pool attendant and little pop up flags on the back of each lounger. The attendant goes through every thirty minutes and flips up the flags for any loungers without a body in it.  The next time he comes through, if an unoccupied chair is still "flagged", he clears it.