chair hogs

[dabear]

On our recent experiences on Celebrity and HAl (and friends advise it always occurs on RCCL and Princess) , pax would go to the pool very early and throw a towel or old magazine on many chairs and not use them for up to 3-4 hours preventing other passengers from obtaining chairs after 8am. Pool butlers never do anything. This really is annoying and inconsiderate. While it is hard to generalize, does this often occur on Oceania?

[Druke I]

On our trip into the Baltic, 8-06, on Regatta, there was no problem with chair hogs - but it was a very port intensive cruise, and most passengers were ashore!

[ClaudiaF]

Happened on our last cruise on Insignia. A group of folks traveling together had one guy every am go to the library and take books to place on all the chaises around the pool w/ a towel too..some of them showed up..but most of the time they didn't..after a few days of this..when chaises were "occupied by towel and book" we just took the chaises..read great books too..

:D

[Bruin Steve]

Reminds me of a story shared with me by a tablemate on a Mexican Riviera cruise on another line...

 

My tablemate was one of those who liked to spend each entire "at sea" day up on the pool deck getting a tan...early morning to late afternoon...One of those northerners who wanted to go home and impress people with his vacation tan...

 

Anyway, the cruise started with back to back at sea days as it made its way down to Puerto Vallarta...

 

So, the first day, he's up at the pool right after breakfast...and he sees a guy staking out a prime chaisse lounge...right by the Jacuzzi...The guy lays out a towel and drops a pair of sandals, a bottle of sun tan lotion, a book and some sungrlasses on the chaisse...and proceeds to leave...and doesn't come back until about 2 in the afternoon--when he's finally dressed in swim trunks...The pool area is crowded, but this guy's chaisse is waiting for him...

 

So, the following day, my tablemate sees the same guy doing the same thing...This time, as soon as the guy leaves, my tablemate takes the towel, sandals, book, glasses and lotion...and deposits them in a pile on the floor along the windows on the other side of the deck--far from the chaisse...Then he moves the chaisse a few feet, leaving a blank space where the chaisse was...and proceeds to occupy the chaisse himself...

 

Sure enough, hours later, about 1 or 2 in the afternoon, after lunch, the hog comes strolling up...and can't figure out what happened...all of his stuff is gone...and so, apparently is the chaisse...The guy asks my tablemate if he's seen a chaisse with all his stuff on it..."What chaisse? What stuff? I've been here all day and there's been nothing there all day...AND I haven't seen YOU here all day EITHER!"

 

When my tablemate left the pool area to dress for dinner, he noticed that the pile of stuff was still sitting across the deck...Apparently, the hog never found it...

 

True story...

[joan24]

Great stories Claudia and Steve.

Joan

[caclays]

We spent a total of 41 days aboard Regatta on two separate but not back-to-back cruises between Thanksgiving and the end of January 06, and found that crew would regularly go through the pool area where they would pick up towels left on the lounge chairs and put them in the dirty towel container. They would also straighten out the lounges and tidy up a bit. I don't remember them taking towels off chairs that had any personal items on them, though.

 

Both cruises had a lot of sea days and on the last cruise, the ship was totally full. Yet there was never a problem in getting a lounge chair to sit in, especially if you didn't care if it was in the sun or the shade. Oceania seemed to have added a large number of additional lounges over the amount they had when we sailed with them prior in January of 05. Maybe that is why there was no apparent problem.

[brian_uk]

In June 05 on Insignia Med Cruise we never had a problem getting chairs by the Pool.

I think that because of the general age group (us included) 55+ people were more conscious of the harm of the suns rays and took more time in the shade hence seats were generally available in the sun.

 

Brian

[ClaudiaF]

A while back Cruise critic took a survey asking members to vote, relay stories etc. as to which ship was the worst for this problem..seems they all have the problem and it will never go away.. but some of the comments were downright hilarious..

while many seem to have come from the "party ship crowd" ( ala Carnival type cruises by the responses).. it is a good read ..and there are some comments that go hand in glove here.. enjoy..:D

http://www.cruisecritic.com/features/articles.cfm?ID=218

[smj]

There seems to be a few chair hogs on Oceania but not nearly as many as the other cruise lines have. Oceania seems to attract mostly nice polite people.

[Bruin Steve]

There seems to be a few chair hogs on Oceania but not nearly as many as the other cruise lines have. Oceania seems to attract mostly nice polite people.

While I'd love to think it's that we'll be cruising with "nice polite people", I think there are really other factors more at play here. First, I've cruised with mostly nice polite people on other lines, too...

 

If Oceania has less of a problem with this, I'd suggest these being major factors:

1) Space-to-passenger ratios. (note: We've never noticed too much of a problem on Celebrity M-Class ships either. These have similar ratios). If there is ample deck space for the number of passengers, people do not perceive crowding to be a problem and act accordingly. On ships where they crowd a larger number of people into less space per person, people have trouble finding space and start doing things to establish their space.

2) Age Demographics. No kids programs, fewer kids, higher average ages. Kids tend to hang out up on the pool deck, especially on at sea days. With few kids, the use is lessened. Plus, I think, as we get older, we stop "sunbathing" as much...We get more attuned to the risks of skin cancer, concerned with the wrinkling effects of too much exposure to the sun, etc. So, with a slightly older crowd, less demand for deck space.

3) Itineraries. Some cruise lines have a lot of 7 night and shorter Caribbean and Mexican Riviera itineraries with several at-sea days...A prime concern of a lot of folks taking these cruises is to sit out on deck and tan in the tropical climes. Oceania has more cruises in Europe and other areas where sightseeing and tourism is a more important facet than "going home with a tan". Again, less demand on the pool deck.

 

This is not to say that there are no passengers that want to use the pool decks on Oceania ships, just that the demand is somewhat less and the space is more than adequate. When passengers, perceive a problem, they react. Human nature. Otherwise "nice polite people" will hog a deck chair if they think they're not going to find one. If they never see an access problem, they react differently...

 

Just my thoughts...

[brian_uk]

I have no doubt that you are an Attorney..........always a grand speech never a precis.......pity the poor buggers who are travelling with you......oh damn....thats us !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Just a joke Steve.....lookk forward to seeing you in July

 

Brian

[Jancruz]

If someone has put a book or towel on a chair and they are not back in an hour while I am patiently waiting..I politely move their things and tell one of the waiters..there is never a problem..in the paper each night it says "Dont Save Chairs"

Jan

*****

[timbo89]

Just got back from 12 days in the Caribbean on the Regatta...

 

As I get up and walk the track for about an hour every morning, I had a bird's eye view of the activities on the pool deck below. As walking is a bit boring, the pool deck activities were an interesting distraction for me. I even counted the number of lounge chairs each day to pass the time(it was usually 248, but would vary a little for some reason)

 

The chair hogs were out in full force - 90% of the chairs were saved before 8am on sea days......

 

What was even more interesting was that (on port days)there were some people who reserved chairs before leaving the ship on a tour, so that "their" char would be available for them upon their return to the ship.

 

On one morning, I saw Yves Joubin (the Hotel Manager) taking pictures of the situation, and on another morning I saw 3 officers remove all the stuff from the chairs. It was an honorable, yet feeble attempt to block the hogs...

 

The most popular chairs were those in the shady part (the second row) around the pool. Those were "reserved" (100%) by 7:30 am on sea days. The nice quiet chairs in the shade on Deck 5 seemed to be always available, as were the chairs in the sun up on Deck 11.