Is The Chair Hogging Dilemma Unsolvable?

[babysteps]

Instead of a meet & greet, we could organize Cruise Critic chair hog commandos - as a group we sweep everything down to lost & found. This is a *joke*, actually doing this might be a bit over the top and create more trouble than it solves!! But it's fun to daydream...

[harryw]

It’s a good idea! The Lounger Avengers!

[rbtan]

2 hours ago, Tr1v1alCru1ser said:

We were on Vista 17th - 30th December.  It was almost impossible to get a poolside lounger.  I spoke to one of the pool deck guys who said people were going down between 5-6am to reserve loungers.  Another guest took photos of the numerous chairs with a library book or pair of sunglasses on them and spoke to the GM, Damian LeCroix.  He was totally disinterested.  The used to remove items, but I think I read that someone has sued O when their items were removed, claiming that something valuable has gone missing.  Totally ridiculous, who would leave something valuable on a lounger and go off for hours?  

 

Another couple we spoke to said the reserved loungers next to them were empty for 4 hours, and when the people eventually turned up, they challenged them about their selfishness, and the response was “Everybody’s doing it”.

 

If O aren’t going to do anything about it, then I think it’s going to come down to us as individuals to move things, maybe take a photos showing the time when you move it, so people can’t claim they were only gone for 5 minutes.  I’ve done it before, and when challenged about the amount of time they’ve been gone, the ‘perp’ had very little to say and just went away muttering. 

It's basically the same with us. My spouse has no problem moving a hogger's item & turning it over to the staff. I got into it with some poster a time back. Pretty much was a chair hog.Being in higher accommodations this time, we'll probably just stay up in Aqua Mar & enjoy ourselves.Looking down on a video recently( a really good one on Youtube), it is pretty obvious that loungers are lower in numbers.

[Acrusa]

I'll wear my Lone Ranger mask so they won't recognize me

[harryw]

Violators will be hog tied!

[clo]

On 1/14/2024 at 11:53 AM, rbtan said:

We'll be on board next week. My spouse says he won't hesitate to move stuff. He'll ask pax in the area & if no one responds it's theirs, he'll look for drinks with ice melted & make the move. We have an extended balcony in Concierge, but I hear they will not provide a lounge chair.

Good for him. I would do the same.

[Medeba]

On 1/14/2024 at 7:53 PM, rbtan said:

We have an extended balcony in Concierge, but I hear they will not provide a lounge chair.

We had an extended balcony in Concierge on Sirena and two lounge chairs were supplied when I asked (but this was in 2017). It was a bit cramped with the other balcony furniture but we managed.  No harm in asking.

[Pandazoo]

When there are actual fist fights over pool loungers I believe the cruise line should step in.  The lost and found table would be a good start.  Please don’t attack me for saying this but I have never encountered so many rude people then on the last Vista cruise.  Everywhere not just the pool area.

[Waltershipman]

2 minutes ago, Pandazoo said:

When there are actual fist fights over pool loungers I believe the cruise line should step in.  The lost and found table would be a good start.  Please don’t attack me for saying this but I have never encountered so many rude people then on the last Vista cruise.  Everywhere not just the pool area.

Ouch hope thats nit what we encounter on the 31st

Explora journeys on the other hand had amazing lovely prople

[Pandazoo]

We are considering Explora but there are no 2025 sailings yet…right now going back to land vacations.

[EJL2023]

16 minutes ago, Pandazoo said:

We are considering Explora but there are no 2025 sailings yet…right now going back to land vacations.

They have cruises through mid 2026 listed on their website. 

[Waltershipman]

16 minutes ago, Pandazoo said:

We are considering Explora but there are no 2025 sailings yet…right now going back to land vacations.

Unequivocally EJ ranks at very top from over our 100plus cruises ranging on luxury to not as luxury lines its wonderful 

 

Enjoy

[ORV]

5 hours ago, Pandazoo said:

When there are actual fist fights over pool loungers I believe the cruise line should step in.  The lost and found table would be a good start.  Please don’t attack me for saying this but I have never encountered so many rude people then on the last Vista cruise.  Everywhere not just the pool area.

Could you tell us more on this?  Hope it's not a new thing happening on Oceania.

[shepherd really]

21 minutes ago, ORV said:

Could you tell us more on this?  Hope it's not a new thing happening on Oceania.

There are not enough grains of salt in Salzberg to take this claim seriously.  

 

[MEFIowa]

43 minutes ago, ORV said:

Could you tell us more on this?  Hope it's not a new thing happening on Oceania.

Though just one small thing... Someone took my Ephesus door magnet. I even put up a little sign on the door asking for it back and literally walked ever cabin door during the cruise to see if the person put it on their door. Never found it. Went forlornly to the L&F daily to see if anyone turned it in. No one did. BUT thankfully all the others made it back safely. (I think I had about 20 in toto on the final evening, since this was a port-intensive B2B.)

[rbtan]

6 hours ago, Medeba said:

We had an extended balcony in Concierge on Sirena and two lounge chairs were supplied when I asked (but this was in 2017). It was a bit cramped with the other balcony furniture but we managed.  No harm in asking.

I heard they removed them, but perhaps a little $$ might persuade?

[rbtan]

1 minute ago, MEFIowa said:

Though just one small thing... Someone took my Ephesus door magnet. I even put up a little sign on the door asking for it back and literally walked ever cabin door during the cruise to see if the person put it on their door. Never found it. Went forlornly to the L&F daily to see if anyone turned it in. No one did. BUT thankfully all the others made it back safely. (I think I had about 20 in toto on the final evening, since this was a port-intensive B2B.)

I wonder if staff remove them as the cruise director might think they look tacky.

[MEFIowa]

5 minutes ago, rbtan said:

I wonder if staff remove them as the cruise director might think they look tacky.

I had all 20 on the door the last night on Riviera. I order/arrange them nicely, so they look very presentable. And there were lots of doors with things on them. I studied that as I went one deck a day looking for my missing magnet.

[Redtravel]

On 1/14/2024 at 4:21 PM, Cruisedreamer1 said:

All cruise lines need to add more shade options to their lido decks. That would help immensely with the chair hog problem. Once on a Regent cruise this was a problem we just asked the pool attendant and asked him to move items. which he did.

 

On 1/14/2024 at 4:21 PM, Cruisedreamer1 said:

All cruise lines need to add more shade options to their lido decks. That would help immensely with the chair hog problem. Once on a Regent cruise this was a problem we just asked the pool attendant and asked him to move items. which he did.

 

On 1/14/2024 at 4:18 PM, Woofa said:

I wonder if in fact the best thing to do when this happens is to make sure management knows about the issue. (Either on the mid ship survey (assuming you can fill it out) or to a higher up person on board the ship.)  While I don't doubt they know it happens, they may not be aware of how many people are affected (and how big a deal it is to some people).  I know from previous topics and posts, at least sometimes O follows through and frees up chairs.  Perhaps they just need to implement that policy more regularly.

From our limited experience and all that I have read, I assume O does not want to get involved if they are not clearly in need to.

When I read the thread title I questioned it.  Having sailed many times on O, never had chair hogs. That was until today. On Vista. It’s a port day.  Usually on a port day, there’s no problem finding seating by the pool.  After lunch, we thought that we would sit there. Nothing.  Not that many people out there. Everything was littered with stuff.  Asked at reception and was told that they don’t remove personal belongings.  Frustrated .

[Redtravel]

Reception said that the only thing that can be moved is property of Oceania.  Library books, brochures, cups, cans, menus, straws, etc. You cannot touch a guest’s property.  Today We wanted 2 adjacent lounges.  Found single lounges here and there. Then I spotted a 2 lounges with empty lounges on either side.  None were occupied by actual people. Only thing on the chaise was an O library book. Moved it.  That was at 10 am. At 1:30 a person appeared and asked why we had her chair. After all she put a book on it. Book was still on the empty chair. She put more stuff on that chair and left to go to a lecture. We left at 2 to get some lunch.  We took our used towels off the chaises.  Years ago, I sailed on the Atlantic.  You had an assigned teak chaise. Your name was on the chair.  Maybe we should resumed assigned chairs. 

[rbtan]

42 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Reception said that the only thing that can be moved is property of Oceania.  Library books, brochures, cups, cans, menus, straws, etc. You cannot touch a guest’s property.  Today We wanted 2 adjacent lounges.  Found single lounges here and there. Then I spotted a 2 lounges with empty lounges on either side.  None were occupied by actual people. Only thing on the chaise was an O library book. Moved it.  That was at 10 am. At 1:30 a person appeared and asked why we had her chair. After all she put a book on it. Book was still on the empty chair. She put more stuff on that chair and left to go to a lecture. We left at 2 to get some lunch.  We took our used towels off the chaises.  Years ago, I sailed on the Atlantic.  You had an assigned teak chaise. Your name was on the chair.  Maybe we should resumed assigned chairs. 

"Her" chair? If you have an issue either tell them where to go or tell the you'll get security after them.

[Moochi]

4 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Reception said that the only thing that can be moved is property of Oceania.

The towel between the pool chair and guest property is property of Oceania. If they lift up all four corners of the towel together carefully... Oops

[Redtravel]

Pool deck can be a great place to relax. It can also be very nasty.  A gentleman asked the pool attendant to move a chaise out of the sun. He moved it to the end of a row of chaises under cover. It didn’t block the open passageway. A bit later, the man who had the chaise that had been the end of the row returned to his chaise. He saw the gentleman sitting on the chaise that had become the end of the row. The man yelled out loud enough that everyone could hear, “I picked the chaise that was at the end of the row so that I wouldn’t have anyone next to me.”  They sat there quietly just looking at each other.  It was tense. Eventually they started talking and things cooled down.  I have never seen such behavior on Oceania before this cruise.  

[harryw]

2 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Pool deck can be a great place to relax. It can also be very nasty.  A gentleman asked the pool attendant to move a chaise out of the sun. He moved it to the end of a row of chaises under cover. It didn’t block the open passageway. A bit later, the man who had the chaise that had been the end of the row returned to his chaise. He saw the gentleman sitting on the chaise that had become the end of the row. The man yelled out loud enough that everyone could hear, “I picked the chaise that was at the end of the row so that I wouldn’t have anyone next to me.”  They sat there quietly just looking at each other.  It was tense. Eventually they started talking and things cooled down.  I have never seen such behavior on Oceania before this cruise.  

 Senses of entitlement show no boundaries.

Last cruise someone was saving a seat next to me 

in the theatre for her husband, who never showed up.

Maybe it was all innocent.

[Pandazoo]

@shepherd really I speak the truth as salty as it is.