Ms. Zaandam Aft Pool Chair Availability

[LovestheSun]

Is chair availability at the aft pool an issue?

Are there rules about when you can put your towel and book out to hold your chair?
What's the consensus for a good time to "hold" your chair in the morning?

[ldog]

We've never had to "hold" a chair by the pool. There always seem to be plenty available.

I HATE people that get up early and put stuff on chairs and then go away for hours. It's very rude. I've been known to hand in their things as "lost" or "left behind". If you are using your chair fine. If not, let someone else have it.

[serendipity1499]

Is chair availability at the aft pool an issue?

Are there rules about when you can put your towel and book out to hold your chair?
What's the consensus for a good time to "hold" your chair in the morning?

Hal specifically requests that you don't save chairs at the pool or in the Queens Lounge..

You occasionally will see some of this, however many long time HAL cruisers know it is extremely impolite...If some cruisers see an unoccupied chair for more than 10-15 minutes & there are no other chairs available, they will not hesitate to ask the Pool Steward to remove the towel for others to use..

If you are using a chair & have to go to your cabin for 5-10 minutes or get a quick drink, that's fine..But to place a book & towel on chairs & go for a meal is not OK..

When we occupy chairs on the Promenade deck in the morning & go to lunch we always remove all personal things & later try to find another chair..

[Robin7]

What's the consensus for a good time to "hold" your chair in the morning?

Is this a standard practice on other cruise lines? How long do you intend to 'hold' a chair? People really think it's okay to 'hold' them when they're not actually using them????

We've never had a problem getting a chair on any ship--HAL and Princess being our only experiences--whenever we've wanted to sit by the pool. But I'll be the first to admit, we don't do it very often. I'm too fair and skin cancer runs in my family, so we're not big sun worshipers. We'd rather sit in the library or Crow's Nest to read and only go to the pool when we actually intend to swim--which is maybe once or twice a cruise and not at all on our recent trip to Alaska.

Robin

[RuthC]

I thought the unwritten rule was one chair per fanny at a time. :confused:

If you're in the pool, have gone to the rest room, or have stepped away from your chair to get something to eat/drink that's all right. Otherwise you take your pick of what's available when you get there.

Isn't that what we're supposed to do? :confused:

[LovestheSun]

I wasn't clear on my initial thread, my apologies. It is never my intention to leave a chair with my stuff vacant for "hours".
I enjoy sitting in the sun and wanted to know how early in the morning 6:30a, 7:30a, 8:30a I need to get a chair. My plans are to be in "said chair" from the early morning to mid afternoon.
If I have offended those readers out there with my bad manners (which has been reflected by responses), my apologies.
As mentioned, I was unclear in my thread, again I'm sorry.

Some of the perceived caustic responses are an incentive to not participate in message boards.....

[Krazy Kruizers]

We hate it when we go to get a lounge chair by one of the pools and see towels and books on them with no one in sight!!

I kept track one time of 6 chairs next to ours --- we were at the aft pool for 3 hours and no one ever came back to claim their chairs, books, etc. the whole time that we were there.

[kryos]

I can't speak specifically to the Zaandam, but I know that on the Amsterdam last January ... on a cruise that was 100% booked ... there were always empty chairs by the aft pool. I never saw anyone saving chairs ... because saving them wasn't necessary. You could always find plenty available.

Now the show lounge ... LOL, we had an "interesting" situation one evening there. There was a special Hawaiian show that night ... these cute little kids were brought onboard to do a show for us. Well, since they were "guest" performers, there was only one show being staged that night. Needless to say, the show lounge would be packed. Kakalina and I walked into the theater and she spotted two empty places at this setee for four. There was one woman sitting there, so there would be plenty of room for us. Kakalina went to sit down and this woman told her the whole setee was taken. Well, she politely informed the lady that saving seats was not allowed and made no move to get up. The woman ...pretty high up there in years ... cursed her out. :)

The cruise director did, however, make sure to make extra announcements at future shows specifically highlighting the prohibition against saving seats. :)

Blue skies ...

--rita