Chair Hog Revolt on the Millie

Well we had a terrific Thanksgiving cruise on the Millie....everything was terrific....the only complaint, which I remarked about when I went on the Century again in August is the over-the-top internet charges. What a rip off!

Anyway we had a real revolution on Day one of the cruise. We went up to the pool at about 9:30 AM and of course lots of chairs with towels on them and no bodies- two entire rows of about 10-12 chairs. My sister and I asked around and some guy said he had been there since 8 and those chairs had no people, just towels, so we sat in them. Things got worse when more and more people started to show up and could sit because of the supposed "taken" lounges, so we had a talk with security. They said the pool butlers should be the ones to remove the towels and randoms books and bottles of suntan lotion on this otherwise unoccupied chairs. The pool butlers didn't want to deal with it so I asked who their boss was and security said the Chief of Housekeeping. Since I remembered how this guy gets a tip from us too at the end of the week, I asked to speak to him. They then all had a huge meeting for about 30 minutes...the Chief, pool butlers and security. They FINALLY got rid of the junk on the chairs and freed up TWO ROWS of loungers for people. We stayed there till 12 noon and no one ever showed up to claim the stuff they had taken off the chairs either!

One guy showed up just in time before they removed his towel and he got a tongue lashing from one spit fire lady from Tennessee. I thought his wife would die....she was really embarassed.

For the rest of the week I just ignored rolled up towels on the loungers and sat where I wanted. You could tell when it was a towel just placed there to save it versus a place where someone had just gotten up to swim. No one ever approached me saying they had saved the chair. I even became buddies with the chief of Housekeeping!

Suzanne

Good for you. Enough of this.

Now, THAT'S good news!!! I think if more of us would speak up to the appropriate authority onboard, we'd get results, just like you did! Thanks for posting about this.

i personally give empty chairs the 10 min rule which is enough time to return from the bathroom if the chair is indeed occupied. then i remove the stuff and put it near the used towel bin and if someone comes by to claim the seat which no one has ever done i would tell them that the pool staff removed the items because the seat was unoccupied

this is much the same as in the showroom where seats are staked out with no one in them

Well we had a terrific Thanksgiving cruise on the Millie....everything was terrific....the only complaint, which I remarked about when I went on the Century again in August is the over-the-top internet charges. What a rip off!

 

Anyway we had a real revolution on Day one of the cruise. We went up to the pool at about 9:30 AM and of course lots of chairs with towels on them and no bodies- two entire rows of about 10-12 chairs. My sister and I asked around and some guy said he had been there since 8 and those chairs had no people, just towels, so we sat in them. Things got worse when more and more people started to show up and could sit because of the supposed "taken" lounges, so we had a talk with security. They said the pool butlers should be the ones to remove the towels and randoms books and bottles of suntan lotion on this otherwise unoccupied chairs. The pool butlers didn't want to deal with it so I asked who their boss was and security said the Chief of Housekeeping. Since I remembered how this guy gets a tip from us too at the end of the week, I asked to speak to him. They then all had a huge meeting for about 30 minutes...the Chief, pool butlers and security. They FINALLY got rid of the junk on the chairs and freed up TWO ROWS of loungers for people. We stayed there till 12 noon and no one ever showed up to claim the stuff they had taken off the chairs either!

 

One guy showed up just in time before they removed his towel and he got a tongue lashing from one spit fire lady from Tennessee. I thought his wife would die....she was really embarassed.

 

For the rest of the week I just ignored rolled up towels on the loungers and sat where I wanted. You could tell when it was a towel just placed there to save it versus a place where someone had just gotten up to swim. No one ever approached me saying they had saved the chair. I even became buddies with the chief of Housekeeping!

 

Suzanne

From all the posts on chair hogs around the pool, I am glad that I can't sit out in the sun(past skin cancers)!!!!! My husband and I walk through the area from time to time and come and sit down around 4:00 or so when most people are going back to their rooms. If we want fresh air we sit on our veranda. I do feel sorry though for those who have to "worry" on their vacations about finding a pool chair? Especially with the ports providing plenty of water sports and swimming, I have yet ever to use a cruise ship pool. Maybe the hogging and hassle is one of the reasons? Then of course I am from S. Florida where we get plenty of sunshine, water, and beaches and pools.

In November we vacationed at a timeshare in Aruba.

They strictly enforced thier towel rule. You could replace your pool towel as often as you wanted but if at the end of the week you did not return the last towel, it cost 100.00 per person.

As a result, there were never towels used to reserve chairs by the pool or the beach. People were just not willing to loose thier very high priced towel. And as also to be expected, this rule resulted in there being enough chairs at the pool and the beach at all times. During the week I often thought about the chair problem on cruises, and how the timeshare fixed the issue.

I do wish the cruise line would also take this position. I think if they did they would find that all of the passengers would in fact be much happier, and there would not be a chair shortage......Just my 2 cents.

Smooth:

I believe a while back that one of the cruise lines tried it and it didn't work. It was about a year or so ago however can't remember which line.

Don

Sorry, but (to me) there's nothing less appealing than sitting packed around a pool in a lounge chair baking in the hot sun with 200 other people. There are always plenty of chairs next deck up, both forward and aft-more breeze, less crowded and quieter.

That concept just raises all kinds of red flags. I honestly don't see how it could be enforced. I mean, if you get up to swim, you have to worry about someone stealing your towel when you aren't looking...because someone stole their towel when they were swimming...because someone else stole the other's towel...sheesh! One might say, well you also have to worry about your personal items being stolen while you're in the pool, but few people leave personal items worth $100 at their chair while they're swimming. And besides, personal items do not all look the same -- it's a little riskier for the light-fingered types to consider trying to sneak off with someone's purse, vs. quickly slipping a towel off a lounge chair, and now they look like anyone else carrying their own towel. This is, of course, assuming that the towels aren't labelled with the temporary owners' names, but that raises a whole other issue for the cruise line - how to label them? How to re-label them when you turn your dirty towel in for a new one?

Imagine the nightmare that would ensue for all those poor people whose towels got swiped while they were underwater, and now have to fight the cruise line not to get charged $100. Nope, I don't see that happening.

Personally, I admire Suzanne's (OP) strategy and moxie! However, one should be aware that it can backfire and lead to an uncomfortable confrontation. We were on an RCI ship in Mexico two summers ago, and were relegated to a couple chairs way far from the pool in the shade (we preferred sun). I watched two poolside chairs remain unoccupied for 30 minutes, "saved" with towels and a old, chewed-up pair of flip-flops, with a flip on one, flop on the other. DH and I finally removed the towels and placed the flip-flops by the towel bin. Almost an hour later, two women stalked up to us (one appearing rather soused) and started yelling at us that we'd stolen their chairs. I politely pointed out that no one had been at these chairs for more than 90 minutes, but they continued to berate us, as we tried to ignore them. When one angrily demanded to know where her sandles were, I noticed they were both wearing lovely high-heeled sandles, so I said, "Aren't they on your feet?" :D DH gestured towards their flip-flops, and they stalked off in a huff to retrieve them. I saw them pointing at us and having quite an animated conversation with a poor pool attendant, but eventually they disappeared from our radar.

So it was a bit of a bump in the day, but we had a fun time telling the story at dinner later. ;)

LeeAnne

That's pretty funny leejnd. I've been places that have charged for towels also. My gut feeling is i don't want to see it on a cruise ship. I much prefer the approach taken by the OP. Really, if people aren't there...remove their stuff! There is no god given right to pool side chairs no matter how early you may rise! And, quite frankly, I also prefer the quieter upper decks.

The funny thing was after that first day we noticed considerably less rolled up towels occupying chairs!

We are going on the Century for Christmas/New Years and are hoping for a more considerate crowd. I didn't enjoy having to be the "chair monitor", but quite frankly the whole situation annoyed the $*^% out of me.

I know this dead horse has been beaten so many times here, but I thought I'd let everyone know about our experience.

Suzanne

I agree with Poohunderstands. All of you complainers - Get a life. It is not the end of the world. There are plenty of loungers on the ship. Just find one!!!

Um, no Mary. You missed the point. There WERE NOT plenty of lougers. They were taken by rolled up towels.

Get a better attitude.

Suzanne

I agree Bisous3, there are NOT plenty of lounge chairs on the ships. I just got off a cruise a few days ago and lounge chairs on all decks were hard to come by. Especially if you wanted 2 together. More than once I looked for a chair around the pools, above the pools, even on the promanade deck, and none were available. Though I don't swim much, I do like a little sun, to people watch and enjoy a drink and some music while I read my book. At least I could go back to my cabin and sit, not in a lounge chair though, on my balcony. I feel especially bad for those without that choice.

One day my husband noticed a couple of chairs right by the pool that had been occupied by a couple of towels for an hour, so he took them. About an hour later a woman returned to "her" chairs and demanded them back. My husband was holding our 20 month old grandson when she confronted him. She cursed and yelled...at one point my husband said "I can't believe you would talk to me like that while I am holding a child" and her response was "He doesn't understand what I am saying". This was a woman around 65. What an obnoxious, rude person.

When My wife and I need lounge chairs on the pool deck, I use the "Annoy them on all levels technic" that I developed from reading these very boards. I wade into the area with my crying 22 month old child in tow, chain smoking cigarettes while simultaneously talking loudly on a hand held radio and cell phone. If folks continue to resist, I shed my robe to reveal my Husky frame adorned in only a two sizes too small t-back Speedo bathing suit, which prominently displays my overly hairy back side. Puts an end to chair hogs real quick let me tell you. We get all the chairs we could want.

I agree with Poohunderstands. All of you complainers - Get a life. It is not the end of the world. There are plenty of loungers on the ship. Just find one!!!

i think mary us a chair hog

Agreeded...... ;)

Actually I don't ever sit by the main pool. I don't make it a big issue with me and I certainly don't let it ruin my cruise. I have seen it done, I have seen commotions over it and they ain't pretty and usually the complainer comes out looking like an ass. I have also heard stories at my table about people being in the pool for over an hour and come back to find someone sitting in their chair assuming that this person was a chair hog. There are a lot of innocents out there however most people assume they are chair hogs.

Last week, it was the pool butlers - no chair hogs - that were putting rolled up towels on ALL of the main (10th deck) lounge chairs.

mary

common sense tells us that if you are in the pool you can see someone near your chair from the pool. the pools on ships arent that large. but it is clear when there is nothing but a towel on a lounge for 1 hour or more then it is clear the chair is being hogged. a poster on similar thread once wrote how he rises earlier than his wife (6:30 am), puts some personal article on the 2 chairs he wants, goes to the gym, returns to cabin, takes shower, gets wife, goes to breakfast, then gets to "his" chairs by 11am or so. can you honestly tell me there is nothing wrong with this? and please please lets get off the "ruin the whole cruise" argument. short of an earthquake there is nothing thats going to ruin my whole cruise but lets be fair...inconsiderate behavior can not be ignored just because it occurs while on vacation.

lindajeff is right. The pool butlers put rolled towels on all the poolside chairs every morning. Maybe some of these "Chair Hogged" chairs were vacant. Real Chair Hogs do P___ me off!

On our very first cruise a few summers ago I remember that I was at the pool on a beautiful, sunny sea day. I was lucky enough to snag a poolside lounge, which was great for me! I do love to lie in the sun reading and relaxing, and it's nice to be near the pool to hop in when I get hot. I got out there at 10 am, and it was definitely crowded, but I don't mind...hey, I've got my lovely spot in the sun, the band is playing, my dh is bringing me drinks, the ship is rocking through the waves, children are splashing and laughing in delight...paradise! ;) (Sorry, I got a bit off track there...but this should answer the questions about why anyone would want a chair by the pool!)

There was this group of about 8 pool chairs pulled together in a prime location, all covered with various items -- a robe, books, old sneakers, etc. At about 1pm, this group of six shows up (the stuff was obviously theirs), and they proceeded to use those chairs for about an hour. The kids swam for a while, the grownups ate some lunch from the grill. Two teenagers stopped by for a few minutes but quickly left -- the two extra chairs must have been for them, but they didn't use them. At about 2pm they all split, but left their stuff on the chairs as before. When I left at 3pm, it was still there. During this entire period there was never an open chair, as soon as someone left someone else moved in, so clearly some passengers didn't get to sit at the pool that day due to these hogged chairs.

And the next morning, there it all was again! I was too new to cruising at the time to realize what a controversy chair hogs are (I'd never even heard the term!) and I wouldn't have had the moxie to do anything about it, but I do recall thinking it was pretty unfair to all the folks who were wandering around the pool looking for a chair, or, worse, spreading their towels out on the hard deck just to have a place to sit, while these chairs remained unoccupied.

Moral of the story is, chair hogs do exist, it's inconsiderate, and kudos to anyone who has the guts to do something about it. (Provided it's done in a polite and non-confrontational manner, of course!)

LeeAnne

I forget to post the joke my husband was telling after his confrontation with the vulgar mouthed elderly woman when he took "her" pool chairs (after over an hour of them not being occupied by anything but a towel)...it's an old joke with a new twist.

How do you get an old woman to use the F-word?

Yell bingo (and my husbands addition) or take her pool chair!! :D :D :D

I have been on this board for at least 3 years now and I find it amazing that there has NEVER been a post from a chair hog on one of these threads.

Could it be that none of them own computers??? Are rude people illiterate??

How about some kind of "circular" be placed on all of the chair hog lounges making them aware of what they are depriving others of??

Just wondering.........