Space Hogs - a nasty evolution of Chair Hogs

[Oceangoer2]

We were on Reflection in December. We like to spend time around the pool and look for chairs mostly in the shade near the windows. We only use chairs when we're sitting in them (except for dips in the pool or bathroom breaks). That being said, it was impossible for a human being to actually be able to sit in the chair without crawling up from the foot of the chair (causing a tipping hazard) or leaping on top of the chair without moving the chair for access. The loungers were placed so tightly together that there was barely 1" between some of them. The last I checked most folks (even the most slender) cannot get in to sit down with that little space. Many of the loungers were placed so that they touched the one next to it with no space at all in between. It was the same way on Eclipse as well. While I certainly don't condone the actions referred to by the OP, I certainly can understand the necessity of moving a lounger a bit to allow you to sit down.

 

LOLOLOLOL...visuals were too much for me. Just visualizing 'many lords a-leaping'....and ladies too. Warped sense of humour i guess.

[Keys2Heaven]

Am I evil for thinking that I want to take a chair hog's belongings and chuck them either overboard or into the pool?

[davekathy]

Not often I support described 'chair hogs' but what you say is absolutely true. Yes, 6 chairs fit, but yes, you can't get into a lounger unless you walk over them to get into them. 5 chairs should be the max and you wouldn't see people (like me) move a chair out to the deck rail side where there's more room to get in and out. Guess I'll get flamed now.

Not at all. Granted the OP didn't say how many loungers were moved to accommodate the chogers space. However moving one lounger is a lot different than moving multiple loungers to accommodate their "sounder". I'll bet you don't leave the one lounger you move in the path of others. I've asked a pool attendant to remove one lounger to allow for a little more room to be shared by a few loungers.

[Pickels]

During my current cruise I’ve noticed a new pattern of behavior. Early the morning after the staff has arranged the deck chairs, people select a location and discard half the chairs to provide a nicer nest for themselves. They take the unwanted chairs and place them in places they don’t belong: in the walkway, in front of stairs or in a dining area. They rearrange the remaining chairs to utilize the new space and mark the remaining chairs with books, flip-flops or towels and leave. In effect they are claiming twice as many chairs as the normal chair hog. I hope we can find a way discourage this type of behavior.

 

I really don't blame people for moving chairs to free up some space so that they can get into a lounge chair. Sometimes the crew will pack the chairs so close it would be impossible to get into a chaise. So moving chairs to free up space is ok; but what's not ok, are the people who come late and looking for a lounge chair, find one and move it, it front of stairs, by an outdoor eating area, in a walk-way, etc.

[leisuretraveler223]

During my current cruise I’ve noticed a new pattern of behavior. Early the morning after the staff has arranged the deck chairs, people select a location and discard half the chairs to provide a nicer nest for themselves. They take the unwanted chairs and place them in places they don’t belong: in the walkway, in front of stairs or in a dining area. They rearrange the remaining chairs to utilize the new space and mark the remaining chairs with books, flip-flops or towels and leave. In effect they are claiming twice as many chairs as the normal chair hog. I hope we can find a way discourage this type of behavior.

 

 

I'm fairly confident you are part of the ever growing group of people who relish spending their cruise time finding fault with everyone and everything possible.....

[Keys2Heaven]

I'm fairly confident you are part of the ever growing group of people who relish spending their cruise time finding fault with everyone and everything possible.....

 

I guess I don't understand how one person's observation allows others to make blanket accusations against said individual.

[Luvcrusn]

Am I evil for thinking that I want to take a chair hog's belongings and chuck them either overboard or into the pool?

Yes. Thanks for asking. ;p

[Fouremco]

I'm fairly confident you are part of the ever growing group of people who relish spending their cruise time finding fault with everyone and everything possible.....

Some start threads about chair hogs, others start threads about their friends' experience when coming down with the flu. As more people are affected by the actions of chair hogs than the flu while cruising, you're going to see proportionately more threads, but that doesn't mean that those initiating or contributing to chog threads are actively looking to find faults.

[Fouremco]

Am I evil for thinking that I want to take a chair hog's belongings and chuck them either overboard or into the pool?

No, but thinking about chucking the pool hogs overboard or into the pool might be evil.:evilsmile:

[cltnccruisers]

No, but thinking about chucking the pool hogs overboard or into the pool might be evil.:evilsmile:

 

Nah - that would just be what my wife's favorite TV judge would call "rough justice".

[leisuretraveler223]

Some start threads about chair hogs, others start threads about their friends' experience when coming down with the flu. As more people are affected by the actions of chair hogs than the flu while cruising, you're going to see proportionately more threads, but that doesn't mean that those initiating or contributing to chog threads are actively looking to find faults.

 

Actually, this is where popular opinion doesn't make it correct. Very few people should ever be affect by "chair hogs". It's quite simple. Seek out the pool butler and tell him you're having trouble finding chairs and he or she will assist you. Now, if people are complaining because they can't find for or six chairs together in the sun at 11am on a sea day, then it's not the fault of chair hogs. It's their own fault for having unrealistic expectations.

 

On our cruise last week, my wife and I were early risers. We were out at 7am and plopped ourselves in two chairs. Two others came up around 8:30 and we were able to take two next to us that were unclaimed. Around 9:45, the third couple came up. There weren't many to choose from, but a great deal had been unoccupied the whole morning. I flagged down the pool butler, and he was more than happy to clear the two chairs on the other side of us. We simply didn't let it bother us. The OP, on the other hand, seems to perseverate over the perceived misbehavior of others, as if doing so is going to change anything. That seems like a dumb waste to me....

[davekathy]

No, but thinking about chucking the pool hogs overboard or into the pool might be evil.:evilsmile:

And who said Celebrity lacks in good poolside entertainment on sea days. ;p

[Lastdance]

Personally, if I get sun it is usually in the mornings. However, since I want to age as slowly as possible, I have not run in to this issue. Wow, I feel like my idea is a good one and will continue doing things the same way. It sounds like it truly is a jungle of humans out there, fighting for space and loungers! Furthermore, I love to be out on my balcony with a cold drink, a good book and peaceful surroundings! If I really want a lounger, I have many ideas on how to get and keep one, along with keeping my distance and space! Maybe I am on to something, even though it may appear very vain to others...Remember, the drones are watching...And one last comment, the Caribbean must be the worst place to cruise and I do not cruise there anymore, or during the summer or holidays!

Edited February 14, 2018 by Lastdance

[westcoastcruiser]

Passengers complain about shortage of deck chairs. X adds chairs. Space is finite so chairs are closer together. Now passengers complain about tight space. X removes chairs to create space. Now there's a shortage of chairs ......................................

 

My thoughts exactly as I read these posts...:confused::eek:

 

Darned if they do, darned if they don’t...

[leisuretraveler223]

It sounds like it truly is a jungle of humans out there, fighting for space and loungers!

 

You would think so the way people complain about it around here, but it really isn't. It's busy, but not really the problem people love to make it out to be.

[hcat]

I have to say that I don't have a problem with people trying to get a reasonable amount of separation. It may vary with the pool attendants, but sometimes the chairs are set out so close together that you'd think they were canning sardines!

 

Yup..sometimes you can't even fit one foot on the ground and have to slide up to the front of the chair.Too many chairs set touching side by side.,dumb!

 

Used to be nice when they had the little tables in between.. agree that now we are sardines!

[bigbeergut]

1. The current pool butlers on the Eclipse must have heard the complaints about the lack of space between lounge chairs. Every 4 or five chairs they are leaving a space to move between chairs.

 

2. Based on some of the comments, I think we have found at least 1 chair hog following this thread.

[Luvcrusn]

 

2. Based on some of the comments, I think we have found at least 1 chair hog following this thread.

And you base that conclusion on ......?

[Mythbuster]

I have never had any of these problems on my balcony, and my pool (ocean) is bigger!

[Silkroad]

Some start threads about chair hogs, others start threads about their friends' experience when coming down with the flu. As more people are affected by the actions of chair hogs than the flu while cruising, you're going to see proportionately more threads, but that doesn't mean that those initiating or contributing to chog threads are actively looking to find faults.

 

Still loving the term chog:') It definitely deserves a place in the cruise lexicon;)

 

@leisuretraveler223, Perhaps people post about chogs (or the Cafe al Bacio table hogs) in an effort to remind fellow passengers that we’ve all paid for our holiday, and some of have taken time from work, partly to enjoy the lovely amenities on the ship. Thankfully, we’ve got different schedules and tastes, but sometimes too many people want a specific venue or amenity at the same time. If these threads inspire even 10% of us to be more considerate at such times, aren’t they valuable?

[Pickels]

We were on Reflection in December. We like to spend time around the pool and look for chairs mostly in the shade near the windows. We only use chairs when we're sitting in them (except for dips in the pool or bathroom breaks). That being said, it was impossible for a human being to actually be able to sit in the chair without crawling up from the foot of the chair (causing a tipping hazard) or leaping on top of the chair without moving the chair for access. The loungers were placed so tightly together that there was barely 1" between some of them. The last I checked most folks (even the most slender) cannot get in to sit down with that little space. Many of the loungers were placed so that they touched the one next to it with no space at all in between. It was the same way on Eclipse as well. While I certainly don't condone the actions referred to by the OP, I certainly can understand the necessity of moving a lounger a bit to allow you to sit down.

 

Keep in mind, when a cruise line renovates a ship, taking away something to add more cabins, going, [for example] from 2500 cruisers to 3000 cruisers, they have to make more room on decks. So, they have to squeeze in more chaise loungers to compensate for the extra personnel.

[leisuretraveler223]

Keep in mind, when a cruise line renovates a ship, taking away something to add more cabins, going, [for example] from 2500 cruisers to 3000 cruisers, they have to make more room on decks. So, they have to squeeze in more chaise loungers to compensate for the extra personnel.

 

I know of no ship that has undergone a renovation that increased guest capacity by 20%. Your numbers, and the argument you use them to make are both just plain wrong.

[Fouremco]

I know of no ship that has undergone a renovation that increased guest capacity by 20%. Your numbers, and the argument you use them to make are both just plain wrong.

While the numbers, which were very clearly cited as an example only, may have been a bit high, the argument is quite sound.

[xfer]

As a person who is not from a time zone that is ship time, and who is not a morning person, it is distressing to come upstairs at 10am and find that all the loungers are occupied by books, sunglasses and flip flops. In that moment, the vision I held close to get me thru those long stressful weeks, the one of me lounging in a poolside chair sipping a fruity drink, bursts with a sad dose of reality.

 

You bizarrely cheerful morning people (my husband is one), sure you get to enjoy this dream. But those of us who are being forced to chose between sleep or that poolside vitamin d shower, we see chogs as dream crushers. Why does that flip flop get to live the dream? So I wander away, but each day my resentment builds. Perhaps I grab a seat at the bar, but you know I'm watching that flip flop. And after hour, as it just lays there, ordering no drinks, never once using the pool, I think to myself, clearly the cruise line will take care of this, surely they will want to see humans using the chairs.

 

And after a couple rounds of fruity courage, I decide that the flip flop wouldn't mind sharing. If it's human should return, why, I would gladly get up. But as I approach, I see someone else has this idea. They go to remove the flip flop and suddenly from 8 chairs over, a very angry man says "this chair is reserved". The hopeful user replies "but these chairs have been unused for hours". The argument gets heated and wham, a fist fight breaks out. I slink off, but a small part of me can't help but hope he landed a good one on that chog.

 

I spend the remainder of the sea days trying to get any staff member to help me, but they are understaffed, and not monitoring as they should. I may find a folorn chair far from the pool, but it's not the same.

 

Sure, I still had a lovely vacation, but now I'm home and I still carry that resentment. So I seek out threads on CC, looking not only for ways to stand up to the hogs, but also to add my voice if the cruiselines are reading. Please police the chairs, save us from the hogs. Do it, or the flip flop will get it. Or even worse, I'll plan my next vacation on land.

[Silkroad]

Awwwww this is a very eloquent post, xfr, and I do hope it softens the hearts of even the most hardened chogs:) I’m especially moved by the sadness of people who’ve survived long, frigid, dark winters with only the bright prospect of their few hours relaxing in the sun to sustain them.