Royal Caribbean, Norwegian cruisers demand crackdown on key rule
Cruisers want cruise lines to do more to curb a frustrating passenger behavior.
If you’re vacationing on a cruise ship, it’s vital to understand the essentials of cruise etiquette and do your best to follow these rules.
Being mindful of polite cruise behavior is not just for elitist passengers, when everyone on board is careful not become a rude cruiser, it ensures a better cruise experience for all.
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While some etiquette rules are unwritten like being polite to crew members and not cutting in line, others are clearly spelled out in writing within cruise lines’ guest conduct policies.
One of the worst cruise etiquette offenses is one that cruise lines outlaw in writing, but it continues to happen every day without fail on ships across the sea.
“Pool deck chairs are only available on a first come, first served basis and cannot be reserved,” Royal Caribbean underscores on its website. “We want to ensure that all guests have a great time at the pool. If a pool chair is left unattended for more than 30 minutes with no signs of any guests returning, our crew will remove any belongings and place them in the lost and found.”
Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival and other lines also prohibit passengers from reserving pool chairs. But whether cruise lines are doing enough to enforce rules against chair hogging is something that passengers often question.
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Royal Caribbean passenger sounds alarm on chair hogging
Recently, a Royal Caribbean passenger shared a photo in a fan community for the cruise line on Reddit that showed every pool deck chair on Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas reserved, mostly with towels, at 8:30 a.m. on a sea day.
The photo prompted more than 300 comments about the common and controversial cruise practice.
Many cruisers encouraged the passenger who posted the photo not to feel bad about moving towels and sitting down. Some also expressed their frustration with Royal Caribbean for not being diligent about enforcing its 30-minute policy on unattended belongings left on pool chairs.
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Other cruisers suggested that cruise lines could do more to prevent chair hogging in the first place, instead of just (sometimes) reacting when it happens.
“They really need to deploy staff at the pools early in the morning, a few on each side of the pools who can just tell people as soon as they put stuff down and start to walk away that they can't do that. It would go a long way to start to curb the behavior. People will ignore signs, they would be way less inclined to ignore a person,” Logical-Shelter-925 pointed out.
Norwegian Cruise Line steps up enforcement of pool chair policy
Cruisers who sail with Norwegian Cruise Line have recently shared better news about the chair hogging dilemma.
“On Escape last week they were marking unoccupied chairs and pulling towels and personal effects. Chairs were all full at 9 a.m. but around 10 onwards they were starting to clear off chairs,” ancillarycheese wrote in the NCL community on Reddit. “I honestly didn’t think they had the commitment to do it, glad they are trying to enforce the rules.”
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In the thread, other cruisers noted that this hasn’t always been the case, and they hoped the cruise line’s efforts to combat chair hogging would continue.
“Good, it was ridiculous on Encore at the end of February. People would leave their items for 2-3 hours until they would actually show up.” Divin3Bunny wrote.
To many cruisers, chair hogging is the worst of cruise etiquette offenses.
“Glad to see this. Chair hogging and lack of enforcement is the only thing that gets me upset about cruising,” Lensmama123 commented.
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