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Deck Chair "Parking Meters"


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In an effort to thwart chair hogs has anyone considered a "parking meter" type contraption on deck chairs? It would be simple, scan your cruise card and get 60 minutes of time on the clock. Put your books and towels on the chair if you wish. When the timer goes off a crew member can remove the items and free up the chair. If you are legitimately in the pool area, go top off the timer and get another 60 minutes. 

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9 minutes ago, twangster said:

I like the ingenuity but do you have any idea how much that would cost?  ?

Quite a bit. You could cut back on the cost by doing it only for the desirable chairs around the pools and the half-shell type cabana type chairs. All of the chairs on the upper decks looking out over the water could be the regular "unmetered" type. There are always plenty of those available.

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6 minutes ago, stevendom57 said:

You could even get fancy and allow someone to reserve the chair automatically when the first person's time runs out. Using the onboard app the chair could text you and tell you that your chair is available. Hmm, does anyone have a phone number for the patent office?

 

New revenue stream.  $5 per hour per chair.

Thanks.  

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NCL has the Vibe area on some ships, it's a couple hundred a week but they only sell as many passes as there are chairs in it and usually sells out insanely quick.  I'll admittedly get the to port early in hopes of snagging a pass.  Love/hate relationship with it, but I was a little surprised Royal didn't have something similar when I first tried them.

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1 hour ago, stevendom57 said:

It would be simple, scan your cruise card and get 60 minutes of time on the clock. Put your books and towels on the chair if you wish. When the timer goes off a crew member can remove the items and free up the chair.

I would prefer a catapult system attached to the chairs. "Five-minute Warning" at 55 minutes, If you and your belongings aren't removed or renewed at the 60 minute mark, you/your belongings get launched! ?

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6 hours ago, twangster said:

Or simply enforce the rules.  Cheaper.  

Without the meters, there would be no tangible and quantifiable proof of chair hogging.

Another idea would be color coded tags that indicate hours.  For example, a blue tag means you occupied the chair at 10AM.  By 12 noon, crew can approach you to ask you to give up the chair for others.  That’s a 1-2 hour period of time you’ve occupied the chair.

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I've been kind of awful in the past when I have seen the same stuff sitting unmoved on a chair for over an hour... I'll set the stuff on the ground where the chair is, and drag the chair off to another area/spot. I fry up like a lobster easily, so just need shade. Not particular about where that is either, so... I've never been around later to witness fallout from this strategy.

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10 hours ago, HtownHolly said:

I've been kind of awful in the past when I have seen the same stuff sitting unmoved on a chair for over an hour... I'll set the stuff on the ground where the chair is, and drag the chair off to another area/spot. I fry up like a lobster easily, so just need shade. Not particular about where that is either, so... I've never been around later to witness fallout from this strategy.

My preferred approach is to take the pool towel from verifiably unused chairs and return them to the towel station. Scan the towel in on my SeaPass, too - just to be safe if someone in my stateroom forgets to scan one in during the cruise.

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12 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

My preferred approach is to take the pool towel from verifiably unused chairs and return them to the towel station. Scan the towel in on my SeaPass, too - just to be safe if someone in my stateroom forgets to scan one in during the cruise.

Or ask for an exchange then keep the clean towel in your cabin until you need it so you never have to scan your seapass card to get one. 

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We don't do the pool thing so this thread is hilarious to us!! People really hog the chairs closet to the pool? You really have to scan your seapass card to get a towel? What if someone takes your towel by mistake or on purpose? You have to pay for it? 

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I think it would be more financially sound, although not cruiser friendly, to have members of the shows used as deck chair ninjas instead of using "deck chair meters". Think about it. They could work their daily exercise routine into deck chair ninja sessions, VERY effective reduce the number of deck chair violators and word would get around the fleet that you better not be a deck chair hog.?

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On 4/27/2021 at 10:47 AM, stevendom57 said:

In an effort to thwart chair hogs has anyone considered a "parking meter" type contraption on deck chairs? It would be simple, scan your cruise card and get 60 minutes of time on the clock. Put your books and towels on the chair if you wish. When the timer goes off a crew member can remove the items and free up the chair. If you are legitimately in the pool area, go top off the timer and get another 60 minutes. 

Add an air horn, or flashing red light, maybe even a small electric shock?  Chair hogs need to be embarrassed.   Next time they ask for a pool towel, they would be given one with a porky image.

iu-1.jpeg

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There is a cheaper option than installing meters:

Each chair will have a barcode , people will be able to scan it using the application which will start a virtual timer. To reset the timer you scan it again or just seat in the chairs . The crew can scan the barcode to check if it is reserve or not and will be able to remove things from the chair incase time is over . That way when things are removed the crew will also know to whom the belong.

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An even cheaper option is a small laminated paper that reads "Please bring this to the towel station as soon as you return".

Crew places them on any lounger that appears to be hogged.  To secure in the wind they weave them through the webbing or place it under a foot.  On their next scheduled pass if they see any card they previously placed still there they collect those belongings and free up the lounger.

Basically like a parking meter maid that chalks the tires on a car then comes back around 30 minutes later.  If the tire is marked on their next pass by they have found a violator.  

No app development involved, no reliance on a server, no waterproof or ruggedized handheld devices required, no cost to code a chair or re-code as chairs wear out and are replaced.

Keep it Simple.

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13 hours ago, 12thman said:

That's crazy!! People are that lazy they can't bring the towels back? 

The $25 pool towel fee is easily gotten out of, and I really don't think "towel theft" is common at all.

If someone really took your towel, I am confident you could tell towel person someone took it and they would give you a new one without any questions.

The fee is really there to prevent people from taking towels on shore excursions and not bringing them back onboard. Evidently, that was an issue a few years ago.

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On 4/27/2021 at 7:08 PM, HtownHolly said:

I've been kind of awful in the past when I have seen the same stuff sitting unmoved on a chair for over an hour... I'll set the stuff on the ground where the chair is, and drag the chair off to another area/spot. I fry up like a lobster easily, so just need shade. Not particular about where that is either, so... I've never been around later to witness fallout from this strategy.

I love to watch the sunrise with a cup of coffee on the pool deck on sea days.  I once watched a lady place twenty towels out on twenty prime pool location chairs and leave...I believe she helped herself to the towels at the towel station as they we still neatly flooded.  Somehow the towels got removed by someone getting more coffee.  The lady and her TWO friends returned just after 11 am.  They made three laps around the area looking confused as to where her towels were...She couldn't figure out why people were sitting in her chairs.  Sure wished I world of brought the GoPro with me that morning.

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50 minutes ago, Psycho and Barb said:

I love to watch the sunrise with a cup of coffee on the pool deck on sea days.  I once watched a lady place twenty towels out on twenty prime pool location chairs and leave...I believe she helped herself to the towels at the towel station as they we still neatly flooded.  Somehow the towels got removed by someone getting more coffee.  The lady and her TWO friends returned just after 11 am.  They made three laps around the area looking confused as to where her towels were...She couldn't figure out why people were sitting in her chairs.  Sure wished I world of brought the GoPro with me that morning.

Celebrity doesn't swipe cards for pool towels and they place folded towels on loungers as a courtesy.  Basically a folded towel on a lounger means "available". 

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I believe I've mentioned this story before...

I did the PADI certification on Adventure in Jan 2020.  The classes are in the pool on sea days.  We would get there at 6 am and finish up right around the time the pools open to everyone.

We would put our belongings on chairs right near the pool during the classes.  One of the mornings I went to retrieve my stuff when we were finished.  Someone was near the chair and had tossed a towel on it while they were waiting for the area to officially open.  They got mad at me for "stealing" their chair....I was simply picking up my bag. 

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