"Chair hogs"

[Randon1234]

I see this mentioned frequently, can someone explain to me what exactly constitutes a "chair hog"?

I've seen people say they actually remove other peoples belongings from chairs because they "can't see them". How do you even know who to look for? ..if that happened to me or my family members, we'd be fighting. 

It sounds like most of the people complaining are the ones who show up to the pool whenever they want and expect to be able to sit front row. Entitled much? 

Idk maybe I'm just not understanding the whole process, but its a huge ship people find another spot. 

[Ryan79]

Entitled is thinking that you can claim a chair as yours for the entire day by dropping junk on the chair and no one else should she allowed to use “your” chair regardless if you are actually using it or not

[NotPayinExtra]

Always be careful though. If you touch my things thinking they have been there for hours, but in reality I just stepped away to use the bathroom....I will do time for you. LOL. No really. 

[Traveling Mike]

I do not know if I can say this and not make you upset.  

Chair Hog

1. Someone that sends one person early in the morning to reserve 10 chairs next to the pool.
2. Someone that sends one of their kids to the show 40 minutes early to save 15 seats so they can show up at the last minute and get a front row seat.
3. I really seen someone that took towels and a couple of bags to put on a lounge sofa the night before cursing the glaciers.

[Ryan79]

Easy there Scooter. No one thinks a hog is someone who goes to the bathroom!

Seek help. LOL No really

[DoomSlayer]

[Xaa]

7 hours ago, Randon1234 said:

I see this mentioned frequently, can someone explain to me what exactly constitutes a "chair hog"?

I've seen people say they actually remove other peoples belongings from chairs because they "can't see them". How do you even know who to look for? ..if that happened to me or my family members, we'd be fighting. 

It sounds like most of the people complaining are the ones who show up to the pool whenever they want and expect to be able to sit front row. Entitled much? 

Idk maybe I'm just not understanding the whole process, but its a huge ship people find another spot. 

I think the vast majority just want Royal to enforce their own rule about chair hogs.  Very few people touch the items of others and instead ask the staff to do it because people can become violent over what the space they perceive to be theirs.

The vast majority of complaints I see aren't from people walking up whenever they feel like it, it's more from those already up early watching the hogs begin their hogging ritual.

 

[teddy]

My wife and I are very early risers.  We like to get coffee and go sit in the Solarium to watch the sun rise.  We will sit there for a few hours in the early mornings, reading, relaxing, and chatting with each other.  
 

When we were on Anthem at the beginning of February, we watched people get there early (5-530 am), put towels on loungers that were in “prime” spots (by the windows), then leave.  We wouldn’t see them again, even after 3+ hours.   
 

That is the behavior of “chair hogs”.  

[bobroo]

Here is how I like to add some spice to a lazy sea day:

 

Go down to the pool and take a random chair hog’s towel clips, crappy book, and grimy flip flops and switch it with another random chair hog on the opposite side of the pool. Leaving the towels cause they are all the same. I’ve found you just need to shuffle an arbitrary 5-6 of them and it takes less than two minutes to do. Oh! You see an odd number of reserved chairs like three? Make sure you do it to the one in the middle!

Then I like to grab a big cappuccino and go up to the Viking Crown. The Viking Crown offers the perfect vantage point for watching the unsuspecting chair hogs as I giggle like a school girl.

[twangster]

35 minutes ago, bobroo said:

Here is how I like to add some spice to a lazy sea day:

 

Go down to the pool and take a random chair hog’s towel clips, crappy book, and grimy flip flops and switch it with another random chair hog on the opposite side of the pool. Leaving the towels cause they are all the same. I’ve found you just need to shuffle an arbitrary 5-6 of them and it takes less than two minutes to do. Oh! You see an odd number of reserved chairs like three? Make sure you do it to the one in the middle!

Then I like to grab a big cappuccino and go up to the Viking Crown. The Viking Crown offers the perfect vantage point for watching the unsuspecting chair hogs as I giggle like a school girl.

I prefer the towel methodology.  

I think of it like Celebrity where the cruise line puts fresh towels on loungers for you and they are open for any guest to use or take.  

By taking the ship towel and watching it's interesting to see how long it takes them to realize they are on the hook for that towel.  7/10 then grab a towel on another lounger  and the game of observing human nature becomes extended with the next chair hog going through the same mental calculations when they find "their" towel missing too!

[SPS]

9 hours ago, Traveling Mike said:

I really seen someone that took towels and a couple of bags to put on a lounge sofa the night before cursing the glaciers.

Cursing the glaciers? LOL

[tjcruisers]

4 hours ago, teddy said:

My wife and I are very early risers.  We like to get coffee and go sit in the Solarium to watch the sun rise.  We will sit there for a few hours in the early mornings, reading, relaxing, and chatting with each other.  
 

When we were on Anthem at the beginning of February, we watched people get there early (5-530 am), put towels on loungers that were in “prime” spots (by the windows), then leave.  We wouldn’t see them again, even after 3+ hours.   
 

That is the behavior of “chair hogs”.  

I'm also an early riser. Usually will go walk the track in the morning. Always see numerous people show up while I'm walking, drop stuff off an leave then never see them for hours. After a few days you see the same people every morning doing it. A few times after they've left I've slightly moved their belongings (i.e. if they leave a book, move it to a 45 degree angle touching the left side 3 straps down), something that wouldn't do if they show up and leave again, but something I'd recognize. In the times I've done it and randomly walking by the seat in all cases they never showed up until after lunch

 

[Pooch]

Ok am I a chair hog?  Grab 2 chairs in the solarium as I get my morning coffee about 7:30.  Back to the room to collect hubby & grab a quick breakfast & back to the chairs for the day by 8:30.  We stay til about 4:30 maybe leaving the chairs for 20-30 minutes a couple of times.  I don’t grab front row, prime seats.  

[Xaa]

16 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Ok am I a chair hog?  Grab 2 chairs in the solarium as I get my morning coffee about 7:30.  Back to the room to collect hubby & grab a quick breakfast & back to the chairs for the day by 8:30.  We stay til about 4:30 maybe leaving the chairs for 20-30 minutes a couple of times.  I don’t grab front row, prime seats.  

I would say not a very egregious offender, but I think probably yes.  Because you're placing your towels before the time when you intend to begin your Solarium visit for the purpose to prevent the seats from being taken by a person who would be (unless they were also a Chair Hog) starting their visit.  The answer is yes.

I think the acceptance of chair hogs by Royal put you in a difficult position.  If you don't hog that chair, someone behind you will hog it.  You will have no chair and the hogs will have chairs.

If those in authority pass by something below standard and do nothing, this is then the new standard.  Sadly the standard is hog a chair to get a chair.

[NotPayinExtra]

24 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Ok am I a chair hog?  Grab 2 chairs in the solarium as I get my morning coffee about 7:30.  Back to the room to collect hubby & grab a quick breakfast & back to the chairs for the day by 8:30.  We stay til about 4:30 maybe leaving the chairs for 20-30 minutes a couple of times.  I don’t grab front row, prime seats.  

Not in my book your not. That's me. A quick breakfast and I'm at my seat/pool till 4pm. Some of us really do spend the day at the pool.

OK, I'll add I've been debating chair first or breakfast first, to not break the 30 or 45 min rule. Not sure how that will go.

[NotPayinExtra]

And I will add lunch becomes an issue. If they served burgers poolside, I wouldn't be away for more then 5 min tops.

Also, please remember us over 50 do go to the restrooms often. That doesn't mean we have abandoned our spot. LOL.

[Bowen]

None of this stuff bothers me, get up and hog a chair, don’t hog a chair, kudos to the people making it out of bed early enough to even mess with laying their things out on a chair. There are so many chairs, just tons and tons, and I’m on a cruise so it’s all good. 

[fireclan]

29 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Ok am I a chair hog?  Grab 2 chairs in the solarium as I get my morning coffee about 7:30.  Back to the room to collect hubby & grab a quick breakfast & back to the chairs for the day by 8:30.  We stay til about 4:30 maybe leaving the chairs for 20-30 minutes a couple of times.  I don’t grab front row, prime seats.  

Since you asked, yes, I think you are chair hogging. 

[Bowen]

17 minutes ago, NotPayinExtra said:

And I will add lunch becomes an issue. If they served burgers poolside, I wouldn't be away for more then 5 min tops.

Also, please remember us over 50 do go to the restrooms often. That doesn't mean we have abandoned our spot. LOL.

Oh you know you’ve had people talking about you behind your back, lol. 

[fireclan]

14 minutes ago, Bowen said:

None of this stuff bothers me, get up and hog a chair, don’t hog a chair, kudos to the people making it out of bed early enough to even mess with laying their things out on a chair. There are so many chairs, just tons and tons, and I’m on a cruise so it’s all good. 

I totally agree...it doesn't bother me either. I generally get a lounger on the level above the pool. And if I can't find a seat in the Solarium I move on to someplace else.  I've  never "saved" a seat in 20 years of cruising. But I do find these chair hog threads entertaining...

[NotPayinExtra]

14 minutes ago, fireclan said:

Since you asked, yes, I think you are chair hogging. 

Is it the chair first then breakfast thing? I can't decide which I will/should do first. Don't want to be a hog, but you also kinda gotta play the game that's going on.

[Bowen]

18 minutes ago, fireclan said:

I totally agree...it doesn't bother me either. I generally get a lounger on the level above the pool. And if I can't find a seat in the Solarium I move on to someplace else.  I've  never "saved" a seat in 20 years of cruising. But I do find these chair hog threads entertaining...

I can’t imagine leaving my stuff on a chair, it would drive me nuts. I won’t even leave my stuff on a table in the WJ. 

[Bowen]

18 minutes ago, NotPayinExtra said:

Is it the chair first then breakfast thing? I can't decide which I will/should do first. Don't want to be a hog, but you also kinda gotta play the game that's going on.

I think if you really want a great chair then you should probably lay your things on it before breakfast.

[teddy]

You can have your pick of chairs between 4 and 430 am. 
 

Coffee is hit or miss that early though 

[Bowen]

34 minutes ago, teddy said:

You can have your pick of chairs between 4 and 430 am. 
 

Coffee is hit or miss that early though 

Seriously, I have been wanting to know. What’s the earliest you can get food? Is it just the downtime between Sorrentos closing and WJ opening? What time does the WJ open?

[Xaa]

Depends on the day, but like 7AM.  For late sleepers!

[need2cruz]

20 minutes ago, Bowen said:

Seriously, I have been wanting to know. What’s the earliest you can get food? Is it just the downtime between Sorrentos closing and WJ opening? What time does the WJ open?

It depends on the ship.  I'm an early riser.  Cafe promenade was open 24 hours on Wonder, but you technically couldn't get a doughnut, fruit, or croissant until 6am.  Only sell serve coffee before that.  Sometimes the crew would let you have something a little earlier.  But Windjammer opened anywhere from 5:30am the last day to 7am on sea days.  Port days was usually 6:30am.

[Pooch]

Guess I will start telling hubby to meet me in the solarium and bring me breakfast!!!

[need2cruz]

18 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Guess I will start telling hubby to meet me in the solarium and bring me breakfast!!!

That is probably best.  I'm not sure about all the ships, but I was on Wonder last month.  On the big screen TV at the main pool a "friendly reminder" aired about every 10 minutes to not be a chair hog.  It said any unattended items left on chairs would be removed by staff and could be picked up at the towel station.  It was being enforced.  Crew were putting those cards down (like the one shown above from 
Celebrity) and were removing people's belongings.

[NotPayinExtra]

Has anyone had any luck at 8am saying to crew "hey all those chairs are empty, can you remove some stuff for me"?

[Pattycruise]

1 hour ago, NotPayinExtra said:

Has anyone had any luck at 8am saying to crew "hey all those chairs are empty, can you remove some stuff for me"?

Crew typically needs to observe it.

 

[Pattycruise]

Sailed on Anthem and found a chair in the solarium, next to 2 chairs that had towels.  About 4 hours in a couple asked me if anyone had been sitting there, to which j replied no.  The couple sat, not 30 minutes later along came the chair hogs, and they bitched they had reserved those seats at 6am so they’d have them when they got back from their excursion.  So those towels were there over 6 hours.

Feel free to defend the removal of their items and then the removal of the couple looking for seating.

[NotPayinExtra]

53 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

Sailed on Anthem and found a chair in the solarium, next to 2 chairs that had towels.  About 4 hours in a couple asked me if anyone had been sitting there, to which j replied no.  The couple sat, not 30 minutes later along came the chair hogs, and they bitched they had reserved those seats at 6am so they’d have them when they got back from their excursion.  So those towels were there over 6 hours.

Feel free to defend the removal of their items and then the removal of the couple looking for seating.

See that stinks. If I was gone 30 minutes out of entire day to grab a burger at lunch, I would feel bad. But 4, 5, 6 hours really stinks.

Also, where were the crew that's supposed to monitor and remove stuff. 

[Pattycruise]

31 minutes ago, NotPayinExtra said:

See that stinks. If I was gone 30 minutes out of entire day to grab a burger at lunch, I would feel bad. But 4, 5, 6 hours really stinks.

Also, where were the crew that's supposed to monitor and remove stuff. 

The crew are hesitant to do that.  They also weren’t issuing notices, this was before they were fully back to capacity.if people pointed it out to crew they would do something but the statement needed to be along the lines “I’ve been sitting here 2 hours and no one has been here.”

lots of people don’t care to speak up, nor should they feel the need to.  If someone asks, I’ll tell them truthfully.

I recall a cruise where I was so pissed to see every sest covered in towels with no empty chairs I folded down 6 chairs in a row, decided I’d take one if it was still like that an hour later, lo and behold 20 minutes later the family showed up.  I’m glad I didn’t take it upon myself to just take a chair!

[Randon1234]

9 hours ago, Bowen said:

None of this stuff bothers me, get up and hog a chair, don’t hog a chair, kudos to the people making it out of bed early enough to even mess with laying their things out on a chair. There are so many chairs, just tons and tons, and I’m on a cruise so it’s all good. 

Preach! This is honestly how I feel, which is why I don't understand all the fuss. 

[SuperPlanner]

10 hours ago, Bowen said:

I think if you really want a great chair then you should probably lay your things on it before breakfast.

And that's why there are never chairs for other people when they want. If people only used the chairs when they needed them, there wouldn't be an issue. Many people say sit anywhere else but I have kids who need at least some visual supervision by the pool. Going to another deck is not an option.

[CruiseGus]

8 hours ago, Bowen said:

Seriously, I have been wanting to know. What’s the earliest you can get food? Is it just the downtime between Sorrentos closing and WJ opening? What time does the WJ open?

Definitely not early enough as far as I'm  concerned,  but the I can't remember when if seen 10 pm either

[Ampurp85]

I think the only true definition of a chair hog is anyone who doesn't utilize saved seats within an hour.

I am okay with people who get up early to stake out chairs or who will hold seats for their party in the theater as long as there is a time frame. The early bird gets the worm..........Getting up at 7am to put towels on a chair you won't use until after 2pm is a*hole behavior. Putting a towel on a chair and getting coffee or breakfast, is okay because you would be coming back. Holding seats in the theater while some folks get snacks or drinks, is okay because people plan to sit in the seats.......I mean I would want to sit next to the people I am cruising with. But clocking something for hours, that you aren't even using is being a hog. 

[HeWhoWaits]

9 hours ago, teddy said:

You can have your pick of chairs between 4 and 430 am. 
 

Coffee is hit or miss that early though 

Be careful, though. They might still be cleaning the decks at that time and your stuff could get quite wet!

[HeWhoWaits]

8 hours ago, Pooch said:

Guess I will start telling hubby to meet me in the solarium and bring me breakfast!!!

It's the least he could do since you let him sleep in.