pool problems!. ever happen to you?

[WMILLER86]

The only way to handle chair savers is to just put their stuff the ground and play innocent. Then stay in your chair.

My stock answer is "It was only "saved" if your butt was in it!"

Or "How can that chair be "saved"? Does it have a soul?!"

I must confess that I have both taken saved chairs, and had my "saved" chair taken when I stayed away too long! Both cases are too bad, so sad!

 

[daipp]

I regulary take chairs and I'll stand my ground over it - the bullies will always back off!

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

Originally posted by daipp
I regulary take chairs and I'll stand my ground over it - the bullies will always back off!

There are always 2 sides to this but in this case this was wrong. OTOH I have had my stuff moved at Blizzard beach while I was in the pool with my almost 3 year old. We had our dry stuff all over the ground when we got out of the pool. So some really "nice" person wanted our chair and took it. Not just put their behinds in it but moved it. We came back to our stuff on the groung all wet from a pig who stole our chair. And trust me with an almost 3 year old we could not have been in the water for more than 20 minutes. Little did I know I needed to watch my stuff from the water since we were in the pool! Sickening IMO. Plus of course I was even trying to be nice and put all of our stuff on one chair. It wasn't even like we tried to save 3 chairs just one for our family.

 

[NAT&MAGSMOM]

If this problem ever arises again....for anyone.....

Ask to have the Chief of Security report to the Mickey Pool or Deck 10 or wherever the altercation is taking place. And if that didn't work...then I'd ask to see the Captain!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is in charge!!!!

I work for our local fire department...and if the "underlings" don't satisfy the public...then they ask to see or speak to the Fire Chief...because he is in charge of the whole department..just like the Captain is in charge of the whole ship!!!! Go right to the top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IMHO....Saving 30 chairs is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of..

Phyllis

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

We had a similar problem on the Magic last fall. It was fall break and a sold out sailing. My MIL, my Mom, my Dad and my 2 sisters and myself were at the Mickey pool with my 2 boys. We had a group of 8 but took only 2 chairs since we could share and we were taking turns in the pool with the boys. My MIL stayed in her chair all day and was reading and such.

Well both of my sisters got in the pool to watch my sons so I could use the restroom and my MIL was still reading in her chair. I went to the restroom. While I was in the restroom my MIL got up for a few minutes to go get an ice water from the drink station. In the few minutes it took to do this she came right back to our 2 chairs and a "couple" had dumped our things (3 tote bags, towels, toys, sunblock, hats, MIL reading glasses and a open book) off our 2 chairs.

I came back from the restroom right after it happened and saw my MIL just standing there in shock. I asked her what was wrong and she told me and I saw our things in a pile. I told the couple in a very nice way there were 8 of us using the 2 chairs and I had run to the bathroom and my MIL was getting water from the drink station. I asked why they had taken our chairs and dumped our things off?

Anyway it got ugly and this "man" yelled at us and it was really awful...............he really made a fool out of himself but it really embarrassed us since we had done nothing wrong. I personally dislike "chair savers" and we had not done that. In fact we had been sharing our 2 chairs with 2 of us in a chair talking, eating etc.

My Dad came over but the guy was already yelling at me and I wished my DH was cruising with us because I felt scared which sounds silly but come on the "man" and his wife had thrown our things off the chair after being gone less than 5 minutes. In our case there were a few other people around who took up for us and told this couple to chill out or they would call for security (which I had not thought of).

Anyway the rest of the cruise this "man" did everything he could everytime he saw us to say something very loud and rude and so did his children. I guess it is how they behave at home but is was a little scary.

My 2 year old had come out of the pool with one of my sisters and was crying because he did not know why that "man" was yelling at us..............I did not yell back but I was adamant that what they had done was rude and just wrong.

I could have let it go and let them have the chairs but we had done nothing wrong.

I am sorry this happened to you. I think 2 chairs is too much but 30 is just silly that is one whole side of the pool.

B&W Mom

 

[inkkognito]

I would most definitely have gotten security involved. There is no reason to feel threatened on your vacation, and I can't imagine any possible way those people could have justified their actions.
We don't lay out in the sun so I have never experienced chair rage, but I had a similar issue in the Walt Disney Theater a couple of cruises ago. I was one of the first people in, and I went down to the front row. A couple of people were already seated, and a teenager was standing there. As I sat, he said, "These seats are saved," indicating the entire rest of the row. I said, "You can't save an entire row," and he said, "I'm not" (meaning he wasn't saving the two seats that were already occupied. I sat down and said, "Read the Navigator. It's against policy to save ANY seats. I wouldn't mind if you were saving a couple, but that's ridiculous. If you have a problem with it, go complain to a crew member." He huffed off, and that's the last I saw of him, but I would not have hesitated to summon security (and I'm the kind who would yell for them and make a scene if necessary) if he hadn't backed down.
After I sat down, a woman and her granddaughter sat next to me. The woman said he had told her granddaughter the same thing, and being a kid, she didn't challenge him. I wnder how many people fall for that nonsense.
Barb

 

[3DisneyNUTS]

B&W mom that is just as horrible, violence should not be tolerated at all, that man should not have been permitted to yell at you like that. Plus the point is that the chairs are in use not being saved that is the disgusting part of it. I would never take someone's things off a chair and never will. I know when I go on the cruise for the first time this NOV I will probably encounter this annoying chair saving but IMO if there is just a pool towel on the chair then that should not be allowed. Personal belongings are completely different!

I am telling you for the $$ DCL cost I will not stand for any kind of this crud when we are cruising. I will go out of my way to make sure someone treating me that way infront of children no less, will be dealt with. Management on the DCL should not allow other cruisers to threaten another. That is just sick!

 

[ThreeCircles]

Originally posted by daipp
I regulary take chairs and I'll stand my ground over it - the bullies will always back off!

Good for you Daipp!

We've never had problems at the pools (as we don't really "lay" out by them) but we have had many problems in the Walt Disney Theater during the shows. People attempting to save a whole row of seats. Yeah, right. I always remind them that the Personal Navigators state no saving of chairs at the pools or in the theater. It always helps to whip out a copy so they can see it with their BIG, FAT eyes if needed!

In my opinion, you're either using a chair or you're using the pool. Last time I checked, no one could do both at the same time. If you get in the pool for 15 or 20 minutes, and your stuff is moved, here's an idea, find a new chair! You wern't using it anymore! You were in the pool!

 

[HappyMommy2]

Oh dear--first time cruiser here, and now I am worried about our stuff getting thrown on the ground! There will be 4 of us but I was hoping we could keep one chair the whole time we are at the pool, even if we are all in the pool together for a little while. If we shouldn't save a chair for even 20 minutes, where should we put our stuff while we are in the pool together?

Does DCL have cubbyholes or some other dry place by the pool where we can place our sunscreen, towels, etc. before we get in the pool so they won't get put on the ground?

BTW, to the OP, what a horrible experience you had...I am so sorry! Seems like people jump so quickly to rage these days

 

[inkkognito]

I don't think you have to worry about leaving items for 20 minutes, especially if you are in the area. The people who get their items "dumped" are the ones who plop them there in the early morning and don't show up for an hour or more. Personally, I figure that someone will generally be around an occupied chair to show some signs of life and ownership within 30 minutes...maybe not to sit in it, but to get some sun lotion or whatever. And you're only talking one chair...the "hogs" are people who leave one shoe per chair on half a dozen chairs.
Personally, I'd love to see cubbies, as hubby and I are not "lay out in the sun" kind of people. We put all our stuff on one chair while in the pool if the area is not crowded. If it is, we put our stuff on a handy ledge. If they had cubbies, that's what we'd always use.
Barb

 

[natdencro]

We are early birds and were always up and walking around the ship approx 6.30am. Every day there were at least 20 towels ALREADY PARKED on chairs when we went to get a drink from Deck 9 coffee station. Guess these selfish folks set their alarm, deposit towels and head back to bed? How mean can you get.Nat

 

[crisi]

You might want to bring a beach bag. One of those nice plastic ones will hold your book and other stuff you don't want to get wet. Then you can find a corner to stick it in if you aren't going to use a chair (or set it on a chair, but now you aren't worried as much about wet if someone moves your stuff for the chair). DCL provides towels, so we just grab those getting OUT of the pool.

I do wish they had cubbies. We would put the whole family's stuff on one chair and never had a problem (never used the chair for anything but stuff storage when we were in the pool). I also wish Disney (on the ship and at the resorts) would enforce a "parking limit" of half an hour - tend your stuff every half an hour or Disney moves it to "lost and found."

One of the other things you might want to know is that you can't really watch the pool from any of the deck chairs. The anxious parents don't sit in chairs, they sit on the edge of the pool. The Mickey pool has the slide blocking half of it from the view of the chairs and tables, and the ten chairs in the first row where you might be able to see your kids from are too far away. The Goofy pool has a raised wall and is fairly deep, if you want to see your kids, you need to be standing or sitting near the edge. We had good luck with the Goofy pool on port days and early in the morning - apparently it can get quite crowded - its smaller than the average home in-ground pool. I wouldn't feel comfortable having my kids in there unless it was empty and I was in there (which we did) or unless they were tall enough to stand easily (mine weren't) and fairly strong swimmers. As the ship moves, the Goofy pool becomes a small wave pool - with some big waves.

And if you don't care about seeing your kids, there are plenty of chairs all over the ship in less "prime" locations.

 

[invaderzim]

Originally posted by inkkognito
I don't think you have to worry about leaving items for 20 minutes, especially if you are in the area. The people who get their items "dumped" are the ones who plop them there in the early morning and don't show up for an hour or more. Barb

Actually, according to a poster on a similar thread, that is not true. Their feeling was, and I quote, "I'll watch a chair for 5 minutes or so to be sure that it is really "saved," not that someone has just run to the bathroom. Then move their stuff to the nearby ground and sit. The chairs say "No Saving" on them, and the Navigator clearly states the policy. My feeling is that anything past 5-10 minutes is "saving."

My response to him was how unfair that is. Where are people in the pool expected to put their stuff? My feeling is that if there are just towels or a shoe on the chair, then it is saving. However, if there are personal items, then obviously those people are in that area and will be coming back.

What I find disheartening among all these threads about "chair saving" is that because so many have abused it, and gotten away with it, that the general consensus now is that unless you are physically sitting in the chair, you are not allowed to have one! Not even if you are a family of three and only took one chair for all your stuff.

So I guess now we have to look forward to finding our stuff on the wet ground if we are all in the pool together.

Does anyone know if this also happens at the adult pool?

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

Originally posted by invaderzim
Does anyone know if this also happens at the adult pool?

We didn't have any trouble with this at the adult pool on our cruise last week. Of course, we were only on the 3 day, so maybe it was because we didn't have a day at sea. But on Nassau day, my husband, oldest daughter and I hung around at the adult pool from about noon time until around 4 and there always seemed to be available chairs.

 

[christinou]

I feel really awful for the bad experiences some people have had, but to reassure people who have never cruised, we have been on 2 cruises so far, both sold out, and have never experience any of this.......

 

[disneyokw]

Which cruise did you take? We were on the Wonder on the 4 day cruise on May 16th. Meet a group of 55 people who were there celebrating someone's 50th wedding anniversary. I was wondering if it was a member from this group. We met several members of this group and there were great.

On Castaway Cay while my mother played in the water I was stuck watching the hammock on the adult beach. My mother wanted the hammock because my father could never get to one in time. Anyway I had to keep running up from the water to stop people from throwing our things on the floor. I even had the water bottle strappes interweaved into the hammock and woven my shirt and tied my shoes into the hammock. They even tried to untie them. It gave me enough time to run up to them and ask them what did they think they were doing.

 

[invaderzim]

I'm just wondering -- and maybe some other cruisers can verify this for me with their experiences -- but does this seem to happen more on the Wonder than the Magic?

Most of the threads I have read lately about chair savers and spa hogs, etc., seem to be from people who are on the Wonder. Is there less of this nonsense on the Magic? Maybe because it's a 7-day cruise and more time for recreation?

Just curious....

 

[UMTerp]

Nope, happens on the Magic too. Spring break trip this year saw one shoe on one chair, another on another. One bottle of suntan lotion on a chair, a book on one chair. All of the chairs in the first rows were taken by stuff before 9AM. No one showed up for at least an hour. One family of four (one in a stroller) reserved 4 chairs that way. Only saw them use one for anything other than stuff - guess the guy didn't need those shoes - for more than 4 hours while my DD was in the pool. Most of the chairs went unused for most of that time. I asked a CM about moving some things when I got there. He moved a chair down from deck 10 for me instead. That was OK for me but what about everyone else?

 

[samoyed]

I was on the May 16th cruise.

 

[inkkognito]

Wow, I've had a hammock on the adult beach multiple times, and I've never had anyone try to remove our items!! I am usually close at hand in the water anyway, so they wouldn't get too far.
I did have someone ask to share our hammock once...actually, she asked if we were leaving (it had drizzled, so we were consolidating our stuff into our bags), and I told her no but offered to share. If someone asked, I have no problem with that, but don't touch my stuff! I don't see hammocks in the same light as pool chairs...people accept that you claim a beach chair for the day, since you are nowhere near your stateroom, and I think the hammocks should go to those who wake up early. JMHO...often we don't even bother with a hammock when we're going to be having an active day, and if I wanted once late, I would head to the four by Heads Up Bar that are almost never used.
Barb