Do you remove the towel?

[noopy]

There are a few great ideas here! I really like the free lockers or cubbies. I also do what ducklite does - I leave other belongings like a magazine, suntan lotion, etc., which lets people know there really is a person using the chair. A white pool towel alone is confusing, especially when it sits there for a long time alone! How hard would it be to post a sign about "polite" use of chairs, tables, and loungers? I know some people wouldn't care, but if posted among the chairs where all can see, it may deter a few rude guests. During my stay at the CR this spring, I was able to get a chair on 2 days out of a 5 day visit!

So how do these good ideas get to the people who need to hear them, especially at the CR? I'd love to share my thoughts with them!



Our little family

 

[sotoalf]

I've read recent reports that the CR pool area doesn't have enough chairs. Do you mean SHADED chairs/tables or chairs/tables period?

 

[tiggersmom2]

Originally posted by sotoalf
I've read recent reports that the CR pool area doesn't have enough chairs. Do you mean SHADED chairs/tables or chairs/tables period?

When I was at the CR 5/28 - 6/04 we went to the pool everyday (sometimes several times a day). It was VERY hard to find ANY seating during the day except by the quiet pool. By the main pool there was very limited seating. We were NEVER lucky enough to get a lounger in the shade , and tables, forget it, they were always taken. I really believe that the CR needs to add more seating for the pools


BTW - the quiet round pool turned out to be our favorite pool anyway

 

[MELSMICE]

Originally posted by sotoalf
I've read recent reports that the CR pool area doesn't have enough chairs. Do you mean SHADED chairs/tables or chairs/tables period?

I think all of the above. There never seemed to be enough of any of these at the CR, however, there seems to be a lot of room to put more.

We are a family that prefers having a table & chairs - we maybe take 1 or 2 loungers so we can "lay out", but it's not a "necessity".

The Contemporary definitely needs more seating area & I'm sure there are other resorts that could use more too.

I love SAB at the BC/YC, however, the tables/chairs/loungers are so close together I feel as though I could read the persons book that I'm lounging next to.

 

[KathyTX]

Hmmm... Maybe the chairs should have "parking meters" attached, and the savers/users should have to feed quarters in hourly to keep them reserved!

J/K, of course, but this is really getting to be a problem for lots of people at the resort pools and on the cruise ships.

If only folks would use the chairs during the time they are at the pool, and let the chairs be available to others when they're away... If someone is using the pool for 3 hours in a day, but tying up a chair for 10 hours that day by *saving* it while they go to eat or play or whatever it is they're doing, you've got some serious inconsideration for others going on...

 

[JESW]

Yes, I remove white resort towels if it looks like no-one is in the area. I also don't understand why kids neeed to save chairs when they are never in them. We are a family of 4 (2 kids, DH & I) and when we are at the pool we have ONE chair for the 4 of us and our stuff. DH is the one who usually sits in it while I take the kids swimming. I really like the idea of cubbies for storage - I don't think a lot of people think they are making it difficult for others when they put their towels on chairs and then take off. I also think Disney should be better about removing towels - and I have seen that the last couple of trips.

And yes, I would also report pool-hoppers if I over-heard them bragging about it.

Jill

 

[sugermouse]

Come on people, this is about using common sense. How many times have you been to an event like a graduation or a school play and people are saving seats for others? It is a very common practice. The reality is that the majority of people have at least one person stay to "watch over" the seats and hopefully avoid a nasty confrontation as has been mentioned. But to merely put your stuff down and have the whole family walk away for an extended period of time is just disrespectful and in some instances dishonest, when sometimes the intent is not to return for a long time. If you have small children that you can not leave, then leave a note noting the time and when you wiii return.
This is a delicate subject and if people are being honest then they should be willing to take extra measures, not just dump stuff and run.
You would really hope that at DW, people would go out of their way to be more respectful. The good news is that most people do, we are talking about a small minority. Me, I would remove the towels after a sufficient period of time. No people, no note equals no chair.

 

[karemore]

It was written somewhere at the GF that you couldn't reserve seats at the pools.

I'm not sure if it was in the literature in the room or posted at the pool.....


There is no reason your seats should be saved for you if you chose to go and eat.


I like the idea of a family sharing one chair.

It's like anywhere you go, some people feel they are entitled to everything and others will go out of their way to make sure everyone has a chance.

Karen

 

[momxx5]

I'd room the towel, use the chair and then if and when someone came back I'd say the chair was empty.

 

[Hollymom1229]

DH and I go in off-season when the chairs are rarely filled and we still only use one chair for our stuff. It would be even better if they had cubbies, because we wouldn't need to even claim a chair then.

And yes, some people will always be rude and think that their wants take priority over everyone else's.

 

[tjmw2727]

If I see an empty chair with only a resort towel I will ask the "neighbors" if they have seen anyone. If they haven't seen anyone around in a while and there are no personal items - only the towel, I will return it to the towel drop and take the chair.

I travel with my two dd's and we just take one chair for the 3 of us, its plenty. We do have to leave occasionally as I don't feel comfortable sending them to the ladies room alone, or to get a cold drink or snack at the pool bar. (Or to get my margherita!). This would be for only a short time and to enjoy at the pool. If I were to go for lunch I would bring my things and give up the chair.

TJ

 

[Tinkerbelle'sMOM]

When we were at Typhoon Lagoon last week, we saw some guy charge down from one of the decks in front of one of the food places and literally snatch a chair right out from under someone that was sitting down! He said...hey, that's my chair. The lady politley said...well, there is nothing on these chairs...and he said...well, it doen't matter, can't you tell it is my chair? What an idiot!

 

[jennymouse]

We were at BCV last week and didn't see this problem as much as I thought we would. We had one SAB day scheduled and arrived around 11am after breakfast. One table we almost sat at had a families last name written on a piece of paper and taped to the table. There were plenty of other tables so we didn't need to sit there. It was well after lunch before that family came to sit at the table, I watched for them.

We took a break from our table to eat a Kitchen Sink for lunch and left all our belongings there. I went and put our name on the list and brought the pager back to our table which was right in front of Beaches & Cream. When the pager went off went got up and went in. We were only gone 40 minutes and I don't think that was rude. As big as SAB is, I know we were in the pool for periods as long as that sometimes.

 

[Sammie]

I remove them. I agree with the others that if you have not been in the chair enough for your neighbors to know you are "using" it and not just "saving" it then it's fair game.

Also if you are going to spend most of your time in the pool or the surrounding area, you don't need a chair to park your belongings for everyone in your group. One chair will do for everyone.

Unless I am going to sit and sun and read I never take a lounge chair and just place my things on a small upright chair to the side and not one at a table.

But with most things that end up being argued over here, good manners are the rule most needed. Consideration of others over self would take care of all of it.

I really see no difference in "saving" a pool chair for later use than "saving" a bench at the MK for the prime fireworks spot. Believe me if you ain't sitting on it, it ain't going to be yours.

 

[noopy]

There were plenty of other tables so we didn't need to sit there.

I don't think people would find it inconsiderate to hold your chairs if you are in a situation like jennymouse described where there are plenty of tables available. And I think it's common sense that people should be able to hold a chair or a table for hours if they are swimming in the pool, or just gone to the restroom or to get food or drinks to bring back. But, if there are few seats available, especially when there aren't many to begin with like at the CR, it is truly inconsiderate, and even greedy, to save them while you go to a restaurant and eat there. If you're going to leave to go somewhere else, then do just that...leave! Why can't you find another seat when you come back, especially if it isn't crowded? I'm sorry, but while you're enjoying your lunch, my 89 year old grandmother has to return to our room. She could have sat for at least 40 minutes watching her great grand-daughter in the pool, but instead, several chairs sat empty during that entire time so you could go enjoy yourself elsewhere and get your chairs back when you felt like returning.

This situation reminds me of my 5th graders who always ask if they can get their place back when they leave the line, and then whine about how unfair it is when they have to go to the back!

If you save a chair or table to go somewhere else to eat, play, etc., then you must be worried that you won't have a place to sit when you return to actually use the pool area. Well, think about the many people who can't find a place to sit while they ARE there using the pool, and you are one of the reasons they can't. As I tell my 5th grade children, if the human brain could be "redesigned" to always make us put ourselves in another person's place before we act, I would never have to teach the pillars of respect, caring, and fairness again. I could also take down the "Character Counts" posters with the cute but corny pictures that they don't like!

 

[MELSMICE]

Originally posted by jennymouse
One table we almost sat at had a families last name written on a piece of paper and taped to the table.

Wow - I have never seen this. IMO that is rude & arrogant for a family to leave their name on the table. JMO!

Also, I am sure you're not the only one that has gone to enjoy a Kitchen Sink.

The thing is, I think there are many times when a family has their "spot". They then go to enjoy the pool for a while or to go get a sandwich & bring it back, which can take a while. I know that I would not remove everything from a chair because I was swimming or getting something to eat & then try to look for another one when I was done.

noopy, What do you do with all your things while you are swimming if you you take them off your chair? I mean we take a 12-pack soft sided cooler, my beach bag, the 5 of us have books, we all have beach cover ups, our sandals. I'm certainly not going to move them if we're all swimming.

I would not "stake my claim" for a table in the morning & then go to a park or something, but I wouldn't remove everything because I'm swimming or getting something to eat. JMO!

 

[auntpolly]

Originally posted by MELSMICE

I would not "stake my claim" for a table in the morning & then go to a park or something, but I wouldn't remove everything because I'm swimming or getting something to eat. JMO!

Really, that's it in a nutshell. It's not like I never leave my chair; I go to the room for another magazine -- I get myself another Greyhound -- I cool off in the pool....like someone else said, it's just common sense. I don't think any of us need to feel guilty about taking a towel off a chair that hasn't seen a body for an hour. But I think we can reasonably expect to leave our chair with our book and sunglasses on it for 10 minutes and not offend anyone. (Don't leave your chips -- the birds will eat them!)

Oh, and I'm mean, but I'd be taking that family's name off that table and sitting right down! (Oops! Must have blown away!)

 

[Tarheel Tink]

A short vent! While in the WL pool my DH and I left our mugs,shoes and towels on our chairs in the back row. After being forced to leave the pool due to children kicking water in our faces repeatedly (sure their parents were watching, right) we found our chairs were occupied despite only about 1/2 of all the chairs being used. The people in the chairs had put our mugs on the ground where ants were now crawling in them. I just looked at the people and shook my head in wonder but they refused to look us in the eyes.
We love the WL but never have luck in the hot tub or pools mainly due to unsupervised children (cannonball dives in the hot tub, YIKES!).
In answer to the OP question, yes, I would move a towel if no chairs were available and no one was to be seen for a period of time.

 

[MELSMICE]

Originally posted by Tarheel Tink
we found our chairs were occupied despite only about 1/2 of all the chairs being used. The people in the chairs had put our mugs on the ground where ants were now crawling in them. I just looked at the people and shook my head in wonder but they refused to look us in the eyes.

Now, that is nervy! A towel I would remove, someone's mugs though - those chairs were definitely being used!

 

[jennymouse]

Originally posted by noopy
I don't think people would find it inconsiderate to hold your chairs if you are in a situation like jennymouse described where there are plenty of tables available. And I think it's common sense that people should be able to hold a chair or a table for hours if they are swimming in the pool, or just gone to the restroom or to get food or drinks to bring back. But, if there are few seats available, especially when there aren't many to begin with like at the CR, it is truly inconsiderate, and even greedy, to save them while you go to a restaurant and eat there. If you're going to leave to go somewhere else, then do just that...leave! Why can't you find another seat when you come back, especially if it isn't crowded? I'm sorry, but while you're enjoying your lunch, my 89 year old grandmother has to return to our room. She could have sat for at least 40 minutes watching her great grand-daughter in the pool, but instead, several chairs sat empty during that entire time so you could go enjoy yourself elsewhere and get your chairs back when you felt like returning.

This situation reminds me of my 5th graders who always ask if they can get their place back when they leave the line, and then whine about how unfair it is when they have to go to the back!

If you save a chair or table to go somewhere else to eat, play, etc., then you must be worried that you won't have a place to sit when you return to actually use the pool area. Well, think about the many people who can't find a place to sit while they ARE there using the pool, and you are one of the reasons they can't. As I tell my 5th grade children, if the human brain could be "redesigned" to always make us put ourselves in another person's place before we act, I would never have to teach the pillars of respect, caring, and fairness again. I could also take down the "Character Counts" posters with the cute but corny pictures that they don't like!

Well for one thing, even though there were 6 of us in our party, we only had a table and two chairs. 4 were little girls who spent the majority of thier time in the pool and didn't need chairs, 2 of us spent the majority of our time at the table. We gave the other two chairs to a family at the table beside us as they needed them.

I don't know about tables/chairs because they're scattered about at SAB and I didn't go around the 3 acre pool to see if any were empty, but I know there were plenty of loungers around us and available when we went 10 feet away to have our Kitchen Sink. And even if there wasn't, I don't think I would've done it differently. We didn't get up early and run down to save the table, we arrived at 11am and took a table that was available and planned to be there and use that table and 2 chairs the entire day. Like I said, it was our scheduled pool day.

It just doesn't seem reasonable to expect us to drag 4 inflated innertubes, 2 life jackets, a cooler, and a beach bag full of stuff into Beaches & Cream with us because we were going to be in there for a few minutes. It's not like we left the stuff to go to a park for a few hours or even to go to our room to take a nap for a couple hours. We went 10 feet away for about 40 minutes, maybe not that long, I'm just guessing the time. We came back to our table and stayed there several more hours.

I think if I wanted my 89 year old grandmother to be able to sit and watch her grandchildren swim I would've been more considerate of her by bringing her to the pool during the morning or evening hours when it wasn't so hot and crowded instead of dragging her to the pool in the heat of the day and expect someone to give up thier chair for her. But that's just me.

By the way, if you'd have been at SAB the day that I was there and I knew your grandmother needed a place to sit, I would've FOUND a chair for her, invited her to join us, and even bought her a drink!