Poolside Etiquette?

[Trekker]

Enough fighting -


Stop it or this thread will be closed!

 

[declansdad]

This is my point, thank you Mr./Mrs. Smith...And YES I would go up to a life guard and ask if I they felt it was Ok to remove towels from a table that had no other belonging. Their answer would probably be "I don't see it being a problem as long as no other items are on the table because people leave towels around all the time"... The guard could (and will talk to you...Ive had conversations with Disney life guards) do this without taking his/her eyes off the pool. Like Mr/Mrs Smith said its not up to US to decide if we can touch other people belonging or not.

Towels from the Poly are not other people's belongings.

 

[jensen]

She had to get her kids something to eat? Did she come back with kids and a tray of food? I might have gotten up had that been the case... but, I'm assuming they all left the pool area, went somewhere to eat and then came back expecting to still have a table - which is completely rediculous! I'm with the OP on this one!!!!

 

[Allison]

I'm with you OP. Resort towels sitting somewhere do not reserve a spot. I certainly would not have moved either. If they were gone 20 minutes during the time you were there, how long were they gone in total? And the table was just supposed to sit there empty? No, I don't think so.

 

[Sammie]

Well I am sure everyone's opinion on this will vary but mine is, you are not there, the table is no longer yours. I see no difference in this and saving a place for the parade. Believe me if you leave items on a bench thinking it is yours for a parade and leave, you lose it.

If you want a table then someone needs to stay with the table. If that is not possible then you get another one when you need it. This saving tables for hours to only use them for 30 mins is ridiculous and the very reason that many can not find a place to sit down and eat.

Using a lounge chair at the pool with your personal items on it, while still at the pool is very different from table use.

 

[Buzz2001]

Well I am sure everyone's opinion on this will vary but mine is, you are not there, the table is no longer yours. I see no difference in this and saving a place for the parade. Believe me if you leave items on a bench thinking it is yours for a parade and leave, you lose it.

If you want a table then someone needs to stay with the table. If that is not possible then you get another one when you need it. This saving tables for hours to only use them for 30 mins is ridiculous and the very reason that many can not find a place to sit down and eat.

Using a lounge chair at the pool with your personal items on it, while still at the pool is very different from table use.

I agree Sammie. Some one in the party needs to stay with the table or be swimming close by to see it so if someone comes along, you can jump out of the pool.

 

[Disney Doll]

She left the pool to get something to eat. Therefore, she has no claim to that table. It amazes me how people feel they can claim a chair/table all day long while coming and going as they please. If you leave the pool, you leave your spot. She was the rude and selfish one.

I would have tossed the towles into the used towel bin and taken the table. If she confronted me, I would have said, "what towels? There were no towels here when we sat down".

I agree with you. I probably would have said "You left your personal towels here and now they are gone?? Maybe you should check the hotel's lost & found". When she said "Well, they were hotel towels" I would have looked sympathetic and said "Oh, well a CM probably thought they were towels that someone didn't put into the dirty bin when they left the pool area, since you weren't here, so they picked them up".

And no, I would not have used the towels because even though they may have looked clean, you never know if someone had used them and refolded them neatly. Into the dirty bin they'd go.

 

[lilyv]

I agree with you. I probably would have said "You left your personal towels here and now they are gone?? Maybe you should check the hotel's lost & found". When she said "Well, they were hotel towels" I would have looked sympathetic and said "Oh, well a CM probably thought they were towels that someone didn't put into the dirty bin when they left the pool area, since you weren't here, so they picked them up".

And no, I would not have used the towels because even though they may have looked clean, you never know if someone had used them and refolded them neatly. Into the dirty bin they'd go.

Disney Doll, I loved your answer! I just wish everyone would remember that WDW is a big place, with a LOT of guests. Enjoy the pool, and when you leave, let someone else have a place to sit. It's just being neighborly!

 

[Caitsmama]

I would have tossed the towles into the used towel bin and taken the table. If she confronted me, I would have said, "what towels? There were no towels here when we sat down".

I would have done the same!!

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

I guess a question that comes to my mind for the OP is: Was it possible for you to sit elsewhere?

 

[grimley1968]

I guess a question that comes to my mind for the OP is: Was it possible for you to sit elsewhere?

Why does the OP need to answer that? It was a free table.

She apparently sat at the table for over 20 minutes before the other person even returned to the pool and noticed it was taken by someone actually at the pool.

When you leave the entire pool area, and leave no one to keep your table, and nothing to keep it (resort towels just don't cut it), you lose the table. It's totally up for grabs at that point. We can't be made to discern whether those white resort towels are clean, dirty, just left there, or holding the table for someone who is gone for 30 minutes.

 

[taylor1293]

Lol, that's even better!

I agree with you. I probably would have said "You left your personal towels here and now they are gone?? Maybe you should check the hotel's lost & found". When she said "Well, they were hotel towels" I would have looked sympathetic and said "Oh, well a CM probably thought they were towels that someone didn't put into the dirty bin when they left the pool area, since you weren't here, so they picked them up".

And no, I would not have used the towels because even though they may have looked clean, you never know if someone had used them and refolded them neatly. Into the dirty bin they'd go.

 

[taylor1293]

Shame on you! Don't you know that people like us is what is wrong with society today .

I would have done the same!!

 

[fumipappa]

Well I am sure everyone's opinion on this will vary but mine is, you are not there, the table is no longer yours. I see no difference in this and saving a place for the parade. Believe me if you leave items on a bench thinking it is yours for a parade and leave, you lose it.

If you want a table then someone needs to stay with the table. If that is not possible then you get another one when you need it. This saving tables for hours to only use them for 30 mins is ridiculous and the very reason that many can not find a place to sit down and eat.

Using a lounge chair at the pool with your personal items on it, while still at the pool is very different from table use.

Agree, if you are OK to hold table for 1/2hr by leaving hotel towel, some people can keep the table entire day by leaving hotel towel at early morning.
30min, 1hr, 1 day, people can apply same logic. If they leave personal item, like croc, sandal, etc, it is different story because they are showing that they are still holding the table by taking the risk to lose their personal items.
(It is still ridicurous to hold the table more than 30min as empty by leaving personal item, though)

 

[maxiesmom]

You can't put a towel on a chair, leave the pool area, and expect that towel to hold your spot for you. And if to do so is just plain silly.

Op--you did nothing wrong. If that person wanted their chair so bad, their butt should have been planted in it!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Well I am sure everyone's opinion on this will vary but mine is, you are not there, the table is no longer yours. I see no difference in this and saving a place for the parade. Believe me if you leave items on a bench thinking it is yours for a parade and leave, you lose it.

If you want a table then someone needs to stay with the table. If that is not possible then you get another one when you need it. This saving tables for hours to only use them for 30 mins is ridiculous and the very reason that many can not find a place to sit down and eat.

Using a lounge chair at the pool with your personal items on it, while still at the pool is very different from table use.

I agree completely.

I also have to say, the OP said the lady came back saying she had gone to get food. Did she have food? It doesn't sound that way, to me the need for a table is to eat, she ate someplace else, why does she need a table? If the lifeguard had seen the towels, they would have removed them. They do not allow you to save tables with a towel or two.

If it means that much to them, they should stay there with it. I think the OP was in the right, table lady needs to read the dis and get up on her pool etiquette!

 

[marivaid]

Well I am sure everyone's opinion on this will vary but mine is, you are not there, the table is no longer yours. I see no difference in this and saving a place for the parade. Believe me if you leave items on a bench thinking it is yours for a parade and leave, you lose it.

If you want a table then someone needs to stay with the table. If that is not possible then you get another one when you need it. This saving tables for hours to only use them for 30 mins is ridiculous and the very reason that many can not find a place to sit down and eat.

Using a lounge chair at the pool with your personal items on it, while still at the pool is very different from table use.

Couldn't agree more.

The tables and chairs belong to the resort. The resort is letting guests use the POOL chairs/tables when guests are at the POOL. Leave the pool - say goodbye to your table & chairs.

When we were at the Poly this summer, we went to the quiet pool a lot. Every time nearly all the lounge chairs had Poly towels on them yet there was no one but us in the pool !!!

 

[StrollPatrolMom]

I probably would not have sat at a table with more than one folded pool towel on it....

I wouldn't freak out if someone sat down there if thats how I had gone about "saving" it....but I would have assumed it was saved.

 

[allisonswonderland]

Ok I just need to mention something - we stay at the Beach Club and many times being at SAB it can become quite crowded and when we do finally find chairs I have been there for hours and been surrounded by lounge chairs with wadded up towels and no people who ever come back. They never seem to do a sweep there and it is frustrating to me as a guest to not have anywhere to sit when people do not bother to pick up after themselves.

I would not go move the towels, I would really like to but I am afraid of a confrontation - because I did not know proper pool etiquitte. I would totally cheer on the OP if I saw it happen, but I agree something really should be done about this issue.

 

[melomouse]

You do realize that the lifeguard's job is actually to keep people from drowning - not to settle ridiculous table disputes among adults? If I was a lifeguard at a busy pool and someone came to me with something like this, I'd think they were insane. Seriously.

They're lifeguards. Not tableguards or towelguards. And, contrary to what some on these boards would have you believe, poolside tables are NOT a matter of life or death.

Too funny, GEM!!!! The dose of common sense you often interject is a welcome breath of fresh air!!!