Waterpark etiquette ???

[Yoshi]

I always leave my stuff in a locker at a waterpark because I don't trust anyone and don't want people messing with my stuff.

The exception is flip flops I leave in the cubbies at the slide entrances because they were from the dollar store.

I never use chairs at a waterpark though. My time is spent sliding and going in the lazy river and then getting changed and heading into the main amusement park area (my local park has a waterpark and amusement park both in the same park).

 

[ajk912]

This is one of my pet peeves. Not saying you did this but I see this a LOT at my local pool: Where people will stake out a chair for every member of their family. Really? Is that necessary? When the pool is busy it is BUSY. I don't care when the pool is slow and there are enough chairs for everyone go around. But what are the chances that every single member of your family will want to rest at the same time? Umm..about zero. I have 5 people in my family, but it's usually just me and the kids who go. I take a chair, because I am reading a magazine about 80% of the time (the other 20% I feel guilty and go in the pool and play with them) and we take ONE extra chair for them to take turns resting in. Or, in a pinch, all three kids can sit in it, but that has happened like..twice. I am talking about the long, longing chairs. I would think it's pretty obnoxious for our family to stake out four chairs.

 

[OandA]

Why should I have to pay for a locker? I don't think there are enough lockers for every single guest who enters the water park. What do you do with your towel while you are in the water??? I'm still waiting for that answer.

I don't understand your mentality. The OP was staying at the water park not leaving it to go to another theme park.

Do you give up your chair at the pool while you are in the pool??? Don't you expect to be able to go back to your chair after you get out of the water???

I'm not one for saving chairs at the pool and then leaving to go elsewhere. But if I'm at the pool or at the waterpark, I'm still using that chair, whether my body is on the chair or not. At least 50% of the chairs have stuff on them while the people who found that chair are in the water for a period of time.

I'm very sorry you are unable to grasp a simple concept. If you are in the pool that is one thing but when you are gone for an extended period of time to a slide (if you read what i wrote again, I clearly stated this) then it is not very hard to put things in a locker when you are at the slides. If paying for a locker is too much of a financial strain for you then perhaps you should re-think visiting Disney altogether. It is only a couple of bucks and makes everyone's day go a lot smoother.

 

[skier_pete]

This is a no-brainer. If you leave your stuff on a chair at the water park - you have "staked" the chair. That person took the time to get there early and get a spot, someone coming along later can't just throw there stuff aside. The is simply good manners.

If you come along later, and you take someone's stuff off the chair and throw it aside...this makes you the jerk. (I wanted to use a harsher word, but though it might be blocked.)

SkierPete

 

[OandA]

This is a no-brainer. If you leave your stuff on a chair at the water park - you have "staked" the chair. That person took the time to get there early and get a spot, someone coming along later can't just throw there stuff aside. The is simply good manners.

If you come along later, and you take someone's stuff off the chair and throw it aside...this makes you the jerk. (I wanted to use a harsher word, but though it might be blocked.)

SkierPete

Moving aside from the whole staking a chair claim being debated, how do you all feel comfortable leaving your stuff on a chair unguarded? I would never leave anything besides a resort towel on a chair unattended for the simple fear that it would be stolen. Maybe because I've seen it happen a lot?

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

How on earth can someone claim to be expressing the "moral way" or "Proper etiquette" about something while being nasty and rude in the very responses they are giving this advice in?

Some of the responses are making me shake my head, that's for sure.

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

Moving aside from the whole staking a chair claim being debated, how do you all feel comfortable leaving your stuff on a chair unguarded? I would never leave anything besides a resort towel on a chair unattended for the simple fear that it would be stolen. Maybe because I've seen it happen a lot?

We were in flower pool at pop and my wife had her phone in her towel not 15 feet away. The life guards came along and decided they were left behind and simply tossed everything in the towel can on the side of the pool. We had to dig through the whole thing to find her phone.

I wouldn't leave anything out of value, that's for certain. Especially if I wasn't going to be in sight of it.

 

[OandA]

We were in flower pool at pop and my wife had her phone in her towel not 15 feet away. The life guards came along and decided they were left behind and simply tossed everything in the towel can on the side of the pool. We had to dig through the whole thing to find her phone.

I wouldn't leave anything out of value, that's for certain. Especially if I wasn't going to be in sight of it.

I wouldn't have even thought of that. I would have only thought of other guests taking things intentionally. Hmm...yet another reason not to leave things unattended. Maybe other people have an abundance of disposable income to replace lost or stolen items.

 

[HelenParr]

For those in the half that think the chair takers were in the right -- if there was not a shortage of chairs, do you still think the OP could not stake out chairs? I'm not trying to be argumentative -- just can't get my mind around the concept of the chair taking. All I can figure is you're thinking the scarcity of chairs makes taking someone else's ok?

 

[webstah]

If I were to get to Typhoon Lagoon early, and set our stuff out on a couple of chairs, then walk over to Downtown Disney for several hours with the idea we would enjoy the waterpark for the late afternoon, would that be right?
I got to the park early enough to "stake my claim".
With no-one around, how would another guest know if I was out in the wave pool, in the lazy river, on the family raft ride, or even still in the park?
So that must be ok as well, because I did get there at opening.

 

[nikkistevej]

I have a question- on our next trip to WDW in June we will be going to a water park for the first time. I assumed that we would leave our towels on chairs(DH and I and 1 DD), and go around and do all of the attractions. Now when reading through this thread- I'm guessing that is not what you are to do. Would we just not take towels or anything with us and just not have seats. I'm confused, and I just have to say that if I had a seat, and someone took my stuff(and I thought that it was protocol(sp?)to do this) I would probably get thrown out of the park- because I would probably "remove" their stuff. I'm so glad I came across this thread, because I did not know you couldn't put your stuff down and go to rides, etc. I've been to waterparks before, and everyone did this.

 

[RabFlmom]

I really think the waterparks expect you to find chairs for your stuff and for you to use on a first come first serve basis. They don't have a reservation system and charge you rental on them so they expect civilized guests to play fair. They are not the chair police. If they have to start renting out the chairs to stop people from arguing about if it is OK to stalk a chair and keep it for the day while doing the slides that would mean more CMs and more expensive admission prices.

On busy days the parks put out more chairs throughout the day. They even truck them in if they have to. They might not be the lounge chair you want or in the area you wanted your chair, but they are in the park. Also when people stake their claim on a chair they usually don't choose to sit in the chair right next to another chair set up with stuff. They tend to leave a chair on both sides empty. Those chairs can be found almost all day long.
If you have a group of 5 etc, you probably don't need to save 5 chairs. A couple will probably do for your group to share.

As for leaving things on the chairs, I would only leave my towels, suntan lotion, and coolers. Anything else needs a locker. When my son was a guard at one of the parks he had his sun glasses and his brand new sandals stolen right off the chair when he went in to rescue someone.

So my take on this whole issue........ get there early or wait till after 3 and stake out your chair for the day at that waterpark and have fun.

 

[OurMsBrooks]

Moving aside from the whole staking a chair claim being debated, how do you all feel comfortable leaving your stuff on a chair unguarded? I would never leave anything besides a resort towel on a chair unattended for the simple fear that it would be stolen. Maybe because I've seen it happen a lot?

If somebody is in dire straits enough to need to steal a beach towel and a bottle of sunscreen or a PBJ out of my cooler, I guess that's just the way it's going to be. I'm not going to get worked up over it. I'm not going to leave my jewelry lying there on the chair, or my wallet. I just don't see why anybody would WANT to steal the things I would leave on a pool chair.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Well my thought is those people that took the chairs are rude and as a parent of an autistic child it hurts terribly when someone says stuff directed at my child being stupid etc.

However, my family including my autistic child frequent water parks and never leave our stuff on the chairs. Our plan is arrive at opening when the park is empty, put ALL stuff in the lockers. I take my disabled child to the lazy river and other safe activities. At 11:00 we get the lunch out of the locker, eat and leave the park.

I would never leave my stuff on chairs. We may sit for a minute or two in a free chair but not leave our stuff. I would never leave food out for any one to tamper with either.

Let's all be nice and mindful of each other. We are all on vacation.

I am going to ask the Concere at the Contemporary when I go in June. All good questions were posed. When at BB we only had 1 towel with us and put it on a chair to go on a slide and the CM said no towels (stuff) can be left on the chairs. But I see people do it all the time. And as one person said not enough lockers. Maybe we are all thinking about this too much and should just be reasonable and nice to each other.

 

[ChuckGA]

No problem moving their stuff to be able to move your vehicle. But if you had pitched your tent at a primo location and then they took it down to put their tent in the same location, that would be wrong, wrong, wrong.

I am amazed that some are having such a difficult time with a simple concept. I can't remove their tent from a site because it is clearly stated in the park rules that sites are first-come first-served. That is also the rule in the National Forests. Disney has no such rule written down anywhere and if they did there would be no discussion/arguing about it. Without the rule then for those who feel personal belongings cannot "save" or "stake a claim" on a chair, they can move the belongings because they are in the way, just as those people's camping gear was in the way of my car. You may feel that items do "stake a claim" on a chair but have no rule or guidelines to point to back it up and saying "You cannot touch my stuff" is not a valid argument in the absence of such rules.

Now for those beach goers, I don't know what beach you all visit but at Myrtle Beach chairs are rented and do have your name on them so there is no saving with personal items. The beach itself is free to all and you claim your spot with you towel/personal items. There is pretty much an unlimited amount of beach so there is no requirement to move anyone's stuff and the beach rule is first-come first-served anyway. A beach is public property and not a pool or a water park, which are privately owned and have whatever rules the private owner sees fit. Unfortunately Disney as usual is silent on such things and just let guests fight it out rather than having to deal with it directly.

My personal view in the absence of rules is towards the "stake a claim" side of things but unfortunately people abuse it by claiming 4 loungers when they only need two regular chairs and using them 20 minutes out of 5 hours. The abuse leads to the balancing force of other people using the chair in the absence of an actual person and therein lies the conflict.

 

[HelenParr]

Pasted directly from the official WDW website on waterparks:

"Arrive early if you wish to secure a lounge chair."

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

Pasted directly from the official WDW website on waterparks:

"Arrive early if you wish to secure a lounge chair."

Yep... there it is.... -

 

[momofmmsd5]

I'm very sorry you are unable to grasp a simple concept. If you are in the pool that is one thing but when you are gone for an extended period of time to a slide (if you read what i wrote again, I clearly stated this) then it is not very hard to put things in a locker when you are at the slides. If paying for a locker is too much of a financial strain for you then perhaps you should re-think visiting Disney altogether. It is only a couple of bucks and makes everyone's day go a lot smoother.

After reading most of these responses I just had to add my two cents! I normally would not when threads are getting this heated but these comments are just nuts to me!!

It is very clear from your posts you do not have children! I have not been to the water parks in WDW YET, but we are planning on going in Aug. for the first time. We are a family of 7 and every time we have been on the Disney cruise or at the Poly we make a home camp on 2 chairs. I DO NOT think that that is excessive for 7 people. With 5 children ranging in ages from 15 to 4 they have a lot of stuff, and we may need some or all of it at any time. I do not want to have to walk to a locker every time I need something for one of the children. Not to mention the fact that I have a problem with one of my feet, that makes walking very difficult.
I see nothing wrong with what the OP did and plan to do the very same thing! On the cruises though we only take one chair if we can even find one
Friends of ours have a daughter with CP and want to visit WDW soon. The thought of making her walk back and forth to a locker every time she needs something for her or her other 2 children who are not challenged is just crazy to me. Get to the parks early and grab a chair. Maybe when you are a little older and have a family of your own you will get it.

 

[Lexie]

Yep... there it is.... -

A tip does not a rule make. Otherwise you'd have to show your bottle of suncreen to enter the park

 

[dizzneebabe]

I'm sorry that happened to you. I think we ran into the same people in Myrtle Beach last year. We were "hopping" between the beach and the pool all day. Our coolers, towels, shoes, bags, etc were on 4 chairs. We were there with my parents who needed chairs, our two teenage boys and our 5yr. old. We intentionally only used 4 chairs, figuring we'd share with the kids.

One afternoon after coming back from the beach (we were gone maybe an hour) we found two people on 2 of our chairs. They had removed our belongings from one chair and put them next to the garbage!!!! The other chair's things were piled on one of the adjoining chairs, that just so happened to be ours, too. We stared them down for a bit, not really wanting a confrontation on vacation and they just ignored us. The minute they got up (I stayed with DD, who needed to lay down for a bit), I threw there towels and shoes in a pile...next to the garbage can. I really wanted to throw them IN the garbage, but hey--I knew better!