A recent guest incident on Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas ignited one of the most fiery debates. Cruise lovers everywhere are already arguing over proper pool chair etiquette. Jessica, who’s TikTok handle is ‘Jesstravel7’, recently posted a video that shines the light on the Karen-esque behavior of spoiled guests. They would pre-reserve pool loungers with towels for hours without even being there!
From Jessica’s story, multiple chairs were left empty for three-plus hours, with towels draped on them as markers. She wrote about her anger and sadness at the state of affairs. It took the ship’s crew three hours to act and remove the towels from the empty chairs. Jessica’s enthusiasm for sustainable travel inspired her pool-saving cruisers to leave their saved chairs behind when they weren’t using them. I was glad that she pointed out that this selfishness really ruins it for everybody else.
Royal Caribbean, like nearly all cruise lines, has a long-held policy of disallowing pool chair hogs. For example, their guidelines state that chairs are only provided on a first-come, first-served basis and no reservations will be made. The policy makes it abundantly clear that after 30 minutes of a pool chair being unattended, the crew will have the ability to intervene. They’ll confiscate any property left behind and bring it to the lost and found.
The incident was noted by the larger cruise community and discussions were taking place on sites like Reddit and Cruise Critic. A photo posted at 8:30 a.m. displayed multiple chairs covered with towels, which further fueled the debate. Many users supported Jessica’s position. They’ve pushed back by claiming that guests should be empowered to take towels off unoccupied chairs if they’re hoping to use the chair themselves. Others claimed that cruise employees should be on higher alert. By the same token, they need to be ready to swiftly enforce policies and clear items off of unattended chairs.
Jessica’s video resonated deeply with those who watched it. She made an impassioned plea that passengers consider the impact of their behavior on their cruising companions. The subject pointed to a larger problem that was still evident on other cruise lines. As an example, Norwegian Cruise Line has adopted the same style of guest chair reservation ban in their policy to stop people from saving pool chairs. One cruiser who had a wonderful experience onboard Norwegian noted that the attentive staff consistently cleared unused lounge chairs and quickly picked up towels and personal items left unattended.
The discussion around reserving pool chairs is a microcosm of a larger cruise ship etiquette issue. In fact, most travel experts who comment on the cruise industry rank the practice of chair saving among the most egregious examples of cruise line faux pas. Our guests find this behavior maddening. These travelers seek to savor their journey’s luxuries without having to trip over barriers erected by others.
Leave a Reply