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Chair hogs are one of the things that annoys many cruise passengers. Although most cruise lines have a 30-minute grace period for leaving a lounger unused and your belongings on it, lots of cruisers ignore this. Hogging the lounger in prime locations for most of the day while they are off doing other things. I provide 9 ways that you can deal with cruise chair hogs based on things I do, know other cruise passengers do and have seen work. Find out what they are, and use them to deal with cruise chair hogs using loungers you want to use on your future cruises.
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 60+ cruises.
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0:00
you're about to discover how to deal
0:02
with chair hogs on a cruise
0:05
I'm Gary Bainbridge this is another of
0:07
my tips for travelers I want to talk
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about nine ways that you can combat one
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of the things that drives many cruisers
0:15
crazy and that is chair hogs on a cruise
0:18
my first tip actually involves cost so
0:21
you may actually wanna lay down some
0:23
money to avoid all the hassle of dealing
0:25
with jayhawks many cruise lines are
0:27
introducing sanctuaries or retreat areas
0:29
on a ship where you pay a raid for half
0:31
a day or a full day and you have
0:33
basically a quiet area where you have
0:35
often your own little Cabana area you
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have your lounges you might have food
0:40
thrown in you have fridge television all
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sorts of perks and benefits some of
0:45
these will either have a little pool
0:48
where you can cool off in or a hot tub
0:50
so on some recent cruises are being on
0:52
for example Seaborn has a very beautiful
0:54
retreat area with magnificent really
0:57
comfy quiet spaces to sit princess
1:01
increasingly has the sanctuary I've been
1:04
on Norwegian cruises where they have an
1:06
area at the rear of the ship so many
1:09
many cruise lines are introducing these
1:11
spaces including celebrity cruises on
1:13
edge so you're gonna find more and more
1:15
of these retreat spaces it does I mean
1:17
it's a pretty extreme way of dealing
1:19
with the chair because you pay to have
1:21
your own space and you know it's yours
1:22
for half the day or all day but it's
1:25
definitely one way of avoiding the
1:27
hassle of chair hugs the second way if
1:30
you want to again avoid all of the
1:32
hassle it does involve some cost but
1:34
it's about booking a balcony cabin if
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you have your own balcony you're gonna
1:38
have your own space of course it means
1:39
that you're not out by the pool or
1:41
whether people are that might be just
1:43
perfectly fine if you want to know
1:44
you've got your own space so you could
1:46
book a balcony and increasingly on
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cruise ships you can find some cabins
1:50
which have really large balconies
1:52
particularly those which have cabins at
1:54
the rear of the ship
1:54
so definitely booking your own battle
1:57
balcony having your own space is a way
1:59
of avoiding all of the chair hog
2:01
problems now personally I'm not one of
2:03
those people that likes to necessarily
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book the sanctuary or or the father I do
2:07
like having a balcony cabin but I don't
2:09
actually like sitting out on my balcony
2:10
so this third tip is one that I actually
2:13
use the most and that's to seek out
2:15
which all ships have the unknown quiet
2:18
spaces where the chair hogs don't go
2:20
because most people don't know about
2:22
them the couple of Secrets is before you
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going to cruise you could look at the
2:26
deck plans online or in the brochure or
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whatever but once you're on board here's
2:30
the places to go looking for these
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little secret places
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first of all head towards the top of the
2:35
ship you'll often find this deck spaces
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particularly in the front of the ship or
2:39
above the pool deck where it's kind of
2:43
dead space and there's nothing there and
2:45
there's a deck and they have deck chairs
2:47
and lounges up there you'll find most
2:49
ships have this kind of dead space area
2:52
which is a great place to go out and lie
2:55
now the only downside of those as
2:57
motionless don't have shade but it's a
2:59
really good place because it's not a
3:00
place that the chair hogs are looking
3:01
for so head upwards and look at some of
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those high spaces you know from a big
3:05
ship it's probably up on deck 17 16 17
3:08
the second thing to do is to go to the
3:10
very back of the ship and look at how
3:13
the back of the ship is tiered you'll
3:15
find on many cruise ships there are lots
3:17
of little deck spaces at the rear of the
3:20
ship particular those who don't have
3:21
cabins at the back and you'll find again
3:24
there's normally lounges left out there
3:25
and people just don't know about them
3:27
it's also great particularly on a sea
3:28
day because you're looking out the back
3:30
of the ship as you're sailing along
3:31
that's a really good tip the third tip
3:34
is to look for little swimming pools so
3:38
you'll find for example recently I was
3:40
on Seabourn encore and on Deck five
3:43
just behind one of the lounges they have
3:44
a very small swimming pool again at the
3:46
rear of the ship that no one really
3:48
seems to know about because they all
3:49
focus on the big main pool deck and no
3:51
one's really realizes there's this
3:52
little secret little pool somewhere else
3:54
and again you'll normally find you're
3:56
not bothered by chair hugs so look out
3:58
for the little secret decks and places
4:00
so head away from the main pool deck
4:02
head away from the main pools and you're
4:04
likely to find some little secret spots
4:06
the next way of dealing with chair hogs
4:07
is just beat them at their game if
4:09
you're an early riser
4:10
why just get up head to the space find
4:14
your favorite chair and plunk yourself
4:16
down now in the spirit of being a good
4:20
cruiser not becoming a chair hug
4:21
yourself you should really be using it
4:23
so one of things I would say is whilst
4:25
you're beating them at their game
4:27
pick up times to sit in these areas
4:29
which are actually quieter and nice to
4:31
sit at so actually in the early ish
4:33
morning time around breakfast time
4:35
you're going to find the pool air is not
4:37
that busy and particularly in a nice
4:38
warm cloud it's actually quite a nice
4:40
time to be sitting out on deck the other
4:42
thing that I also do then is I aim to
4:44
head for those sort of places
4:46
particularly on port days when people
4:47
have headed out so I might do my
4:49
excursions more in the afternoon rather
4:51
than in the morning because most people
4:53
will head out on a ship they people seem
4:55
obsessed of heading out on the ship
4:57
minuted docks they go in excursions
4:59
especially in the morning you can often
5:01
find a nice spot and also the chair
5:04
house often haven't gone quite as far as
5:06
reserving it and heading off the ship
5:08
although some do the next way of dealing
5:11
with chair hugs is actually pick up
5:12
cruise lines that are really good and
5:14
enforcing their policy I've been on many
5:16
many ships and very few of them actually
5:19
enforce the policy and I guess that's
5:21
because the crew know that they could
5:23
get really hard time from chair hugs if
5:25
they start moving stuff away but there
5:27
are a couple of cruise lines that have
5:28
been on that do really enforce it quite
5:31
strictly so for example are many
5:32
carnival cruise ships you'll normally
5:34
find that the crew are asked to by the
5:37
team managing them to put little card on
5:40
a lounger they see that being empty with
5:43
a little time stamp on if 20 minutes
5:44
later or 30 minutes later no one's come
5:47
back they will actually move the stuff
5:49
and clear the lounger for somebody else
5:51
I also found on my recent cruises in
5:53
Oceania I found they were pretty good as
5:55
well at doing that their little table
5:56
out there and I could see that the crew
5:58
are definitely moving stuff where
6:00
lounges have been left for 30 minutes or
6:02
more so there are cruise lines and you
6:04
can certainly check who's really good or
6:06
what ships are particularly good at
6:08
doing that you know go on to some of the
6:10
cruise chat groups and find out which
6:11
are doing it well but also bear in mind
6:13
that the cruise line should be enforcing
6:16
its policy if it's printed in the daily
6:18
programme they should be enforcing it so
6:19
there's the scope to actually expect
6:22
them to enforce it if you see it
6:23
happening which leads me to my next
6:25
point this is when you start to get a
6:27
little bit more assertive and one of the
6:30
key ways of doing it is going to a crew
6:32
member and saying look this has been
6:34
empty for 30 minutes or longer I want to
6:36
sit there could you do something about
6:38
it
6:39
and could you remove
6:40
stuff so at least if their stuff is
6:42
removed taken away if people come back
6:44
say that what's happened to our stuff
6:45
you you can basically either deny say
6:48
look but I came here was empty or say I
6:49
believe that the crew and moved your
6:52
stuff on so actually ask the crew ask
6:55
the cruise line to enforce their policy
6:57
don't be shy of doing that because there
7:00
is a policy and it should be enforced so
7:02
don't be embarrassed about asking I
7:04
certainly have asked before I really
7:07
would had a big hang-up about it I was
7:08
worried that's gonna cause problems and
7:09
actually if people get caught out often
7:11
they're caught out per ticket and
7:13
they're embarrassed about it if the crew
7:15
are actually doing it and enforcing it
7:17
the next way of dealing with chair hugs
7:19
is if you are particularly brave you
7:22
could actually just remove them
7:23
themselves so if you've been timing it
7:25
you've been looking at it you know that
7:26
someone's not there you could of course
7:27
remove their stuff either take it to
7:29
someone on the pool deck or you can take
7:32
it to reception if you want to this does
7:35
increase you to the chance of kind of
7:38
arguments and fights or whatever so it's
7:40
probably better to do the first one to
7:42
ask the crew but I have seen people just
7:43
basically saying this is unacceptable
7:45
and removing this stuff but you are
7:46
potentially leaving yourself up for
7:48
fight so it's actually not one that I
7:50
recommend you move it yourself however
7:52
of course it is one way of dealing with
7:54
chair hugs one of the things that I have
7:56
seen people do and it is quite ballsy
7:59
but it's one that if you do want to take
8:03
some action yourself or you feel the
8:04
crew aren't doing is actually move the
8:07
chair so what I've seen people do is
8:09
they scoop up all the stuff that there's
8:10
been left for a long time they've made
8:13
sure of course been left a long time
8:14
they've put it on the ground and they
8:16
have moved the chair of course that's
8:19
pretty dramatic and again opening
8:20
yourself up for arguments but I have
8:23
seen it done quite often on cruises
8:25
particularly when it's lots of sea days
8:27
and it's a really busy deck now most
8:30
people most of the passengers are going
8:32
to back you up on that one and they're
8:33
not gonna rat you out so again I still
8:36
think it's better if you go with the
8:37
original one but move the chair is quite
8:39
a nifty way because you've left their
8:41
stuff in the spot that they wanted but
8:43
they have no chair one of the things
8:45
that I have haven't done I haven't seen
8:47
anyone numbered I've seen it discuss
8:49
color on various groups and forums is
8:52
what people have done to counter
8:54
chair hugs is if they see the same
8:57
people doing it all the time is on those
8:59
cruise lines where you have to sign out
9:01
the towel so on some cruise lines
9:02
there's just not towels around the
9:04
public yes you have to then Simon out to
9:07
your particular cabin and if you don't
9:08
return it you basically pay a fee of up
9:11
to $25 and I have seen people in groups
9:15
talk about how they have taken the towel
9:17
off the thing that's been abandoned the
9:20
lounge has been abandoned and basically
9:22
gone and put it themselves in the towel
9:24
thing without Sonya back in so actually
9:26
the chair hoax didn't have a problem
9:28
because there potentially are gonna have
9:30
a fine for not returning their towel
9:32
again it's a pretty extreme one and I
9:34
think you can dial back to actually
9:36
focus a little bit more on asking
9:37
the cruise line to enforce it chair hugs
9:39
are selling the drive people crazy if
9:42
you want to avoid the situation
9:44
basically by your space have a balcony
9:47
cabin or find those secret places if you
9:49
do want to really use a specific spot my
9:53
recommendation is get the cruise line to
9:55
enforce it make the crew enforce it and
9:57
if you have problems with that basically
10:00
talk to the guest services and they will
10:02
eventually make sure they follow through
10:04
on it I hope you found that interesting
10:05
have you found it helpful and I remember
10:08
have many more videos packed full of
10:10
cruising tips advice and why don't you
10:13
watch another one of those right now