Carnival And Norweigian Cruise Line Crack Down On Deck Chair Seat Saving

One of the best parts of cruising is being able to relax in the sun on the top decks of the ship, however finding a free lounge chair can be a difficult task, especially when people save them for their friend or family member that hasn't arrived for hours. People are sick of these seat-savers and now cruise lines are cracking down with deck chair policing programs.

Carnival Cruise Lines began testing a policy that is made to prevent people from saving deck chairs on its new Carnival Breeze cruise ship. They place stickers with a time on a seat that is being saved by an items such as towels, books, shoes or other things.

If the chair is still not being used by a person after 40 minutes, the items on the chair are removed and taken to the ship's towel station by the main pool and the staff leaves a note explaining where the items are.

This practice is being set in place to prevent those who save seats for long periods of times, such as people who will wake up early and save entire rows of deck chairs near pools, with the intention of using them hours later. This practice makes it difficult for people who wake up later to find an available seat.

"It has been a subject discussed over and over again, and it has been so because it continues to be a concern," Top Carnival cruise director John Heald said on Facebook. "We went with 40 minutes as we felt that this was a fair amount of time if guests get up to eat, drink, pee, swim or slide."

The policing program is only being tested on one ship, but if it is successful, there are plans to implement the program on all Carnival ships.
"Once we finish the test here this cruise and next, we will make adjustments and then add to the rest of the fleet," Heald says.

Carnival isn't the only cruise line that is starting a deck chair policing program. Norwegian is also trying out the program on their Norwegian Star ship, however their time limit is 45 minutes. The program started in early July and if successful, it will be used on all Norwegian ships.