A Simple Solution for Royal Caribbean and Carnival's Big Problem

Cruise ships have a limited amount of space. That means that passengers are, in some ways, competing for the same resources.

Most cruise lines have systems in place to manage crowds in certain areas. For example, Royal Caribbean (RCL) lets you make reservations for certain entertainment options, like its big production shows and comedy clubs, on certain ships. In addition, the cruise line uses reservations to manage crowds in its specialty restaurants and for select events onboard.

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In reality, for most theater shows, many people simply don't show up, so you will probably get in without a reservation. That may not be the case, however, at Izumi, Royal Caribbean's hibachi restaurant. Each iteration of Izumi only has so many seats around the table/cooking surface, so there's a true limit as to how many people can be served a night.

Perhaps the most crowded area on ships during the day -- the pool deck -- has no real systems in place either on Royal Caribbean or Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) ships. You're not supposed to reserve chairs but even the language Royal Caribbean has been putting on its pool deck chairs leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

"Hold that thought," reads a sign that was placed on many chairs around the pool decks on Independence of the Seas during my March 31-April 2 sailing. "No reserving deck chairs. Unattended items will be held at the towel stand,"

That seems clear, but what exactly is unattended? Is my towel, glasses, shoes, and beach bag unattended if I am in the pool or hot tub?

It's obvious when someone comes out early in the morning to claim a bunch of chairs then goes off to have breakfast. When the pool gets crowded, however, it becomes much less clear who's taking advantage and who's going back and forth between the pool, the pool bar, hot tubs, and their chair

An empty chair on the Independence of the Seas pool deck.

Image Source: Daniel Kline/TheStreet

A Look at Royal Caribbean and Carnival's Problem

Chair-saving policies and practices get talked about a lot on the various Facebook groups devoted to the various cruise lines. It's also something I've spoken with a lot of people about while on ships.

There appear to be three types of behavior when it comes to pool deck chairs on cruise ships:

1. People who actually plan to spend a long time laying in the chair.
2. People legitimately using the pool area who use the chair as a base of operations, but aren't always sitting in it.
3. People who just need a place to put their stuff.

I fall into the last category. When I visit a cruise ship pool (or any pool for that matter) I need a place to leave my phone, glasses, sunblock, and towel. I'm not looking to lounge on a chair. In fact, I usually return to my chair roughly twice an hour to check my messages and make sure neither work nor my wife (who does not cruise) needs me for anything.

I usually try to take a chair in an undesirable location -- usually not facing the pool in a remote part of the covered Solarium on Royal Caribbean ships. That way I'm not taking super-valuable real estate for my stuff when someone else might actually want to time in the chair.

There is, however, a better way and Royal Caribbean actually used to offer it, at least on select ships.

An Easy Solution to Royal Caribbean and Carnival's Problem

Before the pandemic, I did the three-day weekend sailing on Navigator of the Seas roughly once a month. That ship, which now sails out of Los Angeles, had a small section of open shelves -- sort of cubes -- where you could leave your stuff.

I used to take one of those for my belongings and would stand by my cube every now and again to check my phone. It wasn't a perfect solution -- lockers like Royal Caribbean offers at the water park on its Perfect Day at CocoCay private island would feel safer -- but the shelf space did keep me from needing a chair.        

Basically, if the cruise lines don't want people to use deck chairs as a place to keep their stuff, they need to provide a place for that stuff. Doing that would not solve the problem of people who claim chairs early and disappear but those people are much more easy to enforce rules on than people sort of using the chairs for the right reasons.