Does Norwegian Cruise Line have the solution to chair hogging?

• Norwegian Cruise Line has been drawing praise for its system of leaving timestamped stickers on sun chairs by the pool, and removing items between 30 and 60 minutes after the chair is not occupied.
• Many cruise lines have similar policies, but these rules aren’t always enforced.
• Videos show NCL crew members going chair-to-chair leaving the stickers.

Norwegian Cruise Line has been receiving praise from cruisers for their new strategy to prevent chair hogging. Similar to marking the tires of a parked car, NCL crew members put timestamped stickers on the sunbeds. If the chair hasn’t been occupied again after a set time limit, the crew will remove the guests’ items from the chair to free it up for another person. 

While many cruise lines have a similar policy in terms of time limits for how long a guest can leave a chair unused,

Videos have been shared online of crew members going from chair to chair, placing the stickers on the bed.

NCL’s exact time limit can change depending on the context, such as what ship you’re sailing on, how busy it is, and what time of day it is. But the cruise line’s staff will remove the items if the chair is not occupied between 30 to 60 minutes.

According to ‘unrealcruises’ on Instagram, the user reported seeing crew on Norwegian Viva start putting down stickers as early as 10 am.

“Passengers reported that crew members began marking reserved chairs with stickers at approximately 10 am. If the chairs were not occupied an hour later, crew members removed items so other guests could use the space. The enforcement has received overwhelmingly positive reactions from cruisers.”

These stickers have actually been used in some capacity for years by NCL, initially just as notices not to chair hog for more than 30 minutes.

But it appears that the staff have become more vigilant, with more guests reporting the crew doling out the stickers.

While NCL’s idea of timestamped stickers still requires lots of work from the crew, it’s probably the most promising solution we’ve seen yet to chair hogging, and can hopefully go a long way towards stopping the problem on NCL ships. 

What are people saying about chair hogging?

Reddit user Sufficiente-Number-50 said: “Me personally, I am all for this rule. It’s extremely inconsiderate to hog a chair/lounger all day long, with the intention of actually using it for a fraction of that time. If everyone used the chairs/loungers ONLY when they actually used them, and left them alone while not in use, we wouldn’t have a chair/lounger shortage problem.”

Slayerfan6793 said they’d notice the rules being enforced: “The last ship I was on in April, they put time stickers on the end of the lounger. I did see them clear off a few loungers.”

User tannergd1 also noticed this: “On the Prima in April, the crew would keep an eye on chairs with items but no people. After some time, they would mark those chairs with an orange sticker and write the time on it. After 30 minutes or so, if nobody had returned to the chair, the crew would collect their items to free up the chair(s).”

Another user stinky_harriet noted that are still chair hogs that exist and room for improvement for the crew in enforcing these rules.

“There are still chair hogs. NCL claims that they go around and flag empty loungers (empty of people, full of their stuff) and if nobody returns within a certain amount of time they remove the items. That is what they do in theory, but it takes crew members to do it and they stretch their crew thin so it doesn’t always happen.”

Another user noted that sailing with Carnival, they know about the rules but they’ve never seen them enforced.

“Haven’t sailed NCL but on Carnival they will remove items from saved chairs usually in about 30 minutes of no one using them. But haven’t seen that actually happen. Thing is last 3 cruises this year never once saw all the chairs taken, even in the adult Serenity section where usually it can be hard to find a lounger there were plenty every time.”