Waterpark etiquette ???

[Biggreen19]

Wow!!!! I am shocked this thread is still going strong!

I am really amazed that people just can't grasp the concept of first come, first serve, or they just want to rationalize around it.

Since a water park admission ticket does not entitle us to a chair and a locker, must of us use a little common sense and get to the water park early to secure a few chairs for the family, and get a locker to secure our valuables.

If I arrive late, which I have a few times to Typhoon Lagoon, I do not expect to find a lunge chair, or any chair in any of the prime locations. As a previous poster stated, I just find an empty chair SOMEWHERE to put our towels, sandals and tees down. I know full well in an hour or two, there will be open chairs due to guests leaving for the day.

For the folks that think everything you bring into the water park should go into a locker, forgive me, but I just can't imagine 4-5,000 people milling around the locker cubes all day because they now deem the area their base camp. The area is not designed to handle large crowds well. For the folks that come into the water park early to mid afternoon looking for a prime lounge chair, you should have gotten up 4 hours earlier. Besides, why would you come to a water park and the first thing you want to do is find a lounge chair? Could..............it...................be...............you are setting up base camp as well? There are plenty of chairs thought-out the water parks; they just might not be to your liking location wise.


Again, we are not entitled to the chairs, so we apply a little common sense understanding this, and get to the park early!! First Come, First Serve! For the rest of you folks that get to the water park early like me, do what I tend to do when staking out my little camp in the morning. Make friends with the families around you, because there is safety in numbers. We need to stick together to scare off the dreaded chair poachers!

 

[Lexie]

This is the reason is the reason I sneak a pocket knife into the parks...just in case someone flips me off and tries to attack me for a chair!

 

[torsie24]

Call me the odd one out if you like, none of this seems like an issue.

I can think of a lot calmer places to relax than a water park (namely the hotel pool where I'm close to my room, and can keep a bag with me of belonings and dont have to worry about keep leaving it.)

Surely if you are worried about your stuff during your time at a water park, you put it in a locker (as I will, towel included) go do the rides, get your stuff out, get dry and leave.

I'm not going to MK or AKL to sit on a one of their benches all day. Ditto with TL/BB.

If you are staying somewhre without a pool then maybe it is different I grant you. But I think you'd be hard pushed to find a place in Orlando with no pool.

 

[oddBotkins]

This is the reason is the reason I sneak a pocket knife into the parks...just in case someone flips me off and tries to attack me for a chair!

I think we've lost our marbles.

 

[Mel6197]

You look around at any given time and half the chairs are empty - EXCEPT for the personal items "saving" the chair....why can't people use the chair when they need it, and leave it for others when they are not in it? If everyone did this there would be a chair when everyone needed it.

You are NOT renting the chair for the day (if Disney wanted you to have the chair all day they would rent them to you) and it is not your right to retain the spot if you are not using it.

The Quotes above.. I do agree with..
I wouldnt move anyones stuff, but the theory is for those NOT in the wave pool at that moment, those doing rides, etc.. If everyone of those type of people came and went using the chairs, for 1 hour here, 20 min there, etc, threw out the day, There would be chairs for everyone to use then, Everyone is not going to sit down at the same time, so if my family uses the chairs for 1 hour, then leave to do some slides, etc, and another family comes in to use them for 20 min then leaves and another comes in and goes, there would be chairs all day...

 

[DisneyDayTripper]

This is the reason is the reason I sneak a pocket knife into the parks...just in case someone flips me off and tries to attack me for a chair!

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not think that you've completely lost it.......but I'd check in the couch cushion for those marbles you lost.

 

[Lexie]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not think that you've completely lost it.......but I'd check in the couch cushion for those marbles you lost.

Well, I used to pack in my gun, but I got caught once so I switched to knife.

 

[finnster77]

very cryptic oooooh but I get it the grasshopper is like Hopper who just wanted the ants to give him their waterpark chairs or he would take the waterpark chairs from them!! Am I right? Am I right?

finnster, you are wise

Something like that. In the fable, the Hopper played all summer while the ants worked and stored food for winter.

At Disney, some families get up early, plan, and seize the initiative, while some relax and go with the flow. It's very similar to the debates about saving spots for the parades. Many "planners" become annoyed when a johnny-come-lately expects to be squeezed into the front row at the last minute.

 

[Bongi22]

Did you stay there and have lunch with your kids until that guy gave you the finger and left? It wasn't HIS throne.

This is a really funny thread actually. The actual argument has played out - some reserve chairs, others don't. What's left are the inane comments from smartalecs like me. Kind of like the clean up crew after the show - not for everyone...and most have left...yet performing a valuable service.

Of course not... My kid is a girl, so I would NEVER take her into the mens room.. do you think I'm a heathen? My wife and daughter each claim their own stalls in the ladies room... The extra stall I take in the men's room is for our towels and cooler of course...

Oh, and there certainly is need for a cleanup crew after I've left my stall for the day.

This shall be my last post in this group... I do thank everyone who has partaken... it's been a delight.

 

[Bongi22]

I don't know about Tour Guide Mike or RideMax, but I know the Unofficial Guide's touring plan for the water parks does NOT include repeated trips to one's locker throughout the day between rides, or finding a new chair after each ride segment
In fact, it only recommends finding chairs once - on arrival

See... you drew me back into it.

I see now that the "unofficial" guide is now where we go to get the right and wrongs of the park? I thought the fact that they put "unofficial" in their name would keep them out of the fray on this one.

 

[Bongi22]

To me, that "somewhere else" means wherever the party locates themselves for their stay. Given that even the really large, rolling coolers are permitted - are even the large lockers big enough? Seems to me the only place for these coolers IS at one's chair.

If people learned to buy a big enough cooler you could simply put cushions on the top and lay on them... I had this one for my boat that was 6' x 2' with cushions that would be perfect... I could uninstall it and throw some wheels on it and it would be perfect. Plus the stink of chum and bait would keep anyone from wanting to use it when I was away.

 

[Bongi22]

Well, heck - I never intend to be in my hotel room, or even at my hotel, twenty-four hours a day even though that's what I'm paying for - which makes it more comparable and relevant to the water park chair issue, given that the water park and its features are being paid in advance as well unlike a restaurant where one pays per service - but I certainly don't expect anybody else to be using my room just because I'm not in it at the moment.

Yes, I see your point. But at the same time, I am RENTING that room with the purpose of storing my clothes and other items.

Ps... did you really mean to say that you are paying to be in your hotel room 24 hours a day?

I pay for it to sleep at night and to store my things in like a rental unit... more or less simply so my stuff doesn't get stolen... Usually people put their stuff in a locked place so it won't get stolen... hence the idea behind paying for a place to use as your own for the day.

Do you really want to compare something that you rent for privacy and security that that has a lock with something you don't pay for, you aren't assigned by the management and has no key?

 

[Bongi22]

But Katieelder,
My point is that no one knows how long anyone has been away from their chair. And if they are saving the chair with a towel, which MANY people bring from the hotel instead of paying to rent one, who is to say that they just didn't leave for the day, leaving their towel behind for someone else to pick up? This behavior is something I've seen time and time again at the resort pools. People are done swimming and can't be bothered to bring their towel to the towel return bin.
We personally don't bring towels, and don't rent them.

Outstanding point. I was lucky enough to win the extra hour of park use at Blizzard Beach 2 years ago, so while the 800 or so of us that won went into a beach party with Chip and Dale and Mickey and Minnie, they got everyone else out of the park... Only employees and us... while making my way from ride to ride I saw plenty of lounge chairs that still had towels draped on them. Obviously we know no one was coming back for them, and yes there were a few bags, glasses, hats, flipflops and other miscellaneous items on chairs as well. My guess is quite a few people who decide to leave during the day either forget they had a hat on a chair, or just decide that it's too far a walk back for a t-shirt that they got as a radio station promo years ago and just leave.

I always wear things that I don't mind losing and though I don't reserve seats myself.. I've been known to put a hat down on a fence post when I go on a ride and forget about it when I come off.

I admit that someone bringing a cooler and half a campsite isn't going to be leaving it at a chair and leaving for a day... but this is about "stuff" holding places.. and at least 10% of the chairs I saw after park closing hours were still being "reserved" after all of the park visitors ( who were told to being all of our things with us to the beach party ) were gone for the day.

 

[Bongi22]

Maybe the Disney Magic will just open a chair up when there are none to be found because nearly all the chairs of towels on them. I might have to assist the Magic by getting a CM to clean up all these towels so I can lay out for a 30 minute nap

Well... this is my answer this year. If I find the need for myself or family to sit for a while and there are no open seats. I am going to ask a manager to have a worker remove the towels from a few seats ( if not an entire section ). They surely won't deny a paying guest the right to sit down on a chair that has no one using it upon having it brought to their attention.

If and when that person comes back, I will simply direct them to the manager that had the things removed... he will no doubt simply have some other lounges relieved of their towels.

If the manager refuses my request I'll simply go higher until someone with decisions making ability explains why it can't happen. I doubt any manager would want to explain to his boss why a towel takes precedence over a resort visitor of course.

 

[Bongi22]

It's always nice to twist perspective to make things fit. I get that you are trying to say now that you would find their "lost stuff" But I am asking about what you said initially....

You would find the chairs with someones personal things on them, "take" those things to lost and found and then lie saying that there wasn't anything there when you got there when they came back and asked about it?

Is this some sort of they wronged you so you will wrong them etiquette?

I will quote you again in case I read it wrong.... Maybe the wink at the end is throwing my "perspective" off

But is it wrong for ME to now sit in that seat that no longer has any items on it while the other poster takes them to the lost and found?

Surely I can't be guilty of any wrongdoing... I didn't move the things. I didn't sit in a reserved seat...

So in this case, two wrongs DO make a right... as I now have a right to sit in that seat.

 

[Bongi22]

Whoops... there it is right there all along on the back of my Disney Ticket... it states clearly.

"By entering WDW parks you are waiving your right to legal claims against WDW for injuries, lost or stolen items and if you enter after 10:42 a.m. any claim to a seat"

Rather than point out that you know where spots are that empty seats exist due to their being off the beaten path is nice... what would be better is to share the location of those spots with those of us on the board. That is sharing... not "sharing advice" as you say.

 

[Bongi22]

very cryptic oooooh but I get it the grasshopper is like Hopper who just wanted the ants to give him their waterpark chairs or he would take the waterpark chairs from them!! Am I right? Am I right?

finnster, you are wise

But wasn't it Hopper that was hoarding up stuff ( the seeds/chairs ) that he knew was more than he needed? He didn't want to share right? The ants only wanted their fair share... pretty much what the people looking to sit down for a little while want...

It's the people that are claiming the chairs for the entire day and not using them are the ones acting like Hopper. Hopper wanted the seeds so he always had them IF he wanted them... just like the chairs.

Seems as though you had the story right.. .just didn't understand it.

 

[kaytieeldr]

You look around at any given time and half the chairs are empty - EXCEPT for the personal items "saving" the chair....why can't people use the chair when they need it, and leave it for others when they are not in it? If everyone did this there would be a chair when everyone needed it

Simple logistics. First, lockers are in one location near the entrance to the park, while chairs are all over the park.
Second, lockers are finite: there is X number of lockers available each day (far fewer than the number of parties in the park most days, and Guests are outnumbered by lockers on a given day well - there's no chair problem either, is there? .
Chairs are flexible: As has been noted several times, there are chairs stacked in the cabanas; and Disney can, does, and will truck in more chairs from a storage location, fairly fast, if needed.

If I arrive late, which I have a few times to Typhoon Lagoon, I do not expect to find a lunge chair, or any chair in any of the prime locations.

Ding ding ding! I think we have a winner here, folks. It's not that there are NO chairs; it's that later arrivals aren't finding unoccupied chairs exactly where they want to sit.

Rather than point out that you know where spots are that empty seats exist due to their being off the beaten path is nice... what would be better is to share the location of those spots with those of us on the board. That is sharing... not "sharing advice" as you say.

Fine. Bear right. There's a LARGE sandy area to the right of the paved path - but without direct access to the wave pool (Guests would have to walk back to the path, then left, until they come to the access area).

Asking a Cast Member for assistance would work, too.

 

[kaytieeldr]

But wasn't it Hopper that was hoarding up stuff ( the seeds/chairs ) that he knew was more than he needed? He didn't want to share right? The ants only wanted their fair share... pretty much what the people looking to sit down for a little while want...

The ants wanted the grasshopper to share even though they did no advance planning and made no effort on their own whatsoever.

It's not that the grasshopper hoarded - it's that the ants unreasonably expected to reap the rewards without doing any of the work.

 

[Bongi22]

Wow!!!! I am shocked this thread is still going strong!

I am really amazed that people just can't grasp the concept of first come, first serve, or they just want to rationalize around it.

I just can't understand why some people don't grasp the concept that sharing limited resources makes EVERYONE better off.

Some people always see their particular group as right because it's best for them. Some others try to see whats best for everyone, even if it doesn't necessarily benefit their own circumstances the most.