The Easy-To-Make Mistake That Drives Your Fellow Cruise Mates Up The Wall

Joining a cruise shares many similarities with other forms of travel, such as flying on a plane, hopping a train, or riding a bus, in that it comes with its own set of expected behaviors. Cruisers often get the short end of the stick when it comes to public perception, with many making the assumption that cruise joiners are often rowdy and boisterous, making others want to avoid taking a cruise altogether. But to be fair, most cruisers are there to enjoy a peaceful vacation while respecting fellow passengers. To ensure you're remembered for the right reasons, it's important to exhibit courteous behavior aboard. You can probably start by avoiding the one behavior that irks many a cruiser everywhere: being a chair hog.

It's normal to get excited about the prospect of lounging by the pool on the deck and enjoying some fun under the sun, but a common faux pas that frustrates many cruisers is the act of chair hogging. This is when people practically monopolize a lounge chair for extended periods, preventing others from having their turn. Although it may be tempting to reserve chairs for hours on end, maybe even for your entire group, this practice is frowned upon. Think of deck chairs as you would of overhead bin space on a plane: a shared resource meant to be enjoyed by every passenger on board.

"Don't be a chair hog. It's the No. 1 complaint on cruises," said Nick Leighton, a seasoned traveler and etiquette expert, in an interview with CNN. "This is when somebody gets up at, you know, crack of whenever, runs to the pool deck, puts down blankets and all their stuff, and then disappears for hours, goes back to bed, maybe goes to have breakfast, maybe does something else and that chair is just now sitting vacant for hours and hours and hours."

You don't want to aggravate your fellow cruise joiners by taking faux ownership of a lounge chair, so avoid laying claim to one if you don't have any intention of returning to it until much later. That is, unless you want the hassle of retrieving your stuff elsewhere since some irked passengers take it upon themselves to confiscate the belongings of suspected chair hoggers. "Chair is not occupied...you can take it," Reddit user @trtviator noted. "I don't GAF if a towel, banana or book is on it. It gets moved to the towel center."

Some cruise lines have even started cracking down on chair hoggers by being clearer about their policies. The likes of Celebrity and Carnival have begun posting notices on the deck that if a chair is unattended for a specified duration, any items placed on it will be collected and stored by the staff. Engaging in chair-hogging behavior is not worth the trouble (aka the risk of losing your personal items), especially since it also means disrupting someone else's peace.

When you're on a cruise, you should steer clear of any actions that would only sour the experience of your fellow travelers. Think slamming the doors of your cruise cabin, cutting in line, smoking on the balcony, making noise in corridors, leaving your kids unsupervised and letting them inconvenience others, and so forth. Keep in mind that nearly everyone on board is a paying customer, so a sense of entitlement is unwelcome.

"When cruising, there are so many things to consider because you're essentially sharing a huge house on water with a bunch of people you've never seen and perhaps will never see again in (your) life," etiquette expert Jackie Vernon-Thompson told USA Today. "However, your attitude should not be, 'Oh, I'll never see them again so I can do whatever I want.' There are protocols to follow."

Cruise editor Carolyn Spencer Brown has one tip that can help keep yourself in check, and it's to periodically remind yourself that just like you, everyone else is just trying to have a good time and live their dream cruise vacation. "It's simple but basic," she explained to Condé Nast Traveler. "People might say 'I paid for this' but if that's how you feel, get a private yacht, buddy."