Sun loungers beware, the cruise police might be coming after you.
Carnival Cruise Lines has announced a new program by which it will get rid of those pesky people who save lounge chairs all day but don't actually use them. Staff members, called "team monitors," will be patrolling the decks to make sure those towel-marked chairs actually have bums in them, reports The Telegraph.
According to the announcement, made by top Carnival Cruise Director John Heald on his Facebook page, these staffers will look for empty seats being held by towels, books, shoes or some such, and place a sticker on them, reports the Detroit Free-Press.
The sticker will bear the time the chair was left empty. Once 40 minutes has passed, the items at the chair will be taken by Carnival staff to a retrieval station, according to the Examiner.
"Carnival Cruise Lines has recently begun testing a new system designed to ensure that all guests are able to enjoy equal access to sun loungers by preventing seat saving in outdoor deck areas," Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen told Cruise Critic.
Apparently, the scheme is working. As Heald points out in a Facebook post Wednesday: "The message is truly getting to the guests as this morning at 9:00am there were 81 empty chairs around the main pool and that as you will all know...is remarkable."
Currently, this system is only in place on the Carnival Breeze.