Cruise has 40 minute rule and 'will remove items'

Fans of Carnival Cruise Line, the world's busiest cruise line, have praised the business over its 40 minute rule that sees passengers' 'items removed' if they break it.

Every cruising company has its rules and regulations that you need to obey. Just look at Norwegian Cruise Line, which recently decided to place a banning order on a travel gadget that is growing in popularity: drones.

Over at Royal Caribbean - which has also tinkered with its booze rules - the cruise line has in recent months banned one particular electronic device that experts said is a 'must pack'.

During the Christmas period, Carnival, which is officially the world's biggest cruise line when it comes to passengers per year, had to enforce its strict rules when a child's toys was confiscated on one of its ships over rules everyone must follow.

And now, Carnival passengers and fans have praised one particular top deck policy you might not be aware of. And it concerns the pool area.

Carnival Cruise Line 'chair hogging' rule

This one has gone down very well with Carnival passengers. As the subheading suggests, we are of course talking about sun lounger and sunbed hoggers.

We've all been there in the past, where you turn up to the poolside pretty early to find towels everywhere lining the loungers. But the people who put them there? Nowhere to be seen.

Videos have gone viral of the brutal resorts people go to in order to secure them, too. Thankfully some staff don't take too kindly to it.

Over on YouTube, Ilana Schattauer from the Life Well Cruised channel has explained how Carnival has tackled this rule.

"On Carnival, and I've actually seen this on a couple of other cruise lines as well, they have a policy of 40 minutes unoccupied," Schattauer says.

"What happens is if crew members notice that a chair is unoccupied for a certain period of time? They'll place a little notice or note card on the chair that will say the time. And when 40 minutes have passed, they will remove the items from the chair."

Carnival Cruise Line statement

Over on social media, Carnival's Brand Ambassador John Heald has previously spoken about the reality of the 'chair hogging' policy in action.

Speaking to his followers on Facebook, Heald explained: "If they are not back by that time, we will remove it.

"It's only fair to make it that way. Ever since I've worked on cruise ships, there've been people desperate to get the chairs.

"We are doing our very best. It's not a perfect system, it would be silly of me to suggest otherwise. But it is something we need to do."

Responding to the rule, one person wrote: "Hope they continue to monitor chair hogs at the pool."

And a second said: "Love, love, love the monitoring!"

What about over on Royal Caribbean?

If you're travelling with Royal Caribbean, the time limit is shorter. So make note of when you might have head off for a quick snack or whatever it is you're doing.

The website reads: "Pool deck chairs are only available on a first come, first served basis and cannot be reserved.

"We want to ensure that all guests have a great time at the pool. If a pool chair is left unattended for more than 30 minutes with no signs of any guests returning, our crew will remove any belongings and place them in the lost and found."