New Chair System?

[major_aruba_fan]

I understand that Desires has implemented a new chair system that now reserves a large portion of them for the "Premier Members"? Can anyone validate this for us? Its our first trip and not being able to get a chair by the pool would make us question going to Desires in the first place...

[Cubzf@n]

From a purely selfish standpoint...I hope so! At least the week we are there.

[3scumpany]

Why would you hope so? From all the people we have spoken with the chair system is ridiculous and problematic.

[mfay]

I would guess that Cubsfan is a premier member ?
Someone is happy with every reservation arrangement- otherwise it wouldn't exist !
Seriously though, for well over a year now (ever since the current system went into effect) there have been a certain number of chairs reserved for those premier members. At least in the past, it was a small number like half a dozen. I'd suppose it varies with how many members are there each week. But we agree from our visit last month that there are some problems with the current system as it has evolved. Those of you who are Desire veterans may remember that the current system came into being to address complaints about the old system which was mainly just whomever got up early enough in the morning and plopped something onto a chair kept the chair all day whether they were there or not (unless someone else got frustrated and threw their stuff in the pool. )
We know that Desire is looking in to it, and we'll be sure any response from them gets posted immediately.

[Cubzf@n]

Because I am a member. We need to get something for paying all that extra money when we really should have known better. That is another topic in itself.

[anneag]

We were there the last week of June and are not premier members. We never had a problem with the chair situation and we spent all of our days at the pool. We are, however, early risers, but we even were able to get pool chairs one afternoon after lunch because we were away in the morning. I can see it being a problem if someone "reserves" a large group of chairs early in the morning. It is a couples resort, so really you should only be able to reserve two chairs...........

[mfay]

Actually the system is that you are only supposed to be able to reserve two chairs per room- and you can only reserve for your own room. And- if your chair is empty for more than two hours it is supposed to be taken from you.
The whole thing isn't a problem every week. But- when the resort is totally full it often is.

[anksewv]

We were there June 08 and never had any trouble getting a pool chair. We have been reading several posts on other web sites and it seems to be a growing concern.
We leave for Desire next week and the thought of not being able to get a pool chair kind of ruffles my feathers.
No where on the reservation page, when we signed up did it ask if we'd like to come as Regular visitors or Premier. Its all inclusive which in my head means that whats available for one is available for all. We always liked first come first served.
It's pretty depressing thinking about it when you should be only thinking of getting back to our favorite resort.

[travelingcpl68]

We just got back from our third trip in the past year. I never noticed the Premier members chairs before, but yes, they have a section of chairs and beach beds reserved for them. Nobody is ever in those chairs but nobody can use them. I really don't have a problem with Premier members having reserved chairs, but if they aren't being used and people are denied chairs, then that is a problem. Having said that, we were allowed to use a Premier beach bed the afternoon we got there since it was not being used.

The pool chair situation is the only thing I can complain about this trip. It really does suck getting up so early to get a chair (and we always ended up with one of the last ones they had whether my husband got there at 6:30 a.m. or 7:30 a.m.). It was much easier to get a beach bed.

Also, it didn't seem the two hour rule was in effect anymore.