Pool Etiquette

What happened to good old fashion pool manners? We’ve just returned from a world renowned 5 star hotel famous for their spa and pools which feature fun water slides. The over priced per night charge seems contraindicated with the reality of craziness that entails around the pool areas. First you have to get up at the crack of dawn to secure a lounge chair anywhere near a pool. That being said, my husband acting like a Dad on a mission, raced down to the pools to secure our position.

After breakfast on our balcony overlooking gorgeous gardens, we headed down to the pool desk to obtain our magic wrist band, color of the day, Ocean Blue. Without this magic wristband, the pool police will not let you on the slides or into the pools. Pretty sure the hotel was at maximum capacity because there were people everywhere, pods of them, entire groups traveling in packs, moving about the hot flagstone in slow clogging up traffic momentum. With our feet burning we carefully tried to step in water drip spots from their swimsuits so as not to literally scream out loud, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Oh ya…."PLEASE get out of the way". Wanting to demonstrate proper pool manners to my kids, this little out burst just resonated silently in my head.

The noise, the lines, the snot dripping out of noses both young and old and really trying to tell myself that kid did not just get out of the water and pee into the pool, I wasn’t going to let that ruin our 24 hour experience. The contract should read: Parents please watch your children in and around the pools or leave. The pools are shallow, no jumping or diving, clearly this didn’t matter and astonishingly none of their parents cared. I was sitting on the edge of the pool in front of my lounge chair reading a book with my feet in the water, this little boy maybe 7, decides that I am in his path and proceeds to step over my lap dripping wet onto my book like I wasn’t even there.

Now granted all my complaining aside, this is why they have an adult only pool but oh ya, I HAD MY KIDS! What’s wrong with the 30 other yards of pool space you could have easily entered the pool? Our girls were oblivious to any of this and the day was marked as a great success.