Once I was on a flight that stopped but I wasn't getting out (sorry, I can't remember the official term). There were about 7 of us doing that.
The FAs asked us all not to change seats or use the lav until they had gone through and done some sort of seat check. "Don't worry," they said, "you'll have plenty of time to do that before the new passengers board".
Lies, all of it, lies! So there we are, trying to use the forward lav while people are coming in, it was ridiculous. Someone tries to take an aisle seat. "Whose sweater is this? Why is it here?" Of course the person was in the lav and luckily the new passenger figured it out. All this chaos could have easily been avoided by the FAs, this was not seat saving but it sure looked like it.