I rarely use hotel pools, but the one at my hotel last night was actually rectangular and on the larger side, so figured I'd do some laps.

Fifteen minutes in, several kids (and one adult) jumped in for Marco Polo. Although I had been occupying only a thin straight line between two ends of the pool, this group overtook the entire pool with no regard for my presence. I'd be halfway down the pool in the middle of a lap, and they would just randomly cut into "my" space.

As I mentioned I rarely use hotel pools. The pool at my hometown gym has designated lanes so I've never given much thought to the issue of sharing. Should I have asked these kids to keep to one side of the pool, or should I have done what I did and simply swim in haphazard curves to get around them?

FWIW, I'm sure we were a nuisance to each other, though not enough of a nuisance to confront one another about it. This morning when leaving my room I found a coffee lid, two creamers, and one straw on the floor right outside my door. The hotel has no room service. Did those kids somehow get my room number?!

if you are at a hotel with an outdoor pool in summer, you just have to accept that it is not a lap pool and kids will be kids and deal with it. It's not your hometown gym.

Im assuming / hoping you are kidding about the coffee cup.

You don't say what hotel it was, but if you want a placid childfree existence, try the Ritz or W.

Thanks for the laughs, OP.

"MySpace" is obsolete, so they tell me.

Is there an assumption here that there is no level of communication between silence and confrontation?

If so, let me be the first to encourage you to try open, friendly and direct conversation. From years of experience, I can assure you that it most often works really well.

Pardon my overly aggressive word choice. I am sure we could have worked something out if necessary. I meant the issue was trivial enough to simply take the path of least resistance: namely, ranting on FT

I was mostly puzzled as to why someone else's trash was at my front door. I grabbed it with a paper towel and threw it in the bin in my room. Hope the creamers weren't explosives in disguise

I don't understand - why didn't you just nicely ask the game players to stay out of your lane? I think you're being paranoid about the trash outside your room!

I'll bet it was this guy...

TheOatmeal sums up the typical hotel pool experience.

They sent you a clear message: Your coffee sleeps with the fishes.

Butterfly and well-placed flip turns can generally create enough space around you that you're not bothered by most kids. I do regard the Marco Polo as rude if there are other swimmers in the pool because they shouldn't have to move out of the way of someone stumbling around with their eyes closed, and there should be any number of other pool games that wouldn't be disruptive.

It's not personal. It's just business.

'Tis the season, BTW. Am going to Asia for a month and don't expect to do much other travel 'til late August at earliest. Depite the very high airfares, this season is shaping up to be a real doozy because of pent-up demand from the great recession. Best to avoid if you possibly can. (If u need something to do, watch the South Park episode titled "Pee.") I'll have a nice lineup of trips for the fall low season.

The Ritz Carlton and W never have kids? get REAL.

Unfortunately, sometimes these brats CAN show up at the Ritz-Carlton (!) Over the weekend during my stay there was one instance when they were in a non-adult pool and yes it was Marco Polo (!!) Thankfully the staff had the good sense to actively kick anyone not an adult out of adult-only areas and the kids were relatively subdued.

Now I feel ashamed for actually teaching kids to play Marco Polo all those years ago when I taught swimming at the city pool. And come to think of it the point of all these games were to waste the kids time so the irresponsible parents that plopped them out can dump their responsibility onto someone else...