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Ways to secure door so toddler can't leave room....


Mrs.C05
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In the midst of the 2 children who drown in NCL in the morning (condolences to the family!! I cannot imagine!)...I am concerned of my 2 year old leaving the room. On our last cruise in January, he was tall enough to reach the door handle and pull down resulting in unlocking the deadbolt and cracking the door.

I want to see what others have to suggest of how to secure the door so he cannot get out if he were to wake up during the night, or before us in the morning. Normally I hear him, but I am a deep sleeper, so may husband may or may not hear him too.

I have heard of people taking small door alarms. I thought of a door stopper, but I'm pretty sure the door has a small strip under it, so there wouldn't be that capability.

 

What do you suggest/advise of how to secure the door?

Thank you!

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My husband and I were just talking about this the other day! When we sail next year our son will be 3 and our daughter 1 1/2. We are concerned about them opening the balcony door as well. We talked about bringing some type of door alarm. We already own a door stopper alarm and may get something to attach to the balcony door as well.

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The balcony doors on most ships have a child-lock....they are hard for ME to disengage! I don't think a small child could do it. Plus, the cabin isn't so large that you won't be within steps of either doorway!

 

You could always hang something "jangly" from the doorknob to the hallway....something that would rattle or bang when the door is moved.

 

I don't know about you, but when my kids were small, the slightest noise would wake me, even from another room....I'd be pretty certain that a child moving about the cabin would wake me!

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Following this post. My kids will be 3 and 4 when we sail in April and Im pretty sure they can open the door. Not worried about my 4 year old, shes a very good girl who i have no doubt wouldnt try to leave the room but I am worried about my 3 year old. He is a very mischievous child.

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Door alarms are good and can be used in other situations as well. In lieu of that something bulky and noisy to "block" the door can help as well (desk chair or suitcase). It will slow them down and if you balance a bell or something "jangly" on it the commotion and the noise will likely alert you.

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My husband and I were just talking about this the other day! When we sail next year our son will be 3 and our daughter 1 1/2. We are concerned about them opening the balcony door as well. We talked about bringing some type of door alarm. We already own a door stopper alarm and may get something to attach to the balcony door as well.

Great idea ..

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Two weeks ago we were on the NCL Dawn with our 28 month old. Sitting in the room having some quiet time and he wandered over to the cabin door, reached up, opened it, and walked out and started running down the hall.... Happened in less than 10 seconds.

 

The "double" lock was not engaged, and fortunately when it was, he could not repeat the trick - it was very "sticky" so even I had a hard time cracking it.

 

But just a word of warning...

 

This was slightly problematic as we were in the 2-bdrm suite. The 2nd bedroom is far away from the main bedroom and although he still was sleeping in the pack and play, theoretically he could have repeated the same trick whilst we were sleeping. Though - his usual reaction upon waking up is a very vocal one, not a sneaky "I want to break out of this prison" attitude.

 

However, we're doing the same cabin in June, and will be buying a wander alarm for the front foyer of the suite. Can't be too safe..

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I asked the same question a couple of months ago on the RCL forum.

 

The best advice I got was to purchase portable travel locks.

 

One brand we purchased was walkabout. Plus we got another travel lock from eBay.

 

We have also purchased the door alarms.

 

Another great suggestion was to place a simple door wedge at the top if the door.

 

A portable string clothes line with bells strung up across the door.

 

Bells on the doorknob the tingle when moved.

 

Travel door stoppers which are alarmed

 

Removeable hooks with string placed on the door and beside and tied together.

 

Duct tape the door closed (hope paint doesn't peel)

 

Wooden rod placed up high & jammed between wall & door.

 

Remove all moving furniture from the room it tables, chairs & what ever a child can move to stand on to try & get out.

 

On rci ships the balcony door is meant to have a hidden child lock at the top.

 

Ask cabin attendant what else they can do to stop kids getting out.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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My son is older now, but when he was a toddler - preschooler, this was a serious concern. These look like great ideas, and in light of the drowning on NCL, I just want to say I think this is a very worthwhile discussion on making sure kids are secured in the cabin. IMHO, a little one getting out of the cabin while parents are in the bathroom or sleeping is a very real hazard. If I remember correctly, the cabin doors don't have deadbolts on the inside for safety reasons (in case of emergency).

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I just purchased the Addalock from Amazon. Hope it works!

 

 

Googled the addalock and it looks very similar to the travel lock we brought on ebay. We are cruising in 2 weeks will report back.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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  • 1 month later...

we bought something like this:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Window-Entry-Alarm-Magnetic-Sensor/dp/B008NXFKLK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395450681&sr=8-1&keywords=door+alarm+sensor

 

very inexpensive, and we just set it in front of the door to the hall- then if the door was open, the alarm would sound (the top part would fall off the bottom part, thus sounding the alarm). We only set it there when we were all inside for the night. We had the 2 bedroom suite too, and were also concerned that the kids would come out of the smaller bedroom and head out the main door thinking it was the bathroom in the night, thus locking themselves out. It's cheap and small, and we'll continue to bring it...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just wanted to add, we cruised in our first balcony in December and my concern was our 5 year old possibly opening the balcony sliding door. (She's normally really good and knows right from wrong, but I had no clue what to expect since this was the first time sailing in a balcony.)

 

I took along some "Christmas bells". :D You know the kind that is attached to a big red ribbon or a leather strap? Any time the door was moved you heard that big bells. It worked perfect. She never tried to open the doors, but every time I did to go out, I'm pretty sure I would have heard it in the middle of the night when everything is quiet.

:)

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So I purchased the Adalock from Amazon and didn't even need to use it, although we took it with us on our cruise. The door was heavy enough to not worry about it. Ethan could certainly reach the door handle, and pull it down, but couldn't pull it back to open it.

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Did you try it on the door to see if it fit? We were just on the NCL Pearl and there was no way our three year old could get the balcony door open (and there's a good lock up high) but she could, with some effort, get the hallway door open. With two more cruise this year, I think I should get some kind of deterrent. I wasn't sure if the Adalock will fit on any door or not.

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I'll tell you, I can barely open the balcony door and I'm a strapping 5ft 8inches tall and weight well over 100 lbs. I've cruised with my now almost 5 year old and she couldn't open either the door to the cabin or the balcony door to save her life. Now if your kids are 6/7/8, etc., then I would put strict rules in place but these cabins are so small, you will notice if they try anything.

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I agree with the balcony door. Good locks - really heavy - hard to open. However, on our cruise a few weeks ago, our just 3 year old, 30 pound little girl opened the door from inside our room to the hall. We were all leaving for dinner and she got to the door first. It took some doing, but she was so proud of herself and said, "Look, I'm a big girl." I tried not to squish her accomplishment, but we had a big talk about never opening the door by yourself.

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Just back from a Royal Caribbean sailing and our almost 4 year old squished his fingers in the stateroom door the first time he tried to open it. That pretty much deterred him from trying again. It was heavy for him to handle once he got it open and he couldn't really get out. He wasn't able to open our balcony door at all.

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  • 2 months later...

This is an old post but I wanted to add an update. We were on NCL's Breakaway last week and before we left I ordered the "addalock" that someone had mentioned in a previous post. I tried to use it in our NY hotel and it didn't fit the triangle shaped lock but there was a bar at the top to secure the door so it wasn't a problem.

 

Now to the Breakaway. This was our 30th cruise and we've never had a door that opened out into the hallway and not into the room. I did see some doors that opened in, but I think most opened out. There is no way to secure a door like that. Within two hours of being in our cabin, our barely 30 pound three year old bolted out the door after my husband. She went the opposite direction from him, so by the time he turned around and started chasing her (and now it's a game) she had run from aft to mid ship elevators and up one floor to the kids club. Her lack of listening isn't my point (we dealt with that later), but it was really easy for her to open the door and we had no way to secure it. At night we put a suitcase in front of the door, but if she really wanted to get out she could have. She didn't leave the room again on her own for the rest of the week, but I was constantly worried about it, especially at night.

 

I'm guessing the Getaway is similar since it's a sister ship. If we were on either in the future I would bring a small bungee cord that could attach to the door handle and up to the clothes hook near the door.

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