Celebrity-Room Key on Front Door? Maybe not such a great idea

[bobrxlex]

I won't get into all the details (some them you won't want to here about).  I boarded the Summit on Sept 8 with my heavy backpack on and headed up to my room all the way aft.  After arriving at room, I find no room key on door. The room attendant told me that a couple already took the key, went in to the cabin and then left.  I then took my heavy back and headed to guest services.  After explaining the situation (they looked at me funny) they kind of blew it off and said they will issue me a new key and I could go back to my room.  I said what about the people with the other key and said they would deactivate the key immediately.  So went back to cabin (with heavy backpack) and entered cabin.. I seemed ok (no luggage, etc) so we unloaded backpack (bottle water) put money in safe and went out to lunch.  After a leisurely lunch (standing in Oceanview cafe because no seats available) we went back to cabin to walk in and find the 2 strangers standing there. They were from Germany and only one spoke English. He said this was his cabin because the number on the key was the same as on the door (only my name was also on the key). After calling down to guest services (they wanted us to go back down) we finally got the strangers name and found out the were on the other side of the ship half way down the hall.  They apologized and headed to their correct room. Later they brought back my dinner reservations and excursions that they thought was theirs. They also took my cruise critic party invitation so I never made it to meek and mingle.  They did manage to throw away  2 opened water bottles and use the bathroom(ugh).  You know what Forrest Gump says. So that was a very stressful way to start a 2 week cruise and maybe we were the first and only ones for this to happen to but IT MIGHT HAPPEN AGAIN. This probably could have been avoided if guest services had immediately deactivated the original room key that they said they would do.

 

[TeaBag]

I think this new idea of putting the room key by the door of the room is beyond stupid for the very reasons you have posted.

[maggie.1008]

I agree. Even though it is nice to get rid of your bags, I see other problems just like the OP above. 

[Fouremco]

I have no particular problem with the concept of the key being at the door, as problems are few and far between, but guest services definitely made a mistake. The other key should have been deactivated immediately, before you were even issued the replacement key. There are checks and balances in any system, but in this case, guest services weren't up to the job. 

[Fogfog]

According to the Hotel Director and the Guest Services.... they are finding the express check in with pics uploaded/keys at the room MUCH more efficient.

 

The luggage arrives and is left outside the door as before... so really I wonder if there is any more potential for theft? or Not? 

I asked DH about it and he thinks it is likely very remote

 

Sounds like those people were quiet confused/language and perhaps jet lagged. It can happen to us all.

 

Surprised GS didn't block/reissue the key right away because in order to issue a New key the old ones are deactivated.

So this seems "odd" in more ways than one

 

 

 

[bobrxlex]

9 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

According to the Hotel Director and the Guest Services.... they are finding the express check in with pics uploaded/keys at the room MUCH more efficient.

 

The luggage arrives and is left outside the door as before... so really I wonder if there is any more potential for theft? or Not? 

I asked DH about it and he thinks it is likely very remote

 

Sounds like those people were quiet confused/language and perhaps jet lagged. It can happen to us all.

 

Surprised GS didn't block/reissue the key right away because in order to issue a New key the old ones are deactivated.

So this seems "odd" in more ways than one

 

 

 

 

[bobrxlex]

I am sure the people in the room may have been confused or jet lagged but if you walk in the room for the 2nd time and found 12 bottles of water on the table and 2 opened waters and a backpack on the bed wouldn't you think something strange. and yes the new keys were issued then we went back to room, unpacked some of backpack and then went to lunch (about 15 minutes) and the old keys were still not deactivated.  yes it does seem odd

[Charles4515]

22 minutes ago, bobrxlex said:

I am sure the people in the room may have been confused or jet lagged but if you walk in the room for the 2nd time and found 12 bottles of water on the table and 2 opened waters and a backpack on the bed wouldn't you think something strange. and yes the new keys were issued then we went back to room, unpacked some of backpack and then went to lunch (about 15 minutes) and the old keys were still not deactivated.  yes it does seem odd

 

The system would work if they had done their job and deactivated the key. I would have made a big stink about them not deactivating the key. You should have at least gotten a bottle of wine or something from that mistake.

[fleckle]

1 hour ago, bobrxlex said:

............They did manage to throw away  2 opened water bottles and use the bathroom(ugh).  You know what Forrest Gump says. So that was a very stressful way to start a 2 week cruise and maybe we were the first and only ones for this to happen to but IT MIGHT HAPPEN AGAIN.

 

Hmmm, with this new system, it looks like anyone could take the keys to any cabin and go in and use the bathroom, or take the bottled water or whatever else they wanted out of the cabin.

 

Also, with the new room numbering method someone could be at the "right" room number but on the wrong deck and not even realize it.

 

[Plato123]

We had a somewhat similar problem on the Edge.  We went to our aft cabin and the key was not ours, and did not open the door.  Someone had hand written our number on the key.

After a long delay (with housekeeping staff helping), our butler finally showed up and brought us the correct key, and that was the beginning of a somewhat disappointing Edge cruise.

Not sure we like this new approach and hope it gets fixed with better quality control..

[phoenix_dream]

I'm curious - if they found out the key was not theirs, why did they not just give the OP the room key??  The posting says once they found out they were wrong, they apologized and headed to their own room.  Why did they keep the key?  It seems to me that the issue would have stopped then and Guest Relations would no longer need to be involved.  There would be no key that needed deactivating if the German couple gave the key to the right passengers then and there.  Maybe I'm missing something?

[K12Guy]

Just curious what stateroom class this was?

[Bo1953]

1 hour ago, bobrxlex said:

I am sure the people in the room may have been confused or jet lagged but if you walk in the room for the 2nd time and found 12 bottles of water on the table and 2 opened waters and a backpack on the bed wouldn't you think something strange. and yes the new keys were issued then we went back to room, unpacked some of backpack and then went to lunch (about 15 minutes) and the old keys were still not deactivated.  yes it does seem odd

Another possibility is, the original entrants were back in the cabin before their key was de-activated, as such they were there chillin' before the original cabin assignee returned to the cabin...

 

bon voyage

[hcat]

2 hours ago, maggie.1008 said:

I agree. Even though it is nice to get rid of your bags, I see other problems just like the OP above. 

 

This could be done if they gave you the key at check in.,.but they elminated that very important step.  Now they just have the roving folks  check you in, while you stand there with your carryons, no one to  answer questions.....one big cattle call.

 

 Much better the old way,  and they used to escort  all guests to the cabins,

Edited September 23, 2019 by hcat

[hcat]

5 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

Another possibility is, the original entrants were back in the cabin before their key was de-activated, as such they were there chillin' before the original cabin assignee returned to the cabin...

 

bon voyage

They were doing more than chillng,.....how gross!

[Bo1953]

4 minutes ago, hcat said:

They were doing more than chillng,.....how gross!

After all, they did believe they were in the correct cabin.

 

A quick call to housekeeping would get this cabin back in shape as was originally, I Am sure...

 

bon voyage

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

 

This could be done if they gave you the key at check in.,.but they elminated that very important step.  Now they just have the roving folks  check you in, while you stand there with your carryons, no one to  answer questions.....one big cattle call.

 

 Much better the old way,  and they used to escort  all guests to the cabins,

We have done 2 cruises with uploaded photos and keys at the room.  We love it, not only has it been faster we also could go the OV and not keep ducking the folks that forget they have  backpacks and hit others as they do a quick turn or dodging Roll boards. 

[kathynorth]

1 hour ago, Bo1953 said:

Another possibility is, the original entrants were back in the cabin before their key was de-activated, as such they were there chillin' before the original cabin assignee returned to the cabin...

 

bon voyage

 

Except the OP was told the keys were deactivated and then the OP went back to the cabin, unpacked items, went to lunch, etc. The others arrived to the cabin well after the OP was told that the keys had been deactivated. The only explanation is that the keys were not deactivated and there were now 4 active key cards to the OPs cabin. 

[Bo1953]

5 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

 

Except the OP was told the keys were deactivated and then the OP went back to the cabin, unpacked items, went to lunch, etc. The others arrived to the cabin well after the OP was told that the keys had been deactivated. The only explanation is that the keys were not deactivated and there were now 4 active key cards to the OPs cabin. 

Missed that detail....

 

Thank you...

 

boy voyage

[crash3x]

  Last Nov and every other year we get our sea pass when we check in at the pier even with Express Check in form we print off with our pic already uploaded.   When did Celebrity start putting keys on the door?

Edited September 23, 2019 by crash3x

[CHEZMARYLOU]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

 Much better the old way,  and they used to escort  all guests to the cabins,

We only experienced this on our first Celebrity cruise in 1997.

[jelayne]

Keys at the  cabin started with the Edge and is rolling out on the other ships.  Royal does it and friends have told us they experienced that on Carnival

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I too wonder about the new system of having the sea passes outside the door. It seems as though it would be hard to control. Guess we'll find out in November.

[bobrxlex]

Kathynorth, you got everything correct. Now there are 4 active keys and that caused the real problem..

as for jelayne, sure its great if it works but you wouldn't be going to OV if you didn't have a room. 

also to answer another question, I had a family veranda, the other couple had a regular veranda.

also phoenix dream, the other was not in the room when I first arrived.  we had to go to guest services to key new keys. I didn't see other couple until we got back from lunch,  it was their 2nd time in the room and the first time we saw them

[Charles4515]

7 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

I too wonder about the new system of having the sea passes outside the door. It seems as though it would be hard to control. Guess we'll find out in November.

 

They have been doing it for awhile on Royal Caribbean. On Harmony of the Seas last January they had it in place. I was on Summit in June and they did not have it yet. We were able to drop off our bags but we had our card at check in.