Balcony partitions between cabins-can they be opened?

[NC Fred]

On the Summit last summer, I asked our cabin attendant to open the partitions between 3 adjoining cabins. His reply was a new policy prevented them from being opened. Has anyone else experienced this and is it now a Celebrity policy on all ships with balconies?

 

Leaving on the Equinox in two weeks with the same situation of 3 adjoining cabins. We would love to open these partitions and have the use of all 3 balconies.  

[mom23guys]

I hope they haven’t changed the policy. We booked four adjoining cabins and have always been able to open them on S class ships. We are on Equinox in about 3 weeks.

 

[prmssk]

My understanding is that most physically cannot be opened on M class ships(there are a few exceptions).  So that might have been the issue on your Summit cruise. 

[Purplsmurf]

I think the only ones that can be opened on the M class ships are the sunset verandas…….but I might be mistaken. I do know that those on the S class ships can be opened, as we have done it many times 

[bigbenboys]

First we were just on Solstice last Nov and we had the divider open with our friends next store.

When it comes to the M Class ships in general the only balconies that can be opened are on deck 11 A1's. These cabins were added to M Class ships after Solstice was built with the new style of dividers. Along with Blu. Blu was cut out of the MDR. Photos from Summit.

 

[wrk2cruise]

3 hours ago, Purplsmurf said:

I think the only ones that can be opened on the M class ships are the sunset verandas…

 

Nope.  They can't be opened.   Only ones on M class ship are like someone else stated deck 11 A1's

[Reel Love]

4 hours ago, NC Fred said:

 

Leaving on the Equinox in two weeks with the same situation of 3 adjoining cabins. We would love to open these partitions and have the use of all 3 balconies.  

Please come back to this thread and let us know the result for your cruise aboard the Equinox.  Exactly the same situation as you with three adjoining cabins on this same ship in June with the same plan of requesting they open the balcony partitions.  Had no issue the last time we sailed the Equinox with this request but that was several years ago so maybe it's changed.

If this is indeed a new policy would be curious to learn the rationale behind it.  One would think with the multibillion dollar debt they are dealing with, along with recent cutbacks in food/quality, reduction in OVC offerings at dinner, new room service charges, etc., and then dealing with the fallout of these decisions from unhappy cruisers, they wouldn't have the time or inclination to worry about a policy to not open connecting balcony partitions at a customers request?  But that's just my way of thinking.  😊

Regardless, I hope that you have a wonderful cruise aboard a truly great ship! 

[Purplsmurf]

13 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Nope.  They can't be opened.   Only ones on M class ship are like someone else stated deck 11 A1's

Ok. Wasn’t sure. Good to know. Thanks

[pilot]

Was on Equinox last October.  Room guy told us Safety Officer would not let him open balcony partitions. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I wonder if you can do it on E-class ships with IV ?🤔😁

[Travelexpert35]

I know you can’t open the IV on the E class ships.

[Reel Love]

4 hours ago, pilot said:

Was on Equinox last October.  Room guy told us Safety Officer would not let him open balcony partitions. 

Aww nuts!  Was any explanation provided?  

[mandream]

They were opened for us on Solstice 2 weeks ago.

 

Mike

[pilot]

1 hour ago, Reel Love said:

Aww nuts!  Was any explanation provided?  

No explanation given. I should have probably followed up with someone, but didn’t. Heard a few other people talking about it.  I couldn’t figure out what the reasoning was, had no problems on other cruises. 

[TXGREG]

We were on the Equinox last March and they opened the divider to my SILs cabin next to us. No pushback at all 

[adolfo2]

Step #1... Is there a door/divider separating the balconies?

Step #2... Stop complaining if there isn't one!

Edited January 14, 2023 by adolfo2
Clarity

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

What about the Sky suites with real balconies on E class ships?  We have 6 in a row on the Apex in March. 

[chengkp75]

The requirement to have opening balcony dividers (for firefighting reasons, not passenger comfort) were as a result of the Star Princess fire in 2006.  So, any ship built before this does not have to have dividers that open, unless cabins have been added after 2006 (like the Summit).  Most ships built before 2006 have not gone to the expense of replacing older non-openable dividers for openable ones.

 

The reasons that dividers cannot be opened are:  If the two cabins are in different fire zones (on either side of one of the hallway doors), then the dividers cannot be opened as this breaks the fire zone boundary.  Otherwise, most ships have policies as to how many total dividers can be opened, and how many in a row, as the dividers act as fire breaks.

 

It is also up to the Captain's personal risk tolerance to decide whether to allow dividers to be opened or not.

Edited January 14, 2023 by chengkp75

[hcat]

as always quite informative..thank you

 

***off topic...do you have any opinion about the disturbing  reports of Creaky Cabins on Edge and  Beyond?

[terrydtx]

On the Reflection last August, we had it opened between our two Sky suites. Our butler opened it up for us when we boarded. My sister and BIL were in the cabin next to us. We have adjoining Sky Suites again this year on the Apex and I have seen pictures of them open on social media posts in E class ships. So unless the policy has REALLY changed we plan to open them again. I know IV cabins do not have partitions that can be opened.

[chengkp75]

17 minutes ago, hcat said:

as always quite informative..thank you

 

***off topic...do you have any opinion about the disturbing  reports of Creaky Cabins on Edge and  Beyond?

Don't know anything about them.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

13 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The requirement to have opening balcony dividers (for firefighting reasons, not passenger comfort) were as a result of the Star Princess fire in 2006.  So, any ship built before this does not have to have dividers that open, unless cabins have been added after 2006 (like the Summit).  Most ships built before 2006 have not gone to the expense of replacing older non-openable dividers for openable ones.

 

The reasons that dividers cannot be opened are:  If the two cabins are in different fire zones (on either side of one of the hallway doors), then the dividers cannot be opened as this breaks the fire zone boundary.  Otherwise, most ships have policies as to how many total dividers can be opened, and how many in a row, as the dividers act as fire breaks.

 

It is also up to the Captain's personal risk tolerance to decide whether to allow dividers to be opened or not.

I call bullish!t on this. We were on the Star Princes fire cruise and that ship, and many prior to that, had balcony dividers that opened. Firefighters are not running down balconies putting out the fire. They are pouring water from above.  In fact the reason for the extent of the fire was because they didn’t have automatic fire suppression (sprinklers) on the balconies themselves. The only room that had damage was one where the cabin fire suppression didn’t work. Princes ships now have fire suppression on the balconies and I make notice when I’m on a ship that doesn’t have it. 
 

 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Each individual balcony is locked. The firefighter would have to get the allen wrench and unlock each and every balcony one at a time. 

[chengkp75]

My wording stands corrected, the partitions were "not readily openable".  Fire teams on the cruise ships I've worked all have the key to open dividers since the Star Princess, and the locks are redesigned.  And, as someone who has extensive shipboard firefighting experience and training, yes, the fire teams would have been going from balcony to balcony on the deck of the fire, so as to get water into the cabins on fire from the outside, which you cannot do from above.  Unless you are standing on the balcony directly above the fire, you cannot direct a hose stream of water into the cabin below, and even then it does not go very far into the cabin, simple geometry.  Also, directly above the fire is the worst place to try to fight it from.  On Star Princess, the fire teams were trying to chop through the dividers to provide firefighting from the outside into the cabins.  Ships are not required to have fire suppression (sprinklers) on balconies, if they have smoke detectors there.  The real reason for the extent of the fire was the fact that the balcony furniture, deck covering, and the divider partitions themselves were all highly combustible materials.  This has also been remediated by requiring non-combustible materials in these areas.

 

And, I dispute the statement that only one cabin had damage.  One of the findings was that the glass balcony doors, with aluminum frames were not fire rated, and many either exploded or the frames melted in, allowing fire into the cabins.  You can see in any picture of the Star Princess after the fire, where many balcony doors had failed and were completely missing, so how could the fire have not entered these cabins?  168 hi-fog sprinkler heads activated in the fire, 9 in the area did not activate.  The worst damage was one cabin where the sprinkler head did not activate.  Many cabins were damaged by the balcony doors failing, and the fire damage confined to the area directly adjacent to the door, but the sprinklers kept the spread from going further into the cabin.

 

And, as noted in the MAIB report, a large contributory factor to the fire's spread was the wind generated by the ship's speed along the side of the ship.  Closed dividers help to stop this wind tunnel.

Edited January 15, 2023 by chengkp75

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Back to the original discussion as I’ve taken us off topic. I’ve never been told on Princess, ever, that they wouldn’t open the dividers for us . Every single cruise they have opened them when we asked. I’ve never asked on Celebrity but I was assuming we won’t have push back this trip. I hope we don’t.