Picking a stateroom

[Garyjames220]

Hi

 

I booked the utopia of the seas I’m going with my wife, kids and mother in law

 

we have a connecting room on deck 12 aft

 

I wanted midship but it’s not available and just wanted advice if u would stay put or go to another deck. Front and aft is available on most decks I think. 
 

I think 12 aft is right by the Italian restaurant, would u stay put or is there a deck or would move to or front or aft that u think would be more suitable for noise, kids clubs, movement etc. 

 

I’m guessing with these connecting rooms u can lock the door and balcony’s on them to make it private at night.

 

they seem to go fast I’m booking for end of next year  and all

[firefly333]

I like deck 10 at the highest when I've had central park, but it's up to you. I had 12 last time and because I'm open to the inside get a lot more pool noise, kids yelling. If you have a ocean view maybe less of the kkds noise. 

 

Doing boardwalk on utopia. Would have to go look where I am. TA choose the cabin. 

 

That being said I'm not as picky as others where I am. I dont sit out that much during the day either. 

[Scottdalfonso]

I think it's a good spot- not too far from the elevators, the restaurant won't cause any noise or issues. There doesn't even appear to be any connecting rooms midship, at least on deck 12. But You are only one floor from the kids clubs, but they are on the other side of the ship so noise wouldn't be an issue there,  and two from the pool deck. It's up to you if you feel the need to be mid ship, but I'd stay with those rooms, for sure! 

[NRWPA]

My last cruise I was in a connecting balcony but not with anyone I was cruising with. The outside balcony door between cabins was still unlocked when I checked in. The cabin steward used a special tool to lock it. Since housekeeping is only once a day unless in a suite, I'm not sure your steward would want to open it every morning and lock it every night. You can of course lock your sliding glass door to the balcony. It appeared the connecting door inside the cabin was locked or unlocked with an actual key. YMMV

Edited February 28 by NRWPA

[delmom18]

Both the interior door and the balcony connecting door have to be unlocked by housekeeping however the interior connecting door also has a deadbolt to use if you don't want that door open at some point.   The room balcony doors have a curtain so if you're concerned about family members from the connecting balcony room peering in at night, the curtain will block that while still allowing daytime access.   In our case, we simply have the connecting doors unlocked at the beginning of the cruise and then knock on the interior doors if it's closed.  (each room has a separate door on the ships I've been on).

[Garyjames220]

Think I’ll stick with deck 12 then 🙂

Edited February 28 by Garyjames220

[Garyjames220]

36 minutes ago, delmom18 said:

Both the interior door and the balcony connecting door have to be unlocked by housekeeping however the interior connecting door also has a deadbolt to use if you don't want that door open at some point.   The room balcony doors have a curtain so if you're concerned about family members from the connecting balcony room peering in at night, the curtain will block that while still allowing daytime access.   In our case, we simply have the connecting doors unlocked at the beginning of the cruise and then knock on the interior doors if it's closed.  (each room has a separate door on the ships I've been on).

We have a balcony  I’m guessing we can just lock and unlock the door as we please then 

Edited February 28 by Garyjames220

[Garyjames220]

50 minutes ago, NRWPA said:

My last cruise I was in a connecting balcony but not with anyone I was cruising with. The outside balcony door between cabins was still unlocked when I checked in. The cabin steward used a special tool to lock it. Since housekeeping is only once a day unless in a suite, I'm not sure your steward would want to open it every morning and lock it every night. You can of course lock your sliding glass door to the balcony. It appeared the connecting door inside the cabin was locked or unlocked with an actual key. YMMV

So u need a special key to lock the door in a balcony room 

[jbrinkm]

1 hour ago, Garyjames220 said:

So u need a special key to lock the door in a balcony room 

Yes, as @delmom18 and @NRWPA said, the attendant has a special key to lock and unlock the connecting door and they are the only ones who can do it. Also, the interior door only swings one direction. We were on what we considered the "wrong" side of the door the last time we had a connecting room with our kids - the door went into their room so they could have manually blocked it from opening, but we could not. Perhaps a large door stop or some other gadget could help fake lock the door from the side it swings in to.

 

[Garyjames220]

1 hour ago, jbrinkm said:

Yes, as @delmom18 and @NRWPA said, the attendant has a special key to lock and unlock the connecting door and they are the only ones who can do it. Also, the interior door only swings one direction. We were on what we considered the "wrong" side of the door the last time we had a connecting room with our kids - the door went into their room so they could have manually blocked it from opening, but we could not. Perhaps a large door stop or some other gadget could help fake lock the door from the side it swings in to.

 

Ok that makes sense

 

You can still close the door the between the rooms but just not lock it then it sounds 

[Mum2Mercury]

Several thoughts: 

- I looked at the online deck plans, and it seems to be a good location:  The restaurant won't be a problem neighbor.  Above and below you are only cabins.  You'll be near the elevators and pretty near midship.  Two flights of steps up, and you're at the pools /Windjammer.  

- Connecting rooms aren't the easiest to get.  Don't let go of this one unless you're SURE you have another set of rooms securely in your grasp.  

- We once had three balconies in a row, and we asked the cabin steward to unlock the balcony dividers, giving us one big, long balcony shared among us.  We loved it.  We left our sliding glass doors unlocked so we could come and go among the three cabins without going "out in public".  We did not worry about strangers entering our cabins through the balconies.  The cabin steward had to go get a special tool from his supervisor to unlock these doors, and I don't think fetching that special item on a daily basis would've been an option. 

- To be perfectly clear:  Everyone's talking about the dividers between balconies.  The sliding glass door in your room requires no special key.  It'll lock just like any other sliding glass door.