Can you remove balcony divider?

[blambition]

We are booked on the Diamond Princess for a Jan. sailing and just received our cabin assignments. We are assigned to Baja 219 and Baja 215 which are next to each other. Has anyone sailed in this area of the ship and if so how was the motion that far forward and that high up. Also does anyone know if you can remove the divider between the two balconies so we can have a larger area to lounge. Thanks for any replies.

Vicki

[2ndsailing]

We were on Baja on the Star Princess last year (I'm assuming the Diamond will be similar). The divider doesn't remove, but the door connecting the balconies can be unlocked by your cabin stewart and left open. We did this last year and it was great to be able to go betwen the two cabins via the balcony. Our teenagers were next door so we liked this feature.

Have a great time.

[2ndsailing]

Sorry, I knew there was a second question....We were in 205 and 207 and I do get sea sick. Never felt anything the entire time. I did take Bonamine everyday, just in case, but never felt the motion at all.

[Born Cruiser 2]

You say you have 215 & 219, and state they are "next" to one another.

 

I think there is a cabin "in between" - 217. You might want to check it out

before you make this assumption. I did that once and found out our sequentally numbered cabins were on oposite sides of the ship!

 

Bon Voyage!

[Born Cruiser 2]

You say you have 215 & 219, and state they are "next" to one another.

 

I think there is a cabin "in between" - 217. You might want to check it out

before you make this assumption. I did that once and found out our sequentally numbered cabins were on oposite sides of the ship!

 

Bon Voyage!

[Born Cruiser 2]

You say you have 215 & 219, and state they are "next" to one another.

 

I think there is a cabin "in between" - 217. You might want to check it out

before you make this assumption. I did that once and found out our sequentally numbered cabins were on oposite sides of the ship!

 

Bon Voyage!

[billet]

Just a small word of caution. Some (a few) dividers do not have doors in - it might be worth checking with your TA or seeing if anyone here has stayed in your actual cabin just to be absolutely certain.

[blambition]

Ok truth be told I am the TA but it is usually much more fun to talk on the boards and get input from fellow passengers. I get just as excited cruising as my clients and I have been doing this forever. Anyway I just called Princess and asked and was told that yes the divider does come out however that you have to ask and it is up to your room assistant. They have the final word on if the divider is removed and Princess does not sell the cabin based on the fact that the divider can be removed. So hopefully I can get it taken out. In the case of the Diamond Princess cabin 215 and 219 on Baja deck are next to each other.

I still would like to hear from anyone who has sailed on this ship in this area for any motion as I prefer to be mid-ship to aft and actually prefer the lower decks as I don't really like motion. I am not overly concerned on this ship since it is so large and I will be taking my supply of Bonine with me. I did really well on the Zenith last month in 25 foot seas on our return from Bermuda and Mexico is usually not too bad except when you leave Cabo and return to Los Angeles.

Really looking forward to this sailing as the Golden was wonderful last year!

 

ndsail glad to hear you found the Star so smooth, sounds like I won't have any problems!

Vicki

[Toto2Kansas]

I know on this class of ship there is a small door between balconys, but I have not seen a divider that can actually be removed? This has me a bit puzzled.

The larger class of ships give access to the cabin next door if you request it through this small door, but they don't have dividers that can open for one huge long balcony that I have ever seen.

[Pam in CA]

I've never heard of the dividers being removed. That would take much more than a key to unlock and be quite a production, as a guess. I very seriously doubt that the divider can be completely removed but rather the Princess rep meant that the door between the balconies can be opened. The door itself cannot be removed.

[Colo Cruiser]

Aha, another Princess CSR mystery!!! :D

 

Call back again and I would bet you will get a totally different answer.

[Psee]

The balcony dividers are hinged and have "keyed" stainless steel bolts which can be removed to allow the divider to swing to one side with a hook to keep it from swinging. (Do not attempt, should only be done by a professional cabin steward.) :cool:

[Host CJSKIDS]

We've been on the Golden and the Star, same class ship. and there is a small door that is close to the sliding glass doors that can be opened by the cabin stewards but the whole balcony partition does not come down to make one large balcony.

[tequilasunrise]

Unfortunately the dividers don't remove. The door is small, and snaps shut if you don't prop it open so consider bringing a wedge to keep it open. Still, you can get from room to room without going into the hall, great for families. Just ask your cabin steward to unlock it when you board; s/he checks with the adults booked in each cabin, then opens it for you.

[blambition]

I just called and talked to another rep and she said the same thing that the cabin steward can in fact unbolt the divider and remove it but that I could call back tomorrow before 8pm and confirm this. She actuallly remembered that the door only opened and that it could be left open between the balconies(from when she was on one of the ships herself) but she then checked with someone who confirmed what I was told earlier. Again I will try and call tomorrow to get a better answer. Now I'm just really curious. Would love to hear from anyone if in fact you have had the divider removed.

Vicki

[blambition]

Psee are you describing a way of opening the balconies up? It sounds like you are sayiing there is a way to remove the divider by them removing the bolts and as they told me the cabin steward has to do it.

Vicki

[Toto2Kansas]

I just did a quick look on webshots. Here is a link to a picture (not sure who it belongs to) of the Diamond balcony wall that shows the total balcony partitian. You can see the small hinges, they are attached to the single door (the door is towards the balcony inner wall) that opens between the balconys. A picture is always worth a thousand words. The larger part of the partitian does not open but is fixed to the railing. The room steward will not remove the bolts, but he/she will unlock the door so that it can be opened or closed.

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1231316617051717522EwWJrA

[Host CJSKIDS]

I just did a quick look on webshots. Here is a link to a picture (not sure who it belongs to) of the Diamond balcony wall that shows the total balcony partitian. You can see the small hinges, they are attached to the single door (the door is towards the balcony inner wall) that opens between the balconys. A picture is always worth a thousand words. The larger part of the partitian does not open but is fixed to the railing. The room steward will not remove the bolts, but he/she will unlock the door so that it can be opened or closed.

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1231316617051717522EwWJrA

 

 

That's exactly it....maybe they can take away the door/divider rather than just opening it. The rest is attached to the wall and can't be taken away. You are then left with a passageway between cabins so you don't have to go out to the hallway to go between cabins but it doesn't open the balcony up like the double balconies you find in a suite.

[blambition]

Thanks for the great photo! Also thanks for the input I called again this morning and this does seem to be the final answer . They will take off the door and leave it off during the cruise so you have the passageway and not have to go out into the hall and I guess this does help a little on the balcony.

Certainly the idea of bringing a wedge for the door is a great one just in case the room steward would prefer to leave the door as is.

Again thank you for your replies. Still looking for anyone who has sailed in that area of the ship B219 on the Diamond for a short report on how the ride is in that location.

Vicki

[2ndsailing]

As I earlier posted on the Star its a door that our cabin stewart unlocked and hooked open for our cruise. One morning one of our sons was going to join us for breakfast on our balcony while his brother slept. We could not get the plastic chair through the door. My son had to take it out into the hall and bring it through the cabin door. There was some drain pipe that was in the corner by the door opening this prevented us from bringing the chair through the balcony door....but we found a way....

[DrivesLikeMario]

This is for anyone on the Coral or Island Princess:

 

Be aware that not all Dolphin Deck balconies have a divider that can be opened on both sides. All of the mini-suites on this deck (with the exception of the bump-out section which I'm not sure about) have only ONE balcony door that can be opened.

 

If you're not very careful, you may end up not being able to open the door between the 2 balconies that you want to. We lucked out with our 2 minis - the balcony door was between our 2 cabins, but many people didn't and were very disappointed.

 

This class of ship is the only one that I've seen that has such an unusual situation like this. I would hate for anyone to be disappointed.

[fullsailmom]

My extended family sails on Princess every year and we get side-by-side balconies. The cabin steward comes and uses a special tool to unlock the swinging doors (they will swing both ways). With all the doors open, we have one big balcony and it works great. The doors are plenty big enough to walk through and go to the other cabins...we love it. We have sailed on the Sun/Dawn/Ocean/Sea/Golden/Star ships. I do not know if this feature is available on the new Coral ship.

I also suggest that you bring a 2ft bungee/tie down cord (with hooks on each end) - these work terrific for securing the door so that it doesn't swing back and forth (I have never encountered a door that had a hook to keep it open, but they may have added these since my last cruise Aug 2005).

And I have never heard of them removing the doors completely and all the "dividers" that I've ever seen are metal frames that appear to be part of the structure of the ship and I doubt they could remove that. But you really only need to have the doors opened, it works slick.

[DrivesLikeMario]

The balcony door will lock in place. We've never had a problem with it swinging back and forth. :confused:

[fullsailmom]

LadyJag ~ do they have locks now for the doors? We have always had to rig ours up to stay open. The cabin steward actually fixed ours in August of last year to stay open on the Golden, but they didn't have locks. COOL! We leave on the Star for the Thanksgiving cruise - whole family again, so I'm looking forward to having the balcony doors stay open.

The best thing about having the one big balcony when you are a large group, is we all have coffee together out on the balcony in the morning and get ready for the day. And we have cocktails there before dinner also. Can't wait!

[DrivesLikeMario]

Sounds great! Can I join you? :D LOL Seriously though, we've always had either:

 

a.) a hook that hooks into a circle thing or

b.) a locked in place door

 

It depends upon the ship. The one time I wanted to close the door between our two mini-suites was the one time it was locked in place! Figures! :rolleyes: