Allure of the Seas balcony door poll

[coconut telegraph]

I decided to put together an unscientific poll to see if there was a concensus on whether or not the door of the balcony must be locked for the AC to work, or simply could be shut for it to work.

[DonnaK]

We had cabin 10584, and the balcony door had to be LOCKED in order for the air conditioner to work. We could never get this cabin cool enough, and it really put a damper on our cruise because we never used the blacony and we always kept the curtains closed to keep the heat out.

[akcruz]

We had cabins 12582 (ocean facing) and 12583 (central park) and the doors only needed to be shut to have the A/C on.

 

DH was very happy with how cool our cabin stayed, me on the other hand was usually under the blanket!

[Erik101]

We were on the 7th deck and I don't remember the room number but it was mid-ship. Anyhow, when I went out on the balcony to read, I shut the door (unlocked from the inside) and when I came back in, the a/c was still on. When I left a 1/2 inch of the door open, the a/c stopped and the room got warm, quick!

[macruisefan]

Okay, here's my conclusion after my cruise last week.

 

It's not about it being locked. It's about the door being sealed. When you "lock" the door, it seals it tight. Now, sometimes when the door was not locked, there wasn't much airflow around it, and it seems the A/C continues to work just fine. Other times, I would close, but not lock the door, and you could hear a loud "hissing", as air rushed out around the seal. When this was the case, the A/C would stop.

 

I have read reports that engineering can tell remotely what doors are "locked" and what doors aren't. I SUSPECT, it's not actually a sensor on the door, but rather a pressure sensor on the A/C unit. When there's a lot of airflow out of the door, the pressure drops, and the A/C turns off. When there isn't a pressure drop, the A/C continues to run.

 

The really STUPID part of the engineering is that it's the exact same system Celebrity has on Solstice class ships, except, you can lock and unlock the door from outside as well.