Can Explorer verandas connect??

[GeneBK]

We are considering side-by-side Veranda Suites (maybe Deluxe Veranda or Superior for our family on an Explorer cruise. Suites with connecting doors seem very limited, but can the divider between the verandas be open for passage from one room to the other??

 

Is it guaranteed, or "at the discretion of the captain"? (We were actually told that on another cruise line once in the past.)

 

Thanks!!

[Silver Sweethearts]

We are considering side-by-side Veranda Suites (maybe Deluxe Veranda or Superior for our family on an Explorer cruise. Suites with connecting doors seem very limited, but can the divider between the verandas be open for passage from one room to the other??

 

Is it guaranteed, or "at the discretion of the captain"? (We were actually told that on another cruise line once in the past.)

 

Thanks!!

 

The following is from a retired Chief Engineer of a major cruise line, and even though the dividers may be opened by crew to aid them in firefighting, the Captain, at his/her discretion, may decide that they should not be opened otherwise:

 

"Some cruise lines, in their International Safety Management Systems, set out how many dividers total, and how many in a row, can be opened and not cause what their Safety Management Team ashore has decided is an unacceptable risk of fire spreading too quickly. Some lines leave this strictly to the Captain, and it boils down to his own personal experience with shipboard fires and personal preference for risk.

 

While many have debated with me as to the efficacy of the dividers as fire breaks, because they do not extend to the deck or ceiling, or all the way out to the rail, without the dividers closing 70-80% of the area, with a ship moving at 14-20 knots, you get quite a wind tunnel along the stretch of open balconies. With the dividers closed, the fire has to go around (over, under, or outboard) the non-flammable divider, so the fire will be slowed over not having any divider at all."

[FloridaGirl1962]

We were able to open the dividers on our veranda to our family's suite next door on the Navigator and also the Explorer. On the Explorer, we were able to connected three verandas together.

[wcsdkqh]

FloridaGirl- Did you make that request after you boarded, or in advance thru TA?

[FloridaGirl1962]

On the Navigator we asked our butler to open them, since it was our first Regent cruise.

When we got to our suites on the Explorer this summer, it was very easy to do it ourselves. Required no tools. The room stewardess didn't say anything when she saw us opening them. We did close them before we left the ship.

[wcsdkqh]

Very good, thx.

[ridolphi]

We had three F suites together on Explorer last year and all we did was ask the room stewardess to open the doors between them and it was done by the next day. We have also opened the doors between suites on Mariner in the past.