Still, why can't I leave my balcony door open at night?

[AmazedByCruising]

My neighbours would be inconvenienced. 6 or 8 cabins are basically sharing the same AC. I know the answer for the current ships, but new ships are no different.

 

Hearing the waves, and smelling the sea while being gently rocked to sleep would be a very nice perk. Is it technically impossible, financially impossible? Would $2 extra per night for my very own AC,  $11K extra over the course of 15 years be enough to pay for it and keep it running?

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, AmazedByCruising said:

My neighbours would be inconvenienced. 6 or 8 cabins are basically sharing the same AC. I know the answer for the current ships, but new ships are no different.

 

Hearing the waves, and smelling the sea while being gently rocked to sleep would be a very nice perk. Is it technically impossible, financially impossible? Would $2 extra per night for my very own AC,  $11K extra over the course of 15 years be enough to pay for it and keep it running?

Regardless of the a/c, keeping the balcony doors shut maintains positive air pressure  within the ship, which is part of the fire and smoke retardation system. Leaving your balcony doors open endangers you, and everyone else on the ship. 

[retafcruiser]

Just sleep on the balcony.:o)

[AmazedByCruising]

38 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Regardless of the a/c, keeping the balcony doors shut maintains positive air pressure  within the ship, which is part of the fire and smoke retardation system. Leaving your balcony doors open endangers you, and everyone else on the ship. 

 

 

I believe the front door has a gap only to allow for the shared a/c. I think we need @chengkp75 :)

 

[SantaFeFan]

40 minutes ago, retafcruiser said:

Just sleep on the balcony.:o)

 

Some people claim they drag their bed's mattress out there for that very reason. I find it hard to believe, but considering the other dumb things we often see people doing, it just might be true. 

[Donald]

30 minutes ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

 

I believe the front door has a gap only to allow for the shared a/c. I think we need @chengkp75 🙂

 

The vent on the bottom of the front door of your cabin is designed to allow the overpressure air in your cabin to flow away from your door, carrying smoke and flames away from your cabin door in case of fire.

Leaving the balcony door open defeats the overpressure air in your cabin by allowing it to escape to the balcony.

The vent on the bottom of your front door then allows smoke and flame to readily enter your cabin in a fire.

If the wind is blowing past your open balcony door, it could create a lower air pressure in your cabin, resulting in smoke / flame being sucked into your cabin via the vent on your front door (if there is a fire outside your cabin).

 

Quite a few ships are designed with shared ventilation ductwork between cabins.

If you open your balcony door, lowering the overpressure air in your cabin, the overpressure air in your neighbor's cabin (including cold air, hot air, cigarette smoke, other smells, music, TV noises, fire, smoke, etc) is pushed into your cabin via the shared air duct system.

[Donald]

1 hour ago, AmazedByCruising said:

My neighbours would be inconvenienced. 6 or 8 cabins are basically sharing the same AC. I know the answer for the current ships, but new ships are no different.

 

Hearing the waves, and smelling the sea while being gently rocked to sleep would be a very nice perk. Is it technically impossible, financially impossible? Would $2 extra per night for my very own AC,  $11K extra over the course of 15 years be enough to pay for it and keep it running?

It is technically possible. Not easy, nor cheap - but possible.

 

In the current mass market cruise industry, one of the biggest complaints is the price of a coca-cola. Many of your fellow cruisers and fellow CC posters are constantly discussing ways to save even a dollar on their cruise fare. You are proposing to increase those fares. Far too many of your fellow cruisers are quite willing to inconvenience others and take a calculated safety risk in order to increase their pleasure (opening the balcony doors) rather than actually paying for a safer, more polite alternative.

Your proposal will never fly.

[davekathy]

2 hours ago, AmazedByCruising said:

My neighbours would be inconvenienced. 6 or 8 cabins are basically sharing the same AC. I know the answer for the current ships, but new ships are no different.

 

Hearing the waves, and smelling the sea while being gently rocked to sleep would be a very nice perk. Is it technically impossible, financially impossible? Would $2 extra per night for my very own AC,  $11K extra over the course of 15 years be enough to pay for it and keep it running?

Grab your pillow and sleep in a poolside lounger. Look at the money you'll be saving. Plus you've got your poolside lounger already for the next day. 

[Viv0828]

on our last cruise the person on one side of us slept on a lounger on their balcony most nights.

[Donray]

Could someone post the cruise contract where it states balcony doors must remain shut

[capriccio]

 

3 hours ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

 

I believe the front door has a gap only to allow for the shared a/c. I think we need @chengkp75 🙂

 

 

I remembered that chengkp posted on this thread: 

"What Mario fails to mention with regards to balcony doors is that one cabin who does leave their balcony door open will affect an entire block of cabins' AC.  Typically all the cabins on that deck, on the same side as the offender, and in the same fire zone (between the passageway doors).  So, even though you are doing everything you can, some other inconsiderate passenger is causing your cabin to be warm."

 

"If you're having problems with your AC, no matter what you do, the first thing is to walk down the passageway, both sides of the ship, in your fire zone, and listen for air whistling under a door.  That is the culprit who has their balcony door open, and is causing the reduction in AC to all the cabins in the zone.  Report that cabin number when you complain about the AC, or if you don't hear that, then notify guest services that there is a problem."

 

15 minutes ago, Donray said:

Could someone post the cruise contract where it states balcony doors must remain shut

 

I'm not bothering to look up the cruise contract but I can tell you from over 25 cruises on Princess there is a warning sign on every balcony slider just above the door handle to keep the door closed.

[Donray]

It also appears that few if any know how the heat and air work.  Please explin how the air is control within a room.  If I turn off the air and I open the balcony door how does it affect anyone else?  Be specific. 

[ilikeanswers]

On Aranui there was a lock (I don't know if this the right word) on the balcony door that allowed you to keep the door opened even when the ship was rocking. I was surprised because I always assumed that you weren't suppose to keep the balcony door open. It turned out to be a good thing for us as the room had uncontrollable A/C and was freezing especially at night. But I am curious has anyone else come across balcony doors like this on other cruise ships? 

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, Donray said:

Could someone post the cruise contract where it states balcony doors must remain shut

A truly silly post.  Every line has its own “cruise contract” :  there is no such thing as “the cruise contract”.

 

Different ships have different ways of telling you - some in the manual left on your desk, on a sticker on the door. But they all make it clear: DO NOT LEAVE BALCONY DOOR OPEN (or words to that effect).

Edited August 28, 2019 by navybankerteacher

[Silver Sweethearts]

A minor point, but if you will be sailing within sight of shore, there is a possibility of having unwanted bugs, moths, birds, flying insects, etc. coming right in that open door to visit you (we even remember reading how a bat flew into one cabin through an open door.  Who knows what "visitors" you may wake up to...

[MBP&O2/O]

“Some people claim they drag their bed's mattress out there for that very reason. I find it hard to believe, but considering the other dumb things we often see people doing, it just might be true. “

 

I used to work on older ships that were built without A/C and this was common practice.

The ships were designed to be cool with lots of shade and covered areas etc but inside a metal box in the tropics the practicalities were somewhat different. 

 

Quite a pleasant experience.

[chengkp75]

5 hours ago, Donray said:

It also appears that few if any know how the heat and air work.  Please explin how the air is control within a room.  If I turn off the air and I open the balcony door how does it affect anyone else?  Be specific. 

Having intimate knowledge of cruise ship AC systems, I'll explain how the systems (note I say "systems", because there are two) work.  One system is the one controlled by the thermostat in your cabin.  This system is just like a window AC in your home, it takes air from the cabin, sends it over a cooling coil, and returns that air to the cabin, this is "recirculation" air, and is typically shut off when the balcony door is opened.  The second system is the "fresh air" system.  Since the bathroom exhaust fan is running 24/7, removing air from the cabin, this air must be made up from outside, both in order to not underpressure the cabins but also to maintain the previously mentioned overpressure for safety.  So, the ship takes in warm outside air via large fans, sends this to AC air handler rooms (those large "white areas" running down the middle of the cabin decks), where the air is cooled by large cooling coils, and then it is sent to the cabins as cooled, fresh air.  These large air handlers are grouped so that one air handler supplies all the cabins in a fire zone (between the fire doors in the passageways) for one or two decks, maybe split port and starboard, maybe not, so about 30-50 cabins get their fresh air supply from one fan.  Now, if you leave your balcony door open, this removes the designed overpressure that the fresh air supply is creating, and all the fresh air supply from those 30-50 cabins will flow to your cabin trying to re-create the overpressure, so that the rest of the cabins will not receive cooled fresh air, but will get make up air from under the passageway door, from the warm returning air in the passageways.  Your cabin will remain cool, and everyone else's will get warmer.

 

Specific enough?

[chengkp75]

5 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

On Aranui there was a lock (I don't know if this the right word) on the balcony door that allowed you to keep the door opened even when the ship was rocking. I was surprised because I always assumed that you weren't suppose to keep the balcony door open. It turned out to be a good thing for us as the room had uncontrollable A/C and was freezing especially at night. But I am curious has anyone else come across balcony doors like this on other cruise ships? 

Aranui is more a cargo ship than a cruise ship.  Lack of individual cabin temperature control is the norm on cargo ships.

[chengkp75]

11 hours ago, AmazedByCruising said:

My neighbours would be inconvenienced. 6 or 8 cabins are basically sharing the same AC. I know the answer for the current ships, but new ships are no different.

 

Hearing the waves, and smelling the sea while being gently rocked to sleep would be a very nice perk. Is it technically impossible, financially impossible? Would $2 extra per night for my very own AC,  $11K extra over the course of 15 years be enough to pay for it and keep it running?

It would be more like 30-50 cabins inconvenienced, not 6-8.

 

As I've explained to you before, this would require a motorized damper at each cabin on the fresh air ductwork that would shut off the fresh air supply when the balcony door is opened.  Then you would need a variable speed drive for the supply air fan, because when you shut a damper on one cabin, you increase the pressure to the rest of the cabins, so you would need to slow the fan down slightly when each damper is closed, and speed it up again, when a damper opens.  So, several thousand dampers (one for each cabin), 30-40 variable speed drive units in the 50-60kw range, and all the control system (wiring, pressure sensors, controllers), would probably run in the neighborhood of $300-400k in capital cost, and the addition of another Refrigeration Engineer at $40-50k per year to handle maintenance, plus parts.  Could the cruise line increase fares to cover this?  Sure, but they look at cost/reward, and say, why bother, the system works fine now.

 

And that's not even mentioning the maintenance costs of having warm, moist sea air in the cabins for extended periods causing corrosion to metal and swelling to wooden items.

Edited August 28, 2019 by chengkp75

[cb at sea]

What you are hearing in your cabin is the wind...not the waves.  Even 12-15 ft. seas, you won't hear waves "breaking"...as the ship is plowing thru them....it's not like being on a beach!

[MicCanberra]

I find the noise unacceptable as the wind howls through the cabin door.

[chengkp75]

Just now, MicCanberra said:

I find the noise unacceptable as the wind howls through the cabin door.

That's how I find those cabins with the balcony door open when we get a complaint.

[ilikeanswers]

28 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

What you are hearing in your cabin is the wind...not the waves.  Even 12-15 ft. seas, you won't hear waves "breaking"...as the ship is plowing thru them....it's not like being on a beach!

 

True it is not technically waves breaking but the water hitting the ship sounds a lot like it and personally for me it was a pleasant sound, so I understand the appeal.

Edited August 28, 2019 by ilikeanswers

[spookwife]

12 hours ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

Some people claim they drag their bed's mattress out there for that very reason. I find it hard to believe, but considering the other dumb things we often see people doing, it just might be true. 

 while I don't drag a mattress out there, I have  done it myself a few times.   I do bring a pillow and a blankie

[MicCanberra]

I can understand people wanting to sleep out of doors while cruising, but surely the promenade is better than on the balcony.