How do you get adjoining balconies open?

[rwilk1129]

We have 2side by side balconies for upcoming Pride for our grandchildren. Who do we contact to get the divider open? Can steward do it or should we go to guest services as soon as we board? Thank You.

[Animal Farm]

You need to go to Guest services (one person from each room) to request the balconies opened. The room steward will open the dividers.

[groundloop]

I THINK I've finally got this figured out. 

 

It seems to depend on how the divider opens, on some ships it opens outward and has to be secured to the rail so it doesn't blow around.  For those you need to go to guest services (one person from each cabin) and they'll send someone from the maintenance crew to do it.

 

On the ships where the divider opens inward the steward can do it. For instance, we were recently on Valor and our steward took car of it for us.

 

Pride fall into the first category (we were on her twice at the end of last year).

Edited March 18, 2022 by groundloop

[Shamrock73]

Yes the cabin steward will open it for you upon request BUT you should check ahead of time to make sure the divider opens between the two cabins. They do not open to all adjoining rooms - usually one side or the other. 

[pc2425]

We have always just asked the steward and he was able to do it for us.

[famof4togo]

We have always just asked the steward and he did it, never needed to go to guest services in the past.

[groundloop]

20 minutes ago, famof4togo said:

We have always just asked the steward and he did it, never needed to go to guest services in the past.

 

I was on Pride in December and asked the steward to open the partition, he informed me that we had to go to Guest Services.  Guest Services had a form to fill out and sign for this, so it was obvious that this was the norm on Pride.  Someone from maintenance opened the partition the next morning.

 

As I previously mentioned, I believe that the maintenance team had to do this and not the steward because the partitions open outward and need to be secured with a special clamp. 

 

Yes, on some ships the steward was able to open the partition, but that's not the case on all of them.

[Kanyon71]

Our last cruise before the pandemic, we went to guest services and had our 3 cabins in a row dividers opened. Made it seem like a really huge balcony. 🙂

 

By the time we got back to our rooms that evening of asking they were open.

[rwilk1129]

Thanks everybody for your quick response.

[Tnlynch81]

I have never had to "go" to guest services... just a phone call  authorizing them to do it worked and they did it for us by the next day.

[AQW]

You will always have to go to Guest Services for this on Spirit-class ships (as previously noted, one person from each cabin must go). There are special brackets/braces that they will bring to the cabin to secure the balcony door to the railing -- make your request early, because the bracket supply is limited. We've never had a problem with it, but others have shared here that they they were told the brackets had run out. 

[trbarton]

Good information. I would talk to the steward or if necessary go to guest services as soon as you board the ship. 
 

Tom😀

[Jelly_Toast]

We had two rooms on Freedom in November and I was really looking forward to having a large shared balcony. However, the way they opened blocked one of the cabins balcony doors so we asked the steward to close it back up. 
 

It was easy enough to request to have it opened but I learned that it doesn’t work well for all cabins. 

[FlaMommy75]

Also, keep in mind if you have a connecting room the balcony divider can NOT be opened. We did not know this and were super disappointed. We just got off the Horizon and had two adjoining balcony rooms on the 9th floor- one for my husband and I and one for our teens. Guest services said it is a safety issue because the adjoining door blocks the balcony door. I really wish I had known that in advance because I would have rather picked a the double balcony rather than the adjoining rooms. 

[robc1972]

Bring an allen wrench set or a large flat head screwdriver in your luggage, thats all you will need to open it.

[trbarton]

2 hours ago, robc1972 said:

Bring an allen wrench set or a large flat head screwdriver in your luggage, thats all you will need to open it.

This is the 1st I’ve ever heard of a passenger opening the doors themselves.  I didn’t know that we were allowed to open the doors. Don’t you have to have the steward open the door?

 

Tom🤔

[Denverdonkeys]

9 hours ago, FlaMommy75 said:

Also, keep in mind if you have a connecting room the balcony divider can NOT be opened. We did not know this and were super disappointed. We just got off the Horizon and had two adjoining balcony rooms on the 9th floor- one for my husband and I and one for our teens. Guest services said it is a safety issue because the adjoining door blocks the balcony door. I really wish I had known that in advance because I would have rather picked a the double balcony rather than the adjoining rooms. 

Depends on the ship and the cabins. We just had our balcony door opened for our adjoining rooms this past week on the magic. It was one of that opened outward. The steward did it and there was a hook to keep it open already hanging there.

[robc1972]

12 hours ago, trbarton said:

This is the 1st I’ve ever heard of a passenger opening the doors themselves.  I didn’t know that we were allowed to open the doors. Don’t you have to have the steward open the door?

 

Tom🤔

After waiting for 3 days on one cruise to have it opened, started packing allen wrench and a screwdriver, depends on the boat what you need. Done it a few times, cabin steward knows we are all together and never had an issue.