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Matt, I am guessing you are probably right, that once we are onboard, they would open the partitions. But since this is such a hit having our own 'private balcony' amongst the 13 of us, looks like we have decided to go with Celebrity which has straight up told us no problem.

Talked with Royal Caribbean once more today and she read to me that their official policy now (versus the past), is that all partitions are to remain closed for safety reasons since the parttions cannot be locked in the open position. Captains can make exceptions but we will not know until we board the ship. Wow! Sounds like a lawyer's dream come true - captains violating the company safety policy. Perhaps this policy hasn't been well thought through!! In any case, we are moving over to Princess or Celebrity (which interestingly enough is owned by RC) where we know the partitions can be opened.

WAAAYTOO, thanks for the reply. The rep told me no partitions on any of the Royal Caribbean ships can be opened anymore. When our TA was booking the cabins, the RC rep told her they did not open the partitions. That's why I called to see if perhaps our TA just had a rep that was not sure. We were booking on the Oasis. We have always had the partitions opened for us on both Princess and Celebrity and I know Royal Caribbean used to do it as well. We thought we would go back to cruising on Royal Caribbean but this would be a deal breaker.

Tried to book seven adjacent balcony cabins today and wanted to double check with Royal Caribbean that all seven paritions along the balcony could be opened. The rep said that the cruise line does not allow any partitions on any of their ships to be opened anymore. I explained that we might need to consider another cruise line if that is the case. She really didn't care. Wow! What is that all about? The seven couples always enjoy having the partitions opened so we can have a private balcony amongst ourselves. When I called RC two weeks ago, they said no problem. So I went through all the trouble of picking a cruise, cabins, etc with my travel agent for the group and now this! Has anyone else had this experience with Royal Caribbean?