Connecting adjacent balconies (not rooms)?

[Michael Abney]

We've noticed what appears to be doors between adjacent balconies on most ships.  Has anyone requested to have those doors opened assuming you know the people in the adjacent room?  We have 4 ocean view balcony rooms for a December Symphony of the Seas cruise.  Although the rooms themselves are not connecting, we were wondering if we can connect the balconies by opening those doors.  Thanks in advance.

[karl_nj]

 

Yes, you can ask your cabin steward about it.  He doesn't have they key needed to open it, but he can usually find someone that does.  On some ships it's not possible, but it is on Oasis class ships, like Symphony.  If bad weather is predicted, the captain may tell the crew to keep them locked.

I request this on most cruises, since we usually have 2 adjacent balcony cabins.  I would say I'm able to get the opened about 90% of the time.

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

We did this when sailing on Freedom in April.  We had 5 adjacent rooms and had all the dividers open.  It was awesome to sit on the balcony in the morning sipping specialty coffee and all of us planning out our day together.

Adventure does not have the ability for this so I assume it is Freedom class and above that does?
 

[karl_nj]

1 hour ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Adventure does not have the ability for this so I assume it is Freedom class and above that does?

If I recall correctly "First Gen" Voyager class ships (Voyager, Explorer, Adventure) have metal sided balconies with no door so there is nothing to open.   It might be possible on the 2nd gen ships (Navigator, Mariner) but I've never sailed on them so I can't say for sure.  (QM2 has similar metal balconies, but they do have doors that can be opened)

Radiance class ship balconies sort of look like they could open, but apparently, they don't.  I'm not sure if they actually don't open, or if they just can't be locked in an open position, and it's more of a safety issue.  I've been on other ships on other cruise lines where they open but don't "lock" and that was ok (at least at the time).  You just sort of stick a deck chair there to keep it from flying shut.  But with bad weather they might start to fly open/shut and something could break.

As far as I can tell, the "real" reason these things open is to make "balcony cleaning day" easier for the crew.  Making a 'mega balcony' like your photo is really just an awesome side effect.  But it works out really well for me, especially when I can't get a connecting room.

[Psycho and Barb]

We have done it a few times.  Back in the day when you could buy the Royal cooler filled with beer from the bar...Two or three coolers and the party started on the balconies!

[BigKarl]

In September we had 3 adjacent rooms on Navigator with balcony dividers that swung open. My divider when opened actually partially blocked the sliding door to get to the balcony.  There was also no latch to this divider so we constantly heard it banging against the wall as the ship rocked side to side.  The divider is heavy and the chairs and table pushed up against it did not stop it. We asked the Steward to lock it back in place on day 2.     

[FireFishII]

Even though our rooms were not connected, my family was able to have our balcony doors open on Allure OTS. It was great space to gather.  Our cabin steward was able to get it done for us. 

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

Just as a note…our dividers (again we were on Freedom) were fastened and completely secured.  It’s too bad @BigKarl had an issue when on the Navigator.  Maybe each class of ship has different types of dividers.

[BigKarl]

3 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Just as a note…our dividers (again we were on Freedom) were fastened and completely secured.  It’s too bad @BigKarl had an issue when on the Navigator.  Maybe each class of ship has different types of dividers.

LOL, It actually turned out o.k. and did I mention that the other two cabins were filled with my wife's relatives so I felt sad that it had to be closed  for a whole two minutes then I was over it!

[Ritchie]

We sailed to Alaska this summer with 7 family members in 4 cabins. We asked our cabin steward to open the balcony doors, which he did. We had a great time sharing time on the combined balcony!

[J-9]

We will have 4 adjacent cabins next year on Anthem of Seas, and will plan on getting our steward to open up the balcony dividers.

We decided this was so much cheaper than adjoining rooms, as my sister and her family are having 2 cabins (for 5 people), and adjoining rooms were about an extra £250 each person!  I have no idea why adjoining cabins are so much more expensive for 2023 sailings, normally they are only about £25/£30 extra.  And adjoining balconies cost nothing extra , for the time being anyway….

If I booked today for a balcony cabin next year on Athem:

 

[Michael Abney]

As many folks suggested, our steward was more than happy to open up the outside partitions.  He actually did it immediately and it worked out great, much better than adjoining rooms.  Thanks to everyone for the feedback!