Do you sleep with your cabin balcony door open?

[MAZANDSTEVE]

This is just ridiculous. It says for your comfort do not leave the balcony doors open, because if you leave them open, the AC goes off and I am sure they would be sick of people complaining the AC was not working, hence the sign.

If there was any danger at all, they would have to tell you!!

[Bakincakes]

This is just ridiculous. It says for your comfort do not leave the balcony doors open, because if you leave them open, the AC goes off and I am sure they would be sick of people complaining the AC was not working, hence the sign.

If there was any danger at all, they would have to tell you!!

 

 

Sure would.

 

Whenever things like this crop up I think of the woman and the McDonalds coffee.

 

Imagine having to tell people NOT to put a cup of HOT coffee between their legs.:rolleyes:

 

Problem is that too many businesses count on their customers possessing a certain amount of common sense. Signs all over the place prove that far too many people have no common sense and have to be led by the nose. And then they still ignore the signs...:cool:

[MAZANDSTEVE]

Sure would.

 

Whenever things like this crop up I think of the woman and the McDonalds coffee.

 

Imagine having to tell people NOT to put a cup of HOT coffee between their legs.:rolleyes:

 

Problem is that too many businesses count on their customers possessing a certain amount of common sense. Signs all over the place prove that far too many people have no common sense and have to be led by the nose. And then they still ignore the signs...:cool:

 

 

My common sense says to me that leaving the door open slightly when sleeping would be fine. If its gets rough I would close it, in the morning I close it just incase I need to answer the door, I dont have AC on because it irritates my asthma when sleeping. Seriously, this day and age, they would have to out a sign up if there was any danger.

Apart from the fact, I did ask our room steward if it was ok to leave the door open at night and he said it was ok but dont forget to close it when opening the cabin door;) and he explained why. As it was our first cruise at that time, I asked him as I was unsure.

[MAZANDSTEVE]

Great summary of this thread! It seems like some folks have little common sense. If there is no sign in the cabin saying it's forbidden to light the curtains on fire, fill the bathtub with Everclear, or some other nonsense, some of the posters here would argue it's their "right" to do such things.

 

I travel globally on a regular basis. Virtually every hotel in Asia (India, China, Hong Kong) where I've stayed requires the guest to place his room keycard into a slot inside the room to activate the electricity, lights, and air conditioning. When one opens a balcony door or other window, the AC shuts off until the door is re-closed. I would never dream of sleeping with a hotel window open (mosquitos, flies, security breach) and I certainly would never prop my balcony door open on a cruise ship, either.

 

Perhaps the solution is an alarm system that goes off whenever the balcony door is opened for longer than five minutes and auto-bills the offender $500 for screwing up the AC balance in that bank of cabins and causing a potential fire hazard. Of course they would have to put up a warning sign in 40 point bold red font.

 

 

Of course there isnt signs saying not to set your curtains alight:rolleyes: they are known dangers. As for leaving your balcony door open, this isnt a known danger, if it was a danger, there would have to be a sign.

 

And as for using a key card in all hotels over the world to get lights etc, this is to save electricity costs, most people would leave them on when they go out as its not their bill, so this stops this happening.

[BillB48]

Hmmm... I'm wondering if the HVAC system is really set up in a way that would allow this to happen though. It seems that each room is set up as it's own heating or A/C 'zone' allowing each room to have its own temperature setting.

 

The system you describe would require an open ductwork system connecting the adjacent rooms. This type of system wouldn't allow the ability to have a different temperature setting for each room.

 

I suspect the actual setup is a hybrid of these two systems. But, since we know the AC shuts off when the balcony door is opened, there must be some mechanisim that physically blocks the cold air from coming in your cabin. It seems this would isolate your cabin from the adjacent ones.

 

Purely speculation on my part, but it seems to make sense to me.

 

This is the main reason I wrote "can." It will not happen in every single case but it will happen more times than not. You are correct in the AC turns off when the door is opened to the balcony (at least on the ships I've been on), I'm not exactly sure on how the cabin AC is isolated from the main system (probably some sort of damper) but this is not where main source of the drafting comes from. Closed air systems have a "return"to the air handling units, doorways and hallways provide this. The normal opening of doors is accounted for, but when large openings are left open for extended periods the dynamics of the system change. Usually the ship has to be moving somewhere near normal speed and have a reasonable amount of "apparent" wind. The balcony door is a good size opening which will create the draft and the air does not necessarily come from the ducts but from anywhere there are small cracks for air to flow. A good place for the small cracks are around/under the cabin doors but that's not the only place. I'm sure a lot of us have experience the door slamming shut or papers flying about the room, the air like water will take the easiest path.

 

Someone earlier asked what if it is 50deg out side (Disclaimer: that's Fdegrees.... be a bit too toasty for those Cdegrees!) the same situation can occur but it is not as noticeable normally. The main reason is the outside air is cooler and most of time is less humid, so it will take longer to affect the "conditioned" air in the adjacent area.

 

At times when the ship is not moving or there is zero apparent wind leaving the balcony door open will only affect your cabin for the most part.

[koterry]

Sure would.

 

Whenever things like this crop up I think of the woman and the McDonalds coffee.

 

Imagine having to tell people NOT to put a cup of HOT coffee between their legs.:rolleyes:

 

Problem is that too many businesses count on their customers possessing a certain amount of common sense. Signs all over the place prove that far too many people have no common sense and have to be led by the nose. And then they still ignore the signs...:cool:

Bakin you are spot on with your comment here. I think nothing else needs to be said. Some people just don't get it!

[koterry]

My common sense says to me that leaving the door open slightly when sleeping would be fine. If its gets rough I would close it, in the morning I close it just incase I need to answer the door, I dont have AC on because it irritates my asthma when sleeping. Seriously, this day and age, they would have to out a sign up if there was any danger.

Apart from the fact, I did ask our room steward if it was ok to leave the door open at night and he said it was ok but dont forget to close it when opening the cabin door;) and he explained why. As it was our first cruise at that time, I asked him as I was unsure.

Again you want your air conditioning to shut off open the balcony door, and if you open it a crack you will never get to sleep because of the loud whistling noise

[MAZANDSTEVE]

Again you want your air conditioning to shut off open the balcony door, and if you open it a crack you will never get to sleep because of the loud whistling noise

 

 

I had no problems sleeping with the door open, there was no whistling noise:confused:

[71Corvette]

This is the main reason I wrote "can." It will not happen in every single case but it will happen more times than not. You are correct in the AC turns off when the door is opened to the balcony (at least on the ships I've been on), I'm not exactly sure on how the cabin AC is isolated from the main system (probably some sort of damper) but this is not where main source of the drafting comes from. Closed air systems have a "return"to the air handling units, doorways and hallways provide this. The normal opening of doors is accounted for, but when large openings are left open for extended periods the dynamics of the system change. Usually the ship has to be moving somewhere near normal speed and have a reasonable amount of "apparent" wind. The balcony door is a good size opening which will create the draft and the air does not necessarily come from the ducts but from anywhere there are small cracks for air to flow. A good place for the small cracks are around/under the cabin doors but that's not the only place. I'm sure a lot of us have experience the door slamming shut or papers flying about the room, the air like water will take the easiest path.

 

Someone earlier asked what if it is 50deg out side (Disclaimer: that's Fdegrees.... be a bit too toasty for those Cdegrees!) the same situation can occur but it is not as noticeable normally. The main reason is the outside air is cooler and most of time is less humid, so it will take longer to affect the "conditioned" air in the adjacent area.

 

At times when the ship is not moving or there is zero apparent wind leaving the balcony door open will only affect your cabin for the most part.

 

Good comment. I hadn't thought of the air return ductwork. The scenario you describe is possible but I still wonder about the overall affect on the adjacent cabins.

[celle]

This is just ridiculous. It says for your comfort do not leave the balcony doors open, because if you leave them open, the AC goes off and I am sure they would be sick of people complaining the AC was not working, hence the sign.

If there was any danger at all, they would have to tell you!!

 

We had our balcony door open as we slowly approached a port in South America.

 

The weather was hot and humid. The humidity set off the smoke alarm in our cabin. Our cabin steward told us that we weren't the only ones - alarms were going off in many of the rooms he serviced. He asked us to keep the balcony door shut!

[Paul65]

As for leaving your balcony door open, this isnt a known danger, if it was a danger, there would have to be a sign.

 

Obviously, this is incorrect, as there is a danger to leaving your balcony door open, and yet there are no signs (at least that I've seen so far) to warn you of it. I know it seems like there is a sign for every danger these days, but not really so.

 

And if you wonder what danger I mean, I'm talking about the fact that having the balcony door open can cause the cabin door to swing open or shut rather violently, if it is used while that balcony door is open. Yes, there are other dangers, such as allowing a fire to spread more rapidly, if there happens to be a fire, birds flying into your room, bad storms blowing rain in or even causing waves to crash into your balcony, etc. But those are all pretty rare. Many of us have witness what can happen if you open the cabin door while the balcony door is open. And it could cause a serious injury, if you have a body part in the wrong place at the time.

 

Kind of a long explanation there, but I'm just pointing out that the lack of a warning sign doesn't mean there's no danger.

[MAZANDSTEVE]

Obviously, this is incorrect, as there is a danger to leaving your balcony door open, and yet there are no signs (at least that I've seen so far) to warn you of it. I know it seems like there is a sign for every danger these days, but not really so.

 

And if you wonder what danger I mean, I'm talking about the fact that having the balcony door open can cause the cabin door to swing open or shut rather violently, if it is used while that balcony door is open. Yes, there are other dangers, such as allowing a fire to spread more rapidly, if there happens to be a fire, birds flying into your room, bad storms blowing rain in or even causing waves to crash into your balcony, etc. But those are all pretty rare. Many of us have witness what can happen if you open the cabin door while the balcony door is open. And it could cause a serious injury, if you have a body part in the wrong place at the time.

 

Kind of a long explanation there, but I'm just pointing out that the lack of a warning sign doesn't mean there's no danger.

 

 

We were on about sleeping with the door open:rolleyes: so hardly to open the cabin door when asleep. Its only open a few inchs with the curtains across so no birds to get in and if there was a storm, obviously we wouldnt leave it open. Its all common sense really.

There is no warning signs walking along the road, doesnt mean to say you cannot do it, common sense says do it with caution.

If there is a signs saying you are not allowed to do this, then obviously you dont.

The whole point of the thread is, do you sleep with your balcony door open, and I do, there is no danger as long as use common sense , the same as almost everything in life. If you worried about everything, you would do nothing in life, in fact you wouldnt go on a cruise.

[madbaddad]

As if all the comments on this thread aren't enough, a little history recollection proves an interesting point. I'm a scuba instructor and have an avid fascination with shipwrecks and shipwreck history.

 

Other than the inconvenience of the atmospheric sauna of the Caribbean, here's a little thought to think of the next time you leave your balcony door open all night.

 

God forbid it should ever happen again, however, one of the reasons cited for the expedient sinking of the HMHS Britannic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMHS_Britannic (sister ship of the Titanic) off the coast of the Greek island of Kea in 1916, was the finding of all, or most of, the portholes on the ship were opened to allow fresh air into the lower wards. Disasterously this allowed the ship to flood and sink much faster than it otherwise would have. Granted it either struck a mine or was torpedoed. Still it's water tight containment system modified after the Titanic disaster, would have allowed the ship to remain afloat longer, possibly saving it, than it did and should have been enough to allow the rescue of more passengers than those that did make it off the ship.

 

Now it's a deep technical scuba dive at 400 fsw. :eek:

[Maine_girl]

When our room steward on FOS came to our room on embarkation day, he asked us to please make sure the AC was off (which it was) when we had the balcony door open. He also said to make sure to close the balcony door before trying to open the cabin door. So I would take this as leaving the balcony door open is perfectly acceptable. I personally don't like sleeping in humidity and prefer to sleep with the door closed.

[koterry]

When our room steward on FOS came to our room on embarkation day, he asked us to please make sure the AC was off (which it was) when we had the balcony door open. He also said to make sure to close the balcony door before trying to open the cabin door. So I would take this as leaving the balcony door open is perfectly acceptable. I personally don't like sleeping in humidity and prefer to sleep with the door closed.

Well then you would take that as wrong:rolleyes:

[Maine_girl]

Well then you would take that as wrong:rolleyes:

 

Um, no. Why mention it at all then? If it should be closed at all times, then he could have simply requested that we keep the door closed at all times. Saying "When the door is open, turn the AC off" implies leaving the door open is an acceptable option.

[MAZANDSTEVE]

Um, no. Why mention it at all then? If it should be closed at all times, then he could have simply requested that we keep the door closed at all times. Saying "When the door is open, turn the AC off" implies leaving the door open is an acceptable option.

 

 

I agree, my room attendant said the same.

[rick1300]

This should help the debate!!!!!

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4370

[MAZANDSTEVE]

This should help the debate!!!!!

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4370

 

 

 

Cool, its not against the rules.:)

[rick1300]

Cool, its not against the rules.:)

 

What i got from it is that on most cruise lines...no it is not against the rules, but you need to use common sense.

[Maine_girl]

What i got from it is that on most cruise lines...no it is not against the rules, but you need to use common sense.

 

What I got from it is that the issue has to do with the AC, not safety. Turn the AC off and it becomes a non-issue. And yes, common sense always helps.

[travelingfromtulsa]

Obviously, this is incorrect, as there is a danger to leaving your balcony door open, and yet there are no signs (at least that I've seen so far) to warn you of it. I know it seems like there is a sign for every danger these days, but not really so.

 

And if you wonder what danger I mean, I'm talking about the fact that having the balcony door open can cause the cabin door to swing open or shut rather violently, if it is used while that balcony door is open. Yes, there are other dangers, such as allowing a fire to spread more rapidly, if there happens to be a fire, birds flying into your room, bad storms blowing rain in or even causing waves to crash into your balcony, etc. But those are all pretty rare. Many of us have witness what can happen if you open the cabin door while the balcony door is open. And it could cause a serious injury, if you have a body part in the wrong place at the time.

 

Kind of a long explanation there, but I'm just pointing out that the lack of a warning sign doesn't mean there's no danger.

 

 

So following your logic here...

 

We can't walk down stairs, someone might trip and fall.

We can't swim in the pool - you might drown!

Don't eat anything, you might choke!

Why don't we all just wrap ourselves in bubble wrap? That way nothing bad can ever happen.

 

I am a smart enough person to turn the air up, make sure my door is shut and not keep a stack of papers by the balcony. When I leave my room, I shut the balcony door. When it starts raining, I shut my balcony door.

 

The truth is, there is very little or no actual danger when sleeping with your balcony door open if you are smart about it.

[71Corvette]

And I thought this thread was destined for the archives of cruise critic! Gues not! :eek:

 

The article laid out some interesting researchl. Just as many suspected, the cruise lines would prefer that you keep your door shut. However, doing so is not mandatory on any line.

[nyer]

What really confuses me about this thread is that people are saying there is no RULE about having the door open. How about the simple fact that the cruise line is ASKING you to keep the balcony door closed? People choose to ignore the fact that they are being asked to keep the door closed.

[griffy116]

My sister and I shared a cabin and spent half the night up and down because of the balcony door. When she fell asleep, I opened the door. She would wake up and close it. Finally, she said her fear was a bird flying in. I laughed because I didn't think a bird could fly as far as we were out at sea. I found out later I was soooooooooo wrong and that it is possible for a stinkin' bird to decide to fly into my cabin. I'll still leave the door open, but I guess I'll have to sleep with on eye open to watch for the birds :eek:!!!