Can a single room key be configured for two rooms?

[chiguypaul]

Has anyone successfully had the front desk staff provision a room key to access two different rooms? In this case adjoining rooms.

 

Thanks

[Clarea]

I believe it depends on the ship.  That has not been possible with older ships, and the solution has been to issue an extra key to those who need access to a stateroom other than their own.  However, there have been some reports of keys being reprogrammed, so it might be possible with newer ships.  In either case,  Guest Services will arrange for you to have access.

[chiguypaul]

14 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

I believe it depends on the ship.  That has not been possible with older ships, and the solution has been to issue an extra key to those who need access to a stateroom other than their own.  However, there have been some reports of keys being reprogrammed, so it might be possible with newer ships.  In either case,  Guest Services will arrange for you to have access.

 

Just for reference, and in case anyone else responds, I'll be on the Harmony.

[Ken at the beach]

It’s not possible on Allure.  We had to get extra keys made.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

3 hours ago, chiguypaul said:

Has anyone successfully had the front desk staff provision a room key to access two different rooms? In this case adjoining rooms.

 

Thanks

Not possible...

[chengkp75]

CAN the card be programmed for two cabins?  Yes.  Your cabin steward's card not only opens his/her cabin, but also the passenger cabins in the block he/she is assigned to.  Maintenance crew have cards that open their cabin, as well as every passenger and crew cabin to allow them to fix your toilet, etc.  It is completely possible to program two cabins on one card.

 

WILL they do this for a passenger?  No.  Barring signed and witnessed permissions from all parties in the two cabins, they won't consider this for passengers for liability reasons, and even if you provided permissions, they would likely not allow it.

[fredflint]

How about if you PAID for both rooms?

 

master keys could be a different type than standard keys since the keys we get are made to last a month at most the all room keys should be much more durable.

 

I would just get 2 keys to tell the truth.

 

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, fredflint said:

How about if you PAID for both rooms?

 

 ...

 

 

I doubt if Guest Services knows who paid for the staterooms.

[Paulxyz2004]

2 hours ago, fredflint said:

How about if you PAID for both rooms?

...

 

This should really have no bearing. It could have been my employer who paid for my cabin as an incentive. Should he get a key to my room? - I dont think so !

 

[not-enough-cruising]

Was on Harmony this July, we had to get a second card issued for “room access only”

[dpostman]

On Anthem we had 2 side by side rooms but we were not able to get one card programed for both rooms.  We were however able to get a wow bracelet programmed for our kids room, so my wife had a card that opened our room and her bracelet that opened the kids room.

 

dp

[xeonpro]

On ‎12‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 6:46 AM, chengkp75 said:

CAN the card be programmed for two cabins?  Yes.  Your cabin steward's card not only opens his/her cabin, but also the passenger cabins in the block he/she is assigned to.  Maintenance crew have cards that open their cabin, as well as every passenger and crew cabin to allow them to fix your toilet, etc.  It is completely possible to program two cabins on one card.

 

WILL they do this for a passenger?  No.  Barring signed and witnessed permissions from all parties in the two cabins, they won't consider this for passengers for liability reasons, and even if you provided permissions, they would likely not allow it.

Technically most cabin access systems don't work that way. Saflok for example programs at room level, you give the key access to room xxx until xx:xx time on xx/xx/xxxx date. The door locks themselves only know their room number and time.

 

If you create new keys for a room before the previous ones expire, the new key tells the lock to lock them out.

Certain locks can be programmed to allow any room # key to access them up until set expire time (for a pool or exercise area etc)

 

Then there are Housekeeping and Master keys that have access to everylock.

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, xeonpro said:

Technically most cabin access systems don't work that way. Saflok for example programs at room level, you give the key access to room xxx until xx:xx time on xx/xx/xxxx date. The door locks themselves only know their room number and time.

 

If you create new keys for a room before the previous ones expire, the new key tells the lock to lock them out.

Certain locks can be programmed to allow any room # key to access them up until set expire time (for a pool or exercise area etc)

 

Then there are Housekeeping and Master keys that have access to everylock.

Not sure how you are disagreeing.  While I have no experience with Saflok, what you say about their programming is typical of all systems, but if a card is programmed for two cabins at the same time that other keys are issued for each of the two cabins, they will not lock each other out.

 

AssaAbloy (formerly VingCard) is one of the most commonly used cruise ship locking systems, and this allows for master keys, and sub-master keys (a housekeeping deck supervisor can have access to all cabins on his/her assigned deck) and sub-set keys (a steward only can open a smaller block of cabins on a deck, or a room service person cannot access crew cabins), and these are just given "expiration dates" of when the crew member is due to get off the ship.

 

The pax cards and crew cards are programmed on the same machine, just using different card stock.

[xeonpro]

22 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Not sure how you are disagreeing.  While I have no experience with Saflok, what you say about their programming is typical of all systems, but if a card is programmed for two cabins at the same time that other keys are issued for each of the two cabins, they will not lock each other out.

 

AssaAbloy (formerly VingCard) is one of the most commonly used cruise ship locking systems, and this allows for master keys, and sub-master keys (a housekeeping deck supervisor can have access to all cabins on his/her assigned deck) and sub-set keys (a steward only can open a smaller block of cabins on a deck, or a room service person cannot access crew cabins), and these are just given "expiration dates" of when the crew member is due to get off the ship.

 

The pax cards and crew cards are programmed on the same machine, just using different card stock.

In Saflok there was no way to program 2 separate rooms, unless you were granting supervisor level privileges. My understanding the same was true of others such as Vingcard in their magstrip form.

Especially once you introduce the Oracle/Micros aspect with room charges. On the hotel side the room number would be scanned and interfaced with the Micros for room charges.

On the ships w/ their Folio #s im not sure how that info was stored on the magstrip track.

 

On newer ships such at Quantum with RFID readers im sure these limitations have gone away and im assuming the locks are hooked in via POE? 🤔

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, xeonpro said:

In Saflok there was no way to program 2 separate rooms, unless you were granting supervisor level privileges. My understanding the same was true of others such as Vingcard in their magstrip form.

Especially once you introduce the Oracle/Micros aspect with room charges. On the hotel side the room number would be scanned and interfaced with the Micros for room charges.

On the ships w/ their Folio #s im not sure how that info was stored on the magstrip track.

 

On newer ships such at Quantum with RFID readers im sure these limitations have gone away and im assuming the locks are hooked in via POE? 🤔

That's what I'm saying.  You could provide a level of access where two rooms are programmed, but they won't do it.  Even with room charges, it works the same way, a crew card can be used to purchase things in the store and at crew bar, or even in passenger venues if the crew has privileges.  I don't think the locks are tied into the POS system, they are stand alone, but they do record every card that swipes that lock.  Not sure why you would need to tie the door lock to the folio, as long as the card ties them together.

[chiguypaul]

Just back from Harmony. Guest Services provided two room keys for me and my wife for our kids room. No issues.

[GEORGIEGIRL]

Just came off of "Oasis" in December and had to pay for 3 rooms (all 3 were adjoining and 2 with a connecting door) and had to get separate keys for each room. Lots of fun to say the least. We were however able to have our balcony partitions opened so we had one long balcony.

[CruiseMomTX]

On 1/7/2019 at 8:39 PM, chiguypaul said:

Just back from Harmony. Guest Services provided two room keys for me and my wife for our kids room. No issues.

 

Thank you for the information!  We sail on the Harmony in May and have 1 teen booked with me and the other 2 booked with my husband so were wondering the same or if its possible to switch people and get new cards once onboard.

[John&LaLa]

On 12/27/2018 at 2:33 PM, not-enough-cruising said:

Was on Harmony this July, we had to get a second card issued for “room access only”

 

Adventure

 

 

[chiguypaul]

30 minutes ago, CruiseMomTX said:

 

Thank you for the information!  We sail on the Harmony in May and have 1 teen booked with me and the other 2 booked with my husband so were wondering the same or if its possible to switch people and get new cards once onboard.

 

Switching any of you into a different room in your situation would be totally OK and something guest services can help you with. On one trip we swapped rooms with our kids. No issue ever.

[CruiseMomTX]

Thank you!