A Warning - How Secure is Your Cabin Door?

[SarahQ]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post on the RCCL boards, so I fully expect someone will find something to flame me about, but I wanted to share our experience aboard Liberty in the hopes that it may prevent the same issue for someone else.

 

My husband and I, along with our almost-two-year-old son were on Liberty last week (Sept 15-22), on Deck 10 in a GS.

 

On Thursday night, I returned back to our cabin (around 12:30am) where DS and DH were sleeping. As I had done most nights before, I tried to open and close the door as quietly as I could (turned the handle and kept it down until I closed the door, then released it). I made sure the bathroom door was locked from the outside (our son was obsessed with the bathroom, and the only way we could keep him out was to lock the bathroom door so he couldn't get in), and I went to bed.

 

Around 2:45am I woke up suddenly and realized my husband was awake as well, I immediately noticed there was more light in the room than normal. He turned to me and whispered "he's in the bathroom" (meaning our son), which confused me, as I thought I had locked it when I came in. I immediately looked over and saw that my son was still sleeping on the sofa bed and that's when I started to panic - someone was in our cabin.

 

My husband immediately got out of bed and went over to the bathroom/door area. There was an older man standing there, urinating on our floor. My husband calmly but firmly told him he was in the wrong cabin and led him out the door into the hallway, and came back to tell me what had happened.

 

You can imagine that we were in shock. I told DH immediately to go down to Guest Services and have them report it to security. We had no idea how this person had gotten into our room. He did so and I stayed with DH (who somehow was not woken up by all the commotion), but of course I was totally freaked out at this point to be alone in the cabin, not knowing what was going on.

 

Once we finally got in touch with security, they told us they would audit the lock on our door to see if a keycard was used to access it or not, and would try to look at the security videos to see if there was a view of the man accessing our cabin. In the morning, we were told that there had been no card access to our room at the time this incident occurred.

 

From our own experiments with the door after this incident, we determined the following most likely happened: our door latch did not work properly and so the door lock mechanism did not engage fully unless you shut the door very firmly and quickly. Although the door was closed and seemed locked (if you pushed on it, it would not open), if you turned the handle and pushed hard, you could gain access. Most likely the old man was locked out of his own room, was disoriented and somehow started trying different cabin doors and ended up in our room (his room was 3 doors down from what security told us), where he found the bathroom door locked and promptly peed on our floor.

 

We are VERY lucky that was all that happened - the scenarios that could have played out are very frightening. The old confused man could have instead been a young drunk man intent on harm, or any other scary possibility. Also, I have to credit my husband with being very calm - if I had gotten up, my first instinct would have been to hit the unknown person in my room over the head with something heavy.

 

We were not without fault, because for some reason, I did forget to turn the deadbolt on the door; however, when the cabin door is closed, it still should not be able to be opened from the outside just because the deadbolt is not engaged. RCCL Guest Relations and Security were as helpful as possible, and did send someone to fix our door the next morning, but there really wasn't much they could do after the fact.

 

So, the moral of the story is: always use your deadbolt! But, over and above that, make sure you check your door, make sure it is secure (especially if you have children), make sure it works properly so that you can feel safe in your own space for the duration of your cruise!

[Denisern2]

Thank you for the heads up!!!! I to try to be so quiet when I am the last one in. We all need a wakeup call I am glad you were all safe after this incident.

[reallyitsmema]

What a terrible experience for your family, luckily it wasn't someone trying to harm your family. We always check our cabin or hotel room door to make sure it has latched and have taught our son to do the same whether we are coming or going. We also always have the deadbolt locked or safety lock across if we are all in the room, can't be too careful.

[RareBird]

very scary!

 

a good advice to always use the deadbolt!

[skyking]

Wow this is scary...Something not so similiar happened to us on our honeymoon sailing. Someone actually walked into our cabin while we were in bed watching a movie, I heard the card go into the door, and chuckled thinking hahaha someone has the wrong room, and then bammm the door opened, the other guest looked as shocked as I was when they realized they had the wrong cabin...This has also happened to me when I was a flight attendant back in the old days, I had walked into rooms after checking in to find people sleeping in the bed. Scary!

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Thats quite a story ;)

Anyone can forget to throw the deadbolt. My DH is a triple checker of that in any hotel and cabin....but still it happens. I myself would of been totally freaked out if I found a strange man in my cabin. Even more so urinating on the floor!

Good thing is was all pretty harmless and was just an old guy in the wrong cabin......it could of been much worse. :eek:

 

Thanks for sharing your story. :)

 

***

[abba_dabba_doo]

Very scary....I'm glad you and your family weren't harmed.

 

I always immediately lock the deadbolt whenever I enter a hotel room and plan to do the same while on the cruise.

[CHAMPDDS]

Very scary, Did you by any chance see the gentleman any more that week ? That would be awkward to say the least...

 

David:D

[Frankiesmom]

That's really scary!:eek: Thanks for the info!

[BecciBoo]

Gosh Sarah: So sorry this happened to you guys.

I also noticed that you had to firmly push on the door sometimes to get it click shut completely. I do not like slammed doors so I usually make it a habit to close them quietly and on several occasions had to do this.

Hope this didn't spoil it for you though. Hope to talk to you on the pirate thread. Happy cruising!

[crusinmama06]

Thanks for the reminder. I have a precocious toddler too so I always double check and triple check that deadbolt. But how scary for you!

 

BTW, I hope someone helped you clean up the mess on your floor. :eek:

[familycruzer]

My kids are sharing a cabin down the hall from us next summer on Mariner. I will be sure to go over this with them and make sure they do the door up nice and tight with the deadbolt.

[DonnaK]

Thank you for posting your story - it'll surely save someone else from the frightful experience you endured. There have been times when I've thought I'd securely closed and locked a door only to discover later that it wasn't fully engaged. When it comes to the safety and protection of one's family, we can never hear enough warnings and cautions.

[PennyAgain]

So how do you lock the bathroom door from the outside? Never thought of doing that.

[Maxima81]

IIRC, the outside of the bathroom door lock assembly has a knob with a slot through it (picture the top of a flat-head screw). You can lock the bathroom from the outside by turning that knob either with something to catch the slot, or if you can get a good enough grip of the knob, you can use your fingers.

[CP3o]

I can't get past this guy, thinking he was in his own room, deciding to pee on the floor instead of go find a public restroom down the hall.

 

Was this guy from a foreign country? I've seen foreigners think nothing of peeing in a street but peeing on a carpeted floor? Or did he appear drunk? I just don't think of cruises as a place you'd find dazed and confused older people that you could excuse that behavior like in a nursing home.

[It'sRC4ME]

I can't get past this guy, thinking he was in his own room, deciding to pee on the floor instead of go find a public restroom down the hall.

 

Combine alcohol with an unfamiliar setting (although by Thursday he's been on the ship a few days), and he was probably just following his mental map to the bathroom back home. Still, yuck!

[BadBoysDriveAudi]

I was just on the FOS, and I noticed the first time I left my cabin, that the door didn't latch properly unless I pulled it shut quickly. From that moment on, I always shut the door firmly and spent two seconds pushing on the door and twisting the handle trying to see if it would open.

 

I'm glad to hear your family is safe.

[Bakincakes]

That does sound like a horrid experience. I am glad you are all safe.

 

I do have a question though...why would you assume that you would be flamed for recounting your story and warning others to make sure their doors locked securely?:confused:

[Sea Island Lady]

:eek: Now I know why people are always slamming their doors!

 

Glad your family was not harmed. I would have been more upset about the pee on my floor than anything else. :eek: Did RCCL take care of that?

[ckrobyn]

Who the heck pees on the floor???????????? :eek:

 

Me thinks he was sleepwalking.................no other viable explanation for that kind of icky behaviour :eek:

[broberts]

I can't get past this guy, thinking he was in his own room, deciding to pee on the floor instead of go find a public restroom down the hall.

 

Was this guy from a foreign country? I've seen foreigners think nothing of peeing in a street but peeing on a carpeted floor? Or did he appear drunk? I just don't think of cruises as a place you'd find dazed and confused older people that you could excuse that behavior like in a nursing home.

 

You are supposing that the person was awake and lucid. And also suggesting that "foreigners" make a practice of urinating in public places.

 

I've seen people urinating in public all over the world, including in the USA. The practice is not limited to "foreigners". But it is generally rare in urban areas.

 

I've seen quite a broad spectrum of passengers, from months old babies to the seemingly quite old. Any behavior I might expect on land is one I'm not terribly surprised to witness on ship. While you might not expect to find a "dazed and confused older" person on a cruise, I'm wouldn't be at all surprised. Such an unfortunate condition rarely comes on full throttle. It is more usual for episodes to occur with increasing frequency. Early symptoms may only be noticed in hindsight. And let's not forget the potential negative interaction of too much sun, ship motion, moderate amounts of alcohol, motion sickness medication, and whatever drug cocktail one's personal physician has prescribed.

 

Perhaps the offender was still asleep, semi-conscious, or possibly suffering from a befuddling episode. Perhaps he was startled by the appearance of someone in what he thought was his bathroom. Without more facts we have no way of knowing, but I don't see any reason to ascribe foreignness or drunkenness as the cause. In fact of all the reasons I can come up with for the behavior drunkenness is not in the top 5 and being a foreigner doesn't even make the list. I doubt you meant to be so insulting, but some of us foreigners have tender sensibilities.

 

To the OP: Thanks for the vivid reminder to use deadbolts. I can imagine how frightening it was to wake up away from home to the sounds of a stranger in the room. I'm sure the fact that the intruder was benign didn't make it any easier until well after the episode.

[MakinGold]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post on the RCCL boards, so I fully expect someone will find something to flame me about, but I wanted to share our experience aboard Liberty in the hopes that it may prevent the same issue for someone else.

 

I found something to flame you about. You should be flamed for starting your post with the assumption that the folks on the RCCL board would looking for and excuse to flame you.

[IRcruisin]

What a scary thing to have happen, glad you and family are OK.....I carry "doorlocks" that I got from QVC the shopping channel....you place the "lock" in between the door latch and frame, shut the door and slide the latch down..then NO ONE can open the door unless you open it first, makes me feel very safe.

[Annieeee]

Thanks for telling us. There was just another post about something like this within the past couple of days. A man said he was taking a shower and when he came out that someone had come into his cabin and security told him that he too had not shut his door properly. Think perhaps we all need to make sure our stateroom doors are properly shut and that the lock has been engaged when coming in or going out. And for those that complain about the doors shutting too loudly, sorry but this may be the only way to make sure the doors lock. Obviously it is not enough that the door shuts, it has to be locked too!

 

Annieeee