Ever Been Locked Out on Your Own Balcony? We were!

[OrlandoDisneyFan]

Those of you who have cruised in a verandah room on DCL may remember how the door handle works. You have to twist it to 'vertical' then slide the door open. To lock it, to twist the handle to 'horizontal'.

On our recent cruise, my family was hanging out in the room after the Sail Away Party watching us leave Port Canaveral. My wife and I stepped out on the balcony while my DD4 and DS 14 weeks were in the room. DS was alseep and DD4 was watching TV.

We slid the door shut to conserve the A/C. My DD4 came to join us on the verandah and as she pulled the 'vertical' door handle to open the door it twisted into the horizontal position, locking us out and her and my son in.

After a few moments of trying to 'coach' her into opening the door correctly, I was starting to get a little concerned. I 'peeked' my head around to see if any of our neighbors were on their verandah or in their room to see if they could get a stateroom attendent to come let us in.

I must say that I didn't see anyway out of this situation, other than waiting for the room attendant to come turn our beds down.

We were finally able to 'coach' the daughter into putting the handle in the right position so we could slide the door open.

We had a good laugh about it later, but especially if you have youngsters in your room, be careful about closing your verandah door all the way while you are on the balcony.

 

[vanessa3198]

omgosh! i this totally sounds like something that would happen to me! i lock myself out of EVERYTHING!

 

[Kurby]

omg - i think after a few minutes i may have started to freak out - wonder how much screaming it would take before someone noticed and came out?

glad you have a cleaver daughter

 

[PizzieDuster]

OMG! Just think if that happened and NO ONE was in your room to help you! Very smart lil girl

There are always people on balconies, sometimes you can see them leaning on the balcony or if you can't see them, they may be sitting on the chairs. I would have screamed "hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, ummmm, Help! I'm thirsty! I'll buy you a drink if you could call security!" I'm sure someone would have heard you.

 

[TiggerTails57]

She sure must be one smart cookie! It took DH and I 30 mins to figure out how to open the door.........

 

[ACDSNY]

Thanks for the warning. We have 24 of us going on our first cruise in verandah cabins and I'm sure one of us would have been in the same boat and locked out. I'll pass the word around my group.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Wow scary.
The most I've done is lock myself out of the room while DH was on the balcony and couldn't hear me knocking (went to kids room and forgot my key to get back in my room! Sure would be nice if they could key those cards to work in both rooms you have booked LOL)
Not nearly as scary though. LOL Just frustrating that he couldn't hear me NOR the front desk when I called them (from the kids room) to ring him. I finally had to have someone let me in my room and he was still enjoying the balcony totally oblivious. LOL


I wondered if that could happen. I don't know why but it just 'felt' like it was backwards- like pulling it down should unlock it or something. I can't explain why but we both kept "locking" it to try to open it and had to keep then unlocking it to get out there. It was also hard to close it (without locking it while in the process of closing it). Like hard to keep it horizontal all the way until closed- but maybe I'm just a weakling- probably. LOL

 

[Keira1387]

She sure must be one smart cookie! It took DH and I 30 mins to figure out how to open the door.........

Good, I thought I was the only one who had a hard time getting the door open.

 

[debsters41]

omgosh! i this totally sounds like something that would happen to me! i lock myself out of EVERYTHING!

I hear you! My locksmith asks after my family. If I need to call him one more time I think I will make his Christmas card list!

 

[disneyfreak1]

Oh my! What would have really been bad is if she had come out on the verandah with you and the baby was left inside!

 

[OrlandoDisneyFan]

Oh my! What would have really been bad is if she had come out on the verandah with you and the baby was left inside!

The design of the handles are such that that could not happen. In other words, the doors do not lock themselves. My DD4 locked it when she grabbed the handle and pulled on it to open the door but she didn't keep the handle vertical, so it twisted into the locked position.

I have to say that I'm glad my baby slept through the situation. I did 'think' about hopping over to one of the neighbor's balconies to see if they left it unlocked, but then I looked down at the water and almost got sick. We were on deck 7.

 

[Kurby]

i lived on the 8th floor of an apartment while at college and went home for the christmas holidays - when i got back my neighbour came over and informed me that their new kitten had squeezed himself under the separator and over to the far side of my balcony.

they tried for an entire day to get him to come back over but by 8pm they gave up and the dh finally did what you suggested. - over and back.

i couldn't imagine that snow or water it's a long way down

 

[carmie3377]

Oh, that would be scary. I've got a funny story...

MIL locked herself out on our balcony at AKV in Sept. The latch fell back down when she shut the door. The rest of us were gone to MK. Thankfully she had her cell phone with her and she called a friend to look online to get the phone number so she could call the front desk. She called the front desk and waited about 30 minutes. Finally, she called again and after over an hour later, someone showed up to let her back in. A bit later, she was standing there almost naked getting dressed and a maid walked in (we weren't scheduled on DVC for cleaning so she didn't think someone would walk in). The maid just stood there and said "Do you need help getting off the balcony" Anyway, since she had called twice because the wait was so long, communication got crossed that someone had already let her back in.