Carnival Cruise Line passenger shares a vital cabin safety warning
This cruiser’s story proves that making this mistake in a cruise ship balcony cabin can have horrific consequences.
Many cruise passengers, myself included, love to cruise in a balcony cabin.
I love having that private, quiet outdoor space overlooking the ocean to enjoy throughout my cruise — from waking up in the morning with the view of a new coastline to relaxing under the stars with a glass of wine at night.
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When you sail in a balcony cabin, you may notice a sign posted on or near the balcony door that encourages you to keep the door closed in order to save your air conditioning. On many cruise ships, your cabin air conditioning unit will automatically turn off if the balcony door is open.
But even if you don’t mind your air conditioning being turned off, there’s one very important safety reason why you should probably keep your balcony door closed. Listening to the sound of the waves might not be worth this safety risk.
One Carnival cruise passenger recently wrote to Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald about her family’s unfortunate cruise accident, which underscores the major safety hazard associated with keeping your stateroom balcony door open.
Heald recently highlighted this particular safety warning on his Facebook page that’s followed by more than 600,000 cruisers. It’s a serious, but easily overlooked safety concern, and Chrissy Morda’s story emphasizes just how critical it is for passengers to be careful not to do this one thing in any cruise ship balcony cabin.
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Leaving your balcony door open can be very dangerous on a cruise ship
“Just returned yesterday from the Mardi Gras and an absolutely perfect trip…except that we had to go to the medic,” Morda began in her message to Heald. “While I was out on the balcony with the door open, my mom heard the room steward in the hall and without thinking opened the cabin door to ask him a question.”
Morda and her mom were aware that opening the door to the stateroom while the balcony door is open is a cruise ship safety hazard, but her mother didn’t realize the terrible mistake she had made until after she opened it. And unfortunately, the consequences were awful.
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“As she opened the door, the pressure of having both the balcony and cabin door open at the same time pulled the cabin door shut on my mom’s fingers. She started screaming, was bleeding profusely and it was traumatic,” Morda explained.
Opening the cruise ship cabin door while the balcony door is open can create a dangerous wind tunnel effect due to pressure differences between the cabin and the hallway. This can blow items around, in addition to causing the door to slam shut.
Cruise passenger praises Carnival’s onboard medical staff
Although the cabin wind tunnel’s effect was terrible for her mother, Morda highlighted the positive that came out of the unfortunate accident — the urgent care she received on board was exceptional.
Morda explained that her stateroom attendant immediately helped them through the emergency and the onboard medical staff provided the urgent medical attention that her mother needed quickly, efficiently, and thoroughly, even though it was late in the day when the incident occurred.
“The medical staff were nothing short of amazing,” Morda stressed. “We received X-rays, wound care, and stitches all within a half hour. There is no way this injury would have been cared for this quickly on land in a typical ER. My mom broke two fingers and needed seven stitches. We had a follow-up onboard the next day.”
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In her message, Morda asked for the brand ambassador's help to make sure the medical staff from Carnival Mardi Gras were recognized for their care and attention.
Morda also hoped her story would serve as a warning to other cruisers to help prevent this type of onboard injury from happening to someone else.
“Public service announcement,” she wrote. “Do not ever open the cabin and balcony doors at the same time!”
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