Here’s Why Someone Can Enter Your Cruise Cabin at Any Time

The cabin on a cruise ship is where passengers can have complete privacy. No one can enter it without a key or a magnetic card that is provided at embarkation.

However, there are instances where someone has entered the cabin without the passengers’ will.

In this article, I will explain why this happened and what the rules are so that you are prepared for your next cruise.

Who can enter the cabin?

As I said in the introduction, usually there are only 3 types of people who can enter a cabin on the cruise ship:

• Passengers who booked that cabin.
• The cabin steward who cleans and tidies the room.
• The security personnel in case there’s a serious problem that requires the room to be opened.

In all other cases, no one should have access to your room. When you leave, always be sure to close the door behind you and check that it has shut tightly behind you.

The strange situation that happened on Carnival

On this topic, a rather strange situation happened not long ago on a Carnival ship.

Some passengers had the “do not disturb” sign outside the door and were inside their cabin.

A crew member opened the door anyway, eventually violating their privacy.

The passengers complained to the cruise line, and the case became very popular on social media, with many comments from other passengers angry about the incident.

The message of complaint was also sent to John Heald, the company’s brand ambassador. Specifically, the message said:

“How would you like it if the cabin cleaner walked in on you John Herald. Our cleaner knocked and walked in on us ignoring the do not disturb sign we had out. This was not acceptable. We took away the gratuity and gave it to other crew people. Is this how Carnival trains their workers?”

After that, the company started an investigation, and the result was very surprising.

The reason why a cruise line can enter your cabin

After a brief inquiry, Carnival’s response came via Heald, who commented:

“The reason I am sharing this post is because when it was made, early last week, it had lots of you adding your thoughts saying that this was indeed wrong and that it should not have happened. I have since spoken with the Housekeeping Manager who explained what had happened. The guests had their “ SNOOZIN” sign out for more than 24 hours. So it is company policy that we check the safety and well being of the guests and that is what happened here.

The state room attendant did knock as they always do before entering and as there was no reply they entered the room with the floor supervisor also there.

The crew member was simply doing her job.

I hope this explains the other side to the story.”

As you have been able to read, a very interesting internal policy was unveiled: the stateroom attendant is responsible for controlling the welfare of passengers staying in their rooms.

If they don’t see you for more than 24 hours, they will knock on the door to ask if everything is okay, or, as happened in this case, they will come in to check on you.

What do you think of this policy?

I’m really curious to hear what you think about this new policy. I’m sure some people will be totally fine with it, while others might not agree at all.

Personally, I just want to say that if it’s truly necessary to enter the cabin, the crew should make sure to knock louder so people inside can actually hear it.

There were times I didn’t even notice the knock when I ordered room service, probably because cruise ship doors are super thick.

Let me know by commenting on the Facebook post, and remember to have a look at the things that will change on Carnival in 2025.