Cruise ship experts have warned passengers they could be putting themselves at risk by following social media safety 'hacks'.
This comes after a video of ship passengers trying to make their cabins “safer” went viral on social media.
One video shows a woman “locking” a door with two coat hangers, placing a rolled up towel behind the handle to prevent the cabin door from opening, and inserting a pen to stop the door closer. can be seen.
But Lucy Sotherton, who shares advice on her Cruising as Crew YouTube channel, slammed the video as “insane”. Lucy is concerned that passengers could be at risk if they become ill or need to evacuate their cabins in an emergency.
In the video she said: “This is really upsetting. This is extremely dangerous for so many reasons.
“What do you do if you have a medical emergency? God forbid, you have a heart attack or something and you call the ship's medical team and they come to your cabin. What if you need to see a doctor but can't because there's a coat hanger, towel, and pen at the door?
“And no one can come in and save you from yourself, which is just crazy. Unhooking a coat hanger or taking a towel off when the alarm goes off and you have to go to the meeting place.” , what if you need to remove the chair? If you leave your cabin, someone will want to get in.
Lucy recalled that while working on a cruise ship, she purchased a portable door locker designed to help passengers securely close their doors.
However, it malfunctioned and I was unable to unlock the cabin.
She continued: “Someone did it in the cabin thinking 'keep it safe, keep it safe' and it broke. She's locked in the cabin and the guards basically have to The door had to be broken down.
“This woman only lost eight hours of her vacation because she was locked in her cabin due to a faulty lock, which resulted in the door breaking and costing the cruise line a significant amount of money.
“She was probably scared to the core, but I was like, 'You did this to yourself.'”
Lucy went on to explain that the cabin door has an additional lock for protection. Experts concluded by advising passengers to leave devices such as additional door locks at home and to avoid placing furniture in doorways.
