Just How “Safe” is Your Cruise Cabin Safe? Can Someone Bypass Your Lock Code?

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Even the lowliest of interior cabins you may sail on will likely have something like you see above, that is, a safe for you to lock up your valuables. After all, once onboard, you really don’t need cash as your keycard is your ticket to anything you desire onboard.

For my wife and I, one of the first things we do as soon as we get into our cabin is to locate the safe and check to see if everything from the past guest is out (and if not take it to customer service right away) and to make sure I can open it. If the latter there is a real chance that the last guest forgot to clear it out before getting off!

But what if that happens to you? You may want to use the safe and if you can not open it then what good is it to have in your cabin. Is all lost? Nope as I will now show you.

a close up of a device

If you happen to be on a ship with a “SafeMark” type of safe you see above, all you need is for ship’s security to come to your cabin with a tool that plugs in (similar to a phone line or CAT5 connector) and then they can override the code and open the safe.

No way? That’s all?

Yep, it really is that simple.

But what if the battery is dead or while trying to open it with your code the battery dies (this happened to me). Then there is the handy plate on the front of the safe that can be removed for manual opening of the safe.

So wait these type of cruise ship safes are not really safe?

Yeah, not so much.

Now most ship safes are mounted inside a cabinet but notice how ridiculously easy it is to open some safes in the video above.

So are you telling me I should not use the safe in the cabin?

Not at all. Look at it this way – locks, they say, are meant to keep honest people honest and to avoid confusion. Say you leave $20 on the counter in your room. Was this meant to be a tip for the steward or just you who forgot to put the cash away?

I hope you see my point that this is a reasonably good place to store your passport, extra cash and such when you are not in your cabin. It will not be bank vault safe but it is better than just tossing important or valuable things in a cabin drawer. – René

 

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Advertiser Disclosure: Frequent Floaters is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

René de Lambert
René de Lamberthttp://www.FrequentFloaters.com
René de Lambert has been a travel blogger for over 10 years covering the travel industry - including cruising.

1 COMMENT

  1. Like you I’ve had a battery fail and had to have the safe opened. Felt a bit better that it was someone from the security team that had to come do it and we had to be present when he opened it up.

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