Tell me your Guaranteed Balcony story

[natdalton]

I am considering upgrading to a guaranteed balcony category. I do know it's a complete gamble whether you get a good room or not, so I want to hear your horror and success stories when booking a guaranteed balcony.

[cmptrwiz]

We booked a guarantee balcony on the Spirit in 2005. We waited and waited for our room assignment and it never came. we did something called the kelly method and expected to be on the 8th level. When we arrived at the port the porter asked us our room number and we told him we were TBA. He looked on his clipboard and wrote room 6172 on the luggage tags. Boy was I disappointed thinking we had been demoted from 8th floor. When we put the key card in the door were we ever surprised with an OS ocean suite. Wow oh wow! What a time we had.

 

Wiz

[KCMarie]

We booked a guarantee balcony on the Spirit in 2005. We waited and waited for our room assignment and it never came. we did something called the kelly method and expected to be on the 8th level. When we arrived at the port the porter asked us our room number and we told him we were TBA. He looked on his clipboard and wrote room 6172 on the luggage tags. Boy was I disappointed thinking we had been demoted from 8th floor. When we put the key card in the door were we ever surprised with an OS ocean suite. Wow oh wow! What a time we had.

 

Wiz

 

What is the 'kelly method'? Curious as we sail in 3 days and do not have an assignment yet. Not worried at all about location, but am concerned our luggage may not meet up with us!

Thanks!

[what to go here and there]

first cruise got 4 blacony room from Lido deck door, it was great as we had order bottles through bonvoyage and our liquor bill for the week was 24.00 bucks :D. we were so close to everything and very spoiled

[sharecruises]

Friends of mine had a "guaranteed balcony" on Spirit last may

and were very unhappy...it was obstructed balcony and Carnival refused to do anything about it.

 

Other friends had guaranteed balcony on Freedom and they were fine,

both pretty far forward but the balconies were nice.

 

Here is a picture of the Spirit Balcony...bummer.

 

 

[miched]

We always sail or vacation around a wedding anniversary or birthday. It was going to be our 3rd cruise and our first 2 were OV cabins. The TA suggested trying a balcony guarantee. We booked it on the Dawn Pricncess. Got a cabin with the cove type balcony and 4 berth beds that folded into the wall. Nice way to celebrate a anniversary. We made the best of it. My wife said we should just go out and have a great time and I agreed saying if she gets back before I do take the top berth as I may be too drunk to climb up into it. :D

 

Never took a balcony guarantee again.

 

 

. :mad:

[natdalton]

Friends of mine had a "guaranteed balcony" on Spirit last may

and were very unhappy...it was obstructed balcony and Carnival refused to do anything about it.

 

Other friends had guaranteed balcony on Freedom and they were fine,

both pretty far forward but the balconies were nice.

 

Here is a picture of the Spirit Balcony...bummer.

 

 

 

haha so i just showed my husband this picture and he said "hell, i want a life boat right outside". He has never cruised before and still doesn't believe there are enough life boats for everyone on board. He's also one who is convinced there is no reason why he can't fish off the ship :)

[laumicmah]

I booked a balcony GTY for my Pride cruise in April. I booked it in October 2011. It was a great price. I didn't get my cabin assignment until about 3 weeks prior to the cruise. It was a great cabin mid-aft on deck 7 (7236) with cabins above and below us. I would def do it again.

[laumicmah]

What is the 'kelly method'? Curious as we sail in 3 days and do not have an assignment yet. Not worried at all about location, but am concerned our luggage may not meet up with us!

Thanks!

I think that is where you go to Bon Voyage and fake like you're purchasing something and put in your boarding number and for cabin number you just go through all the possible cabins (if you are a party of 2, only put in 2 person cabins) until it accepts. It is very time consuming but it may show what your cabin is.

[KCMarie]

I think that is where you go to Bon Voyage and fake like you're purchasing something and put in your boarding number and for cabin number you just go through all the possible cabins (if you are a party of 2, only put in 2 person cabins) until it accepts. It is very time consuming but it may show what your cabin is.

 

Oh my, yes that does sound time consuming, and probably I'd lose interest (or patience) before getting a hit. Thanks for the info though!

[vacruizer]

I've only done it a few times and am less likely to now that I've experienced a couple of noisy cabins (my own stupidity and not guarantees, though.) I've lucked out on guarantees - a far forward cabin on Lido on the Liberty, a far forward cabin on deck 8 on the Miracle right next to the bridge, and a midship deck 8 extended balcony on the Pride. I was worried about noise on that one and it turned out we could only hear noise on the balcony or the night of the deck party.

 

On the other hand, after booking myself over the sports bar on the Valor and ending up next to an ice machine on our last Pride trip, I'm not sure I'd be willing to risk a guarantee again.

[cmptrwiz]

I think that is where you go to Bon Voyage and fake like you're purchasing something and put in your boarding number and for cabin number you just go through all the possible cabins (if you are a party of 2, only put in 2 person cabins) until it accepts. It is very time consuming but it may show what your cabin is.

 

Yes that is it and yes very time consuming!

[Sh1035]

I figure its the rooms nobody wants or nobody wants to pay for so it's a crap shoot. Did it once for an OV and ended up with I swear a room in the staff quarters. Called and upgraded ASAP! I was not rowing on vacation!

 

But if your one of those that claim the room doesn't matter go for it. I like a peaceful night and will pay to pick it. Life boat view is honestly no big deal for me. In case of emergency I will be first on screw the rules!

[falkcor]

He's also one who is convinced there is no reason why he can't fish off the ship :)

 

well... he can... :cool:

 

 

but he shouldn't :rolleyes:

[lopat08865]

We upgraded from an inside guarantee to a balcony guarantee for $80/pp on an 8day Miracle sailing. Got cabin 7102, forwardmost balcony on the port side [it had the connecting cabin but apparently no one booked them both].

 

We were afraid it might be too bouncy being so far forward, but we lucked out with weather & it was fine. You could see the bridge from our balcony and the people on the deck above the bridge could see us if we were too far forward near the railing :eek:.

 

But even that was OK by us as we just behaved ourself when we were in view [or moved back to misbehave :p].

[sharecruises]

It really is a crapshot..and with the very agressive "upsell fairy" program (telemarketers) the days of the upGRADE fairy are long gone on Carnival I do think.

 

Yes, years ago they did do upgrades, right as you walked on the ship ..because they had NO way to computerize the upsell process

 

 

But no more. I have to say that anyone who had a "great" cabin from a guarantee and wants to book it again best be prepared for a less desirable experience.

 

and yes..>I do book guarantees. I am "healthy" enough that I don't need much in way of area of ship, I have been high , low ,forward, back, middle,

insides, outsides, portholes, solo, and in balconies. All the same to me

 

Years ago I had FREE "upgrades">> on Princess and on my 2nd Carnival cruise

 

I also had upgrades on MSC recently cause they are just not as 'computerized";;;major upgrades...from inside to balcony :o

 

now...lately I have found the guarantees on Carnival to be worse and worse really....this time we were either at the very front or very back

all insides were on deck 2 ....balconies were fine but very far forward

 

Carnival is agressively "upselling" every "decent" cabin JMO:cool:

 

Buyer beware...if you don't care (I don't) it's fine...but some people who want "middle" for seasickness or worry about the location or whatever should be aware.

[mickide]

haha so i just showed my husband this picture and he said "hell, i want a life boat right outside". He has never cruised before and still doesn't believe there are enough life boats for everyone on board. He's also one who is convinced there is no reason why he can't fish off the ship :)

 

Oh my gosh...sounds just like my husband. He was so excited to have an aft balcony but really wanted to bring his fishing pole :).

[natdalton]

well... he can... :cool:

 

 

but he shouldn't :rolleyes:

 

OMG HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!?!?! He won't be doing it, but i still want to hear the story behind this picture!

[natdalton]

I have been booked for well over 6 months.. I have yet to get even 1 call from Carnival, for any reason, let alone an upsell attempt. Anyone have any idea why? Could it be b/c i booked through a TA. (Will never make that mistake again... my TA sucks!)

[snedecor]

We did have one "horror story" of a GUAR balcony on NCL Spirit out of New Orleans.

 

Our GUAR balcony was directly above the main lounge. We saw it a few days before boarding and got earplugs, figuring that would solve our problems. (ha! the bass player laughs at earplugs). The bass and the drumss was so strong, the beds were vibrating, the walls were vibrating, we were vibrating from about 8:00 'til Midnight, sometimes later.

 

In addition, it was one floor below the Kids Club! So, we got chair scraping, running, screaming, thumping, bumping all during the day (until about 8:00, when the bass thumping started).

 

To top it off, we had a "connecting" cabin with two little old ladies who smoked what must have been 5 packs a day each, in the cabin, and the smoke came in under the connecting door. It was a balcony, for pete's sake, but they Never went on the balcony that we could tell.

 

Finally, to add insult to injury, we left our cabin one day, immediately realized that we had forgot our key cards! Luckily, our cabin steward was servicing the next room. We went up to him and asked him to open our door, as we had forgotten our key card, but he refused! He said that he left his master key in his room and couldn't get in. This was near the end of the cruise, so I'm pretty sure he knew us and which cabin we were in...

 

Needless to say, we have booked our own cabins after this learning experience...

[LSD21060]

ive booked guaranteed and never had a problem

[Mom2JJandJ]

Friends of mine had a "guaranteed balcony" on Spirit last may

and were very unhappy...it was obstructed balcony and Carnival refused to do anything about it.

 

 

I have never/will never do a guarantee because I want the choice of the cabin I want, and I'm willing to pay for it.

 

If your friends wanted a specific cabin, why didn't they choose it at the time of booking and be done with it? What exactly did they expect Carnival to "do about it" when they booked a guaranteed balcony and got exactly that??? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[1midsun]

I think that when you book guarantee (any category) you need to be OK with even the worst cabin in that category.

 

In Feb 2008 (our first cruise) we booked a balcony guarantee, and got lucky. We were on the Triumph, and ended up with room 8427 which is a larger room and a longer balcony.

 

This time we didn't book a guarantee because we are taking our son and his girlfriend with us, and wanted to be close.

 

Next time (and there WILL be a next time) we will probably book guarantee. It doesn't much matter to us where on the ship we are, as long as we are on the ship!!!

 

37 days until the Liberty!!!

 

Happy Cruising!!:D

[cruisinginseptember]

I've only done it once with Carnival, for a cruise on the Legend leaving Sunday. Booked a balcony guarantee back in late May, and was assigned an extended balcony on deck 5 about 3 weeks ago. I'm pleased with what I got. I have done it another time with RCI, they assigned the room with 48 hours. A friend did the same for the same cruise about two weeks later, and they ended up with a slightly larger balcony. Did it another time with NCL, ended up with a "cove" balcony up front, which was just fine for the price I had paid. It's all a crap shoot. Like others have said, you have to be OK with the possibility of being assigned the worst cabin in the category, ie: and obstructed balcony. Carnival seems to be the last to assign balconies. I've heard of some not getting their assignment until they were at the pier to check in. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Bottom line, a cruise is what you make it! :D

[richstowe]

We went for a guarantee balcony with RC's Mariner. We got our cabin very quickly and didn't like the selection.

We then upgraded to a cabin we chose. No problems. We took a chance and didn't "win".

Worked out just fine for us.