Do you spend the extra money for a balcony cabin or do you get an inside cabin?

[momofmeg]

[quote name='sj25']So far I have only done the oceanview and didn't think it was worth the extra money then on Carnival...but this Oct. I will be on the mariner of the sea with RCCl and it's back to back the eastern first then the western. I got the inside room for the eastern and a balcony for the western. Now hubby and I didn't agree for which one to make the balcony and which one to be the inside because we wanted to do both cruises couldn't afford both to be balcony.
So hubby won and it's the western we're doing the balcony, but I think it should of been the eastern since your on the boat more????
But can't wait to be able to view if the balcony was worth the extra money!
:)[/QUOTE]

I agree the ocean view is not worth the extra money-so either book an inside or go for a balcony.

I am so jealous of you getting to do TWO weeks on Mariner. That sounds great-why not try the atruim cabin for one week so you can people watch on the promanade like us. The cost was slightly higher then an inside cabin but less then the oceanview. We cruise the Oct. 23 cruise which is western carb. again. Hubby wanted to do that because we have never been to Jamacia but we have been to St. Thomas and St. Martin. We have never been to labadee but we have been to Cozumel twice and Grand Cayman once.

[sj25]

[quote name='momofmeg']I agree the ocean view is not worth the extra money-so either book an inside or go for a balcony.

I am so jealous of you getting to do TWO weeks on Mariner. That sounds great-why not try the atruim cabin for one week so you can people watch on the promanade like us. The cost was slightly higher then an inside cabin but less then the oceanview. We cruise the Oct. 23 cruise which is western carb. again. Hubby wanted to do that because we have never been to Jamacia but we have been to St. Thomas and St. Martin. We have never been to labadee but we have been to Cozumel twice and Grand Cayman once.[/QUOTE]
I am soo anxious for this trip with hubby it will be our 25th anniversary gift to each other. We will be married in June 25yrs. but I like the end of Oct. his birthday not as many kids, and prices are cheaper.
Now what is the atruim cabin is that the promanade level, we did look at them I think and still debating about that. What floor are you on?
Right now we're on the 9th floor on both cruises. I have only done one other cruise 2 years ago with our kids...have never taken a vacation with out our kids so going to be really interesting..Kids are 21. 17 and 11 at that time.
did you sign up for the meet and mingle?
So how did you like St. Martin and St. Thomas?

[momofmeg]

[quote name='sj25']I am soo anxious for this trip with hubby it will be our 25th anniversary gift to each other. We will be married in June 25yrs. but I like the end of Oct. his birthday not as many kids, and prices are cheaper.
Now what is the atruim cabin is that the promanade level, we did look at them I think and still debating about that. What floor are you on?
Right now we're on the 9th floor on both cruises. I have only done one other cruise 2 years ago with our kids...have never taken a vacation with out our kids so going to be really interesting..Kids are 21. 17 and 11 at that time.
did you sign up for the meet and mingle?
So how did you like St. Martin and St. Thomas?[/QUOTE]

We have cabins 8305 and 8307 so I guess we are one floor below you. It has been 4 yrs. since we went to St. thomas ans St. Marten. That cruise we did out of San Juan and we did those islands along with Dominica, Martinique and Barbados.

St. Thomas was nicer to me but at St. marten where we got off the tender- is a public beach so we were able to do the beach without taking a taxi. Now that was the dutch side of the island. we did not go to the french side.

Hubby and I will be married 22 years this SAT. (Jan1) We plan to do a really nice cruise for our 25th too. I am looking at 3- a Princess repoisioning cruise from Europe back to New York which we would have to do the Sept. before-or possibly do HAL out of San Diego to Hawaii or we will do Celebrity out of Jacksonville and do southern carb.

The Celebrity one is the most affordable ofcourse but I do have dreams of that Princess one-I guess we will see depending on our finances as it gets closer to our 25th. I can dream and hope right? I would be happy though really with getting to do any of the 3 cruises. They are all 14 days cruises too.

Anyway after this cruise next year we probally will not cruise again until our 25th as we will be saving for that.

[sj25]

momofmeg Ok I'll try not to make too much noise above you we're in room 9342
for the 23rd cruise.
I know I did alot of researching for this 25th anniversary cruise it will be a year in Feb that I started to do the planning. But decided on RCCl because of the rock climbing, ice skating, and minature golf and just seem like alot more to do.
The prices are not much different. I was surprised when I was looking into the balcony rooms they we're about the same and Carnival was more expensive.
I had looked at the 14 day ones also and think it was cheaper to do 7 and 7 but have to get off of course is not as much fun. But to see what I heard on the boards it's not that hard. I was surprised to see and hear how many do it.
We've only done one other cruise so we are not very good at this but I hope to become my hobby. Hubbys can be golfing mine will be our next cruise! lol:D
On St. Thomas I think it is I have Godfrey tours for shopping, island tour and the beach.
Not St. Martin was the beach right there in walking distance? Was the shopping in walking distance also?
We don't mind walk 15min.- 20 or so to get there if you can tell where your going!
Now Hawaii is beautiful I was there but not on a cruise but that has been over 20 yrs We was only to ohau and it is alot of shopping and food kinda expensive. But we was there for 2 weeks that was our first big trip before we had the kids!

[mii]

[b]Another vote for a balcony. Mini-suite is even better.[/b]

[b]Marilyn[/b]

[momofmeg]

[quote name='sj25']momofmeg Ok I'll try not to make too much noise above you we're in room 9342
for the 23rd cruise.
I know I did alot of researching for this 25th anniversary cruise it will be a year in Feb that I started to do the planning. But decided on RCCl because of the rock climbing, ice skating, and minature golf and just seem like alot more to do.
The prices are not much different. I was surprised when I was looking into the balcony rooms they we're about the same and Carnival was more expensive.
I had looked at the 14 day ones also and think it was cheaper to do 7 and 7 but have to get off of course is not as much fun. But to see what I heard on the boards it's not that hard. I was surprised to see and hear how many do it.
We've only done one other cruise so we are not very good at this but I hope to become my hobby. Hubbys can be golfing mine will be our next cruise! lol:D
On St. Thomas I think it is I have Godfrey tours for shopping, island tour and the beach.
Not St. Martin was the beach right there in walking distance? Was the shopping in walking distance also?
We don't mind walk 15min.- 20 or so to get there if you can tell where your going!
Now Hawaii is beautiful I was there but not on a cruise but that has been over 20 yrs We was only to ohau and it is alot of shopping and food kinda expensive. But we was there for 2 weeks that was our first big trip before we had the kids![/QUOTE]

We did this 4 years ago from Carnival Fascination which is a fantasy class ship I think it is like half the size of Mariner but we still had to tender in as the ship was too big to dock there. So I am sure Mariner also tenders.

Yes right off where we got off the tender was the beach-no more then maybe a half block's walk. The shopping too was right there. They have great prices on cologne there too. Also nice linens.

Hubby did the cattamarran/snorkel tour there. Back then it cost $55. In St. Thomas we just took a taxi van which took us shopping and to Meagan's Bay. There were 6 of us and he charged us like $72 total ($12 per person) which we felt was a fair price.

Actually you can do Carnival a little cheaper. Glory is less then Mariner. But Glory is a conquest class ship which I heard tends to get crowded in spots and is not a good design. Carnival Miracle is a spirit class ship and is much nicer at least I have heard then the conquest class ship. So if you want to do a nice Carnival ship which has nice balconies-try Miracle.

Yes we wanted to try a voyager class ship also. I love ice skating and I felt it was worth a little extra just for that. You won't find me rock climbing though-that does not sound like any fun to me at all. I may try the miniture golfing.

We have done 9 cruises so far. We got really hooked I guess but we have found that when you consider what you pay for a week at the beach-that cruising really is only slightly more expensive and heck it is CHEAPER then a week at Disneyworld.

[nutbrown]

We would rather go every other year and get a balcony. One of the major reasons is my husband can't stand to sleep in a stuffy room. He sleeps with the window open all year long.

Our first 2 cruises we didn't have a window that would open and he woke up cranky every morning. He needs the fresh air. I love the sound of the ocean to fall asleep with and wake up to.

[Sigtau21]

I do not spend extra money on cabin with balcony. I am hardly in my cabin other than for sleeping and changing clothes. So I dont bother.

[General Max]

Our first cruise was last August to Alaska on the MsRyndam. We booked a deluxe verandah suite and don't regret it. It was fantastic.

We just booked our second cruise on the Westerdam and again booked an "S" category suite for the October 2005 transatlantic crossing. After all, you only go around once in life.

Cheers

General Max

[momofmeg]

[quote name='sj25']momofmeg Ok I'll try not to make too much noise above you we're in room 9342
for the 23rd cruise.
I know I did alot of researching for this 25th anniversary cruise it will be a year in Feb that I started to do the planning. But decided on RCCl because of the rock climbing, ice skating, and minature golf and just seem like alot more to do.
The prices are not much different. I was surprised when I was looking into the balcony rooms they we're about the same and Carnival was more expensive.
I had looked at the 14 day ones also and think it was cheaper to do 7 and 7 but have to get off of course is not as much fun. But to see what I heard on the boards it's not that hard. I was surprised to see and hear how many do it.
We've only done one other cruise so we are not very good at this but I hope to become my hobby. Hubbys can be golfing mine will be our next cruise! lol:D
On St. Thomas I think it is I have Godfrey tours for shopping, island tour and the beach.
Not St. Martin was the beach right there in walking distance? Was the shopping in walking distance also?
We don't mind walk 15min.- 20 or so to get there if you can tell where your going!
Now Hawaii is beautiful I was there but not on a cruise but that has been over 20 yrs We was only to ohau and it is alot of shopping and food kinda expensive. But we was there for 2 weeks that was our first big trip before we had the kids![/QUOTE]

SJ- my daughter got a letter from our TA saying Royal Caribbean has changed the ittenary for Mariner's western carb. It will go to Costa Maya and Coco Cay instead of Labadee and Jamacia. We are so disapointed. We have never been to Jamaica and wanted to go there. BIG disapointment for me.

[sj25]

[quote name='momofmeg']SJ- my daughter got a letter from our TA saying Royal Caribbean has changed the ittenary for Mariner's western carb. It will go to Costa Maya and Coco Cay instead of Labadee and Jamacia. We are so disapointed. We have never been to Jamaica and wanted to go there. BIG disapointment for me.[/QUOTE]
We we're just talking about that on the thread of "Mariner of the Seas......Oct.23,05" it's when you click on the certain day that it shows up the change for the western cruise.
I haven't really checked out the new ports yet to say if I am not happy now or not.
I just wonder how many times they could change this!
Because this cruise is my hubbys birtday and that day I wanted to make special plans.

[hlsess]

Last cruise-inside and did not mind it at all. We slept and changed clothes but this time we are going to get an oceanview. Hopefully we'll love it!!

[waterbound]

We have cruised 4 times so far with Carnival.. We have booked guarantee inside cabins each time.. The first 3 times we got inside cabins.. Last April we booked an inside guarantee and were upgraded to an oceanview cabin.. It was beautiful to be able to see the water every day!! I told my boyfriend that I was afraid now that we have seen how the other half live we wont be able to go back... :0) We are going on a cruise in March and we have a balcony cabin!! See I told ya.. we can never go back now... I dont know if Carnival realized what they were doing when they gave us that upgrade!! :0)