Letting cruise line pick the balcony cabin

[tncap]

Good luck; I poke around the booking site as if I am a new customer to see which balconies are still available for cruisers willing to select their own cabin. A thought if you are interested in seeing what is available for your vacation. I do not know if this correlates to anything yet.

 

I got quite bored this morning and found 81 balconies available to the public. There are more than that as some configurations of the mock booking only showed the max of 10 cabins visible.

[flacousa]

So far I'm ahead of the game, I booked the balcony guarantee a month ago for $679, I checked tonight to see if it had gone down and one month away from sailing the price now is $729 let's see what the final price will be on sailing day.

[chef5674]

I got our cabin today for August 30th. I was excited to find we got a lido. Our friends got theirs right away and they are on 8 only a few cabins back from the bridge. As long as we aren't over the nightclub I'm happy.

 

 

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[riclop]

I saw a cruise we like to take and the lowest advertised price is if we let Carnival pick the balcony cabin the day of boarding, does anyone cares to share their experience good and bad letting them choose. The savings are around $200 for both of us.

If we cant pick our room we wont go. $200 is not worth regretting it for a week.

[flacousa]

If we cant pick our room we wont go. $200 is not worth regretting it for a week.

 

The $729 is for a balcony guarantee today, the price on the same cruise for you to pick a balcony today is $859, so I paid $679 and the difference to picking my own room is $180 per person, so is not the $200 you mentioned but $360 for both of us, besides a balcony is a balcony no matter who picks it, we still be eating the same food, watching the same entertainment and stopping at the same ports of call

Edited July 26, 2014 by flacousa

[libtrek]

We've had a balcony over the band which bounced all night. Never again. We had a balcony under the lido bar and heard scraping chairs day and night. Even worse. Now? We bite the bullet, look at the deck plans, and pay to get the balcony we want.

[Mrsfabo]

They gave me a beautiful room on the lido deck, however the noise was unbearable at times the cleaning people kept going in and out the utility closest from 5:30 am until into the night to the point I complained and didn't even enjoy sleeping in late smh

 

 

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[Beachdiva1979]

I got my balcony guarantee 32 days out. We leave next month on the Liberty. I'm not sure I'm gonna like my room but too late now. I called my pvp and she said my location is not bad. We're room 6437.

 

 

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[katiel53]

We had a balcony guarantee one time and it was the worst cabin we have ever had. It was right in the front of the ship and it was a port intensive cruise. Every time we pulled into a port, usually it was relatively early in the day, the noise from the anchor being lowered was horrible. This was many years ago and from that cruise on, we have always chosen our balcony. To us, it's worth the extra expense to get a mid-ship balcony so we are close to everything.

 

I think if we were a lot younger, we would try a guarantee again, but not now.

[firefly333]

I saw a cruise we like to take and the lowest advertised price is if we let Carnival pick the balcony cabin the day of boarding, does anyone cares to share their experience good and bad letting them choose. The savings are around $200 for both of us.

 

idk if anyone has posted this without reading every post.

 

This almost never happens. You generally get assigned a cabin way before you board.

 

I'm guessing someone told you it could be assigned ...as late as when you boarded...not specifically that this is a general way its done. Was a worse case scenerio.

 

Generally you will know ahead of time and if you hate it ..could pay to upgrade.

Edited July 26, 2014 by firefly333

[Nachosupreme]

Called today and they upgraded us from our porthole cabin to a guaranteed balcony. I figured I a free balcony is still a balcony, regardless of where it is. Plus there is always the slim chance we could get an even better room.

 

I realize that it is unlikely we will find out the day of cruise where our room is, but if that is the case, how does that work with luggage tags? Do they print them and give them to you at the port? Anyone actually have this experience before?

[msmagpie83]

I've almost always booked a guarantee.... I'm cheap! Lol.... Our gty balcony landed us on the lido deck of the dream... My favorite location of all time! My gty interior had us right below the lido deck buffet, but the noise was next to nothing. I'm anxious to see where our next gty balcony is on the Breeze!

[CdrescherRBL152]

THe only two drawbacks are 1-It may be the day of the cruise before you know what cabin you are in. 2- Any cabin they belive to be an upgrade you can get. IE: The 1 cruise we took a grat. Balcony we were put in a Cabin on the LIdo deck with Floor to ceiling window no balcanoy as it is considered an upgrade.

[Mrsfabo]

If your an early riser it wasn't a problem but my hubby and I are hard workers and on vacation so we don't have an alarm clock we stay up late and sleep in we eat breakfast late and enjoy our room. We were in a prime location and love out location but now I do choose my own room and pay the extra.

 

 

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[Grannycb]

I have a balcony guarantee on my upcoming vacation. Can anyone share information on when Carnival informed them on the cabin assignment? I am just curious.

 

We didn't know our cabin until we arrived at the ship. It was a whole category upgrade on Inspiration, inside to ocean view. Luggage tags were given at the port when we dropped off our luggage.

 

We have a guarantee on our upcoming cruise. I check everyday but know we will probably have to wait to find out where our cabin will be.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Grannycb

[bar1068]

Wow...what a timely thread as I'm considering "upgrading" to a gty balcony on our upcoming Pride cruise in September...we're booked currently in a 4K cabin on deck4..or as I like to call em, life boat view cabins...we've stayed in those before with no concerns, however right now theres a decent deal on upgrading to a gty balcony...I figure most likely would be an obstructed balcony on deck5 but..as folks are saying here...ya never know.....but for less that $200 for us both....gamble may be worth it.....

 

Anyone here by chance done the gamble on the Pride?

[kelkel2]

We did this our first 2 cruises. Our first cruise we didn't really know what to pick, but we knew we wanted a balcony, so we let carnival pick. We ended up with a great aft balcony, not aft facing but aft. Quiet and wonderful.

Our second was with princess and it was the only affordable rate and we booked it with only a few months left before sailing date. We ended up with an aft facing balcony which would have costed us hundreds more per person had we booked it outright. So we were quite pleased. You just never know what you will get!

The only time I would be hesitant to really book a guarantee is if the ship I was booking had balconies with obstructed views. One of the main reasons I book my balcony is for the views so I would be really disappointed with that, but not all ships have obstructed view balconies. So just do your homework before booking and you should be fine!

[Grannycb]

Wow...what a timely thread as I'm considering "upgrading" to a gty balcony on our upcoming Pride cruise in September...we're booked currently in a 4K cabin on deck4..or as I like to call em, life boat view cabins...we've stayed in those before with no concerns, however right now theres a decent deal on upgrading to a gty balcony...I figure most likely would be an obstructed balcony on deck5 but..as folks are saying here...ya never know.....but for less that $200 for us both....gamble may be worth it.....

 

Anyone here by chance done the gamble on the Pride?

 

For better or worse, we grabbed that deal on our Sept. Pride cruise. The change, along with booking on board and shareholders leaves us with +$500 OBC. There are lots of regular and extended balconies, maybe around 20, that haven't sold, only 5 obstructed were left the last time I checked. It seemed like a good gamble for us.

[uapyro]

I upgraded to a Balcony Guarantee for the Dream next month. It was $80 more to change from a cabin on Main so I jumped at the opportunity.

[Izzybee]

Wow...what a timely thread as I'm considering "upgrading" to a gty balcony on our upcoming Pride cruise in September...we're booked currently in a 4K cabin on deck4..or as I like to call em, life boat view cabins...we've stayed in those before with no concerns, however right now theres a decent deal on upgrading to a gty balcony...I figure most likely would be an obstructed balcony on deck5 but..as folks are saying here...ya never know.....but for less that $200 for us both....gamble may be worth it.....

 

Anyone here by chance done the gamble on the Pride?

 

As I said on another thread, we got our assignment today for the Pride, and although we were warned by our PVP that a guarantee balcony could include obstructed on deck 5, we got an extended balcony on the panorama deck.

 

It was less than $150 for the three of us to book a balcony vs. an interior (OV was somehow more than a balcony guarantee) so we took the gamble.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Izzybee
Not OV! Interior!

[bar1068]

For better or worse, we grabbed that deal on our Sept. Pride cruise. The change, along with booking on board and shareholders leaves us with +$500 OBC. There are lots of regular and extended balconies, maybe around 20, that haven't sold, only 5 obstructed were left the last time I checked. It seemed like a good gamble for us.

 

Yea, thats part of the rub for us, we got a pretty good rate I think for our 4K, cabin, been checking for months for price drops, and none so far, but the balcony gty rate is appealing, but we of course will pay more, even for an obstructed on deck5, so no OBC to be had for us right now!! Just gotta decide if we wanna gamble on the decent rate...hope for a better balcony cabin...before it all goes poof!!

 

Thanks.

[bar1068]

As I said on another thread, we got our assignment today for the Pride, and although we were warned by our PVP that a guarantee balcony could include obstructed on deck 5, we got an extended balcony on the panorama deck.

 

It was less than $150 for the three of us to book a balcony vs. an interior (OV was somehow more than a balcony guarantee) so we took the gamble.

 

How far/close is your cruise on Pride...curious how long the "suspense" of waiting to know what cabin you got booked in lasted.

[Izzybee]

I cruise on the 17th, and just got the cabin assignment this morning, so 19 days out. It seems really random, though :)

[bar1068]

Yea, is very random. I'm sure you've seen folks talk about getting assigned the day they board the cruise, to who knows when before. Oh well, I'm still juggling the dice....gotta let em go, or put em back in my pocket.

[flacousa]

The balcony guarantee that I booked almost one month ago has gone down in price from $679 to $659 pp has anyone ever tried getting an adjustment in price when dealing directly with Carnival?

Edited August 7, 2014 by flacousa