Sale Away Balcony

[Fishkillbill]

How bad can a Sale Away Balcony room be?

[Rsavtechcruise]

It can be good to some bad to others it represents a guarantee of a room in said category ( balcony) for example Ncl will choose its location based on there needs and 99% of the time you cannot change the other pitfall to some people not all is it does not come with perks like ultimate beverage package or dinning

 

 

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[Fishkillbill]

It can be good to some bad to others it represents a guarantee of a room in said category ( balcony) for example Ncl will choose its location based on there needs and 99% of the time you cannot change the other pitfall to some people not all is it does not come with perks like ultimate beverage package or dinning

 

 

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We are not drinkers and don't plan to go to the extra cost restaurants, so, those perks are of no interest. I just don't want to be looking at a wall from the balcony.

[BirdTravels]

How bad can a Sale Away Balcony room be?

It can be the best in category. It can be the left over room no one would ever pay money for, with a beautiful view of a lifeboat.

[Rsavtechcruise]

As a travel agent we are trained to say it basically this way if location is important don’t pick a gty if it’s all about price pick gty with that said depending upon which ship you can determine what’s bad and good and guess your chances like some ships have some more that are not best rooms than others

 

 

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[doones2]

We did a sail away balcony on the Dawn and got a mini suite midship. Never done a guarantee before. In order to get the drink package and dinner package we would have had to spend an extra $300 pp plus the gratuities on those so call “perks”. We aren’t big drinkers either.

[biker@sea]

How bad can a Sale Away Balcony room be?

 

 

We got a deck 8 forward "hulled" balcony.

[janette34]

On the Epic at the end of March and booked a gty balcony, ended up with an aft facing accessible cabin. On the Getaway a few years ago also booked a gty balcony and got an accessible balcony.

 

 

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[zqvol]

OP is asking about a balcony. I don't know of any NCL balconies that look at a wall. Some ships have "hull" balconies that are not as open as other balconies, BUT they all look at the sea, and as I recall I don't think any of the balconies, or above have obstructed views

[cruiseelady]

I have gone with guarantee Balcony a few times, and always got a great room. One time they gave me a family mini suite with balcony. I was cruising solo :)

[ssalaam85]

I booked a gty balcony on my first cruise and got upgraded to a mini suite.

 

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[havanadaydreaming]

i booked sail away balcony on escape 2 yr ago. it was fine.

 

not paying a little more and getting UBP comped cost me a good chunk of change.

 

 

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[DMH15]

There have been many posters here who complain about their cabin and then say it is a GTY. If you care one iota don't go that route but if you don't care it can be a cost saver. Myself I would never do it.

 

 

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[Até]

It would be interesting to see how many GTY cabins get a good category or upgraded cabin now with the bidding process compared to before the bidding started. I bet the upgrade bids get the better cabins now. If you don't care about your cabin location a GTY with an upgrade bid may be a good value.

[KatEnz]

We recently booked a sail away balcony on the Epic for Oct and not even 2 days after booking, we were assigned our cabin —- deck 10, midship. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

 

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[lisakoivu]

I just figured out that you have to go one cabin above sailaway to get a Canadian at par cabin... and that works out to be cheaper than sailaway. Go figure. No perks for that one either, though, as others as pointed out, you have to drink over $600 worth to make it worth it to pay the higher cabin and the grats on the drink package. Not worth it.

[BirdTravels]

It would be interesting to see how many GTY cabins get a good category or upgraded cabin now with the bidding process compared to before the bidding started. I bet the upgrade bids get the better cabins now. If you don't care about your cabin location a GTY with an upgrade bid may be a good value.

Remember, upgrades are not new. It use to be done calling the upsell desk 2 week’s prior to cruise. With a new megaship being launched every year, NCL automated the request process with a web interface. And took the haggling over a price for the upgrade out of the process. If upgrades were slow, NCL use to send out emails for each cruise inviting people to upgrade.

Edited April 29, 2018 by BirdTravels

[mesci14]

We did a GTY once and we got one of the the better rooms, but it was at the very front of the ship so it was a long walk. You do take a chance and with a balcony the obstructed views would be of lifeboats (not really a problem, but you do have the top of the lifeboat blocking part of your view.) If you are a glass half full kinda person and don't want the perks anyway...it can be a great way to save money and possibly get one of the best rooms.

[Fishkillbill]

We got a deck 8 forward "hulled" balcony.

 

What is a "hulled" balcony?

[mesci14]

Hulled balcony has a circular opening. Part of the balcony is somewhat enclosed. They are on the from part of the ships. This is one on the Epic I think.

[SeaShark]

What is a "hulled" balcony?

 

The in hull balcony can be found at the front or rear of the ship, although they are mostly at the front.

 

[MCC retired]

If you are familiar with booking Guarantee's on other cruise lines , these NCL Sailaway Guarantee's are not the same .

A Balcony Guarantee on other mass market cruise lines also includes any Perks that everyone else gets for the current promo. These NCL Guarantee's get you nothing extra .

[SeaShark]

If you are familiar with booking Guarantee's on other cruise lines , these NCL Sailaway Guarantee's are not the same .

A Balcony Guarantee on other mass market cruise lines also includes any Perks that everyone else gets for the current promo. These NCL Guarantee's get you nothing extra .

 

I see what you are trying to say, but the way you are saying it could be misleading to some.

 

On NCL, the Sail-Away Rate a) does not come with perks, and b) does not allow you to select a cabin...it only assures you of a cabin in the meta (or better).

 

However, on NCL you can book a guarantee when offered, and while you still cannot select your cabin, a guarantee booking DOES, in fact, come with perks.

 

All sail-away cabins are guarantees, but not all guarantees are sail-away. One must be aware of the difference.

[SeaShark]

I thought that Sail Away was the new term for Guarantee. I guess I read it wrong.

 

Nope, they are totally different.

 

For example, try a mock booking for the June 9th sailing of the Bliss.

 

For $999pp, you can book an Inside Cabin at the Sail Away Rate...no cabin assignment, no perks.

 

For $1,149pp, you can book a category ID Inside Cabin. It comes with the choice of 1 perk, but you can't select the cabin as it comes up as a guarantee.

 

 

ALL sail away cabins are guarantees, but not all guarantees are sail away cabins.

[sbenja2003]

Nope, they are totally different.

 

For example, try a mock booking for the June 9th sailing of the Bliss.

 

For $999pp, you can book an Inside Cabin at the Sail Away Rate...no cabin assignment, no perks.

 

For $1,149pp, you can book a category ID Inside Cabin. It comes with the choice of 1 perk, but you can't select the cabin as it comes up as a guarantee.

 

 

ALL sail away cabins are guarantees, but not all guarantees are sail away cabins.

Try a mock booking for the June 30th sailing of the Bliss and you can pick your cabin in the MX mini-suite .