School me on balcony stateroom categories

[cutrat]

I have been on three Carnival ships and we are booked on our fourth and in the process of booking our fifth and the categories are getting me lost. Our PVP always books us 8A. In the process of trying to save a little money I noticed that BL is a hundred bucks cheaper. I take that BL is just a balcony cabin and you don't know where on the ship your cabin is till you get you tickets in the mail?:confused:

 

I don't know if this would work for us since we book two cabins. One for us and another one accross the hall for the kids.

[sunkey1]

Yep, BL is a balcony guarantee where you have no idea where your cabin will be. If you really need to be close to your kids, you'll need to pick out a specific cabin, otherwise you run the risk of being at opposite ends of the ship and/or many decks apart. Once the kids are a little older and proximity is not too important, a guaranteee would work just fine.

[westernmom]

We have been lucky that both times we have booked when Carnival is having their upgrade sale and have booked an 8E for the price of an 8A. I'm pretty inexperienced but I think the difference is getting us higher up in the ship. Our kids were also upgraded on their inside to be just across the hall from us. So, they went from a 4A to a 4G.

 

I guess that's supposed to be a good deal. I love being able to look at the deck plans and know exactly where we are going to be. I don't think the "planner" in me could handle finding out when we arrive at the pier!

[LizaMM]

Yes....a BL GTY can land you in any balcony. You can also book GTY's at different levels i.e. an 8B Gty would give you at the very least an 8B cabin with the possibility of being upgraded to higher deck.

 

I have done GTY's before and it has not been a problem for me at all! On my last 2 cruises I was able to do the same as Westernmom and book an 8A and get an upgrade so I selected cabins.

 

GTY's can be a good deal BUT as Sunkey said.....I would not risk it if I needed to have a cabin near family members. I have read that some people have had their GTY's all upgraded and placed together but I have also read many posts where this did not happen. It sounds like your TA is doing right by you to put you in the most affordable balcony situation and ensure that your children are across the hall. You might want to keep an eye on upgrade sales (and discuss this with TA) if you would like to have more of a selection at the lower price. The catch here is that the upgrades are not necessarily offered for all cabin levels so while the 8A might have the opportunity for upgrade the inside cabin category might not offer it. Hope this makes sense and helps!!

[westernmom]

LizaMM,

 

You are right about the opportunity to upgrade the inside as well as the balcony not always being available. We were lucky because our TA pulled some strings and got our kids the upgrade as well, but her first attempt to get them across from us on the panorama deck was almost as much as our balcony!

[LizaMM]

LizaMM,

 

You are right about the opportunity to upgrade the inside as well as the balcony not always being available. We were lucky because our TA pulled some strings and got our kids the upgrade as well, but her first attempt to get them across from us on the panorama deck was almost as much as our balcony!

 

 

So glad to hear that this can be worked out sometimes!!

[newtons_mom]

I wouldn't risk doing the BL if you're going to have kids in an interior IS. On our Triumph cruise this Nov, my DH and I are in a category 8. Friends that are traveling with us and are linked to our reservation booked an IS guarantee. They got their assignment about 20 cabins down from us because of lack of availability.