Aft Balconies 9690 & 9390, worth the hype?

[jamiski]

I am getting married on the Mariner of the Seas next year and our sailing our guests want us to treat ourselves to a nice room. A suite being out of our price range, I found that the Aft Balcony rooms 9690 and 9360 are available for our sailing. Are they worth it? I see they have a porthole and a "simple door".

 

Anyone book these rooms before?

[Laetitia]

I'll have my MIL check this thread when we get back from the Mariner (sailing 10/23). She'll be in 8390. I'll be in 9392 - maybe I can persuade my neighbors to post here after the cruise. Someone recently posted a link to photos of cabin 9390 in a thread. If you search this forum for "mariner 9390", you should come up with it.

[wastin' away]

I'm sailing in Jan. on Explorer and have rooms 9390 and 9392 booked for our group. I have heard nothing but fantastic reviews on this board about these rooms. I'm sorry I can't give you any info yet... but I would jump on these rooms if I were you. The balconies are bigger and hold 2 loungers and 2 sit down chairs. Many people have informed me that they have hosted parties on the balconies of these rooms. Also, the porthole is huge. You can actually sit in in. Looks like a great reading place from the pics I've seen! Good luck - and congrats on your wedding!! - Enjoy!

[luckymbt]

Congrats on your upcoming wedding.

Yes, and aft cabin is worth it. We cruised VOS Thanksgiving 2004 and had cabin 8390. The aft cabins are much larger than the average balcony in their catagory. We had room for 2 chaise lounges, a small occasional table and at least one regular chair. The regular door was no problem. Take a bungee cord to hold it open or prop it w/ a chair. That is the only problem w/out a sliding door. But all in all it is no problem. If it's warm out you will want to keep it shut anyway to keep your room cool. The views from the aft are great and even on a windy port day or while under way..you can sit out and not feel blown to bits. There are probably plenty of pics of these aft cabins on http://www.cruiseclues.com but if not I'll be glad to try to email you some of ours.

"Splurge" on the aft balcony you will be glad you did.

[jamiski]

Thanks for the support!

 

Laetitia - I found that thread that someone started earlier. I actually google search the rooms and found it. Make nice with your neighbor, but when they are not their hold your camera around the division and snap a pictures, just kidding :)

 

Lucky - I'll take a look at cruiseclues for more pictures, it sounds so nice maybe I should have our wedding in the room. We only have 5 guests!

 

Wastin' away - I love your screen name!!

 

Does anyone know of any if either room has a better view than the other 9690 Vs 9390? I've only seen picture online of 9390.

[cruiserone]

Jamiski, have stayed in aft cabins my last 2 cruises. I am spoiled forever. Our last cruise was the Constellation (loved it) and we had room 7203 which was a concierge class, aft cabin. It was huge! We did host a cocktail party for 18 people on the deck. We have cabin 9390 booked for March 2006. I know that the deck will not be as big as the one on the Constellation but I did see pictures of it on cruise clues. Congrats on your wedding and if you are on your honeymoon you will not be caring about what cabin you are in :eek: :D

[jamiski]

Congrats on your wedding and if you are on your honeymoon you will not be caring about what cabin you are in :eek: :D

 

My Mom said that exact thing to me last night in so many words, my skin just stopped crawling. (Sorry Mom, I know your a board reader).

 

I heard once you go 'aft' you can't go back.

[chet the jet]

We had that room. Go for it. You will like it

[out2sea]

Just returned from the Mariner Sunday aft 9390. IMHO it is NOT worth it! Don't get me wrong I LOVE the aft cabins but not the ones on the end. The cabin isn't as big as you think it would be. The balcony being on the corner barely fits

2 people on it as it has 2 chairs and a small table with one lounge chair wedged

under the railing part. Rather have a sliding glass door than the port hole and

door. We kept our door open at night no problem by puting the table there. Took a little manouvering around but you can do it. Just be extremely careful as when you open your door there is a rather large and low steel beem over the door to the railing. It cuts off 1/3 of the balcony. And hope you like your neighbors! Luckily ours were our friends, but I could easily walk under this beam and see their entire balcony. The end was only connected by a few white bars with a gap, I could easily get between the decks. This was deck 9. Also above on deck 10 we found people littering or hanging out at the edge of their balcony so things spilled down to ours and they could see every move we made on the deck. You CANNOT see around the side of the ship like I thought so thats not an extra perk. If you look down you can see and definately hear the crew parties that go one (deck 5) beginning at about 11 pm until the wee hours of the morning. You may honestly be better with a side balcony unless you can get a balcony the middle. Also keep in mind the 2 family cabins in between hold up to 8 people and when the kids get out there on all 3 decks it can become extremely loud. Their balconies are connected so the pretty much can see the adjacent ones as well. Also these cabins are across from a crew entrance door and dirty dishes closet, if you don't mind walking into that often and hearing the door open/close. Vaccuum and carts are kept in these areas as well. If you want pix I will try to post them, if not email.

 

The Radiance class on the other hand, are lined up over each other so not only do you have privacy, 1/2 your balcony is covered in case of rain. You can still enjoy it.

PS - Congrats on the wedding!

Lisa

[out2sea]

Sorry unable to copy/paste into this thread; I'll share pix if someone can tell me how!

[out2sea]

unable to post pix still; send your email and i'll send you my webshots link unless there is an easier way

[out2sea]

:confused: :eek: :confused: :eek: xxxx

[jamiski]

Take a deep breath, relax...I can't figure out the picture on here either.

 

Just add '@hotmail.com' to my screen name ;)

[cruiserone]

:D http://community.webshots.com/album/355212692qhgRxh

[Jesseer]

Cruiser thanks for posting that link now I know not to ever get that cabin as that balcony is 1/2 the size of our last aft cabin on Navigator. Are all the aft cabins on Mariner this small? The one on Navigator we could have put the bed out there and still had plenty of room left over.

[DPurcell58]

We were in 8390 on the Voyager in Aug. We only had a door (no porthole) but that was fine. Our balcony was bigger, it held 2 chairs, 2 loungers and a small table, lots of room, nothing overhead either. The only thing I didn't like was lots of vibration inside the room, esp. during the night.

[jamiski]

Cruiserone - Thanks for the webshots.

 

I've discovered that 9692 is open (the middle not the corner room), I'm thinking of that. I since we are splerging on a balcony, figured we better have one that we can have guests on for coffee in the morning. :)

[ruttie]

I would jump on 9692 instead of 9690 9692 has a much bigger balcony and it has a bit of shade which 9690 does not have. 9690 has a great view unobstructed of teh ocean but it is just as small or smaller than side balconies and it has no shade but if you like to lay out privetly this is teh balcony for you on our cruise 9690 only had 2 chairs and room for 1 recliner. good luck

[out2sea]

iamiski - hope you got my email w/pixs. you'll be much happier with 1 in from the corners - our friends had that and the balcony was about the same size as radiance class (just not stacked OVER each other). we left door open all night but if you have earlier risers that eat or go out on balcony you might be woken up. guess that is true anywhere on ship but since they are stacked at an angle it may be more apparent. good luck!