Has anyone booked a sail away oceanview and regretted it?

[david_sobe]

There is a cruise I am looking at and the sail away rate for ocean view cabins is almost 50% less.  I don't care for the view.  It can be obstructed and it would not bother me. I just want some light and something to look out at.  Are some rooms noisy?  I never booked a sail away rate before and curious if anyone regretted this and got stuck with a horrible cabin.

[stormynow]

Been booking Gty cabins for years and never a bad one.  Recently booked a weekend Sky Gty OV and got a great location on deck 8.  May be just luck, but some of the cabins I have picked turned out not so good.   Stormy

[BirdTravels]

Just because we are particular about the location of our rooms, we are willing the pay the extra money to pick our own room at time of reservation. Especially on the big ships where a room away from the stairwells and lifts are a long walk for us. 

[hladygirl]

Had a deck 8 forward ocean view on the Dawn once. It was awful. The crashing of the waves in bad weather sounded like a sledge hammer hitting the side of the cabin. Impossible to sleep.

[danak13]

Always booked sail away and always received great rooms-of course that could be luck but the gamble to save the money to spend on other things is worth it for us! 

[BalconyGal]

Not an oceanview but here is my story.

We booked a Gty balcony several years ago and were assigned a midship balcony on deck 9.  We were thrilled.  However, this cruise was leaving NYC as they were closing the port of NY for Hurricane Sandy and by the 2nd night we had been through so much rough weather that the lifeboat below us was loose and constantly banging against something.  It was impossible to sleep and they couldn't fix it the whole cruise.  We eventually had to move on day 5 of a 7 day cruise.  

I thought it couldn't possibly happen again and booked another gty the following year and again noisy lifeboat below our deck 9 balcony.  This time they didn't have any available cabins to move us. 

Maybe we were just unlucky but I would never book again without the ability to choose my own cabin.  

 

[Trimone]

We booked a getaway balcony and got a bulkhead one, NCL wouldn’t budge, it was okay 

[JUSRN]

We just booked sail away balcony on the Gem. Within hours we were assigned BA cabin. Very happy with that.

However, several years ago we booked ocean view guaranty on the Pearl and were assigned a porthole in the very front of the ship on the lowest deck. Right next to some entertainers. It was a noisy cabin hearing and seeing water sloshing all the time.

But the monetary savings is worth the risk!

[Mid43]

Always book Gty and never regretted it. Once we were placed at the very front of the ship, and that left a little bit to be desired as far as noise goes, but it's the chance you take, and it wasn't all that bad. All the other 10+ times we have done it, perfectly satisfied with the rooms and the $$ savings.

[Shippy]

Several times we wound up with handicapped cabins.

[rj42]

I booked a guar ocean view on the Getaway Baltic. The night before arrival in St Petursburg I heard what sounded like sawing under my floor, going on at 11:30 and 3:30. It made me furious and I had 2 hours of sleep before expensive tours. 

 

The same and happened on the HAL Eurodam I just got off of today. My ocean view was above storage, so there was loud scraping and banging, starting at 6 am.

 

You also risk noise from above on an ocean view—bands, scraping chairs in a dining room, or showroom bass.

 

Oceanview by lifeboats can bring clanging from cables and ship workers climbing outside your window.

 

I actually prefer a guar inside, since they are more spread out and thus less likely to be noisy. They also encourage me to go out among people instead of staring out a window, I’m not woken by sunlight (3 a.m. in Alaska and Baltic), and the ship cameras on the tv give me the illusion of a view.

[david_sobe]

Thanks for all the responses.  To sum it up, some are lucky and never had regrets while others got noisy cabins.  Noise is my concern. I could really care less if it was a porthole with obstructed view.  The odd part on this cruise is how much less expensive the sail away rate is.  Normally its $50 -$100 cheaper.  This cruise its $200 and 50% of a regular oceanview cabin.

I guess they are shoving you in the maintenance closet or something 

 

Edited October 21, 2018 by david_sobe

[mking8288]

We booked GTY staterooms, knowing and accepting the risks and unknown in being assigned, typically obstructed OV on mid-sized ships like the Gem, Jewel & Star ... sometimes getting upgraded to a porthole OV on a lower deck, sometimes to a mid-ship OV, and other times - an accessible OV, with the email/notices that we can be relocated & moved ... 

 

To us, the savings vs. other "free" perks aren't worth discussing, IMHO, and we pocket the difference to what WE want with it w/o the 20% surcharge.  We once got bumped up, free - afternoon of Day 2, to a midship balcony, deck 9 (Jewel) as they needed to swapped us out of the accessible cabin needed.  Another time, we got a free (nice) upgrade from OV GTY to a "BC" category balcony, on the Breakaway, pretty forward - Deck 10 on the BA as a nice surprise.   

 

Some of these going back over 5 to 10+ years under NCL then ... and since the Upgrade Advantage rolled out 2 years ago - a matter of YMMV.  But, looking at a possible last minute Caribbean run out of NY, 10+ days and those Sail Away rates are very attractive ... since the "free" perks thrown in aren't important to us.  

[JohnChiang]

I've often booked GTY rooms and have never regretted it.

 

Since I usually travel solo, I will wait till a month or two before a sailing to see if that cruise will be available with no or discounted single supplement. Lately I've noticed Norwegian gives the no single supplement offer only for sail away cabins. This was not previously the case, when you could pick your cabin when no single supplement was offered.

 

For example, the Nov. 11th cruise on the Breakaway from New Orleans, I can book a solo OV sail away cabin for $499, but if I want an assigned  OV cabin with perks the price is $1498. For an inside it is $339 vs $998. That is a huge difference in money.

[BalconyGal]

22 hours ago, david_sobe said:

Thanks for all the responses.  To sum it up, some are lucky and never had regrets while others got noisy cabins.  Noise is my concern. I could really care less if it was a porthole with obstructed view.  The odd part on this cruise is how much less expensive the sail away rate is.  Normally its $50 -$100 cheaper.  This cruise its $200 and 50% of a regular oceanview cabin.

I guess they are shoving you in the maintenance closet or something 

 

Such a mixed bag, David.  What did you decide? 

[david_sobe]

15 hours ago, BalconyGal said:

Such a mixed bag, David.  What did you decide? 

I did not decide yet. The cruise is not until next year and looking for the most inexpensive way to travel since its only a 5 night cruise.  Will keep you posted 🙂

[newmexicoNita]

used to book gty all the time; not always the best location but never truly sorry. Now, because of age and mobility we no longer take a chance. It is a matter of: do you gamble or not? 

[Peachypooh]

The one and only time we booked a guarantee we were upgraded from a balcony to a sky suite (on Celebrity).

Never have done it again because we like a specific cabin, but might take a chance if the price was right.

[wayneb1973]

I've often booked GTY cabins and never had a bad one. I travel solo and the price difference between one with no perks and one with is often too much. 

[GateGuardian]

I booked a GTY Oceanview on the Pearl and got an obstructed oceanview. I wished I paid a bit more and just booked the obstructed, which comes with the perks.

[dcipjr]

I booked an obstructed oceanview guarantee before, and got "upgraded" to a porthole ocean view all the way forward. It's a dubious upgrade because the obstructed oceanviews are midship, and the portholes were way forward, so the location wasn't as great.

 

Still, for us, oceanview = an inside where you can tell if the sun is up or not when you wake up. If we plan on spending any time at all besides sleeping in our cabin, we book a balcony. Since we have a little one now, we're basically booking all-balcony for the foreseeable future, as to have a place to hang out when she's napping.

[Newleno]

We are all different, I would never pay the extra money for anything above sailaway prices.  For us there is no value in doing so, it is all about the money.  Did have an obstructed view window once, it was better than inside but that is about it.

[melodyesch]

We have chosen the sail away cabin a few times and were always pleased with the outcome.  Last time we chose a sail away balcony over a midship balcony because of the difference in price.  As it turned out, we were assigned almost the exact midship balcony I would have chosen.

 

i have just booked a sail away balcony for me and my DH and a sail away ocean view for my MIL.  I hope my luck hasn’t run out!