Guaranteed balcony questio...

[balcony4u]

So the Alaskan cruise I am looking at only has guaranteed balconies available. Does Royal set aside the worst cabins for the guaranteed cabins?

[gowensricks]

Hello!

 

I had a balcony guarantee last summer in Alaska on Quantum of the Seas. My parents also did a balcony guarantee. Our cabin was phenomenal, and there's... not so much (they were looking at the life boats). It's just a chance you take. 

[Magicat]

If you get assigned early enough you can change it for another of the same category.

[Kathscof]

There were varying options for guarantee cabins last year, sometimes none, sometimes both, sometimes only assigned.  One would think that if they have cabins available, they would let people select them up until the amount of guarantees+assigned equaled the amount left.....so I don't know the ideas on that...but one would assume you would give the bigger spenders options and fill in the gaps later with guarantees.  We figured ours wasn't booked because it was "way" forward (HA Radiance barely has anything far away) and it was connecting (and possibly people had heard about deck 7 being lame with the lifeboats maybe? haha).  Who knows....

 

BUT we had a guarantee last year, we booked during black friday for a STEAL and we had one of the BEST regular balcony cabins I could imagine on our Radiance sailing, the forward 7 rooms with the extra 1.5 feet of balcony space....felt SO BIG.....so now Royal has shown me my preference and sometimes its more expensive 😉 haha 

 

You could get those lifeboat overlookers too though!

[Starry Eyes]

They are not necessarily the worst cabins, though one has to be psychologically prepared for the worst if you book a gty.

 

What ship?

Some ships have far more “problem” balconies than other ships.

How picky are you about location?

Some people (like me) are happy almost anywhere.  Others are unhappy with many cabins (this one is too far forward, that one is too close to the elevator lobby, the other one is over a bar, another is too far aft…)

[resetjet]

I suppose they have sold all the balconies.  But they know some will cancel,  some will upgrade.  Kind of like when an airplane runs out of seats.

[zoepipes]

We did a GTY on the Odyssey and I knew the risks.  It was the worst possible balcony room you could get but we didn't let it ruin our time.  But that will be the last time I'll do a GTY room. . .

 

[Cooper30]

We have a GTY balcony booked on Anthem for Feb 2024.  We did this expecting a cabin with a view like the one in the reply above this one. Anything else will be a bonus.  I don’t remember the price off the top of my head, but it had to have been good because we didn’t book an Interior. 
 

Everyone has their own list of “needs” when cruising.   Cabin type and location is pretty far down on our list. YMMV 

[Magicat]

3 hours ago, zoepipes said:

We did a GTY on the Odyssey and I knew the risks.  It was the worst possible balcony room you could get but we didn't let it ruin our time.  But that will be the last time I'll do a GTY room. . .

 

Easy to get to your lifeboat in the unlikely event of an emergency.

[Starry Eyes]

3 hours ago, zoepipes said:

We did a GTY on the Odyssey and I knew the risks.  It was the worst possible balcony room you could get but we didn't let it ruin our time.  But that will be the last time I'll do a GTY room. . .

 

I am currently waiting for a gty assignment on odyssey.  Like you, I booked a gty balcony understanding the risks.  Still, considering the pricing pattern when we booked and the limited time we spend on our balcony, we decided the gty was a reasonable decision.  And if we do get one of those, deck six is a convenient location.  
 

Whatever our assignment, it won’t stop us from considering gty vs picking our own cabin on a cruise by cruise basis in the future.

[marvelous35]

I think this is a design flaw by Royal Caribbean:  the Quantum class ships have a lot of Obstructed View Balcony cabins on Deck 6.  If you reserve a Guarantee Balcony on one of these ships, you will likely get an Obstructed View just because there are so many of them.

 

We have sailed on Anthem of the Seas and had an Obstructed View Balcony cabin.  But we have picked our own cabin and gotten one will less obstruction.  Also, these cabins are frequently as cheap as the interior cabins.

 

I believe most of the other classes of ships do not have nearly as many Obstructed View Balcony cabins.

[swmichigan cruiser]

We have a guaranteed balcony on the Jewel of the Seas in August for a 17 night cruise from Amsterdam  to New Jersey. We originally had a cruise  booked on the Serenade that was I think was for 14 nights that Royal canceled and we had booked late so we had to take a guaranteed balcony but we got to keep the same price so we took the deal. We will be happy with whatever we get because the price is really good $2500 total for the two of us not per person.  And the saving from not having to pay for airfare  even sweetens the deal.

[Matondo5]

I did not realize how obstructed some of the views can be for a balcony. We spend a lot of time in our cabin so we go ahead and pay more to make sure we get what we want. However, as long you are happy with whatever you get go for it. Sometimes you hit the jackpot!

[MommaBear55]

I wouldn't do a balcony guarantee on a Quantum class ship because all of deck 6 are obstructed views, but I have no issues on other classes. Sometimes they separate out Obstructed guarantee vs balcony guarantee on Quantum class . You also have be to be aware of the different balconies on the Oasis class ships, I wouldn't go for a neighborhood balcony guarantee.  But those are my choices, you might have different opinions

[Mum2Mercury]

Thing is, "the worst balcony" is open to interpretation. 

 

For example, I just reserved a balcony for us on Wonder, and we chose 6th floor, which is usually considered inferior to the upper floors.  We chose it because it gives my husband (who has a bit of a mobility issue) close access to Playmakers, his favorite spot.  And since we're sharing a room with our adult daughter, we purposefully chose a room near a public ladies' room.  We also like the idea of being "as close as possible" to the water on our balcony.  The point:  Those aren't most people's criteria.   

 

No, I don't think they set aside any specific group of balconies to use as guarantees; rather, I'm quite sure they wait until the last 30 days or so ... and assign balconies that no one chose.  

 

We've done two inside guarantees recently, and both times we received prime mid-ship rooms ... a standard inside once, a promenade view once.  

[whitshel]

On my daughter's Odyssey cruise in Europe this summer they also chose a gty balcony mainly because it was $400pp cheaper, they were just going to with an interior but with her crown n anchor discount it was basically the same price as an interior.  I did notice that they either aren't selling obstructed view balconies or they are sold out. My guess is they aren't selling them so they assign the gty's to them.

 

Still for the price as an interior, they'll at least have a place they can walk out too and get some fresh air.

Edited February 12, 2023 by whitshel

[cruiseboy89130]

2 hours ago, whitshel said:

On my daughter's Odyssey cruise in Europe this summer they also chose a gty balcony mainly because it was $400pp cheaper, they were just going to with an interior but with her crown n anchor discount it was basically the same price as an interior.  I did notice that they either aren't selling obstructed view balconies or they are sold out. My guess is they aren't selling them so they assign the gty's to them.

 

Still for the price as an interior, they'll at least have a place they can walk out too and get some fresh air.

Wait for Royal Up to hit and all will change!