koningsdam Neptune suites

[DBCru]

First time cruiser and I am looking into the Neptune suites on koningsdam and trying to justify not paying extra to pick a room.

 

Based on my research so far there are 45 Neptune suites and only two of them are the "cheapest" SC class rooms, there's maybe eight SB class rooms at the back of the ship, and then most of the rooms are SA.

 

I would prefer to be midship and most (if not all) of the SA rooms are. The cost to pick a room seems extreme when you're basically 80% of the time going to get a midship SA room anyway.

 

Am I missing something??

 

What are the odds of getting one of the two SC rooms?

[Host Kat]

9 minutes ago, DBCru said:

First time cruiser and I am looking into the Neptune suites on koningsdam and trying to justify not paying extra to pick a room.

 

Based on my research so far there are 45 Neptune suites and only two of them are the "cheapest" SC class rooms, there's maybe eight SB class rooms at the back of the ship, and then most of the rooms are SA.

 

I would prefer to be midship and most (if not all) of the SA rooms are. The cost to pick a room seems extreme when you're basically 80% of the time going to get a midship SA room anyway.

 

Am I missing something??

 

What are the odds of getting one of the two SC rooms?

 

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[cbr663]

Depends on the sailing.

 

The SBs with their wrap around decks tend to be in high demand.  Even the smaller SBs on Deck 6 are usually in high demand.

 

The SAs on either side of the Neptune Lounge also tend to be in high demand due to their location to the Lounge.

 

When we book NS we always pay to pick the location as the SC and SQ locations are a no-sail for us.  BTW:  SA7087 with its oversized balcony is absolutely wonderful.  We sailed in it to Alaska and enjoyed it so much.

 

So while there are many more SAs your odds of getting a SC may be higher than you think.  When we started cruising many, many years ago we always selected a guaranteed cabin and it worked for us until it didn't.  

[*Miss G*]

On the Koningsdam, I loved the Neptunes near the lounge because they have a separate water closet. Beware of the Neptunes at the front of the ship (SQ). They have very small balconies and bathrooms and are not serviced as well as the ones near the lounge due to inexperienced stewards who are not familiar with that class. They are also a fair distance from the lounge and many venues. 

[REOVA]

I would definitely pick my own cabin, but we are particular about where we want to be. You may get stuck with a smaller cabin or balcony which won't be as good of experience for your first time. If money is a concern you may want to book a signature suite and keep checking and ask your TA about 30 days before departure if there are Neptune upsells, then you'll know your location and get a cheaper price but no guarantee of availability depending on itinerary. 

[CruiserBruce]

We have worked through this question on our 3 past cruises, and our upcoming 3 cruises. It boils down to sometimes you can "safely" book a GTY, sometimes you can't,  and need to select your cabin. 

 

We are not picky about our cabin being fore, aft or midship, so that doesn't matter to us. But we know we don't want the SCs or SQs on Pinnacle class ships, booking a GTY SB is OK. In your case, if booking an SB GTY is not acceptable due to cabin location, I don't think you have many other options,  realistically. The "chances" of getting an SA vary every cruise, depending on sales for that particular cruise.

 

On other ships, generally any Neptune GTY is OK.

[2inSETexas]

3 hours ago, cbr663 said:

Depends on the sailing.

 

The SBs with their wrap around decks tend to be in high demand.  Even the smaller SBs on Deck 6 are usually in high demand.

 

The SAs on either side of the Neptune Lounge also tend to be in high demand due to their location to the Lounge.

 

When we book NS we always pay to pick the location as the SC and SQ locations are a no-sail for us.  BTW:  SA7087 with its oversized balcony is absolutely wonderful.  We sailed in it to Alaska and enjoyed it so much.

 

So while there are many more SAs your odds of getting a SC may be higher than you think.  When we started cruising many, many years ago we always selected a guaranteed cabin and it worked for us until it didn't.  

Aren’t the SC Neptune a downgrade from a SB Guarantee booking? Seems there is still a risk for an “upgrade” to an SQ or a true SA upgrade, but looking at the charts seems SC would not be an option HAL would be able to do on a Pinnacle class ship if a SB was what was paid for.

[Shippy]

SC cabins are hard to get.

I think the main reason is that if you receive a complementary Neptune Suite from your casino play, it is for an SC.

    We could not get one on our last cruise so wound up with an SB (?) on the back of the ship.

Same with our cruise coming up in 2 weeks.

   The balconies are amazing but I do not particularly care for the cabins.

[visagrunt]

You can book at Guarantee at a fare level (through a TA or a PCC).  If you have an SA guarantee fare, then they cannot 'downgrade' you to an SC or SB, leaving you in the deck 7 midships area.  If you want to be really close to the lounge you can only guarantee that with a definite cabin selection, but if you're fine in the area aft of the central "bump" (7111 to 7124) then you're safe with an SA guarantee.  (That being said, check where the SQ fares land in relation to SA...)

[DBCru]

😅 double posted and can't delete it!

 

Thanks everyone for the help

Edited Thursday at 06:55 PM by DBCru

[DBCru]

1 hour ago, visagrunt said:

You can book at Guarantee at a fare level (through a TA or a PCC).  If you have an SA guarantee fare, then they cannot 'downgrade' you to an SC or SB, leaving you in the deck 7 midships area.  If you want to be really close to the lounge you can only guarantee that with a definite cabin selection, but if you're fine in the area aft of the central "bump" (7111 to 7124) then you're safe with an SA guarantee.  (That being said, check where the SQ fares land in relation to SA...)

 

Is this only an option if you do it over the phone? I can't find a way to choose SA class as guaranteed fare on the website but maybe it's a me problem 😅

[scooter6139]

You have to call to do the GTY versions, I believe. A GTY on the smaller Vista-class ships works great, as SC, SB, or SA are all great picks. I'm not a fan of the SQ at the front on the Pinnacle ships. We've done a GTY SC on our last two Westerdam class cruises and ended up in the same SA cabin at significantly reduced fares, so the gamble can pay off.  

[cbr663]

3 hours ago, DBCru said:

 

Is this only an option if you do it over the phone? I can't find a way to choose SA class as guaranteed fare on the website but maybe it's a me problem 😅

 

I don't think it's a you problem.  I just tried 2 dummy bookings on the Koningsdam for a Neptune Suite.

 

Booking 1:  I selected cruise only and for HAL to select the cabin and was assigned SC 11006.

 

Booking 2:  I selected cruise and HIA and for HAL to select the cabin and a cabin wasn't assigned and instead was a Guarantee cabin and would be assigned a few days prior to sailing.

 

I suggest you call and see if HAL offers the option of booking a SA guarantee and compare it to the price of selecting a SA at the time of booking.

[KAKcruiser]

But I think an SQ is higher than an SA.  So, if you book an SA guarantee, you might get the dreaded SQ.

[CruiserBruce]

9 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

But I think an SQ is higher than an SA.  So, if you book an SA guarantee, you might get the dreaded SQ.

I doubt it. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

20 hours ago, Shippy said:

SC cabins are hard to get.

I think the main reason is that if you receive a complementary Neptune Suite from your casino play, it is for an SC.

    We could not get one on our last cruise so wound up with an SB (?) on the back of the ship.

Same with our cruise coming up in 2 weeks.

   The balconies are amazing but I do not particularly care for the cabins.

 

I love the corner afts on the Vistas and Signatures. But not on a Pinnacle. We had a corner aft on Koningsdam that had a very small bathroom with a shower so small it was a joke. The cabin was oddly laid out with a lot of wasted space, although I did like the side window. I've heard that the corner afts are better on the other Pinnacle ships, but I wouldn't do a Neptune guarantee on K'dam. Second time on K'dam I had one of the SA Neptunes and that was better than the SB in every way except, of course, the balcony. 

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I love the corner afts on the Vistas and Signatures. But not on a Pinnacle. We had a corner aft on Koningsdam that had a very small bathroom with a shower so small it was a joke. The cabin was oddly laid out with a lot of wasted space, although I did like the side window. I've heard that the corner afts are better on the other Pinnacle ships, but I wouldn't do a Neptune guarantee on K'dam. Second time on K'dam I had one of the SA Neptunes and that was better than the SB in every way except, of course, the balcony. 

The corner aft (Deck 6) we had on N. Statendam was the worse Neptune we have seen. Very poor use of the space...I couldn't see splitting the beds, as it would probably make the room unusable. On the other hand, we also like the side window. And the bathroom was very well organized. The balcony size was good.

 

We have been in aft Neptunes on KDam...Decks 5 and 7. Deck 7 was very nice. Deck 5 was almost as good, but our family members had split the beds, and that crimped things a bit. And the balcony was smaller.

[HermmyGranger]

My last experience was with a guaranteed Neptune Suite. The cost to choose our own cabin was an additional $700 per person. It's never been that high before and no clue why it was that time. Unfortunately we ended up with a Neptune Spa Suite and the short story is that, as far as Neptune Suites go, it sucked. The balcony is practically unusable. The bathroom is half the size of a true NS, plus it had no tub, only the shower, which was half the size of a normal NS shower. You don't get control over the lighting around your balcony at night because that is controlled by the bridge. In our case it didn't matter as we were sailing in June in Iceland so it never got dark anyway, but in other destinations you could be stuck with your balcony light on all night.

 

What people have said about the room stewards was definitely our experience. We did not get the usual attentiveness of our past NS stewards. And we never stepped foot in the Neptune Lounge because it just wasn't convenient. We will never again take the guarantee. We will always select our cabin. If we can't afford to do that, we'll find another cruise date we can afford. It was a great disappointment. (The Iceland cruise, however, was amazing and we're glad we did it.)

[ORTravelGal]

As crazy as this question may be, can you purchase Club Orange (knowing you already have the associated perks) to book at the lowest level NS and then upgrade to the specific available NS of your choice, thereby avoiding the “choose your own room” & additional “level” fees? Not sure if this is possible with a NS but thought I’d ask. 

[DBCru]

9 minutes ago, ORTravelGal said:

As crazy as this question may be, can you purchase Club Orange (knowing you already have the associated perks) to book at the lowest level NS and then upgrade to the specific available NS of your choice, thereby avoiding the “choose your own room” & additional “level” fees? Not sure if this is possible with a NS but thought I’d ask. 

 

This was our original plan but NS includes Club Orange already, but excludes the perks that let you upgrade and pick a room.

[PSR]

1 hour ago, HermmyGranger said:

The bathroom is half the size of a true NS, plus it had no tub, only the shower, which was half the size of a normal NS shower.

 

I know your comment is about the spa Neptune, but I have a question about the normal Koningsdam Neptune stall shower. Is it larger than the stall showers in the non-Pinnacle class Neptunes, or about the same size? We use the tub showers in the Neptune when on the smaller ships, such as Nieuw Amsterdam because the stall showers are so small. Since the K. doesn't have a shower head in the bathroom tub, we would have to use the stall shower, so decided to book a Vista Suite instead for our next cruise on K.  

[3rdGenCunarder]

The Bathrooms on the K'dam SAs are nice. Shower isn't huge, but it's comfortable. This first picture is the SA shower. The second is the SB, corner aft cabin, that we had the first time on K'dam. DH needed a shower chair and it barely fit.

 

Edited yesterday at 11:56 AM by 3rdGenCunarder

[Sherry H]

I assume you brought your own shower chair?  I was not aware if the ship has shower chairs to loan.

[DeeniEncinitas]

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

This is why we always stay midship close to Neptune lounge! We enjoy 7060.

Here are a few pictures!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 10/23/2024 at 5:33 PM, DBCru said:

First time cruiser and I am looking into the Neptune suites on koningsdam and trying to justify not paying extra to pick a room.

 

Based on my research so far there are 45 Neptune suites and only two of them are the "cheapest" SC class rooms, there's maybe eight SB class rooms at the back of the ship, and then most of the rooms are SA.

 

I would prefer to be midship and most (if not all) of the SA rooms are. The cost to pick a room seems extreme when you're basically 80% of the time going to get a midship SA room anyway.

 

Am I missing something??

 

What are the odds of getting one of the two SC rooms?

 

[DE Solo]

2 hours ago, Sherry H said:

I assume you brought your own shower chair?  I was not aware if the ship has shower chairs to loan.

If you request one in advance, HAL will provide a shower chair for your use.