Spirit Balconies vs. Oceanview

[GayleR]

We are looking at booking the Spirit and I was wondering if anyone has booked an Oceanview cabin. It seems that the OV's are located on Riviera only. Is it noisy underneath the Promenade deck? I know I would love a balcony cabin, but I could save $300 booking the OV. Let me know what you think.

[grandma bev]

We are looking at booking the Spirit and I was wondering if anyone has booked an Oceanview cabin. It seems that the OV's are located on Riviera only. Is it noisy underneath the Promenade deck? I know I would love a balcony cabin, but I could save $300 booking the OV. Let me know what you think.

You might consider a Category 7A, which is listed as "ocean view", but is actually a balcony cabin with an obstructed view. There are lifeboats which partially obstruct your view. It's the least costly balcony cabin - we booked one for the Christmas cruise. The photos seen on the message boards of these balconies seem o.k. to us - not a big problem for the price. COLOR]

Bev

[Cruise Raider]

There are other oceanviews besides those right under the promanade deck, however, maybe not on the particular itinerary you are looking into. The rooms under the promanade would most assuredly be very noisy, I would suggest not booking a room right under a wooden deck that is open to the public, 24-7...unless of course, you are a very sound sleeper or are hard of hearing. I think the advice about the Cat 7A was good advice...very little more in cost and you get a balcony that is obstructed. You might be able to look into one that is less obstructed than the others....so if you have the option to chose carefully, maybe you can google some of the room numbers and see the actual views out of the rooms you are interested in.

[tracyvansmith]

On our Alaska cruise we had three ocean view cabins on the Spirit. The rooms were very quiet. Our rooms were right near the Versailles lounge where they did karaoke and you could hear the sounds from there very well in the hall but once we closed our room doors we heard nothing. On our next trip on the Pride (sister ship to Spirit and built exactly the same) I did a little gamble by booking an Ocean View guarantied room. I did this in hopes we would get a balcony room. We were given a 7a (obstructed balcony) so my gamble paid off. I would have been happy with an ocean view but being these two ship only have one floor of ocean view rooms your odds are good that you might get better than ocean view.

 

So if you are ok with the ocean view rooms and don’t care weather you get back, middle or front of ship I would book a ocean view guarantied room and you might just get a balcony.

[grandma bev]

We are looking at booking the Spirit and I was wondering if anyone has booked an Oceanview cabin. It seems that the OV's are located on Riviera only. Is it noisy underneath the Promenade deck? I know I would love a balcony cabin, but I could save $300 booking the OV. Let me know what you think.

 

did Google Image search for a photo of Spirit obstructed balconies - try this link:

http://emol.org/cruise/images/balcony.JPG and here's his comment:

 

(above) The stateroom on the fifth deck had a partially obstructed view, but the lifeboat was not annoyingly visible above the railing, but did not take away any of the view of the ocean or ports. It wasn't a distraction, especially with the reduction in price for "obstructed view."

 

and another: http://emol.org/cruise/images/balcony.gif

above) Looking over the balcony at a Navy ship in the San Diego, California port with the Spirit's lifeboat in front. The boat was only a few inches above the balcony railing. The balcony had a nice open space with privacy blinds between cabins. Chairs on the balcony made the complimentary room service breakfast quite enjoyable. I ordered some fresh lox (salmon), bagels and cream cheese with coffee, orange juice and fruit. It was one of the best breakfasts ever.