Balcony Guarantee on the Glory...

[Hersheys]

Will be sailing in Sept. on the Glory and I booked a Guaranteed Balcony room... Is there really a big difference between one balcony room and another? What are the chances of getting a whole category upgrade??? Would like some input on this whole "guarantee thing". When I booked the last time I chose a specific cabin. Is it really better to guarantee opposed to picking out a particular room??

 

[KruzinVet]

We've always gone with specific cabins so as to be on the side (port v. starboard) that we want on the deck that we prefer in the place that we want (midships or thereabouts). When you take a guarantee you might get a balcony cabin on a higher deck (good?) but too far forward (bumpy?) or aft (noisy?).

You might save a few bucks and be satisfied with your cabin, or you could end up in an 8A balcony cabin far forward and be miserable. We figure that guarantees are a crapshoot, and when we are spending around $2K for a cruise we don't really want any surprises when it comes to our comfort.

To each his own, of course, and we hope that you get some responses that take the opposite view. Btw we'll be on the Glory on 11/8/03 in a balcony cabin of our choosing. Have a great cruise! Jack

 

[SMASHROX`]

We tried to book a category 4F (specific cabin) due to Grandma's bad knees, but was told by our TA that Carnival only had specific cabin assignments for certain categories, namely 6A, 6B (both too low on ship for us), and the suites (which would have cost an arm and a leg). I'm not sure why there are so few options available for a specific cabin. Maybe someone out there with a bit more experience could explain why. I know we would have preferred having our inside cabin on the Lido deck, but now we are just taking a chance that we get it.

 

[bstarne]

You might want to call Carnival and ask. I booked a specific room through carnival that was not available on any of the online websites. They were very nice on the telephone, even when I first called and didn't book with them (I ended up using carnival's booking service, since they matched the lowest price I could come up with and gave me a 3 category upgrade)

 

[Sweetpea29488]

I'm confused to why you couldn't get a specific cabin Ashley. We booked through our TA a specific bal. room on Glory Cat. 8c and we were able to get it with no prob. I have our docs in hand with our cabin # on them that we requested. I'm not sure why you weren't able to get a specific room.

 

[SMASHROX`]

From what I can gather, I think the fact that we could not get a specific cabin in category 4F could be a number of reasons. Particularly, we just booked last week, so for a new (and popular ship) I'm sure the cabins were filling up and by having them be a guarantee, Carnival can "shuffle" people around as needed to accommodate everyone. Also, we wanted to be on deck 9, where there aren't too many inside cabins. Finally, there are three of us, so since some cabins are not equipped to handle 3 or 4 guests, our pickings are limited. I am guessing our case is a combination of the above. I know our TA called Carnival directly and even tried to get us a handicapped cabin on that deck, but the only room available could accommodate only two passengers (we were told that on the Glory they do not use rollaway beds as on some of their other ships). So that's the best analysis I can think of on this one. In the past we have always gotten a specific cabin, but I truly believe the ship is already a big hit and cabins are selling out fast.Sweetpea29488 wrote: