dsmoser

Thank you Steelers36 and Aussie lost in space (should have given more thought to my user ID) Right on Aussie! Tenaciousness - love it! Good advice, thanks for revealing state secrets - I'll give it a go. It shouldn't be so difficult that the only way to get the room you are paying thousands for is to escalate it to upper management in some back alley negotiation - ugh! New to cruising, in the research phase, and finding a good TA seems as elusive as finding a good doctor, automechanic, etc. Since I do not have a dependable TA as of yet (read that I might find one from others on the cruise?), I was planning on using the big-box store (that we shall not name - as suggested here for the straightforward cash back/OBCs). I was going to work with the big-box after I've nailed-down the cruise line, the itinerary/ship, and try to find the most optimal port side rooms for our family of 4 on a late May/early June-ish 2025 southbound Alaska cruise. Full disclosure, I've got it down to . . . Sapphire - hoping to find a Balcony/Interior combo across the hall from each other on deck 8 aft - hence the purpose of this thread. Trying to save a little money with the Balcony/Interior cabin combo. or Coral - Rooms E622 Ocean view which shares a wall with E624 fully covered balcony. Coral doesn't have many interior rooms and none that would work with a port side balcony room. Hence, the Balcony/OV combo. The HAL Nieuw Amsterdam was a contender but I keep coming back to Princess as I think my teens might like it better, Princess seems a tad more updated and I like the medallion tech. BYW, is there a limit to the number of questions I can ask on CC 🙂 - I keep coming up with questions but don't want to wear out the generous folks on CC. Thinking I'll throw my current plans out there to get comments? Anywho, thank you for your responses.

AHA! I knew it !!! It just didn't make sense that the entire block of those deck 8 balcony rooms were already sold-out for every itinerary except Hawaii? Also, that was a lot of acronyms. The only one I am not sure about is GTY. A google search came back with "guaranteed category type"? - aren't all rooms guaranteed to be the room specifically selected like E730 for Texasopa? And non-refundable means what, the required deposit is not refunded immediately after it is paid? Today, I could not get the princess website to 'pull-up' another room that I was pretty confident was not sold-out so I chatted with a CVP about the specific room # and sure enough it was not sold-out. Bananas.

Thank you guys! Yeah - those corner suites, like E731, with the even bigger balconies look really good. I am sure that you have to be the early bird to score those. Thanks for the thumbs up on aft cabins. I'm aiming for a low deck, mid or aft ship as I am a wee bit concerned about my sea-legs or lack thereof. I've concluded that the deck 8 balconies are in actuality all sold-out to seasoned travelers and not a glitch in the system (which was probably more wishful thinking). Being a novice, I will be perfectly happy with a half-covered balcony or any balcony really. Planning is actually kinda fun. Thanks again - D

Sorry - I think you meant that these are the deck 8 balconies are the most affordable mini suites. Also that Hawaiian cruise looks wonderful!

Thank you - I was able to find available deck 8 aft balcony cabins on this itinerary. On this cruise the deck 8 balconies cabins were properly categorized under the mini-suite category which is where I found them. What I don't understand is why these mini suite cabins do not pull up as 'sold-out' (or otherwise) under the mini-suite category; on other itineraries they can only be found under the balcony category as sold-out. I’m interested in the fully covered deck 8 balcony rooms because they have deeper balconies and are completely covered. I started looking at these for Alaska bound cruises and it turned into a quest to find any itinerary that had one of these available. Thank you for ended that quest. What do you mean by “they are the lowest category mini suites so are “saved” as guarantees many times.”? I was thinking these deck 8 balconies are sought after because they are deep and completely covered but not sure what ‘lowest category mini suites’ means. Are these cabins a good option? Should these or aft cabins be avoided? And why and who saves them for what purpose? Thank you

Thank you for that suggestion. I did forget to mention that all my previous searches were for 2 people. What is weird is that when I try 3 people I cannot even get to the "sold out" category for the 8th deck. I can not get the 8th deck aft balconies to pull up at all. Tried this with the last Northbound cruise on Sapphire in 2025, when I select 3 or 4 people and . . . 1. Regular balcony category, the website only shows me decks 10, 11 and 12 in the aft location; the sold-out 8 deck is not even shown. 2. Premier balcony category, there are no aft balcony available and the only mid-aft deck shown is 10. 3. Mini-suite balcony just pulls up deck 9 (rooms available) and 4. Mini-suite reserve collection are not available in the aft section of ship. The only way to even 'see' that all the 8 deck balcony rooms are sold-out on any itinerary is to specify 2 people, a regular balcony room and the aft section. I called Princess to see if there was a glitch but the 'navigator' would only look at a specific date not really investigate the question I was asking. `Curiouser and curiouser!'

Got a question about the mini suite balcony staterooms on emerald deck (8) of the Sapphire Princess located at the back of the ship. The rooms that I am asking about are E710, E7111, E712, E715, E716, E718 thru E729, and E731. Either these staterooms are super, uber popular and nearly impossible to actually reserve or there is a glitch in Princess' website? The reason I think there might be a glitch in the system is that these staterooms are identified as mini suites on Princess’ website (deck plans) but the only way to even to get or look at the to deck 8 balcony rooms is by selecting the standard balcony option (not premium balcony and not mini suites). I have looked at a lot of Sapphire itineraries (even the last ones available in 2025) and these deck 8 balconies (only found under the regular balcony category) are always sold out even when the ship appears to be empty otherwise. Either theses mini suites are actually all sold out on all itineraries or I’m doing something wrong (most probably) or . . . could it be that the mini suites on deck 8 are ‘mis-categorized’ and are being pulled up under the wrong balcony category and that is why they are always listed as sold out on every Sapphire itinerary? Thanks for considering my odd question.

Opps! Nevermind. I backed to the root website. Pretty sure I'll find all the info I need, D

Told you I would have another question. Did Thomas Odell put together a similar helpful link for the Sapphire Princess? Thank you - D

BTW, Thomas Odell is also awesome! Great link, Skynet - Thank you!

Wow! you guys are awesome. Thank you! "The cabin fire and emergency ID system is odd numbers starboard, even numbers port side." and "if the balcony cabin is odd numbered and the inside is also odd numbered, they will face each other. If the inside is even numbered, it will face an even numbered balcony." is great, logical info. I am a little concerned that this cruise to Alaska is going to create an obsession that I am going to go broke over. There is something about those white tablecloths and fabulous food set in front of me (that I didn't cook) that looks so heavenly. Thanks again! I'm sure it won't be my last question. Maybe someday, I'll be an expert with wisdom to impart. Donna

Hello Cruise Critic Community, First time cruise, first time post and I'm already addicted to CC. Planning a Southbound Alaska cruise on Coral Princess for my family of 4 and would like to reserve a balcony stateroom on the port side (obviously) with an inside stateroom directly across the hall. Being a smaller, more narrow ship, the few inside staterooms on Coral Princess are usually in a single row down the middle of the ship and the deck plans do not indicate whether the entrance door to these inside staterooms are accessed on the left or right of the ship. I read in another CC thread that inside staterooms with odd numbers have entrance doors that open to the right side of ship while staterooms with even numbers have staterooms that open to the left of the ship. With the exception of a few inside staterooms forward and aft (near the laundromat), all the inside staterooms that I see on the Coral Princess that are mid-aft, mid or mid-forward are odd numbers. So do all inside staterooms mid-aft, mid and mid-forward on Coral Princess open to the right side of the ship? If this is the case and I want a left side balcony/inside stateroom combo for a southbound cruise, I guess I should switch dates and sail south on Sapphire? Thanks in advance for any response.