Owners suite

[johnnyhopkins]

Called last night on this one and I am not sure if I got someone who knew better or just wanted me off of the phone but according them they still consider what you are seeing on the 16th deck A2s to be "open air balconies". In other words they screwed up somewhere and instead of correcting mid stream they just twisted the definition.

 

The balconies are in between the living/dining area and the bedroom, not on the side. They claim that when open the windows will create an opening from your waist to the ceiling. It's not open to the sky but from all of the early drawings I never expected that.

 

Not sure how much truth is behind it, but I read on another board that NCL exec's and their families were in these suites during the 2 preview cruises and that's why there are no pics coming out.

[WonderMan3]

The balconies are in between the living/dining area and the bedroom, not on the side. .

 

Yes. That is what we were stating further up the thread. It's the suites on 17 that have the balconies on the side which are true open air. But NCL still shows them classified as A5, which is with the solarium.

 

What it comes down to now is that all the Owner's Suites will have some sort of balcony that opens to the air, either completely or via sliding windows. That must be why under the revised deck plan classifications they make no distinction between solarium and open air balcony, they're all classified the same.

[benzygirl]

Yes. That is what we were stating further up the thread. It's the suites on 17 that have the balconies on the side which are true open air. But NCL still shows them classified as A5, which is with the solarium.

 

What it comes down to now is that all the Owner's Suites will have some sort of balcony that opens to the air, either completely or via sliding windows. That must be why under the revised deck plan classifications they make no distinction between solarium and open air balcony, they're all classified the same.

 

Wonderman...from the deck plans, the front OS on 16/17 arene't even the same shape. Seems like on 16 there is more glass in front and they are not as deep as the ones on 17. 17 has 5 cabins between them, and I think less frontage and more side space including the side balcony. I am assuming that the room layout they show are of deck 16. I am beginning to think we haven't even seen the correct layout of the front OS on 17. When I looked at the new actual pics...it seems like there are windows that open in the front 5 cabins on 17, but no front windows for the OS, which would lead me to agree with you on the open side balcony for 17. I just find it sad that they can't explain to the NCL agents what is real. The ship is built for goodness sake!!

[benzygirl]

Based on the official classifications from NCL that would be the case, but after doing some detective work I am convinced now that NCL has flip-flopped the A2 and A5 classifications in error. From everything I'm seeing it is the A2s (like 16002 and 16005) that have the solariums and the A5s (the owner's suites on 17) that have the open balconies.

 

Check out the revised NCL deck plan which you can see here:

 

http://www.epic.ncl.com/resources/documents/36/Epic_RecatDeckPlans_012810.pdf

 

If you look at cabins 16002 and 16005 (the A2s under current classification) you'll see that this deck plan shows the balconies positioned at the front of the ship.

 

When looking at the latest ship photos of the front of the ship (see attached photos) you can clearly see that there are no open balconies where the deck plan shows there would be one. There ARE windows though. These windows are positioned where the deck plan shows the OS balcony would be, which means these are the sliding glass windows that NCL reps had advised had been incorporated into the solariums as per testimony from people here.

 

Also looking back at the revised deck plan at cabins 17004 and 17007 you can see the balconies positioned at the sides of the ship. Then checking another photo of the ship from the dockyard (see attached), you can clearly see this is an open balcony for this cabin. Checking the photo for the side of the ship on Deck 17 you'll see the curve of the front glass for the OS (covered in white tarp), and next to it is the balcony, next to that in what appears to be an even larger balcony is actually the two balconies for cabins 17006 and 17008, and the next to that begins the villas starting with the balcony and the bathroom of 17010. This matches to the deck plan shown above.

 

If 17004 and 17007 have open balconies then they should be the A2s and not the A5s as NCL has promoted them.

 

Based on this information we switched our OS from 16005 to 17007 today. Unfortunately we were forced to pay $225 more per person even though the current price for the category is the same but they classify it as a "rebooking" and not just a cabin change, and since we booked before the price hike we have to pay the difference. We explained to the agent why we were switching and that we felt that NCL's info was in error, but he could only go by what he was told. We said that was fine. We had already paid in full. We let this charge be added to our bill but won't pay it now. We figure we'll wait for the ship to launch and see if indeed we are correct about the miscategorizations, and will take it back up with NCL at that time.

 

I wanted to bring this up though so other people booked in OS could look into it. If it is true there are going to be a number of very upset people who thought they were booking a cabin with an open balcony who get onboard to find a solarium.

 

This is a great picture and seems to prove you correct.

Deck 16 has a window at the side, while Deck 17 has a balcony, followed by the larger balcony of the two Penthouses..and then the CV's. Yipee!

[benzygirl]

Based on the official classifications from NCL that would be the case, but after doing some detective work I am convinced now that NCL has flip-flopped the A2 and A5 classifications in error. From everything I'm seeing it is the A2s (like 16002 and 16005) that have the solariums and the A5s (the owner's suites on 17) that have the open balconies.

 

Check out the revised NCL deck plan which you can see here:

 

http://www.epic.ncl.com/resources/documents/36/Epic_RecatDeckPlans_012810.pdf

 

If you look at cabins 16002 and 16005 (the A2s under current classification) you'll see that this deck plan shows the balconies positioned at the front of the ship.

 

When looking at the latest ship photos of the front of the ship (see attached photos) you can clearly see that there are no open balconies where the deck plan shows there would be one. There ARE windows though. These windows are positioned where the deck plan shows the OS balcony would be, which means these are the sliding glass windows that NCL reps had advised had been incorporated into the solariums as per testimony from people here.

 

Also looking back at the revised deck plan at cabins 17004 and 17007 you can see the balconies positioned at the sides of the ship. Then checking another photo of the ship from the dockyard (see attached), you can clearly see this is an open balcony for this cabin. Checking the photo for the side of the ship on Deck 17 you'll see the curve of the front glass for the OS (covered in white tarp), and next to it is the balcony, next to that in what appears to be an even larger balcony is actually the two balconies for cabins 17006 and 17008, and the next to that begins the villas starting with the balcony and the bathroom of 17010. This matches to the deck plan shown above.

 

If 17004 and 17007 have open balconies then they should be the A2s and not the A5s as NCL has promoted them.

 

Based on this information we switched our OS from 16005 to 17007 today. Unfortunately we were forced to pay $225 more per person even though the current price for the category is the same but they classify it as a "rebooking" and not just a cabin change, and since we booked before the price hike we have to pay the difference. We explained to the agent why we were switching and that we felt that NCL's info was in error, but he could only go by what he was told. We said that was fine. We had already paid in full. We let this charge be added to our bill but won't pay it now. We figure we'll wait for the ship to launch and see if indeed we are correct about the miscategorizations, and will take it back up with NCL at that time.

 

I wanted to bring this up though so other people booked in OS could look into it. If it is true there are going to be a number of very upset people who thought they were booking a cabin with an open balcony who get onboard to find a solarium.

 

 

You are not only so smart, but you are so correct. I thank you, and have finally seen pics of the 17004/17007 balconies taken from someone on the ship. I posted them in a new post...and because of you, I booked 17007.

 

NCL is still telling customers that the 16's are open air and the 17's are solarium. Totally backwards!!

[Us2inFL]

The growing pains for the A2/A5 layout is because they're not pre-fab cabins. They might have been fine-tuning the front of deck 16 and 17 for a while.

 

I'm surprised at NCL's inability to get the info to their sales/booking team. People book EPIC everyday and they need to be given accurate discriptions of these types of suites.

 

I am still happy with my 16002 booking (Oct 9-23) and the front sliding windows. An open forward balcony can be a real windtunnel.

 

There's plenty of open sky and comfy chaises in the courtyard and up on deck 18.

[WonderMan3]

You are not only so smart, but you are so correct. I thank you, and have finally seen pics of the 17004/17007 balconies taken from someone on the ship. I posted them in a new post...and because of you, I booked 17007.

 

NCL is still telling customers that the 16's are open air and the 17's are solarium. Totally backwards!!

 

Yes. It's very misleading. That's why when I discovered this error I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention here so people could make informed booking decisions. I'm glad that both you and I were able to switch our cabins before they sold out. Once I get official confirmation of pictures of a 16th deck OS then I'll go back to our rep at CAS and try to get the price increase we had to pay (when we switched categories) waived.