More cruises or nicer cabins?

[John&LaLa]

48 minutes ago, frank808 said:

Terrible rooms John! Why would you want to stay in a VP. Don't let the secret out John.

 

I book these any chance I get. Love that the Navigator out of Long Beach has the VP rooms. I love the windows and being able to see the ocean go by without sweating. Can't wait to be back in that cabin in a couple months.

 

I can't help myself sometimes.

 

We have 9 nights on Mariner coming up in December. 

 

Should be in one next month for Baltics, but due to several L&S's we ended up in a GS.

 

Probably best, I hear the fog horn can be brutal up there

[molly361]

7 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I can't help myself sometimes.

 

We have 9 nights on Mariner coming up in December. 

 

Should be in one next month for Baltics, but due to several L&S's we ended up in a GS.

 

Probably best, I hear the fog horn can be brutal up there

I'm actually considering giving my VP that I have for November up.  It's only 4 nights but I am spending a lot of time on the Mariner might need to do Indy instead  But I do have a pretty good price.  We'll see

[DukeASUGirl]

On 7/11/2022 at 7:37 AM, Seville2Cabo said:

I will say that I don't understand the dark thing people say.  Many mornings I have to open the curtains a little to see if it is light outside and get hit with crazy sun in my sleepy eyes.  Usually pisses my sleeping wife off.

 

I see you also live in Arizona. I need blackout curtains in my room in order to sleep - otherwise it's just too much ambient natural light. That's why I love inside cabins on a cruise ship. When I'm trying to sleep, I don't WANT to see any light. None. I want it pitch black. Even the slightest amount of light will wake me and I hate that. 

 

Coming from AZ, I just sort of assume it'll be light outside if it's after 5 am, period. And I have no desire to wake up that early on vacation - I end up having to do that at home!

[Rogueperson]

I go for the more cruises. 

 

 I usually start by booking an interior and will upgrade if the price is worth it.  Sometimes, now that I'm diamond, the balcony staterooms can be less than 200 bucks more than an interior, and that's okay (was just looking at an 7 night Anthem cruise that had a $165 difference between midship interior and unobstructed balcony).  In this case, I would book the balcony.

But many times, the Balconies just doesn't seem worth it.  I was on Enchantment earlier this year.  I got the price for our midship interior down to 1600.  A balcony on Enchantment was going for 4000!!! for two.  I royal upped for 450, for a grand room total of 2050, so i got a deal there (12 nights), but I would not have dropped 4K for a balcony.   Also, we kind of regretted the upgrade.  We were at the very front of the ship on deck 7 and it turned out to a pretty rough cruise.

Same thing for Suites.  Jr. Suites, i've seen are triple the price of an interior.  What you get for a Jr. Suite is more room really and that's about it.  I've never found a Jr. Suite that i felt was worth the extra expenditure.  The idea that I can cruise 2 - 3x for the same price as 1 time in a Jr. suite kind of offends me.  But this is just me.  Balconies are cool, but I never felt the need for one.  I guess I'm just comfortable as a basement dweller.

[Seville2Cabo]

57 minutes ago, DukeASUGirl said:

 

I see you also live in Arizona. I need blackout curtains in my room in order to sleep - otherwise it's just too much ambient natural light. That's why I love inside cabins on a cruise ship. When I'm trying to sleep, I don't WANT to see any light. None. I want it pitch black. Even the slightest amount of light will wake me and I hate that. 

 

Coming from AZ, I just sort of assume it'll be light outside if it's after 5 am, period. And I have no desire to wake up that early on vacation - I end up having to do that at home!

The light in AZ does not wake me, the dog is up and wants to go out about 5:30 every morning.

[DukeASUGirl]

3 hours ago, Seville2Cabo said:

The light in AZ does not wake me, the dog is up and wants to go out about 5:30 every morning.

I'm probably just super light-sensitive, because even just "first light" in Arizona wakes me. Forget about waiting until sunrise - I'm wide awake by then.

 

So I love the inside cabins! Absolutely no light at all!

[poocher]

I would kill myself in an inside cabin, no light no air, no sir!  If that doesn’t bother you then I guess an inside is ok.  I need to be able to get air (I sleep with a window open about 2 inches all winter long!).  There are nights I’ll sleep on the balcony.  No chance I cruise without one.

[Gardener5b]

This was an interesting read on this topic.   We started out doing balconies or Jr. Suites on our first few cruises. A lot depended on itinerary as to whether a balcony was needed.    As we cruised more, we started doing interior cabins for Caribbean itineraries we'd done so many times. .   Being that we both worked too many hours, the dark cabin where we could sleep late was a real luxury!!!

 

In recent years, circumstances have required that we take separate vacations (elder care issues).   I really didn't mind interior or promenade cabins when sailing solo.   Promenade cabins seemed great for the extra light and space.

 

As we've gotten older, we appreciate balconies more.   We are now getting ready to sail together for the first time in several years (post elder care/post covid (hopefully)).   We were fortunate enough to win a RoyalUp bid (first one we ever bid on) to go from a Jr. Suite to an Owners Suite.  We will probably never be lucky enough to get such a great price on an OS.   I hope it doesn't spoil us.

 

Lately, Covid has us thinking our own balcony is a really good idea for a safer place to hang out.

[aubreyc1988]

On 7/9/2022 at 2:33 PM, John&LaLa said:

 

FWIW, on some itineraries the balcony is close to the inside price with C&A discount

how can you tell if there is a CA discount on Balconies? I am looking at Liberty sailing in Sept and I am Emerald. 

[brillohead]

On 7/9/2022 at 8:45 PM, bonsai3s said:

Bottom line: We haven't booked an inside cabin ever since. Two reasons, 1. Our bed (inside cabin) only had one small space on one side and against the wall on the other side. I would literally roll over and hit the wall . It wasn't funny after a few days.

Just FYI, not every inside room has so little space. The older/smaller ships are more likely to have the bed against the wall, or a random room that was squeezed in somewhere on a newer ship, but MOST inside rooms on Explorer class and larger ships have a walk-space on both sides of the bed.  

[brillohead]

18 minutes ago, aubreyc1988 said:

how can you tell if there is a CA discount on Balconies? I am looking at Liberty sailing in Sept and I am Emerald. 

There is always a CAS discount on balconies for Platinum and above... it just doesn't really add up to much at the lower levels.

[mets07]

40 minutes ago, aubreyc1988 said:

how can you tell if there is a CA discount on Balconies? I am looking at Liberty sailing in Sept and I am Emerald. 

If pricing a cruise online, click on the option (as in screen shot below) that says Apply a promo code and exclusive rates discounts.  Enter your C&A number, etc. and proceed to price a balcony.

 

 

 

 

[CruisingHogFan]

Did interior once years ago and never again. Always book standard balconies as personnel thought best price for convenience/value. 
 

BUT we upgraded to a crown loft on our last cruise and we may stay with suites for now on. The perks are just too much to ignore and avoid all the crowds. 

[Norwich Cruiser]

We always go for what we consider the best value.

 

On the odd occasion a balcony with discount we’ve found to be cheaper than an inside or ocean view.

[Biker19]

9 hours ago, brillohead said:

There is always a CAS discount on balconies for Platinum and above... 

Which could be wiped out by a higher non-combinable promo.

[SuitesRbest]

We have our fun with exactly the same cabins. Balcony, Oceanview and yes the occasional JS. This has served well as we are now D+. (well after the next cruise anyhoo)

We will definitely look to save some moola $ when we retire to do more cruiser's rather than fork out extra for cabin upgrades.  

The old cruise saying, you only have to sleep, change and shower in ya cabin!!!!

[rudeney]

Since this was not done as a poll, I could not tell what the majority choice was, and the statistician in me was bothered by that, so I tabulated the results.  It was not easy because some people gave ambiguous answers.  What I did is if you said anything that sounded as if you prefer a minimum class of cabin, I counted that as "nicer".  So here are the results so far:

 

Total respondents: 69

Prefer Nicer: 33

Prefer More: 36

Ambiguous answers: 6

Ambiguous counted as Nicer: 2

Ambiguous counted as More: 4

[dwp10mm]

Well I put my money where my mouth is.  Booked Indy for end of Aug. with connecting Promenade rooms.  For a cheap 4 day cruise I'll take a chance.  Now, I've had these type of rooms 3 times before.  But in those cases I could open the door and tell the kids next door to shut up.  :-).  Hopefully I have quiet neighbors on this voyage.  

[Joebucks]

Sure a marginally larger room and/or a balcony is nicer. There really is no argument that I'd pick that at 7 days over 14 days of cruising in an interior. The vacation is the cruise, not the room.

[mpk]

On 7/9/2022 at 12:16 PM, Thesandman12 said:

Checking in, I always ask, is the ship full,  if not a deal may be there. we have got some good ones, I mean good, in the past nothing to loose.

 

You mean you made a deal for an upgrade at the port when checking in?  Or at Guest Services?

[OCSC Mike]

2 hours ago, dwp10mm said:

Well I put my money where my mouth is.  Booked Indy for end of Aug. with connecting Promenade rooms.  For a cheap 4 day cruise I'll take a chance.  Now, I've had these type of rooms 3 times before.  But in those cases I could open the door and tell the kids next door to shut up.  :-).  Hopefully I have quiet neighbors on this voyage.  

We had one for the 1st 3 nights of our current Indy B2B & just switched cabins for the next 4 nights. The only time I ever heard our “neighbors” was when their iPhone alarm went off in the morning but we were always up already.

 

The noise from the music during the promenade parties at night was far louder.

Edited July 18, 2022 by OCSC Mike

[mpk]

On 7/10/2022 at 4:26 AM, Bound4Bermuda said:

This is what I was thinking. You need to “stay low-budget” for as long as possible, because once you move up, there’s no going back!

 

Yeah, there's one party in our circle that says this.  Most of the circle easily pivots from inside to balcony or higher.

 

The pros/con on this thread could also be applied to flying international business class.  Sure, it's nicer.  It's also about 4 times the cash   😀

[mpk]

On 7/11/2022 at 1:15 PM, Tatka said:

We can afford balconies, but never use them anyway. So for us it is inside cabin unless I must work and have meetings.

 

Does this mean when working, one stays in the room on the phone/laptop/video while the other relaxes on the balcony?  Do you find that ocean internet is good enough for working?  😀

[island lady]

At our age...this is not going to happen to us.   Don't intend to leave it behind.  So it's better  cabins...AND more cruises   When is the last time you saw a U-Haul behind a hearse?  😉 

 

Edited July 18, 2022 by island lady

[ARandomTraveler]

On 7/15/2022 at 8:46 AM, rudeney said:

Since this was not done as a poll, I could not tell what the majority choice was, and the statistician in me was bothered by that, so I tabulated the results.  It was not easy because some people gave ambiguous answers.  What I did is if you said anything that sounded as if you prefer a minimum class of cabin, I counted that as "nicer".  So here are the results so far:

 

Total respondents: 69

Prefer Nicer: 33

Prefer More: 36

Ambiguous answers: 6

Ambiguous counted as Nicer: 2

Ambiguous counted as More: 4

So if you remove those, we're at 31 (nicer) vs 32 (more). A pretty even split. 
 

I wonder which category you put my ambiguous answer in? 🤔😂