Trade low, midship inside cabin for forward, obstructed balcony on QM2?

[sucramdi]

I'm booked on a westbound TA in November and booked a midship inside cabin on deck 5. I'm travelling solo so I took a budget conscious cabin in the best location I could find. As the departure approaches, Cunard lowered the fares for my voyage and for a small price I could upgrade myself to a guaranteed obstructed view balcony cabin on deck 8 forward. While I'd love to have the sunlight and fresh air of a balcony, I'm a little concerned about the location. Does anyone have experience in a forward cabin on deck 8 during a winter TA? Would you take the upgrade? The ship's movement would be my main concern.

[Bigmike911]

The Britannia Club staterooms are on decks 12 and 13 forward. They command a premium price. If people are willing to pay more for these staterooms, it seems that your 8 deck stateroom will be fine. 

[BigMac1953]

The ship is amazingly stable.

 

We've crossed a couple of times in November and there's been little movement.

 

Go for it!

[Underwatr]

The obstructed balconies have a good amount of light since the lifeboats or tenders still leave a significant amount of sky visible and sit about 6 feet away from the balcony railing. If you're around 6 feet tall or taller you can see the horizon over the top of a lifeboat (the tenders extend higher).

 

Given a choice between an inside and any QM2 balcony I'd opt for the balcony. I've done several December cruises on 11 as well as on 5.

 

Edit: If you're forward you'll have a lifeboat outside the window rather than a tender. This is a crop of a photo of the starboard/right side of QM2, the bow is off the right side of the photo. The seven orange boats are lifeboats, the four tenders that you can see in this photo have more glass.

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by Underwatr

[watsonbeau]

I stayed in 8013 glass balcony - no problem with stability or seasickness at all. Even if no great view in some of the cabins, nice just to step outside ! 

[sucramdi]

Appreciate all the insights! I went ahead and called Cunard to do the upgrade.

[majortom10]

No I would stay where you are we always book a deck 5 midships inside cabin except for one occasion and we booked inside on higher deck forward. Big mistake there was a lot of vibration and movement in rough seas, it didn't make us seasick but I wouldn't book in that position in the future.

[LB_NJ]

On 10/15/2022 at 11:49 AM, sucramdi said:

I'm booked on a westbound TA in November and booked a midship inside cabin on deck 5. I'm travelling solo so I took a budget conscious cabin in the best location I could find. As the departure approaches, Cunard lowered the fares for my voyage and for a small price I could upgrade myself to a guaranteed obstructed view balcony cabin on deck 8 forward. While I'd love to have the sunlight and fresh air of a balcony, I'm a little concerned about the location. Does anyone have experience in a forward cabin on deck 8 during a winter TA? Would you take the upgrade? The ship's movement would be my main concern.

 

It really depends on how sensitive you are to ship movement. 

 

I have stayed in cabin 8044 and thoroughly enjoyed it however it was a summer cruise to Canada from NYC.

 

I would definitely take the upgrade however ship movement does not bother me as much.

 

FYI, there used to be sites that show the view from obstructed view staterooms.  In the one I had you could see down to the water.

[MCC retired]

Those QM2 Obstructed Balcony cabins are shown at the top of this Forum .With luck a Balcony Guarantee could be to a unobstructed category also.

I would have to be frightened beyond belief of ship movement to not swap an Inside for any Balcony on any itinerary. 

[Host Hattie]

13 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

FYI, there used to be sites that show the view from obstructed view staterooms.  In the one I had you could see down to the water.

No need to go to another site, available here 

 

 

 

 

[sucramdi]

Im not very sensitive to ship movement, but this will be my first TA crossing so I was being cautious. No buyers remorse here, I'm sure I'll enjoy the balcony room much more. Fingers crossed my guaranteed room gets me bumped up a grade!

[david,Mississauga]

I have had an obstructed view cabin twice.  Both were fairly far forward but we were able to choose one well in advance and had a partial view between lifeboats.

 

I have no doubt that the QM2 is a very stable ship as most people will post, but it will bounce in rough seas. We also had a far forward PG cabin on Deck 10 once.  We ran into heavy seas for one day on two of the voyages when we we were forward.  I was almost thrown to the floor on one crossing and on another voyage my rib-cage made contact with the bathroom door one night.  Fortunately no harm was done.

 

But this will not deter us in the future as the chances are that the voyages will be mostly smooth. There have been only three nights on our total of 10 voyages on the QM2 (mostly crossings) when there has been uncomfortable motion.

[showingdiva]

I'm neither a bad nor nervous traveler, but as a solo QM2 traveler for a central location, have had a sheltered mid-ships balcony, which I liked as not a sun worshiper.  However, as far as the Deck 3L single cabins are concerned, I would - and do - whatever possible for one of these.