Worst-Case Legend Balcony?

[Leo Jay]

We've booked a Balcony Guarantee on the Legend, and just in case the cruise gods aren't with us, I'd like an idea of what's the worst case scenario with a balcony, in terms of obstructions or anything else. If there's a lifeboat blocking your view, how high does it actually come up? I'm having trouble getting a sense of what these obstructions look like. Anyone have photos of a very obstructed balcony? I'm wondering if we shouldn't pay more to select our cabin...

[celticd1]

You should get AT LEAST a cat. 8A or better, no obstructed views. Go to Carnival's website and check out the deck plans.

[Leo Jay]

I'm trying to figure out how obstructed the obstructed views are, so we can judge whether or not it's worth the upgrade to avoid the risk. The deck plans unfortunately don't give you any sense of what your view will actually be.

[MrPete]

There are no obstructions on a 8A balcony guarantee.

 

Worst you can be is an 8A on deck 4. And there's nothin' wrong with that!

 

My last 8A GTY got me a balcony on deck 8.

 

All the views will be the same : rail, and water.

[nybumpkin]

My understanding is that if you booked a BL guarantee (rather than an 8A guarantee), the worst-case scenario - if there is such a thing on a cruise:) - is that you will get a 7A balcony on deck 5. The tops of the lifeboats will be directly below your cabin, so you won't have a view down the side of the ship - but your view directly ahead will not be obstructed. We booked an 8A guarantee (along with a 4A inside guarantee) so that we wouldn't have concerns about the lifeboats, and we learned this week that we've been assigned two 8B balconies on deck 5. Hopefully the upgrade fairy won't change her mind in the next few weeks!

[Leo Jay]

My understanding is that if you booked a BL guarantee (rather than an 8A guarantee), the worst-case scenario - if there is such a thing on a cruise:) - is that you will get a 7A balcony on deck 5. The tops of the lifeboats will be directly below your cabin, so you won't have a view down the side of the ship - but your view directly ahead will not be obstructed. We booked an 8A guarantee (along with a 4A inside guarantee) so that we wouldn't have concerns about the lifeboats, and we learned this week that we've been assigned two 8B balconies on deck 5. Hopefully the upgrade fairy won't change her mind in the next few weeks!

 

Thanks. We did book a BL Guarantee rather than an 8A Guarantee.

 

I was getting really confused about why 8AGs were sold at a higher price than BLGs if BLGs supposedly guaranteed you at least an 8A anyway; after some persistence on my part, the Carnival PVP finally clarified that although a BLG "99%" guarantees us an upgrade to at least an 8A, there's some chance we could end up in a 7A.

 

But that wouldn't be so terrible, based on your description. Might as well save the cash we'd spend upgrading and eat at the Golden Fleece every night. :)

 

Hey, if a lifeboat is blocking our view directly down the side of the ship... wouldn't that also be the case for anyone directly above us?

[nybumpkin]

Hey, if a lifeboat is blocking our view directly down the side of the ship... wouldn't that also be the case for anyone directly above us?

 

I think it's mostly a case of the angle. Since you're directly above the lifeboats, when you're sitting down on the balcony your downward angle view will be the lifeboat. As you go higher, you have less of a view of lifeboats when you're sitting. There are a couple of Webshots pictures of 7A cabins (do a search on "7A balcony"), and you definitely see the lifeboats - but you have a full balcony.

[BigDoug]

If you booked a BL gty then you are guaranteed an 8A balcony or better. You will not get an obstructed balcony (7A). Worst case, a standard balcony on the Main Deck (4).:) Best case, extended balcony on Promenade Deck (8).:D

[nybumpkin]

From Carnival's Website re Balcony categories:

Balcony

Includes stateroom categories: Standard Balcony 8A, 8B, 8D, 8F and 8H Extended Balcony 8C, 8E, 8G and 8I. Balcony Stateroom (obstructed view)* 7A

[flamingokidz]

We just returned from a cruise on the Legend. What an awesome and beautiful ship. We had a category 8I extended balcony and paid for 8A. We were given an 8 category upgrade when we booked . We loved it so much we booked the same ship with the new itinerary for next March with the same cabin. Also free upgrade. You will love it so much and none of the balconies were yucky. Have a blast!

Lynne:cool:

 

SAIL ON...............LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND!

[finoky]

Hey, if a lifeboat is blocking our view directly down the side of the ship... wouldn't that also be the case for anyone directly above us?

 

That is the forgotten point. As we stood on our 7A balcony and looked up we could easily see that those "unobstructed" balconies aboves us could not look straight down either. I posted a few pics of our 7A balcony from our Miracle cruise on webshots. Here is the link: http://community.webshots.com/album/550320245hDWpFx

[Leo Jay]

That is the forgotten point. As we stood on our 7A balcony and looked up we could easily see that those "unobstructed" balconies aboves us could not look straight down either. I posted a few pics of our 7A balcony from our Miracle cruise on webshots. Here is the link: http://community.webshots.com/album/550320245hDWpFx

 

Oh, I think we can live with that. Thanks for the pics -- I'd been having a hard time getting a sense of it.

 

I think it's mostly a case of the angle. Since you're directly above the lifeboats, when you're sitting down on the balcony your downward angle view will be the lifeboat. As you go higher, you have less of a view of lifeboats when you're sitting.

 

Yeah, sure that makes sense -- they can't look straight down to the water, but at least the boats aren't in their immediate sightline as they look out.

[MrPete]

From Carnival's Website re Balcony categories:

Balcony

Includes stateroom categories: Standard Balcony 8A, 8B, 8D, 8F and 8H Extended Balcony 8C, 8E, 8G and 8I. Balcony Stateroom (obstructed view)* 7A

 

Yes, those are the balcony categories, but, and I'm quoting this second hand (I was looking for the link, but no luck), a BL guarantee doesn't include a 7A.

 

Even if you go on Carnival's website, the BL guarantee is grouped with the cat 8's, while the 7A is grouped with the OV gty.

 

It's also interesting that the IS gty includes the 5A's.

[nybumpkin]

Pete - Our PVP indicated that we could end up with a 7A if we booked BL, but as others have noted on these boards, the PVPs aren't always correct. At any rate, at least on our cruise the upgrade fairy seems to be very generous:D

[MrPete]

I hear ya.

 

I have only booked one, so just to make sure, I made sure my TA put 8A GTY on my contract. I think I ended up with an 8G, which I thought was good, until I found other in my party got an 8I.

 

You' re getting close to "the sailing!"

[nybumpkin]

You' re getting close to "the sailing!"

 

47 days and counting! Still sorry you're not along for the ride. I'm in the sorting-clothes phase; time to figure out what still fits the boys and what I need to buy. Oldest needs a new e-Bay tux; he's growing like a weed. It'll be nice to have all of us on one deck this year (the dangers of guarantee cabins); last year we had one cabin on deck 9 and another on deck 1!

 

We've had a pretty good spring up here in Greene County, so it should be nice for you over July 4th. The Catskill Creek was running pretty hard this morning (Cairo got 7 inches of rain yesterday:eek: ), so there shouldn't be any drought worries this year.