Ocean view balcony - random cabin

[STephan]

Hello,

If you buy a random cabin on a ship, do you get a cabin in a poor location with a limited view (ocean view), or is it a random thing and in such a case you can get a cabin with great parameters? From experience...

[need2cruz]

The last 3 times I have selected a random ocean view balcony, I was given cabins that I was very pleased with.  We prefer the front of the ship and all of them have been front to mid ship.  Twice we were given the spacious ocean view balcony.  All of them had no obstructions.  YMMV.

[Ryan79]

You will get whatever is leftover and not picked by other cruisers. Sometimes you get a nice location and sometimes you don’t. It’s a gamble. What is a bad location to some, is a great location to others. 

[STephan]

In this case, is the cabin number known during check-in 45 days before the cruise?

[Matt]

3 hours ago, STephan said:

In this case, is the cabin number known during check-in 45 days before the cruise?

Not necessarily. If you book a guaranteed cabin, your room could be assigned right up to the day of the cruise.

[Atlantix2000]

On 11/11/2024 at 2:24 PM, STephan said:

Hello,

If you buy a random cabin on a ship, do you get a cabin in a poor location with a limited view (ocean view), or is it a random thing and in such a case you can get a cabin with great parameters? From experience...

If by "buy a random cabin" you mean you booked a GTY (Guaranty) cabin, then you will get one of the cabins remaining after everyone else paid to pick a specific cabin.  Generally, people pick the cabin they think is best from those available.  But everyone's opinion of best is different.  Some like to be near the elevators, some hate that.  Some pick a specific cabin because they want to make sure they don't have an obstructed view, but others purposely pick an obstructed view to save money.  So the only thing you can say about the GTY cabins is that no one else picked them but the furnishings and size are still the same as all other cabins in the same category.

Your actual cabin assignment can happen anytime between when you booked the cruise and when you board the ship.  That's part of the terms of the GTY.

[Ampurp85]

I agree thats everyone has different likes and dislikes. But I don't understand the idea that gty is only cabins nobody picked. There are a lot of cabins that get picked and dropped right before or even after final payment. Tons of people drop out and there are desired cabins for GTY.

To answer another part of the op's question. You won't get assigned a cabin below what you booked.  So a gty balcony won't be an OV room.

I honestly think only 1 of the maybe 5 or 6 gty rooms I got assigned were bad or in an undesirable area. In all honesty I have been more dissatisfied with rooms I have chosen.

[InmyElement]

Just got our GTY Balcony assignment Deck 6 yesterday and we are 15 days away. I was worried about having to write in our cabin # in the last couple days with a generic luggage tag, now I feel better with an assigned color tag and according to Cruisedeckplans its not obstructed and on the "bump" near the elevators..yay!

[DoomSlayer]

On 11/11/2024 at 2:24 PM, STephan said:

Hello,

If you buy a random cabin on a ship, do you get a cabin in a poor location with a limited view (ocean view), or is it a random thing and in such a case you can get a cabin with great parameters? From experience...

I have had great rooms with GTY, and I have had some not-so-great rooms with GTY, but I have never had a terrible room with GTY bookings.  Often, when using casino comps, they will offer me free-play credits as compensation if I take a GTY room (similar to the discounted fare difference if you book normally) instead of picking my room.  I usually jump on these offers and do GTY often.  Unless I am in a suite, I usually don't spend much time in my room anyway, so minor inconveniences like obstructed views or hearing thrusters early in the morning as we pull into ports of call don't bother me enough to regret having a GTY room.  But that is just me, if you think these types of things would bother you, then GTY may not be right for you.

[Mike n Ky]

Gty balcony online wouldn't allow me to specify what part of the ship. However, we booked a gty balcony on Next in early 2023 for our Symphony cruise this past January and they set it as OV balc gty. Upon check in we did the 'magic trick' and saw our cabin and it never changed. We were also very pleased with the location.