Can someone explain the room designations to me?

Cejay · #1 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 11:00 AM

I tried the search and just came up with partial answers and I know that this question has probably been asked a million times but I will ask again. Can someone explain what the room designations means? I have figured out an OV is oceanview and think that the 5, 4, or whatever means the deck. But what is a guarantee? How can you tell what type bed it has? We have to have at least a queen if not king. Just doing my research since I am going to book our next cruise.
Thanks everyone.

ClevelandRocks · #2 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 11:14 AM

The CATEGORIES designate the type room and the LETTER suffix designates the deck. A GUARANTEE is unassigned but insures you of any cabin in that CATEGORY or higher. Cat 4 is inside, Cat 6 oceanview, Cat 8 balcony, Cat 11+ 12 suites. Example: Cat 4A would be inside stateroom Riviera deck. Cat 6 B would be oceanview stateroom, main deck. Cat 8 Guarantee would be a balcony cabin OR HIGHER to be assigned by Carnival. The perk to the GUARANTEE booking is, you pay less for a Cat 8 Guarantee than you do a balcony on the lowest level or Cat 8 A. To determine the bed configuration of a room, you'd have to look the cabin number up on Carnival's site. I don't believe any have queen or king beds except maybe the suites. Most have double beds which can be pushed together.

ClevelandRocks · #3 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 11:18 AM

BTW, not all ships have the same CATEGORIES. The Fantasy-class have very few balconies and you must book a suite to get one (Cat 11 or 12). There are no Cat 8's on Fantasy-class ships. There's also a few wierd Cats like 1, 5, and 9.

msblackjack · #4 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 11:27 AM

Bravo ClevelandRocks - great explanation, as I wondered about this myself, but figure, just get me on the cruise and you can call the room anything you want - except for underwater.

by the way, are you a Cleveland fan, a Drew Carey Fan and a rocknroller all rolled in one?

(I used to live 60 miles southeast of Cleveland)

ClevelandRocks · #5 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 11:42 AM

by the way, are you a Cleveland fan, a Drew Carey Fan and a rocknroller all rolled in one?

LOVE the Browns + Indians, worked on both their stadiums and the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame. Retired construction worker and kinda a ROLLED OVER rock-n-roller.

Moved away from the city and live up in the hills outside Dover New Philly near Atwood Lake.

rosetattoo · #6 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 11:46 AM

The official explanation on Carnival's web site is:

"Booking a guaranteed cabin guarantees you a cabin within that cabin class: suite, balcony, ocean view or inside. You will receive your cabin assignment when you check in for your cruise and your cabin may be located on any deck of the ship".

msblackjack · #7 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClevelandRocks

by the way, are you a Cleveland fan, a Drew Carey Fan and a rocknroller all rolled in one?

LOVE the Browns + Indians, worked on both their stadiums and the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame. Retired construction worker and kinda a ROLLED OVER rock-n-roller.

Moved away from the city and live up in the hills outside Dover New Philly near Atwood Lake.

I have been to Dover, New Philly and Atwood Lake many times; we spent our summers in Berlin Lake area "at grandmas", and lived in a very small small town off of SR 30 (between Akron & YOungstown).

Cejay · #8 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 12:19 PM

Thanks ClevelandRocks that spelled it out perfectly. SO if I want to make sure that I get a room away from the elevators, noisy areas or something I need to say that I want that room or one of these rooms. I then will not be upgraded but will get the room I want. Am I correct? I have to have quite so I will forgo an upgrade to get what I want. Even though paying for an oceanview and getting upgrades to balcony or suite sounds mighty good.
One more question, Ihave looked at the Carnival website as well as vacation to go and Expedia and they do not have a price for balcony - it is blank - so does that mean there are no balcony rooms available?

msblackjack · #9 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cejay

Thanks ClevelandRocks that spelled it out perfectly. SO if I want to make sure that I get a room away from the elevators, noisy areas or something I need to say that I want that room or one of these rooms. I then will not be upgraded but will get the room I want. Am I correct? I have to have quite so I will forgo an upgrade to get what I want. Even though paying for an oceanview and getting upgrades to balcony or suite sounds mighty good.
One more question, Ihave looked at the Carnival website as well as vacation to go and Expedia and they do not have a price for balcony - it is blank - so does that mean there are no balcony rooms available?

yes if you request a certain room - there will be no chance of any upgrade - which IMHO - is okay for me, as I like to pick a room for convenience -

on Carnival's website, is this at the "general screen" or is it when you get further into booking? if at the general screen, that would probably mean all the balcony's are booked; however, if it at the specific deck screen, there are none for that deck and you may want to go to a different deck

skymaster · #10 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cejay

One more question, Ihave looked at the Carnival website as well as vacation to go and Expedia and they do not have a price for balcony - it is blank - so does that mean there are no balcony rooms available?

It may mean that there are no balcony rooms AT ALL on the ship you're looking at. Some of the older ships didn't have balcony rooms, except suites. I think that if the ship did have balcony rooms, but they were sold out, then the designation, instead of the price, would be "Sold Out".

Ken

Cejay · #11 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 02:24 PM

Okay thanks, it was on the general screen. I noticed some on other ships and never thought that they would not have balconies. But now I know. I think one of them was an older ship.

Michelle1959 · #12 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosetattoo

The official explanation on Carnival's web site is:

"Booking a guaranteed cabin guarantees you a cabin within that cabin class: suite, balcony, ocean view or inside. You will receive your cabin assignment when you check in for your cruise and your cabin may be located on any deck of the ship".

If you get a cabin category guarantee instead of booking a specific cabin number, don't you also have possibiliy of an upgrade if there is one available, if you are a past guest?

rosetattoo · #13 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 03:36 PM

If you receive an upgrade, more than likely it will be apples to apples...not many people receive an upgrade from a 1A Guarantee to an 8D Balcony. I am a past guest, Platinum, with 20+ cruises on Carnival and have only received one upgrade in all the years I have cruised with them and that was because we had two connecting rooms which they wanted to sell to someone else and we were the only Platinum members in that classification, therefore, they gave us an upgrade so they could book our connecting rooms to the other guests. I don't know what their criteria is in awarding upgrades...random? military? honeymooners? Because you are a past guest and/or Platinum on Carnival, I don't think that is enough to qualify you for an upgrade or we would have been upgraded more often over the years. Bottom line, don't hold your breath for an upgrade. When we book a cruise, we book a specific room on a specific deck in a specific location...I don't like waiting until the last minute to get my room designation...it could be near the elevators, galley, show lounge, casino, etc., places I don't want to be near.

If someone knows what the criteria is for upgrades, I'd like to hear it.

flowers · #14 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 05:51 PM

[quote="Michelle1959"]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosetattoo

If you get a cabin category guarantee instead of booking a specific cabin number, don't you also have possibiliy of an upgrade if there is one available, if you are a past guest?

Actually, being a past guest doesnt seem to help much if at all. The rumors Iv heard is the way you are upgraded is

1. how much you paid
2. how early you booked
3. how many times you have cruised with the cruiseline.

The determining factor is if you paid more for your guarantee than someone else paid.

Some other have said there is a little old lady in the corner of the room just loving to spinkle fairy dust on a very few with no rhyme or reason, so that folks are pulling out their hair trying to figure how why some brand new cruisers get upgrades and folks who have cruised 20 times dont.

Yes, if you book a guarantee, you are more likely to get an upgrade than if you booked a specific cabin....but lol...no guarantee you will get upgraded.

BobMiller · #15 (**permalink**) August 21st, 2007, 06:00 PM

For the last 2 cruises we booked, we paid for Balcony Guarantees but were allowed to pick our cabin numbers by our Carnival agent. She also let us know about specials that came up after we booked and for the same price was able to pick any open balcony cabin. The first time we moved up to the Veranda deck because it seemed like the best value, but this time we chose the Empress since it is more in the middle and looks like it will be quieter.

It may be that we chose off season cruises that don’t fill as fast, or just lucky but I haven’t seen any formal policy on why we would be offered upgrades like this. As far as being upgraded from inside to out, or outside to balcony, I know it happens but wouldn’t count on it.