There’s a bit of art and a bit of science to selecting rooms on cruise ships. When we booked this trip, COVID had the world shut down and availability was wide open. There are only four rooms of class B6 on the ship, to my knowledge, and at the time we booked our room they were still priced like a regular balcony. Later the price for this category went up, as it got listed on the site as “Large Balcony” if I recall correctly.
Advantages of Room 8112
- The balcony, as 155 square feet, is more than half the size of the stateroom, deep enough to hold two chaise lounges, two chairs, and two side tables. The photo at the top of the page is taken from its duplicate on the starboard side, room 8712.
- On the lowest deck with balconies. As you can see from the angle to the water in the photo, it’s not far down. From having been on deck 9 in NCL Sun, I expect this will be similar — close enough to the water for a fairly intimate experience with the ocean, while far enough up to see out away form the ship. And it will make for some less-common photos, I think, when we go through the Panama Canal. Additionally, the lower on the ship you can get, the less likely you are to experience seasickness. Previous cruises were on Deck 9 and 11 and I had no problem with either, but we were also mid-whip, where we are much further forward this time.
- Only staterooms above us, no public areas. This helps with the quiet.
- We’re on the same deck as a place I anticipate we’ll spend a lot of time on the warmer part of the trip — The Water front.
Disadvantages
- Being at the front of the ship may be a bit rougher than we’ve experienced before. Maybe one of us will be a bit more likely to be seasick, we’ll see.
- It also means EVERYTHING is a long walk from the room, though the restaurants and other things on the Waterfront are relatively closer. It’s also some distance form the forward elevators, so we will be doing a lot of walking!
- Probably the biggest potential down side is the possibility (small though it may be) of ship’s operational noise, with working spaces below us and ahead of us separated by only one room. I imagine we’ll hear the anchor, at least a little, when it is used. And I anticipate we may be bothered at a low level by the noises of docking and getting underway. But those are a positive in some ways, as they will give me good opportunities for some photos not many have the chance to take.
On balance we anticipate it will be an above-average, potentially even great, room. Between that and staying in the same room for both legs of the trip, we elected not to even put in upgrade offers!
and then