Here's a question for you today.
How did you decide what room you booked?
Example which side of the ship and why, which deck and why? Or did you just take what ever DCL assigns you?
Some people study rooms and positions on the ship alot before deciding.
Answer:
Greg is the one who studies the cabins and picks them most of the time.
We like Aft rooms with clear balconies, starboard side for the view of CC and higher up the better, just for the feeling of being up high. Besides Its easier to spy on other ships while in port to see what they look like with the binoculars if we are high up. LOL!!
We like Aft because the elevators are never all that busy. Midship elevators are terrible most of the time. I dont like forward due to the extra motion on the ship.
Kathy
Most of my experience is with the Magic and Wonder so I can not speak to the Dream and Fantasy.
We like the clear verandah over the navigator verandah.
A few cruises ago, we tried one of the four partially obstructed verandah rooms. These verandahs have the clear panel on the bottom and only a small top corner obstructed, but they are priced the same as a navigator verandah. Since then, if we are trying to book a verandah, we try to get one of the these partially obstructed verandah rooms.
When we first called to book the Southern Caribbean, we tried to book the cruise going out on the 20th, but all the partially obstructed verandah rooms where taken, and boy are we glad they were

There are other factors we look at too. If we are booking an inside stateroom we will try for deck 7 aft. Aft. is easy to get around and deck 7 aft. is close to the secrete verandah on the back of the ship. If we are going to Castaway Cay we will try to get starboard so we will have a view of the island, but if not going to Castaway we will take pot luck on port or starboard. If there are four of us going we can't use the partially obstructed verandah rooms because they only sleep 3. If all else fails, we pull out our deck maps and try to stay at least a few doors away from the laundry rooms and other potential noise generators, like elevator lobbies.
I don't think we have ever left the decision of room and room location totally up to DCL.
Bill