Advice? Not able to book specific secret balcony room on Wonder?

[Chereya]

Hello DCL experts! I was wanting to book one of the secret balcony rooms on the Wonder for a 2023 cruise. I have tried using the online search functions and had to resort to calling Costco Travel who also ended up calling Disney CL. I keep being told that I cannot book the specific secret balcony rooms by cabin number - that these have been categorized as an OV Guaranty room. She did offer to have the DCL rep stay on the line as he could add my specific cabin number requests to the guaranty booking. I don't want to do this and chance being in an actual OV only room. I'm not sure if the prices make sense to go this route. The price quoted from Costco was $3183 for 2 passengers for the OV guaranty. She didn't specify but is this price a category 7A guaranty? The other OV guaranty cabins being offered on the website are 9A ($2671) 9B ($2495) 9C ($2455) and 9D ($2407).

Or one of the secret porthole cabins is still available for $2407.

Any advice or strategies are welcome, please! We have cruised before on Holland, Princess, Norwegian, Celebrity and Crystal but this would be our first Disney. It's just going to be me and my tween child before they age out of wanting to go with mom on a Disney cruise.

 

[Cheburashka]

Hello DCL experts! I was wanting to book one of the secret balcony rooms on the Wonder for a 2023 cruise. I have tried using the online search functions and had to resort to calling Costco Travel who also ended up calling Disney CL. I keep being told that I cannot book the specific secret balcony rooms by cabin number - that these have been categorized as an OV Guaranty room. She did offer to have the DCL rep stay on the line as he could add my specific cabin number requests to the guaranty booking. I don't want to do this and chance being in an actual OV only room. I'm not sure if the prices make sense to go this route. The price quoted from Costco was $3183 for 2 passengers for the OV guaranty. She didn't specify but is this price a category 7A guaranty? The other OV guaranty cabins being offered on the website are 9A ($2671) 9B ($2495) 9C ($2455) and 9D ($2407).

Or one of the secret porthole cabins is still available for $2407.

Any advice or strategies are welcome, please! We have cruised before on Holland, Princess, Norwegian, Celebrity and Crystal but this would be our first Disney. It's just going to be me and my tween child before they age out of wanting to go with mom on a Disney cruise.

All rooms with any kind of verandah are classified as verandah staterooms, not oceanview staterooms. A 7A is a verandah, not an oceanview category.

"Secret verandah" just means a verandah that is classified as a 7A but has less obstruction than most 7As. But all 7As are classified as verandahs & not oceanviews. You will not get one if you book a guarantee oceanview stateroom.

 

[Chereya]

I'm confused. Do you already have a cruise booked in a GT oceanview stateroom? If so, then you cannot request a specific room, and you cannot expect to be placed in any kind of verandah room, "secret" (there are no real secrets) or not. All rooms with any kind of verandah are classified as verandah staterooms, not oceanview staterooms.

If you don't yet have a cruise booked, then go online and book that specific stateroom you want, then transfer the booking to Costco if you want to get the Costco discount.

I haven't booked anything yet. I've tried navigating through the DCL website but it's very limited on what options they give you to select from. Is there a way to just type in the cabin number I want? I am forced to choose a cabin category, then which segment of the ship Aft/Mid/Forward, then pick a deck, and finally it'll show the part of that deck and the cabin numbers. I can't even navigate to the right deck to see the specific cabin numbers I'm interested in.

 

[Cheburashka]

I haven't booked anything yet. I've tried navigating through the DCL website but it's very limited on what options they give you to select from. Is there a way to just type in the cabin number I want? I am forced to choose a cabin category, then which segment of the ship Aft/Mid/Forward, then pick a deck, and finally it'll show the part of that deck and the cabin numbers. I can't even navigate to the right deck to see the specific cabin numbers I'm interested in.

Please reread my prior post. I edited it after reading yours again.

Also, the way to find a 7A is to go to Verandah (not Family Verandah), then go to Aft, then deck 6 or 7. You cannot search by cabin number, no.

As stated before, these "secret verandahs" are classified as verandahs, not oceanviews.

 

[Marc D]

I haven't booked anything yet. I've tried navigating through the DCL website but it's very limited on what options they give you to select from. Is there a way to just type in the cabin number I want? I am forced to choose a cabin category, then which segment of the ship Aft/Mid/Forward, then pick a deck, and finally it'll show the part of that deck and the cabin numbers. I can't even navigate to the right deck to see the specific cabin numbers I'm interested in.

If the category of the room you want has switched to a Guaranteed booking for the cruise you are looking at, you will not be able to pick a specific room in that category. They switch to GTY bookings when a category is nearly sold out. Some categories with very few rooms go GTY after a couple of rooms get booked. If that’s the case, no one can book a specific room in that category - not your TA or the DCL CM on the phone.

‘Secret’ verandah rooms haven‘t been classified as OV rooms for many years. They used to be secret because it was a way to pay an oceanview rate to get a verandah but they were reclassified as verandah rooms with their specific category many years ago.

 

[Chereya]

If the category of the room you want has switched to a Guaranteed booking for the cruise you are looking at, you will not be able to pick a specific room in that category. They switch to GTY bookings when a category is nearly sold out. Some categories with very few rooms go GTY after a couple of rooms get booked. If that’s the case, no one can book a specific room in that category - not your TA or the DCL CM on the phone.

‘Secret’ verandah rooms haven‘t been classified as OV rooms for many years. They used to be secret because it was a way to pay an oceanview rate to get a verandah but they were reclassified as verandah rooms with their specific category many years ago.

Ok thank you for that explanation. Clearly I haven't caught up with that news, lol. My mistake and I'm sorry for writing my original post in a confusing way because I mistakenly thought I could still get the secret balcony as an OV category.

Thank you both for helping me figure where I went wrong with my original thought pathway. I guess now the two choices I'm weighing are whether to go for the secret porthole cabin at $2407 or the navigator balcony guaranty at $2983 (based on the costco online price showing).

 

[_auroraborealis_]

And honestly, the secret verandahs book up pretty early. If a sailing is putting the cat into GTY those cabins are long, long gone.

 

[Sakura1017]

Also if you are in a category with guarantee category you cannot request specific rooms either.

 

[Cheburashka]

I guess now the two choices I'm weighing are whether to go for the secret porthole cabin at $2407 or the navigator balcony guaranty at $2983 (based on the costco online price showing).

We loved our Navigator's verandah when sailing the Wonder to Alaska. I would opt for that.