Alaska Views- Deck 2 OV or Deck 5 Secret Porthole Room

[KayKayJS]

Hi all,

We are booked in room 2116 (09C Oceanview) for Alaska and the reviews for it seem great noise and location wise. We LOVE being aft so overall seems like a great room for us. BUT - We have the option to change to a deck 5 secret porthole room for a little bit more $.

We really like being aft so 2116 seems like a great fit - but are the views terrible for Alaska vs a higher deck? I can't seem to find any good pics showing the difference in view out of the porthole.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Aby]

I think if I had this choice, I would stay with the stateroom on deck 2 - I would rather have an unobstructed porthole view than an obstructed on, especially for less $. On an Alaskan cruise your best views are going to be from the top decks - I don't think the view will be better on deck 5 in an obstructed porthole room thank on deck 2 from a regular window to justify the move.

Just my thoughts.

Aby

 

[closetmickey]

If it is one of the secrets porthole rooms furthest from the elevator (going towards fwd) I would seriously consider it. Those rooms are hardly obstructed - if you do an online search there are lots of photos of the view - we sailed in one and loved it. Our least favorite of all our rooms was a deck 2 aft on the Wonder - never slept well - too many vibrations, maybe? The size of the Magic and Wonder are so compact that it makes it super easy to get to all areas on the ship, IMO.

 

[Flossbolna]

I have stayed in a 9B (2564) and a 10A secret porthole room (5022) on the Wonder. But none of my cruises were in Alaska.

I liked both staterooms. The obstruction in 5022 was quite minimal. We enjoyed the view of cruising through Lake Gatun during our Panama Canal cruise from there. The one thing I liked about 5022 was that the porthole is lower in the wall and sitting on the sofa you had a more direct view. However, sitting on the sofa you were looking more in the direction of the obstruction. While the cruise in the 9B did not have any special views, I really enjoyed this view as well, especially being so close to the water line. If you want to see critters in the water, this is certainly a great location to be on the ship as well.

ETA: Here are some pictures to illustrate:

Ok, this is 5022:

And this is 2564:

(not the best picture, but you can see that in comparison to the one above, the window is higher)

And view of Castaway Cay from 2564:

 

[KayKayJS]

Thanks everyone!! Based on the above and the pics posted by Flossbolna, I think we're going to stick with our deck 2 room. Thank you so much for all the input!

 

[pepe3penelope]

We absolutely LOVE deck 2 aft for many reasons. In October we had 2114. We actually booked a B2B for May in Wonder in your room: #2116.

We loved being close to the aft elevator, easy flight up for beverage station, easy walk to MDR's, price of ocean view cabin, and noise and vibration was minimal for us. We are hooked!!!

 

[bcwife76]

We are also in a deck 2 aft room with large porthole, 2608, for Alaska 2017. We had also (briefly) considered an obstructed view to be higher but ultimately decided we'd be better off on deck 2 with full views.

 

[jetskigrl]

For Alaska views - I was going to say the same thing. The less obstruction blocking the view, the better. We are currently booked in an obstructed view verandah room for Alaska 2017 when it was just me and my kids. But now my DH is going to join us (adding inside room across the hall) so there will be 4 of us trying to enjoy the verandah. For that reason, I'm in the process of moving our rooms so that we have a full view verandah room now.

 

[cmph]

Hi all,

We are booked in room 2116 (09C Oceanview) for Alaska and the reviews for it seem great noise and location wise. We LOVE being aft so overall seems like a great room for us. BUT - We have the option to change to a deck 5 secret porthole room for a little bit more $.

We really like being aft so 2116 seems like a great fit - but are the views terrible for Alaska vs a higher deck? I can't seem to find any good pics showing the difference in view out of the porthole.

Thanks in advance!

OP - how did you like 2116? We have a hold on 2114, 2116, and 2118 for my family for summer 2018 in Alaska. I just did a quick search for reviews and saw your post. We were in 2134 this winter, and I loved the location but didn't love the aft noise/vibrations we had most nights, so I asked our TA to put us further midship. It sounds like this will be better for me? It was really only me who had an issue. Apparently I'm sensitive!

 

[MUN]

Hi all,

We are booked in room 2116 (09C Oceanview) for Alaska and the reviews for it seem great noise and location wise. We LOVE being aft so overall seems like a great room for us. BUT - We have the option to change to a deck 5 secret porthole room for a little bit more $.

We really like being aft so 2116 seems like a great fit - but are the views terrible for Alaska vs a higher deck? I can't seem to find any good pics showing the difference in view out of the porthole.

Thanks in advance!

We were in 2146 and 2148 in June 2014 and we loved our views! It was neat being that close to the water. We didn't spend a lot of time in our rooms, but we really did enjoy the views from our portholes.

MUN

 

[MickeyEarrings]

Thank you for those photos, Flossbolna - I'm in 5022 next month through the Panama Canal!!

 

[Geomom]

OP - how did you like 2116? We have a hold on 2114, 2116, and 2118 for my family for summer 2018 in Alaska. I just did a quick search for reviews and saw your post. We were in 2134 this winter, and I loved the location but didn't love the aft noise/vibrations we had most nights, so I asked our TA to put us further midship. It sounds like this will be better for me? It was really only me who had an issue. Apparently I'm sensitive!

Not the OP, but we were in 2116 for Alaska last August. Loved the location. You can still feel some vibrations, but I found it tolerable. I think this is as far aft as I'd like to be, but I'd stay in any of the rooms you listed. The only noise we heard were people in the hallways, no elevator noise. It was very convenient to the elevator, I loved how the hallway felt more open at our room due to being close to the elevators.

 

[cmph]

Not the OP, but we were in 2116 for Alaska last August. Loved the location. You can still feel some vibrations, but I found it tolerable. I think this is as far aft as I'd like to be, but I'd stay in any of the rooms you listed. The only noise we heard were people in the hallways, no elevator noise. It was very convenient to the elevator, I loved how the hallway felt more open at our room due to being close to the elevators.

Awesome, thanks for the response!! I think you'd get some noisy foot traffic anywhere, unless you're at the very end of the ship, really. At least we won't hear neighbors across the hall banging their doors shut. I have been a bit worried about the elevator noise, but I actually haven't found any references to that - so I'm glad you brought that up yourself. My parents are the ones currently assigned to 2118, which would have the biggest issue with that, I guess; my 4 are assigned to 2114 b/c I'm the one with the vibration issues and it's the nearest to mid-ship, and my sister and her family are in 2116. I hate to insist on an upgrade to mid-ship when it was just me who had the issue - DH, my parents, my kids were all fine. but geez, I couldn't sleep the first couple of nights! I think we went slower after that, until the last night. So far I've only found issues mentioned with the housekeeping closet across the hall (my thought - if it's not room stewards making noise, it'll be guests across the hall, so I'm not concerned) and a couple references to the port day gangway or tender noises... but that would affect an entire section of the ship, not one stateroom... and I never noticed any gangway noises in 2134. We didn't have a tender though. I'm feeling good about this group of rooms now!