For cruise ship staterooms, what does category IS mean?

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Southern Apostolic

Inside stateroom. No windows or balcony. These are what I always get. I do not pay extra for a window when there are windows all over the ship anyway. It is good when you want to nap in the afternoon, which I do sometimes with all the activity. Carnival uses IS as a guaranteed room. I always book IS and usually get the top deck anyway. I book through them, and they give me any upgrades that come along after the booking.

Lew

On the Carnival site the IS category is a guaranteed inside cabin. Although it is the cheapest category cabin on the ship, it means that you could get a better category inside cabin on a higher deck when you board. It's a chance you take when you book a guaranteed category cabin.

johnrklinger

IS means inside stateroom. It could have 2 beds that you can push together to make a double bed or it could be bunk beds. The rooms are good for kids and people travelling together who don't 'sleep together' Usually if you book an IS guarentee, you could end up with any room on the ship.

Zef H

IS is an inside cabin guarantee. It could be on any deck with an inside cabin. OV is an ocean view guarantee cabin. BL is a balcony guarantee cabin.

4A is not on the fourth deck from the bottom (the Riviera deck is the lowest passenger deck on the Carnival ships). Carnival uses a number and letter combination to designate cabin categories. The number tells you the kind of cabin it is. The letter tells you were the cabin is.

A category four cabin is an inside cabin. A category five cabin is an ocean view cabin with port holes. A category six cabin is an ocean view cabin with a picture window. A category eight cabin is a balcony cabin. A category eleven cabin is a standard suite. A category twelve cabin is a penthouse suite.

The letter tells you the deck level. A is the lowest deck with that category of cabin. B is the next higher deck with that category cabin. C is the next higher deck with that category cabin.

So a 4A is an inside cabin on the lowest deck with inside cabins. A 6A is an ocean view cabin on the lowest deck with ocean view cabins. A 4A and 6A cabin could both be on the same deck.

An 8A would be the lowest deck with a balcony cabin. However, the balcony cabins are never on low decks (you don't want a balcony cabin getting hit by waves). Usually the balconies are at least three decks above the bottom deck. So an 8A cabin might be on the same deck as a 4D cabin.

If the next deck up does not have a particular category cabin, then the next letter for that category could be several decks higher. For example, a category 6B cabin could be three decks above a category 6A cabin.

The suites (categories eleven and twelve) don't have letters.

If you want to know which deck your cabin is on, look at the cabin number. The first number is the deck number. So cabin 7365 is on the seventh deck. Also, odd numbers are on one side of the ship, even numbers are on the other side of the ship.

There are some exceptions and additions to the category list. For example there are some ships with a category seven and category nine cabins. Also, some ships have a standard balcony cabins and extended balcony cabins. Different letters are used for the different balcony size. On those ships, an 8B and 8C cabin would be on the same deck. Also, on some ships the category nine cabins are larger than the category eight cabins. On other ships the category eight and category nine cabins are the same size. Just that the category nine cabins have a larger wrap-around balcony (these are cabins at the rear corner of the ship).

Here is a picture showing several category five cabins (cabins with port holes) near the left side of the photo ...
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/ZefH/Carnival%20Ships/IMG_3074.jpg

Here is a picture of a category six cabin (picture window) ...
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/ZefH/Pride%20-%20sunset/SpiritOV.jpg

This ship has no standard balcony cabins (all the outside cabins are category six cabins) ...
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/ZefH/Carnival%20Ships/Celebration.jpg

As you can see, the balcony cabins (category eight) on this ship begin well above the ocean view cabins (you can see two rows of ocean view cabins below the lifeboats) ...
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/ZefH/Carnival%20Ships/IMG_3173.jpg

SNL

inside cabin where your cabin or stateroom is without a view so it's an enclosed room without a window.

1Cheapcruise

FYI - an IS will not be a 1A which is also an inside cabin.
You can expect a 4A or better.

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