Tom O.

Tom --

 

Long time lurker - first time poster!

 

Thank you for taking the time to put all of this together. I am looking at taking the Island Princess to Hawaii in April, 2007. This information will come in very handy as we work through cabin options.

 

I appreciate you putting in the hours to map all of this out.

 

Best regards,

 

Randall

Thanks you for the complements (from everybody). It took a lot of time, but every minute of it was fun for me. Check the site once in a while, I am planning on adding some better photos. I am going to try to take some pictures of the Island this week when it returns to Los Angeles (I live nearby). I will make a posting here when I add the new pictures.

Reminder: to see the site go to:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/

We Re in D726.....Port side aft. I see it is uncovered but can anyone tell me if it is bigger or smaller than the others around it? It wraps and I didn't know if that adds or subtracts space. We are trying it because I have read so many good things about aft balconys but size comparison is not something I have read that much about. Also there seems to be something large on the back of the deck across the stern on Dolphon Deck. Does that get in the way of that balcony or when you are out on that deck? Thanks to all, and I too want to say thanks for all the hard work on the diagrams. I too bookmarked!

That is a great room. You get a view from the side and a 180 degree view aft. That room is uncovered but there is very few places above where people will look down. I am not sure what that structure on the back is either, but it looks to me that it is out of the way. Maybe someone who has actually been in that room will respond. I would take that room in a minute.

Thank you Tom.

 

We are going on our first cruise ever - on the Coral Princess to Panama in December. We will be in Cabin 412 - I had a devil of a time picking a cabin. My biggest thought was something in the most stable area as I am prone to motion sickness. So now I know we have an uncovered balcony - I won't know till we get there how I feel about it tho:)

I don't know what deck you are on, but the only completly uncovered balcony with that number is D412. But that is a nice room with an extra large balcony. There are no bad cabins on a cruise, there are just some that are better than others. Having an uncovered balcony is not a make or break situation. Many prefer uncovered ones. It is just good to know ahead of time what you are getting.

I am sure you will have a great time no matter what the balcony is like. Happy Sailing!

I can verify what you are saying about D311 and D312. We were in C309 which is next door and one level up from D311 - it is completely open to those fore and above. Here's a picture looking aft from C309, I think it gives you an idea:

Thanks for showing me the photo. It is good to hear a confirmation of my research. I did make a few minor changes to the Dophin deck diagram, but not in that section.

Tom

 

Great job. We will be in D503 on the March 14, 2006 sailing. I will let you know if it is covered or not. I was told by Princess at time of booking it was partially covered and then again by TA that is was partially covered and private. Guess not..............

 

Bonnie

I have made a slight change after doing some intense studying of photos. I now have D503 as partly covered and moved the exposed balcony to D505. This is only day two of operation, and I have had to make a few adjustments, thanks to reponses to people who have actually been in some of these rooms.

To see the changes go to:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

Tom:

 

A HUGE Thank You from a Long Beach, CA native!!! :D I can only imagine how many long hours you devoted to helping all of us out with all of our questions, and we do thank you!!!

 

We are booked on the Island on 4-6-06 R/T to Hawaii, and are in cabin D315. We knew going in that it would be uncovered, and that is fine with us to Hawaii, but if we were to be booking to a cool climate, we would probably look at something partially or fully covered.

 

Thanks again, Tom for all of your efforts!!!

 

Richard and Janine:)

Have a great time. Let us know about the cruise and how you liked the cabin. I have to wait until next December!

Thanks for the info. sailing on Coral Princess Panama Canal cruise and wanted a balcony cabin with the larger balcony. Booked D419. It appears this is a partially covered cabin which is fine. Am I seeing this correctly.

Yes, that cabin is partially covered by the bumped out cabins above. That should be a nice cabin.

Just thanking those of you who brought my attention to a couple of errors on the site. They have been corrected. And everything should be ok now. I would love to hear from anyone who has stayed in D311, D312, D414, D415, D503 or D504. I named these particular cabins as particulary open to view. Would just like have some confrimation to see if I got the right room numbers. Thanks again

To view the site go to:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

Tom - I'm curious --

 

On the rear bumpout section it appears that cabin A625 is immediately above B637. B637 is marked as being uncovered. It would seem to me that it would be at least partially covered by A's balcony. I'm only interested as my next cruise is in B637. It's not a big issue for me if it's covered or not, but I did choose it thinking it looked like it was covered (from my view from C309 - admittedly a long distance glance). What do you think? Could I be right?

You are correct. That cabin and most others on that deck are covered. I corrected the diagram for the site. Thanks for letting me know. I hope that is the last correction. Below is a picture of your cabin. I have also added another photo to the site showing this section of cabins.

Thank you! Very helpful information. How nice of you to take the time to do this. I was wondering if ALL the balconies on Caribe deck were larger than standard, and I see from this that with the bump outs on these ships they are not ALL larger. We like the half covered-half open balconies.

I haven't done any research on balcony size, just whether they are covered or not. But, the deck drawings I used on the site were copied from Princess's site, and some balconies are drawn bigger than others. I assume it is to scale, but cannot say for sure. It looks to me like all of the baconies on the Caribe deck are large except for the ones in the two "bump outs" (C232-C310 & C416-C504).

Tom, thanks for putting in the time....

 

So my question is do people want protection from Rain or Sun or peeping passsengers?

 

In January we were on the Coral, C333

there was an over hang of a few feet...but it never provided any shade on our balcony it was always sunny. I took special interest in this because we read on this board it would be partly covered, I was thinking we would have some shade.

 

So my thoughts are, princess doesn't comment because, people have different reasons for wanting a certain balcony and the cruise line can't make a blanket statement because it depends on the direction the ship is sailing,the weather, the positon of the sun and if that peeping passenger has a long neck:)

Not everyone wants a covered balcony, those that do have their own reasons, but I think privacy is the main issue.

Unfortunatly, at this time I cannot determine how much of a balcony is covered for "partially covered" cabins. I think it can very from a 1/3rd to 2/3rds covering. Maybe in the future I can provide these details too. Especially if people like you let me know your cabin number and the details of your balcony roof.

I think Princess just doesn't want to deal with more details. There are so many factors already that they have to deal with - a myriad of room classifications, location, height to name a few. And if most people want covered balconies, they may have to lower prices on uncovered ones. And many of these uncovered balconies are found on mini suites.

Just letting you all know that I made a couple of corrections. (That's what I get for working late into the night!). I had some balconies on the "bump out" of the Aloha and Baja deck as uncovered. They are actually covered and the site has been corrected.

I have been doing a lot of research lately on the tricky question of whether certain balconies on the Coral and Island Princess twin ships are covered or uncovered. I discovered that a list floating around here on this board was mostly correct, but had errors on it.

So after extensive research, I created some deck plan illustrations with each balcony color coded to show if it was covered or not. I created a web site with these deck plans along with several supporting photos. This should make it much easier for people to understand what they are booking.

This is the first time I have gone public with it and I would appreciate it if anybody has comments, suggestions, or corrections to let me know here or via the email that is included on the web site.

To see it go to:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/