Constitution - Cabin 232 Balcony Troubles

Just got back from our Grand New England tour on the new (April 2018) Constitution. This was a great tour, but as you can see from the attached photo, we had serious trouble with our balcony.

Cabin 232 is the aft-most cabin on the 2nd deck, on the starboard side. The balcony is covered with a synthetic carpet like astroturf -- I think most cabins balconies have this same carpet. At first, the water on the balcony was not actually visible above the surface of the carpet, but from the outset we discovered that when we stepped on it, the soles of our shoes became immediately soaked. This resulted in the main cabin getting very damp near the sliding door. We started keeping a bath mat by the door so we could wipe our feet each time we came in.

After a few days the problem got worse, with the water rising a half-inch to an inch above the top of the carpet, as shown in the photo. At this point the balcony became totally unusable.

We talked with the passengers in the aft-most cabin on the port side (Cabin 231), and they reported the same problem with their balcony. Didn't get a chance to talk with folks in the cabins farther forward, so unsure how many other (if any) cabins were affected.

We reported this to a deckhand, then to the hotel management desk, then to the First Mate -- everyone expressed amazement and sympathy and said it would be checked out, but nothing was ever done as far as we could see.

The weather was rainy at times on this cruise, but not unusually so, and there were no storms that would account for this. We did notice that for the last two ports we were anchored with our stern to the east, and a stiff breeze was blowing from that direction. But we never did figure out the reason for all the standing water.

Had we known about this, we could have reserved a balcony-less cabin on the 1st deck and saved a ton of money!

It does appear your balcony was not usable. This is a new ship and it sounds like this is an issue that needs to be resolved. I'd suggest sending a letter or email to the corporate office with your picture attached. One, corporate needs to address this balcony and two, you should be entitled to some credit for the unusable balcony.

I'm glad you had an otherwise good time.

I am surprised that did not do anything to help the situation other than sympathizing. Were you offered anything in compensation?

Do you have other photos of the ship? Would love to see her.

Were you offered anything in compensation?

Do you have other photos of the ship?

I described the problem in detail when I submitted the post-trip questionnaire, and I have also sent a separate e-mail description with photo to Inquiry@AmericanCruiseLines.com (don't know any other e-mail addresses). No response yet.

Sorry, I don't have any shots of the ship's interior to share.

We just received a letter from Paul Taiclet, ACL Vice President.  He said:  "We have corrected the problem with your balcony and it has been resolved.  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  We appreciate your continued loyalty to ACL, and enclosed, please find a revised booking for your pending Grand Puget Sound cruise reflecting a 10% courtesy discount."

Naturally, we're very pleased with this response from ACL.  Note that he didn't say exactly what the problem was, but sounds like whatever it was, it's not something problematic with the new Constellation and Constitution designs.

At the start of our Grand New England cruise, we booked the Grand Puget Sound trip for next May and selected...you guessed it...the exact same cabin, #232.  This was of course before we fully realized our problem with the balcony.  So it will be interesting to confirm that there is no similar problem with this cabin on the Constellation.