Ecstasy--Aft Extended Balcony Question

[br7210]

First time cruiser....I need some help! We have booked an aft extended balcony on the Upper Deck and one has now come available on the Empress Deck. Should we make the switch? Why or why not? Anyone have pictures of these rooms?

[firefly333]

Is it a free upgrade?

 

The balconys are just OVs that they stuck a balcony on the outside of the hull, so the cabins are just the basic OV cabin from before dry dock.

[br7210]

When we booked all that was left was upper deck but now one on empress...it is not an upgrade deal...same price for either. Just was wondering if there was any benefit in moving to empress deck. We thought the over hang may make a difference...more shade on upper deck more sun on empress??? Both rooms are on the far end of the aft so we will not have a neighbor on one side...rooms choices are U239 or E240

[DebJ14]

I will be interested to hear the answers to your questions. We are booked in E240 for our Ecstasy cruise in May.

[brazosfarmwife]

We had an aft extended balcony on the empress deck and loved it. The advantage to the empress deck is it is the first deck off for self disembark. You are also one deck closer to everything.

[br7210]

brazosfarmwife...do you have any pictures of the room/balcony? also, how shaded was your balcony? from the pictures we have seen of the back of the ship, it looks like the upper deck rooms would have more shade. just don't know if that is an issue or not....

[brazosfarmwife]

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. We went in January, so the sun wasn't much of an issue. You get more sun there, but the size of the balcony makes up for it. The only time the sun might be a issue is mid day. It really depends on when you are cruising. There are some pictures here on Cruise Critic, just do a search on Ecstasy Aft Balconies and you should find them. There is also a website that has pictures of staterooms it is http://www.********************. Another website that has pictures is http://www.cruisedeckplans.com. Hope that helps.

[br7210]

The two rooms we are looking at are E240 and U239. Looking at the deck plans, it looks like there is a set of stairs right outside E240. If so, how many people actually use these stairs? We don't want to be an area with a lot of traffic.

[jhale]

The rooms will be identical, however we prefer Empress deck simply because it's easier on debarkation day. Here are some pics of E244

 

[br7210]

Thank you for the pics!! I have been reading that most people prefer the Empress Deck for the same reason you mentioned...I understand that the rooms & the balconies are the same size, my concern with room U 239 is... looking at pics it appears the Empress balcony woulds extend out some over the Upper deck...so if I was star gazing on the U deck (room U 239) would I have to walk out to the glass on the balcony to see up?? Hope that makes sense??

MY concern in Room E240 is we are wondering how many people use the stairs by this rom and how close these stairs are to that room. I think we are leaning to the Empress Deck but would love to hear thoughts on both U239 and E 240 aft extended balconies rooms.

[*Mach*]

Thank you for the pics!! I have been reading that most people prefer the Empress Deck for the same reason you mentioned...I understand that the rooms & the balconies are the same size, my concern with room U 239 is... looking at pics it appears the Empress balcony woulds extend out some over the Upper deck...so if I was star gazing on the U deck (room U 239) would I have to walk out to the glass on the balcony to see up?? Hope that makes sense??

MY concern in Room E240 is we are wondering how many people use the stairs by this rom and how close these stairs are to that room. I think we are leaning to the Empress Deck but would love to hear thoughts on both U239 and E 240 aft extended balconies rooms.

 

 

I wouldn't worry a bit about noise from those stairs. The Empress deck will be a bit quieter... down on the Upper Deck you might get some noise from the folks above you moving their chairs about.

Either balcony will afford you an excellent view.

:)

[br7210]

thanks for the tip.....the noise from the chairs was something we did not think about.

[Border Granny]

The two rooms we are looking at are E240 and U239. Looking at the deck plans, it looks like there is a set of stairs right outside E240. If so, how many people actually use these stairs? We don't want to be an area with a lot of traffic.

 

We were in U237, and we absolutely loved it...you have cabins above and below you, and the stairs were not an issue at all. No one comes back to that corner except to go to their cabin, it was extremely quiet. You won't have anyone on one side at all, like you said, and there is a very wide space between your cabin and U237's balcony. As for the chairs on the balcony directly above us, we never heard any noise, but we just may have been lucky. If I was going to book again, that's where I would be.

Edited March 27, 2011 by Border Granny

[br7210]

sounds like either way we will have a great room!! i can't wait to see the view from our balcony...

[br7210]

so how about the noise level from the ship's engines and the movement of the boat being so far in the back? (empress deck vs. upper deck)

[*Mach*]

so how about the noise level from the ship's engines and the movement of the boat being so far in the back? (empress deck vs. upper deck)

 

 

Don't worry about the noise... it won't be a factor. You MAY experience some vibration if the props aren't precisely sync'd however...

:)

[jhale]

MY concern in Room E240 is we are wondering how many people use the stairs by this rom and how close these stairs are to that room. I think we are leaning to the Empress Deck but would love to hear thoughts on both U239 and E 240 aft extended balconies rooms.

 

I wouldn't worry about those stairs, we'd been on the Ecstasy 6 times before we even found them lol.

[br7210]

I wouldn't worry about those stairs, we'd been on the Ecstasy 6 times before we even found them lol.

thanks for the post...where do these stairs lead to anyway? looks like the back of the dining room and just to the serenity area? is that right?

[jhale]

thanks for the post...where do these stairs lead to anyway? looks like the back of the dining room and just to the serenity area? is that right?

 

Yeah, they lead up to the Serenity area and dead end into a crew only area. There's also a small public restroom in that stairwell on the Atlantic deck that we found when we were hanging out in the Serenity area, which was hardly used and far more convienient than going up to the lido. It's not shown on the deck plans ;)

[dukyluky]

Thank you for the pics!! I have been reading that most people prefer the Empress Deck for the same reason you mentioned...I understand that the rooms & the balconies are the same size, my concern with room U 239 is... looking at pics it appears the Empress balcony woulds extend out some over the Upper deck...so if I was star gazing on the U deck (room U 239) would I have to walk out to the glass on the balcony to see up?? Hope that makes sense??

MY concern in Room E240 is we are wondering how many people use the stairs by this rom and how close these stairs are to that room. I think we are leaning to the Empress Deck but would love to hear thoughts on both U239 and E 240 aft extended balconies rooms.

 

I was on the Sensation (sister ship), and in Room U230, the room directly under the ones that a previous poster showed pictures of. The room on Empress is about the length of half a room extended past the one on Upper (makes sense if you see it from the side, you'll notice the slant on the back of the boat). On Upper, if you are at the railing, you cannot look up and see the stars, you'll have to look more straight out than up. I tried to take a picture facing up, and couldn't reach past the overhang. It was shaded midday, and depending on which direction we were going, the sun during morning and late afternoon can get to the balcony. It was nice though because it kept it cool during the day. There was a slight vibration, especially when going faster (normally at night). The painting over the bed was the culprit of the only noise we heard from this vibration. This was solved by placing a folded up "funtimes" behind the bottom left corner. The balcony is a really good size (only ones bigger are the Extended Grand Suites). All the other balconies are only the depth of the divider but with the aft-view rooms, they also have the space where the original windows were, this almosts double the size of the balcony. (a tip alot of people give to balcony residents is to bring a bungee cord to tie open the balcony door, on the aft-view balconies, there is no way to bungee it open unless you bring like a 15 foot bungee. we just used the small table on the balcony and propped it in the doorway, worked like a charm. Only noise we heard was the soothing sound of the churning of the water (which is why I chose that stateroom to begin with!).

 

This link will take you to cruiselinerooms where i uploaded picture of our room (all the rooms on the aft are the same, well some have an upper bed above the beds), but the size and layout will be the same. (dont have any of the overhang, sorry). http://********************/view_room.php?r_id=16934

[br7210]

I was on the Sensation (sister ship), and in Room U230, the room directly under the ones that a previous poster showed pictures of. The room on Empress is about the length of half a room extended past the one on Upper (makes sense if you see it from the side, you'll notice the slant on the back of the boat). On Upper, if you are at the railing, you cannot look up and see the stars, you'll have to look more straight out than up. I tried to take a picture facing up, and couldn't reach past the overhang. It was shaded midday, and depending on which direction we were going, the sun during morning and late afternoon can get to the balcony. It was nice though because it kept it cool during the day. There was a slight vibration, especially when going faster (normally at night). The painting over the bed was the culprit of the only noise we heard from this vibration. This was solved by placing a folded up "funtimes" behind the bottom left corner. The balcony is a really good size (only ones bigger are the Extended Grand Suites). All the other balconies are only the depth of the divider but with the aft-view rooms, they also have the space where the original windows were, this almosts double the size of the balcony. (a tip alot of people give to balcony residents is to bring a bungee cord to tie open the balcony door, on the aft-view balconies, there is no way to bungee it open unless you bring like a 15 foot bungee. we just used the small table on the balcony and propped it in the doorway, worked like a charm. Only noise we heard was the soothing sound of the churning of the water (which is why I chose that stateroom to begin with!).

 

This link will take you to cruiselinerooms where i uploaded picture of our room (all the rooms on the aft are the same, well some have an upper bed above the beds), but the size and layout will be the same. (dont have any of the overhang, sorry). http://********************/view_room.php?r_id=16934

Thanks so much that gives me a great mental image about the overhang from the empress deck...the pics were great also. Did you ever notice the over hang or did it seem like "it got in your view?" I guess what I am trying to ask is would you have preferred not have that over hang there? We are going to be on-board in June and thought the upper deck may provide some shade and were trying to weigh the option of that vs. the empress deck.

[dukyluky]

I noticed the overhang, knew about it before i got the room, I liked how noone above can look down on me...I liked having the shade, it didn't get too hot at all, and when it rained, I didn't get a single drop on the balcony...

[br7210]

Thanks so much for the info...we were wondering if it would keep the rain off the balcony.

[laurierocs]

We just got back from our cruise on the Ectasy. Our room was E240. I have to say out of all the cruises we've been on, this was my 2nd favorite!!! (our favorite was a wrap on the legend) This room had the best location as far as I'm concerned. No noise from anywhere!! Including the stairs which were a couple of steps from the door. What a great find those stairs were! We used them constantly as we ate on the lido deck most of the time which was 3 decks up. Also the adults only area was 2 decks up. The deck itself was awesome, as it is a bit larger(deeper) than a normal balcony. The overhang completely covered the deck. We sat our chairs as close to the balcony as possible and had a great view of the stars. I don't think rain would be a problem, just move the chairs back, closer to the door. I loved the fact there was no one on the right of us, just more privacy. There was hardly any vibration. There was ALOT of vibration in our aft cabin on the Destiny, even some on the Legend. Since it was a smaller ship, I expected more "Motion" which there really wasn't. Yeah, we loved E240 and loved the Ectasy! And sailing from Galveston was a plus! A lot of VERY NICE passengers on board, I'm sure from Texas! No, I'm not from Texas...Nebraska actually. Make sure you take in the country show with the cruise director playing the fiddle. AWESOME! I'm not really a country fan, but was very impressed with his ability! Good luck!

[br7210]

thanks for the great info! do you have any pics of the room?