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AFT Cabins... Has anyone ever NOT liked their Aft?


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We had 9394, a family suite, on Navigator of the Seas. NO! I would never book it again. It dropped in price to the same as we paid for a JS so I take full responsibility for this mistake.

 

There is absolutely no overhang so it's too sunny. I was surprised at how sooty the balcony became so quickly. The advantage to having no overhang was that we had a big rain storm that washed off the soot all to briefly. If you went out barefoot, the bottoms of your feet turned black. The chairs needed to be wiped off every time you sat down unless you don't mind little flecks of black on your clothes. Maybe the soot isn't a problem every cruise depending on wind flow, but I sure wouldn't risk it.

 

I wasn't crazy about the superstructure of the ship all around but it wasn't the worst of it at all.

 

Maybe the top deck of Freedom and Voyager class would be fine since they have an overhang. But in the future my only aft balconies will be on Radiance and Vision class ships.

 

Another drawback to me about all aft rooms is that you can't hear the fog horn well at all if you are in an area where it might be used. Alaska and the Mississippi River come to mind. I really like hearing it when they use it. It adds to the whole overall ambiance. :)

 

 

Gina

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I've never had an aft, but I'm sure I would like it, except for the long walk to the elevators. Other than that, I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't book one if I had the chance. Everytime I book a cruise, all the afts are already gone. Makes me wonder, just how far out do you have to book to get an aft? :)

 

I've been able to get them very close to sailing. Just keep watching. Long time cruisers tend to book them early and then change their mind right at final payment and switch to a different cruise.

 

Many high level cruisers are older cruisers, too. They are more likely to have health issues which cause cancellations at the last minute, too.

 

On my 12 night S. Pacific cruise on Rhapsody last spring, we had the aft JS next to the corner. I kept checking. It was after final payment when just 1 JS opened up for sale and it was the corner aft next to mine. So, of course I switched. :D Someone else got lucky and got the one I left behind.

 

Gina

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Hey Avonb...We are on the same sailing but I think I am going to change my Aft. I am just not sure if I can get around looking at the substructure. I am going to get a junior suite instead. My aft that I booked is on Dec 9 towards the corner. (right next to the corner Aft). If you want, you can have it. Not sure if the one you booked is better.

 

It took me a lot of searching to find a sailing with the cabin of our choice. We do not want to be any higher than deck 7 so that is why we are happy with 7708 and the substructure doesn't bother us. Plus we like the fact that we have some coverage and from all the pics we have seen we know this is a good choice for us.

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"Anyone not like thier AFT?"

 

Well, mine is starting to get a little droopy and saggy, the after 50 syndrome . . . but . . .oh wait, you said "AFT" . . . as in balcony . . .:D . . . we have had several . . . Serenade 8168, we loved it, Explorer 7688, we LOVED it, Indy 8710, loved the balcony, room was just ok. We didn't have a sliding door, but a single door, and no window. Made the room a little darker. The balcony was really nice though.

 

We also have Explorer 7688 booked again for our 9 night Southern trip!

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7708 will be the BEST of the Afts! It's huge and on the corner with the big side porthole, so you'll have both the side and back view. It will look very similar to the balcony in my pic above (the one with DH in his hammock) but it's on the opposite side of the ship. (And by the way, DH took a bunch of pics of how he hung the hammock....just FYI if you're thinking of trying that.)

 

Yes I think you're right...you'll probably love the 7708 corner aft balcony!

Judy

 

Yay! We have 7408 on FOS booked for May, 2014! :D I love reading all of these reviews and so happy we were able to switch cabins. I love the hammock!

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Both corner afts on deck 7 are available for our cruise. We're currently in 7408 which is starboard side (I believe). Is there any reason I should switch over to Port side? (we're typically on port side when we sail, no reason really, it just turned out that way!)

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It took me a lot of searching to find a sailing with the cabin of our choice. We do not want to be any higher than deck 7 so that is why we are happy with 7708 and the substructure doesn't bother us. Plus we like the fact that we have some coverage and from all the pics we have seen we know this is a good choice for us.

 

You have one of the two deck 7 HUGE corner aft balconies on FOS, so you can party with all your friends out there with room to spare! There's even plenty room for a hammock, although your balcony will have 3 loungers instead of 2 since it's rated a triple. We loved ours on Navigator - hope you'll enjoy yours just as much!;)

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An aft we didn't like - a few years back we had a corner aft on Nav, I think it was deck 9, its the one with a swinging door and round window. We had it for the TA, both directions that year.

The triangular balcony had little usable extra space, but the big complaint was soot. We had to wipe the furniture and rails every day as housekeeping never did it, even when we reminded.

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Love the aft cabins! Especially the corner aft ones.

 

We've had an aft room for the last few cruises and decided to try a side JS on our last cruise. I really missed the view from the aft and missed the huge balcony. So it's back to the aft for us!

 

As for the long walk back to the cabin- I was able to justify eating an extra dessert a few times since I had that long walk several times each day:D!

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You have one of the two deck 7 HUGE corner aft balconies on FOS, so you can party with all your friends out there with room to spare! There's even plenty room for a hammock, although your balcony will have 3 loungers instead of 2 since it's rated a triple. We loved ours on Navigator - hope you'll enjoy yours just as much!;)

 

I have no doubt at all that we will enjoy it. Just to be able to relax on the lounger with a cold one in hand is all I need. Of course the views will be amazing and I think we will be spending a lot of time on our balcony. This is only our 2nd cruise and can't wait to experience another one.

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Yay! We have 7408 on FOS booked for May, 2014! :D I love reading all of these reviews and so happy we were able to switch cabins. I love the hammock!

 

DH took pics of the superstructure where he attached the ropes to show how he did it - I can post them or email them to you if you want to try your own hammock.:D It was really very easy to do. He found a light weight hammock online somewhere - I think it weighed 2.5-3 lb with the ropes.

 

Both corner afts on deck 7 are available for our cruise. We're currently in 7408 which is starboard side (I believe). Is there any reason I should switch over to Port side? (we're typically on port side when we sail, no reason really, it just turned out that way!)

 

I don't think there's much difference. We were also on starboard side. We talked to the couple with the port side corner aft on our cruise and concluded that the only real difference was where the sun hit our balconies at different times of the day. Also theirs was a triple so there were 3 loungers and 3 chairs. The deck 7 corner afts are mostly covered, which was great for me since I'm not much of a sun worshipper. The fact that it's mostly covered minimizes any soot that might be drifting aft and also makes the balcony useable if it's raining. (It did happen that the Rock of Gibralter was on the port side when we cruised the Straits.:( Not a big deal...we just went to visit our portside neighbors!:o)

 

 

Another drawback to me about all aft rooms is that you can't hear the fog horn well at all if you are in an area where it might be used. Alaska and the Mississippi River come to mind. I really like hearing it when they use it. It adds to the whole overall ambiance.

 

Yes - I think that's the only downside for me. I love the sound of the ship horn and it's not nearly as impressive (not LOUD) on an aft balcony.

 

I actually like the long walk to the aft. It's a good way to get a little extra exercise!;)

Judy

Edited by foxgoodrich
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We just spent 24 days on Serenade in aft JS 1602. Loved the larger balcony and the view but didn't like the early am and sometimes late night noise from the back area of the Windjammer. Most mornings at 6am you could hear scraping and banging from above. No alarm clock needed. We weren't the only ones who weren't happy with the noise. We have 1100 on Serenade for 2 weeks in 2014 and are rethinking our choice.

 

I know they have to clean the area but would think it could be done at a time that wouldn't disturb sleeping passengers.

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I am going to switch my aft to a JS on the hump.. Just seems like a safer choice for me.

 

Mid hump or just forward of middle would be my choice of location. I like having a view forward and back. I also like seeing what's going on in the bridge and zooming in with my camera to get pictures there sometimes, too.

 

We also like using our own bathroom so on a ship with a centrum, it's pretty fast to go to our own room from anywhere on the ship.

 

I always think of more and more reasons to not book aft. Although I admit to a future reservation in 1100. :D But that's because we are cruising with friends and there will be plenty of room to hang out on the balcony - or so I tell myself this is the reason.

 

Gina

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We had an aft RFS on Enchantment. Loved the room and the big balcony. Hated the view and the sunlight bearing in during the day. The motion was much more noticeable and you could feel vibration from the engines/propulsion. I would never do an aft again unless it was a free upgrade to a larger cabin. It was so far from everything and I want to see where I'm going, not where I've been.

 

I also have been in friends aft cabins on Freedom. I don't see how a view of the superstructure is attractive. I'm definitely not an aft lover.

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Had an aft on the Navigator back in 2004. Really did not care for it. I know, I'm in the minority, but I absolutely hated the superstructure that surrounds the aft balconies. The extra space didn't make up for it for me. I felt so disconnected from the ocean when I was out on the balcony. I much prefer the smaller, side balconies.

 

If you've never had one, though, I say you need to try it. So very many people prefer it, that I'm sure that I'm the anomaly.

I am in the minority with you. Except for a different reason. I get sea sick if I go out on the aft balcony when the ship is moving. Or, even if I look at the water through the window in and aft. LOL Sideways is fine, backwards is not! And just for the record, I never get seasick!

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We had an aft wrap, but it was on the Carnival Dream. Overall, we absolutely loved it! We had our entire group of 16 out there for sailaway and had room to spare! That room was a little oddly configured, but we loved that you could sit up in bed and see the ocean since it faced the windows/door. We did have a few issues towards the end of the cruise tho. Whenever we would back into port (which we did twice) there was a TON of vibration. I don't mind feeling the ship move, but the vibration caused everything in the room to shake, including the pictures above us and they made a ton of noise (of course this was 5-6am....and I'm not a morning person :p) And then the soot came. Thankfully it was only the last couple days, but we went out there at night and didn't see the soot and I sat down on our chairs..needless to say my white skirt didn't look so white anymore! It made a mess, but again it was only the last couple days.

 

Obviously all of this is ship specific and we would absolutely book an aft again. On the Dream class it's not nearly as bad of the a walk as it would probably be on the Freedom, but as long as you're able bodied, you should be fine. Have fun, we can't wait to try one on RC!!!

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We had an aft RFS on Enchantment. Loved the room and the big balcony. Hated the view and the sunlight bearing in during the day. The motion was much more noticeable and you could feel vibration from the engines/propulsion. I would never do an aft again unless it was a free upgrade to a larger cabin. It was so far from everything and I want to see where I'm going, not where I've been.

 

I also have been in friends aft cabins on Freedom. I don't see how a view of the superstructure is attractive. I'm definitely not an aft lover.

 

 

Interesting! We have stayed in one of the corner aft RFS on Enchantment and loved that room and balcony! I tend to get very seasick and found less movement back there than in the front of the ship. Mostly we had a vibration which we kind of liked!

 

Funny how it effects people differently.

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For no reason other than our daughter's interior will be located on the port side, I just switched our room from corner aft 7408 to corner aft 7708. (starboard to port) Now we're all on the port side, and I won't be changing my reservation anymore!

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We usually book midship on Voyager Class and above due to the distance in walking (although that Deck 7 corner aft on freedom Class might make me reconsider that philosophy ;)). Just time savings alone is huge on those ships.

 

However, on the Radiance Class ships we love our afts! We prefer Deck 9 and 9256 is the main choice for everyone who knows the balconies on those ships. It is really hard to get! I am wait listed for it on our 2015 cruise, but not holding my breath. However, all the afts on Radiance Class are nice. They have the long extended balconies with a completely unobstructed view of the sea. We have been on Deck 9 and Deck 10. On Deck 10 we would hear the chair scraping from the Windjammer and there was more sun. We prefer the shade. On deck 9 you have more coverage from the Deck 10 balconies, but not totally covered, so it allows more light into the room. I like that, too. You still have more covered balcony space than you would have in a side cabin. Of course, as in all cabins the amount of direct sun you get depends on the position of the ship, time of day and the angle of the sun. The walk to the aft is also long, but not nearly as long as on larger ships.

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