Royal balcony: small or soot or wind or loss of privacy

[JimmyVWine]

I remember when the ship was being built and how Princesses boasted about more balconies on this new ship. Who knew that 1/2 would be such a disappointment.

Half?? By my count, only 10% of the balconies are bigger than 36 sq. ft. And of that 10%, we now know that many of them have soot problems, several are obstructed solid walled balconies, and the rest are underneath the Sea Walk or Sea View Bar. Honestly, if I were looking at a completely empty ship and could pick absolutely any cabin I wanted, taking only the quality of the balcony into account, there are probably 15-20 cabins that I would find acceptable. If I ever sail on this class of ship, it will be in spite of the balconies, to be sure.

[Alaskanb]

Here's hoping that my aft dolphin deck balcony will be just right :)

[grandpaiscruising]

I will be on this ship next year and will monitor this web site to see if they do something about the soot problem before I make my final payment. I do see the price going down if they do nothing. Thanks for the pictures.:(

 

Royal Princess, 10/18/14 Canada/NE, Celebrity Century 10/22/13 Hawaii, HAL 56 days, RCCL 104 days, NCL 28 days, Princess 214 days, Royal 14 days, Cunard 49 days, Celebrity 16 cruises.

[Iamcruzin]

Half?? By my count, only 10% of the balconies are bigger than 36 sq. ft. And of that 10%, we now know that many of them have soot problems, several are obstructed solid walled balconies, and the rest are underneath the Sea Walk or Sea View Bar. Honestly, if I were looking at a completely empty ship and could pick absolutely any cabin I wanted, taking only the quality of the balcony into account, there are probably 15-20 cabins that I would find acceptable. If I ever sail on this class of ship, it will be in spite of the balconies, to be sure.

 

I know you're right but I was trying to be somewhat positive. I have always projected negativity towards the Royal and was trying to down play it. From what I have been reading on the Live thread, some of the regulars who were looking forward to their trip seem to be somewhat disenchanted and are slowly realizing that the new build may not be without issue.

[sabookkeeper]

You cancelled your Royal cruise for '14, I am assuming that was a Caribbean cruise?

I am booked for the Royal next year on a Baltic cruise and seems that a balcony wouldn't be that big of an issue. However, I did just learn that some of the forward deluxe cabins on the Emerald deck have large balconies. So I am considering one of those.

Yes, I was going to sail a Carribean cruise in February 2014 on the Royal. I am still cruising, but it will be on the Crown. We spend a lot of time on our balcony so after seeing the size of the balconies on the Royal it was an easy decision to sswitch our cruise.

[bdjam]

I’m just hoping that folks who have cruised Royal Princess have commented to Princess about their disappointments. Seems there are some things Princess did right and some they did terribly wrong. We don’t want them thinking they’ve built the perfect ship.