regal balcony- SMALL?

[Cruise Junky]

To paraphrase you: I don't actually have to cruise on a Solstice-class to know I won't like it. I've "researched" it, and have decided it's not for me.

 

Same appllies to your opinion of the Royal-class balconies.

 

 

;)

 

Now even I'm not that narrow minded ;) If it weren't for the smurf balconies I would be willing to give Royal a chance even though she's missing some of our favourite Princess attributes.

[dmwnc1959]

Now even I'm not that narrow minded ;) If it weren't for the smurf balconies I would be willing to give Royal a chance even though she's missing some of our favourite Princess attributes.

 

 

My "argument" is about the sum of its parts. All of them. As I've said before, I can appreciate that the Solstice-class looks nice, but there are just too many features I'd not use, or don't like.

 

Your "argument" is primarily about one or two features. But the sum of it's parts are, for the most part, acceptable to you.

 

Both points of view are as equally important to the buyer.

 

;)

[luvabeach]

Another view of deluxe balcony on Royal Princess! Minuscule and absurd for price of cabin!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[dmwnc1959]

Another view of deluxe balcony on Royal Princess! Minuscule and absurd for price of cabin!

 

 

This is another aspect of the deck plans and nomenclature where Princess Cruises screwed up; it's not the balcony that's "Deluxe", it's the cabin accommodations. They'd have been better off calling it a "Deluxe Stateroom with Balcony" instead of "Deluxe Balcony". Therein lies the confusion. The Deluxe stateroom with balcony is a little bigger than a standard stateroom with a balcony, it also has a small couch, and includes some of the amenities found in a mini-suite. It has absolutely nothing to do with the actual balcony itself.

 

:cool:

[dmwnc1959]

If I want the specifications for a Porsche, I go to Porsche.com and expect the specs to be correct.

 

If I want the specification for a Samsung TV, I go to Samsung.com and expect the specs to be correct.

 

If I wanted to know about accommodations on a Princess ship, I'd go to the Princess website and expect the specs to be correct.

 

Most reasonable people start at the company source and don't then go looking for additional third party information to corroborate or disprove what the company shows on their site. I think it is unfair to fault the client for starting at the source and believing the information. Sure, many people do further investigation on subjective matters, look for user reviews of an item, etc., but there is a line of what is reasonable...

 

Swapping out an incorrect graphic file should take some office peon 5 minutes to accomplish if directed to do so. 2 years without the proper information is ludicrous and inexcusable and most definitely reeks of a bait and switch.

 

 

I'm sure most people who buy Porches and top of the line electronics don't just stop at that one website: they'll also go out and kick the tires, take it for a test drive, visit a box-store, and compare the actual products on the shelves with those sitting next to them. I spent months on the process of choosing and picking out an LED HDTV. I didn't just browse the LG homepage and buy it sight unseen.

 

And buying a cruise is different. It requires more research because you can't touch the actual product before making a final decision, so relying on just the one source, even if it is their company website, is a bit naive. Cruise lines, hotels, and vacation properties are notorious for using fancy "fluff words", staged pictures and images of their products, and any number of deceptive techniques to lure in consumers. I've also considered several non-Princess Cruises vacations, and although I do visit those company's websites, it doesn't stop there; I'll Google the heck out of the internet looking for actual pictures of the accommodations and public spaces, read reviews of past cruisers, and ask follow up questions on various forums if I have a concern. Like I've said before: if I'm dropping a couple thousand dollars (a nice chuck of money to me) on a cruise, I'm not just glancing at a picture or diagram, looking at some stats, and then giving up my money.

 

I too agree that the graphic on the Princess Cruises page is deceptive, ludicrous, and almost childlike in its rendering. And I'm sure they're reading this thread. Why they don't change it is beyond me.

 

:D

[dmwnc1959]

A couple people on this thread really seem to be taking a lot of offense about our disappointment with these balconies. Relax people. It's a freak'n cruise ship, not your blood relatives we're talking about. This is far from something to get offensive about. My goodness.

 

 

I understand the disappointment some have with the balconies; I've had balconies too, BIG ones, and the ones on Royal Princess are small. I think it's the "OMG!!! Look HERE!!!" over-the-top dramatics and excessive hyperbole used in discussing the balconies. For most of the people that have "suffered" through actually using a balcony on Royal Princess, they've found it functional. No, you can't hold a cocktail party out there, nor invite all your friends over for a beer and hang out. But it's functional for two people. If you have a small family going on the cruise, and a balcony is important as usable real estate, maybe then consider a different ship.

 

Someone (not me) said a while back, and it was sometime last year, that ALL of the information on the Royal-class is out there for the taking, that it had been over a year (at that point) since Royal Princess had debuted, and if someone complains about not knowing about it in advance, yells bait and switch because they chose not to adequately do their homework (not a direct quote, but the jest of what they were saying), that's it's their own fault. Yet here we are now, 21 months after the fact, and we still get these kind of threads.

 

:D

Edited March 25, 2015 by dmwnc1959

[Astro Flyer]

I too agree that the graphic on the Princess Cruises page is deceptive, ludicrous, and almost childlike in its rendering. And I'm sure they're reading this thread. Why they don't change it is beyond me.

 

:D

When they reduced the original deluxe balcony diagram in half why didn't they also change the other balcony diagrams to more accurately depict the true balcony size? Apparently to not accurately show the size so potential passenger would not know the truth. After experiencing the smaller balconies they aren't a deal breaker for me but I don't spend a lot of time there & still enjoy the view.

 

As you know I enjoy the Royal-class ships which the sum total of options keeps me happy although it's a big mistake for Princess to deceive passengers. Changing brochures will take some time however changing the website to accurately show the size could be implemented sooner.

 

It amazes me about how little research many travelers do before taking a trip. A few weeks before our cruise someone discovered through the roll call that our port for Berlin was Hamburg & not Warnemunde...just like it had always been scheduled! :eek:

Edited March 25, 2015 by Astro Flyer

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

If I want the specifications for a Porsche, I go to Porsche.com and expect the specs to be correct.

 

If I want the specification for a Samsung TV, I go to Samsung.com and expect the specs to be correct.

 

If I wanted to know about accommodations on a Princess ship, I'd go to the Princess website and expect the specs to be correct.

 

Most reasonable people start at the company source and don't then go looking for additional third party information to corroborate or disprove what the company shows on their site. I think it is unfair to fault the client for starting at the source and believing the information. Sure, many people do further investigation on subjective matters, look for user reviews of an item, etc., but there is a line of what is reasonable to expect and if Porsche says their car has 350 HP, I wouldn't expect a 3rd party to state it has 320. If Samsung says their TV plays in 1080 resolution I wouldn't expect a third party to say it is really only 720 resolution.

 

Swapping out an incorrect graphic file should take some office peon 5 minutes to accomplish if directed to do so. 2 years without the proper information is ludicrous and inexcusable and most definitely reeks of a bait and switch.

 

And don't forget to add that most people actually look at a product in a showroom before purchasing it unlike checking a brochure which doesn't really look like what your going to get :( especially after having been on numerous other Princess ships.

[pmcue]

We are headed on Royal for our second time. We do this knowing size of balcony and I much prefer large balconies, but factored that in with everthing else when comparing like Itineraries. We were able to get cabin about $1000 cheaper so we went for it. It is a factor, but not ultimate deciding one. Now if Royal was close to other comparison in pricing we would have opted for the other. Not that I want this thread to live on :)

[Cruise Junky]

Princess doesn't even have to change the diagrams (although they should) just put the measurement back in the cabin description. It took a long time for them to show up on Royal's descriptions and now they're gone :eek: That's purposesly being deceptive.

[dmwnc1959]

I spent $249 for my balcony (not thousands). It was a deep discount for a last minute booking on a 3 night cruise that is now sold out. I had no idea I needed to do additional research before jumping on this deal that was gone a few hours after I first saw it. I've only been on 2 previous Princess cruises, both of which had decent balconies. When I called Princess and made this booking, I had the deck plans open on my computer. I saw nothing in the balcony room diagram that raised alarm about the size of the balcony, so therefore did not know it was something that had to be researched. I had no idea until running across this thread the Regal balconies were so small. Does any of that make sense, or am I totally off base here? :confused:

 

 

Yes, you're off base; spending $249 (per person?) for basically what is a last-minute "throw-away" 3-day cruise in a stateroom with balcony is not the same as spending $1249 for a week-long cruise, or $2490 per person for a 12-night cruise, in that same room. I would imagine that if you were spending $5000 on a cruise instead of $500 you'd probably have done more than just opened up the deck plans on your computer; you may have put the cabin on a quick courtesy hold, come to Cruise Critic and used the Search function, asked questions, even started your own thread about that cabin and balcony. All things considered, $500 is hardly the "investment" for a cruise that I was previously talking about in an earlier post.

 

:cool:

[Aquahound]

Yes, you're off base; spending $249 (per person?) for basically what is a last-minute "throw-away" 3-day cruise in a stateroom with balcony is not the same as spending $1249 for a week-long cruise, or $2490 per person for a 12-night cruise, in that same room. I would imagine that if you were spending $5000 on a cruise instead of $500 you'd probably have done more than just opened up the deck plans on your computer; you may have put the cabin on a quick courtesy hold, come to Cruise Critic and used the Search function, asked questions, even started your own thread about that cabin and balcony. All things considered, $500 is hardly the "investment" for a cruise that I was previously talking about in an earlier post.

 

:cool:

 

I don't get it. :confused: You say I'm off base, but then seem to agree with me given my particular scenario. I agree....if I was booking a $5000 cruise a year or so out, I would research more and hand pick the perfect room. But that wasn't my scenario. It still doesn't mean I should be any less disappointed in these balconies.

[dmwnc1959]

I don't get it. :confused: You say I'm off base, but then seem to agree with me given my particular scenario. I agree....if I was booking a $5000 cruise a year or so out, I would research more and hand pick the perfect room. But that wasn't my scenario. It still doesn't mean I should be any less disappointed in these balconies.

 

 

You're "disappointment" is considerably more manageable at a paltry $249 than it would be at $2490. That's what I'm saying. It's still there - the disappointment - but you're not spitting-fire, hyperbole-throwing, "shaking your fist at the sky" MAD having spent $249. You're just disappointed in a Size 1 Font and not in a Size 24 Font.

 

;)

[LMaxwell]

You're "disappointment" is considerably more manageable at a paltry $249 than it would be at $2490. That's what I'm saying. It's still there - the disappointment - but you're not spitting-fire, hyperbole-throwing, "shaking your fist at the sky" MAD having spent $249. You're just disappointed in a Size 1 Font and not in a Size 24 Font.

 

;)

 

Translation: You didn't spend enough money to be given accurate information by the company selling the product.

 

 

The right thing to do is for Princess to publish the size on their website. Then people can determine if it is worth their money.

[bluesea321]

The right thing to do is for Princess to publish the size on their website. Then people can determine if it is worth their money.

 

And if they do that, they should tell us the actual usable space, not the hypothetical maximum (when pigs fly, I know!!). Princess used to post that the Royal has 9x4 balconies. I have been on the Royal twice and as I posted before, I measured the balcony. The only way I could get 4 feet in depth was by measuring the distance between the corner of the balcony (where the sliding glass door does not reach) and the outer most section of the balcony floor. When I measured the distance between the sliding glass door aluminum frame and the inside frame of the railing, what I consider the usable space, I got 3 feet 3 inches. These balconies are small indeed.

[whitecap]

Yep. Other than a cup of coffee & some danish it's next to impossible to actually eat a meal of any normal size. It cured us from booking another balcony- at least on the new ships. :p Definitely not worth the extra cost.

 

I would like to respectively disagree about the meals. DW and I had a mini on Royal and had several lunches on the balcony, either retrieving food from the buffet or ordering room service. We quickly realized how the table and chairs needed to be arranged. We also had some very nice evenings, sitting there looking into each other's eyes! :eek:

[jagsfan]

Princess doesn't even have to change the diagrams (although they should) just put the measurement back in the cabin description. It took a long time for them to show up on Royal's descriptions and now they're gone :eek: That's purposesly being deceptive.

 

 

When I looked at the category descriptions on the Princess web site, minisuites, deluxe balconies and balconies all had the measurement of 41 sq ft for the balconies. This was last week. I was curious because of the perceived superiority of minis and deluxes over standard balconies.

[dptt]

Stop complaining, Sure balcony is small, food maybe not be to your taste all the time, shows not for you, and maybe service slow, etc. BUT there is so much right about a cruise vacation. With all this said,"Nothing beats a cruise vacation." ENJOY your next cruise. I mean enjoy.

[Mom33]

Stop complaining, Sure balcony is small, food maybe not be to your taste all the time, shows not for you, and maybe service slow, etc. BUT there is so much right about a cruise vacation. With all this said,"Nothing beats a cruise vacation." ENJOY your next cruise. I mean enjoy.

 

Amen to that! :D Enjoy your next cruise too. :D

[Star Travler]

The deluxe obstructed balcony and Mini cabins at the very front of the ship on Lido deck look amazing

[Cruise Junky]

When I looked at the category descriptions on the Princess web site, minisuites, deluxe balconies and balconies all had the measurement of 41 sq ft for the balconies. This was last week. I was curious because of the perceived superiority of minis and deluxes over standard balconies.

 

Found it thanks. It's gone from when you click on a particular room but it is under the stateroom description when you pick the ship

[4cats4me]

Yes, the balconies are definitely small. When I originally heard the first reports of how tiny the balconies were on the Royal, I remember thinking how I didmtveven want to sail on the Royal or Regal due to the small balcony, the large number of passengers, et cet.

 

I am SO glad that we did decide to book on the Regal. such a beautiful ship! Can't wait to go again. I would pick the regal or Royal over any other ship in the fleet.