Balcony's on Britannia

[Magicdi]

Can anyone tell me if the balcony's are the same as on the Azura i.e. We had a balcony on the Riviera deck on Azura, which was the top deck of balcony cabins, our balcony ŵas covered over but we looked down and could see the people on the balconies below us as they were staggered in depth.

 

Is it the same on Brittania?

 

Thanks

Di

[HELEN HENRY]

Can anyone tell me if the balcony's are the same as on the Azura i.e. We had a balcony on the Riviera deck on Azura, which was the top deck of balcony cabins, our balcony ŵas covered over but we looked down and could see the people on the balconies below us as they were staggered in depth.

 

Is it the same on Brittania?

 

Thanks

Di

 

No the balconies are not staggered and you cannot see into any of the balconies when looking down. The balconies are slightly smaller on Britannia than Azura or Ventura but still plenty of room for two to sit comfortably.

[sapphire4]

The aft balconys on Britannia are staggered and you can see people below

[terrierjohn]

No the balconies are not staggered and you cannot see into any of the balconies when looking down. The balconies are slightly smaller on Britannia than Azura or Ventura but still plenty of room for two to sit comfortably.

But only if you sit facing each other, not really enough room to sit facing the balcony rail, and certainly not with the backrest at its lowest and your feet stretched out ahead of you. I would guess they are about two thirds the depth of the standard Azura balconies.

[HELEN HENRY]

The aft balconys on Britannia are staggered and you can see people below

 

sapphire4 Yes you are quite correct. What I should have stated is that the balconies on the port and starboard side are not staggered but some of the aft balconies are.I have been in a suite balcony on Portside and it was double the length of a standard balcony but still had to sit as terrierjohn stated comfortably only if we sat facing each other :D and and in a suite on B Deck aft in the centre of the four suites and yes the balcony was hugh and plenty of room. Fortunately our particular balcony on B Deck could only be overlooked from guests on A Deck and partially overlooked from the bar above that,probably anyone hanging over may have seen my feet sticking out :eek: If we looked over the balcony we could see the guests below only on C & D Deck. We could not see guests on E,F or G deck. Hope this clears up any misunderstanding.

[Patsy Flower]

We were in a balcony cabin on C deck.

 

Balconies on Britannia are nothing like the ones on Ventura or Azura in fact they are an excuse for a balcony, more like a window ledge. (Unless you are able to have a suite balcony).

 

We could not sit comfortably as the balconies are not deep enough and as people have said before the chairs cannot be placed to look out to sea and have to be placed facing each other.

 

Very uncomfortable in our opinion.

[sapphire4]

We sailed twice on Britannia last year on c and E deck. We could sit next to each other comfortably but were definitely overlooked from above. Most people didn't hang over their balcony looking down but when the suite above had meals on the edge of the balcony it felt intrusive.

[tom_uk]

Standard balcony on Britannia:

 

 

 

C-deck balcony on Azura or Ventura:

 

[sapphire4]

That's a huge difference. I would say the aft balconys are perhaps twice as deep as the one shown but no where near as big as the Azora balcony. Am sailing on the Ventura later this year are the balonies a similar size to the Azura?

[john watson]

That's a huge difference. I would say the aft balconies are perhaps twice as deep as the one shown but no where near as big as the Azura balcony. Am sailing on the Ventura later this year are the balconies a similar size to the Azura?

 

The balconies are the same on both ships except that Ventura does NOT have FORWARD balconies on E Deck nor does she have AFT balconies (actually on the stern) on Riviera Deck. Ventura has standard Outside cabins at these two locations just with a window.

 

Regards John

Edited February 16, 2016 by john watson

[tom_uk]

Sapphire4: To be fair, the images I posted are a bit unfair. The C deck balconies on Azura & Ventura are the biggest balconies (for ordinary balcony cabins); the balconies for the same cabins on the Lido, Riviera, A & B decks are half the size of the one illustrated. That said, the balconies on the other decks are still bigger than the balconies for non-suite cabins on Britannia.

[Patsy Flower]

i think that is what I was trying to say in a previous post.

 

Unless you are in a suite on Britannia the balconies are as per the photo that Tom has posted.

 

Yes, the C deck balconies on Azura and Ventura are the biggest on the ships but as far as I am aware all the other balconies are far bigger than standard balconies on Britannia.

 

We did know about the balconies before we sailed but they were even smaller than we expected.

 

A disappointment to us as the ship has some lovely features. However, if you enjoy sitting on your balcony, Britannia balconies will be a huge disappointment.

[jeanlyon]

They certainly look awful, wouldn't be any point in paying for that.

[Mysticalmother]

They certainly look awful, wouldn't be any point in paying for that.

 

Its that or inside isn't it on Britannia? No oceanview cabins. Assuming you're not having a suite of course!

[sunnyhat]

This is a standard cabin balcony on Azura. I thought it was a little on the small side, but that picture of Britannia balcony.... tiny!! Sorry about me being in the photo...

[Magicdi]

gosh they are very small. I do like sitting on the balcony with a coffee in the morning in my robe and a drink in the evening before we go for dinner. I don't sit on it all day as I prefer to go on the sun decks on sea days and I just wondered how overlooked you are by the people above, as on the Azura.

[The Mommy]

We had HC grade and my husband struggled with the balcony - he is just over 6ft. We opened the divider between us and next door but had to request it be closed as it reduced to an even smaller space! Would you believe - they fold back the divider onto the opening patio door - such a poor design - it may have worked if it folded back onto the closed side.

 

We were very very disappointed with the size of the balcony and also the smaller bedroom and smaller shower. It certainly doesn't work for cuddly people!

[Patsy Flower]

I agree with the comment about "there wouldn't be any point paying for that".

 

We felt as though we had been ripped off as we felt that we had paid for a product which you couldn't really use and enjoy.

 

We definitely would not pay for a balcony on Britannia again, it just wasn't worth the extra cost.

[Eglesbrech]

That is definately too small to call a balcony. I like the window box description!

 

We have been looking at a cruise on Brittania and generally go for a balcony cabin so we can enjoy some private outdoor space but based on the pictures/comments this is not worth the extra cost.

[tom_uk]

I'll come back with one further comment. Britannia is not a unique ship, of course - she's a (very near) sister of the Princess Cruises ships Royal Princess and Regal Princess, and the balconies on those ships are the same as on Britannia. Princess passengers, who of course have years of experience of cruising on sister-ships to Ventura & Azura, seem to have got over the balcony issue on these latest ships and you don't hear so many complaints about it. This summer will be Royal Princess' third in service, in fact.

[cruisefan2012]

I was in a single balcony cabin last year on Britannia to the Baltics, It was an upgrade from a single inside (L203) to a single balcony (L255), I didnt pay for the upgrade so I cant complain, however the balconies are small, I think they are all the same size unless you have a suite

 

Suite balconies are larger but are overlooked - The only suites I would want are a suite either side of the Bridge with the larger balconies

[sammybonny]

We were on Britannia in December, and also Royal Princess last June which is the same design.

We had a balcony cabin on both ships and although we agree the balcony is quite a lot smaller than on other ships we still found it to be usable.I think they have removed the footstools because there is no room for them so I used a cushion on the small table to put my feet up, plenty of room for reading and my afternoon tipple!

 

The only other alternative would be an inside cabin as there are no outside cabins on Britannia and this would not be an option for me .

I believe the only cabins with larger balconies are on the aft of the ship and they have soot problems.

 

On the Princess ships you can have dinner served on your balcony (at a price) It would be interesting to see them fit a large table on there to serve it on!

[tom_uk]

There have been a few comments to the effect (and I paraphrase) "you need to be in a suite to get a bigger balcony". This isn't necessarily the case. First, there are 40-odd suites along the port & starboard sides of B deck which have the same size balconies as all the regular balcony cabins, on that deck and others. The only cabins (of any grade) that might have bigger balconies are those facing aft or forward; and even then, it varies deck by deck. Aft balconies on F deck are huge, those on the deck above are quite a lot smaller, and those on the deck above that (D deck) are smaller still.

[HELEN HENRY]

We had Suite B522 on B Deck Portside and the balcony was longer in length as a standard balcony because we had two separate double balcony doors on to the balcony. It was just the same depth as a standard balcony. It had two sun loungers and one foot stool.

 

We also had Suite B724 Aft B Deck facing the wake and this balcony is hugh in fact we had 24 guest on the balcony one evening for drinks. So that is a big balcony. We had three full length sun loungers ( just like the sun beds at the pool area) a table and four dining chairs B723 has the exact same size balcony as B724

 

B Deck Suite B725 and B726 have even larger balconies especially the balcony facing the wake but the balconies round the corners facing port and starboard side are just the same depth as a normal balcony although obviously as the balcony tapers round to facing the wake it widens out.

 

We have been in Suite C102 Forward and the balcony faces Portside and is also very narrow and even shorter in length than the balcony in B522 it held two chairs and one table.