Pride of America Balcony vs OV

[seventhwardhustler]

Soooooo, I saw one heated discussion about this but can't seem to find it again. I'm a balcony lover but the difference between B and OV is a grand that can possibly be better spent on alcohol. My understanding is Hawaii (if you love to be off the ship, as I do) leaves very little time for chilling on the balcony. I usually use my balcony to view the water with my child and chill with my alcohol as the passengers rush on board and we sail away in the evening (sail-ins and -aways and watching the guys work the rope and ship are one of my favorite balcony past-times). We're also east coast, first-to-breakfast, first-off-the ship, first-to-dinner, first-to-bed type folk with a daughter who will be 8 at the time of sailing. The person saying you didn't need a balcony mentioned something about the ship sailing away from ports in the dark? They also mentioned one or two other points. I realize there aren't any sea days, which is like a blessing to me, but I'm wondering why everyone seems to so balcony-oriented on this journey. Please let me know. Thanks!

[BirdTravels]

Your analysis is correct. You are in port every day (and some nights). You would probably be up on deck for volcano and Na Pali coast sail-bys. Balconies are bigger rooms, but you could probably get away with an OV.

 

We always get a balcony,,,, just because,,,,

[TifffanyD]

When we did POA in 2013 one of my favorite times was sitting on the balcony as we passed the lava flow. Also... was glorious to have our own space when we went by the Napali coast. We had an extended balcony with 2 loungers and 2 chairs and we took our champagne out there and just relaxed. We are rebooked in 2017 and have another balcony (though not extended). We used 30k points from our NCL mastercard to upgrade though... our fare is at the price of an oceanview.

[CRAZYCROSS]

Hi there We had booked an ocean view cain but got upgraded free to a balcony cabin because of a mix up with NCL. We sailed last month, so it was dark quite early at night, so didn't sit out on the balcony. It was nice to take pictures of the Nai Pali coast from it but you can do this from the deck of the ship too. We liked having fresh air coming into the cabin in the mornings but to be honest I wouldn't pay a grand to have one as we really didn't use it very much.

[seventhwardhustler]

Hi there We had booked an ocean view cain but got upgraded free to a balcony cabin because of a mix up with NCL. We sailed last month, so it was dark quite early at night, so didn't sit out on the balcony. It was nice to take pictures of the Nai Pali coast from it but you can do this from the deck of the ship too. We liked having fresh air coming into the cabin in the mornings but to be honest I wouldn't pay a grand to have one as we really didn't use it very much.

 

yes, on another post, someone said this particular cruise is different in that you just don't spend as much time in the room. we don't prop the door and there are no sea days so i think it's gonna be more psychological than anything. the person i mentioned must have sailed around the same time when it got dark early.

[pspercy]

There's not much more than an hour or so in sunset times year round in Hawaii, 6 - 7pm +/- a few minutes.