Balcony Size does matter

[Donna573]

My husband and I just returned from our 2nd Carnival cruise. Overall, we loved both of our experiences with Carnival, however, we are curious as to if all cruise lines have such small balconies. Do you need to upgrade to a suite in order to have a larger balcony?

[dqualude]

I just got back from a Cruise on Princess. Always have a balcony however friends got the mini suite and on Princess (Grand) the mini suites are on the lower decks and the other balconies look over the mini suites. No privacy at all :(. The balcony on Princess was just fine not to small in fact it was bigger than our balconies on Royal Caribean that we have taken.

[ryansmemom]

My husband and I cruise on HAL. One of the reasons we like HAL is that the balconies are HUGE. We took a Radisson cruise and we were so disappointed in the size of the balcony. The size of the room was nice, however regardless of the stateroom catagory, the balcony was very small.

 

We have looked at various other shipboard diagrams and HAL has very large staterooms and super large balconies. We always book suites and the size of the suite and the balcony is just incredible.

 

The balcony is large enough for two lounge chairs and a table, plus a full size dining table with four chairs. With all of that furniture, there is still plenty of room to walk around. It is not crowded at all.

 

Linda

[Happy ks]

Linda, we've not yet taken a HAL cruise, but it is on our list (we're not brand loyal, just loyal to ourselves!). That is a nice thing to know about HAL, many times we don't pay extra for a balcony, because of the size. I cannot justify $600 extra for the little ledge you get on most ships!

 

Thanks for the itp.

[caviargal]

My husband and I cruise on HAL. One of the reasons we like HAL is that the balconies are HUGE. We took a Radisson cruise and we were so disappointed in the size of the balcony. The size of the room was nice, however regardless of the stateroom catagory, the balcony was very small.

 

We have looked at various other shipboard diagrams and HAL has very large staterooms and super large balconies. We always book suites and the size of the suite and the balcony is just incredible.

 

The balcony is large enough for two lounge chairs and a table, plus a full size dining table with four chairs. With all of that furniture, there is still plenty of room to walk around. It is not crowded at all.

 

Linda

 

I was just on the Zui and walked thru about 20 different cabins in various categories.

 

The standard verandah cabins were not what I would consider large and the balconies were able to hold a small table and two chairs only.

 

The SA suites were not much larger.

 

"My" cabin, an aft corner, has huge balcony.

 

Overall, I did not see a difference between HAL and the other lines and I was expecting to see a significant one.

[tinna2000]

on carnival you have too pick a 9a balcony, that balcony is called a wrap around. it is very large.

[momofmeg]

on carnival you have too pick a 9a balcony, that balcony is called a wrap around. it is very large.

 

I had an extended balcony (I think that is called 8A) on carnival and it was considerably bigger then my balcony on Disney Wonder. It was like 6 feet wide -the Disney wonder was like 4 feet wide-the carnival one was wide enough for a chaise lounge-although we still only had 2 chairs-on Disney there would have been no room for a chaise lounge. But the Disney stateroom was much nicer and bigger-so overall I liked the Disney stateroom better.

[madelinerose]

Here are some pics of the balcony we will have on the Crown Princess in September. ;)

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/286943699twqmmj

[ryansmemom]

I was just on the Zui and walked thru about 20 different cabins in various categories.

 

The standard verandah cabins were not what I would consider large and the balconies were able to hold a small table and two chairs only.

 

The SA suites were not much larger.

 

"My" cabin, an aft corner, has huge balcony.

 

Overall, I did not see a difference between HAL and the other lines and I was expecting to see a significant one.

 

I have not been on any of the Vista class ships so I cannot speak of those ships. I do know that the balconies on the S and R class ships, especially in the full S suites are huge.

 

Linda

[obnurse]

madelinerose:

 

Thanks for sharing! Your pictures are great! I can feel the caribbean breeze in my hair!