They're having a laugh

[Adawn47]

We prefer a balcony but don't mind an outside if we have to. However, we would never have an inside no matter what. We like natural light. I shudder when I think of being in a room with no window.😱

Avril

[grapau27]

36 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

We prefer a balcony but don't mind an outside if we have to. However, we would never have an inside no matter what. We like natural light. I shudder when I think of being in a room with no window.😱

Avril

Personally we will only cruise with a balcony cabin.

We have room service breakfast sitting on our balcony and a hot chocolate drink sitting on the balcony last thing at night as well as during the day we often sit on the balcony.

Sailing into ports early morning and sailing away in the afternoon is brilliant sitting on our balcony.

[Dermotsgirl]

3 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Personally we will only cruise with a balcony cabin.

We have room service breakfast sitting on our balcony and a hot chocolate drink sitting on the balcony last thing at night as well as during the day we often sit on the balcony.

Sailing into ports early morning and sailing away in the afternoon is brilliant sitting on our balcony.

In recent years, we have done some long cruises, and, in order to pay a price that was acceptable to us, we compromised on the balcony and had an outside cabin instead. It was fine, and we enjoyed the cruises.

 

On our Azura cruise last year, we went back to having a balcony, and used it a lot. We decided that it enhanced our cruise so much, we would have a balcony wherever possible. We have balcony cabins on our remaining three booked cruises. 

[Adawn47]

3 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Personally we will only cruise with a balcony cabin.

We have room service breakfast sitting on our balcony and a hot chocolate drink sitting on the balcony last thing at night as well as during the day we often sit on the balcony.

Sailing into ports early morning and sailing away in the afternoon is brilliant sitting on our balcony.

We've only had an outside once and didn't mind it. It was a particular itinerary that we wanted to do on Oriana and all the balconies had gone. As a result we will now have an outside if necessary, but balcony first choice.

Avril

[grapau27]

12 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

In recent years, we have done some long cruises, and, in order to pay a price that was acceptable to us, we compromised on the balcony and had an outside cabin instead. It was fine, and we enjoyed the cruises.

 

On our Azura cruise last year, we went back to having a balcony, and used it a lot. We decided that it enhanced our cruise so much, we would have a balcony wherever possible. We have balcony cabins on our remaining three booked cruises. 

We had 2 inside cabins and 1 outside cabin in our first 4 cruises.

Our last 50 cruises have all been cabins with a balcony.

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by grapau27

[grapau27]

16 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

We've only had an outside once and didn't mind it. It was a particular itinerary that we wanted to do on Oriana and all the balconies had gone. As a result we will now have an outside if necessary, but balcony first choice.

Avril

I can understand that as Oriana did not have many balcony cabins and we had an outside cabin on Oriana too.

We tend to sail on the large RCL ships and the biggest P&O, Princess ships where there is a plethora of balcony cabins.

[Britboys]

I hold all you balcony-lovers responsible for all these ugly mega-ships that look like floating apartment blocks then 😉😄

[Harry Peterson]

1 minute ago, Britboys said:

I hold all you balcony-lovers responsible for all these ugly mega-ships that look like floating apartment blocks then 😉😄

That’s a very fair point. Guilty as charged. They are truly awful. I’m sure the engineers know what they’re doing, but they do look and feel top heavy, and something in me feels that one day there will be a major incident. We’re always told that these things can’t happen, but then they do and things get rethought.

[kalos]

34 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

They are truly awful. I’m sure the engineers know what they’re doing,

 

Maybe they used to keep pigeons Harry 

             They look the same 

[grapau27]

59 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I hold all you balcony-lovers responsible for all these ugly mega-ships that look like floating apartment blocks then 😉😄

🤫😎🤣

[FamilyCruiserUK]

I had a sneaky look for Xmas 2020. All sold out for the 3/4 berth room that we will need. All those pesky FCC people lol 

[terrierjohn]

35 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

That’s a very fair point. Guilty as charged. They are truly awful. I’m sure the engineers know what they’re doing, but they do look and feel top heavy, and something in me feels that one day there will be a major incident. We’re always told that these things can’t happen, but then they do and things get rethought.

I have to admit that I quite like a lot of the large cruise liners, especially most of the RCI fleets and, since we now spend most of our time onboard, it is the interiors that matter most to us, and we are hoping that Iona's will not disappoint.

[Britboys]

10 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I have to admit that I quite like a lot of the large cruise liners, especially most of the RCI fleets and, since we now spend most of our time onboard, it is the interiors that matter most to us, and we are hoping that Iona's will not disappoint.

I do agree that RCI generally build better looking mega-ships, with the exception of the Oasis Class.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you about Iona's interiors. From the few rather dull artist's impressions so far released, things can only get better surely...

 

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

I hold all you balcony-lovers responsible for all these ugly mega-ships that look like floating apartment blocks then 😉😄

Not guilty Andrew. P&O - small ships - balcony - outside cabin -  in that order, otherwise I'll choose another sailing date.

Avril 

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

That’s a very fair point. Guilty as charged. They are truly awful. I’m sure the engineers know what they’re doing, but they do look and feel top heavy, and something in me feels that one day there will be a major incident. We’re always told that these things can’t happen, but then they do and things get rethought.

Think Titanic.

Avril

[terrierjohn]

2 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I do agree that RCI generally build better looking mega-ships, with the exception of the Oasis Class.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you about Iona's interiors. From the few rather dull artist's impressions so far released, things can only get better surely...

 

I even like the Oasis class, they certainly look more like cruise ships than the Grand class ships.

[grapau27]

17 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I even like the Oasis class, they certainly look more like cruise ships than the Grand class ships.

We like Central Park and the Boardwalk on Oasis class ships as well as the Royal Promenade.

Edited August 27, 2020 by grapau27

[Harry Peterson]

12 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Think Titanic.

Avril

Funny you should say that, Avril. I was. And Grenfell Tower. And London’s wobbly bridge. And Herald of Free Enterprise. And Costa Concordia.

 

‘Experts’ don’t always get things right, and they frequently don’t pay sufficient heed to human behaviour.

[Britboys]

25 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We like Central Park and the Boardwalk on Oasis class ships as well as the Royal Promenade.

i

There's only one thing I can say to that - 😱😱😱. And of course that's a reaction to the ships, not your good lady!

[Adawn47]

48 minutes ago, Britboys said:

There's only one thing I can say to that - 😱😱😱. And of course that's a reaction to the ships, not your good lady!

We went on RCI's Indy once, and once was more than enough for us. That is not what I call a cruise ship, it's Vegas and Disneyland on steroids. If that had been our first experience of cruising and not the lovely elegant Arcadia we would have never set foot on another ship. All the OTT American glitz, razzmatazz and noise is definitely not for us, and the continuous ' Hi guys' drove me mad. Each to their own.

Avril

[bee-ess]

3 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

That’s a very fair point. Guilty as charged. They are truly awful. I’m sure the engineers know what they’re doing, but they do look and feel top heavy, and something in me feels that one day there will be a major incident. We’re always told that these things can’t happen, but then they do and things get rethought.

They said it couldn't happen on the Titanic

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, grapau27 said:

We like Central Park and the Boardwalk on Oasis class ships as well as the Royal Promenade.

Looks like a typical US shopping mall. Not my idea of cruising I'm afraid

[Esprit]

The Royal Promenade on Allure of the Seas last November. Just awful, but I didn't mind the Central Park as it had a nice bar in the middle of it with a great bartender.

[Britboys]

23 minutes ago, Esprit said:

The Royal Promenade on Allure of the Seas last November. Just awful, but I didn't mind the Central Park as it had a nice bar in the middle of it with a great bartender.

It is horses for courses and I don't knock these ships or those who enjoy them. For me however, I want to feel I am on a ship, not in vast shopping mall or a themed hotel. I want a good selection of bars etc that have a connection with the sea, not - for instance - one that pretends to be in the middle of a park.

[Esprit]

Totally agree with you Britboys.

We only did Allure as it was our party leader's first choice (Diamond Plus member too!). There were 11 of us, all with the deluxe drinks package so we were "on it" every day pretty much from 10 am!

I wouldn't do another Royal Caribbean cruise personally, but for a big crowd it does the job pretty well.