Is Club Balcony Worth It?

[JustAPilot]

I’d like to get why you book the club balcony rooms and if the upgrade to club balcony from regular balcony is worth it. We know the sparkling grape juice they try to disguise as wine is used as a door stopper and the ships are not sailing full these days so priority dining reservations are not really applicable. So cruisers is the upgrade worth it? 

[ColeThornton]

Depends on what you consider "worth it".

[phissy]

For us, it is the larger bathroom . Specifically, the great shower. 
 

[MNcruisingcouple]

Personally, we wouldn't book a club balcony for the price they normally charge, but we did win a bid on one for our last sailing.  The bigger bathroom was worth it for what we bid.  

[wolft927]

I Agree, I believe the Club Balcony bathroom is nice, and typically bid from Balcony to Haven. I would never simply pay the extra only would bid on them

[dexddd]

Heck, let's just be happy after all these years they don't still call them mini-suites.

[wolft927]

1 minute ago, dexddd said:

Heck, let's just be happy after all these years they don't still call them mini-suites.

Right! I have done the Haven my past 2 cruises, December and March, now those are Suites. I have had an ocean Suite on Carnival and was not at all impressed with the room

[vacation44]

We also enjoy the larger bathroom so for us, yes, it is worth it.  

[rbxlady]

We are booked in a club balcony cabin with a large balcony for me, my husband, and our two kids. I wanted the slight amount of extra room and, more importantly, the bigger shower, and my husband wanted the bigger balcony. It wasn't that much more over and above a regular balcony cabin when we booked. If it were just me and my husband, I would have booked a regular balcony cabin.

[Seas2mountains]

On the Encore and Bliss, the club balcony suites not only had bigger bathrooms but multiple shower jets in the shower. 
 

On the Jewel class ships, the curtain between the bed area and sofa area may be handy if traveling with kids. 

[cruiserbear55]

21 hours ago, dexddd said:

Heck, let's just be happy after all these years they don't still call them mini-suites.

   On my e-docs for 4/8 sailing they were still calling them mini-suites.

           They say: Stateroom: Mini-Suite MA

   Guess the e-doc folks haven't caught up yet with the promotional material folks!!

[PTC DAWG]

21 hours ago, phissy said:

For us, it is the larger bathroom . Specifically, the great shower. 
 

This, I have sailed this category twice, would do it again in a heartbeat.  Both in Away class ships..the other classes, I don't have any experience.  

Edited June 1, 2022 by PTC DAWG

[bkrickles1]

17 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

This, I have sailed this category twice, would do it again in a heartbeat.  Both in Away class ships..the other classes, I don't have any experience.  

It's all about the bathroom. Lmao 

We're sailing Joy 6/26 and upgraded from balcony after final payment for like $75 and we're very excited about the bathroom. Extra space and the shower looks awesome. 

[TrumpyNor]

I recently did a bargain on purchasing an upgrade for our August cruise on the Escape, I had originally booked a standard inside cabin for 2 persons, and when there was a pricedrop after final payment I purchased an upgrade to a club balcony cabin for only $300 in total for a 10 days cruise. From a small inside to a club balcony with a LARGE bathroom AND a balcony +++

 

[JustAPilot]

What about on the Epic? I’m not seeing any nicer bathroom in the club rooms. 

[LadyBerard]

3 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

On the Encore and Bliss, the club balcony suites not only had bigger bathrooms but multiple shower jets in the shower. 
 

On the Jewel class ships, the curtain between the bed area and sofa area may be handy if traveling with kids. 

We originally booked regular balcony rooms on the Pearl for August 2023.  However, prices went down, so for about the same price, we switched to the club balcony room.  It looks to me like the club balcony rooms on the Pearl have considerably more storage space.  I understand that the bathroom will be a bit larger too though.

[phillygwm]

My last cruise was in a Club Balcony.  The toilet and shower were great.  The free bag of laundry and other goodies were nice too.  But, as others have said, it depends on the incremental cost.  I might pay a couple hundred more, but when I priced it out for my next cruise, it was $1000 to upgrade.  Wasn't worth it.

[Jed12345]

We won an upgrade bid for $50PP on our last cruise on the Bliss.  Well worth it for the larger bathroom and bag of laundry.  Not worth it if it's several hundred for us.

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by Jed12345

[geleisen]

On 5/31/2022 at 6:56 PM, dexddd said:

Heck, let's just be happy after all these years they don't still call them mini-suites.

Is 'Club Balcony Suite' really that much different?
If anything, it sounds like an upgrade to me. 
'We have mini-suites or we have club balcony suites, which would you prefer?'
To me it just sounds like a type of suite, and 'club' sounds like you get access to some club or something, the way in a hotel, 'club' rooms generally include access to the lounge. 

But on our sailing, they were cheaper than balconies, so we happily booked 3 of them and won't turn down the free bag of laundry! 

[kdawg954]

15 hours ago, JustAPilot said:

What about on the Epic? I’m not seeing any nicer bathroom in the club rooms. 

 

Upgraded from Inside to Club in December on the Epic.  It was 100% worth it.  In fact I believe the upgrade is most noticeable on the Epic as the shower was huge, separate and opposite of the toilet.

 

Was a fantastic upgrade for $200 total over 7 days.

[RRSeeker]

The bathroom alone is worth the upgrade price to me.  

[Woppo]

On 6/2/2022 at 1:29 AM, Jed12345 said:

We won an upgrade bid for $50PP on our last cruise on the Bliss.  Well worth it for the larger bathroom and bag of laundry.  Not worth it if it's several hundred for us.

 

Do you get the laundry and other perks if you upgrade?

[BirdTravels]

34 minutes ago, Woppo said:

Do you get the laundry and other perks if you upgrade?

The post you quoted stated that they got their laundry perk. 

[phoenix1181]

56 minutes ago, Woppo said:

Do you get the laundry and other perks if you upgrade?

I'm curious about this as well.  

[Jed12345]

Yes, it was an upgrade we bid on.