Dilemma! Inside or Balcony? 35 nights Solo

[Cruisemeister2002]

Hi, hope you are all well ? Inside or Balcony. We recently did a 35 nighter March through to April. We booked an inside, which frankly had never been a problem before as we had done similar cruises, same length of time but different itinerary . Sadly this cruise was the exception. Gratefully we were upgrade to a Sea view otherwise they would have needed to cart me off in a straightjacket. The cruise started badly and sadly didn't get much better. Ship five hours late into Southampton which meant that bearing in mind we had already had several hours on a coach, having already travelled a forty five minute journey to pick up said coach, then massive queues at Southampton with cases stacked high along the loading are. The ship sailed five and a half hours late. The upgraded cabin although informed it was ours had someone else's key cards in the slot outside the cabin door. I had paid nearly four hundred pounds for a Celebration Package, which took me 15 days to sort out. Many onboard were coughing and my wife ended up having to stay in the cabin for three days, don't know what it was but did a check for Corona Virus, but that was negative, then not well myself. Food onboard in MDR was poor and entertainment was poor although the two tribute acts were excellent and the food in Sindu was fabulous. The speakers consisted of day upon day of someone talking about photography. Issues regarding immigration in New Orleans, very slow and many yards of walking. Three medical emergencies and one rescue of a yacht. First Port of call was La coruna then ten days of sailing as we missed Bermuda, due according to the Captain, the weather. Although how he could know that the weather would be unsuitable to dock four days prior to docking I don't know. My belief and I must stress it's a personal belief although fellow passengers were of the same opinion was that we missed Bermuda due to the five and a half hour delay sailing from Southampton and that it was also to save money. Although judging by the numbers of fellow passengers who said they had been keeping a diary of all their issues onboard I don't know if or how much profit P&O made on that cruise. We were re-imbursed 800 pounds and a hamper. Although you can't make up for a lost holiday.  Getting back to your original point, go for a balcony if you can afford it as I am not a huge fan of air con as I believe all it does is spread germs around the cabins (Again, a personal view )  

[Selbourne]

On 7/19/2023 at 9:38 AM, Sheila127 said:

Hi thinking of going on a 35 night cruise from Southampton to Caribbean! My gut tells me it has to be a balcony at £5438 as it’s a lengthy cruise but it is £2000 more than an inside cabin, considerable difference! The sensible head tells me inside! Would appreciate some thoughts on this!

Views will always be polarised on this issue. I’m in the camp that would prefer not to cruise at all than cruise in an inside cabin, but that’s because we spend a lot of time in our cabin, especially on sea days if the ship is busy. We actually spend very little time at all on the balcony, but it’s nice to pop out to see things and to have the ever changing views from within the cabin. 
 

The balcony price is £155 per day, which doesn’t sound too bad to me for a solo occupancy. More importantly, it’s £57 a night more than an inside. Again, for all the benefits that a balcony cabin offers, an extra £57 a night sounds reasonable to me. Personally, £3.4k to cruise in an inside cabin would be £3.4k wasted, as I wouldn’t enjoy it, whereas £5.4k could be money well spent! 
 

Ultimately, if you know that you would prefer a balcony cabin and the only issue is the price difference, then it simply boils down to how affordable the extra £2k is for you. If it’s a stretch and leaves you short then, if you know that you are OK with inside cabins, you might as well book an inside cabin. If the extra £2k doesn’t make a big material difference to your finances, then I’d treat yourself and remember that there are no pockets in a shroud!