Cove or Balcony???

I am trying to book my cruise on the Dream and can't decide between a cove or a regular balcony! I am going with another couple who has a room on the vista deck (deck 9). I can get a cove on the main deck (deck 2) or spend $90 more and get a regular balcony on the upper deck ( deck 6) I can't decide which one to choose and my husband doesn't care either way!

You are more likely to get an answer if you post this question on the Carnival forum.

I put it there also.

So, which thread has given you better answers?

So, which thread has given you better answers?

Hopefully, the Carnival board. :)

For me personally, deck 2 would be too low; I would prefer to watch the waves from above - not at eye level.

What's a cove please?

What's a cove please?

Most balconies are more than sixty feet above the water line. Carnival has created a special class of balconies called cove balconies that are only about twenty feet above the water line.

It really depends on what type of experience you are looking for. The cove balconies are close to the water which allows you to see flying fish, dolphins, etc. They are more private as well. You can experience some spray if the waters are rough. A regular balcony will not be close to the water, but you will be high up looking over the vast ocean. Be careful, though. Some balconies will overlook common areas such as walk ways, hot tubs (noisy people and not private). Either way, you are cruising and will have a blast. By the way, we are booked in a cove on the Dream ;)

We have always booked regular balconies.... on our last cruise in January, we booked a Cove on the Dream.

We loved the experience -- being that close to the water was pretty cool. I'd have to say the only drawback is.. on windy days, you do get a lot of "salt spray". never noticed until our last day at sea -- when it was windier.

We'd book one again.

we had a cove on the Dream a year ago and it was wonderful being closer to the water. the only problem was one day when they were expecting rough seas due to a storm, they put the chairs in our room and closed and locked the steal door so we couldn't not go out on the balcony. But as soon as the weather cleared they went thru and opened it up. We will get the cove again when we get a chance.

have fun!!!

We just had our first cove balcony on the Dreams sister ship the Breeze. There are "negatives" and positives to both types of balconies imho. It will be more personal preference than anything.

Cove positives:

-Deck two which means when you embark you don't have to go very far to get to your room. It's also a plus when you are coming and going from the ship in ports. Anytime we could avoid having to stand around in what felt like was a very unorganized group of elevators we did. This deck also becomes a "negative" when you want to head up to the lido though.

-More privacy on your balcony. The way these balconies are designed there is more of a gap between balconies so people cannot just lean over and look into your balcony/room.

-Closer to the water. I personally liked this a lot aside from the waves crashing into the ship at night which made a bit of noise.

"Negatives":

-Deck two. Yes, I know i also listed this as a positive but there is good reasoning for this (at least from my perspective). The elevators on the Breeze just never seemed to work well for us. They just didn't seem like they were properly synced. Going all the way from deck two to decks nine or ten where lido was quite annoying at times. On many, many occasions all four would be heading in the same direction and to the same decks. By the time one would finally get to you there would be so many people waiting that most of the times they would be full and left people behind. While this didn't ruin our cruise by any means it did become quite tiresome having to deal with it all week especially after a couple were put out of service by day two. If you do not spend a good amount a time on lido then perhaps it wouldn't be an issue. We didn't use the MDR much since we spent most of our time on lido. my .02

-Location. While also true on other decks be careful choosing your room location on this one. You really don't want to wind up under the galley where they make a bit of noise just about 24/7. We picked a spot under one of the dining rooms and never had an issue with noise from above. I'm a light sleeper and was thankful for this.

-Noise. While we did have quiet above us we did have an issue that we only seemed to notice at night. I'm still not totally sure if it was waves crashing against the ship or the stabilizers. Our first night aboard I kept getting awakened by what I would describe as something similar to something being scraped along a floor above us and my wife said sounded like thunder. As the week went on we slowly adjusted to it but it is definitely something to keep in mind if your a light sleeper. Don't know if our room location had anything to do with this as we were slightly forward from mid-ship (2325).

We have also stayed in an aft facing balcony cabin on the Legend on deck 6. Both types of balconies were unique and a good experience. Overall you really can't go wrong :D