Aft View Cabins - Loved or Hated??

I have always wanted to book an aft WAKE VIEW cabin. ... Finally have one booked with 3 friends/couples taking the other 3 on our deck 4 on an upcoming Miracle cruise so we have the whole row with the exception of the suites. (Bummed the balcony doors can't be opened up though!). It appears from reviews I have read that at least 90% love, love, love them (and they also get booked first and for more $$$.) Please share your thoughts. ...Did you love or hate them and why???

Love love love

LOVE it. We got ours as a GTY assignment on our honeymoon. If we had a larger cruise budget, I'd book one every time.

Love, love, love!!! I've had several aft extended balconies, and last year had an aft wrap on the Splendor. Best cabin ever!!!

LOVE aft. We had aft wrap on liberty this summer & now will never cruise any other way if we can help it!

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We love them! And, since you're on Deck 4, don't worry about soot because the balcony is fully covered.

Loved our aft on the Glory. Dreaming of booking an aft wrap. I think I'd rather have one aft balcony than 2 inside room cruises if that were my choice.

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We wanted to try the aft also so we did May 4th on the Breeze. We liked it a lot but I think I liked the balcony cabins a little better unless it's a Dream class ship where you have a deck below you not the water. Would do it again from time to time.

I have always wanted to book an aft WAKE VIEW cabin. ... Finally have one booked with 3 friends/couples taking the other 3 on our deck 4 on an upcoming Miracle cruise so we have the whole row with the exception of the suites. (Bummed the balcony doors can't be opened up though!). It appears from reviews I have read that at least 90% love, love, love them (and they also get booked first and for more $$$.) Please share your thoughts. ...Did you love or hate them and why???

We hated our deck 7 aft wrap balcony on Destiny. The cabin was so far away from anything. We felt like we had to walk and walk and keep on walking to get anywhere and back again. If we were on Lido or Promenade decks and forgot anything in our cabin, we did without it because we hated going all the way to retrieve it.

That was our first and only aft balcony. All the others have been regular, old, plain, wonderful, mid-ship, Lido deck balcony cabins. (Except for Miracle, Pride, and Legend - regular, old, plain, wonderful, mid-ship Verandah deck balcony cabins.)

Loved our one and only corner wrap-around AFT Balcony on the Magic a few years ago.. It was quiet and the semi-long walks gave us our exercise walk of the day.

If you can't afford an aft-wrap I'd stay with a normal side balcony.

Too much soot/heat/lack of privacy/lack of shade to justify the extra $ in my opinion.

We have only had one, on the Glory. Hated it. Covered with soot, cig ashes and some butts every morning. One morning we had one of the aluminum bud bottles on it. The idea is great but we book side balconies now.

Love the Aft! Best views. Have had 3 and never had a soot problem. Quite part of ship in the hall ways.

Clay.

We have one booked next summer on the Legend in Alaska. Most opinions love these for the scenery so I hope we enjoy it. Others in our group of 11 have regular balcony side cabins on the same deck (6) so if it becomes too much of a soot issue, we may join them on one of theirs!

We have one booked on deck 5 of the Pride next year. (Same layout as miracle). We are excited to try it, however I have heard they are a bit sunny and lack wind. However, we mostly use our balcony in the early morning and evening, so I'm not too worried about it. We usually spend the majority of the day at the pool deck. We wanted to try it at least once! Some people have said there is soot, some people have said they noticed hardly any soot. We'll see!

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If you can't afford an aft-wrap I'd stay with a normal side balcony.

 

Too much soot/heat/lack of privacy/lack of shade to justify the extra $ in my opinion.

We have deck 4. ...it is covered and and therefore mostly private ... No one looking in. .. No all day sun. .. And no beer cans. ... Probably wouldn't have done it on an uncovered balcony. .. Wish we could do the suite but this is supposed to be our "economy" cruise!! Thanks everyone!!

I like them but on some ships people can look down at your balcony and see you. And often the sun is so so hot you can't go out on the balcony.

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The view is great. The solitude is great. The long walk is a pain, but being overweight and painful to walk long distances, would still like it. My big problem on all the afts is NO WIND! Gets really hot back there. Our last 2 weeks in 2012 in the Caribbean, the humidity and heat made the balcony almost useless. It was 20 minutes outside to sweat and complain, then 30 minutes inside to get comfortable.

DW loves balconies, I am happy with insides. But even she has said never again in an aft. She could not tolerate it either.

Of course, the destination may matter. A West Coast Mexico or Alaska cruise will be a much different experience than a Caribbean or South pacific sailing.

We spent a lot of time on and off the balcony and the neighbors were never outside. I figured it was sort of like being in a suite, many people book them for the status but do not make use of it.

Of course I find the same thing with most balcony cabins. Many say they use them, but when you look at when they are eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, enjoying the pool, the shows etc, they actually only spend a few hours a day on the balcony.

:cool: We love the view, and peacefulness we get from being in the Aft section. We'll be staying in an Aft Wrap again in a few weeks!

Love to read these threads. DW and I have been on several cruises, all have been balcony cabins somewhere along the sides of the ships, from bow to mid to back half. On our last Alaska cruise, we had soot problems in a forward starboard side balcony. It was not an issue though, just ask the steward to clean it.

We decided to give an aft balcony a shot this time(Dream,9/28/14) out of hometown New Orleans. Check off 2 things we hadn't tried yet, aft balcony and Key West. Also looking forward to comparing Carnival to Princess.

I've had two aft balconies, Caribbean Princess and Glory. I love, love, looooooove aft balconies. On Glory, I never noticed one speck of soot, there was plenty of breeze, and there was never any trash or anything that collected. The one potential drawback is that you can see everyone and they can see you- if you're at the railing. We called it "Hollywood Squares" and that's exactly what it's like. If it bothers you to hear someone say "good morning, my husband saw a whale ten minutes ago" or "did you guys like the show last night?" then don't book an aft balcony on Glory. We became quite a friendly and close knit group, the people on either side of us and above and below us. And if you back up a foot or two: total privacy.

On Caribbean Princess we were the last ship to leave the (closed) port of New York before Hurricane Irene. To say we went through some rough seas would be a drastic understatement. When you look aft during stormy seas it can be very disorienting. The horizon line keeps shifting and tumbling. I am fine in rough seas but there came a point where I had to shut the curtains. Looking out the side of the ship does not have the same effect. So- if you're prone to seasickness, that can be an issue.

Overall: love.

Had an Upper Deck Aft Balcony on the Legend in 2012. LOVED it. ALMOST as much as a Cove Balcony.

Pros:

Not too much wind. Very important for enjoying the balcony on sea days.

Larger than a regular balcony.

Can see 180 degrees plus.

Quieter at the back of the ship.

Engine hum helps to lull asleep.

On Legend Serenity deck is aft.

Cons:

Can get very warm in port. Full sun. Not an issue because we are not in our cabin when in port.

If wind is blowing right, a light dusting of soot can happen. We leave a hand towel draped over a chair for light wipe-downs.

Those above you can see you....if you are standing at the rail. Private otherwise.

The only time we experienced any trash on our aft balcony was during a helicopter medevac when the helicopter wash blew trash from the Serenity deck all over.

Booked the same aft balcony a SECOND time on the Legend for our upcoming Alaska cruise.

:)

We are going on the Carnival Estacy October 27-31th. I can't wait.:)

Love them, wish I could manage to book one more often, just the prices are too high for us most of the time.

We are just off the Miracle and had an aft extended on Deck 6. We loved the view and having a lounger on deck. Since we were 16 days at sea going to Hawaii and back, it was the perfect balcony since we had no wind on sea days and could go outside whenever. Others complained that with a 30 mph wind at times, they could not use their side facing balcony. On the way home, however, we had to remember to close the drapes to prevent the afternoon sun from heating up the room too much. You will love the sunsets!