Epic - rome 7 night - balcony or interior

[jaegan2]

Need insight. Is balcony a must have? Have done both in the past to other destinations and really not bothered by inside cabin but thinking that scenery probably not to be missed and worth the additional money. Also never sailed Norwegian so not familiar with cabins. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[quercus alba]

My $0.02: It was great having a balcony, we enjoyed breakfast and drinks and outdoor peace and quiet.

 

OTOH the scenery is really not in itself "balcony worthy". This is a very port-intensive itinerary, and frankly, the ports are NOT that scenic. [Now where was that post...ah, here it is! Pictures--http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1435369 ]

 

Now I know they've added Cannes (?) and dropped Palma, Mallorca...so those might be prettier, I guess. YMMV, but you could safely skip a balcony and not miss much scenery if the scenery is your main reason for the balcony.

[jaegan2]

That is exactly what I needed to know. Thanks.

[sdmike]

Based on what I know about the Med cruise it's all about the ports, not what you see from the ship. Balconies are ALWAYS nice to have, but unless you're traveling to Alaska where the view IS the trip, it sometimes makes sense to save a bunch of cash to be use on other things. There was a great Epic review on here recently where the poster was sailing "as cheaply as possible" as an experiment, and they came back with rave reviews. They found they spent more time with each other as a family out and doing things on the ship, and saved lots of money to do other things.

[jdvmd]

Balconies are wonderful but I would save the money and book an inside. Excursions are expensive. You can always go up on deck and take in the sites.

[Colorado_couple]

We just booked a balcony cabin for the 4/29 EPIC Med cruise. This trip is a belated 25th Anniversary trip. (And a very belated 10th Anniversary trip too). And we used frequent flier miles for the flights. We may have considered an inside cabin otherwise. The shore excursions are expensive, and we think they will be the highlights of scenery.