Advice please - first time aft balcony

[KentuckyKat]

DH and I usually cruise on the Fantasy-class ships. We enjoy the smaller layout, but we are getting a little bored with the limited evening activities. I want to try an aft balcony for 6-7 nights for a 50th Birthday cruise. We have no preference on ships or destinations, but our dates will be limited. What class ships have the best aft balconies? I would like sun and I remember hearing about ash being a problem on some of the afts. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

DH and I usually cruise on the Fantasy-class ships. We enjoy the smaller layout, but we are getting a little bored with the limited evening activities. I want to try an aft balcony for 6-7 nights for a 50th Birthday cruise. We have no preference on ships or destinations, but our dates will be limited. What class ships have the best aft balconies? I would like sun and I remember hearing about ash being a problem on some of the afts. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

 

We loved the aft cabins..Deck 7 on the Freedom...no ash problems for us..if you are looking for sun the best thing you can do is look for itineraries where the ship is sailing due West or East ...we did the Panama Canal twice on the Freedom just for the sun we got going west and east ( morning and afternoon depending on direction) it was perfect.

[PaulMedik]

DH and I usually cruise on the Fantasy-class ships. We enjoy the smaller layout, but we are getting a little bored with the limited evening activities. I want to try an aft balcony for 6-7 nights for a 50th Birthday cruise. We have no preference on ships or destinations, but our dates will be limited. What class ships have the best aft balconies? I would like sun and I remember hearing about ash being a problem on some of the afts. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

 

KentuckyKat,

 

Conquest, Spirit, Dream, and Splendor class all have great afts. Conquest class and Splendor class have the best aft wraps (Corner), and Spirit class has the all around best aft wraps, but they are $uites.

 

Ash or soot is rare, but things left out overnight may end up with some ash on them.

 

Sun is great on all but deck 4 of Spirit Class. Tends to get VERY warm since there's minimal breeze.

Edited February 2, 2014 by PaulMedik

[Family Travel Story]

I have never gone in the aft, but my DW and I are doing it on the Breeze if a few weeks and I will post video footage of the balcony and the views.

[ucmom3]

We were just on the Dream this past week. We had aft balcony 6498, large balcony with 2 chairs that had reclining backs, a small side table, and the big surprise...a lounger. The room and balcony were both larger than cabin 6496 (my aunt and uncle had this one), I guess because it's in the middle. All the floor plans say they are sized the same, but ours was bigger. If I were to book another aft balcony on this ship, I would go up a floor to 7. Our cabin was above the Burgundy Lounge, which could be noisy some nights. So whichever ship you book, make sure you know what is above and below you. We had read we wouldn't hear much noise from the lounge, guess whomever had it before wore earplugs....lol

 

 

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[jayscore]

Being an official "aft snob", I can tell you will love the location and the view, and very little foot traffic back there.

But, don't assume your dining room will be aft also. Last cruise, we found we were placed in the forward ding room. The MD was good enough to get this changed for us by the following day.

Aside from that, it's aft (wrap, or otherwise) or nothing for us!;)

[leaski]

People rave on here about the aft cabins, so we booked one on our Splendor cruise last September. We were pretty disappointed. Some days it was so hot, with no breeze, we just couldn't sit out there. It was a nice view most of the time, but that was about it. We had no problems with soot, but people in one of the afts above us apparently thought it was funny to drop stuff on to our deck at night.:mad: We have decided they are just not for us. I wish you better luck on your aft! :D

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

We had 8450 on the Liberty and it was fantastic.

[sueasselstine]

We just had cabin 8457 on the Liberty. It was amazing! I did my research before booking, and 8457, and the after on the other side of the ship, right next to the wrap-around balconies are about 50% bigger than the other aft cabins on that deck. We had 2 loungers, 2 chairs and a table and still had plenty of room on the balcony!!! I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Didn't have any ash problems, either.

[Cherlynn]

Got off the Breeze a week ago. Had 6503, next to the middle. We always go aft if we can. There was soot every day, but that doesn't bother us. Just be sure there are cabins above and BELOW you!! We were over the comedy club and it was noisy until about midnight. If you don't wear earplugs, it could be tough. We still loved the cabin. The balcony was a little deeper that other afts, so it had 2 chairs, a table and a lounger.

[seashinesunshine]

DH and I usually cruise on the Fantasy-class ships. We enjoy the smaller layout, but we are getting a little bored with the limited evening activities. I want to try an aft balcony for 6-7 nights for a 50th Birthday cruise. We have no preference on ships or destinations, but our dates will be limited. What class ships have the best aft balconies? I would like sun and I remember hearing about ash being a problem on some of the afts. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

We had an aft on the Victory in 2009. It was nice and my favorite part about it was leaving port every day with the island sinking off into the sunset. We had a port intensive southern Caribbean cruise. The balcony was nice and big, but we didn't use it as much as I would have liked. It wasn't private since the dividers slope down to the rail height. Not a huge deal except it was fairly easy to be standing at the railing, look over your sholder and right into the next room. so no sleeping naked on your bed with the curtains open. Yes, our neighbor did, and I very quickly looked away. Didn't mean to see anything.

We also had a bad experience with noise, not due to anything other than our room was above the Latino Lounge. They have since changed it to a comedy club.

We had no problems at all with ash, trash or noise from other balconies.

[Jchartman4566]

You may also want to consider the itinerary, time of year, and if you are prone to seasickness. DW and I had an aft balcony on a February cruise out of New York. We loved the extra space and the views. The only problem happened when we ran into some strong winds and very heavy seas. I still remember looking out of the balcony door and seeing the sky, then the sea, then the sky...etc. This went on for hours. If you have any problems with seasickness, you may want to take this into consideration. These were by far the worst seas I've encountered in almost a dozen cruises with alot of them out of the northeast during the winter. This probably won't be a problem if you are starting farther south or during different times of the year. Just something to keep in mind. Happy cruising:)

[Mysticks1]

If you are looking at the Dream class you will want to avoid Vista deck (9) as those are completely covered. You will not get sun there. There is also a warning about those on deck 6 due to noise from the lounge directly below them. I know this applies to the Dream but not sure about the other ships in that class. On the Dream class the aft extended cabins that are next to the aft wraps have a much larger balcony than those that are in the middle. Some report 1/3 to 1/2 larger than the others.

[KentuckyKat]

Thanks so much for all the replies and advice! We will definitely consider all your experiences in our planning!

[Capette]

Hi there: We did an Aft balcony for our Europe trip on the Magic. The sun was nice. It did seem that you got more sun and for longer. The only reason that I would not do it again is because I am a very light sleeper. I felt the vibrations from the engine changes every time we came into Port. It woke me up every time. Other than that we enjoyed the extra room. It was my 50th bday cruise as well! lol

[lucigo]

There are a couple of reasons I keep going back to aft, sunrise and sunsets, and the soothing sound of the wake.

 

A good way to explore cabins is to search for the one you want on youtube. Here are a couple of our aft walkthroughs.