How bad is an "Obstructed View Balcony"?

[BlessedAZWife]

Hubby and I are looking at a Caribbean cruise on Regal Princess. The cabin that our travel agent recommended is called "obstructed view balcony". Does anybody have experience with these "obstructed view balconies" and how bad is the obstruction? I don't want to have a crummy view simply to save a few bucks, but, if it is only a support beam of a few inches in the view, no problem.

We don't typically spend a lot of time in our cabin, however, hubby does like to view the sunrise, and sunset from a balcony.

[Colo Cruiser]

Hubby and I are looking at a Caribbean cruise on Regal Princess. The cabin that our travel agent recommended is called "obstructed view balcony". Does anybody have experience with these "obstructed view balconies" and how bad is the obstruction? I don't want to have a crummy view simply to save a few bucks, but, if it is only a support beam of a few inches in the view, no problem.

We don't typically spend a lot of time in our cabin, however, hubby does like to view the sunrise, and sunset from a balcony.

 

 

A quick search at the top of the main Princess page found numerous threads on the subject...

 

Here is one....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1808632&highlight=obstructed+balconies

[dmwnc1959]

There are some that aren't bad at all, some that will make you want to slap your travel agent a few times. ;)

 

Just as a heads up, don't book ANY cabin on Emerald Deck on the Port Side between staterooms E602-E628, and on the Starboard Side E519-E629 due to the fact that they're behind the large tenders. Any cabin forward of E226 (port side) and E227 (starboard side) are fine, as well as aft of E630 (port) and E631 (starboard) are also fine.

 

Check out the deck plan, it's fairly accurate as to the cabin placements in relationship to the standard lifeboats. Remember there are also davits on each end of each lifeboat, so trying to find a cabin that 'peeks thru' the davits is tricky. Try and book one that looks like it's in the 'middle' of a lifeboat.

 

Here's a diagram of the port side forward and amidships areas to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Compare this to the deck plan...

 

 

 

 

 

And some pictures I took while on Royal Princess (the cabin locations are identical on Regal Princess) to drive home the point, start with Post 464...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1950107&page=24

 

 

Here's a view of the port side aft on Royal Princess (again, Regal is identical for cabin locations). You can see that the tenders are larger than the standard lifeboats and the obstruction is going to be much greater. There are two tenders on the port side, three on the starboard. They are easy to identify on the deck plans because they are larger in size.

 

 

:D

Edited August 13, 2014 by dmwnc1959

[Bruin Steve]

Deleted...I'll defer to the phoitos on the post above...

Other Princess ships, however, are far worse...

Edited August 13, 2014 by Bruin Steve

[Astro Flyer]

Another site with photos of some cabins:

 

https://sites.google.com/site/royalregalprincess/

[Colo Cruiser]

Another site with photos of some cabins:

 

https://sites.google.com/site/royalregalprincess/

 

 

Good Emeradl deck photos.

[caribill]

 

Here's a diagram of the port side forward and amidships areas to give you an idea. Compare this to the deck plan...

 

 

 

The two cabins to the right of where the "L" and "M" reach the ship (the first two after the white barrier) are considered obstructed balconies by Princess.

 

As you can see, there is no obstruction.

[dmwnc1959]

The two cabins to the right of where the "L" and "M" reach the ship (the first two after the white barrier) are considered obstructed balconies by Princess.

 

As you can see, there is no obstruction.

 

This is a throw back from when the steel bulkhead still reached back to those cabins, and shortly after the ship was first floated from drydock they cut the steel bulkhead away from those two cabins and replaced it with a glass wall. I'm surprised Princess Cruises hasn't re-classified those cabins yet.

[BlessedAZWife]

Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to answer my questions and provide some awesome links.

All of your information helped me to make my decision on which cabin we would go with. I realized that the savings on going with an "obstructed view balcony" was worth seeing the top of a life boat out our balcony!!

Again, thank you so much!!!

[Aviator of the Seas]

We booked an obstructed view balcony, or balcony guarantee (BZ) and got upgraded to a nice regular balcony (BB) for our upcoming Royal princess cruise. So I would say it's worth the shot.

[chinesebandit]

Can anyone share their experience on E deck mid ship with the balcony cabins that are below the protruding glass walkway? On the port side, these are cabins 409 - 425. I booked one of these because there are no lifeboats below, but it does appear to have a deck area for walking on deck 7 below. Was this cabin a good choice? Obviously, the price was right so we selected it, but will it be worth the savings?

[Lynnguine]

We just returned from cruising on the Star Princess cabin E409 partially obstructed. It was a great cabin and we would book it again.

[Casey12]

We book these often. Just to have natural light is worth it.

[New York Nana]

Can anyone share their experience on E deck mid ship with the balcony cabins that are below the protruding glass walkway? On the port side, these are cabins 409 - 425. I booked one of these because there are no lifeboats below, but it does appear to have a deck area for walking on deck 7 below. Was this cabin a good choice? Obviously, the price was right so we selected it, but will it be worth the savings?

 

We were on the Port side in E408 last January and are booked for E410 next week and the starboard side in E409 this upcoming January. These are the ONLY cabins I'd book on the Regal/Royal! The price is less, the balconies are HUGE, the views are NOT obstructed (in the sense that you can't look 'down' to the sea or forward/aft without seeing tenders/lifeboats), and there is no noise from the Promenade areas below (nor is there noise from Crooners under the port side cabins). There is very minimal residual light from the Seaview Bar or walk way from above.

I believe you will be very pleased with your cabin choice.