Upgrade to Balcony or not?

[Mr & Mrs Happy]

We are in an inside cabin for our upcoming cruise with the intention that we'd get out more but then again, I know us...lol. I've never done a balcony but the more I thought about it, the more I thought we'd definitely use it.

 

I know we'd enjoy ordering room service for breakfast and sitting out to eat and drink coffee. We'll have to get up early for the excursions but when we can help it, we enjoy sleeping in.

 

When I did a mock cruise, it would be about $180 per person. I've already paid for our upcoming cruise, so I don't know if we'd be losing any money if we upgraded.

 

Also, I've already ordered enough booze to last us for the cruise which is to be delivered to our cabin. It would just be a matter of ordering room service when we didn't feel like going out to eat at times.

 

So would the extra $360 we'd have to spend, be worth it to upgrade if we could?

[Crusin Hogs]

We never cruise without a balcony ,well worth the money ,

[RjayB]

Yes it is absolutely worth it, especially if you have never had one before! The only problem is you will never be able to go back to an Inside cabin again :p

[KenMo]

That's a lot of money, but if you can swing it, I'd get the balcony.

 

Be forewarned though...you might get hooked.

[ShakyBeef]

It is really impossible for anyone else to judge for you whether or not the purchase is "worth it". But, FWIW, to me, it is totally worth it to pay for the Balcony.

 

Full Disclosure: This opinion is coming from someone who has never sailed in an Interior cabin, and probably never would.:o Whatever you choose, enjoy your cruise!:) (Hey, that rhymed.:p)

Edited August 23, 2016 by ShakyBeef

[siestakeys04]

I had my first balcony my last cruise it was awesome. We left for dinner but we really enjoyed staying on the balcony

 

 

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[firemanbobswife]

To me that's a lot of money and I wouldn't do it. But then again, I'm cheap. I do not enjoy balconies on Carnival because in the past I have had some pretty inconsiderate neighbors that liked to let the balcony doors slam. It rattles the whole wall. I even declined a free upgrade from OV to balcony.

 

However, it's your cruise and if you think you would enjoy it more, then go for it. But be sure to look at the deck plans above and below to make sure you're in a good spot. Have you thought about maybe doing an OV as a compromise?

 

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great cruise! Oh and it's totally false that once you have a balcony, you'll never go back. My first 3 cruises which happened to be on Carnival were in balconies followed by all of my Celebrity cruises. 5 more in OVs, and the rest including the most recent in insides. The more I cruise the more I find my cabin isn't as important. But everyone is different.

[me-shel]

We just did our first interior on a quickie 3-days and it was totally fine, and we have another interior on our upcoming 4-day. Our other 3 were all balconies. If I was going for a week I'd definitely pay for the balcony! For me personally, that's a lot of time navigating crowds and I need some down time in my own personal space. We're in the planning stages for a 7 or 8 day next summer, and I'm only looking at a balcony (interior for the kids!)

 

I LOVED room service breakfast & coffee outside in the mornings in my bathrobe. Happy hour on the balcony before dinner. I think you're not *supposed* to, but I love having the door propped open at night and listening to the white noise of the water against the ship. And (if you're on the correct side) watching the ship dock in port.

 

Any room on a ship is better than not being on the ship... but I'd pay for the upgrade. Have a great time either way! :D

Edited August 23, 2016 by me-shel

[MtnDweller]

Keep an eye out on the cruise rates. I booked our OV back in April and right after the price went up and stayed that way. A few days ago the price of balcony rooms came down. I called and upgraded us (3) for $180 total.

[Micahs Grandad]

Our tipping point for going from inside to balcony has been $ 300 and not sure we spend enough time out there to make it worth while.

[MMastell]

It's really up to you but it sounds like you really want to. If you can afford it, then do it.

 

If it was me I would upgrade to a balcony in a heartbeat. Then again I booked an inside cabin once...........................................once. :)

 

Take care and enjoy the cruise,

Mike

[LibrarianBecky]

I'm considering this very question. We have never sailed with a balcony before, but I'm sure we would love it. I've done interior room cruises and one oceanview. No complaints about the inside rooms, but I thought the oceanview room was great! The cruise that I'm currently pricing out has a $450 difference for three people....which I think is kind of a lot for a balcony vs. an inside room for a 5 day cruise.

 

The cruise I'm looking at is a fairly inexpensive one for us. It is from a port we can drive to, so we are saving a bunch of money by not flying. I could justify the cost of a balcony on that fact alone! I'm half tempted to book the balcony and not tell my family---let them be surprised when we board the ship! I don't think I could keep it a secret for a year....but if I could, what a fun reveal that would be!

[dacsmom]

Sometimes I have a balcony, and others an inside. It sounds like you already have planned your balcony mornings so I say go for it. They are really relaxing after a day of running around.

[coevan]

for us, balconies only, couldn't imagine being in a room with no windows for a week. As everyone says, coffee, OJ, and danish on the balcony is a perfect way to start the day.

[ShakyBeef]

Any room on a ship is better than not being on the ship...

 

I'm so not trying to pick a fight here:o, but just to point out how differently we all look at things... the above statement is not at all true for me. I really enjoy cruising, but I also really enjoy my non-cruising, "regular" life, so much so that I won't settle for just any cabin. I also completely disagree with "a bad day on a cruise is better than a good day at work" for the same reason. I'm not trying to imply I love my life more than others love theirs, or that my life is better than others', just saying that we all think about things, including cruises and cruise cabin categories differently.:o This is just one example of why I say no one can tell anyone else if anything is "worth it".

[RedBeard78]

If you can afford it, try it. We use our balcony rooms mostly in the morning. Room service breakfast on the balcony is one of our favorite parts of the cruise.

[ShakyBeef]

Then again I booked an inside cabin once...........................................once. :)

 

 

:D:p Gotta love the Johnny Dangerously references!:cool::p

Edited August 24, 2016 by ShakyBeef

[pbsteve]

I had inside the first two cruises, and will never go back. It's not just the balcony, but also the fact that the door is a floor to cieling window. The room feels bigger. Now we are trying different types of balconies to see what we like. Next is the L cabin on this sunday.

 

 

For us it's worth it. We mostly use it at night, since we are night owls.

[Seago2]

It's impossible to give you advice not knowing your financial circumstances or the length of the cruise, but...

 

I've done both. The insides are actually fun. It gets really dark in there and you get an awesome night's sleep. A lot of ships (Glory, Magic) have "secret decks" all the way forward, and if you book a forward interior you're right there, just open the door with your cup of coffee and you have a full panoramic view. You can go out there at night, too, and sit and look at the stars. There's nobody out there. We just booked Magic and the secret deck is definitely on 9 and I'm pretty sure 6 and 7.

 

My current thoughts: I just booked a 15 day B2B with my 19 year old son. That's a loooong time to spend in a box with a 19 year old. But there's no way I could swing this in a balcony- I'm talking thousands more. So even though a balcony would be preferable, I'm choosing the B2B over the balcony stateroom.

[DebJ14]

If you can afford it, go for it. You won't be sorry, but then again you may never cruise in anything less in the future. We won't go unless we have a balcony and a suite is preferred if the price is right. On our upcoming cruise the difference when we booked was huge between a balcony and a suite. But, I kept checking and about a week after we made our final payment the price of a suite came down to our target price, so I called and upgraded to a suite. We expect to do the same thing on our cruise in April 2017 since we have been able to do it on our last 3 Carnival cruises.

 

We also canceled a Carnival cruise for Jan 2017 because we found a Grand Suite with lots of perks on RCCL on the same day from the same port with the same itinerary for hundreds less. We jumped on that and are glad we did, because they sold out of them soon after we booked it.

 

We never book ES. We like the flexibility that comes with the Past Guest rate. We can do pretty much what we want before final payment and after final payment have been able to upgrade on the sales.

Edited August 24, 2016 by DebJ14

[richfret]

I am booked for a window cabin on the Conquest in February for an 8 day cruise. After reading the previous posts with most advising to get a balcony, I thought I might change to the balcony. I did a mock booking with the Military rates which is the same rate as Early Saver. Initially, it shows about a general $300 difference but when I compared an actual mid ship, deck 1, window cabin to a mid ship, deck, 6 balcony, the actual difference was $680.00. That's $85.00 a day. For $300, I would do the change but $680 is a different matter.

 

This will be our 20th Carnival cruise and we have had an interior, window and balcony cabins. I would not do interior because I find it just too dark without any windows although it is great for sleeping. With the window, you know if it is rainy or sunny. You can view the port. You know when the ship is actually leaving. You can watch the stars and the moon. You can view other ships. You can watch flying fish. On some ships, you get a wee bit more inside cabin room in lieu of the balcony. You even get a large shelf to put things on at the bottom of the window.

 

In conclusion, I know how things will go after the cruise. During our 2 hour and 15 minute drive home, all my wife and I will do is talk about how great the cruise was. The nice part is that we can also talk about how we are going to spend $680.00.

[firemanbobswife]

I am booked for a window cabin on the Conquest in February for an 8 day cruise. After reading the previous posts with most advising to get a balcony, I thought I might change to the balcony. I did a mock booking with the Military rates which is the same rate as Early Saver. Initially, it shows about a general $300 difference but when I compared an actual mid ship, deck 1, window cabin to a mid ship, deck, 6 balcony, the actual difference was $680.00. That's $85.00 a day. For $300, I would do the change but $680 is a different matter.

 

This will be our 20th Carnival cruise and we have had an interior, window and balcony cabins. I would not do interior because I find it just too dark without any windows although it is great for sleeping. With the window, you know if it is rainy or sunny. You can view the port. You know when the ship is actually leaving. You can watch the stars and the moon. You can view other ships. You can watch flying fish. On some ships, you get a wee bit more inside cabin room in lieu of the balcony. You even get a large shelf to put things on at the bottom of the window.

 

In conclusion, I know how things will go after the cruise. During our 2 hour and 15 minute drive home, all my wife and I will do is talk about how great the cruise was. The nice part is that we can also talk about how we are going to spend $680.00.

 

Keep in mind that there are a lot of cabins on Deck 6 of the Conquest Class ships that are highly undesirable due to various venues below them such as the disco, piano bar, casino (where the band plays late into the night) etc. So in all actuality, the price you would be looking at to move up to deck 7 where it's safe with cabins above and below would likely be higher. I think you totally made the right decision.

[terri-eddie]

We switched from a Deluxe Ocean View to a Cove Balcony for our last cruise, because it was actually $200 less at one point!

 

However, we didn't really enjoy the cove balcony as much as I thought we would. It was nice to pay less, but I wouldn't bother again if I had to pay more for it.

 

Of course, everyone is different.

[Cousin Eddie]

We switched from a Deluxe Ocean View to a Cove Balcony for our last cruise, because it was actually $200 less at one point!

 

However, we didn't really enjoy the cove balcony as much as I thought we would. It was nice to pay less, but I wouldn't bother again if I had to pay more for it.

 

Of course, everyone is different.

 

 

 

Do you mind my asking what it was about the cove that was disappointing? I was thinking of booking one in the future but would like to hear your thoughts.

 

 

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[sjn911]

Great thread on multiple reasoning's and ways to think through your options...always great to re-tune up on these plans and ways to do it.

 

If in your budget and it is a good placed cabin...that is the key OP..I would try it myself.

 

 

I am of the belief that an inside to myself at the right time and placement on ship was as great as a mini-suite on a more upscale line with more perks and a dear friend. It all varies and it is nice to do the best you can within reason and your budget, each time.

Edited August 24, 2016 by sjn911