Aft Balcony - Pro's and Con's

[nannygoatjunction]

I have seen fabulous photos of the vista behind the ship and it looks rather up our alley.

But is it worth booking that particular room?  Best deck?  We are good sailors so not worried so much about the movement.

😃

[Crew News]

12 minutes ago, nannygoatjunction said:

I have seen fabulous photos of the vista behind the ship and it looks rather up our alley.

But is it worth booking that particular room?  Best deck?  We are good sailors so not worried so much about the movement.

😃

As a hobby photographer, I book aft staterooms to get great photos.  HAL Vista-class Deck five ships have fully covered balconies (except Noordam).  You can enjoy your balcony with no wind while the ship is moving, little foot traffic, short elevator ride up or down to free food, short distance from Room Service kitchen, and you can see both sides of the ship without getting dressed to go to the other side of the ship.  Aft is best for Alaska and Panama Canal photos.

[3rdGenCunarder]

4 minutes ago, Crew News said:

As a hobby photographer, I book aft staterooms to get great photos.  HAL Vista-class Deck five ships have fully covered balconies (except Noordam).  You can enjoy your balcony with no wind while the ship is moving, little foot traffic, short elevator ride up or down to free food, short distance from Room Service kitchen, and you can see both sides of the ship without getting dressed to go to the other side of the ship.  Aft is best for Alaska and Panama Canal photos.

 

Same opinion, same reasons.

 

The only minus for me is that I get a spa pass and it's a long hike to the spa on the large ships. I was on Eurodam this winter and it seemed sooo much farther to the spa than it is on the Vistas. 

 

The sizes of the balconies vary on the Vistas. I think they're less varied on the Signature and Pinnacle ships. I like deck 7. The only deck I would avoid is 8 because it's under the aft open deck and you might hear chairs being dragged around. I've been on 8 and it hasn't bothered me, but some people say they are bothered by noise.

 

 

[OlsSalt]

Pros: Views and vistas

Cons: Noise, bumps and long hikes

[ExpatBride]

I lusted after an aft balcony for several sailings. When I finally got my wish, it was a one and done. It was awful in the mornings when the ship was docking. It might've been something to do with the position of the thrusters (?) relative to my cabin, but I was jolted awake by them very early every morning. I've never experienced that in any other cabin. Now I get my aft fill by grabbing a cocktail and hanging out on the promenade deck. That suits me a lot better.

[BRWolf]

We enjoyed an aft balcony on the previous Rotterdam and had one on deck 7 on a recent sailing on the new Rotterdam. The view is great. However, on the new Rotterdam, the azipods sometimes woke us early in the mornings.  That was a bit annoying.  In another thread about aft balconies, there is a discussion of this matter.

[0106]

I love an aft balcony, I book them when they are available.  You may find this thread helpful too.

 

[terrydtx]

10 hours ago, Crew News said:

As a hobby photographer, I book aft staterooms to get great photos.  HAL Vista-class Deck five ships have fully covered balconies (except Noordam).  You can enjoy your balcony with no wind while the ship is moving, little foot traffic, short elevator ride up or down to free food, short distance from Room Service kitchen, and you can see both sides of the ship without getting dressed to go to the other side of the ship.  Aft is best for Alaska and Panama Canal photos.

I agree for the same reasons, we have one on the Koingsdam in November on the California Coastal cruise  from San Diego

[Ipeeinthepools]

As nice as the aft cabins might be I avoid anything on the rear third of the ship.  I hate vibrations.  It's been my experience that vibrations are larger and more prevalent toward the rear of the ship.  This is independent of any particular ship or class of ships.  I don't know if it's the engines, azipods or other mechanical equipment, but I have encountered numerous annoying vibrations toward the rear of the ship.  Having frequent or persistent vibration in my cabin would ruin the trip for me.  

[ExArkie]

10 hours ago, Crew News said:

As a hobby photographer, I book aft staterooms to get great photos.  HAL Vista-class Deck five ships have fully covered balconies (except Noordam).  You can enjoy your balcony with no wind while the ship is moving, little foot traffic, short elevator ride up or down to free food, short distance from Room Service kitchen, and you can see both sides of the ship without getting dressed to go to the other side of the ship.  Aft is best for Alaska and Panama Canal photos.

Definitely for the Panama Canal. We were able to watch the system operation, both our lock and in the adjacent one, and see pretty much everything in great detail.

 

We did, however, appear to be near a vent exhaust from one of the kitchens (this was not a HAL ship, by the way). The smell of baking cinnamon rolls first thing in the morning…before breakfast…was a bit disconcerting. 

[terrydtx]

I have found that on hot weather cruises like in the Carribean the aft cabin balconies can be hooter with little to no wind. On cooler weather cruises not having any wind is much nicer.

[DaveOKC]

IMO, it varies by ship and itinerary.

Some HAL ships have HUGE balconies on deck 5 and we love those.  On other ships would prefer the cabins on the same deck as the Neptune Lounge.  You REALLY need to do your homework on this issue.

Love the aft-wraps when we have scenic cruises, especially Alaska and the Panama Canal.  Also great for hosting parties (one time we had 40 people on the balcony!).

Cons - long walks to the Neptune Lounge and forward venues.  Also, I have found that the room stewards sometimes do not get us the Neptune mailings and invites (they generally only have 1-2 Neptunes in their area.

 

[shipshape sam]

We have sailed in 3 aft cabins over the years and the views are of where the front of the ship has just been.  The wake is beautiful and the wake sound can be loud.  We were on Rotterdam in March and we were doing all kinds of things around the ship on sea days and found that we had to be deliberate in going out and sitting on our aft balcony.  We were on deck 6 and on our sailing, we experienced no irritating noice, vibrations, smells or soot.  There is less of a breeze too unless the wind is a tail wind. We did find that, at least on Rotterdam, we could get the same view on deck  9 aft of the Seaview pool/bar area, which I did go do for a few  minutes on at least 2-3 days.

 

It is a walk to get to the aft elevators/steps and we actually like to be close to aft elevators whether aft facing/port or starboard as we noticed we eat a number of times each day. 🙂

 

For us, we would not pay much more if any for aft facing cabin, but do think that you should try it sometime and make your own decision as to your preference. Part of my thought process is that the cabin stateroom is to store my stuff, get cleaned up and a place to sleep.

 

Have a great cruise whatever you decide.

[alwaysfrantic]

I can not think of a single con, truly.  

[Destiny0315]

 

55 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

Love the aft-wraps when we have scenic cruises

Even older former HAL ships like the Veendam and Maasdam had a few semi wraparound aft suites which also offered cover from the rain and sun if needed.

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

As nice as the aft cabins might be I avoid anything on the rear third of the ship.  I hate vibrations.  It's been my experience that vibrations are larger and more prevalent toward the rear of the ship.  This is independent of any particular ship or class of ships.  I don't know if it's the engines, azipods or other mechanical equipment, but I have encountered numerous annoying vibrations toward the rear of the ship.  Having frequent or persistent vibration in my cabin would ruin the trip for me.  

 

I've been told it's the shape of the hull. I've never had noise or vibration issues aft on a Vista or Signature ship, and I've been as low as deck 5. But one and done on the K'dam. That ship slapped the waves, causing random shudders and bangs, and the seas weren't rough, it was just the way the waves came at the stern. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 hours ago, ExArkie said:

Definitely for the Panama Canal. We were able to watch the system operation, both our lock and in the adjacent one, and see pretty much everything in great detail.

 

We did, however, appear to be near a vent exhaust from one of the kitchens (this was not a HAL ship, by the way). The smell of baking cinnamon rolls first thing in the morning…before breakfast…was a bit disconcerting. 

 

I may have had the same cabin, but the smell I got was bread baking for dinner time. Made me hungry!

[nannygoatjunction]

Brilliant replies!  Will give us good discussion and some of the 'cons' are not things that bother us too much.  Movement is ok, long walks are something we do to offset our increased eating patterns lol as well as  never using elevators....  

We are booked in an OV room currently on a cruise with many seadays and we do tend to spend time in our room.  There is much appeal with the balcony, but the increased price would have a fair impact on other aspects of our holiday and must be considered.  But it is also a year away and I am a motivated saver of funds LOL

We did have a balcony on our first cruise in Alaska on the Zandaam and did not use it much at all but that was quite a while ago and we do things differently now and it is worth reconsidering.

Thank you all for your help with your experiences, much appreciated 🙂

[sciencewonk]

13 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

Cons - long walks to the Neptune Lounge and forward venues. 

 

I love the way everyone is different.  When we had an aft cabin on the deck below the Neptune Lounge, I considered the long walk to be a pro.

[bvocruise]

I appreciate this topic and the different perspectives. We currently have 5186 aft for the Nieuw  Amsterdam going from Alaska to Canada. We might switch to mid ship location but booked the aft for now as they go quick.

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, bvocruise said:

I appreciate this topic and the different perspectives. We currently have 5186 aft for the Nieuw  Amsterdam going from Alaska to Canada. We might switch to mid ship location but booked the aft for now as they go quick.

There must be a reason why they book so quickly. With some adamantly against aft staterooms, it improves the probability of those who love them to grab them.

[grapau27]

On 5/4/2023 at 2:10 AM, nannygoatjunction said:

I have seen fabulous photos of the vista behind the ship and it looks rather up our alley.

But is it worth booking that particular room?  Best deck?  We are good sailors so not worried so much about the movement.

😃

We have had aft balcony cabins on

Princess.

P&O.

Royal Caribbean.

MSC.

We love the wake views.

They are quiet because you do not get people walking past your cabin at night.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by grapau27

[DaveOKC]

10 hours ago, sciencewonk said:

I love the way everyone is different.  When we had an aft cabin on the deck below the Neptune Lounge, I considered the long walk to be a pro.

Once you start having walking issues you will understand.

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

Once you start having walking issues you will understand.

Usually the lifts are reasonably close to the aft balconies but on MSC Virtuoso I counted 194 steps from the lift to our cabin door.

[3rdGenCunarder]

5 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Usually the lifts are reasonably close to the aft balconies but on MSC Virtuoso I counted 194 steps from the lift to our cabin door.

The larger the ship, the longer the walk.