Comparing Viking Standard & French balcony cabin sizes

[pontac]

It's been often said on this forum that one gets less space by booking a French Balcony cabin than a standard cabin. I have cruised in both and I didn't notice any difference.

 

Viking's website says the Standard cabin is 150 sq ft whereas the French balcony cabin is 135 sq ft.

 

The difference in space was mentioned again today, causing me to go to Viking's website and compare the two layout diagrams.

 

This is the French balcony cabin

 

and this is the Standard cabin

 

 

 

All cabins have a Queen sized Viking Explorer bed. Strenuous research  (i.e. a quick glance at Wikipedia) shows there is no standard size for a Queen size bed, but I assume all the beds on Viking are the same. 

 

I do not see an extra 15sq ft of floor space on the Standard room.

 

Looking at the right side of the diagrams, between the shower room and bed is a small bedside unit, and on the other side of the bed is a larger unit. between the bed and wall.

 

I think the length of the Standard cabin is measured from the window, and thus the Standard has no more floor space than the French balcony.

 

Perhaps someone cleverer than me can find those 15 sq ft.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by pontac

[CPT Trips]

Take a close look at the full ship deck plan. The corridor on the lower deck is in the center. The corridor on the other decks (those with verandas) is offset slightly. Cabin width is the same.

BTW - Viking holds a patent on this design. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by CPT Trips

[pontac]

Yes, but the upper decks don't have the wide bulk head of the lower deck.

 

I'm not comparing French balcony with Veranda rooms, but French balcony with Standard (lower deck) rooms. 

 

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, pontac said:

It's been often said on this forum that one gets less space by booking a French Balcony cabin than a standard cabin. I have cruised in both and I didn't notice any difference.

 

Viking's website says the Standard cabin is 150 sq ft whereas the French balcony cabin is 135 sq ft.

 

The difference in space was mentioned again today, causing me to go to Viking's website and compare the two layout diagrams.

 

This is the French balcony cabin

 

and this is the Standard cabin

 

 

 

All cabins have a Queen sized Viking Explorer bed. Strenuous research  (i.e. a quick glance at Wikipedia) shows there is no standard size for a Queen size bed, but I assume all the beds on Viking are the same. 

 

I do not see an extra 15sq ft of floor space on the Standard room.

 

Looking at the right side of the diagrams, between the shower room and bed is a small bedside unit, and on the other side of the bed is a larger unit. between the bed and wall.

 

I think the length of the Standard cabin is measured from the window, and thus the Standard has no more floor space than the French balcony.

 

Perhaps someone cleverer than me can find those 15 sq ft.

 

 

 

 

I don't think that I would trust the diagram. I'm sure somewhere that it says for illustrative purposes only. If the hallway is in the centre of the lower deck, and off-centre on the upper decks, then the French balcony cabins are narrower than the standard cabins (and the real balcony cabins are wider but the width includes the balcony).

[sharkster77]

In a standard cabin, there is a bump-out just below the windows that is not present in the french balcony cabin--we used it as a shelf to stow some things.  It's visible in the diagrams.

[Daisi]

Looking at the left side of your diagrams, the table (dresser?) goes to the edge of the windows on both cabins......however, the french balcony "window" is at the edge of the ship, the full balcony window has the balcony beyond. Would you not be getting the difference in the actual balcony, as they are flush with the edge of the ship? Therefor, although the "indoor" space may be the same, the balcony (which is included in all room sizes) is your extra space. 

 

So yeah, technically, there isn't much difference between the actual "indoor" space, but this is why I think Viking was clever in it's design by moving the corridor over - if it was centre, then the actual balcony space would be deleted from the "indoor" space and make it (indoor at least) actually smaller than the one across the hall, which is quite a bit less.

 

That's how I see it anyway, maybe I'm wrong.

[sharkster77]

5 hours ago, Daisi said:

Looking at the left side of your diagrams, the table (dresser?) goes to the edge of the windows on both cabins......however, the french balcony "window" is at the edge of the ship, the full balcony window has the balcony beyond. Would you not be getting the difference in the actual balcony, as they are flush with the edge of the ship? Therefor, although the "indoor" space may be the same, the balcony (which is included in all room sizes) is your extra space. 

 

So yeah, technically, there isn't much difference between the actual "indoor" space, but this is why I think Viking was clever in it's design by moving the corridor over - if it was centre, then the actual balcony space would be deleted from the "indoor" space and make it (indoor at least) actually smaller than the one across the hall, which is quite a bit less.

 

That's how I see it anyway, maybe I'm wrong.

 

There is no "balcony" beyond the window in a French balcony room, that' the end of the space.

 

As I posted earlier the amount of floor space on the side of the bed is the same due to the lack of the bump out (some called it a bulkhead) in a standard room that is not present in a french balcony room.

[pontac]

I realise the diagrams are not architects drawings, and as the boats are designed and built in Europe the measurements used would be metric and thus the space converted to square feet is an approximation.

 

Yes, the cabins on the middle deck are off set, but the French window cabins have the extra space afforded by going to the edge of the boat.

 

Standard cabins on the lower deck have a wide bulkhead.

 

I contend the floor space is the same, and people who book the standard cabin to get more space may have a cabin measured as 150 sq ft, but 15 sq ft of that space is unusable - or a small amount may be used as a shelf but one cannot stand there.

 

 

Again its a diagram but it seems that the standard and French balcony cabins have the same width. I've drawn a vertical red line down from the front French balcony cabin (200) to the lower deck diagram. There are 9 cabins on each deck between the line and the crew staircase

Edited July 5, 2023 by pontac

[sharkster77]

48 minutes ago, pontac said:

I realise the diagrams are not architects drawings, and as the boats are designed and built in Europe the measurements used would be metric and thus the space converted to square feet is an approximation.

 

Yes, the cabins on the middle deck are off set, but the French window cabins have the extra space afforded by going to the edge of the boat.

 

Standard cabins on the lower deck have a wide bulkhead.

 

I contend the floor space is the same, and people who book the standard cabin to get more space may have a cabin measured as 150 sq ft, but 15 sq ft of that space is unusable - or a small amount may be used as a shelf but one cannot stand there.

 

 

Again its a diagram but it seems that the standard and French balcony cabins have the same width. I've drawn a vertical red line down from the front French balcony cabin (200) to the lower deck diagram. There are 9 cabins on each deck between the line and the crew staircase

We came to this same conclusion, but the price difference between standard and french balcony (over $1K pp) could not let us justify the french balcony, even though the larger windows would have been nice.

[pontac]

53 minutes ago, sharkster77 said:

We came to this same conclusion, but the price difference between standard and french balcony (over $1K pp) could not let us justify the french balcony, even though the larger windows would have been nice.

I agree. One spends so little time in the cabin.

[Host Jazzbeau]

While the diagram is not a spec, it does seem clear that the balcony cabins have more space inside the cabin than the French balcony cabins.  Notice how much more room there is between the upper line and the number 2.  [I was careful to look for cabins with similar wide numericals]

 

Also, the lower deck cabins have a shelf built into the bulkhead which may not be showing on the diagram [i.e. the diagram may be showing cabin length at the floor, but it is actually longer above the shelf].  That has been reported as giving a feeling of extra room, as well as significant extra storage space.

[dd57]

The balcony (veranda) staterooms are bigger than the French balcony cabins; they have room for a chair between the bed and the slider while the French balcony cabins don't. 

[CPT Trips]

30 minutes ago, dd57 said:

The balcony (veranda) staterooms are bigger than the French balcony cabins; they have room for a chair between the bed and the slider while the French balcony cabins don't. 

Is it safe to assume this is from observation?

[The Other Tom]

13 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

Is it safe to assume this is from observation?

Not sure what you mean by "safe to assume this from observation" but I've watched a few youtube videos of Veranda and French balcony staterooms.  The Veranda staterooms are slightly bigger.  

[dd57]

2 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

Is it safe to assume this is from observation?

Yes, I  have stayed in both French balcony and Veranda cabins.  But you can double check by looking at the photos on the Viking website under 360 degree views.

[reeves35]

The veranda cabins are definitely noticeably bigger than the french balcony cabins.  As has been stated, Viking has an asymmetric layout on the main deck with starboard cabins (veranda) having significantly more available space compared with the portside (french balcony cabins).  Looking at the pictures of these cabins, you can definitely see the extra space available on the veranda cabins between the bed and the window as well as the exterior deck. 

 

Apparently this layout is patented by Viking though I'm not sure the other cruise lines are particularly envious of it anyway.

 

[pontac]

Veranda rooms are 205 sq ft, and they're obviously larger than French balcony. But the thread is titled Comparing Viking Standard & French balcony cabin sizes I didn't include veranda rooms.

 

13 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 That has been reported as giving a feeling of extra room, as well as significant extra storage space.

 

Unfortunately storage on the shelf (actually a window sill)  blocks light from the window, and the lack of light, compared with the French balcony room, does not give a feeling of extra space IMO.  (In fact booking the standard room does the opposite with your wallet 😁)

 

. 

Edited July 6, 2023 by pontac