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Is it worth paying for a balcony for panama canal?


Pete69
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I am banking on a no answer. We leaving Tuesday on Legend for a Panama cruise and for the first time since 2010 we will have an inside cabin. The difference in price for us was well over $3000.

 

I figure for the canal I will be moving around on the ship to get different views so I will be ok for the transit. Don't need the balcony while in port as we will be off ship. But I will miss it on at sea days. :(

 

But the balcony price was a deal breaker and we we really wanted to take this trip so I am sure we will be happy without it. :)

 

Bill

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By far the best views of the Panama Canal are from the open decks.

 

Be sure to view the canal from all sides of the ship including bow, aft, port and starboard and from different levels.

 

As to the balcony, it all comes down to your budget. It is not necessary.

 

Keith

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Booking a balcony cabin just for your transit of the Canal is as you have seen a bit pricey. I would only recommend you book the balcony if it is important to you for the remainder of cruise. Spending too much time on your balcony during your transit, as attractive as that may sound can cause you to miss things you have traveled a long way to see.

 

Let me provide you with an example... say you are all comfy on your starboard side balcony enjoying the sights... look at what you would miss on the port side...

f0tdhz.jpg

 

How neat is that? A little 19th century tech passing through a 20th century enterprise in the 21st century, kinda brings it all together! Best advice for your transit is to be out where you can see whatever is of interest. Things move at a pretty gentle pace at the Canal and you will have time to take it all in.

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Don't waste the money for a balcony !!!

 

Since you are already booked, this advice is for others. Look into a cabin in the 700 series on either the Coral or Island Princess on a deck that has the viewing areas fore and aft. Those ships have access to the small outside decks and are seldom crowded. The 700 series cabins are just a few steps from the exit to outside.

They have lounges on the aft decks that are better than having your own balcony and are very lightly used except when transiting the canal.

Edited by swedish weave
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Balcony may have nice advantages on a cruise generally, but for the Canal you aren't going to want to be in your stateroom but out and about all over the ship for the ultimate Canal experience. You get different perspectives from all over the ship, so plan to move about. Regards, Richard

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We have a balcony room booked on the Coral for our upcoming trip in February. We plan on being up on deck with everyone else during the transit through the locks and not just see one side from the balcony. Same thing can be said for an Alaskan cruise through Glacier Bay as you would miss 1/2 of the scenery when it's passing by on both sides.

 

That being said, if you like spending other time on the balcony then it might be worth the cost to you. We won't sail in room without a balcony. One of us may get up earlier in the mornings and a great place to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the world go bye. While we may or may not spend much time on it, it's an option we want available.

 

David & Ellen

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I am banking on a no answer. We leaving Tuesday on Legend for a Panama cruise and for the first time since 2010 we will have an inside cabin. The difference in price for us was well over $3000.

 

I figure for the canal I will be moving around on the ship to get different views so I will be ok for the transit. Don't need the balcony while in port as we will be off ship. But I will miss it on at sea days. :(

 

But the balcony price was a deal breaker and we we really wanted to take this trip so I am sure we will be happy without it. :)

 

Bill

 

We booked an Oceanview because the price was nearly $3000 for a balcony:( I KNOW I will miss the balcony but the price was a deal breaker. Will miss it for the at sea days as well.

 

Report back on how you managed! :)

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What about an aft balcony? Does that make a difference?

 

We have done three full transits, and two were in aft balconies. While we love that aft view of the wake and so forth, we still were out and about on the decks during the canal transits. So I don't think that an aft balcony makes any difference on a Panama Canal cruise.

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I looked at a few cruises on Legend, and most of the suites were gone, so no idea what they cost but they must be very popular. For 15 days on a ship, I want some leg room :D

 

In terms of balcony, transit through the canal is only about 8 hours or so, right? And most of the full transit cruises are 12-15 days, so you will be spending a lot more time outside the canal than in it :).

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We had a balcony on our canal trip on the Zuiderdam. We had breakfast on our Balcony while heading into the canal. We had finished breakfast as we approached the lock and went topside. We had plenty of time to see the boat lift and check everything else. Our side of the ship was on the landward side in the Ports of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. It was well worth having the balcony on those stops. We also took the Ferry excursion to the Pacific side and found that better then being on the ship for the locks.

ChelseaSailor

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think the consensus is you don't need a balcony to enjoy the Panama Canal. What you might want to consider is how much time you usually spend in your cabin. My DH can spend the whole day in there and only venture out for dinner. As a result we always get a balcony. I just took my first solo cruise earlier this month and had an oceanview room. Yes I missed my balcony but I could not justify the extra expense as I spend a lot of time NOT in my cabin.

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What about an aft balcony? Does that make a difference?

Just left the canal two days ago in our aft cabin. The view of a following ship much higher than you and just a few yards behind is amazing. When two-way lanes are working, connections to the trains are on the port side.

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I disagree we have done this cruise before and what you see forward you will see aft, we had the Queen Victoria right behind us all through the canal. I'm talking aft cabin over the wake where you have 180 degree views. And it beats running around from side to side with people 10 to 12 deep.

 

There is also a reason why they are expensive and it's because they are in high demand. Our 2015 cruise which is a yera off has only two aft penthouse suites left out of 16 and only two aft balcony cabins out of 6.

Edited by Ilovesailing
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I disagree we have done this cruise before and what you see forward you will see aft, we had the Queen Victoria right behind us all through the canal. I'm talking aft cabin over the wake where you have 180 degree views. And it beats running around from side to side with people 10 to 12 deep.

 

There is also a reason why they are expensive and it's because they are in high demand. Our 2015 cruise which is a yera off has only two aft penthouse suites left out of 16 and only two aft balcony cabins out of 6.

 

That was my fear going into our cruise but those types of crowds never materialized. Initially there were quite a few up forward when we first headed into Gatun locks but even that died out after an hour.

 

I was more concerned on the lack of balcony for the at sea days as I enjoyed a good balcony with my Kindle. But we found on this cruise that tables were open every day in the shade on the pool deck so we spent from breakfast to late afternoon up by the pool on at sea days. It was nice to be outside.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm hearing a number of people saying that a balcony is not worth it for Panama Canal, but friends who went through the Canal on Disney said they had a balcony and were very glad of it.

 

They said that the heat really was pretty oppressive, and the ability to step out onto their balcony to see something, and then to quickly step back into the air conditioned comfort of their cabin was much appreciated.

 

They also said that the best viewing areas were pretty crowded at times, and it was difficult to see from there.

Edited by Smokeyham
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We booked a balcony for the other 13 days. I don't plan on spending much time on it while going through the locks as I plan to run all over the ship and take a gazillion photos, but I love to sit there on sea days and there are nine sea days on our full transit.

 

As a rule, we usually get a balcony.

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We did the full transit with Oceanview, only. We were never in our room!

 

We were all over the ship and viewed the Canal from many different view points. I have NO regrets of not having a Balcony. The decks were our balconies and we were thrilled with the views.

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