Balcony Time

[divngmedic]

How much time do you really spend on your balcony in a day ?? We do about 3hrs a day. Most in the morn, sometimes late afternoon and then late evening. Its very rare we ever have people next to us besides going in and out of their cabin. So after 29 cruises with balconies most of the time we are out by ourselves for those 3 hrs. We have looked at other ships that would pull in besides us and you only see 20 to 30 cabins being used on the side we can see.

No need to exaggerate please, seems some people want us to believe they are on there balcony 24/7.

Every time I go out to smoke.

[NDCruisers]

On my first cruise I had an inside cabin and thought I would get a lot of use of the balcony so we booked Balcony cabins on the last three cruises. To be honest, I don't believe we spent more than an hour on the balcony. Our last cruise on the Dream, 3 of the days we did not go out on the balcony at all. I do really like having the big window though.

[Yvonne]

I enjoy having an early breakfast (room service) on the balcony along with my morning coffee so that takes about an hour.

 

Then I usually spend another hour out there reading after my shower.

 

Then I'll spend 1-2 hours out there reading in the afternoon.

 

Together we don't spend that much time, maybe in the evening for half an hour or so.

 

So a total of probably around 4-1/2 hours maybe.

 

We generally don't hear/see our balcony neighbors but must be they enjoyed their balconies this time as much as I do because the ones directly on our left were out there almost every time I went out. And the people on the other side of them were out a lot too, and they were very loud talkers. :(

 

And the balcony furniture...I don't know how many times it was perfectly quiet and I was enjoying reading and someone would pull a chair or the table and that loud scraping noise scared me and made me jump each time. Pick it up, people. It's not that heavy. :)

[geckog]

Once our cruise was really crowded, and we spent most of our sea days on the balcony. Other times, maybe 4 hours a day.

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

[kathy884]

We did our first family cruise about five year ago and got a balcony. We only used it for about three hours a day when we had days at sea (during the afternoon -- not a night), mostly because of rough seas and rainy weather at night. DH was out there most of the day when we were in Jamacia too reading all day (nice weather) / not his favorite port. The kids did coloring out there during the day for days at sea and made towel animals out there during the day for days at sea too. We sat out with extended family and visited during the day too for the two days at sea (had connecting balconies that were extra large (aft at the back of the ship). At a normal hotel (not cruise) we just love a balcony and usually sit out for two hours or so each night and talk (family time) before bed. Unfortunately it was too cold and rainy at night for us to do it on this cruise (disappointing as sitting out on a balcony at night and talking is one of our favorite things to do on vacation). // At least, though, the whole cruise wasn't rough and rainy - just the nights.

 

We will be trying cruise number 2 in August NYC up to Canada, are getting a balcony again (this time a smaller mid ship one, but still two next to each other). I'm hoping this time we'll be able to use it at night.

 

We fork over the extra for a balcony for land based vacations too if it works out budget wise. Family time visiting on a balcony is just the best.

[brmoqueen]

On Valor we had the corner cabin and the cabin just up on the side of the ship.... With the divider open we had 52ft of balcony....needless to say we DID spend the entire cruise on our balcony...we had many pizza parties!! Loved that corner!

[skiorcruise]

Many of our cruises are with my parents, we book adjacent balconies. Father & I are early risers, both DW tend to sleep in. We go to the lido deck on our own, grab whatever breakfast we want and a little for our DWs, and enjoy the balconies (open dividers).

 

Balconies are a good place to watch while ships pull into / out of ports. Also great for watching the pilot boat pickup / drop off the port pilot.

 

Father & I both get ready for dinner early, & spend time on the balcony while waiting on DWs to get ready.

 

Sunsets before dinner, or after dinner but before a show. Late evenings watching another ship in the distance, or just the empty sea.

 

Each cruise is different. Balcony time is remembered fondly.

 

How much time per day on a balcony? Not enough.

[ctnecruisers]

On the two cruises we have been on, we probably only spent a few hours a day on the balcony. I am an early riser and loved having my morning coffee out there while DW and DD slept in. Also when we would take a break during the day it was a nice place to be outside for quiet time. Even though it is not much time, it has become one of the things I look forward to before the cruise. To me, money well spent.

[mainescout]

Breakfast in the morning. Drinks in the evening. On average another 1-2 hours per day. DW spends more there during sea days.

[finsupcruiser]

How much time do you really spend on your balcony in a day ?? We do about 3hrs a day. Most in the morn, sometimes late afternoon and then late evening. Its very rare we ever have people next to us besides going in and out of their cabin. So after 29 cruises with balconies most of the time we are out by ourselves for those 3 hrs. We have looked at other ships that would pull in besides us and you only see 20 to 30 cabins being used on the side we can see.

No need to exaggerate please, seems some people want us to believe they are on there balcony 24/7.

 

I agree with you:) Love early AM and late evening. Love my balcony

[spiritfox]

I love our balcony and don't think I could go on a cruise without a balcony. I too am an early riser and usually spend a couple of hours on the balcony in the morning with coffee--reading and listening to music and watching the ocean. Then more time spent on the balcony during the day and at night--I suppose 2-3 hours a day total would be about right. :)

[Grits53]

That is almost 100% dependant upon the weather. When weather is nice, we probably spend 2 hours a day on the balcony, but not necessarily all at once. When weather is cold or extremely windy or rainy, we don't spend much time out there. We pop out to the balcony several times a day but don't always stay a while.

PS - We have decided not to cruise during cold weather anymore, so this will no longer keep us off our balcony. ;)

[bigcraig]

Due to tougher smoking constraints please reserve from booking a balcony unless your a smoker.

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

I am out there in the morning reading while DW is still sleeping then while waiting for DW to get ready before dinner and again in the evening. Usually my Kindle and a glass of wine. DW is very rarely on the balcony as she would prefer to read in bed if we aren't out and about. I would say probably 3-4 hours a day. Having the balcony avoids the need for DW to come searching for me on the ship. Usually when that happens we find each other in the casino. So, paying for the balcony is usually the money we were spending in the casino.

[katiel53]

My DH is claustrophobic, so we cruise in a balcony always. We both go out in the morning for a while, and sometimes when we come back from port, we like sitting out with a drink.

 

There are times too when we sit out before dinner. My favorite time is just before bed, but at times we don't do that as people in the next balcony have or leave the balcony lights on. It kind of ruins the view of the water, at least for me. Last cruise the people next to us were never out on the balcony when we wanted to go out at night, but every night, all night, their balcony lights were on. I never said anything to them as I didn't want to start trouble with a neighbor.

[sail2sea]

When we had an aft balcony, we spent hours on end and so did the neighbors. We started talking. Turned out he was a captain and we compared sailing experiences.

 

when we had a more average side balcony, not as much. Carnival's balconies are pretty small and not the most comfortable.

[cruzb4IbloAfuze]

We Love our balconies:D Kind of like an excursion in it's self. Never kept up with the actual time we spend out there, but, it sure is hard to cruise without one, we have only done it once, so far. We like to go out there in the wee hours of the morning, just to watch the water flow by and listen to the sound it makes against the ship.

 

 

Also, like to have breakfast out there too!

 

 

 

[kathy884]

A cruise without a balcony (if we're talking a big cruise ship -- not a little yatch or something like that) doesn't sound appealing to me. I might go along to be with extended family if someone else had planned this, but I don't think if I were doing the picking I would consider a cruise if a balcony were not available or in the budget. // Just want a nice private space to sit outside with my family / extended family. -- Without that added extra other non cruise vacation options would win over a cruise for sure for my vacation dollar. // My brother and his family have entirely different preferences, love cruising, don't get a balcony as they find they don't really use it and don't think it's worth the extra money (and if someone else is paying and would buy this for them have them downgrade -- don't think it's worth someone else's money). They cruise almost every year. We, as a family, on the other hand are will be cruising this summer, but the last cruise we took was almost six years ago.

[galawdog]

MAJOR COMPLAINT. We have only had a balcony cabin once in several cruises---last September on the Legend. We were so enamored of it, we missed several late night production and comedy shows because it was simply too nice to sit out on the balcony with a book, a booklight (better than the overhead light) and a cocktail.

 

Come to think of it, the balcony robbed us of lots of shows and other entertainment, and we demand a refund from Carnival. We will demand such when we cruise the same ship, same week, same cabin this coming September. The nerve....;)