Picture of the Royal Balconies

[Psychedout]

Hi,

 

I have been looking at all the great pictures that have been posted of the new Royal but I have not seen any of the stateroom balconies. We will be in a mini suite.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Hugh;)

[Cruise Junky]

Don't get you hopes up, they're tiny. Google USA TODAY Royal Princess Pictures. I believe there are picture of a mini suite's deck and try not to faint when you see how narrow the Penthouse suite's deck is.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/cruises/2013/06/12/photo-tour-inside-the-new-royal-princess/2414273/

Edited June 16, 2013 by Cruise Junky

[Mulege]

The balconies are some of the smallest at sea for a major line. Such a beautiful ship but this is a deal breaker for us as we spend a lot of time on our balcony. Celebrity standard balcony is 54 sq ft. So we will go back to Solstice class. Love Diamond and Sapphire.

Edited June 16, 2013 by Mulege

[melody hounddog]

What tiny balconies!!!!! Blah.

[nunuc2000]

Oh wow! Those are extremely tiny… I think I would pass on that!! :mad:

[spencercoop]

I can't believe how small the balconies are either. The NCL Breakaway's balconies are pretty small as well so hopefully this is not a new trend.

Edited June 16, 2013 by spencercoop

[Luvmyrotti]

Oh wow! Those are extremely tiny… I think I would pass on that!! :mad:

 

Those balconies are so disappointing! We sail in suites and adore the generous sized suite balconies on the rest of the Princess fleet. I do not think we will be sailing on the royal or her sister.

[IBsaved]

What were they thinking with those balconies? Yikes! :eek: We also spend a lot of time on our balcony and love it. Guess we'll pass on the Royal too.

[Cruise Junky]

Those balconies are so disappointing! We sail in suites and adore the generous sized suite balconies on the rest of the Princess fleet. I do not think we will be sailing on the royal or her sister.

 

I think if you were able to book an Aft, you'd be ok. Just nothing on the side which unfortunately is where the majority of the suites are :eek:

[LEtue]

Wow, it looks like they don't want you to spend time in your cabin or on your balcony :(

[JimmyVWine]

Number of non-suite cabins that "accomodate" 3 or 4 people? In the hundreds.

Number of such cabins that will seat more than 2 people on the balcony? Fewer than 20. (And most of those are the undesireable cabins under the Peeping-Tom Walk.)

 

So are guests with 3+ people in the stateroom supposed to draw straws for balcony seats? Or work out some sort of rotation where family members take turns enjoying the balcony while the others mope around on the bed?

 

If you travel as a family and enjoy family time on the balcony, you are pretty much forced to pick a different ship.

[shanecindy21403]

Boy am I glad I looked at those pictures. The cabins are so beautiful the balconies are a HUGE letdown. I see no need now to sail on the new ships. I'll stick with the "old" ones.

[Pam in CA]

The new rock-hard chairs on the balconies on my last few cruises have been so uncomfortable, unrelaxing and for me, so unusable that I decided a few months ago to not book balcony cabins in the future. Unless I get an upgrade or astonishing deal, I think my last balcony cabin will be on the Royal in October. I just can't justify the cost for something I can't use or enjoy. On the Diamond last month, the only thing I used the balcony for was to check the outside temp and for one sailaway.

[Cruise Junky]

Boy am I glad I looked at those pictures. The cabins are so beautiful the balconies are a HUGE letdown. I see no need now to sail on the new ships. I'll stick with the "old" ones.

 

I think we will too. I plan on booking a Caribbean cruise tomorrow and was really going for Regal..but not now. We can sail Ruby for less money, better itinerary and a far better balcony and I get my much beloved aft pool back. It's such a shame, I love the look of the new ships except the balconies.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Cruise Junky

[Luvmyrotti]

I think if you were able to book an Aft, you'd be ok. Just nothing on the side which unfortunately is where the majority of the suites are :eek:

 

I would be interested in seeing what the aft suite balconies look like.

[Cruise Junky]

I would be interested in seeing what the aft suite balconies look like.

 

Check out this picture, gives you a pretty good shot at the afts.

 

Looks like you really need to pick your deck well. Some are twice the size of others.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=38795031&postcount=267

Edited June 17, 2013 by Cruise Junky

[roe2ship]

Number of non-suite cabins that "accomodate" 3 or 4 people? In the hundreds.

Number of such cabins that will seat more than 2 people on the balcony? Fewer than 20. (And most of those are the undesireable cabins under the Peeping-Tom Walk.)

 

So are guests with 3+ people in the stateroom supposed to draw straws for balcony seats? Or work out some sort of rotation where family members take turns enjoying the balcony while the others mope around on the bed?

 

If you travel as a family and enjoy family time on the balcony, you are pretty much forced to pick a different ship.

No way will I be forced to pick a different ship because of balcony size....we don't use the balcony 24/7, besides musical chairs with the family can be quite entertaining!;)

[Cruise Junky]

No way will I be forced to pick a different ship because of balcony size....we don't use the balcony 24/7, besides musical chairs with the family can be quite entertaining!;)

 

I think everyone has priorities when it comes to cruising and we all place importance on different things. Some people really enjoy family time with their kids having breakfast on the deck. Princess has made that impossible with the new ships. We spend our sea days out there, most lunches and even some dinners. We usually book a caribe but last time ended up on Baja because of a last minute deal, it was ok at 40 sq ft. The mini suites on royal and regal have smaller balconies (36sq ft) than the smallest on regular balcony cabins on Ruby ...to me that is completely unacceptable. Other people don't care about balcony size, they want to be around the ship doing things. For them, royal is perfect. No one is right and no one is wrong but princess just turned off a large amount of cruisers because of deck size.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Cruise Junky

[zahav1]

I'm personally unhappy with the balcony size on the Royal, but I'm sure Princess did some major studies before designing this ship and decided that the balconies were not used enough and not put in the extra expense in building bigger ones. As an example, when we were on the Alaska cruise and cruised College Fjords and Glacier Bay, we were on Baja and could see down many floors and balconiess and notice how many balconies were not even used. Same with many other cruises, I think most people just come out and stand to look as sailaways, etc. and then leave. We use the balcony extensively, but I have a feeling we're in the minority.

[billco]

Don't get you hopes up, they're tiny. Google USA TODAY Royal Princess Pictures. I believe there are picture of a mini suite's deck and try not to faint when you see how narrow the Penthouse suite's deck is.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/cruises/2013/06/12/photo-tour-inside-the-new-royal-princess/2414273/

I think I would be a bit upset if I didn't know the size of the balcony before I booked.

[Cruise Junky]

I think I would be a bit upset if I didn't know the size of the balcony before I booked.

 

 

no wonder in Shogun's live thread he said someone in a suite was having a fit at the purser's desk about being conned. They have to be the worst suite balconies at sea.

[roe2ship]

I think everyone has priorities when it comes to cruising and we all place importance on different things. Some people really enjoy family time with their kids having breakfast on the deck. Princess has made that impossible with the new ships. We spend our sea days out there, most lunches and even some dinners. We usually book a caribe but last time ended up on Baja because of a last minute deal, it was ok at 40 sq ft. The mini suites on royal and regal have smaller balconies (36sq ft) than the smallest on regular balcony cabins on Ruby ...to me that is completely unacceptable. Other people don't care about balcony size, they want to be around the ship doing things. For them, royal is perfect. No one is right and no one is wrong but princess just turned off a large amount of cruisers because of deck size.

*I* actually do care about the size of a balcony. Normally we book aft cabins because of the view and the larger sized balcony. If that is no longer an option on Royal or Regal it certainly won't deter me from trying these brand new beauties!;) Will I miss that extra space? Probably, but I'm sure it won't kill us. We'll know going into the cruise that things will be a little different.

[Cruise Junky]

*I* actually do care about the size of a balcony. Normally we book aft cabins because of the view and the larger sized balcony. If that is no longer an option on Royal or Regal it certainly won't deter me from trying these brand new beauties!;) Will I miss that extra space? Probably, but I'm sure it won't kill us. We'll know going into the cruise that things will be a little different.

 

Yes, there's a couple of 85 sq ft. aft cabins. Just be careful which deck. Some are completely uncovered and some look fine. Dolphin and Baja look good. Bit of a premium over a regular balcony - $210 per person on the 7 day Caribbean sailing that I was looking at.

[PhoenixRev]

The size of the balconies on the Royal is stunning. It simply boggles the mind to think that something that size is considered an extravagance worthy of paying who knows how much more than the next lower class of cabin.

 

I can't even imagine thinking of doing an UBD or a Balcony Breakfast out there.

[kdkmilwaukee]

Wow, we *love* spending a good deal of time on our balcony, and recently booked a mini suite on the Royal. Those balconies are tiny!!! We sailed with my parents on the Ruby a few years ago and had side-by-side balconies with our mini suites. Each had four chairs and a table with room to spare. Looking at this photos...wow...how incredibly disappointing :mad: Assuming that we can still have the divider opened up so that we can share balcony space with my parents again, we will have to sit in a line versus being able to sit across from one another and converse. For what we are paying for a mini suite, I guess I expected a usable balcony. I'm sure it'll still be a great trip, but I can't help but feel sincerely disappointed with this.