Search of aft balcony info says soot is an issue...?

[Sablerose]

Is soot an issue on all balconies, or just on aft balconies?

 

Any other pros/cons to regular, non 9-a, aft balconies? (empress deck)

 

Thank you in advance!

[cruisecastle]

Is soot an issue on all balconies, or just on aft balconies?

 

Any other pros/cons to regular, non 9-a, aft balconies? (empress deck)

 

Thank you in advance!

 

Soot is a terrible problem on all balconies. This is why they are more expensive and highly sought after! C'mon use some common sense.

 

Occassionally depending on wind etc.. you may see a flake of ash no big deal! Where you might have ash one day you may have none the next 7 cruises on balconies and it's never been a problem

[serene56]

I have had aft balconies on both Carnival - Royal. Never once did i have a problem- But I dont hang clothes out to dry. and I also wipe stuff down before I sit on it.

[gtalum]

On Miracle we never noticed any soot on our aft balcony.

[Sablerose]

Soot is a terrible problem on all balconies. This is why they are more expensive and highly sought after! C'mon use some common sense.

 

Please don't be mean.

 

I spent about 90 minutes last night combing the archives reading nearly every post available about aft balconies, and some very prominent CC members who have a TON of cruises and a TON of aft balconies under their belts, combined, suggested that soot on aft (and at least one person suggested on side) balconies could be a very small issue, in that if you had for example white shorts on you should wipe down your balcony furniture before sitting, or your railing before leaning.

 

That being said, have your 7 balcony cruises been sides or afts? Do you have any other tips?

 

Thank you.

[cruisecastle]

Please don't be mean.

 

I spent about 90 minutes last night combing the archives reading nearly every post available about aft balconies, and some very prominent CC members who have a TON of cruises and a TON of aft balconies under their belts, combined, suggested that soot on aft (and at least one person suggested on side) balconies could be a very small issue, in that if you had for example white shorts on you should wipe down your balcony furniture before sitting, or your railing before leaning.

 

That being said, have your 7 balcony cruises been sides or afts? Do you have any other tips?

 

Thank you.

 

I've had both. Never had a problem. Have I had ash? Yes. Did I care? No. Look you have to realize there are crazy people on this board that make the biggest deal out of nothing. For your peace of mind ignore them. If you see some ash wipe it off. Don't worry about it enjoy your cruise.

[Sablerose]

I've had both. Never had a problem. Have I had ash? Yes. Did I care? No. Look you have to realize there are crazy people on this board that make the biggest deal out of nothing. For your peace of mind ignore them. If you see some ash wipe it off. Don't worry about it enjoy your cruise.

 

Thanks for your feeback, I appreciate it.

 

I'm actually trying to balance pros/cons of aft balconies, because there appear to be a few on my upcoming cruise (aft) open, and we are currently in a balcony room on the port side.

 

So I'm trying to decide if we should see if we can get the aft for the same price.

[klfrodo]

For what its worth, I've had side baconies and aft. Can't say I've seen ash or soot on either. If I had my choice, I'd rather have an aft balcony. Scenery is better, plus there is much less "hallway" noise since most passengers don't go that far back. Side balcony you have so many more passengers running or stomping through the hallway to get whever they are going.

[Timmys_mom]

If you see some ash wipe it off.

 

By all means, Rose, be sure to wipe your ash. :D Actually, when I saw this post I thought "Silly Rose, they don't use coal to power ships anymore!". It never would have occured to me that ash would be an issue. Therefore, I now know to wipe off my deck chair before I plunk my white-panted butt in it.

 

Thanks for the public service message.

[gtalum]

It's not really ash, it's diesel soot. Same effect though. :)

[Sablerose]

It never would have occured to me that ash would be an issue. Therefore, I now know to wipe off my deck chair before I plunk my white-panted butt in it. Thanks for the public service message.

 

Hee! No problema. Yeah, when it was brought to my attention yesterday by a new friend I made on our rollcall that there appeared to be a couple of aft balconies open, I figured after her sparkling recommendation of same we should probably check into it... my eyes were bleeding by 11pm...

 

sooooooooo much to read...

 

But I never would have imagined it to be an issue either, so I'm glad I did! I won't have white pants (I'd look like the michelin man) but might have khakis, which will be the same, and/or part of my formal ensemble is white... I can only imagine leaning on the railing before going to dinner! ACK!

 

KLFRODO, thank you for the explanation and your thoughts, too! This seems to echo what I read over and over again last night.

 

So I have a call into my PVP who will get in around 11am my time, we'll see if he phones me back. Meantime, I'd love to continue to collect opinions.

[sunkey1]

The only time we've had an aft balcony was on the Legend and we did have a problem with soot. Yes, it's no problem if you don't mind wiping everything off every time you go outside. All the other balcony cabins we've had have been on the side and we've never had soot on any of those. The other complaint I had about the particular cabin we had on the Legend was the vibration. There was always some, but any time we docked we shook like crazy! This was enough to wake us up on early morning port days. Everyone will have different takes on this and I know there are a LOT of aft balcony lovers out there, but for us, we would never do it again.

[Holgerdanske]

Rose

You get "salt" mist more than soot on rails and furniture on the balcony, (any balcony), at night. Just prepare to wipe down in the morning and you wil be fine. As for vibration, you don't have to bring quarters for the "vibrating bed", you get it for free. Seriously, if there is vibration, a propeller is out of balance, and the captain will want to have it repaired a.s.a.p. since that can cause damage to the propulsion unit. All very technical. We have aft balconies on the Spirit for our Christmas cruise to Acapulco. Can't wait.

Have a great cruise, you deserve it.

[serene56]

Comparing side balconies to the aft-- for the same amount of money you get more for your money on the aft. you dont have to worry about being on the wrong side of the ship-- you will always be able to have your own saila way aprty as you watch the ports leave.

 

BUT-- did youget your balcony as a guarantee?? You might not be able to switch up like that so all your research is gonna be for nothing--check to see if its doable first.

[Sablerose]

Comparing side balconies to the aft-- for the same amount of money you get more for your money on the aft. you dont have to worry about being on the wrong side of the ship-- you will always be able to have your own saila way aprty as you watch the ports leave.

 

BUT-- did youget your balcony as a guarantee?? You might not be able to switch up like that so all your research is gonna be for nothing--check to see if its doable first.

 

Nope, we were in a 6a guar and the rates went down, so we were able to get an 8C for the price of an 8A, which is the current sale or something I guess.

 

Our paperwork says an assigned cabin number and then says, something like, "CATEGORY 8C - PURCHASE PRICED AT 8A" or something (I'm too lazy to dig it out)

 

So we definitely "bought" an 8a.

 

These are an 8b, so if I can get it for the same price I might just do that... counting down the one hour and two minutes til my PVP gets in.

 

Thank you!

[Snoozeman]

If your on Veranda deck aft, soot won't be a problem as they usually wash the windows above with automatic sprinklers. Will wash soot away. Everything left out will also be wet. Learned the hard way. Balconys below weren't wet, except perhaps a bit on the rail. At least thats what happened earlier this month. It was our 1st aft balcony--loved it :) The carpets can also be wet. We were flooded one night with pool water. I had wondered about the stains on the carpet of hallway on the 1st day. Hopefully they have fixed that problem.

[Wennfred]

ummm Great Idea for Cruisers, a bottle of Soot-B-Gone :cool: You can also get it in Lemon scent hehe

[mirthmaiden]

I've had both. Never had a problem. Have I had ash? Yes. Did I care? No. Look you have to realize there are crazy people on this board that make the biggest deal out of nothing. For your peace of mind ignore them. If you see some ash wipe it off. Don't worry about it enjoy your cruise.

I think there's a difference between mentioning something and making a big deal about it. I am grateful that somebody would mention the possibility of ash being on the deck furniture because I am not the most observant person (I'm usually too busy having fun to pay much attention to little details) and would probably sit in it before I realized it was there. DH and I will have an aft balcony for our Alaska cruise and now I will be aware that I need to wipe down the furniture.////// Enjoy your balcony Sablerose!!

[mared1]

Please don't be mean.

 

I spent about 90 minutes last night combing the archives reading nearly every post available about aft balconies, and some very prominent CC members who have a TON of cruises and a TON of aft balconies under their belts, combined, suggested that soot on aft (and at least one person suggested on side) balconies could be a very small issue, in that if you had for example white shorts on you should wipe down your balcony furniture before sitting, or your railing before leaning.

 

That being said, have your 7 balcony cruises been sides or afts? Do you have any other tips?

 

Thank you.

 

I may have been one of those that mentioned the soot! We had an aft balcony on the Legend and there was soot - but we just wiped it off the furniture. I do like the aft balconys the best - the soot was a minor inconvenience. I would definetly book an aft balcony again without hesitation!

[dan40]

Stay away from aft balcs There is so much SOOT you need a dozer twice a day to push it all overboard. That stuff is greasy and gets on everything[of value]. Also the deck HEAVES up and down and up and down and up and down up and down and up and down up and down and up and down up and down and up and down up and down and up and down. Also the engines vibration is enough to shake your eyeballs right out of your head. And you get so much salt on your balc that it will rust your Rolex. Aft balcs are just terrible and there are so few of them that they get booked up immediately so that I can hardly ever get one. I volunteer to stay in the horrible, horrible aft balconies so that my fellow cruisers don't have to put up with the horror of the aft balc. But there are toooo many volunteers for me to get to save my fellow pax. Also the balconys are way too big back there.

 

Dan

[Sablerose]

Thank you all for your input!

 

We could have moved into an aft balcony on the Verndah deck but after hearing about the deck noise et. al. being right under the lido, we've chosen to just stick where we are, port side, just barely forward of midship, near the main stairs.

 

Hopefully there won't be too much hallway noise - I doubt we'll be spending TOO much time in our room, but if we do it'll be between the hours of o-dark-thirty and wee-am-morning. ;)

 

Rose

[Snowball]

Stay away from aft balcs There is so much SOOT you need a dozer twice a day to push it all overboard. That stuff is greasy and gets on everything[of value]. Also the deck HEAVES up and down and up and down and up and down up and down and up and down up and down and up and down up and down and up and down up and down and up and down. Also the engines vibration is enough to shake your eyeballs right out of your head. And you get so much salt on your balc that it will rust your Rolex. Aft balcs are just terrible and there are so few of them that they get booked up immediately so that I can hardly ever get one. I volunteer to stay in the horrible, horrible aft balconies so that my fellow cruisers don't have to put up with the horror of the aft balc. But there are toooo many volunteers for me to get to save my fellow pax. Also the balconys are way too big back there.

 

Dan

That was great Dan!!! :D

[wystiria]

I have had a few aft balconies and I LOVE THEM

 

But on the Legend - my mom and Step dad were above us (both aft balconies) and they had problems not with ash but with people tossing their cigarette buts over the back of the boat. the buts landed on My step dad's shorts and burned a hole thru them.

 

From that point forward we all just make sure to shoot for the empress deck :) Cause we love the afts! I have a 9a on the valor come january (empress deck) and can't wait!!

[mafiadon]

I have cruised in an aft corner balcony on my last two cruises and have never encountered any problem with soot. We were on veranda deck and if any deck would have problems that would be the one. Don't worry about it and have a good time. Linda

[GroupCruiser]

It kind of depends on if you want to see where you're going or where you've been. On the Destiny class ships the back end of the ship slopes up and backwards, so someone on a balcony can pretty much look down on the balcony directly below him. It that doesn't bother you, OK. I've never had an aft balcony, but I think I prefer the side ones. You can look forward then.