scandinavia on constellation

[zetnic]

I am in the process of picking a cabin forMay 2005. The cabins are already going fast and would like any input on rooms. I am thinking of 6111 or 6114. Will it be to chilly to take advantage of the balcony or should I save money and go with oceanview?

[jay & eileen]

zetnic: We'll be taking the 07/02/05 Baltic cruise. The cruise is port intensive. Some posters say save your money and get an oceanview cabin versus the balcony cabin. With that being said, having stayed in the balcony cabins, we are spoiled. It's nice having breakfast on your balcony, quiet reading and relaxing time, and late night gazing at the moon, sea and stars time in the privacy of your balcony. Hope this helps.

We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary and looking forward to this cruise.

Eileen

[Bruin Steve]

If you're the type who eats breakfast in their room and likes late seating dinner so you can return to your room early and drink on your balcony, then, by all means get a cabin with a balcony...the weather will never be so bad that you can't use it (although we did get a little light rain at times...but not enough to deter...

But, if you like to spend full days in port (and these ports are worth it), well check your specific itinerary...11 days out of 14 you'll be rushing to get out to a shore excursion and then you'll be out all day...makes it hardly worth springing for the balcony you'll rarely use...and you can save the money for shore excursions--which can be quite costly on this route...

My parents are on the June 19 Connie and me help them choose excursions...by the time we were done, they were signed up for over $3700 in shore excursions!!

Summit, July 3, 2004: Alaska: 13 night cruisetour
Constellation, July 16, 2005: Northern Europe: 14 nights

[Tatka]

Balcony price is out of our range anyway but on European cruise we decided to buy lowest priced cabin anyway so we could buy the best tours possible. We found that 6 people private groups are the most convinient thing and booked them.

On 7 day Med cruise our cabin cost us $1450 while excursions were about $2000 and well worth it!

------------------------------
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Zuiderdam 8/21/04 FLL - Key West - Cozumel - Grand Caymans - Half Moon Cay - FLL
<LI>Splendour of the Seas 05/15/04 Barcelona - Marseilles - Villefranche - Livorno - Chivitavecchia - Naples - Barcelona
<LI>Century 07/12/03 Eastern Caribbean FFL-San Juan - St. Thomas - St.Maarten- Nassau -FFL
<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/91 Moscow - Astrahan' - Moscow (honeymoon)
<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/90 Moscow - Astrahan'- Moscow
<LI>Admiral Nachimov(or Nakhimov) (Black Sea)04/1986 Odessa - Batum [/list]

GO BRUINS!!!!

[jay & eileen]

Bruin Steve: Last August, we did the Alaska "Southbound" on the Summit. I can assure you having breakfast(6AM) on our balcony, overlooking unbelieveable scenery, breathing in the cleanest air, having the best lox, bagels, etc., and anticipating our day's excursion was heaven. Try it! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Eileen

[zetnic]

Thanks for all the input. I went ahead and booked a balcony room for May 21 sailing. It wasn't much more than an oceanview. I am currently trying to gather information about tours, transfers etc. If anyone is booked for May 21 and are going to set up tours with Red October please let me know. Any other information would be appreciated.

[msiowa]

[B]zetnic[/B] I think you made a wise decision. We did the Baltic on Constellation last summer and we spent a lot of time on our balcony. It was a great pleasure to sit on our balcony and watch the beautiful scenery as we sailed into and out of Stockholm and Oslo. Or to see the remnants of the Cold War in St. Petersburg. We slept with our balcony door open every night (except in St. Petersburg where people on earlier sailings said mosquitos were a problem.)

Even though this is a port intensive cruise, our balcony got a lot of use. I'm sure yours will too!

Have a great cruise.
Joanie