How important is balcony on European cruise?

[voyager70]

Just now, Ashland said:

We also chose this itinerary for Malta & Greece. Going mid May and hoping for some great weather.

 

Thanks so much !!

 

Mid May should be gorgeous.  Our cruise that had Malta cancelled was in early November - was the last Med cruise before the TA back to the States.  Guess that's a risk you take sailing the Med that late in the season.  Fortunately we had beautiful weather for the other ports and still had a wonderful time!

 

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, voyager70 said:

 

Lucky you!  Our last Med cruise included Malta (one of the main reasons we booked it) but it was cancelled due to a storm.  Have yet to visit Malta and unfortunately it's not that common of a port stop.  Hopefully we'll get there some day.  Enjoy that cruise and the aft JS!

 

P&O Oceana is based in Malta for the summer.

[voyager70]

18 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

P&O Oceana is based in Malta for the summer.

 

Thanks for the info, may have to check that out!

 

[grapau27]

13 minutes ago, voyager70 said:

 

Thanks for the info, may have to check that out!

 

Hope this helps.

[voyager70]

19 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Hope this helps.

 

Great, thanks Graham.

 

[Calbeeman]

On 3/17/2019 at 3:50 PM, Sun Lover said:

We have been on several Caribbean cruises with RCI all on Voyager class ships and above.  We have had a balcony cabin most of the time, which is nice, but, to be honest, we don't really use the balcony much.  We are only in the cabin to change clothes and sleep at night.  We are thinking of booking the Mediterranean Venice cruise on Jewel which leaves out of Barcelona and I'm wondering since this itinerary is much more port intensive if it would be worth it to have a balcony.  The difference in cost between an oceanview cabin and an oceanview balcony cabin is about $700.  Are there really pretty sights along the way on this route or when pulling into ports?  Do you think it's worth the extra cost?  Advice would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Venice sail in is fantastic but if your itinerary includes Kotor Montenegro I would say that alone makes the balcony worthwhile. It was absolutely amazing. There are several YouTube videos out there that gives you an idea of how beautiful it is.

[grapau27]

6 hours ago, voyager70 said:

 

Great, thanks Graham.

 

Your welcome.

[bigeck]

10 hours ago, Ashland said:

We also chose this itinerary for Malta & Greece. Going mid May and hoping for some great weather.

 

Thanks so much !!

Malta is a really nice sail in and out.

Get up early as it's one not to miss.

[L454S]

I remember on one Med. sailing(B2B with T/A) a couple years ago, the price difference between an interior and a balcony was almost triple. VERY port intensive between Barcelona and Venice, and we opted for an interior. 

 

I don't mind paying more for a balcony/JS/GS and almost always do. But at some point, as the saying goes....that ain't enough sugar for a dime....comes into play for me. Oh....we sailed into Venice before sunrise.

 

[springfire]

If you have an inside cabin, get it on a deck where it is easy to get outside. Location of inside cabin is important.  We had an inside cabin on Princess once and when we were on the Lido deck.  When we walked outside of our cabin we were right on the pool deck.  It was fantastic.  We had the tv in our cabin set to the camera so we could always tell where we were and knew when we wanted to be outside.  Balcony's are great but it I can get the right inside cabin,  with a good price, location, go for it. I would save my money.

[minikiss]

13 hours ago, voyager70 said:

 

Thanks for the info, may have to check that out!

 

Hi just a word of warning if your outside the UK you may have a problem booking P&O. Just like we have issues booking cruises on a USA site, those outside the UK will have the same issue with P&O.

[voyager70]

13 minutes ago, minikiss said:

Hi just a word of warning if your outside the UK you may have a problem booking P&O. Just like we have issues booking cruises on a USA site, those outside the UK will have the same issue with P&O.

 

Thanks for the heads up.  May have to do some research.

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by voyager70

[minikiss]

1 minute ago, voyager70 said:

 

Thanks for the heads up.  May have to do some research.

 

No probs,, I have read of some that were able to book using a UK family member or friends address. It's not just an issue for those in the States it's the same for those in Europe.

[grapau27]

14 minutes ago, minikiss said:

Hi just a word of warning if your outside the UK you may have a problem booking P&O. Just like we have issues booking cruises on a USA site, those outside the UK will have the same issue with P&O.

P&O like Princess is a Carnival company and you should have no problems booking direct.

You can book your own flight to Malta and book cruise only if you want to spend time in Malta

 

[grapau27]

4 minutes ago, voyager70 said:

 

Thanks for the heads up.  May have to do some research.

 

You can book your own flights to Malta.

P&O like Princess is a Carnival company and you will have no problem booking direct with them.

pocruises.com

Tel 03453555111

From US 00443453555111

[minikiss]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 10:50 PM, Sun Lover said:

We have been on several Caribbean cruises with RCI all on Voyager class ships and above.  We have had a balcony cabin most of the time, which is nice, but, to be honest, we don't really use the balcony much.  We are only in the cabin to change clothes and sleep at night.  We are thinking of booking the Mediterranean Venice cruise on Jewel which leaves out of Barcelona and I'm wondering since this itinerary is much more port intensive if it would be worth it to have a balcony.  The difference in cost between an oceanview cabin and an oceanview balcony cabin is about $700.  Are there really pretty sights along the way on this route or when pulling into ports?  Do you think it's worth the extra cost?  Advice would be appreciated.  Thanks.

You do have a few nice sail in and out of ports, Split / Kotor / Venice, I see it's an over night there. We had a balcony on our Med cruise on the Island Princess that sailed out of Venice. You do need to be on the right side though as someone else pointed out otherwise you miss St Peters Square, so do your research. I would have booked a inside but the difference between the types was a small one. Some of the tours can be more expensive than ones in the Caribbean so something to consider. Aside those few nice ports a lot of the rest aren't that special to see. You don't over look Barcelona, Your docked a 10 mins shuttle ride from Civitavecchia, Livorno is an industrial port and you have to get a shuttle out of the port.  Naples is an old town but if your up early enough you will get a view of Mount Vesuvius at sun rise, we had to go up on top deck to get that the last time as we were on the wrong side..... not been to Nice. Hope some of this is of help. Jules

[voyager70]

12 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

You can book your own flights to Malta.

P&O like Princess is a Carnival company and you will have no problem booking direct with them.

pocruises.com

Tel 03453555111

From US 00443453555111

 

Thanks Graham, very helpful.

 

[grapau27]

19 minutes ago, voyager70 said:

 

Thanks Graham, very helpful.

 

Your welcome.

We have cruised over 100 nights on P&O and been on most P&O ships so any information you want I'm happy to help.