Caribbean Princess Dolphin Deck Views

[HodgeNNicole]

Looking at the Mini Suites on the Caribbean Princess but noticed all the mini-suites are just one deck above the life boats.  Can anyone tell me how obstructed the view is from the balcony? I do enjoy watching the water fade my work life into the distance out on the balcony and was wondering if the life boats would reduce visibility too much??

Edited November 19, 2019 by HodgeNNicole

[reedprincess]

5 minutes ago, HodgeNNicole said:

Looking at the Mini Suites on the Caribbean Princess but noticed all the mini-suites are just one deck above the life boats.  Can anyone tell me how obstructed the view is from the balcony? I do enjoy watching the water fade my work life into the distance out on the balcony and was wondering if the life boats would reduce visibility too much??

You won't see them at all. They're tucked under the deck, so to speak. Clear view looking down, and clear view looking out. Ans everyone above you can look directly into your balcony.

Enjoy 

[HodgeNNicole]

Great thanks! That makes sense being that the cabins are mini suites so you would think they would not design the ship with obstructed views from the mini suites!! LOL

[RLK33853]

If you are on an itinerary where there are lots of early arrival tender ports, you may get a lot of noise when they lower the tenders in the morning. 

 

We always try to get a mini that is between the tenders (you can see them on the deck plans).  The other option is to take a mini at the back of the ship above the Emerald Mini-Suites.  Then you don't have that issue at all - but of course there is always a catch - you may feel vibration from the engines..  

 

Either way none of this is much of an issue - just more of an annoyance if you like to sleep late.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[NRWPA]

I've been on Caribbean Princess several times. Just my opinion, but I would much rather be on Caribe deck with a large balcony, half covered and half not. When looking down onto Dolphin, the balconies are totally uncovered - no way to get out of the sun or out of my view if I happen to look straight down. I don't think the larger cabin and price is worth it. But like I said, just my opinion. YMMV

[skynight]

6 hours ago, NRWPA said:

I've been on Caribbean Princess several times. Just my opinion, but I would much rather be on Caribe deck with a large balcony, half covered and half not. When looking down onto Dolphin, the balconies are totally uncovered - no way to get out of the sun or out of my view if I happen to look straight down. I don't think the larger cabin and price is worth it. But like I said, just my opinion. YMMV

Cover is an issue for some, but cover does not equate directly to shade. Shade is mostly determined by the direction of the ship.

[OCruisers]

15 minutes ago, skynight said:

Cover is an issue for some, but cover does not equate directly to shade. Shade is mostly determined by the direction of the ship.

So true !   

[MauiLvrs]

2 hours ago, OCruisers said:

So true !   

 It Caribe provides half privacy 

[JimmyVWine]

We love the balconies on Dolphin Deck on Caribbean and similar builds. The "privacy" issue tends to be a red herring. In order for others to look down on your balcony, they have to be above yours and within a few cabins on either side of yours more or less. Otherwise the lateral dividers block their view. So there may be 10 or so cabins each on decks 10, 11, 12, and 14 that have a decent view of your specific balcony. That's a total of about 40 cabins. And in order to see you, they have to be standing at their rail and look down at you (as opposed to looking at other more interesting vistas).  At any given time, maybe 2 or 3 of those 40 cabins have people at the rail looking down. Bottom line, if they can see you by looking down, you can look up and see them. I have looked up numerous times to see who might be looking down at me and every time I see a whole lot of nothing. Proving yet again that in theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. 

Edited November 20, 2019 by JimmyVWine

[satxdiver]

The life boats may be tucked under the Dolphin deck but they do stick out partially blocking your view if looking straight down.  It is not a big issue for us however.  The entire balcony is viewable by everyone above so that may be a consideration.  

[OCruisers]

We've cruised on Caribbean Princess many times in mini-suites on Dolphin Deck 

and looking straight down all you see is water ... the life boats are completely tucked away.  

[JimmyVWine]

16 hours ago, satxdiver said:

The entire balcony is viewable by everyone above so that may be a consideration.

 

As I noted above, the balcony is NOT viewable by "everyone" above.  Just a very small subset of people.  Here is a photo showing what someone on Baja Deck can see if they lean way over, or have a selfie-stick. (The angle of that shot is not what someone would see if they were standing at their railing normally.)  As you see, that person has a clear view of the uncovered portion of the Caribe Deck and Dolphin Deck balconies directly below them, as well as the Caribe and Dolphin Deck balconies that are 3 or 4 cabins in either direction, left or right.  After that, the lateral dividers block the view.  So if your cabin was the Dolphin Deck cabin shown in the center of this photo, only a small sliver of people, (maybe 4 or so cabins to either side of you) could see you.  All others would be obscured by the dividers.  The second image below shows how the dividers mask your balcony from most of the people on the ship.  And bear in mind that the second photo wasn't taken from a cabin balcony (unless the photographer had a very long selfie-stick.).  Someone who was actually on their balcony instead of on a protruding wing would see much less.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by JimmyVWine

[Carol28]

On 11/20/2019 at 5:17 PM, JimmyVWine said:

 

As I noted above, the balcony is NOT viewable by "everyone" above.  Just a very small subset of people.  Here is a photo showing what someone on Baja Deck can see if they lean way over, or have a selfie-stick. (The angle of that shot is not what someone would see if they were standing at their railing normally.)  As you see, that person has a clear view of the uncovered portion of the Caribe Deck and Dolphin Deck balconies directly below them, as well as the Caribe and Dolphin Deck balconies that are 3 or 4 cabins in either direction, left or right.  After that, the lateral dividers block the view.  So if your cabin was the Dolphin Deck cabin shown in the center of this photo, only a small sliver of people, (maybe 4 or so cabins to either side of you) could see you.  All others would be obscured by the dividers.  The second image below shows how the dividers mask your balcony from most of the people on the ship.  And bear in mind that the second photo wasn't taken from a cabin balcony (unless the photographer had a very long selfie-stick.).  Someone who was actually on their balcony instead of on a protruding wing would see much less.

 

 

 

[Carol28]

I love your pictures! So, on the dolphin Deck, one can actually look down into the water. And the lifeboats are right underneath the Dolphin Deck, but you cannot see them.  However, if they are lowered if we are anchor, you can hear that noise? Is that all accurate?

[HodgeNNicole]

Thanks for all the great feedback.

I enjoy standing on the rail and watching the water come off the side of the hull so I am happy that is possible. 

If someone is looking down on us then I hope the reflection off of my balding head isn't too bad for them.  

I am on vacation in the Caribbean and not in my LA Traffic, smog, filled office working, so I really don't care if someone is looking at me or not.  

[JimmyVWine]

8 hours ago, Carol28 said:

  However, if they are lowered if we are anchor, you can hear that noise? Is that all accurate?

The lifeboats are never lowered unless the crew is doing safety drills which isn’t common enough to worry about. Having the lifeboats directly below you is not an issue at all. Won’t ruin your view and won’t cause noise. 

[suzyed]

On 11/20/2019 at 12:04 AM, JimmyVWine said:

We love the balconies on Dolphin Deck on Caribbean and similar builds. The "privacy" issue tends to be a red herring. In order for others to look down on your balcony, they have to be above yours and within a few cabins on either side of yours more or less. Otherwise the lateral dividers block their view. So there may be 10 or so cabins each on decks 10, 11, 12, and 14 that have a decent view of your specific balcony. That's a total of about 40 cabins. And in order to see you, they have to be standing at their rail and look down at you (as opposed to looking at other more interesting vistas).  At any given time, maybe 2 or 3 of those 40 cabins have people at the rail looking down. Bottom line, if they can see you by looking down, you can look up and see them. I have looked up numerous times to see who might be looking down at me and every time I see a whole lot of nothing. Proving yet again that in theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. 

I like your take on this!