Is Club Balcony Worth It?

[fshagan]

Hmmm ... minimum bid I'm seeing for our upcoming AK cruise to upgrade from a balcony to club balcony is $100 pp. Not worth it for me. Spa Balcony looks like the minimum bid is $150 pp.

[BenDover]

No

[tetleytea]

Some aspects of the Club I thought were worth it; others not.  I liked the laundry and the bundled in Free at Sea.  Getting the cabin dead in the middle of the ship, okay.  The multiple shower heads, not so much.  I would definitely not book a Club outright again, but would upgrade bid on it.

[complawyer]

interestingly enough, is it worth it, relative to what? to an in door or ocean view cabin, certainly. to a regular balcony probably not, although i  personally would choose the club suite over the regular balcony. it's a little bigger, and my wife has had 2 knee replacements and prefers the enclosed stall shower. i dont really care about the free bag of laundry or the strawberry's delivered one day of the cruise. as far as the prior comments about  the sparkling wine that everyone makes fun f, we had a bottle of actual champagne. so in the end, it's whatever you can comfortably afford. if its a port intensive itinerary, your cabin probably wont make much of a difference

[weltek]

The ones with large balconies are the only I'd consider "worth" more than a regular balcony. The larger shower and sink are nice on the newer ships, but not at all a must for us. The minimal  "perks" and bathroom alone aren't worth enough to us to pay more. 

[cruiseny4life]

My husband and I have looked really closely at the club balconies.. We have only cruised in the Haven (and our future bookings are all in the Haven), however we'd like to not spend an entire paycheck on a cruise, so we've been considering downgrading to one of these. Thus far, it doesn't really seem worth it compared to just a simple spa balcony. We love the thermal suite so will always gets that, even if we have to get the pass.

 

At least a spa balcony would get us the pass, but the amount of space in the room is so small. That's why we looked at club balconies. It seems there is no extra space in them, except the bathroom. Even though we're both big guys, we don't need that much space. A normal bathroom is just fine, although the undercarriage showerheads would be helpful - gotta be clean! 

 

I'm going to see if a room steward will let us peak in an empty club balcony when we're onboard next month to see if it could be right for us. Without actually seeing it, I don't think we can decide. It'd be nice to pay a lot less money for a room though! 

 

As a kind of aside, I don't care about the perks - they're meaningless to me in the, "is it worth it to us" conversation.

[weltek]

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

My husband and I have looked really closely at the club balconies.. We have only cruised in the Haven (and our future bookings are all in the Haven), however we'd like to not spend an entire paycheck on a cruise, so we've been considering downgrading to one of these. Thus far, it doesn't really seem worth it compared to just a simple spa balcony. We love the thermal suite so will always gets that, even if we have to get the pass.

 

At least a spa balcony would get us the pass, but the amount of space in the room is so small. That's why we looked at club balconies. It seems there is no extra space in them, except the bathroom. Even though we're both big guys, we don't need that much space. A normal bathroom is just fine, although the undercarriage showerheads would be helpful - gotta be clean! 

 

I'm going to see if a room steward will let us peak in an empty club balcony when we're onboard next month to see if it could be right for us. Without actually seeing it, I don't think we can decide. It'd be nice to pay a lot less money for a room though! 

 

As a kind of aside, I don't care about the perks - they're meaningless to me in the, "is it worth it to us" conversation.

Or ask on your roll call to see if there's someone with a Club Balcony Suite you could look at. Maybe you could easily connect prior to sailaway with text messages still easy to get (and the room is still clean!).

[complawyer]

it's a nice comfortable room. nothing to complain about other than it's not the haven! if not being in the haven suites doesnt bother you, i'd go for the club balcony any day!!! certainly cant complain about the price vs. the cost of haven!

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, weltek said:

Or ask on your roll call to see if there's someone with a Club Balcony Suite you could look at. Maybe you could easily connect prior to sailaway with text messages still easy to get (and the room is still clean!).

What a great idea - thank you!

[MoCruiseFan]

Only you can answer this for yourself.   All that matters is whether you think the difference in the cabins is worth the cost of upgrading.  Look at what all you get for upgrading and make up your mind.

[MarkusToe]

For us, it was a low brainer....

Had a huge price drop, but ncl didn't honer....

So we decided to cancel and rebook and loose all deposit. 

NCL offered if we book a higher class, they only ask for 50bucks changing fee.

We saved over 800 in the end and booked club now....coming from normal balcony.

[MoCruiseFan]

4 hours ago, MarkusToe said:

For us, it was a low brainer....

Had a huge price drop, but ncl didn't honer....

So we decided to cancel and rebook and loose all deposit. 

NCL offered if we book a higher class, they only ask for 50bucks changing fee.

We saved over 800 in the end and booked club now....coming from normal balcony.

 

 

Never mind, it is far too easy.  Not to mention that the CC powers that be get upset with it.

[NYFirstTimeCruiser]

Be careful though if you have travel insurance.  I bid the same to club balcony and we were charged $68 on top of our bid so I emailed Upgrade advantage. Below is their reply.  In short, they will charge you extra travel insurance based on your new room category. I will never buy travel insurance from NCL again. I'll go back to Allianz.

 

[knittinggirl]

We're already in a Club balcony.  When we tried to check in, we got this offer.

 

What’s Included

• Priority Check-In and Boarding
• Tender Priority when applicable (off the ship)
• Priority Debarkation (homeport)
• Standard Room Service Breakfast Menu
• $50 Spa Credit per person (port days only)
• Complimentary Canapés (second day of cruise)

How's the room service?  Is the club balcony menu good enough?

[complawyer]

its worth and value is only contingent upon what youre comparing it to.  is it worth more than  an indoor? of course.  is it worth more than the regular balcony, that may be a toss-up depending on price

 

they are nice, spacious rooms, and if the price is right, they are certainly worth booking.

 

we're sapphire, so the goodies youve mentioned come along with the latitude level