excursion vs balcony

[kml2000]

Okay, I am still researching to book an Alaskan cruise in 2007. I was originally looking at June vs July, but June may not work out for other reasons. Because July is more expensive, if I try to spring for a balcony, I am afraid my excursion budget will not be there.

 

Everyone says to spring for a balcony on an Alaskan cruise, but I don't want to do that and not be able to do excursions.

 

Any input?

 

Thanks for the help,

Karen

[Mrs007]

Karen - yes, if you can swing the balcony, go for it in Alaska. If you have to choose between a balcony and excursions - go for the excursions. There are plenty of windows and eating areas with gorgeous views where you can sit and watch Alaska float by. Just make sure you take advantage of them, because it is easy to get distracted by the "interior" view and activities of the ship and miss the view.

[tleeg]

hey KLM2000

 

im in the same boat (no pun intended) as you,

 

im going to alaska june 30, 2007 and we got an interior room because a few people i know who did this cruise said "you only go to the room to sleep and dress" which made alot of sense. i mean we liked the fact that we could sit on our balcony and eat breakfast and see the scenery, but we could do that anywhere on the ship.

 

the jump from interior room to balcony room was like $400 bucks, thats $200 more for each me and my wife, and i figured for an extra $400, we could have a kick ass time with the excursions.

 

i say save the $$$$$ for the excursions...but of course thats just my opinion.

[Mrs007]

tleeg - just be sure you put your TV on the ships bow view. It will help you wake up and know what time of day it is. Otherwise, you stay so droggy you sleep too much.

[NancyIL]

I booked an interior cabin for next June, then changed to a balcony, then went back to our original inside cabin 2 days later! I just couldn't justify the extra $765 - which would pay for several nice excursions. I would've felt like I HAD to spend a lot of time on the balcony to justify that much extra money. I have no doubt that balconies are wonderful to have, and if some day someone else wants to pay for me to have a balcony, I'll gladly accept it! In the meantime, I think I'll get a better view of glaciers out on deck than the more limited view from a balcony on one side of the ship.

[bunduo]

I'm as frugal as anybody, but in Alaska, go with the balcony! You will not regret it. If you take a whale watching excursion, you will only have a couple of hours to see any whales. If you have a balcony, you will have literally days to look for whales...and porpoises, puffins, seals, starfish, sheep, bear, eagles, etc. Your cruise will, most likely, have at least 2 and probably 3 days at sea. One of those days will be in Glacier Bay. There is nothing better than sitting on your private balcony, with some binoculars, looking at a glacier explode in front of you. It's spectacular!

[oklacupla]

Karen..........we just got home from alaska and had a really good time....no balcony, just an outside window that was huge....plenty big enough even to take pictures out of....very clear....NO ONE on our cruise used their balcony...a little chilly....plus everyone was on one of the decks taking pictures and visiting.....I will go for the excursion and not regret it...our excursions were expensive but we had a good time on each one...let me know if I can answer any other questions.....

Okay, I am still researching to book an Alaskan cruise in 2007. I was originally looking at June vs July, but June may not work out for other reasons. Because July is more expensive, if I try to spring for a balcony, I am afraid my excursion budget will not be there.

 

Everyone says to spring for a balcony on an Alaskan cruise, but I don't want to do that and not be able to do excursions.

 

Any input?

 

Thanks for the help,

Karen

[Embracedbylife]

I would go for the balcony, but that's just my opinion! You'll enjoy any shore excursion no matter what it is, and the scenery from your balcony will be very memorable. I guess everyone's taste is different. But for some reason i'd rather the balcony than a flight in a small plane...but that's just me! Maybe you'd rather an exotic excursion...the balcony is quite enjoyable if you like to relax before bedtime or in the morning....coffee on the balcony in the morning...wine at night.....that's what i'm looking forward to on my trip to Alaska!

[NancyIL]

Everyone says to spring for a balcony on an Alaskan cruise, but I don't want to do that and not be able to do excursions.

 

Not everyone...Budget Queen doesn't!

[kml2000]

We have cruised interior and with a balcony, both to the caribbean. For my balcony cruise, we upgraded at the pier for a fraction of the cost (which I realize doesn't happen on Alaska cruises). I enjoyed the balcony, but found myself going out to the public areas a good bit so I could people watch.

 

We don't do "extravagant excursions" but I would like to carefully choose some that will be memorable. I did that for our last cruise and think the excursions were more memorable than me eating my fruit on the small balcony. Don't get me wrong, it was nice, but I didn't come off the ship with the "once a balcony ALWAYS a balcony".

 

I thought I might look at an oceanview for Alaska so we would have more money for some excursions and other things.

 

We are very frugal when we cruise. We don't do without, I just choose carefully what we do. Last cruise we swam with the dolphins, snorkled with the stingrays and had a blast, but were still very frugal.

 

I hope to make this decision soon, it sure is nerve racking!!!!!!

[kml2000]

Maybe I should say that I also think because I am single and enjoy being around other people. That may be why I am not considering the balcony as heavily as I almost feel like I should (considering I will have to choose if we go in july - balcony vs excursion)

[CM_Mom]

Book the interior and pray for an upgrade. DD and I were upgraded to an outside on deck 2 on our May cruise. Nice surprise and would have been even better if they has washed the sea spray off the windows when we were in port instead of waiting till we returned to Seattle.

 

However we did whale watching with Captain Larry in Juneau, the Historic Sitka and Nature Walk tour in Sitka and the Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan for the difference we would have paid for a balcony. And since it was COLD in May, we wouldn't have used the balcony that much anyway.

 

For my money, go for the excursions. I'd trade a balcony for a flightseeing expedition any day.

[Royalpair]

We had a balcony in May on the Radiance, and it was very nice. Being able to sit and watch the sail aways and scenery without the wind blowing on you like on the deck was nice. And when we arrrived at Hubbard Glacier at 7am, it was nice to just go on our balcony in pj's (we are from Cleveland so the cold wasn't that bad for us) to see the approach, then change and watch the glacier calf. The problem I had was on the last night, it was midnight, and I was sitting on the balcony, and couldn't tear myself away form the scenery to go to bed! It was still so beautiful since the sun never really set. We liked to sit in the one lounge, but that was where they had the art aucions so they would tend to kick you out when they were setting up.

[billrco90278]

We were on the Sapphire Princess this year during the first week of July. We did not have a balcony and I was concerned our trip would suffer. Everybody told us "you just have to have a balcony." For the extra $1,000, however, we passed figuring to spend the money on excursions. It turned out to be a very smart decision on our part. First of all the excursions were incredible. The best were the Taku Glacier Lodge Floatplane trip and the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari. When on the ship we enjoyed the scenery from the deck. Meanwhile the balconies, even in Glacier Bay and the College Fjord, were generally empty. We enjoyed moving around the ship and seeing the scenery on either side of the ship and from various angles. To be restricted on a balcony would have reduced our enjoyment of the spectacular scenery. A balcony could be nice to have, but I think it is hyped and exaggerated.

[cruisergrandma]

If you have to choose between the two definitely go for the shore excursions. Most people do not spend most of their day on the balcony anyway. The top deck of the ship has the best views - you can see everything from there. You usually do not see much wildlife from the ship. Most is too far away to get more than a glimpse. The only thing we saw clearly from the ship was a small pod of Orcas.

 

The memories you take back from your trip will not be of your room. They will be of the places you went and the things you saw.

[kml2000]

Thank you all for your replies. I am thinking of booking an oceanview on the Serenade for the July 7th sailing. I think an oceanview will work out for me, even though a balcony would definitely be nice. I have thought of booking an interior, but think I may spring for the oceanview.

 

By doing the oceanview, I will still have enough $$$ to do some nice excursions (that I book independently).

 

I know cruising Alaska is 'different' (scenery, etc), but I don't think I used my balcony enough before to justify having to give up some excursions for it on this cruise.

[ejhall]

There are many threads on this Alaska board about this topic and you will see people with opinions going both ways. The main thing to do (which it looks like you have already done) is figure out where YOUR priorities are and choose between balcony or excursions accordingly. :)

 

Here is my experience and opinions, which are such fun to remember and share!!!! :D

 

I cruise with my mother and we have cruised to Alaska twice, with another booked for 6/16/07 on the Serenade. We always go with a balcony and here are our reasons. We use the balcony alot for the scenic viewing while the ship is under way, as well as to have fresh air in the cabin. If we're in the cabin, the balcony door is open, no matter what the temp is outside! If it's cold we put on long sleeves or wrap up in those plaid deck blankets we had the cabin steward get for us. We leave the balcony door open a few inches at night for the fresh air as well as for the sound of the water on the hull. :cool:

 

For glacier viewing, both times the ship went to the Hubbard Glacier. Even though we were in a balcony cabin, neither time did we stay in the cabin to view the glacier. We didn't even consider it! We went on deck were we could get the full impact of the awesome sight!

 

On our first Alaska cruise, we did only one or two very inexpensive shore excursions and mostly walked the port towns to look at the shops. We had a great cruise! :D

 

On our second Alaska cruise, we did some more expensive shore excursions, but still not the most expensive ones. We had a great cruise! :D

 

Good luck with your decision and let us know which you choose!

[kml2000]

Thank you so much for your input.

 

What I WANT (well all know that WANTS don't always work out) to do is go the first week of June and get a balcony. I am, however, concerned that it will make for a hectic month for us because my daughter ALWAYS does church camp and then another two week camp in June. I also want to fly up a day or two early and see some of Seattle and Vancouver in the process.

 

Because of trying to work around her camps, I am looking at the first of July. That, of course, makes it way more expensive and a balcony would just really limit us to a cruise with a balcony.

 

I am a single Mom and next year will be my 40th birthday. This is my birthday present to myself. I have said for the last 10 years that the year of my 40th birthday I will cruise Alaska (my b-day is in October so I can't go ON my birthday). I am SO trying to make it work out, but it sure is tough to work around all the other schedules. I don't even know when church camp, etc is.

 

Just needed to vent........and thanks to everyone for posting your opinions. They are EXTREMELY helpful and I appreciate your time.

[jeff Schaber]

If you can swing an aft "Fantail" balcony stateroom I would highly recommend it. The 180 degree views are spectacular and if you have good or dry weather then you will find yourself outside on your sailing days watching the ports and scenery go by. We saw a lot of whales, porpoise, and Orcas off our balconey throughout the trip and even though it was considerably more expensive we would do it again in a heart beat.

 

When the ship left the Hubbard Glacier, we had great views which could not have been had from either side of the ship.

 

I do agree with the poster above when he says define your priorities. Ours was to have a nice room and we saved for the excursions 8 months in advance. You have a lot of time and not all of the expensive ecursions are a must. Decide what you really want out of Alaska and make your decision then.

[Yukon]

For me, a balcony is what I buy lottery tickets for - a window is mandatory, and the inside cabins have been totally unacceptable to both Cathy and I (we've had 2 inside and 2 oceanview cabins so far). Don't scrimp on excursions - they are what make Alaska cruises truly unique.

 

Murray

[Yukon]

>>When the ship left the Hubbard Glacier, we had great views which could not have been had from either side of the ship.<<

 

We got the same view on the Radiance, sitting at the back of the Windjammer having breakfast. We had a table on the rail, but I moved back to shoot http://www.explorenorth.com/articles/alaskacruises2006/4306.html

 

Murray

[fti]

We had a balcony for our AK cruise last month. It was nice as we were sailing to just step outside and view the scenery. However, for serious scenery-viewing and picturetaking, we were always on the promenade deck or somewhere else outside (at Glacier Bay, College Fjord for example). The balcony only gave us a perspective from one side of the ship. Being outside at the front, especially on the promenade deck, gave us the ability to move to either side easily and the promenade deck was much less crowded than the upper decks outside.

 

If you have to make a choice between excursions and balcony, pick excursions.

[joanne1]

Everyone says to spring for a balcony on an Alaskan cruise, but I don't want to do that and not be able to do excursions.

 

For our cruise it was $899 for an inside and $1599 for a balcony . . . well, that's another cruise so guess what we chose. This was only the second time that we have had an inside room (and my husband swore he would never have an inside again) but it was fine. Yes, there is scenery that you can see from your balcony but we found that we were not just in one spot along the railing . . . we moved from side to side as well as to the front of the ship to get different angels. Also, the week we went it rained all week and you would not believe how many people we heard complaining that they couldn't use their balconies (some people are never happy :rolleyes: ).

 

I would definitely go for the excursions, that is what you will really remember . . . FYI - our favorite was Capt. Larry's in Juneau (it will be a long time before I stop talking about all of the whales and the bubble feeding that we saw :) ).

[RetireeWannabee]

We're sailing on Princess and plan to go where the naturalist is and see what he sees. It's not enough for me to see some things, I want to know what I'm seeing and all the info surrounding it. I ignore the "must have a balcony" because it just isn't in the cards for me - it's a luxury I can't afford.

 

This is costing me a fortune as it is, so I booked inside and got an immediate upgrade to Oceanview. That's good enough for us, especially since the dog sledding on a glacier is EXPENSIVE and I won't give that up.

[NancyIL]

For me, a balcony is what I buy lottery tickets for - a window is mandatory, and the inside cabins have been totally unacceptable to both Cathy and I (we've had 2 inside and 2 oceanview cabins so far). Don't scrimp on excursions - they are what make Alaska cruises truly unique.

 

Murray

 

The one time I upgraded to an oceanview for the same price as an inside (on RCI), the only advantage was an extra 3 sq. ft. We were on a Baha Mexico cruise and not an Alaskan one, but I rarely looked out the window. For that matter, I was never on deck looking at scenery either (not sure there was anything to see!). The oceanview was on the 8th deck, and I would've preferred being on a lower deck, closer to the activities, in an inside.