Are uncovered balconies so bad?

[erdooley]

Hi! We're set to sail Alaska on 7/14 on the Golden Princess and are in a mini-suite on the Dolphin deck. It's our first cruise, so I'm unsure what to expect, other than what I've read on these boards. There seems to be a strong opinion that the covered balconies are way better. Just wondering why, aside from the obvious reason of keeping the rain off. Are the covered ones alot warmer or something? I'd think it would be nice to have the sun. I know our suites are a done deal at this point, so we'll be making the best of it. Just interested in hearing opinions. Thanks!

[dcsam]

Whoa! If given the choice, I'd much rather have the uncovered. But I'm the type who would rather be experiencing the moment rather than watching it go by - rain or no rain.

[Toto2Kansas]

Some passengers absolutely freak out if someone can look down onto their balcony. Not quite sure what they are doing out there that they don't want anyone to see actually. LOL

But IMHO the uncovered balcony is fine, we normally have a mini with an uncovered balcony. I have never seen anyone peering down at us anymore than I peer down on anyone below us.

Enjoy your first cruise, I am sure you will love the mini suite and sitting out on your balcony.

[Whimsy]

Being anywhere on a cruise ships beats being at home.....

 

With that said, I don't like the idea of someone looking down at us while we are out on our balcony. I have a public type job so I am always "on" when I am out. I just want to get up in the morning and go sit out on my balcony in my nightgown and enjoy a cup of coffee. I can never leave my house without make up on, hair done, etc. To be able to wake up with bed head, no make up, still in my pajamas and just enjoy the ocean is truly vacation for me.

 

We aren't doing anything anyone couldn't see, I just want to be alone when I am out there. When I am ready to face the world then I go out and about on the ship.

 

Don't stress, enjoy your Dolphin mini suite. When people ask we all have a difference of opinion, no one is right and no one is wrong. Just different things for different people. Some people even wonder why we need a balcony at all!

[Coolmama_1]

We have never had a problem with the uncovered balcony. Some people have complained about debris from above, but it has never been the case with us. We love the extra room in the mini suite as well as the balcony!

Enjoy your cruise!

[jckvpa0]

I have always had a covered balcony,(on other cruise lines) but will have an uncovered one on the Crown this Fall. I think the thing that bothers most people is the fact that people can see you ! Personally it does not bother me, my room is towards the bow & feel there are less people that will be able to view me if I were more mid ship. Either way I plan to totally enjoy my balcony & look forward to having many UBE on it. We are planning on taking advantage of it in the morning & evening.

[daldog]

I also sort of thought that I wouldn't like someone to "look at me" either if I had an uncovered balcony, or that it would be weird to look down at someone - but when we were on Caribbean Princess, we had a Baja deck balcony and yes, we could see the people below us. But our experience was that for the amount of people on the ship there's so few out on their balconies at the same time as we were it wasn't strange at all. I mean, when you see the most people standing at the rails, its when you're coming into a port, and then it's just fun. You wave - everyone has bed head! If you're sitting in your chairs you can't really see anything but out. Even though I don't know what it feels like to look down as opposed to look up, I have a hunch I don't think you'll feel it's a big deal (unless you have people above leaving litter on your balcony - that's just rude!)

[Times Prince]

We prefer covered balconies.

• Had a Dolphin Deck minisuite on our Mediterranean cruise. The balcony got too hot for us, being in direct sunlight most of the time
  
• Breakfast on the Balcony is one of our favorite morning activities - with a covered balcony we can still wear our nighttime wear.
  
• On our Alaska cruise it rained in Glacier Bay. We were cozy and dry in our Aloha Deck Island Princess balcony
  
• I don't have to protect my bald spot from the sunlight while reading on the balcony ... or napping
  
• It is really bright out there during the day - no shade, which is hard on the eyes.

But give me a free cruise with an open balcony and I'll LOVE IT !!! ;)

[captainron]

Hi,

Balconies are in the eye of the beholder and it really boils down to personal prefernce.

We had a balcony going west through the Panama Canal with the "champers" breakfast" and found it too hot even with a half-covered balcony...mind you we were on the port side of the vessel on Caribe in a BA balcony cabin.

The half covered are great.

 

Ciao for now!!!

[billisd]

We love our uncovered mini suite balconies. As far as the privacy issue goes, if people above are sitting on their balconies, they can't see you. If they are standing at their railings, not only can they see you...you can see them. We found it no bother to sit out in our nightclothes -- just throw a robe over if you wear a revealing garment. No worries -- ENJOY!

[NAS-KARR]

Uncovered is what we ALWAYS GET......if someone wants to waste their stupid time looking at me let em !

CIAO,

[djstweety]

I myself can not handle alot of sun, it makes me dizzy and feel sick. So I limit the amount of sun I get. But love the outdoors. So partial covered is good for me. I don't care whom see's me...:)

[Druke I]

We've had covered, half-covered, and hull cut, and for us, it doesn't really matter. They all have their good and bad points.

[ahracer]

I think it really depends on where you are going. For Alaska i'd always prefer a covered balcony as it is frequently rainy and cool. An uncovered balcony on a rainy alaska day is not going to be very inviting where a covered balcony is still fully useable.

[Waimea'sMom]

We've had covered, half-covered, and hull cut, and for us, it doesn't really matter. They all have their good and bad points.

 

I've usually had the open ones (both in a mini suite with decks able to look down and in one up top able to look down on others). The only problem was weather on my Asia cruise -- it was very cold in Beijing and Pusan and the balcony was almost unusable. As a general principle I absolutely HATE the hull cut ones on the Dawn (had it in Mexico this February and will have it in Alaska this August) but in Asia that wind protection might have been nice. I'm actually really jealous of those of you who have had the corner balconies, I'm going to have to check those out!

[spongerob]

We have never had a problem with uncovered balconies nor have we been subjected to some of the nasty things others report. Our neighbors respect our privacy as we do theirs, and when appropriate it's nice to say hello while leaning on the rail.

[CruisinChris]

I don't have a strong preference either way - it's having the balcony that's important. However, I do have a few nits about the open balconies on the bigger ships. First, I don't mind people looking at me, they're easy to ignore. What I hate is what I consider a breach of etiquette in this situation...when the people above me engage me in conversation, especially to comment on what we're doing. Like enjoy a nice bottle of bubbly for sail away. I'm not out there to talk to strangers and certainly don't want to discuss what I'm up to. I also find that the open balconies are very NOISY! When folks open up their balconies with traveling companions and there's constant conversation it all reverberates off the overhang of the Lido deck above and you can hear EVERY WORD down on dolphin. Drives me flippin' crazy!! I wish that people would be more considerate and more respectful of others' (however limited) privacy. There may not be ceilings - but we should act as if there are.

[Mary Leslie]

We had an uncovered balcony on our Panama cruise..........no problem..........we talked with our neighbors above several times........we all had our clothes on:D .............so no big deal................Mary

[Pam in CA]

I've had covered and uncovered balconies. The main reason I prefer the covered balcony is that with skin cancer in my family and having to see a doctor every six months for a skin check, I'm very careful about my sun exposure. Having the uncovered balcony didn't bother me so far as people looking at me because I figured they wouldn't look twice. :)

 

We have covered balcony mini-suites for our Baltic cruise next summer for three reasons: protection from the sun if we want to sit outside and read and relax, protection from the heat of the day (the sun bearing down in mid-July), and protection from rain.

[azbaby8062]

This is the first time I am sailing with Princess and first time we are having a balcony. We are sailing the Golden Princess to Mexican Riviera on the Baja deck B637. Anyone have an idea if it is a covered balcony or open? :confused: thanks

 

PS: Mary Leslie, beautiful baby there. :)

[ggprincess2004]

You might enjoy the shade of the covered balcony on the Mexican Riviera - of course you will only have shade about half the day.

We enjoy the space of the mini-suite, and therefore have uncovered balconies most of the time. Those are fine with us too.

True, people can look down and see you, but you can look up and see them too! The covered balconies are not quite as private as one might think. There are good things about each.

We had a mini-suite on Dolphin for Alaska, and really enjoyed the extra space on the balcony as well. It was cold while doing the Glacier viewing - it was cold up on deck as well. But having the larger balcony allowed the two teens traveling with us to come on over and hang out on our balcony without suffering any overcrowding issues. When we got too cold, we just ducked inside for a few moments.

What we found was the most underused space seemed to be the covered Promenade deck - and it is easy to get from side to side, by just going inside and walking to the opposite door.

No matter what - I am sure you will enjoy your cruise.

[tequilasunrise]

Privacy shouldn't be an issue, because in Alaska because you will want to be covered up :p . The only thing that can make it a pain is that with it being open you are really dependent on the manners of who is around you...we've had problems twice with people throwing cigarette butts, lit and not lit, on our balcony. I've ended up with holes in my clothes from that, so be aware of who is around before leaving your stuff out. I've even had them thrown when I'm out there, so you have to watch out for when your neighbor above finishes his/her cig so you don't get burned if they are that rude. However, this was before the Star fire, so I understand they now have cameras on the balconies and someone watching them all the time for this kind of thing so I don't know if this is still a problem.

 

And of course you might have ashes and/or smoke from the surrounding balconies. This is why I now book inside cabins, and will until they have a block of non-smoking balconies. When it's worked out for me, a balcony is fantastic. But I hate to pay more for one I find out later I can't use.

 

If it's a done deal, then cross your fingers. More often than not you won't have serious problems. If you have someone throwing butts or anything else over the side that is against the rules, so complain. If it's constant smoke, that isn't so just grit your teeth and walk upstairs to the public viewing areas and remember to talk about a block of non-smoking balconies on your comment card for next time. :rolleyes:

[Pam in CA]

This is the first time I am sailing with Princess and first time we are having a balcony. We are sailing the Golden Princess to Mexican Riviera on the Baja deck B637. Anyone have an idea if it is a covered balcony or open?

Baja deck balconies are covered.

[bjkTX]

and we loved them. Obviously weather plays a big part in the equation. We took the Golden to Canada/New England in a BA mini - and loved it. Our first cruise and we've come back 3 more times - 4 more if you count the one we have booked :-) We took the Diamond to Alaska in a Dolphin mini and the weather was perfect. One of our best memories was sailing around Glacier Bay laying on our balcony in shorts, drink in hand, wondering what the folks back home were doing.

 

In our 4 cruises we never had a privacy issue - in fact it was rare to see anyone on their balcony. I always enjoyed it when someone was out there to chat with. We don't do or wear anything that would create a privacy issue anyway - we're too boring.

 

OP - you'll love the cruise, you'll love you cabin and balcony - unfortunately what you won't love is making the same mistake I did - booking a mini suite for your first cruise :-) Now we're hooked. It wasn't oo bad on the 7 day cruises, but our next one is 15 days and we have an AA mini - but what the heck - she's worth it :-)

[azbaby8062]

Baja deck balconies are covered.

 

Thanks, so I guess I will learn for myself if they are good or not, hmmm, although I have nothing to compare it to, so I am guessing I will like it anyway :p