Princess Balconies

We are interested in booking on the Grnd Princess. If we chose a Guaranty BE Balcony room, we could end up on the Emerald Deck. We notice on the deck layouts that there might be a Promenade deck going past those rooms. Is the Promenade going to invade our privacy, or is it actually above or below tose balconies? Thanks for any info.

Balconies on the Grand are tiered. On your balcony you can look down on the lower balconie(s) but the folks upstairs can look down on you. This and other reasons are why we prefer the smaller ships. I believe we once beat this problem by booking the deck just under the horion court deck...but I cant remember if it was the Grand or another ship.

[Bastet]

I was just on the Grand and the Promanade deck does not go by any balconies. Emerald is deck 8 and the Promanade is deck 7 for most of it although you do go up some stairs towards the Bow. The balconies on the Emerald deck are completely covered, at least ours was. I think the balconies on the Dolphin deck are also covered. It's after that that you have the tiered balconies.

[LisaK]

The balconies on the Dolphin Deck are open and uncovered, its not a big deal we did not feel uncomfortable being out on our balcony in our swimsuits or in our robes. I suppose that if you wanted to sunbathe "au naturale" then it could cause a bit of a "stir"
It was fun, actually, especially at sail-away, you would see people standing on their balconies on our deck, turn around and wave or salute with a drink to the folks above them!

As a clarification, the bottom-most balcony (Dolphin deck, I believe--the minisuites) are fully visible from all above. They are not under cover, but fully exposed to the sky above. The balconies on the next deck above that are tiered back from the exposed balconies below. They are twice as deep as a standard baclony (These balconies are 9' wide by 10' deep. All balconies above this level are standard--about 9' wide by 5' deep). The inside half of each balcony on this deck is under cover and the outside half closest to the railing is open to above. The balconies on the remaining decks above are not tiered. They are all in line with the middle of the balcony below--hence the reason for the extra deep balconies being half under cover and half exposed to above.

Sorry, this doesn't answer your question though.

We were on the Grand last year, and I actually think I do remember walking past balconies in the area you speak of on Emarald deck. This is right where the stairs take you from the Promenade deck up one level to the Emerald deck where the promenade continues around the front of the ship. If I remember correctly, these balconies aren't completely private. I don't think anyone walks directly in front of them, it's just that the stairs and upper promenade adjacent these rooms allow a bit of a glimpse into these balconies.

[pg.]

I believe if you look at the brochure you will see that it is the cat. BF balconies that look out onto a promenade deck. There are only 4 of those cabins, and you are most unlikely to get them.We booked a BF and ended up with a BA, lido deck.

could you please explain a little more regarding the size of the balconies. Are the balconies on Dolphin 9 x 10, or were you referring to the ones on the deck above the Dolphin (Caribe, I believe) as being larger than the norm.

[magiceye]

We are booked on the Lido deck, BA category, cabin L310. Can you tell me if these balconies are smaller than the lower decks and what are the advantages and disadvantages of being on that top deck.

The balconies on Dolphin deck are the largest (not sure of actual size). These are the minisuites. The balconies one deck higher on Caribe are approx. 9 x 10 feet. These are regular balcony rooms with enlarged balconies (twice the size of regular balconies). The balconies above on Baja and Aloha are approx. 9 x 5 feet.

I'm pretty sure the balconies on Lido deck are at least the standard 9 x 5 feet. I've never stayed in this area.

Possible Advantages: close to pool and upper decks, probably not too much through-traffic, etc., No one to look down at you from above, good views from the balcony--although all decks have good views

Possible Disadvantages: pool noise and traffic if too close to pool area, potential for noise from deck above (there is another pool and deck space above the area you are questioning), more motion in the upper bow area of the ship than rest of the ship.

[Carol B]

How big are the ones on Riveria?

[GummyBear]

Riviera(14)*Balcony ______________________][_____]
Aloha(12) Balcony ______________________][_____]
Baja (11) Balcony ______________________][_____]
Caribe(10) Balcony ______________________][__________]
Dolphin (9) Mini _________________________________][_______________]

* Caribbean Princess Only

[GummyBear]

Sorry...this looked better while I was editiing.........

Riviera, Aloha, & Baja Decks, actually are directly in-line with each other, they are not tiered as shown above.

Same for the Diamond and the Sapphire

[GummyBear]

Oops....forgot about those two. Thanks MSN

Hi. I am booked for a Jan. Hawaii trip on the Island Princess in the mid Dolphin deck area. I'm getting a bit nervous about the balcony after reading alot of posts regarding uncovered balconies. I just liked the idea of a balcony to have an occasional morning breakfast , and a quiet area to sit and read if I feel like it. I really don't care if people can see me eating breakfast or reading or not. At the risk of sounding dumb, forgive me, but for my purposes, should having an uncovered balcony pose a problem? If it rains, I wouldn't be outside anyway,,,, Thanks, Anita

[Carol P.]

Anita: We were on the Golden and had a balcony on the Aloha deck. It was covered. The balconies that are uncovered should be no problem only as you mentioned if it rained, and it seldom does. That was our experience anyway no rain!!!! For our cruise in April 05 we have a balcony on the Baja deck, one deck below the Aloha, only because we did hear noise when they were moving chairs etc. above us. Usually people choose to use their balcony in the morning when pulling into port. Its great to see all the action when approaching the islands. Also its nice to sit and read and relax. I really enjoyed our balcony in the morning with a cup of coffee and the wonderful view of the approaching islands. In the evening the total darkness is still!! We hope to do the cruise that you are doing in the future, my dream!! The time at sea will be wonderful with a balcony. Enjoy Hawaii !!!

[BobbieE]

We just returned from the Grand Princess - Baltic. We had a balcony on the Caribe deck - Caribe 631. It was perfect. Half of our balcony was covered to provide privacy and the rest was open. Our balcony was larger than most balconies on other decks and we really enjoyed it.
Bobbie

Cruised on the Grand Princess last April, did not have a balcony room, but did notice on some of our walks that we were going past some people's rooms. So l would say they are not above or below but right at shoulder level - OK when the curtains or blinds are drawn but otherwise, we could see into them. I ccan't recall if they were on Emerald deck or not.

Sorry, let me clarify - it was not rooms with balconies just the windows of some rooms.

[Bastet]

GummyBear,

Great diagram, but you forgot to show the balconies on the Emerald deck (8). We had one of the mini suites on the Grand in the back of the boat on the side (actually the very last one with the bigger balcony -- E728) and our balcony was completely covered.

[Lesli]

Had a Dolphin deck balcony on the Grand in Sept/02 and did not enjoy it much due to it being open to everyone above. Learned that lesson! We kept find junk on the balcony, cigarette butts and even a penny! We're book on the Sept 4/04 sailing of the Caribbean Princess and have a balcony room aft on the Baja deck., completely covered and private. Wil be interesting to see size of balcony.

[jody]

We are booked on the Star Princess on 12-19. Have a balcony room Baja 602. Does anyone have any info about this area Jody

[sproctor]

The Emerald Balconies that you mentioned do look out over the promenade deck. We thought about getting one last year because the price was really great. Ended up sticking with our inside cabin though. To see what we missed I did walk by them to check them out. Not really that bad. The floor of the balcony is shoulder high or so. So it's not like you have people walking by and leaning in to chat. Also they do close that part of the promenade after dark so you would get privacy then.

When it come to covered or uncovered I would much rather have an uncovered. We have had uncovered ourselves and traveled with people that had a covered one and you get a lot more sun on the uncovered ones. For me I'm coming down to the cruise from the cold Northeast so I want as much sun in my 7 days as I can get!!!! So if I had a choice between all uncovered or completely covered I would take the uncovered every time.

[Lesli]

I agree with you Sproctor about the sun part as I am from the Northeast also but would like uncovered that isn't in view of hundreds of people and their cigarette butts! We'll see on the Caribbean Princess how we like this cabin.

Hi Anita, I am also booked on the Island Princess for Hawaii on Jan 4... Tried a couple of times to get an answer to the Balcony situation directly from Princess... Heard some cabins have a cover, but no one seems to know which ones..... I am on the Dolphin Deck -Mini Suite and first they say they are covered by the upper deck and then another person says they are partially exposed.... Go figure! They sure took my money fast enough, but can't come up with a straight forward answer. I'm sure the cruise will be MARVELOUS regardless! Maybe will see you on-board. Joan

[Carol P.]

Jody: the Baja deck is covered, the deck above the Aloha cannot look down on your balcony, however you will be able to look down on the others. We chose the Baja deck for our next cruise on the Sun Princess. Enjoy your cruise.

Hi, I'm going on the Nov.5 to Hawaii and have a suite on the Dolphin Deck, D329, so if you want I'll let you know what our balcony is like. Do you already have your room #? I can't wait !

Caribe are the best. Give you the best of both worlds. A larger balcony, 1/2 private, 1/2 not so private, but the size difference is incredible. We love the caribe cabins, and probably would pick one over a mini-suite.

[DianeT]

Jody,

Having been on both the Grand and the Golden - which are sister ships to the Star and having always been on Baja deck in the 600 group cabin #'s with a balcony - I can tell you that those balconies are about 9 x 5 feet (maybe more like 4 1/2 feet deep) and are covered. You can look down and see half of the balconies on Caribe Deck and all of the balconies on the Dolphin Deck.

Diane

Hi Gummybear Would you know if the aft Caribe balcony is also 9/10