Is the Verandah Worth It?

[kimberwing]

We were in a Cat 5 in April, and are thinking of booking again. If you've had rooms with and without verandahs (verandi??) is it worth the extra $500+ for a minimum Cat. 6? Would you be happy with a Cat 8?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Diz-Me]

Hi kimberwing

We have cruised on the Magic and the Wonder (both 4 day) and had a porthole cabin and a verandah cabin.

With four of us in the room (DH, DD-15, DS-13 and myself) the verandah really does offer some nice quiet extra space. But on a four day cruise I would only get the verandah if the cost difference between porthole and verandah was not much more than $200.

On a seven day cruise I would spend more to get a verandah. With the 'at sea' days on the seven day trip you would have many more opportunities to use the verandah.

What I would not do again is book an inside cabin. DH and I took a seven day Holland America cruise in an inside cabin and I found it very disorienting not to have any natural light.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

I think the category 7 Navigator's verandah is a good compromise. It's not as open as a cat. 5 or 6, but still offers the same size verandah and open air. I've done both 7 and 5, and didn't think I gave up that much with the Navigator's verandah. The cat. 7 is generally a few hundred dollars less than a 6. One drawback is that they only sleep 3, so it wouldn't work for a family of 4.

 

[bennytobunny]

For us a verander was a great, it was great in the morning to watch the sun rise. It gave us alittle extra room, I would never book anything without again. A definately plus to our vacation.

 

[prymsu]

they are terrific. Especially if you have small kids conked out, you can sit out on the deck and relax. I even sleep out there when the weather allows, on some cruises that have bigger balconies.

 

[taswira]

I've had the Cat 5 and the Cat 7. Now I actually <I>prefer</I> the Cat 7 because the Navigator's Verandah offers more ambience, privacy, and you can even enjoy it if the weather turns bad because it is enclosed except for the HUGE open porthole (especially on the Wonder - - bigger opening than the Magic). My favorite location is Deck 7 aft. But the Cat 7 does only sleep 3.

 

[PiperG]

I think it just depends. As with PRYMSU, we sat at there for hours at night after DS5 went to sleep. He also took a nap in the afternoon and we sat on the verandah and enjoyed the view so it was good for both day and night.

We had a Cat 5 and are switching to a Cat 6 ($200 less). Until DS gets much older, its a must for us.

 

[AnnMorin]

For us it is a must! I just love (especially at the at sea days) to sit back and watch the world go by.Up on deck it can get a bit hectic and I like to have some solitude. Our son (9) is unable to sleep without some winding down time that includes about a half hour of tv. We could get him ready for bed, put a movie on for him and go to our "other room" and drink some wine and just enjoy the whole "sailing" aspect. If you are a night person and not a homebody like us it may be a waste of money.But I would personally never sail without one! (well maybe not never-if I had a choice of a cruise with no veranda and no cruise then forget the veranda ) ann

 

[WDWLVR]

I've been spoiled by a veranda and can't see sailing without one again. I'm a morning person and DH really isn't so I always have at least 1/2 hour of quiet reading time out on the veranda. I agree with Taswira - we had a Navigator veranda for the first time and loved it. We booked one for our next cruise (May 2003).

Everyone is different so if you don't think you'll spend that much time in the room you might not think it is worth it. I like quiet time and being able to just sit with a drink and watch the world (and sea) go by. I'm a veranda fan!

 

[Werner Weiss]

I thought we'd get a lot of use from our verandah. I was wrong. We spent so much time away from our stateroom, that we seldom made use of the verandah.

I thought my wife would spend a lot of time reading on the verandah, but she prefered the wonderful deck chairs on Level 4. And, I thought we would enjoy a glass of wine on the verandah between the end of the 6:30 p.m. show and our 8:30 p.m. dinner seating, but, instead, we really enjoyed going with our kids to the delightful 7:45 p.m. family cabaret shows and game shows in Rockin' Bar D, Off Beat, and Studio Sea.

I thought the verandah could be a wonderful place to enjoy room service breakfasts -- but with four of us, and only two chiars on the verandah, we ended up going to one of the restaurants each morning for breakfast.

One of the few times that I wanted to use the verandah was as the ship was departing from St. Thomas. Unfortunately, on the verandah next to ours, a man chose that time to engage in a long and very loud cell phone call -- and then to light up a cigar. I tried to tune out his voice as I read my book, but my nose couldn't tune out his cigar, so I left our verandah.

Don't get me wrong. The verandah was very nice. The two plastic chairs are fairly comfortable, and I did spend a few hours on the verandah over the course of the week. I'm not advising against getting a verandah -- I'm just saying that I wouldn't do so again for my family.

 

[taswira]

Originally posted by Werner Weiss
Don't get me wrong. The verandah was very nice. The two plastic chairs are fairly comfortable, and I did spend a few hours on the verandah over the course of the week.

That's another thing I like about the Cat 7 Navigator's Verandah. Instead of plastic chairs and a small metal or plastic table, you get a nice built-in bench seat with a CUSHION, plus a comfortable wooden chair and a round wood table that is a bit larger than the table in the regular verandahs. But I agree with you that the (Cat 5, 6 and 7) verandahs are all too small for 4 people to have breakfast on comfortably. I enjoyed reading, writing, breakfast, watching the sea and just relaxing on the verandah early morning and late at night.

 

[aprilgail2]

I loved our verandah....I laid out on the lounge chair out there and napped one early evening and one day I ran up to the breakfast buffet and brought down a big tray of food and we all ate out on the verandah. We had a table, 4 chairs and 2 lounge chair on our verandah and it was VERY roomy out there even with all those chairs out there. If I could afford it I would book another one for sure, but if money was tight I would have no problem getting a cheaper room if it meant the diffrence between cruising or not cruising!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally posted by aprilgail2
We had a table, 4 chairs and 2 lounge chair on our verandah and it was VERY roomy out there even with all those chairs out there.

What category? (It certainly doesn't sound like 4, 5, 6 or 7.)

 

[aprilgail2]

It was a catagory 5 but it was a handicapped room so everything was bigger!

 

[professorandmom]

I've seen this discussion before: but, I have one question I haven't seen addressed:

My family and I are going in August. I wonder if it will be just too hot to sit outside. When I started reading posts about cigars and other drifts I wondered whether the extra money would be worth it...but now I really need to hear from someone who has cruised in mid August. I had hoped to sit outside when the DSs8 (twins) crash but am afraid it will be too humid. Are there cool breezes in the evening?

 

[lespaul55]

We cruised mid August last year with a verandah Cat 6 in the 7 day land/sea. If the ship wasn't moving, we didn't use the verandah cause it was too hot. If the ship was moving, the breeze helped but it was a moist warm breeze, not exactly refreshing.

***Now comes my special notice: I live in San Diego. The air is always dry here. If we have heat, it's from the desert. It always cools down at night here. I thought the whole time I was in WDW and on the cruise, I am breathing under water, just too humid. We lived with those mister fans. Now that said, we are cruising this June, so how bad was it? Not bad enough, I guess!! Or amnesia has set in! Our kids had a great time, so we are going again but just cruising on the Magic, no land stuff.

Leslie

 

[ruvidu]

On the side of our refrigerator is a photo of Miss Vivian sitting on the veranda during our cruise last year. She has her feet proped up on the little table, in her lap is John Grisham's "Painted House" and she is sound asleep with a pillow behind her head. In the background is a dark blue ocean that shimmers with sunlight. If you were to ask Miss Vivian, who is a K4 teacher, if the varanda was worth the price, she would say "At Any Price". No lesser room would have given us the great photo and memory.

Russ and Miss Vivian