Questions for those who have sailed DCL to Alaska

[JLDSMD]

Did you book a window or balcony room?

If you booked a window, did you wish you had the balcony?

If you booked the balcony, did you find yourself using it a lot or not that much? Would you have saved the money and gone window?

In either case, did you find yourself out of the room a lot doing stuff around the ship or off on excursions/exploring ports?

Thanks.

 

[m1ckeym0use1]

We booked an inside room, and were lucky to get upgraded to a porthole room. The window was nice to have, but when I checked the price difference I wouldn't have paid the $700-$800 just the have the window.

The price difference was almost double to go from an inside room to a balcony... for us we'd rather take 2 cruises in an inside room vs. 1 with a balcony.

Tray Arm day we spend most of the day on deck 4. It was cold/misty, and you could stand on deck 4 and get a great view, while still being covered overhead.

That said, I'm sure the replies from those that booked a balcony will say it was worth the money to them, and those who booked a cheaper room will say they were glad they saved the money.

(We were on the Wonder in May 2012, and just booked Alaska again for August 2014 in an inside room).

 

[MagicMe]

Another inside room here! Always book an inside to save money for the goodies!!! Besides the price of excursions was not cheap. I watched our progress to Tracy Arms on Deck 4 (more to shield my mother from the wind/cold). If I do another one I will be sure to be up on the top decks to get the full 360 view!! It was amazing seeing the view on one side, can only imagine how spectacular it was seeing the mountains on both sides at the same time!!

Loved Alaska!!

 

[ratt1345]

DW and I had a large porthole. And to answer your one question, yes we found ourselves out of the room a lot. We didn't want to miss any of the marine life.

 

[jungle1]

Didn't take DCL (was on HAL), but we did book a balcony. It was nice to have. We used it for some part of every day, but it was way to cold to sit out there and read for hours or anything like that. It was nice to have the big sliding door to watch the scenery, and then be able to quickly jump outside if anything was particularly interesting. But we did miss some stuff that was on the other side of the boat, and went up on deck for the big scenic stuff.

For me, I'd probably pay a 20% premium or so to get a balcony over an ocean view, but everyone's cost/value balance is a bit different. Looking at the pricing for the DCL Alaska cruises, my family would probably end up without a verandah...the premium is pretty high.

 

[mmmears]

We booked a balcony room on our DCL Wonder cruise to Alaska and were very, very happy that we did. It was great to be able to go out there at a moment's notice to take photos of the lovely scenery and waterfalls we were passing by.

We brought my DM with us -- she had been to Alaska twice with Princess with no balcony, and she thought we didn't need one. I have to say that she loved the balcony and now says she wouldn't want to go back without one.

If we ever go back, we know we want a balcony.

It's really just a matter of opinion, though. The excursions in Alaska are very expensive, so if you have to choose between doing something you really want to do and a balcony then it's a different story altogether...

 

[CruznLexi]

I have done Alaska 2 times and the 3rd coming up. The other 2 were on RCI. I had an inside outside and an outside in July. For me to go from deck 2 outside to a deck 5 outside was over $500 and balcony was $1500. That is another cruise.

 

[jellojatdisney]

I booked 2 connecting port hole rooms. A month before we left I regretted not getting a balcony but it was too late. We did spend most of our time on excursions or around the ship but I still think a balcony would have been nice. I think that DH (on his first cruise) would def. have enjoyed. He likes his privacy while I like to socialize.

We did spend a good amount of time on Deck 4 which was great. We did Salmon fishing in Ketchican, Whale watching is Juneau and jeep riding in Skagway. Was a great trip!

 

[mrp4352]

We had a verandah and LOVED it! On our day at Endicott Arm (Tracy Arm was still unpassable on our cruise), we would enjoy having the warmth of our stateroom right there and were in and out all afternoon. Although I will admit that I took some time and went down to deck four on the other side of the ship to watch some!

 

[bceagle76]

Baloncy here but we do it on DVC points so it is not as painful
But we did spend most of the time at Tracey Am on our Baloncy with hot chocalte from upper decks
I am big Deck 4 but not when you have battle for position
I love the deck chairs think of getting one for my office

8/99 4day Magic
4/02 7 day Magic
8/03 7 day Magic
11/05 4 day wonder pin cruise
8/06 7 day Magic
8/08 15 night Panama Canal
8/09 7 day Magic
8/11 Alaska
12/12 Christmas on the Fantasy

 

[Luv2Diz]

We sailed in an Oceanview (window) and loved it! It would have cost $2,000more to get a verandah and we just weren't in the cabin that much. We spent plenty of time on Decks 9 and 10 and had amazing views on all sides of the ship. I'd sail an Oceanview again in a minute to save that kind of money. It didn't lessen our enjoyment of the beautiful Alaska scenery at all!

 

[Politzania]

We had a large porthole room on Deck 2 when we cruised on the Wonder in September 2011. Spent most of the Tracy Arm day on deck - tho still had great views on the way out from our room. Also spent much of the At Sea days on deck (often on the aft decks) as well. We didn't feel we were missing out on anything - besides, it was too chilly out to lounge on a balcony in our PJ's in the morning or evening!

We decided spending the $$ on excursions versus a balcony was a good choice for us. For our upcoming Panama Canal repo cruise, we booked an inside room to save $$ & assuming we'd spend lots of time on deck. However, when the VGT rates came out, we rebooked to upgrade & still saved bunches of cash!

So - we may have a different opinion regarding a balcony after the next trip!

 

[Gilland18]

We had an ocean view June 2011. We didn't miss a veranda. We spent very little time in the cabin.

 

[Presley]

We had the one porthole and we spend very little time in the cabin, so it was fine. Deck 2 and we could still see lots of stuff out of the window.

There are many places on the ship that you can be enjoying the views. In our case, our money was better spent on excursions than on a balcony.

 

[holula]

Another inside room. We spent time on deck 4 and 9/10 when we wanted photographs! Tracy arm was cold and crowded on deck 9/10 but you could "camp out" a spot and it wasn't too hard to squeeze in.

We spent the difference on excursions and booking another cruise.

 

[jenf22]

We had a balcony room and used it all the time. We also had our 5-year old with us, so that was a major contributing factor in deciding what room type. It was nice that he could be warm and cozy in the room playing while we enjoyed the balcony. I doubt dragging him all over the ship to nature watch would have been enjoyable for him.

 

[VowRenewal13]

We had a veranda stateroom. We had some days with nice weather so we could sit out on the balcony. On Tracy Arm day, we were on the top deck and deck 4. DH loves the balcony, so we will always get one. It was always easy to take pictures in the morning and evening from our stateroom. We did not spend a lot of time in our cabin. There was too much going on around the ship.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Did you book a window or balcony room?

If you booked a window, did you wish you had the balcony?

If you booked the balcony, did you find yourself using it a lot or not that much? Would you have saved the money and gone window?

In either case, did you find yourself out of the room a lot doing stuff around the ship or off on excursions/exploring ports?

Thanks.

We booked a balcony and we used it a lot. We were also up on Deck 10 for some of the viewing through Tracy Arm, but spent quite a bit of time on our balcony as well. We liked being in the open air and it was a bit sheltered so not as cold as upper deck. We found on the Alaska trip that we spent more time at the cabin than on other cruises.

 

[becca1976]

Loved reading everyone's thoughts here. We booked an inside room for our 2014 trip to Alaska. Unfortunately we couldn't afford anything with a porthole or a veranda. One review I read in another thread mentioned that with the Alaska trip, there are many more hours of daylight, so an inside room is nice for darkness allowing more hours of sleep. I console myself with this thought when I am wishing for a veranda room! haha!

The excursions are quite pricey as well, and I'd much rather experience all the special things in port rather than use that money for a room upgrade.

 

[clten]

We've sailed to Alaska twice (once on Princess with a verandah, and once on DCL with an oceanview). We did enjoy having the verandah and did use it when we had it. But when we sailed the 2nd time, we didn't miss having it and had no regrets in not getting it. We were out on deck anyway. When we had the verandah, we felt a bit chained to the cabin feeling we had to be in the room using it to get our monies worth out of it. With the porthole cabin, we felt free to come and go as we pleased and had no regrets at all. On Glacier viewing day, we actually saw more when we were on the public decks as we could move from starboard to port and forward to aft more easily. There was also a sense of community -- you had more people out on the public decks spotting wildlife and whatever so you had a good chance of seeing most of what was visible. I wouldn't hesitate to do Alaska again with a porthole cabin. (We'd do inside but we'd sleep the whole cruise away if we didn't have natural light to wake us up!)