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I appreciate seeing the photos you posted. Thank you. I can see why your wife loved it and, yes, it surely would be better than an Inside or just an Outside Cabin. If you booked a balcony cabin on a deck above where the Cove Balconies are located, I predict your wife would love it even more.
Actually, no.
While we were strolling the Promenade Deck, she looked up at those stacks of other balcony rooms. She was aghast when she realized that they had absolutely no privacy! She said it was like staring at a row of apartments. Since they taper to the top, you could see just about every balcony - and what was going on there.

Like me, she enjoyed hearing the bow cut through the waves, and watching the flying fish skitter from crest to crest.

Another benefit is for those sensitive to motion. We're not, but I have heard lots of our neighbors remark about how much better they felt midship and on a lower deck.
 
Actually, no.
While we were strolling the Promenade Deck, she looked up at those stacks of other balcony rooms. She was aghast when she realized that they had absolutely no privacy! She said it was like staring at a row of apartments. Since they taper to the top, you could see just about every balcony - and what was going on there.

Like me, she enjoyed hearing the bow cut through the waves, and watching the flying fish skitter from crest to crest.

Another benefit is for those sensitive to motion. We're not, but I have heard lots of our neighbors remark about how much better they felt midship and on a lower deck.

Not all ships have balcony cabins arranged in such a way that they taper towards the upper decks. I agree with you wife; I try to avoid booking such a situation as well.

No question in any type of sea conditions that the most comfortable ride is on the lowest passenger deck possible and as mid-ships as possible. There's an old cliche that you may have heard: "The more you pay, the more you sway." The more expensive cabins are those higher in the superstructure.

I can attest to that chiche. During January, I had a cabin on Deck 15 aboard MSC Meraviglia. I'm a good sailor; not prone to seasickness. But, I have never had a cabin on such a high deck and I did notice more motion than usual, even though the seas were not very active most days of the cruise.
 
No question in any type of sea conditions that the most comfortable ride is on the lowest passenger deck possible and as mid-ships as possible.
I agree. And an inside cabin is better than an outside, for the same reason. The closest you can get to the ship's center of gravity, the less motion you will feel from the three axis's. Ever notice where the majority of ships locate their medical center? ;)
 
Correct. That's why I didn't link it with cruise ships. It doesn't cruise. Basically, it's like the old fashioned transportation in the days before transatlantic air service. Mostly, it does straight port to/from port from one port in a country without intermediate stops in as short a reasonable time as it can. So, transatlantic US to UK is 7 days vs as much as twice that on cruise ships. You don't take Cunard for leisurely traveling and for on-board circuses.

So when Ferroequinologist corrected me by commenting that Cunard runs crossings, he is correct but I didn't consider them as a "cruise ship" because that's not how people think of cruise ships. In fact, we canceled a Cunard return of a European trip because, in our minds, it would have been no fun but just a bunch of old people showing how rich they are by dressing up at nightly formal dinners and going to elevator music concerts and boring lectures by unemployed college lecturers about the sites one actually sees when riding trains.

It actually would be a better counterpart to Amtrak than the cruise lines would be. Transportation with amenities rather than amenities with transport.
Correct. That's why I didn't link it with cruise ships. It doesn't cruise. Basically, it's like the old fashioned transportation in the days before transatlantic air service. Mostly, it does straight port to/from port from one port in a country without intermediate stops in as short a reasonable time as it can. So, transatlantic US to UK is 7 days vs as much as twice that on cruise ships. You don't take Cunard for leisurely traveling and for on-board circuses.

So when Ferroequinologist corrected me by commenting that Cunard runs crossings, he is correct but I didn't consider them as a "cruise ship" because that's not how people think of cruise ships. In fact, we canceled a Cunard return of a European trip because, in our minds, it would have been no fun but just a bunch of old people showing how rich they are by dressing up at nightly formal dinners and going to elevator music concerts and boring lectures by unemployed college lecturers about the sites one actually sees when riding trains.

It actually would be a better counterpart to Amtrak than the cruise lines would be. Transportation with amenities rather than amenities with transport.

I couldn't agree with you less. First of all, most of Cunard's speakers are really interesting, not boring. On a crossing a couple of years ago John McCarthy was a featured speaker. If you don't know him, he was a journalist who was held hostage in Beirut for several years. He spoke to a full house on two occasions and had everyone sitting on the edge of their seats. There are lots of other interesting lecturers who talk about a wide variety of subjects. As for the concerts, they vary. None play 'elevator music'. I remember a very accomplished classical guitarist, several very gifted concert pianists. On a QE2 crossing in the 1980s Ray Bradbury spoke. The Queen Mary also has a planetarium with interesting programs. It's true that there is more formality than on most lines - and that's precisely why I and many others flock to Cunard. The same way I used to enjoy the formality of dining cars (mostly pre Amtrak), I like dressing up and having an extended dinner with passengers from different countries. It's not for everyone and that's OK. There are enough of us, at least for now, to keep it going.
 
Lighten up. We had reserved one trip but canceled it. That was about 10 years ago. I carefully looked into it at the time because we had picked the QM2 precisely because it was a short return (after a two week outgoing trip on Celebrity and 2 weeks in Scotland visiting friends). We love to dance but the QM2 apparently did not have rock and roll dancing at that time and for all nights , "gentlemen were requested to wear jackets and ties" and we NEVER do formal nights when that is a requirement. Their entertainment, while interesting, was quite limited and I can only take so many lectures from those professors even if they are like Professor Jones, the guy that chased the Ark. As to rich people, all kidding aside, it seemed there was a lot of amenities reserved for those in the more expensive cabins vs what one finds on a typical cruise ship.

I admit that they had surprisingly reasonable room prices for the "great unwashed" and I guess they stopped keeping the third class passengers from boarding the lifeboats before the first class ones (Hint: another joke) since the White Star Line (which merged with Cunard) made that movie about the iceberg.

Rock music blasting away 24 hours a day? Only if it is from the '60s! Which ship is that? We're on our way!
Thank God you won't find it on Cunard.
 
Not all ships have balcony cabins arranged in such a way that they taper towards the upper decks. I agree with you wife; I try to avoid booking such a situation as well.
Well, I guess that I should have qualified my response better. In the price range our budget allows, the ships tend to taper upwards.
Yes, our budget has us constrained to Carnival. Despite their party-hardy reputation, you can still have an adult experience if you carefully choose your itinerary and dates of travel.
If I had the spare bucks, I would absolutely book Cunard or MSC (when they're not crashing into the piers or river cruisers - Armonia/Opera). I don't mind a more formal dining experience - it highlights the luxury of travel.
 
our budget has us constrained to Carnival. Despite their party-hardy reputation, you can still have an adult experience if you carefully choose your itinerary and dates of travel.

I have experienced many cruises during my life and 4 of them have been on Carnival. My first Carnival cruise was a Spring break cruise on Freedom. When I told my friends about my booking, they thought I had lost my mind. It was a great cruise! While there were many college young people aboard, they were having a good time without being obnoxious. When my tablemates failed to appear for dinner one evening, 3 young women who were Seniors and anticipating their graduation were seated at the table next to mine. Seeing that I was alone, they invited me, at least 4 decades older than they were, to join them for dinner. It was a delightful dinner with interesting conversation among us. Carnival gets a "bad rap" that is undeserved. I have seen more "out of control" behavior from older guests during cruises on Holland America Line than I saw on Carnival Freedom.

f I had the spare bucks, I would absolutely book Cunard or MSC

Cunard is expensive, but check out MSC. They have some very attractive pricing that is competitive with Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL. MSC has been trying to attract future bookings this Summer with some really unbelievable rates.
 
Cunard is expensive, but check out MSC. They have some very attractive pricing that is competitive with Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL. MSC has been trying to attract future bookings this Summer with some really unbelievable rates.

I guess that I should mention that I also prefer to sail from Galveston. There is Royal Caribbean and Disney that also sail from there.
 
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