Balcony...Mexican Riviera or Alaska

BSCorvette · February 24, 2010

We were on the Spirit last month in a balcony stateroom...they have partial obstruted views on this ship on deck 5...the lifeboats are placed so you can look straight out but not down... it was a great price for these cabins. We were in room 5173 mid ship... had great views!

DebbieandJerry · February 24, 2010

Huge toss-up. We've done both ocean view and balcony for the Mexican Riviera. Have to admit that we got some of our best views from the pool deck - dolphin, whales (depending on the time of year). While we saw flying fish from the room, it wasn't the same.

I guess the nice thing about the balcony is waking up and sitting on it when you are in port, leaving port, or just arriving. Then again, we always managed to be on deck at those times as well.

Haven't been to Alaska but we did do a Pacific Northwest. We couldn't afford the balcony (Royal) so we opted for an ocean view with a bay window. I pretty much sat on the window sill and watched. We also went upstairs to the walking deck and watched from there.

Here's how I would determine it: COST. My guess is Mexico will be the cheaper of the two and you can probably get a balcony room in a decent part of the ship for cheaper than Alaska (at least when I last looked at Alaska it was mighty costly).

rogue · February 25, 2010

We have never cruised th Mexican Riviera, but have cruised twice in Alaska. I personally can't understand why anyone would cruise to Alaska without a balcony. You are rarely out of sight of land and majestic snow-capped mountains. The sea is teeming with life (whales, seals, otters, etc). Eagles are soaring in the air. I always wanted to just be out there looking at everything. The balcony was just way too convenient.