New cruise ships come ringed with balconies

The Titanic didn't have them. Neither did the snooty Queen Elizabeth 2 or the swinging TV "Love Boat" Pacific Princess.

But now many travelers refuse to cruise if they don't have a balcony cabin.

"The first couple times I cruised I had a porthole window, but the third time I went to the balcony room, and I never went back after that," says Peggy Earo of Cary, N.C., who has a balcony cabin on Deck 2 not far above the ocean swells aboard our ship, the Carnival Dream. "It's a sense of airiness. It's very calming and soothing. I like to see the storms and the waves, the sunrise and the sunset.

"I would not come without the balcony. It's that important to me."

Earo is not alone, and the cruise industry has taken notice.

Eighty percent of cabins on the new Regal Princess ship debuting in May will have balconies. Sleek new river-cruise lines are inventing ways to give guests true balconies instead of just a railing. And big cruise lines keep making their balcony (also called veranda) cabins ever more elaborate.

"I would never book an inside stateroom," says John Safranski of Livonia, Mich., who has taken 10 cruises and has an 11th already booked. "It doesn't get much better than sipping champagne out on the balcony as we cruise into the sunset."

Balcony cabins cost about 25 percent more than inside cabins. But that is less of a price difference than a few years ago.

"Back in the day it could have been 75 percent to 100 percent more expensive to get a balcony, there were so few of them," says cruise analyst Stewart Chiron of Miami-based the Cruise Guy. These days, "it would be crazy to build a ship that doesn't have them."

He says what is going away are "ocean-view" cabins, cabins that have window views of the water, but no way to sit outside.

And even inside cabins these days are being tricked out with "virtual balconies." The new Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas class of ships debuting in November will have soothing video of the ocean broadcast on an interior wall, giving the feel of a balcony cabin if not the bracing reality.

Not that long ago, cruise-ship balcony cabins were for the few and the affluent, if ships offered them at all.

Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas was considered one of the first truly modern cruise ships in 1991. It offered balconies for 5 percent of its cabins, and that was a big deal. Ships built in the 2000s offered about 25 percent to 45 percent balcony cabins.

Now, all new ships offer balconies on more than 65 percent of rooms.

Not much more expensive

And the price differential is shrinking.

I looked at prices on seven cruise lines and ships for a typical seven-day Caribbean cruise in November and found a price premium of 18 to 34 percent over an inside cabin. But I also found deals, such as an $849 balcony cabin price on the new Regal Princess, just $150 more than an interior cabin.

Frequent cruisers may even be able to get a better deal.

Myron Thompson of Omaha, for example, is diamond loyalty level on Carnival because he has taken 50 Carnival cruises.

He does not need to book a balcony cabin to get one.

"If you are a past guest and book it early enough, you will get a two-category upgrade," says Thompson, who once got an aft (rear) corner cabin with a wraparound veranda.

With a balcony like that, a person can see both where they've been and where they are going. And it's a long way from Omaha.