River Cruise Balcony Comparisons—What View Do You Want?
by Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist
“What type of balcony is best for my river cruise?” We are often asked this question. It can be very confusing trying to figure out the different approaches to balconies by various river cruise lines
Balconies or lack of balconies is often one of the keys defining differences between river cruise lines in stateroom cabin accommodations. This blog should help you understand each line’s approach to balconies and should help you evaluate whether a balcony, and what type of balcony, would be best for your river cruise.
On river cruise ships, there are 6 possible views from your river cruise cabin stateroom. They are:
a small window,
a large window,
a French balcony (a sliding glass door),
a balcony with a window that opens halfway
an outside balcony,
a twin balcony.
Deck Designs of a River Cruise Ship
River cruise ships have 4 decks, but the upper deck, often called the sun or sky deck, is just a roof. There are guest cabins on the remaining 3 decks.
Deck 1 (the lowest deck) is for crew, with some guest staterroms and may have some public areas. Decks 2 and 3 have guest cabins and other public areas. Balcony cabins are only allowed on the upper two decks (2 & 3) of a river cruise ship.
Balcony cabins are always more expensive than window cabins. On the first deck, nearest to the river line, all cabins only have small or large windows, but most only have the small windows. There is a very good safety reason that only fixed windows that do not open are allowed on Deck 1, as the windows are just a few feet from the water line. The cabins with only small windows are usually the least expensive cabins on each ship.
So, with that background, let’s explore river cruise cabin balconies on the upper two decks of the cruise ships except for the Douro River which has special designed ships for their smaller locks on that unique river.
What are the 7 Major River Cruise Companies that Market to US Travelers?
There are currently 7 companies who are the primary suppliers of river cruises to the US market. They are 1) AmaWaterways, 2) Avalon, 3) Emerald, 4) Scenic, 5) Tauck, 6) Uniworld, and 7) Viking. Each of these companies usually have different approaches to balconies on their river cruise ships.
Although beyond the scope of this blog, if you would like a detailed comparison of these 7 river cruise lines, please click this link,
AmaWaterways
Since 2009, when we took our first cruise on AmaWaterways, we have watched balcony cabins evolve on our favorite river cruise line. At first, they only had French balconies on all cabins in the upper two decks.
In 2010, starting with the AmaBella, they introduced the concept of twin balconies— ½ French balcony inside and ½ balcony outside. Since that time, all 135 m river ships on AmaWaterways use the twin balcony concept. No other river cruise line at present uses this concept for most of their upper deck cabins, although Viking does use twin balconies on a limited number of their suites.
Twin balconies really are the best of both worlds—outside when the weather is good or inside with the sliding glass doors of the French balcony at other times. While there are a few French balconies on the upper two decks of their 135 m longships (they call them Cat C cabins), all the remaining 49 have the twin balconies. 65 of the 82 cabins on the 135 m long ships have balconies. Here are some pictures of the twin balconies and French balconies we have taken on various cruises:
A good look at an outside balcony on an AmaWaterways ship
A view of the twin balconies from inside our cabin. On the left is the outside balcony. Inside is the French Balcony which has the small glass table and two inside chairs for a seating area. Photo Anne Schrader.
The French Balcony cabin on our first river cruise in 2009
Avalon
Avalon uses French Balconies only. They call their concept an Open-Air Balcony. This concept is that the whole stateroom is the balcony, with the bed facing the window and it has larger windows of 11 feet in the Panorama suites. They heavily promote the “wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling” windows of their staterooms. 68 of the 84 cabins on their longships have the Open-Air Balcony concept.
In their newest ship, the Avalon View, they have replaced the railway with a clear safety divider, so there is nothing obstructing the view.
Avalon Vista—while not a perfect picture you can see the large windows at the stern of the ship that open and close. Photo Anne Schrader
A photo from Avalon Waterways showing their Open-Air concept. Used by their permission.
Emerald
All Emerald ships on the 2 upper levels have balconies. They call their balconies an open-air system and it uses a button to lower the window horizontally halfway down from the closed position. 72 of their 90 cabins on their 135 m longships have the open-air system. Here is a picture of the Emerald Sun balconies from a ship inspection we did in 2015:
The Emerald Sun balcony cabin. Photo Anne Schrader
Scenic
Scenic features a balcony they call the Sun Lounge—at a push of a button, the glass enclosed lounge converts to an open-air balcony by going horizontally down halfway—it is awesome! All cabin categories on the upper two decks have full balconies with the Sun Lounge. 68 of the 81 cabins on their 135 m longships have the Sun Lounge. Here is a picture of the Sun Lounge from our 2015 Scenic Opal cruise:
Our Scenic Opal balcony cabin. Photo Anne Schrader
Tauck
Tauck river cruise ships have only French Balconies. 55 of the 67 cabins on their 135 m long ships have balconies. Tauck is unique in its approach to some of their river line cabins. It has 8 cabins that are called loft cabins—they have a sitting area loft that is raised up from the rest of the cabin area and extends from the first deck to the second deck.
The Tauck Treasures cabin staterooms portion of the ship. Photo Anne Schrader
The loft cabin. This picture is from Tauck and used by permission.
Uniworld
Uniworld, with its elaborately decorated boutique river ships, has 2 types of balconies. They have different style ships, so it is hard to give exact information about each ship, but the newest have French balconies on the 2nd level deck and on the upper level deck have open-air balconies, that at a touch of a button, can open or close . The larger 135 m longships have French balconies on the second deck and outside cabins on the upper deck. On their 135 m ships 62 of the 77 staterooms have balconies.
The River Riyale in port. Although not perfect, you can see the French Balcony cabins on this ship.
Viking
Viking on its 53+ longships at present, use a patented off-center deck on their upper two decks. This allows for one side of the ship to have verandas (outside balconies) and the opposite side has French balconies.
There are 2 large suites (445 sq ft) at the aft end of the ship that have wrap around balconies and 7 veranda suites (225 sq ft) with an outside balcony and a French balcony. 39 state rooms (205 sq ft) have outside verandas. 22 staterooms (135 sq ft) have French balconies. 69 of the 94 staterooms have balconies. The outside balconies have 2 mesh chairs and a small drink table.
This is the Viking Baldar in port. It really shows clearly the difference between the small windows on the first deck at the water line and the balcony cabins above. Photo Anne Schrader
A French Balcony Stateroom. on a Viking Ship. Photo from Viking and used by permission.
How To Decide If a Balcony is Important for your Cruise Experience.
Most river cruise guests spend most of their waking hours outside their cabins either in the main lounge or on the top deck, when they are not eating, or on tour. While a private balcony of any type is cool and a great luxury, we have seldom spent more than an hour on any of our balconies during any cruising day (21 river cruises).
I will admit, though, it is tough to beat having a bottle of wine together on your private balcony—a great escape and some quality together time. That alone, makes a balcony important to us—it really doesn’t matter if it is a French Balcony or an outside veranda or a twin balcony—it all is good (but we lean to the outside balcony)!
It is important to realize due to limited docking space, river ships often raft, or tie up next to each other, so your wonderful view now becomes a view into someone else’s cabin. Also, in some ports, the docking location has walls to obscure views. There is also no view during time in a lock except to look at the concrete lock walls.
A final point to consider is that sailing often is done at night, so tours can take advantage of daylight hours, and this limits what you are able to see from your balcony during some sailing times. Even with these limitations, we always prefer a balcony of some type.
Our Final Thoughts--Should you get a Stateroom with a Balcony?
In my opinion yes! One of the best things about river cruising is the constant views along the banks of the river and the more you get to see, the better! We always recommend a cabin on the upper 2 decks for that reason. Another point to consider is that cabins on the river line deck with small windows often only are accessible by stairs and can feel cramped with the limited light from the small window.
We hope this has helped you understand more about balconies that are offered on the various river cruise lines. With these great views, it is easy to see what a great way a river cruise is to explore Europe!
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Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@dreamdestinations.com. We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!
ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 26 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all.
HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 50+ years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:
AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent
