Many cruise passengers insist on having a balcony cabin. Some people don't like the darkness of an interior while others can't picture a cruise without outdoor space of their own.
Newer cruise ships have a much higher percentage of balcony cabins while some like Royal Caribbean's Oasis and Icon-class ships offer "neighborhood balconies," which overlook the interior parts of the ship.
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Many traditional cruisers see having an oceanview balcony as an essential part of cruising. They like being able to see the sea or take in the views as they head into a port city.
Balconies are especially prized on sailings to picturesque destinations like Alaska where the ship may sail by glaciers, or through areas that are stunning to look at. In most cases, balconies cost more than oceanview rooms (cabins with a window) or interiors, which have no outside view at all.
Celebrity Cruises, on its Edge-class ships, reinvented the traditional balcony and replaced it with what it calls an "Infinite Veranda. It's a new take on a balcony that some cruisers love while others don't consider a real balcony at all.
Image source: Dan Kline/Come Cruise With Me
What is an Infinite Veranda?
Celebrity Cruises was trying to improve upon the traditional cruise ship balcony when it created the Infinite Veranda. The innovation was supposed to make its largest class, the Edge class, stand out from older ships.
The cruise line shared a very upbeat take on its revised take on a cruise ship balcony on its website.
"The most transformational aspect of our stateroom design is the introduction of the Edge Stateroom with Infinite Veranda, where with the touch of a button, your entire living space becomes the veranda, letting you walk right out to the water’s edge. These staterooms feature the latest in design and technology, and they’re 23% larger than our award-winning Solstice Series veranda staterooms," Celebrity posted.
When the window on the Infinite Veranda is closed, it does actually offer extra space or even a small private area as it can be closed off from the cabin with bi-fold doors. There's a catch, however, as once you open your Infinite Veranda window — making it a balcony-like outdoor space — the air conditioning in your entire cabin shuts off.
That's a problem because cruise cabins sailing in hot weather can warm up much faster than they cool down.
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Celebrity Cruise considers a change
Some passengers love the Infinite Veranda which has an electric drop-down blackout curtain that makes your cabin truly dark even when the sun comes up. Traditional balcony cabins, even if you bring a clip to keep the shades closed bleed light around the edges.
Celebrity Cruises President Laura Hodges Bethge addressed the Infinite Veranda issue during a recent Ask Me Anything session with Cruise Critic readers.
"Can those translucent bi-fold doors separating the Infinite Veranda from the rest of the cabin be changed out for drapery as on RCCL ships? Or perhaps redesigned to be opaque? The top-down room darkening shade is problematic when one cabin mate wants to sleep in and the other is ready to rise and shine and enjoy the view outside," the poster asked.
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In the current setup. opening the blackout curtain in front of the Infnite Veranda window would flood the cabin with light. Bethge answered that question and the broader one that wasn't directly asked.
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"We have learned through the Edge series that the infinite veranda is very polarizing. Our guests either love it or they hate it. We are reevaluating the ratio of balconies to infinite verandas in future ship classes to make sure we have the optimal mix. We appreciate your valuable feedback, and we will look into the possibility of curtains in the future," she wrote.
On current Edge-class ships there are some traditional balconies, mostly at the back of the ship overlooking its wake. Royal Caribbean offers a limited number of interior-facing Infinite Veranda-style rooms on Icon of the Seas.
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