On a Caribbean cruise, I am sleeping this week in something new. Carnival Cruise Line calls it a cove balcony cabin.
My cabin on the new Carnival Dream is close enough to the water that when the seas churn I can sit on my balcony and get an eyeful of the violence created by a 130,000-ton ship plowing through a turbulent ocean. It’s a great show of spray and froth, though not for everyone, I suspect.
The cove balcony cabins (third row up in picture at right, above the row of portholes and the row of windows) were designed for Carnival, and are available only on the Carnival Dream, the company’s newest and biggest ship. The Dream, which holds up to 4,631 passengers in 1,823 cabins, sails out of Port Canaveral, Fla., each Saturday on seven-night trips to the Caribbean.
Like most other cruise ships, the Carnival Dream has hundreds of outside cabins with private balconies. Demand is high among cruisers for cabins with balconies, and, as a result, every new ship fills both sides, above the hull, with stacks of balconies that from a distance look something like rows of clear plastic containers.
Carnival is the first cruise line to add balconies in the steel hull of the ship, below the string of lifeboats, on a passenger deck, left, about 20-25 feet above the water line. The concept was tested on the hull of the Queen Mary 2 (Cunard is owned by Carnival) and now is used for most of Deck 2 on the Carnival Dream.
Until the Dream, passengers in outside cabins on lower decks have had to make do with windows and portholes, which allow some outside light to filter inside, but aren’t worth much for viewing the outside world.
Carnival Dream’s cove balconies on Deck 2 do not hang out of the ship, as balconies seem to do on higher decks, but instead are chiseled into it -- holes in the steel hull big enough for an open window about six feet wide. The balcony easily holds two deck chairs and a side table. See picture below, right. The balcony door from the cabin can be sealed off by a more watertight door in an emergency.
Micky Arison, chairman of Carnival Corp. and plc, said he wanted another row of cove balconies even closer to the water line, on Deck 1, and tried to obtain government approval, but he was unsuccessful. Deck 1 passengers in outside cabins get a window.
On my cove balcony, (right) I figured I was about three decks above the water. Below me was Deck 1, and under that crew Deck 0, which is about even with the dock when passengers disembark for tours in port. Another crew deck below zero is at the water line.
Still, the cove balconies are close enough to the water that if you feel queasy by thoughts of rolling waves, froth and foam sloshing by your cabin, I would choose alternative accommodations, either an inside cabin or an outside cabin on a higher deck.
For me, the cove balcony cabin was a delightful choice, and, if Carnival ever gets permission on a future vessel, I’d like a balcony another deck down.
