Should I book a Sheltered balcony?

By now you should all have heard that I have just come back from Cunards QM2, (see my previous blog on the ship here), and I absolutely loved it. One of my biggest surprises of the cruise was the cabin I was in, a B1 sheltered balcony.

Normally, if a client rings looking for a balcony I would recommend one of the A grade balconies that look like this, a nice open balcony with a glass front, giving you lots of natural daylight and a great chance to work on your tan.
The sheltered balconies on the other hand aren't glass fronted. Your 'window' is cut right into the side of the hull, so the bottom is the metal of the hull rather than glass. This means you don't get as much daylight and if you're sitting on a deckchair you won't be able to see the ocean, just the sky. Consequently the rooms are much cheaper to book.

However, the big advantage to these sheltered balconies that I found was that, as the name suggests, they are very sheltered. Sailing back to Southampton from Cherbourg there was a fairly strong wind at night blowing past the ship, but standing in my balcony all I could feel was a cool sea breeze. There was also a lot of rain, but again, sitting in my sheltered balcony I stayed dry.
Obviously in most situations the glass fronted balconies will be better, that's why they cost more, but for a cruise during the winter, where you might be expecting some bad weather, or on a transatlantic crossing, where strong winds are always a possibility, my recommendation is to go with the sheltered balconies.
Trust me you will get a lot more use out of your balcony.

Happy cruising