On the newer generation of Carnival cruise ships
there's a unique type of cabin called a "Cove Balcony" cabin.
And there's a lot of people that really love the cove balconies,
and consider it their cabin of choice.
In this video, I'll show you why.
Before I take you inside a cove balcony cabin, let's start with a view from the outside.
Here's the Carnival Vista and as we make a slow pass by her, we've got a great view of several different types of cabins.
I'm going to pause the video for a minute to point out a few things.
These cabins up here are standard balcony cabins.
There are a lot of them. It's the most popular cabin category, and they're a great value.
If you look at the vertical arrangement of one atop another you can see they're all a standard width.
But in a few places like here, you'll see some of these balconies that are wider than others.
Those are suites... Which are larger inside, and have a larger balcony, too.
But for this video about cove balcony cabins, we need to focus our attention down more towards the waterline.
Let's look at all these horizontal rows of cabins down below the life boats.
The lowest row, the closest to the waterline, those are the crew cabins.
Notice the round porthole windows.
Everything above that bottom row is passenger cabins.
At the very front, a total of eight cabins with porthole windows.
Those are pretty much the modern day equivalent of steerage on the Titanic.
But then as we move towards mid ship, You'll see all these types of windows here that...
from the outside look a little like two windows with a bar in the middle.
Those are what's known as "ocean view" cabins. No balcony... just a window.
Those are some of the lowest priced cabins on the ship.
The only lower priced cabins than that are the ones on the interior of the ship, with no window or balcony at all.
But it's this row, right here, just below the lifeboats, that I want you to focus your attention to...
Because these are the cove balconies.
When you look carefully at them you'll see this is not a window, it's a big open cut-out in the hull.
Just inside that opening is the balcony for that cabin, inside a bit of a protected cove.
Now let's go inside a cove balcony cabin, for a better look.
Now I've never stayed in a cove balcony cabin myself, but...
On my recent cruise on Carnival Vista, my friends Liz and Kimble did.
And they let me shoot some video here in their cabin So I could show you what all the fuss is about, about the cove balconies.
This is cabin number 2286.
The inside of the cabin itself is very similar to most of Carnival's standard balcony cabins.
It's only radically different outside, on the balcony.
Liz and Kimble have their daughter, Kat, with them this week so...
They opted for a cabin with a bunk that pulls down from the ceiling.
If you've cruised with Carnival before, you'll notice that the inside of the cabin really
isn't all that different from many of the other cabins on most Carnival cruise ships.
To see what's special about a cove balcony cabin, we have to go out the balcony door and take a look at that cove that the balcony sits in.
Now I'm used to cruising in cabins that are up on the upper decks of the ship, so...
The first thing that jumped out at me when I stepped out on to the cove balcony was how close it was to the ocean.
You really get a sense of being down at ocean level.
From the balcony, you can certainly hear the sound of the passing water much better than on the upper decks.
And if you get a cove balcony cabin that's towards the forward end of the ship, like my friends did...
You get a beautiful view of the wake that the bow of the ship makes...
And you get to hear the sounds that are made as the bow of the ship cuts through the ocean.
Now, I've got the camera down at the level your eyes would be at if you were sitting on one of the chairs on the cove balcony.
This gives you a great look at the beautiful view you'd have...
And it's completely unobstructed by any glass.
So, if there's a pod of dolphins, or a boat, or any other interesting thing in the water,
you can get a great view of it...
And you can also shoot great photos and videos from here.
We had very calm seas and great weather conditions for most of our cruise on the Carnival Vista, but...
Things get really interesting in a cove balcony cabin when the weather turns bad and the seas get rough.
In rough seas, the cabin steward will close a watertight door around the glass door to your balcony.
So, you won't be able to go out on your balcony in rough seas, but...
From inside your cabin, you would still have an incredible view of the ocean through the
heavy duty glass windows that separate your cabin from the cove balcony.
So, if you like being in touch with the power of the sea during stormy weather...
This is definitely the cabin for you.
The balcony and that great view of the ocean is definitely the main attraction to a cabin like this, but...
Let me also give you a look around the inside of the cabin, so you can see what things are like in there.
The beds can be arranged as two single beds, or made in to one big bed like you see here.
You've got the pull-down bed, which folds away in to the ceiling.
And a couch underneath it, along with a small coffee table.
There's a desk area, which is a great place for a laptop computer, if you bring one.
And because of the mirror and the chair, it also makes a great dressing and makeup area.
The bed faces a good quality television.
I think it was about a 40 inch diagonal size.
At the desk, you have one European style 220 volt socket.
But then two American style 110 volt sockets.
And there are even two USB ports, for charging your cell phones or tablets and such.
Also, a phone for calling other cabins, or even calling home, if you need to.
By the front door, there are three closets with a lot of storage, and a safe.
And underneath the telephone, that cabinet door there hides a refrigerator.
Let's take a look inside the bathroom.
Not large and luxurious, by any means, but quite functional.
I like that the shower head is on a rail, so that you can raise it or lower it... depending on the height of the person using it.
And you can remove it and use it handheld, too.
The bathroom is very similar to the bathrooms in about 90 percent of the other cabins on the ship.
A single sink. And lots of little places to store things.
Well, that's the tour of a cove balcony cabin.
This particular one on the Carnival Vista was cabin number 2286, but...
All the cove balconies are basically nearly identical to this one.
They really give you a sense of being in touch with the ocean.
And they're actually among the least expensive balcony cabins on the ship.
I'm Jim Zim.
I hope you enjoyed the tour.
I'll post more videos from the Carnival Vista to my YouTube channel.
It just takes me a while to edit them and get them perfect.
And when I'm not on vacation, I do have a "real job" that takes up a lot of my time.
But if you click on the "subscribe" button, YouTube will highlight my new videos whenever I do finally post a new one.
And that way, you won't miss any.
In the meantime, here are a couple of videos from some of my previous cruises that I think you'll enjoy.
Pick one that looks like it might be interesting, click on it, and enjoy!