Balcony or inside cabin?

I voted balcony. I think, for my first cruise, I'd splurge for it. I can always get inside stateroom next time if I don't think the balcony is worth the money.

(Suddenly I'm planning cruises? ;-D )

Inside - on the cruise we went on it was about 400 less a person - I would rather spend the money on other things than a balcony that i would never really use!

Been on 6 Disney cruises and i prefer inside.Most of the time you are cruising at night and during the day there is so much to do you are never in your room.

Personally, I think those virtual portholes look pretty freakin' cool! I wouldn't mind sitting and watching that for a while just to see what swam by next.

Spaceace you're a riot! I can hear this conversation now:

DW: Come on honey (Spaceace) I want to go do something!
Spaceace: No! no wait! I'm waiting for Nemo! He's coming , I know he is!

That's a really good point I hadn't considered about it usually being night. Do you find it helps seasickness, or is that not an issue for you?

I've never been on a cruise, so I was about to vote for a balcony but then I read ahead and was convinced. Why spend the money. It sounds good in theory, but if all you see is blackness most of the time and you're never there anyway, spend the money on something else.

That's pretty much how it'll go! Then I'll be left alone while DW seeks out the next margarita!

Don't feel bad, same thing would happen to me, scrappy would just be looking for a raspberry martini!

I live in Miami and have done more than 10 cruises so honestly I don't see paying for the balcony unless you want to spend alot of time in the room, like on your honeymoon or something.

When I cruise, I am up and out early and on deck at the pool or doing the shore excursions so the cabin is only for sleeping. I'd definetely settle for the virtual porthole and spend the extra cash on Margaritas.

More experts weighing in to say the balcony isn't worth it.

It's great to hear everyone's thoughts on this! I'm kind of a private person, so I'm not sure I wouldn't enjoy relaxing on my balcony vs. on a pool deck with a bunch of other people. I guess I'll just have to endure the research! =D

We went on our honeymoon..and we STILL didn't spend much time in the room! Not worth it at all

That's a definitive answer if I've ever heard one! Caitie -- what shore excursions did you guys do?

We went to Ochos Rios and just did a beach party which was fun. At Grand Cayman...we overslept by a lot for our snorkeling and just relaxed on the ship (which was kind of nice, it was one of the only times we were in the pool), and then at Cozamel we just walked around with friends.

Did you guys ever feel stress about getting back to the ship? That's something I always worry about, that I wouldn't be able to have fun on shore because I'd be worried about missing the ship.

Well, the one excursion had a bus to take us back so you couldn't be late. The other time we just planned things so we would be back in plenty of time. We usually six or seven hours, so it wasn't a big deal. If you are nervous about it, the excursions are the way to go because they are sponsored by the cruise so they won't leave without the excursion getting back.

I voted inside. I've only been on one cruise, but in my experience the extra cost is significant and we too did not spend much time in the room. There are so many other things to do and other places to spend your time. Even for an introvert, there are a lot of options. For example, the ship I was on had a very nice library. I'm sure some will ask, "Who wants to read a book on a cruise?". Well, it's just a nice option to have a quite place to relax with your coffee or adult beverage of choice. I didn't, personally, spend any time there but I appreciated the fact that it was there if I needed it:)

Checking out the ship library sounds like a blast. I wonder if that's a common feature of cruise ships?

I'm not sure how common that is. It was on Carnival's Celebration if I remember correctly (been six years or so). I was going to say it was a huge ship, but then I looked up some details to put things into perspective...Celebration is about 47,000 tons. Sounds pretty darn big right? Well, the largest cruise ship in operation now is 225,000 tons! So I'm guessing (depending on the cruise line) features like that are fairly common if they'll squeeze one into a ship that's a mere 47,000 tons;)

Those ships really are floating cities. I heard about one ship that just sails around to a bunch of different cities around the world. People purchase actual "homes" on the ship, and they can customize furnishings and everything. It becomes their residence!