Virtual Balconies….

Well my family cruise for this year is all booked….. I have 2 very excited children, and they have already started countdown.  I have been lucky to have cruised many times over the years and have sampled some of the finest cabins and ships.  This though is my first family cruise.  We have a fantastic itinerary starting in Venice and visiting my favourite port Kotor.   We also go to Rome and Livorno which I have never been before.  My only concern is that we are having an inside cabin.  I have never been in an inside before, so for my job it will be good to sample an inside, but the thought of not seeing outside, or being able to sit on a balcony un-nerves me. 

This has got me thinking about the next generation of cabins, “virtual balconies”.  Navigator of the Seas was spruced up during her recent month-long drydock, getting new carpets, soft furnishings, menus, restaurants, additional cabins, but the biggest buzz is the first-in-the-industry Virtual Balcony cabins.  These inside cabins feature floor-to-ceiling HD display screens that give passengers real-time views of the sights and sounds outside,.  RCCL newest ship Quantum of the Seas due to launch in November 2014, will have the amenity in 373 of the ship’s interior rooms (on Navigator, it’s in 81 of the 643 standard interior cabins).  The views will all depend on which way the screens face, so if its the front of the ship you will get the view from the high-quality digital camera mounted on the bridge.  Facing back, you get the view of the ship’s wake from the camera mounted on the rear of the ship.  It will also have a volume control natural sounds associated with the views.