Norwegian’s Club Balcony Suite Was It Worth The Money?
I spent an INSANE four hundred and thirty-two dollars to upgrade my cruise room, and you will NOT believe if it was a scam or the deal of a lifetime. And here’s the brutal truth: I’m still not sure if I’m a genius or if I just got tricked by free sparkling wine. Stick with me, because by the end of this video, I’m going to give you the ONLY math that matters—and we’ll find out if this VIP upgrade was the biggest waste of money in history.
NORWEGIAN STAR EMBARKATION DAY
CHECK THIS OUT! It’s embarkation day, and it is absolute CHAOS! Suitcases and people are everywhere. Everyone is in this massive, snaking line, but then a crew member spots me, says “Club Balcony Suite,” and I am PULLED out of the line and put in a PRIORITY LANE. I got on the ship a full eleven minutes faster than everyone else! Eleven minutes! Does that sound like it’s worth hundreds of dollars?! Well, those eleven minutes are just the FIRST of a ton of perks we’re going to test to see if the cash is TRULY worth the flash, or if I got completely ripped off.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Alright, we are inside the VIP cabin! LET’S SEE what my money actually bought me. We’re talking two hundred and thirty square feet inside, plus a fifty-five-square-foot balcony. You walk in, and you’re not staring at a bed two feet from your face. There’s a real entryway with hooks, a mirror, and even a vanity OUTSIDE the bathroom. This means two people can get ready at the SAME TIME! That is a massive win!
The balcony has two chairs and a table, and it’s actually big enough for breakfast. The divider between balconies is solid metal, so you can’t spy on your neighbors, which is probably a good thing.
The room actually feels new, thanks to a refit in 2021. The sofa is a dark gray that hides everything, and the art is just abstract blobs to make you feel like you’re on vacation. It doesn’t scream luxury, but it whispers “I am way nicer than a normal room,” which, for a 20-year-old ship, is INSANE. It has a queen bed, a lounge area, a fridge, and a closet big enough to swallow ALL of my stuff.
THE PERKS LIST
Okay, THIS is what you’re all here for. These are the CRAZY perks you get for hundreds of extra dollars!
- Priority Embarkation and Disembarkation: This saved me about twenty-five minutes of my life. At tender ports, it was an absolute GAME-CHANGER. I got ticket A3 instead of C27, which meant I was on the FIRST boat to shore, not the fourth. If you HATE waiting in lines, this perk is LIQUID GOLD.
- Sparkling Wine Welcome: One free bottle, just waiting in the room. It was warm, so I had to call for ice. Is it cool? Yes. Is it life-changing? No. But it’s free!
- Complimentary Room Service Twice: Normally, Norwegian charges you a $9.95 fee PLUS gratuity. With this, you get two FREE passes. I ordered eggs Benedict and a late-night chocolate cake that tasted so much better because it didn’t cost me twenty bucks.
- One Bag of Laundry Free: You get this paper bag, and you can stuff it with as much laundry as you can. They wash it and bring it back the next day. I fit EIGHT t-shirts, four pairs of shorts, and two dresses in here. That is a FIFTY DOLLAR value, for FREE!
- Pressing of One Garment: I sent them my most wrinkled pants, and they came back looking BRAND NEW. It was unbelievable.
- Reserved Theater Seating: GUYS. This is the hidden SUPERSTAR of the entire list. The theater holds a thousand people, and the line is MASSIVE. But with this perk, you get your own roped-off section right by the stage! I could walk in FIVE minutes before showtime and get a perfect seat. If you love the shows but hate lines, this perk ALONE could be worth the upgrade!
- Pre-booking Privileges: You can book the best restaurants on the ship 125 days before you sail. I snagged the LAST Teppanyaki reservation on Valentine’s Day! A couple in a regular room told me they couldn’t get in AT ALL.
THE NUMBERS
ALRIGHT! It’s time to do the math! Did I get scammed or is this the best deal on the ocean?
- Room service fees: $19.90
- One bag of laundry: About $49
- Pressing one item: $15
- A bottle of sparkling wine: Around $38
If you bought all this stuff, you’d be spending about $135.
I paid $432 extra for this room. That means I paid an extra $297 for… what, exactly?! Is saving twenty-five minutes and getting better seats worth THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS?! My gut says maybe. My calculator says absolutely not. But my vacation brain says YOU’RE ALREADY HERE, GO FOR IT!
SPACE TEST
I brought a RIDICULOUS twelve pairs of shoes for a seven-day cruise—I needed options! So I put this closet to the ULTIMATE test. And believe it or not, the closet LITERALLY swallowed them all! It has drawers, a huge hanging area, and tons of shelf space. My suitcases fit right under the bed, so I wasn’t tripping over them 24/7. The sofa pulls out to a bed, but we just used it to dump all our snorkel gear.
And the bathroom counter? It’s HUGE. Two people can put their stuff out and not fight for space. The shower is still a tiny plastic tube, but it curves outward, giving you like two extra inches of elbow room, which feels like a PALACE when you’re on a cruise ship.
BALCONY REALITY CHECK
Fifty-five square feet sounds TINY, but LOOK AT THIS! It’s actually awesome! We ate breakfast out here three different mornings and even watched dolphins in Nicaragua! But here’s a weird thing: the divider is metal, but you can hear EVERYTHING. My neighbor was on a call screaming about his crypto portfolio. I learned more about blockchain than I ever wanted to. PRO TIP: Bring headphones!
Your Turn
WAIT! Before we go any further, COMMENT below RIGHT NOW—is this upgrade a massive ripoff or the best deal ever? AND IF YOU AREN’T SUBSCRIBED, SMASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON! We’re dropping insane videos every single week, and you don’t want to miss what’s coming next!
NORWEGIAN STAR SERVICE DIFFERENCES
This is where things get CRAZY. You don’t get a butler, but you get a steward who is assigned to WAY fewer cabins. This guy, my steward, remembered my NAME by day two! He left extra chocolates on my pillow, and for my birthday, he surprised me with a foil balloon! These are tiny things, but they make a HUGE difference.
And the room service food actually shows up HOT. Because Club orders go through a dedicated line, my eggs were steaming, not sad and cold. That thirty-degree temperature difference? Worth five bucks every single time.
ENTERTAINMENT & DINING FLEX
HAVING THIS ROOM KEY IS LIKE A REAL-LIFE CHEAT CODE! Norwegian is all about “Freestyle,” which means no assigned dining times, but that also means everyone tries to book restaurants at the same time.
I booked the best restaurants, Le Bistro and Cagney’s, with ZERO problems. I even got a last-minute Teppanyaki spot. The couple next to me in a regular room? They could only find 9:30 p.m. reservations! If you want to eat a steak at a normal time, this upgrade is how you do it. There are 13 places to eat on this ship, and this perk lets you actually TRY them.
It’s the same for entertainment. The Beatles cover band is amazing, but who wants to wait in a 30-minute line to see them? The reserved section means you can walk in five minutes before the show and grab the BEST seats in the house while everyone else is still stuck in the hallway.
THE INTANGIBLES
Okay, I’m not gonna lie. Just KNOWING you have “priority” makes you feel like a celebrity. Every single time my keycard beeped and I got to skip a huge line, I felt like a VIP. If you only go on a cruise once every ten years, that feeling might be worth the money. If you go all the time, maybe not.
THE DOWNSIDES
BUT IT’S NOT PERFECT. I promised you the truth, so here are the WORST things about this suite. The walls are PAPER THIN. I heard my neighbor’s alarm at 6 a.m. every single morning. The shower ceiling is SUPER low—if you’re tall, GOOD LUCK. The “free” sparkling wine is literally the cheapest stuff you can buy. And “priority” does NOT mean “private.” You still have to wait for elevators with everyone else.
You still with me?
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CLUB BALCONY SUITE CONCLUSION – THE VERDICT
SO, THE FINAL VERDICT! Was spending an extra $432 a HUGE mistake or the smartest money I spent on this cruise? Let’s do the final math. I got about $135 worth of free stuff. That leaves $297 that I paid just for convenience. For ME—someone who HATES waiting in lines more than I hate cold eggs and who wants to eat at the best restaurants—it was 100% worth it. I would do it again, no question.
But if you don’t mind lines, you pack light, and you just want the CHEAPEST cruise possible, then DO NOT BUY THIS. Skip the upgrade. Put that three hundred bucks toward an insane helicopter tour in Roatán. THAT is how you have an epic vacation. The Club Balcony Suite is a lifestyle upgrade, not a life upgrade. Pay for it if skipping lines makes you happy. Otherwise, the ocean is still blue, the buffet still has bacon, and the ship still sails. Choose your own adventure, and I’ll see you in the next video.
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