This Cruise Ship Balcony Looks at ANOTHER BALCONY! MSC World Europa: Deluxe Balcony with Promenade View - Tour and Review

In this post, I’m going to show you around a ‘Deluxe Balcony with Promenade View’ cabin onboard MSC World Europa. This cabin is among the most controversial at sea, with reviews ranging from ‘loving it’ to ‘hating it’ online. Personally, I think that if your expectations are correct, then you’ll really enjoy cruising in this cabin type.

If you would rather watch this tour as a video over on YouTube, here’s your link!

MSC World Europa was, at the point of her launch, a really unique and mould-breaking ship for the MSC Cruises fleet. Not only was she the biggest ship they’ve ever built, but she also had so many features never before seen from this cruise line.

One such feature is the huge promenade on Deck 8 of the ship, which runs towards the back of the ship, and houses a coffee shop, an ice cream shop, a cigar lounge, some shops, a restaurant and a few other attractions.

Looking above all of these venues, you’re then met with a new sight - balcony cabins. These cabins are very different to regular balcony cabins on cruise ships. If you’ve cruised in a balcony cabin before, you’ll know that you usually expect to open your curtains in the morning to see the vast open ocean. However, on this ship class, you can expect to wave at your neighbours, who may be enjoying spending some time outside on their balcony (or even in their cabin!).

I was able to get into one of these cabins for a look around while cruising onboard MSC World Europa, and I’m delighted to show you more in this post today!

So, what does the inside of the room look like?

A ‘Deluxe Balcony with Promenade View’ cabin onboard MSC World Europa.

To be honest, the interior of these cabins is pretty similar to lots of other cabins. My initial feeling was that this cabin is a good bit smaller than others available on the ship, but I believe it’s only slightly smaller. It’s the layout of the cabin that makes it feel different, as it’s a bit wider than a regular cabin, whereas the regular cabins are longer instead.

In here, you’ve got everything you’d expect from an MSC Cruises cabin: lots of lighting options, a safe, a mini bar, a hair dryer, plenty of storage, and sliding doors heading out to the balcony (I’ll take you out here in a second).

One thing that I would like to highlight in the above image is the seat at the end of the bed - doesn’t that look great in here? What a nice addition!

On the other side of the cabin from the above view, you’ve got a nice desk/vanity area. You’ve got a large desk surface, some shelves and a huge mirror (that’s lit using 2 LED lights directly above), and some shelves above. Underneath, you’ll find your mini bar fridge, and a number of drawers (your safe is inside the second one down).

To the right in the below image, you’ll see the cabin phone, and also a magazine/document rack to hold any paperwork you acquire during the cruise. Above this, you’ve got a really modern TV!

Looking to the other side of the cabin - a really neat work station.

Changing our view again in this cabin, you can see a really unique design feature compared to so many of the other rooms I’ve shown you on this cruise ship: a walk-in wardrobe area! I really liked this, and would love to see more cabins have this feature…

Look at the little walk in storage area! The bathroom was through there, too - I’ll take you in there later in this post!

So, what was the view from the balcony like?

Ok, this is probably the most frequently asked question for cruisers considering booking this cabin. Below, you can see the view from this room…

The view from this ‘Deluxe Balcony with Promenade View’ cabin on MSC World Europa.

Ok, this view is standing on the balcony and clearly looking LEFT. If you were to look straight ahead, you’d be looking directly at a wall of other balcony cabins.

What I do like about these rooms is that they sell for less than a full ocean view balcony cabin, offering those on a budget the luxury of a balcony cabin, without paying the full price to have a full ocean view.

I did worry that the noise from the promenade below would be really problematic for those staying in these cabins, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. While I didn’t stay in this room, I knew many people who did, and they all reported that they really didn’t struggle at all with noise.

Looking along the Promenade - you can see the balcony cabins above!

I guess it’s thanks to the fact that MSC Cruises haven’t designed the promenade with multiple noisy venues - it’s only a few relaxed venues that you’ll find out here. The only issue that was mentioned by a few of the people I’d met was the noise coming from ‘Venom Drop’, which is the huge dry slide onboard. You could hear people screaming as they made their way down the slide… While this was annoying for them, it wasn’t constant, and you can’t use the slide late in the evening, so really not an issue!

What about the bathroom?

As you know, I love an MSC bathroom. I find the design of these spaces really clever, and they’re always immaculate. They usually have glass shower screens rather than shower curtains, and they have great-smelling complimentary toiletries. Looking into the bathroom for this cabin, all of this applied here, too!

The bathroom in this cabin is exactly what I like about an MSC Cruises bathroom: clean, functional, and a shower screen!

So, would I recommend this cabin to you?

If you’re looking specifically for a balcony cabin facing the ocean, then this room probably isn’t for you. However, if you’d like to try a really unique cabin design, then I’d give this a go! The cabin itself was so nice, and your furniture and finishings are exactly the same as what you’ll get in a ‘normal’ balcony cabin - your only main difference is the view.

I’d say to give it a go if you’ve got an open mind. You never know - you might just find your new favourite cabin type…

If you’d like to see more from my time onboard MSC World Europa, come over to my YouTube channel! In the below video, I boarded the ship in Dubai for a 21 night cruise that would take me from the Middle East, through the Suez Canal, and into Europe!