I'm a frequent cruiser who's been on over 50 voyages, and I never book balcony rooms on ships. Most balconies fit two people, so my family of three can't even comfortably sit on them together. Balcony ...

I sailed in balcony rooms on Royal Caribbean's Utopia of the Seas and Virgin Voyages' Valiant Lady. My Virgin Voyages' balcony room had a nicer bathroom and these cabins tend to be a good value.

P&O Cruises is a quintessentially British cruise line, as its naming ceremony in Southampton underlined when Take That singer Gary Barlow belted out Greatest Day and their anthem Rule The World.

When my son was a toddler, he climbed on a chair and tossed a TV remote off of our hotel room's balcony. It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to stop the remote from falling 10 stories into ...