Suite or balcony: when the upgrade earns its keep

Every ship has a handful of accommodations that outperform their category, and a handful that quietly underperform. Neither group is marked on the deck plan.

Start with position. Midship on a lower passenger deck rides best in open water. Anything directly beneath a pool deck, a galley or a theatre will find you at six in the morning. Corner and aft suites often carry wraparound terraces at little premium on smaller ships.

Then the itinerary. On a river vessel a French balcony on the port side may face the vineyards for four of seven days; on a Norway sailing an aft suite gives you the fjord as it closes behind you.

And sometimes the honest answer is that the balcony is enough, and the money belongs in the guiding budget instead. We will tell you when that is the case.