Cabin Review

Our room was 10574, midships, and a short walk from the mid elevators and stairs. A bonus for us was that the self serve laundromat was also just down the corridor opposite. It is a standard Family Ocean view stateroom with balcony. It has two bathrooms, one with toilet and sink, and the other with sink and round tub/shower. There is a small flat screen TV above the desk. The desk is quite large and contains an electrical outlet for the rechargeable phones (to be used for onboard communication) and one for the supplied hair dryer, as well as a fridge. Storage space is adequate in side closets, with adjustable shelves, hangers, and on various shelves above the desk. There are two bedside tables beside the queen bed. Our older granddaughter used the pull out sofa bed for sleeping while our youngest granddaughter used the Pullman bed (something she had been looking forward to). There is a curtain separating the bed area from the sitting/sofa bed/desk area. The balcony is not large but adequate for sitting and just relaxing. Our room steward, Budi, was just outstanding in his service and his towel sculptures were incredibly well done; our youngest granddaughter really looked forward to seeing what he made each night.

Pros:

- good size, adequate for two adults and two children

- split bath feature means no tying up one bathroom when getting ready

- good storage underneath bed and throughout room

- adjustable shelving in closet and good electronic safe

- room is located near stairs, elevator and laundromat

Cons

- This stateroom is located below Deck 11 (pool deck). Considerable noise is transmitted when crew are moving deck chairs, or other items. There is also noise from on deck parties, etc. I know, for seasoned cruisers like ourselves, this was a rookie mistake.

- The controls for the round tub/shower combination are confusing. The tub/shower room gets very steamy after a shower; the ventilation system does not seem able to keep up.

- There are inadequate electrical outlets for the number of mobile devices and camera gear that cruisers bring on board. We had to use a small extension cord to charge everything which also meant unplugging the onboard phones from their chargers.

- The room is 6 decks above the muster station for the safety drill; for my spouse, with arthritic knees, this proved to be quite a challenge, descending the stairways with the throngs of younger adults and, of course, hundreds of children. It was worse climbing back up (try getting into an elevator after a drill – good luck).

- The supplied two-set phones for communications are terrible; they just do not reach all the areas of the ship and are often garbled.