Cabin Review

Because we were celebrating a milestone birthday, we splurged and booked a grand suit. We typically love being on the aft (fishtail) and so when GS 1600 opened up unexpectedly, we grabbed it. I have to admit going into this cruise, I’d read a lot of negative comments on CC about this particular suite. I also read some pretty positive comments, with the upshot being, “You have to try it to see if YOU like it”. Well…it certainly is an interesting layout. Because of its location (tucked into the starboard aft), things are sorta “wrapped”. There is some wasted space in a longish hallway from the door to where you turn into the actual suite (although this did offer privacy in that folks standing in the outside hallway couldn’t see into the room). Because we’ve never stayed in a grand suite, I didn’t have anything else to compare it to, but, others told me that 1600 does not have the nice floor to ceiling windows (just the usual slider going out to the balcony); plus, ours did not have a bar (it did have a credenza sorta thing pushed up against the wall) nor did it have a walk in closet (which was definitely a big negative in our view). The bathroom was very nice and we did enjoy the balcony even if it was considerably smaller than that of other in the GS category and even of the smaller rooms on the aft. The biggest negative was the noise from the Windjammer above it. Starting at about 5:00 am, there was considerable thumping and bumping; sounded like someone rolling a bowling ball over the floor. This went on for an hour or so when it quieted down somewhat until folks started heading to the buffet for breakfast; then, a lot of chair scrapping noise. We’ve stayed on the fishtail in this class of ship before and have never heard this amount of racket. It was very disappointing to have paid so much money to be so disturbed every morning. But, I was forewarned (as I am forewarning all of you now!) For those who get up at the crack of dawn, it wouldn’t be an issue at all. We never heard any other significant noise throughout the day or even at night. Although the balcony was on the small side, the somewhat panoramic angle of it offered some very nice views of the wake and the ocean. We didn’t feel any more movement than normal, and, in fact, did not feel a big lurch to the starboard side the ship took on our last night.