Cabin Review

Room 8526. Cove balcony, Deck 8, forward port side. Very nice room. I was a little miffed to discover that it was a cove balcony shortly before our cruise, but it was fine and we had lots of light and a great view out the balcony. It was quite windy and cold in the open sea, so I don't know if having the enclosed balcony made a difference. We had an open ocean view on the way to Alaska, and view of the coastline on the way back. The cabin was directly above the theater, but we never had any noise problems. Our steward was super-nice. He kept the room spotless and made cute towel animals almost every night. The first night, he asked us if we wanted the pull-down bed, but it blocked the balcony door, so our kids shared the queen sofa bed after that, and everyone was comfy and slept great. We had smokers in the balconies around us, but we only smelled it in port when the boat was still. Once, somebody spit and it landed on our railing. Gross! One day, all the toilets along our side of the ship stopped working for a couple of hours, but the crew fixed it very quickly. We felt a little bit of rocking motion the first night at sea, but after that my family agreed that we could only feel the boat rocking when we were in the shower. The cabin was convenient to the stairs and elevators, but far away enough to not get a lot of foot traffic and noisy stampedes. If you walk out the door and a few hallways down, you will be at the Blue Lagoon. If you walk downstairs, you will be at the Stardust Theater and the exit to the Promenade Deck. It is a bit of a walk to the Garden Cafe (buffet). The best thing about the cabin is that my kids loved to go out and use the binoculars and look for wildlife. Once they saw two orcas frolicking in the water. One day they saw many sea otters plopping up and down in the kelp. We will never forget these beautiful sights from our balcony cabin.