Cabin Review

This cabin is equipped with portholes, bathroom with shower, hairdryer, television and tea/coffee making facilities. As the ship is getting on a bit it was a bit noisy in the cabin on the first night. It is strange that for a steel ship it sounds more like an old wooden sailing vessel, with all the creaking of timbers. I guess the metal flexes with the stresses and the fitted wardrobes have to follow suit and it is them making the creaking. We soon got used to it, as we did the motion of the ship. There were times however when we were out at sea and didn't have the shelter of the off-shore islands along the Norwegian coast, these were sleepless nights.There are two bunks, in an L configuration, one under the portholes and the other along the flank of the cabin. This gives a choice for who is susceptible to roll or pitch. The bunk under the portables has space for a torch, alarm clock, etc. at the head of the bunk, but the other bunk does not, although it is possible to move the pillow to the other end and use the desk at the expense of being able to switch the reading light off. If you used the bunk under the portholes, one end of the bunk was underneath the television and its mounting bracket and those of a nervous disposition might be concerned at sleeping with their head at that end in a rough sea for fear of the bracket working loose. The bunk under the portholes was convertible to a settee, the back rest being hooked up out of the way at night. There was a tendency for this fall down in the night, particularly in rough weather. I was able to fix this by tying it up with my spare extension lead.The wardrobe and drawer space was more than adequate, we didn't use all the drawers. There was no cabin safe but two of the drawers were lockable, using two keys which fitted either drawer, but one of the drawers could be unlocked just by turning the lock with the fingers. Key safe facilities are available at the front desk.There is a dual voltage system, 220v on continental round pins and 110v on USA flat pins. I used the 220v with an extension lead for my needs, powering my laptop and usb devices. I had to unplug to use the kettle but the laptop will run for 3 hours when charged so no problem for ten minutes.The TV is a modern flat screen one and is adequate for occasional use and the informational channels. It would not be so good for serious DVD watching, but the Black Watch does have a nice cinema on deck 3 for this. Despite what is said in the F.O. FAQ that portable DVDs can not be connected to the TV, I noticed that it did have the three phono connectors (yellow, white, red) for video and sound. Perhaps the TV control did not have a source button, I did not check this. In any case serious DVD watching would be limited by the screen size.The bathroom was OK though the plumbing tended to gurgle sometimes in the night. Once or twice the suction on the toilet was non functional, which could be worrying as a fresh ration of water was supplied on each flush attempt. Suction always came back before we had an emergency. The key is to not panic and overflush.There is no WiFi in the cabins. It is available on decks 5, 7 and 9 in public lounges. There is however a kettle with tea and coffee sachets. This was a big bonus for us and made up for the WiFi. If Fred Olsen can provide pre-checked kettles, then I don't see why other lines can not do this instead of hiding behind H&S and fire risk. After all, laptops can catch fire but are not banned.The only thing unsatisfactory about the cabin was the time it took to get made up. Sometimes it was late afternoon despite being out of the cabin from breakfast to lunch time. This maybe because the stewards are understaffed and have too much to do.