Cabin Review

Anyone thinking of booking this cabin will already know that It costs more than conventional side facing cabins, but what do you get for the extra cost? This one faces over the foredeck, and has a view of the ship’s winches etc. While that was interesting when we were tying up or departing, there’s not much of a sea view the rest of the time. It’s also directly above the Cabaret Lounge and there is significant bass thump noise from there when there are activities going on. That said, on most nights, we found that the music stopped at 10 or 11, and we were usually downstairs enjoying the show anyway. Being so far forward, in rough seas, which we had at the start of the cruise, you get a lot of pitching movement, so anyone inclined to seasickness needs to beware. This cabin faces forward and, when at sea, the wind outside makes the veranda unusable much of the time. While the veranda is larger than those in conventional cabins, the extra space is below the sloping metal front structure of the ship & isn’t of any practical use. Our biggest surprise, though, was to be asked, twice, to close our curtains at night when in the cabin, as the cabin lights were interfering with the bridge’s inability to see properly! This was slightly amusing, but meant that our veranda was unusable at night unless we fought our way in & out through the closed curtains, or wanted to sit in the dark.

Finally, the stateroom bathrooms. Oh dear. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more comment about them. I don’t want to go on about them but suffice it to say that, compared with those on other, less expensive lines, they are really not good enough. You could forgive their small size, generally tired condition, but plastic shower curtains? No.

Overall, if we were booking on this ship again, not only would we not pay extra for this or a similar cabin, we would prefer a conventional side facing one on a higher deck, away from the entertainment and towards the centre of the ship.