Cabin Review

Balcony 12276 was a great cabin. It felt a bit narrow, which might have been due to the dark blue walls, but was long and spacious. The only problem we had was that the bed is by the window with the sofa near the bathroom. This means that we tend to pass each other too much when getting ready in the evening. When the bed is near the bathroom this doesn't happen - my wife can shower, then get ready in her own space near the window, while I shower and get ready by the bed.

But that's a personal thing. The balcony itself is quite small and we didn't use it due to the weather not being great.

The shower had a glass door, which a lot of people find better than a curtain, but doesn't bother me too much.

There's a lot of storage space in here, but it's a bit 'bitty', and ladies only have six inches of hanging rail in which to hang any full length dresses. All the rest is half-height.

What's with the new trend for tiny safes? You could just about get your wallet and passports in this one. Is it part of the weight trade-off for the shower door? :)

The sofa was redundant really because it was opposite the mirror (the TV is opposite the bed) and not near the window, so why would you sit there? We just used it as a big 'chair-drobe'.

The bed was firm but not uncomfortable and the pillows good too.

There was a kettle and cups etc., but we didn't get decaf teabags even though we asked. These were hard to find all over the ship.

The TV sound was really poor. I'm beginning to think they set the bass really low so that your neighbours can't hear it, but it's really tinny. There was a reasonable selection of live TV to watch for different nationalities, but the movies were $11.99 each. In my experience, Princess can't be beaten for quality TV and free movies.

The location of the cabin was very good, not too far from the aft elevators, but in a quiet spot. We did hear noises from above, like maybe children running, and one morning, some serious hoovering.

One thing I did find a bit weird was that this balcony was halfway down one of the 'in' bits when you look at the side of the ship. It's set back a bit, which means you can't see the bridge when you look out, or any sign of the aft. You really have no sense of where you are on the ship when you look over the rail.

Finally, you will not get much (if any) sun on this balcony. Decks 12 and 13 have a serious amount of overhang above, which rules this out at the height of the day. So go lower if spending a lot of time on your balcony is important to you.

The positive side for us was that being two decks below the deck/buffet level means we walk up and down quite a bit instead of using the lift, which burns off a few calories.