Cabin Review

Repeated from above:

Stateroom: We had a balcony room on the 14th deck, mid ship. Starbucks is on 6, and most of the restaurants are on 6/7/8 while the observation deck and the buffet are on 15 and 16. So if you like to get your steps in, you might consider deck 11. Then it’s only ~4 up or down. We had the “free at sea” package which includes, among other things, the 2 “specialty” dining experiences, the unlimited drinks (basic) package and 150 minutes of free wifi per person.

To start, we have 100% zero regrets about getting a room with a balcony. We were able to open the sliding door at night and listen to the ocean which was like being at a beach front hotel. We were also able to just step outside and check the weather or enjoy the view without leaving our room. The balcony has two chairs and a table. The curtain is blackout and does a great job of keeping out all the light. I think we probably would have been happier with a spa balcony room, because there is a lot of downtime. Unless your way of filling the void is eating, then spa access is another good option for mixing up your days at sea.

Our stateroom had a king bed and a couch, a double sink, a full-sized mirror and decent closet space for hanging. There were smaller drawers in the bathroom under the sink and larger drawers (once you remove the extra blankets and pillows) under the couch, otherwise it was shelf and hanging storage. The closet doors rattle like crazy if you don’t wedge something in between them to keep them from banging. We used a washcloth, and it worked fine. I read in a blog somewhere that cruise people bring their own hooks. If you search on amazon they actually call them “cruise hooks” and you bring them to add to your hanging up space on the wall by the door. That was a great tip!

I was concerned about feeling really cramped in the room, but it was perfect for the two of us. There is a mini fridge and plenty of outlets. There is a very decent hair dryer that is mounted under the desk so you have a hair dryer and mirror and a couch – very convenient. There are USB ports and night stands on either side of the bed and multiple lighting options including a reading light. The mattress was a bit hard as there is no box frame but, without asking, our attendant put an egg crate mattress pad on top of it once he noticed I had taken an extra blanket and put it over the mattress.

There is little to no content on the TV. You get BBC news, MSNBC, Fox and CNBC and then a couple movie channels with content you can’t control like “Comedies”, “Dramas” and whatever. You can purchase content but it was at least $10 or $20 I don’t recall. If you get lucky you might find a show you like on one of the pre-set channels, but if you’re a content junkie, start downloading now! We didn’t think to bring a portable speaker but that would have been a good addition to our room ambiance.

You get six total pillows and they weren’t spectacular but they were good enough. Then you get three blankets total. The bathroom was pretty excellent. There is a double sink, and the shower was comfortable and the water pressure was great and the water was hot. There is only “conditioning shampoo” and body wash – no bar soap. The in-shower storage is pretty good for travel size items. There is hand soap by the sink. There were no additional amenities like q-tips or bar soap or nail file or anything like that. There are lot of towels and they are good but not super soft. Toilet paper is one ply :/

We did not ask for anything additional but I do think that if we had, they would have provided additional items. Our attendant was great and always on top of stuff. There is laundry service which you drop off before 9am and get the next day by 6pm. A full bag which is about paper grocery bag size, is $29. We used it once and then they offered us a free full bag of laundry so we used it a second time. No issues there. Worked out great.