Choosing Your Cabin Location

Does cabin size count? Are suites sweeter than cabins? Is a balcony desirable? What about cabin location?

• An ‘outside-view’ cabin is recommended for first-time passengers: an ‘interior (no-view)’ cabin has no portholes or windows, making it more difficult to orient you or to gauge the weather or time.
  
  
• Cabins in the centre of a ship are more stable and tend to be noise and vibration-free. Ships powered by diesel engines (i.e. most modern vessels) create and transmit some vibration, especially at the stern.
  
  
• Take into account personal habits when choosing the cabin location. If you like to go to bed early, avoid a cabin close to the disco. If you have trouble walking, choose a cabin close to the elevator / lift.
  
  
• Generally, the higher the deck, the higher the cabin price, and the better the service. This is an inheritance from transoceanic times, when upper-deck cabins and suites were sunnier and warmer.
  
  
• Cabins at the front of a ship are slightly crescent-shaped, given that the outer wall follows the curvature of the ship’s hull. But they can be exposed to early-morning noises, such as the anchor being dropped at ports where the ship is too big to dock.
  
  
• Cabins with interconnecting doors are fine for families or close friends, but the dividing wall is usually so thin you can hear the conversation next door.
  
  
• Many brochures indicate cabins with ‘obstructed-views.’ Cabins on lower decks are closer to engine noise and heat, especially at the aft of the vessel and around the engine casing.
  
  
• In many older ships, elevators may not operate to the lowermost decks.

Typical Cabin Sizes

Cabins provide more or less the same facilities as hotel rooms, except space. Viewed by most owners as little more than a convenient place for passengers to sleep, shower, and change, cabin space is often compromised in favour of large public rooms.

In some smaller interior (no-view) and outside cabins, changing clothes is a major challenge.

The latest ships have more standardized cabin sizes, because they are made in modular form (Consider 180 sq. ft/16.7sq. metres to be the minimum acceptable size for a ‘standard’ cruise ship cabin today).

They all have integrated bathrooms (mostly made from non­combustible phenolic-glass-reinforced plastics) fitted during the ships’ construction.

Berlitz Guide © Apa Publications 2008