In Or Out – What Will You Choose?

An inside or an outside cabin – what will you choose?

You will be forgiven for feeling slightly overwhelmed at the vast range of cabin options on offer these days. Loft Suites, Harbour Suites, Marquee Suites, Virtual balcony, promenade staterooms – the list goes on……….

The newer the ship the greater cabin range on offer it seems.

We all have a budget and sometimes we have to ask ourselves should we stretch it that bit further or should we put that money towards excursions or the bar bill??

It’s not always an easy choice to make.

Are you happy to stay in a Fred Olsen outside cabin with a large picture window? Not the biggest at sea, but comfortable and has all you need.

When is an inside cabin not an inside cabin? – when its a virtual balcony cabin of course on a Royal Caribbean ship.

What on earth does that mean I hear you ask, well here’s the answer- The virtual balconies will be 80-inch LED projection screen that stretches from floor to ceiling.  They will offer digital real-time views of the ocean and destinations visible from the ship’s exterior.

I have stayed in one of these cabin types and personally I wasn’t that keen – it felt very unnatural and contrived.

I do however like the Promenade staterooms that Royal Caribbean have to offer on some of their ships – because of the widow that overlooks the promenade they feel airy and larger than a normal inside cabin.

The picture below is the cabin I stayed in on board MSC Preziosa. These are certainly larger than your average balcony cabins. They are modern and bright and decorated in flamboyant colours. Not for MSC neutral shades!

I am finding that customers returning off P & O’s newest ship are disappointed at the size of their cabins – especially the balcony, too small and not really big enough to relax on.

I think that the ship designers really need to think long and hard when putting pen to paper, rather than bigger and bigger ships, with more cabins that are smaller than on the older ships, stop and think about what they would like to stay in. If money is no object then great a Penthouse suite with a hot tub, 3 balconys etc etc is great but I think that for the majority of us we would like a decent size balcony if our purses stretch that far or if not a good sized inside cabin with comfortable beds and room to swing a cat!