Many people who cruise regularly have very different opinions about their cabins. Some can't imagine sailing in an interior with no outside source of light.
Others love interior cabins because the sun never wakes you up.
Related: Royal Caribbean and Carnival 1 vote away from new Caribbean port
There are many cruisers who love to spend time in the room, sitting on the balcony, while others view the room as a place for sleeping and taking a shower.
Price, of course, also factors in. Many people prefer balconies but will downgrade if that means getting the ship they want. It might be worth it, for example, to book an interior on Wonder of the Seas rather than a balcony on an older Royal Caribbean ship.
Some passengers, however, have their rules and won't compromise.
In this video, Come Cruise With Me, Executive Editor Dan Kline is joined by Dennis Post of PostCard Travel Planning to look at which cabin type makes the most sense to book and why.
Which is the right cabin to book on a cruise ship?
Transcript:
Dan Kline: I am Dan Kline, executive editor of Come Cruise With Me. That is comecruisewith.com or comecruisewith.me. Either one of them gets you there.
Chock full of all the latest cruise news. Sort of my personal view on how you can have the best vacation possible. Lots of things you wouldn't know otherwise.
But we're at Music Hall. This is a two-floor music venue on Wonder of the Seas. It's on a lot of Royal Caribbean ships, but it's a little bit different in each one. This one has a beautiful overview of the Central Park area.
And we're going to talk today about probably one of the two or three biggest questions when it comes to cruises is "Should I book an interior, an ocean view, or a balcony?"
We're not going to talk about suites, because that's kind of a different thing.
I'm going to give my own personal view, but I understand that it's different than most people.
So, because I cruise for a living, and I get a lot of free cruises, whether it be from the cruise line or from the casinos, and I'm alone most of the time. As many of you know, my wife does not cruise, and my son works full-time.
I am perfectly fine with an interior room. I don't spend a lot of time in my room. I'm there for maybe five or six hours a night to sleep, a place to take a shower.
Not a big deal at all. But if I had to pick my favorite kind of room, Dennis, do you know my favorite kind of room? Yep, it's a boardwalk view window.
I like a window overlooking the interior of the cruise ship. Because if you have a window overlooking the sea, when the sun comes up, it wakes you up really early. Even though I'm probably going to get up early anyway, I like the option of either the pitch black of an interior, or it's much easier to block the light out when you have an interior looking into the ship.
I should probably explain this.
There are outdoor areas on Royal Caribbean ships. The Boardwalk and Central Park, a different one on Icon of the seas.
And they have rooms that look into these areas. There are some balconies or window rooms that look into the Royal Promenade, which is kind of the central hub of the ship. That one I don't love, because if you forget to close your curtains, it's a little dicey.
But Dennis, what advice do you give clients when they're talking about, should I get a balcony, should I get an ocean view, should I get an interior?
Dennis Post: Right, the first thing we do at the agency is qualify people. Try to find out what their interests are, dislikes, are they traveling with children, and so forth. And I'll give a great example with family with small children.
A lot of people are afraid of a balcony. We recommend an ocean view. If you don't want an inside, an ocean view saves you a little bit of money.
Then the children can normally sit up there, you can look out, it's safe. Families that want to hang out on a balcony at night, maybe have coffee or a drink, balconies are great.
If you want to save a little money though, inside rooms we love.
And our kids absolutely love the inside rooms for one reason. It's dark, cold, and they can sleep when they want to sleep. So if they want to take a nap for three hours in the afternoon, it looks like it's at night.
Kline: So temperature is a major factor that people don't think about. I like a cold room, and if you don't tell your stateroom attendant when you have a balcony, when they clean your room, they will open all the curtains. So no matter how high your air conditioning is on, if you're in a tropical climate, that's going to be working against it, it's going to be hot.
The difference in price between a balcony and an interior can be very dramatic. But it's also important to note that even though an ocean view should cost more than an interior, there are times where it doesn't work that way. And there are times where a balcony is a very minor increase.
And that's because the newer the cruise ship, the higher percentage of the rooms have a balcony of some sort. And even some refurbished ships, like Margaritaville at Seas Islander, something like 70% of their rooms have some sort of outward look. And that's a very old ship that's been refurbished.
So it's really important that you work with a travel agent to figure out, did I save $5 or did I save $500?
And in some cases, if you don't care about a balcony, it's nice of you to save $5 and leave that room for someone else. I know when I have a balcony, I walk outside on it once, I take a picture for my wife, and maybe sometimes, if we're in a pretty port, I take a picture.
But usually, your best pictures are going to be from the pool deck. And I don't advocate, and I know people feel different, I think you should put your money into experiences. That your room is where you sleep and take a shower and me work a little bit.
But for the most part, I'm going to be in public decks, I'm going to be in the pool, I'm going to be in the casino, restaurants, wherever it is. And I'd rather book the sushi restaurant than spend extra money on my room.
Post: No, we agree, Dan, you bring up some very, very good points. At the end of the day, you're in your room, you sleep, you want to go out and experience the ships. There's two things that we talk about all the time.
Long ago, cruise ships used to take you to a destination, now they've become destinations. So the time you spend in your room is not as much as it would have been a long time ago. And now that when you can get out and do other things, the room saved the money, if you want to.
Now, the other thing that we didn't say is my wife always wants to be near an elevator. So the location of the room matters. And so that's what a good travel agent will look for.
They will find the right spot for it. And then if you're close to an elevator, you can get in, get out quick. It makes it a little bit easier navigating the ship.
Kline: I will close on the idea here of the ship as the destination. So let's go through my day today. Our ship lost an hour, which we weren't aware of.
We moved time zones, so it went from 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock. So when I woke up to a text from Dennis, it was actually later than I thought it would be. But since that time, I've done some work in Boleros, which is the Spanish bar on the ship.
I had a coffee from Café Promenade. We met in Central Park at Park Café, had a little bit of food, did a little bit of work. We had a drink at Trellis Bar, just tonic here because it's early in the day.
Sign up for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter to save money on your next (or your first) cruise.
And then we're here at Music Hall. That's all in just a few hours. And we were working during this.
So forget the people who are just here to have fun. There is so much to do on a ship like Wonder of the Seas that people often ask me, Where are you going? And sometimes I say, I don't know.
But that is a topic for a different show. We will talk about whether the ship or the destination matters. I think it's different in the U.S. versus if you're going to go to Europe or Alaska or destination cruises like that. If you want to find more information, it is ComeCruiseWith.com. You can actually click on a page that will let you fill out a form so you can actually make an appointment with Amy Post, who is Dennis' partner, but the more experienced of the two. I hate to say that.
You're both very experienced, but Amy's been doing this a little bit longer. You can get an appointment on her calendar. No fee, no cost.
And she'll answer all your questions. She'll help you find the perfect cruise for your family. And if you have any questions for me, you can always shoot me an email at Dan, very easy, Dan, at ComeCruiseWith.com.
For Dennis Post, I am Dan Kline. Happy cruising.
Are you taking a cruise or thinking about taking one? Visit our Come Cruise With Me website to have all your questions answered.
