You’re about the discover that the more money you have, the more difficult cruising
becomes.
I discovered this when I set off on a little experiment.
I wanted to find out if cruising in a suite, like I am now, is so much better that in,
say, a balcony that I normally cruise in.
What I uncovered as I headed down that experiment was a myriad of complications, and all sorts
of problems that people with money when they go cruising face that I hadn’t appreciated.
And it also made me think and reappraise totally how I should cruise, and I think you too may
find this extremely illuminating.
If you don’t know me, I am Gary Bembridge, and my goal is to make it fun and easy to
discover, plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations.
To do the test, I booked myself on 5 different cruise lines in 5 different suites.
And I booked myself on Saga, P&O, Princess, Viking, and Celebrity.
One thing I quickly came to realise is that to be a suite, it has to have 6 key physical
features.
Now, how these features are executed and delivered across suites differs enormously based on
the ship and the cruise line and which type of suite you are sailing in.
The 6 features are as follows: You have a seating area, you have a dining area, you
have a bedroom area, a walk-in dressing / cupboard area, you have a bathroom and then you have
a big extended balcony area
The simplest version of a suite is like the one that I am in here on Regal Princess, where
it is effectively just one big room.
So, you have a seating/ dining area there, you have the bedroom over there.
You have a bit of a divider here between the two rooms and then (of course) you have an
en-suite bathroom.
Here on Saga Spirit of Discovery, this is perhaps a more common version of how suites
are done.
So, there’s a couple of rooms here.
In this room you have the seating area, then behind me you have the dining area.
That then leads through over there into the bedroom, which then flows onto the dressing
/ storage cupboard area, which then flows to the bathroom and the toilet area.
And then out there is the big extended balcony.
That’s kind of middle approach to suites
The next is the more elevated section, where you take what you’ve got here, and you basically
expand into something much bigger and grander.
So, for example, when I was in Viking Venus in an Explorer Suite.
That had the same number of rooms, but they were on a much grander and bigger scale.
So, having got my head around the 6 key features that a suite should have, I started to be
able to judge suites on how well or differently they executed those 6 things.
However, there was a 7th aspect to the suite experience which I came to appreciate, and
came to value, much more through my suite experience, and that was around the actual
overall suite experience.
The perks and the benefits.
That (again) split into three very distinct types
The first type was very much as I experienced here on Saga Spirit of Discovery, where the
suite experience is very much just about having a great cabin, having the space.
So, there’s very few additional perks being in a suite.
So, yes you had things like a butler service, although I never really figured out what a
butler does.
You had things like the mini-bar, which was stocked and re-stocked.
But you didn’t have your own dining room, you didn’t have your own deck area, you
didn’t have your own swimming pool, you didn’t have a concierge lounge.
And that was true of a couple of suites that I stayed in.
It was true on Viking Venus.
It was true on P&O Britannia.
The second suite experience is one that I really liked, and I think helps justify the
premium as you move from a balcony to a suite, and that’s a kind of enhanced experience.
So, here on Regal Princess they have a few extra perks and benefits.
So, you have a special Club Class entrance into the restaurant in the evening, you don’t
have to book, and they have a kind of enhanced menu, table service kind of preparation of
food.
They also have a Concierge Lounge with a really helpful concierge who will book restaurants,
sort problems out and that’s a very exclusive area where you can have drinks and snacks
all throughout the day.
So, that was here on Regal Princess.
When I moved onto Celebrity and Celebrity Silhouette, they enhanced it even further.
Yes, definitely here on Celebrity Silhouette the whole suite experience had really been
elevated to a degree that I really like.
And they have what they call The Retreat, which is their overall suite experience.
So first of all, you have obviously your suite that you’ve booked, which has your butler,
or what they call your Personal Retreat Host.
Then secondly you have your own dining room, which is called Luminae which is really, really
quite fancy and rather nice, and it has its own kitchen.
You then have the Retreat Lounge, which is hosted by two concierges, who will sort out
all your kind of arrangements.
And then in there, it’s open 24-hours.
You have drinks, you have afternoon tea, you can have snacks, all hours of the day.
And then you have a dedicated Retreat Deck, which here on Silhouette is on two levels,
and you have a bar, you can eat food up there.
You can have snacks.
You have a hot tub.
So, that’s a really elevated suite experience, and that’s one actually, of all them that
I really really liked, because you did feel that something was very different and elevated.
So that experience, The Retreat experience, is close to the next suite experience which
is one that a lot of people really really like, and that’s the Ship-within-a-ship
concept, where literally all of the suite experiences, all of the suites are taken into
a controlled area, so on MSC Cruises for example they have the Yacht Club, on Norwegian Cruise
Line they have the Haven.
So basically behind a locked pass door, you step into a whole world which is just for
suites.
So, it’s a ship-within-a-ship, and that’s an experience that I’ve tried once on MSC
Cruises and it is pretty special.
A lot of the suites are actually located in what they see as kind of the glitzy, showcase
locations.
So, they tend to be high up, at the front of the ship, they’ll be at the back of the
ship or they’ll even be, in the case of some, overlooking the pool deck.
However, talking to maritime architects and designers, they argue that many of the times
suites are actually put in the wrong place on the ship because they’re put in those
locations which could have much more movement, or could have a lot of sound.
So, for example, I was once offered an upgrade to a Sky Suite on Sky Princess, which I turned
down because although it’s a very glitzy-looking cabin, it’s right overlooking the pool deck.
So, it’s a great view but you’ve got the noise of the parties, the Movies Under The
Stars and so on.
So, actually on a suite, you have to be super careful and really cautious about location.
So, one of the things I discovered in my suite experiment is that you have to be as careful
with location as you do with all the other grades.
So don’t necessarily assume suites are in the best location when it comes to things
like say vibration, or noise.
So, I actually chose on pretty much all of my cruises Midship suites, that is, in my
view, is the best place to be.
You have the least amount of movement.
You are equidistant between all the activities on board.
That was a really interesting one, that suites are given what are seen as the prestige locations
but aren’t, in my view, the best locations.
So, through this rather expensive experiment, I came to a couple of key realisations that
I think could be really helpful for you.
And that’s about what’s important when it comes to cruising.
I realise on things is really important.
I do like to have a decent size cabin, but I didn’t necessarily get hung up on the
huge amount of space that I had, because although I do spend a fair bit of time in the cabin.
I don’t need all that extra space and dining tables and that kind of stuff.
So, a good-sized cabin was important.
Secondly, what I realised is location is really important, and I do believe that location
is one of the most important parts of the whole cruise experience.
So, having a cabin in the right location is almost more important that having a suite
in a noisy location or in a location which doesn’t really suit you.
I also came to realise though that I like the suite experience that had some of the
other things bundled in.
So, I really liked having your own restaurant with open-seated dining, and all the extra
attention and ability to get table for one or two or whatever you wanted.
I also liked those that had a very specific deck, so on particularly busy sailing you
had a quiet deck that you could go to get away from the crowds, and to feel a little
bit more pampered and special.
But what I came to realise is the most important thing of all when it comes to choosing for
me was location, and secondly being able to choose the cabin.
So, not having the guaranteed fare was really, really important to me.
So, coming to that kind of realisation about the things that are important to me hopefully
this has also helped you decide as you’ve seen the perks, and the downsides and the
upsides of cruising in a suite what is important to you.
I’d love to know what you think, but if you want to know what is the best of all of
the suites that I stayed in, why don’t you click on this video and see what I think is
the best suite In the world that I ever cruised in.
So, see you over there right now”