How do you make sure you cruise in the very best,
and avoid the worst cabins on your next cruise?
Hi, I'm Gary Bembridge.
This is another of my "Tips For Travellers."
No matter what grade of cabin you cruise in,
whether it's inside, ocean view, balcony, or suite,
there are good cabins and there are terrible cabins.
So I want to help you make sure
that no matter what level you cruise in,
you get the very best cabins and avoid the worst cabins.
So let's start by taking a look at how do you make sure
you've got the best cabins in any particular grade?
Well my first tip,
and the one that I absolutely live by,
is when I choose a cabin
I make sure that I'm surrounded
on every single side by other cabins.
So above me, either side of me, below me,
and ideally opposite me, I have other cabins.
This means that I'm buffered on all sides
from unwanted noise.
So it means that I'm not going to be near noisy venues.
I'm not going to be below something like the pool deck
where there could be a lot of noise,
the nightclub, whatever it is,
so absolutely critical,
to make sure you've got the best cabin
in whatever grade you are,
make sure you're surrounded on all sides by other cabins.
The second thing linked to that,
and that I always do to make sure I've got a great cabin
is I check that I'm not in a cabin
with an interconnecting door,
in other words, a door that leads into the cabin next to me.
Now of course, if I'm cruising with somebody
and I want to be connected to them,
that's a different story.
But if you've got strangers next door,
you could find you get a lot of noise from them.
So it could be televisions, it could be music,
it could be talking loud.
So if they're on a different schedule to you,
in terms of sleeping, partying, whatever it is,
you can get a lot of noise coming from next door.
So that's the second critical thing.
Again, no matter what grade you're in,
make sure you avoid those interconnecting cabins.
And particularly if you're lucky enough
to be going in a suite
because you'll find a lot of suites
do actually have interconnecting doors to other cabins,
if families or whatever are travelling together.
My third critical thing
is if you are concerned about motion
and you don't really like a lot of motion
or you're worried about getting seasick,
make sure that you've got a cabin midships.
Now, the great advantage of a midships cabin
is not only are you going to have less motion
because as a ship moves the middle is where you're going to get
the least amount of movement.
So that's really, really important.
But also it means if you're in the middle of the ship
you're going to be sort of equipment-distance
from all of the key facilities.
If you're at the front of the ship
or the back of the ship
you might have a long way to walk
to go to the restaurants or the theatre.
If you're in the middle of the ship,
you're kind of close to everything.
So that's a great advantage of being midships,
motion, as well as being close to everything.
One of the things that I really recommend you look for
if you're travelling particularly with friends
or even with a partner,
is try and find a cabin that has a curtain divider.
The great advantage with that
is if you're travelling somewhere
where it's very light and you want to sleep in,
perhaps you've been out partying,
if you've got a curtain divider,
partway through the cabin it'll make it really dark
and cosy if you want to sleep in late.
But also if you've got a partner
who gets up early or sleeps differently
or wants to go to bed at a different time,
they can go in that separate section, they can read,
they can do whatever they want to without disturbing you.
So I really like cabins with a curtain divider.
If you're going in an inside cabin,
the other thing to look for is increasingly cruise ships
are having these virtual balconies.
So instead of just being kind of a enclosed box cabin,
many of them, say for example on Royal Caribbean,
I've seen a lot, Disney have it quite a lot,
is there are big screens
which replicate either balcony doors or windows
so you can actually see what's going on
and they project the actual live outside onto those screens
so you get less of a sense
of being kind of enclosed in a space.
So those are some of my tips
on how you make sure you get a really good cabin.
But what are the things to watch out for
to make sure that you avoid the worst cabins
in every single grade of which there are them,
trust me, no matter whether you're in a suite, a balcony,
or you're spending more money,
you can still get a terrible cabin.
So let's take a look at things to watch out for
to avoid those worst cabins at every single grade.
The first critical thing to avoid the worst cabins
are check the deck plans
and make sure that you're nowhere near
areas of potential big noise.
These are the ones to really watch out for.
Look for late night venues,
so nightclubs, theatres for example,
places where there's live bands,
those sort of areas where you can have late night partying
and their big bass noise
which really does travel through the hull and the metal
and can really reverberate within the cabin.
Also make sure that you're not above or below kitchens,
because many of them have 24-hour operations
and can be pretty noisy.
Also try and make sure that you avoid places
where crew come and go.
So for example the last cruise I was on
I was surrounded on all sides I thought by cabins
but just nearby was a crew door
and there was lots of banging, toing and froing,
as they would come in and out,
they're doing various service, room service, whatever.
Also make sure that you're away from the pool deck.
So ideally a couple of decks below
but certainly not underneath it
if you've done that tip that I did earlier
about make sure you're surrounded by cabins.
Because there can be things like late night parties
or scraping of deck chairs which again
because the hull is metal can reverberate through.
So always choose a cabin
that is as far away from those big noise areas
so that maximises your chance of not being disturbed.
Linked to that is try and avoid cabins
that are on the very front of the ship
or the very back of the ship for a couple of reasons.
First of all because of the motion that I mentioned earlier.
If you're at the front of the ship there's also risk
that you will get a lot of noise from things like the anchor
particularly if you're in a lot of ports
where you're going to be mooring
because you can get lots and lots of noise.
And so I know for example,
on one of the cruises that I was on recently,
the expedition leader,
the cruise director spoke about how his cabin,
and many of the other crew cabin,
senior crew cabin were in the front of the ship
because it was very noisy where the anchor was going down.
If you're at back of the ship there is a risk
that you get some reverberation from the engines,
depending on the type of ship you're on.
But also you can often find at the back,
there's often big pool deck areas,
where they have big pool parties at night.
So there can also be noise from that.
So that's one thing to avoid,
try and avoid the very front and the very back of the ship
and get as close to midships as you can.
My next tip is if you really want to make sure
that you're going to avoid
the worst cabins on a cruise ship,
I would discourage you
from going with a guaranteed fare approach.
For those of you that don't know,
there's two ways you can book a cabin,
one of which is where you pay a slight premium
and you'll choose your very specific cabin.
So for example I always do that
because I like to make sure I've got the right cabin.
The other way which is slightly cheaper
is to go for what's known as a guaranteed cabin.
So you basically pay to go in an inside,
an ocean view, a balcony, a suite, whatever it is,
and the cruise line allocates the cabin.
Now bear in mind,
you're probably going to get the leftover cabins.
So you're probably going to get the cabins
that people haven't chosen
because they know that they're really great cabins.
So you might get a cabin that's in a noisy area,
it's a funny shape, it's not ideal.
So if you possibly can, try and go for a fare
where you actually choose your own cabin
particularly if you are worried about getting a great cabin,
because you are a bit throwing the dice and taking a gamble.
So that's why I always prefer to go
with one where I choose my own cabin.
So it's a watch out of guaranteed fares.
Linked to that is also most people always get very excited
if they get an upgrade, because it does sound great.
However, with an upgrade be very cautious.
Again often when you're booking a cruise
you can choose to select an auto upgrade.
I tend not to do that.
The reason is, if you can auto upgrade
you normally have no say in the cabin you get.
So whilst you might get moved
from an ocean view to a balcony
or a balcony to a suite or whatever, again you have no say,
and you're probably going to be given
whatever's left and probably not the best option.
And heard from lots of people who've been really excited
because they've got an upgrade
after having chosen their cabin in a lower grade,
they've got to the cabin and they haven't liked it,
but there's no turning back,
because most cruise lines won't let you have any say
if you accept the upgrade.
So be very cautious about taking upgrades
if you want to make sure
that you've got the best possible cabin.
Another tip that I've got to avoid the worst cabins
is really talking to people who are going for suites.
The interesting thing about suites is we think
they're the best cabins onboard.
However, suites tend to be either
at the very front of the ship,
the back of the ship or very high up.
And it's interesting, I once had a dinner
with one of the designers of cruise ships
and they said ironically,
that's not where they would put suites
if they were recommending the best point in a ship
because clearly lower down in midships
is the best place to be in terms of movement.
However, people in suites want to have the big grand views,
the big beautiful views
from the top or the front or the back of the ship.
Those are not actually the best places to be.
So if you are going in a suite,
look very carefully about what's around you,
particularly for noise.
So for example I was on a recent cruise
where they've got these magnificent
big new two-bedroom suites.
However they're right above the pool deck
where there's a "Movies Under the Stars"
running every night,
there's music blaring all day.
So actually inside the cabin was pretty noisy
both during the day and the night,
even though these were the big deluxe suites.
No matter what level you cruise in,
inside, ocean view, balcony, suite, there are good cabins,
and there are not-so-good cabins.
These tips should help you make sure
that you get a great cabin,
not a terrible cabin on your next cruise.
I have loads more videos packed full
of cruising advice and tips.
So why don't you watch another one of those right now?