I Paid Extra to Upgrade My Cabin For One BIG Reason

Normally, when I book a cruise, I book the cheapest cabin I can find. If it’s right at the end of the ship or under a nightclub, I don’t mind.

I’ve just disembarked a cruise though, where I did something very unlike me, I paid to upgrade to one of the biggest balconies on the entire ship.

It was an upgrade that I definitely wasn’t sure would be worth the money, but one I was very excited to try.

I have cruised on this ship before, and the last time I had an oceanview cabin, it was basic, but I had no complaints about it.

I enjoyed being able to see the view out of the window, and the cabin itself, although fairly old by cruise ship standards, it worked well. It was comfortable and totally fine.

Whenever I would get off the ship in port, I would look back at the ship, and I would wonder what it would be like in one of the large balcony cabins.

It looked as though they were right back into the ship, and I could see sunloungers on the balconies too, which was interesting. Balconies usually just fit a couple of chairs.

I wondered if booking a large balcony would be worth it, and how much more it would cost.

I knew that it could be great and something I’d be missing out on this whole time, but maybe it was one of those things you pay for but really don’t use.

I was more than happy in my oceanview cabin, so I tried to convince myself that I didn’t need to rock the boat, no pun intended. 

When I found a sailing in January, which was much cheaper than at other times of the year, I thought to myself, this might actually be possible.

When I priced it all up, the large balcony cabin price in January was actually cheaper than the price I’d paid for the oceanview cabin in July, so I decided to give it a go.

I booked it while I was still on onboard, which meant I could choose my cabin location without paying extra. That sweetened the deal. 

I hoped that the time of year didn’t mean that a balcony would be a waste of money, and I hoped that I wouldn’t end up with any problems like noisy neighbours or broken toilets.

There are good and bad cabins everywhere on a ship, and it’s always a risk, even when you do pick your location. I’ve had bad cabins in good locations before and vice versa.

I picked a cabin right in the middle of the ship and between two other decks of cabins. My hope was that it would be quiet and if we experienced bad weather, which we did, that it would be stable. 

Check in was really easy and we were given our cruise cards in the terminal, these are what we would use to open the door to our room. We found our cabin, 9111, in the middle of deck 9.

I had picked that number when booking, mostly because of its proximity to the water machine, but also just because I thought that it would be an easy one to remember, which it was. 

My first impressions of the room were really good, it definitely didn’t feel huge, in terms of square footage, it isn’t particularly big, but it was very bright, and I liked the colours of the cushions and the sofa.

On the left-hand side was a bed, and on the right a massive mirror, which probably helped to make the room feel bigger than it actually was. 

The ship was built in 1997 as Mercury for Celebrity Cruises, and there are a few original features in the room, like the wood and the mirrors.

I can’t say for sure that the lamps were here in the 90s, but I have found evidence that they were here in 2005.

It’s amazing to think that they’ve lasted that long and haven’t been broken by all the guests.

On the other side of the bed was the sofa and a desk area.

I did assume that this was a sofa bed, but on the website, it doesn’t say that this room can hold three. Lots of the other cabins can, anyway.

The sofa was showing its age and looking a little bit faded, but it was perfectly clean and not damaged at all. I imagine it’s just had a lot of people sitting here. 

Spinning around I could see the TV and I didn’t know at this point but I’d actually be on the TV during the cruise, that it something I’ve never done before.

Marella has a TV show called Cruise Director TV, and I was invited on to talk about Marella’s partnership with my company, The Cruise Maps. It was something very out of my comfort zone, but I’m so glad I did it. 

There was also a blue chair to the side, three drawers and the all-important kettle.

Marella is a very British cruise line, and having a kettle in the cabin is something I always love and appreciate. You don’t normally get a kettle on American cruise lines. 

The rest of the tea and coffee-making facilities were over near the bed, just above the safe, along with the water jug, which we filled up every day at the water machines I’d found earlier on the deck plan. 

I walked past the sofa and headed straight out onto the balcony. Usually, in balcony cabins, you’ll have a door that slides, but our room had a door that opened just like a regular door. It does have a child lock and a curtain to block out the light. 

Stepping out onto the balcony, I was amazed by the size.

I have stayed in balcony cabins on cruises before but usually they are just about okay for two people to sit down.

If you want to have friends around you, usually you have to stand side by side or rotate in and out of the room; that was not a problem here, though. I’m sure we could have had ten or twenty people on this balcony at a time.

It was very comfortable, had space for four people to sit, and I was so impressed with the fact that there were sun loungers.

I’ve been known in the past to make a bed on the floor of a balcony with a towel and a pillow, but this was so much better.

I did wonder, though. I am just one person. Would it really be worth the price I paid for all this extra space?

I can only sit in one place, after all. The real benefit of this balcony wouldn’t become apparent for a couple of days.

Heading back into the cabin, I put my phone on charge on the desk. I was surprised to see a UK plug socket, as most cruise ships don’t have those.

There was a European socket too, and both kinds of USB. No plugs or USBs by the bed, but that’s something I don’t expect on ships of this age, and it wasn’t a problem. 

Wandering back past the bed, I headed into the bathroom.

Most cruise ship bathrooms are pretty much the same: a shower on one side, a sink in the middle and a toilet on the other side.

This one was no different. My favourite part was just how deep the bottom of the shower was.

If you’ve not cruised before, you might not realise why that’s important, but I’ve been on a few cruises where the water has been sploshing around as the ship sails in rough water, and it’s gone all over the bathroom.

There was no risk of that here. You could almost fill up the bottom to have a bath. I wouldn’t recommend that, of course.

I do have friends who cruise with babies, and they often bring a little blow-up pool or a baby bath to put down here. 

I will say the temperature of the shower wasn’t very consistent, but the shower was a really good size, and I like the shower door instead of the shower curtain.

On ships of this age, I do expect to see the curtain, not a shower door, so that was a nice surprise. 

The toilet was a toilet, the sink was a sink, and they both worked perfectly. There was plenty of space for our things.

The magnifying mirror was a bit scary, but it shows here nicely how I keep my cruise card in the back of my phone.

A lot of people keep theirs on lanyards, but that reminds me too much of jobs I’ve had in the past; my clothes often don’t have pockets, so this works perfectly. 

The bathroom was showing its age, but it was perfectly clean, and it was cleaned every day.

We never ran out of things like toilet roll, and that’s what I care about most. I’d much prefer a clean, functional bathroom from the 1990s to a dirty bathroom with no toilet paper in 2026. 

The whole cabin was cleaned twice a day, every day, and one thing I really like about Marella is that the housekeeping teams work in groups rather than alone.

If I was working in housekeeping, I’d definitely prefer that and I do think it helps to make the crew happier, which is something I’m always in favour of, anything that can make the crews lives easier and better I think should be done. 

It was around now that our luggage arrived in our room. The cabin type that I’d booked is called a large balcony, but it doesn’t change the size of the actual room, just the balcony.

That said, though, we really didn’t need any extra storage, and if we had brought double the clothes, we still would have found space for them.

Over by the bathroom were the wardrobes where the majority of our clothes went, there were bedside tables too, and more drawers by the desk.

The amount of storage space is a massive perk of older cruise ships. I’m not sure why, but a lot of the more modern ones assume that we don’t have many clothes. 

The carpet deserves a special mention here too, I think, it reminds me of a zebra. 

We’d often come back to our room to find other animals on our bed too, towel animals, which was good fun. I’m not always sure what animals they are, but it’s a nice surprise to come back to the cabin to find out. 

My Captain Hudson and First Mate Rolo came in handy on this cruise because every night when I came back and was ready to go to bed, they’d be my pillow with the bed time chocolates.

It’s amazing how fast you can get used to having a chocolate before you go to bed. It’s a cruise treat that I do miss on other cruise lines.

I slept very well this first night, we didn’t sail away until the evening and the seas were calm.

They wouldn’t stay calm for the whole cruise, and it wouldn’t be until the next day that I’d work out why I loved this large balcony cabin so much.

Waking up in the morning and walking outside to a view like this was such an incredible treat.

We had completely uninterrupted views of wherever we were.

I did wonder if, because the balcony was so long, that meant that we wouldn’t have such a good view from inside the cabin, but that wasn’t true at all, we had a great view.

In the past, I’ve stayed in obstructed balcony cabins where you have something like a lifeboat in the way to save money, so it being far away didn’t bother me at all.

The fact that the balcony was deep was why I liked the cabin so much. The main thing I liked about it wouldn’t have worked if the balcony were long and thin instead of deep.

You can see what I think makes this cabin really special for me. You might not have noticed it, but it’s actually the position of the sun and the ship. 

Because this balcony is so deep it would usually be that half the balcony was in the sun and the other half in the shade, that meant that I could always make the choice, did I want the sun or the shade.

I would usually move the sunlounger around too, so I could lay in the sun when I wanted to, then when I got too hot, I could move into the shade. If I was still too hot, I could move inside again.

I imagine this would be great if you were with somebody who had a different temperature preference to you too.

One person could be in the shade and one in the sun. Or in this cabin, you could have 4 people in the sun and 6 in the shade… 

On this cruise, it was around 25 °C per day, and for me, that was absolutely perfect.

I wouldn’t want it 1 c colder or warmer. It wasn’t that warm every day, so when the sun was out, I’d be in it. 

Towards the end, we did have some bad weather, and we had a port cancellation.

That meant that we spent an extra night in Madeira, which was lovely, and then had an extra sea day.

I definitely think that the cancellation was the right decision, the ship really didn’t get too rocky at all, and in our room, there wasn’t a lot of movement.

That certainly was helped by the fact that our cabin was in the middle.

I know most people wouldn’t consider the weather we had to be hot sunbathing weather, and that’s part of the reason why the upgrade was cheaper than it would have been in summer.

For me, though, somebody from England, it was perfectly warm and such a great way to see the winter sun; it answered that nagging question I’d had for ages: are the large balconies worth it? 

Have a closer look at that large balcony cabin here:

In total, I paid £1322/$1800 for the week-long cruise, including my flights from London, transfer buses, drinks, including alcoholic drinks and all gratuities.

For what’s included, I think that’s a pretty good price, and even better considering it’s for a large balcony cabin.

The standard balcony was only £76 cheaper, and I’m so glad I upgraded. For just over £10 a day, it was worth having the sunloungers and the choice of sun or shade.

I’ll still be cruising in inside or an oceanview cabin, especially if it’s peak time when prices are higher, but if I am cruising out of season again, I’d definitely upgrade to this room.

If I’d booked an inside cabin on the cruise, I could have been onboard for under £1000, which, considering all that is included, is pretty incredible.

I had sailed the previous year on this ship, and had an oceanview cabin. See what I thought of that, and the Marellla Voyager in general, here:

Before You Go

Have a look at the drinks Marella includes as standard here:

Marella Cruises All Inclusive Drinks List (and 2026 Menus)

Find out which cabin on a Marella ship would suit you best here:

Which Cabin Type Should You Book on a Marella Cruise? (Inside, Outside and Balcony Review)