My Cabin on the World’s Biggest Cruise Ship – A Balcony With No Ocean View!

I’ve just disembarked a cruise where I spent 8 days in a balcony cabin that faced inside on the world’s biggest cruise ship.

The cabin did have outside space, but it had no privacy and no view of the ocean at all, just the sky, the park, and the pool deck.

I spent the week trying to work out why this type of cabin exists, and because I booked this cruise during the peak of the summer school holidays, I was prepared for my cabin to feel very noisy and very busy.

The reality wasn’t what I expected at all, but if I were to book this cruise again, I’d make a different decision. 

Because the ship was only a month old when I sailed on her, my expectations were very high.

I booked this cabin type because I did like the idea of some outside space and because it was a lot cheaper than booking a balcony that faced the ocean. I wasn’t sure if I would regret it.

I hoped that the actual cabin part would be just as nice and that it wouldn’t bother me if other people could see me when I was inside my room.

I booked what is called a “guaranteed cabin”, meaning that I didn’t know where my cabin would be; the cruise line assigned the cabin to me last.

These are usually the leftover cabins and often in the worst locations. 

I knew that Legend of the Seas had two areas with inward-facing balconies, so I could be assigned a cabin in Central Park or at the back overlooking an area called Surfside.

I could be anywhere in here, from the lowest level to the top. I was hopeful that I’d be assigned Central Park because I thought it would be quieter, but I didn’t take into account the fact that these cabins are right below the main pool deck.

The cabin that I was assigned was actually under the cruise ship’s main pool. 

It was a couple of months before the cruise that I was assigned cabin 14621 on deck 14.

I headed straight to the website and saw that my cabin was on the highest deck of balcony cabins and was towards the middle of the ship. 

The cabin that I was assigned was a standard balcony cabin, not the infinite balcony type which you can see below with the big windows.

These are more expensive, so it did make sense that I was given a more traditional balcony cabin, and I was happy with that.

I stayed in a cabin like the infinite type on a Celebrity cruise, and I do prefer having actual outside space.

I boarded the cruise at around 2 p.m., and our cabins were already ready at that point, which was great. 

I was happy to see that on every cabin door there was a sign that said if you were at the front, the middle, or the back of the ship, this was always facing the right way so I never got confused which way I wanted to go.

Wandering down the corridor, it all felt very new, and it didn’t take me long to find my room.

It was a bit weird knowing our balcony cabin was on the side where the inside cabins would normally be, but nothing about this ship was normal.

Our cruise cards were waiting for us outside the room, and these were what we’d use to buy things onboard and to get on and off the ship. 

As soon as I opened the cabin door I was really impressed with the space.

The design felt minimalistic and modern, which I loved, and I really liked all of the colours.

To the left, there was a bathroom door, and then beyond that, the bed. I headed past the bed, past the sofa, and went straight out onto the balcony. I couldn’t wait any longer to have a look around.

From here, I could see that my cabin looked over the park, and there were cabins directly opposite us.

I could see the same traditional balcony cabins on our level, with the infinite style on the lower levels.

I could see quite clearly into the cabins and noticed that there were lots of people walking around on the top deck.

The balcony itself was a good size with two chairs and a table.

I thought that I’d have a great time people-watching from here, and I certainly did.

I didn’t know my cabin neighbours, but I’d learn things like who would sit on their balcony in the evening and which cabins had kids in them. 

The bottom of the park is actually Deck 8, and Central Street is underneath this park, if you can believe it. 

I could see people wandering along the park, and it really blew my mind a little bit that this was on a cruise ship.

From here, there was no way to see the ocean at all, and I did wonder if I’d miss that.

Usually, when I cruise, sitting and watching the ocean is one of my favourite things to do, and I knew I wouldn’t be doing a lot of that on this cruise. 

At this point, it was just an exciting novelty, but the reality of staying in a cabin like this would take a few days to sink in.

I headed back into the cabin to have a proper look around. I’d skipped most of it in my excitement to look outside.

Nearest the balcony doors was a bank of drawers with a mirror above it.

I am 5 ft 7,” tall, so it was a strange experience for me to have to crouch down to be able to see myself properly in the mirror. Lots of people are far taller than me.

I’m not sure who designed this, but it’s the same in all of the cabins. Not a problem, just strange. 

Under the mirror was lots of storage: big drawers and one drawer that I call the bits and bobs drawer.

It’s here that I’d keep all the things that usually end up cluttering up the cabin, like chargers and my hat. 

There was a chair here with a very cool design and a table next to it that could be moved around. That was useful to use as a drink table when sitting on the sofa.

The sofa is a sofa bed, and I loved how it was set up so that you could sit and look out the balcony by default.

To turn this into a sofa bed the bottom part pulls out and the side part flips down, this sofabed is for two so the cabin holds 4 in total. 

I do think this pillow looks like one of those colourblind eye tests where you have to see the number in the circle, but I liked it. Let me know if you see that.

I liked the whole design of the room, and it felt as though there was a lot of floor space.

Further into the cabin was the big bed with two bedside tables on either side. The lamp on my side moved too, so you could use it when in bed or on the sofa.

I noticed the USB A by my side, and this was when I started counting all of the USBs.

There was another A and C on the other side of the bed, another two on the shelves at the end of the bed and even more on the desk.

In total, there were 8 USB A’s and USB-C’s in this cabin and an extra plug socket too, which was the clever kind that fits plugs of different types. 

This certainly showed me that this cabin was new. I’ve never been in a cabin with so many places to charge things before. In fact, I stayed in a cabin once that only had one plug socket for the entire room. 

Although the floor space of the bathroom is pretty small, it felt really well designed and clever.

The last cruise I took didn’t have a separate bathroom like this at all, so just having a bathroom door felt exciting.

This door is different from a normal one too because it’s just a big magnet, which means it’s easy to get out of the bathroom without using your hands, which was great.

I was surprised to see that the cabin still used magnets for do not disturb instead of the buttons and little lights that a lot of cruise lines have now, but it worked. 

As I walked in, on the right was the sink, on the left the toilet and straight ahead was the shower.

The shower door opened in a very clever way, which meant that you could turn on the water before getting into the shower without getting all wet; that gave it time to warm up properly.

I usually do that when I cruise, but what I don’t usually get to do is to sit down in the shower.

In this shower, there was a seat, and this is the same in all of the cabins onboard. Usually, you’ll only find those in accessible cabins.

When I first saw the towels up here in the shower cubicle, I thought that was a really strange choice; surely they’ll get wet, but they never did.

It meant that I could dry off straight away after turning the water off before stepping out, which was good. 

Behind the toilet were shelves that turned into the place I’d put my clothes that I’d worn for a little while but weren’t dirty enough to put away yet so would wear again. Under the sink was loads of storage and even a drawer. 

One of my main concerns about this cabin was that we would hear a lot of noise, and it was around now that I started to hear music playing.

I could hear it inside the cabin just faintly. It wasn’t enough to be annoying, but I could tell what was playing outside.

I headed back out onto the balcony to find out more, and I noticed that right opposite my cabin was the main stage for the pool band to play their music.

I checked the daily schedule and saw that they would be playing for a couple of hours. I sat on the balcony for a while and enjoyed the music while watching everybody walking around the top decks. 

I was very aware that everybody could see me, but at this point the sun meant that I couldn’t really see far into the other cabins.

I wondered what it would be like at night though, with all of the balcony cabins lit up. I wondered if I might see things that I didn’t really want to see?

That has happened to me on cruises before. I once stayed on a river cruise ship, and river cruise ships often dock side by side.

A lady opposite me probably went in her shower when there was no ship docked next to hers, but when she came out of the bathroom, our ship was right there. She definitely wasn’t prepared to see me there in my cabin! 

While I was sitting here, we actually sailed away from port, but there really was no way to know.

The only thing I could see was the sky, and that didn’t help me know where we were.

Luckily for me, I have my own free cruise app that shows you where cruise ships are live, in 3D, so I would check The Cruise Globe while sitting on my balcony to see where we were. 

I never felt any cruise ship movement at all on this cruise, we had beautifully calm seas.

By now our suitcases had arrived at our room, so I decided to unpack.

I found two wardrobe hanging areas over by the bed with four baskets below them.

On the side behind the long mirror was a safe and lots of other shelves.

There was a fridge over by the balcony doors too. Well, technically it’s not a fridge; it’s a cooler, but it looked and acted like a fridge to me. 

I was on this cruise for 8 days, and the weather was very hot, so I didn’t need to pack a lot.

I hung up my dresses, unpacked the rest into the drawers and put my suitcase under the bed. 

As night fell, the mood out on the balcony changed. During the day, I would mostly see people in their swimwear going to the pool or on the waterslides, but at night, the top decks became quieter.

The pool band never played into the evening, and if there were late night parties they tended to be inside the main street or in other inside venues. 

My attention in the evenings very much moved to the park below.

The park contains over 30,000 real plants, and down there there is a cafe, a few bars and some shops.

During the evening, I could hear Jazz music on my balcony, but I didn’t know where it came from.

The next day, when walking in the park, I’d see a bar called Lou’s and realised this was where it was coming from. 

The music was much quieter than the pool deck music, and when I closed my cabin door to go to bed, I couldn’t hear it anymore.

There would sometimes be a string quartet or a man playing guitar down here too; it was a relaxing soundtrack to the evening. 

When I said earlier I would make a different cabin choice if I were booking again, it wasn’t because of the noise. 

The air conditioning in the cabin only works when the balcony cabin door is closed, and I’m happy to say that the air conditioning worked really well.

I’d often come back from a trip out and would just lay on the floor to cool down as fast as possible.

Most of the time, I’d have some snacks with me too, either from the buffet or the park cafe. I loved how they had little tubs of melon and snacks of cucumber and carrots, oh and cookies, of course.

I had the soda package on this cruise and would usually bring a drink back to my room too.

Your Britishism of the week has got to be Fanta because our Fanta orange doesn’t look anything like American Fanta.

The one that I got onboard was fluorescent; it was like the colour of a highlighter pen, and here in the UK, our Fanta orange is a much calmer colour.

It’s from lying on the floor that I can confidently say that the cabin was absolutely spotlessly clean. I’ve seen under the bed and around all the edges.

Our cabin was cleaned once a day, and it would normally be cleaned in the evening instead of the morning.

I didn’t ever get up very early on this cruise, so it might have been that I missed the morning slot and that they came back in the evening.

Or it may be that they just do some cabins in the morning and some in the evening.

That suited me nicely, though. The only thing I really needed from the housekeeping team was clean towels occasionally and to make sure that we never ran out of toilet roll.

They would hoover and clean the room too, making sure that it never got dirty.

I like to think that I’m quite a tidy and clean person, but when I went to stay on a hospital ship in Sierra Leone with one of the charities we fundraise for on this channel, I was responsible for cleaning my own cabin.

That trip made me realise just how much cleaning goes on behind the scenes that I didn’t appreciate beforehand. 

Have a look at my Sierra Leone hospital ship visit here:

I put my First Mate Rolo and Captain Hudson on the shelves opposite the bed.

This is how we fundraise on this channel. In total, sales of these two toys have raised over $187,000 for charity to date.

A massive thank you to the over 10,000 people who have supported the fundraisers. I’m so proud of our community and always so amazed by your generosity. 

I slept very well in the comfortable bed on this first night, and it was a quiet cabin.

I was aware that the other people on the top deck or in the other cabins could see into my cabin when I had the light on, and it was dark outside, so I’d usually have the curtains drawn in the evenings.

The curtains overlapped nicely, meaning that they kept out almost all of the light.

The lights of Central Park and the ship in general stayed on all night, so without good curtains, that would have been annoying. 

We would sometimes hear the cabin next to us slamming their door, but that’s just bad luck; even if I had paid to pick my cabin’s location, I couldn’t have picked my neighbours, so I didn’t regret that part. 

As I learnt more about the other cabin types onboard, my mind did change, and I would do it differently if I chose again. I wouldn’t book an infinite cabin, though. 

Usually, when I wake up on a cruise, I’d go out to the balcony to see which port we are docked in.

I couldn’t do that on this cruise, but we were only one deck down from the top deck, so it wasn’t a problem to walk out to see where we were. 

I always knew that I’d prefer an ocean-facing balcony cabin – that wasn’t the question for me.

I was just trying to work out if it was worth the price saving. It was interesting to see that on our level there were only a few balcony cabins like this because further along it is the pool.

I’m sure Royal Caribbean could have made all of these inside cabins if they wanted to, but they had the opportunity to sell more balcony cabins, which is what the majority of cruise passengers want, so I see why they did it. 

It was fun to see my cabin from the other side, and I liked seeing the other cabin type.

These are called infinite balcony cabins. I think this cabin is better described as a big window since the balcony part is inside the cabin, but it is technically sold as a balcony cabin.

These are more expensive than the type of balcony I had, and the main problem I had with the one I had on Celebrity was that because the balcony is in the room, it isn’t like one person can get up in the morning and head out there without waking up the other person.

If you open the blinds, the blinds are open. That’s it. It was also controlled by the bridge and was locked a few times.

Have a look at that Infinite Veranda cabin I stayed in on Celebrity Edge here:

I loved being able to come out here to get some fresh air whenever I wanted, but one thing that I usually like about balcony cabins wasn’t possible, and that was working using my phone with 4 or 5G from land.

I do get the WiFi package when I cruise, but I usually find that my phone signal is faster, and by sitting on the balcony or even in an oceanview cabin, I can use the internet signal from land.

That wasn’t possible here, though. I couldn’t ever get a good signal, perhaps because I was in the middle of a huge metal box, so I had to rely on the WiFi all the time. 

That is one way that a balcony cabin facing the ocean would have benefited me, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

I definitely did miss seeing the ocean, and it was really surreal not knowing if we were sailing or not, but overall I was happy with the price saving, and it was great fun. 

I did meet a friend onboard whose cabin had a view of the ocean, even though it was facing into Central Park like mine was.

He said that he could see through the windows past the big pearl and out. I managed to find that view when sitting in the park one day. He just got lucky there.

I felt pretty lucky that I’d be assigned a Central Park view instead of the surf side at the back.

As the cruise went on I realised that this part here was one of the main areas for children and it was really quite noisy during the day.

On top here was the waterpark, and although we had the noise of music, we never had any other kind of noise. I was expecting to hear kids playing and shouting, but we never had any of that. 

In total, I paid £1620 to stay in this cabin for 8 days.

That’s based on two people sharing this cabin and we both paid that price, it would have been £400 extra per person to book an ocean facing balcony cabin and I am happy that we didn’t do that.

Instead, I spent that money on a Soda package and WiFi, which was more important to me.

Have a closer look at my cabin on Legend of the Seas and see if you think it’s worth the money here:

If I were to book this cruise again, I’d pick a standard oceanview cabin with just a window instead of the inward-facing balcony cabin.

These were the same price when I booked, and being able to see the ocean was something that I missed. 

I mistakenly thought that a balcony cabin would be a must on this cruise because I expected the rest of the ship to be really busy. I didn’t think I’d be able to get a seat outside whenever I wanted, but that wasn’t the reality.

The ship never felt too busy despite having over 6500 guests onboard.

I’d be happy to have an oceanview cabin, but then spend time out on the promenade deck or top decks whenever I wanted fresh air. That said, though, I’d still prefer an oceanview balcony cabin if money were no object. 

I’ve stayed in all kinds of cabins and the last time I cruised with Royal Caribbean I actually had a “virtual inside cabin”.

This was an inside cabin with a massive TV screen that projected the live view of the outside.

To find out what this was like and what I wished I could have done with the screen, watch this video next:

Before You Go

This Legend of the Seas isn’t the first ship to carry this name. Royal Caribbean launched a ship in the 1990s that had the same name. She is still sailing for another company. Find out more about her here:

I Cruised On The New And Old Legend Of The Seas. They Couldn’t Be More Different

I sailed on MSC’s equivalent of Royal Caribbean’s Icon class ships. It was far cheaper, but was it as good? Find out here:

7 Days on Europe’s Biggest Cruise Ship – Mind Blowing!