I Saved $700 By Spending a Week in a Cabin Most Don’t Consider

I’ve recently been on a cruise and I stayed in a cabin type that is rarely talked about.

When cruise lines advertise their cruises, they’ll usually show off the biggest and best balcony cabins.

They might quickly say somewhere that there are cheap inside cabins for anyone on a tight budget – but there is a third type of cabin that hardly ever gets a mention.

I’ve spent 7 days sharing one with my Mum to find out if this type of cabin is a good compromise or if there is a good reason why most modern cruise ships are fast abandoning this cabin type. 

The ship I’ve been on, the Marella Voyager, was built in the 1990s as the Celebrity Mercury. Back then, oceanview cabins with just a window were very popular.

I was prepared for the cabin to be outdated, given the age, but I did hope that it wouldn’t be dirty and that we wouldn’t be constantly getting in each other’s way.

I knew that the cabin wouldn’t be very big and that it’s essentially a big metal box.

I didn’t know if the cabin would be noisy, and I was hopeful that we wouldn’t feel the motion of the ocean too much in the room.

A week is a long time to have regrets, and as I’d picked and paid for this cruise for the two of us at a cost of over £3000, the pressure was on. 

I booked what is called a “guaranteed cabin”, which meant that although I picked the cabin’s type, I didn’t pick the location.

This meant that I could be given a cabin on the ship anywhere from the front to the back, from deck 4 up to deck 9.

I was hoping for a cabin in the middle, as they tend to feel the movement less, but it is possible to have a bad or good cabin in any location. 

When I logged onto the Marella website, I saw that we’d been assigned cabin 4099 down on deck 4. I headed straight to the deck plans to have a look at where we would be, and I found us on the side near the water fountain.

There are 3 water machines on this deck alone, so no cabin is too far from chilled drinking water, and we made good use of these machines as the cruise went on.

Our cabin looked fairly central, which was a relief, and we were a little way away from the stairs, which I hoped would mean that we wouldn’t hear a lot of people talking.

Cruise ship cabins certainly aren’t known for their soundproofing, and in the past, I have found cabins by the stairs to be noisiest. 

Find out more about soundproofing in cruise ship cabins here:

Are Cruise Ship Cabins Soundproof? (Thin Walls, Balconies and Travelling Sound)

I would end up hearing noises from my cabin, but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. One key thing I forgot to do here was that I didn’t look at what was above or below my cabin. 

I saw on the deck plan that my cabin had a symbol, which meant that the cabin sleeps four.

I once shared an oceanview cabin with my Mum, Dad, and brother when I was a teenager, and I definitely remember us all struggling for space. I hoped that with just two of us, it would help things.

Back then, I slept on one of the beds that fold down from the ceiling. I would end up sharing my bed with a whole bunch of strange-looking animals – but I didn’t know that until later on. 

Our embarkation was the fastest I’ve ever experienced, and I time all of my embarkations.

This one took just 6 minutes from bus to ship, and when we boarded, our cabins were already ready. This was such an encouraging sign, as I just wanted this cruise to be easy and relaxing.

Our cabin steward met us as we walked down the corridor and he introduced himself to us, he told us that if we needed anything at anytime there would be a team of people working here every day who we could ask.

All of the crew onboard were so friendly and they cleaned our room twice a day, making it up for the day and down in the evening. 

All that we needed to get into our cabin was our cruise cards, and these were also what we’d use to get on and off the ship and to buy anything extra onboard.

The cruise cards are an important part of cruising, and when I asked you if you keep your cruise cards, 84% of you said yes. Most of you did say that they were in a drawer somewhere, though, and so with my team at The Cruise Globe, we decided to do something about that, and we have launched something brand new. 

Introducing the cruise globe cruise cards, these cards show the real route that your ship took, including the nautical miles and the embarkation and disembarkation ports.

They are the same size and shape as the cruise cards you get onboard, and we’ve also created an album so that you can get your collection on display. I hope you’ll agree it’s beautiful, and nobody will be able to resist looking at your cruise collection when this is on the table.

These can be ordered now on TheCruiseGlobe, and the code EMMACRUISES will get you a little discount. TheCruiseGlobe is still completely free to use of course, we’ve just added this so your cruise history can come into the real world. 

Speaking of discounts, this cabin was a whopping £530 per person less than booking a balcony cabin. It was £198 more than an inside cabin, and I hoped that it would be worth it.

Split over the days, that’s only £28 a day, which didn’t seem like a lot, but I could have spent that money on excursions or speciality meals or something instead.

The main thing I wanted from the cabin was daylight because waking up in the dark of an inside cabin, not knowing if it’s 3 am or 3 pm, is not great. 

When we entered the cabin I was really impressed, the cabin felt big but I do think that is because we had twin beds instead of a double, being able to see all of the floor space does make the cabin feel bigger than when the bed hides it. 

I was happy to see that we were given twin beds too, as I quite often have to ask to have it changed onboard.

The default seems to be a double bed, usually, but I like cruising with my family. I hoped I still would after a week sharing this room. Of course, I have heard of many families and friend groups who have fallen out trying to share a room like this. 

In terms of size, this cabin is approximately 17 square metres, which is roughly the same size as one level of a standard bus, or so I’m told. I haven’t taken a bus with a tape measure lately.

It felt spacious, though, and I was really surprised by how modern it looked. Particularly the colours.

A lot of older cruise ships have a very orange-toned wood, but this was bright and light. I think Marella did get lucky there when they bought the ship, they haven’t changed these cabins much at all but they don’t look outdated.

I don’t know if we got lucky because our cabin really didn’t show any signs of age, well, the bathroom did a little bit, but more about that later. 

Heading further into the cabin, I of course had to have a look out of the window. The windows itself was really big and we could use the part in front of it like a window sill. I’d usually keep my First Mate Rolo here. 

There was a blind in the window which was really good at keeping out the light, and under that were our two bedside tables.

The lamps actually go all the way back to when Celebrity owned the ship. I love finding little historical nuggets like that. Marella bought the ship in 2023. 

The lamps were great, but because they were mirrored, when I woke up and looked across at what I expected to be my mum, I would see my own face staring back at me.

It was a little bit creepy for the few seconds after waking up in the dark before I realised that that was indeed me. I got used to it, though, and the bed felt nicely protected and snuggly. 

I could sometimes hear somebody on the other side tapping or making noises when I was being quiet, it was tempting to tap back, but I thought that might be weird. That’d creep me out anyway. 

Because the lamps are old, there weren’t any USBs in the lamps like you will find on modern cruise ships, but I figured that if that was the compromise of the room, I’d be more than happy with that.

There are a few things I don’t like to compromise on, though, like good air conditioning and working toilets. I hoped we’d have those at least. 

I was happy to be in the fixed bed rather than those that are on the walls. Those two beds up there fold down, and there are ladders that you use to get up to them. The beds are almost the same size, and they usually have a weight limit of 200, 250, or sometimes 300 lbs. 

Given that this cabin does hold four, I was hoping that there would be plenty of storage space. It wasn’t long after this that our luggage arrived, and we’d get the chance to test it out.

I’d bet quite a lot of money on the fact that one of the main causes of cruise ship arguments is about the storage space. Some cabins don’t have a lot of space at all, and I’ve always found it best just to equally split the number of drawers, shelves and hanging space as a starting point. 

In the wardrobe, we had a big space for full-length hanging, another part with a short hanging section and loads of drawers and shelves. Marella isn’t a formal cruise line, so I had a few casual dresses but mostly wore shorts and a t-shirt. 

I’ll let you guess what was behind the door that reads ‘there’s a safe behind this door’.

You’ll find a safe in most cruise ship cabins. I did find one once, which was operated with a credit card in the old style, but usually you just set a PIN code. 

You usually find a fridge, too, but Marella doesn’t have fridges in their cabins anymore. The cupboard down in the corner is where the fridge used to be, and not having one suits me fine. I never use the fridge when I cruise. If you do need one for medical reasons you can request one I believe. 

Because there isn’t a fridge, there isn’t a minibar actually in the cabin. I much prefer this because I never pay for things in the mini bar and don’t want to just awkwardly stare at the food all week.

On Marella, you order the food and drinks you’d like from your minibar in the app, and then they arrive. 

Also, in the app, you can report a problem with the cabin, which is so much easier than going to reception. 

We did have a little problem one day when our do-not-disturb card disappeared from our door. I’ve never had that happen on a cruise before, but I do always say I prefer the cruise ships that have the buttons instead of the cards.

It’s just an old-fashioned way to do things, but our cabin steward found us another, and it wasn’t a problem.

I don’t know who took our card, but if I had to guess, I’d guess it was another cabin that realised they didn’t have one, so they pinched mine to use, very cheeky. 

As well as the big wardrobes over by the door, there were a few shelves closer to the bed where the old-style big TV used to go. This is just free space now. Theres a little drawer over by the desk too, which has a hairdryer in it.

The desk has the most important thing on it, and that is a kettle. Theres mugs and everything else you need on the other side.

Waking up to a cup of tea every day before leaving the cabin is one of my favourite things about cruising with the British cruise lines.

Most American cruise lines don’t include kettles in the cabins, and I always miss them. They have proper Yorkshire tea too and other teabags available. 

I usually drink peppermint tea, so I bought a few teabags from the buffet to my cabin, and we’d go to fill up the jug with water every day. We had our water bottles too, as it was really hot on this cruise.

Thinking about how warm this cruise was going to be raised a slight concern for me. I’ve stayed in many older cruise ship cabins before where the air conditioning hasn’t been great. It’s not as if you can open the window for any fresh air or anything, so we were relying on the air conditioning. 

The air conditioning was fine – not great, but not terrible. I have had worse – much worse!

When I stayed on Marella Explorer 2, another ship in the Marella fleet, the air conditioning didn’t work and the room was stifflingly hot. Find out all about that, and how it affected us in the video below.

The desk area under the mirror on Marella Voyager was quite small, but it was perfect for me to sit and work.

Marella is a bit different from the other cruise lines when it comes to WiFi because they still sell it by the MB. That said, though, it did work pretty well, and I was able to use my 5G on my phone when in port most of the time. 

The chair was comfortable and I liked how it has no arms so that I could sit cross-legged, I always do my best work when sitting like that. I’ll do anything to avoid sitting in the normal chair position. 

To my surprise, I found a UK plug socket as well as a European socket and one USB-A and one USB-C.

This was plenty for the two of us during the cruise, and I’d usually just charge up my power bank and then use that to charge over near my bed in the evenings.

Have a closer look at the cabin amenities here:

I did share a cabin with my mum once where we only had one plug socket, so this didn’t seem bad at all. 

That one was an inside cabin too so I needed my daylight alarm clock. Luckily for us we had real daylight in this cabin and it does make a big difference, I love it. 

The mirror made the room feel so much bigger and it was great for checking our outfits before going out. There was another mirror closer to the door too. 

Because it was embarkation day the safety drill was playing on the cabin TV, we then had to check in at what is called our muster station and that was all, it was all very easy. 

Apart from that we really didn’t use the TV much. It loops around a few channels but there was never anything much that I wanted to watch. Not that I came on the cruise to watch TV anyway. 

By this point I needed to check out the bathroom. It was a fair size and a very standard rectangular layout.

The shower itself was nice and big and the water stayed nicely in the shower because of the high step.

It’s always good to see a shower door instead of a shower curtain on an older ship like this one, and I’m happy to say that we didn’t have any issues with the bathroom at all. 

The toilet flushed, the sink filled, and theres not much more that I could ask for. It did feel dated, I suppose, and if you looked closely, you could see where things like the mirror were getting old.

The main thing for me was that the bathroom was clean, and the whole cabin was spottlessly clean. We had towels on the rack and also blue towels for the pool.

I only went swimming once on the cruise, so most of the time I used these for after a shower, they’re bigger, and when I wash my hair, I usually put it up in a towel, so I like to have both. 

When looking at the deck plans pre-cruise, I forgot to have a look at what was above us. I spent a few nights listening to noises, trying to work out what was going on and where they were coming from. At the start I thought that I dreamt it but as the cruise went on I realised that I didn’t. 

Our cabin was underneath a bar called Flutes. It definitely wasn’t the nightlife venue onboard and we never heard any music or any people singing, we definitely did hear them restocking or something in the middle of the night though.

Not a problem for me because I can sleep through almost anything, but it is worth mentioning, and if you do really want a quiet cabin, it’s best to book one with cabins above and below it. Then you’re in a cabin sandwich. 

Avoid making the same mistake as me by reading this article next:

11 Cruise Deck Plan Hacks Only Regular Cruisers Know

I’d often come back to my cabin to find a surprise guest on my bed or on the windowsill, they even had eyes, and I loved this one so much.

I’ve heard giraffe, dog and snake so far. I know it’s a bit silly, but it makes me smile, and that’s the point of a cruise. 

Towel animals are a trend that does seem to be dying out on cruises but Marella still embrace it. They still do bedtime chocolates on the pillow, too, which most cruise lines have stopped. 

We had one sea day at the start of our cruise, and things did get a little rocky. Nothing like my January transatlantic cruise or the time I sailed into the Arctic Circle in March, but enough for the sick bags to come out as a just-in-case.

We could feel a bit of movement when walking around the ship but we didn’t feel a thing in our cabin. It was a great location.

Watching a sailaway from a window just isn’t the same as feeling the wind in your face on the top decks, so we usually went out to watch from the top decks.

Marella Voyager has plenty of outside space, though, and we never struggled to find a seat outside anytime that we wanted to. I cruised during the school holidays too, so I don’t imagine that the ship ever gets much busier than it was on my sailing.

From our cabin, we often watched the ocean going by, and it really didn’t seem very far down. It was peaceful, and I never felt claustrophobic or anything in here.

The water did, at one point, splash up over the window, and the whole room went dark. I tried to film it after that, but the ocean got camera-shy and didn’t do it again.

My mum was a great cabinmate and we never had any problems sharing the room. She missed having a plug socket by the bed, but we were never in each other’s way. 

I mentioned earlier in the video that cruise lines often highlight their balcony cabins with amazing sea views, as well as their more affordable inside cabins.

I’ve shown you around the middle option in this video, but what would you say if I said that there, on some ships, is a balcony cabin that is cheaper than the standard balcony because it has no view of the sea at all?

That’s the kind of cabin I stayed in onboard Symphony of the Seas, and you’ll find the video here. It was an interesting cruise, for sure, and if I were to take this cruise again, I’d book something slightly different. See you there in a minute. 

Before You Go

Have a closer look at how ocean view cabins compare to inside cabins here:

5 Pros of Booking Oceanview Cabins on a Cruise (+ 2 Cons)

Have a look at the lovely ocean view cabin my parents stayed in onboard Azamara Pursuit here:

Azamara Ocean View Cabins – Real Opinions and Review