My family of 5 booked an interior cabin and an ocean view room on a Carnival cruise. Here’s how they compared.
-
I booked two 185 square meter rooms on the Carnival Legend for my family of five.
-
My husband and I shared a windowless accommodation and my three children stayed in a sea view room.
-
Staying in separate cabins gave our family more space and privacy during our seven day trip.
I was looking for a vacation in November, so I booked a seven-day cruise on the Carnival Legend for my family of five.
On previous holidays we have all stayed in the same hotel room. Once we all crammed into the same small cruise cabin.
This time I reserved two separate 185 square meter staterooms on the Carnival Legends Riviera deck for more space and privacy.
My husband and I stayed in a windowless interior cabin that had a king-size bed.
The king was actually just two single beds pushed together.
We each had a bedside table with a reading lamp.
If one of us wanted to stay up a little later, we turned off the main lights and turned on the lamp.
My three children – aged 14, 11 and 8 – shared a cabin with a sea view across the hall.
Connecting rooms were not available, so my children stayed in their own room.
The children’s room had two single beds and a sofa that was converted into a third bed.
There was more than enough room for the three of them.
The children’s picture window provided wonderful natural light.
Our room had no windows and was sunless. In the future I will also reserve a room with a sea view for the adults.
The bathrooms in both cabins were identical.
Inside the bathroom there were many storage shelves for our toiletries.
Cruise staff cleaned the bathrooms and replenished our towel supplies every day.
Many hotels we’ve checked into stopped offering daily housekeeping since the coronavirus pandemic began, but we enjoyed a clean bathroom and fresh towels every day on the Carnival Legend.
The showers had shampoo and gel dispensers.
There was also a retractable clothesline in our bathroom for drying wet bathing suits.
Even with three children sharing one small bathroom, the floor stayed dry thanks to the shower’s well-designed drainage system.
I was glad to see that there was no water covering their entire bathroom floor.
Both rooms’ layouts made excellent use of 185 square meters of space.
We could easily store a week’s worth of goods thanks to all the drawers, shelves and hangers.
Two of the cupboards had hanging rods for dresses and coats, with enough space to hide the suitcases at the bottom.
My husband and I had no problem neatly storing our suitcases and clothes.
Like many cruise cabins, our room had one outlet next to the desk.
This was a little annoying because my husband and I had to take turns charging our devices.
The crew confiscated one of our power rails.
I packed two power strips to avoid changing the socket, but only one came on board. Unfortunately, the crew confiscated the other one.
Carnival’s website says that power strips without surge protectors are allowed, but those deemed dangerous by the crew will be removed and returned to the owner on the last day of the cruise before disembarkation.
However, the children had no problems bringing the power rail into the cabin.
The TV screen was so small that my eyes felt strained towards the end of the trip.
The too small TV screen is not a big deal if you are not a movie watcher.
However, our family likes to relax watching shows and by the end of the week the small screen was straining my eyes.
Inside a table was a mini fridge big enough to store two bottles of wine and some snacks.
The one downside was that it didn’t get cold enough to chill drinks.
Our rooms had thermostats, but I don’t think they worked well.
The rooms had thermostats with moving dials, but turning them up didn’t seem to affect the temperature.
Our cabin seemed too cold, and the children’s place seemed too warm.
Even though we were on a Thanksgiving cruise, we decorated our cabin doors for Christmas.
The small copper box was a mailbox where crew members could deliver excursion tickets and other information sheets.
On future family trips I will stick to booking two separate rooms.
Our cabins were small but offered lots of storage options that made them feel more spacious.
The next time we cruise or go on vacation, I will consider booking separate rooms for adults and children so that everyone has their own private retreat.
Read the original article on Insider
