It’s finally happened! You’ve saved your money, wrangled enough vacation time, the stars are aligned just so, and you’ve decided to go on a cruise. Congratulations! You’ll have the time of your life! In the next few weeks, I am going to post a series of tips to help you make your cruise the best you can have. After all, a cruise represents a big investment of time, money and mental energy, so you need to know what will make a difference to you – and what won’t.
One of the first decisions you’ll need to make when planning your cruise will be what type of cabin to reserve.
Size Matters: “Everyone knows” that you don’t spend much time in your cabin. Unless, of course, you are one of those people who really prefer the quiet and solitude of your own room. If you do, and you are traveling with companions or a spouse, room size can be a crucial consideration.
One of the handiest tools you will find on each cruise line’s website is a deck layout for each ship and stateroom description. As an example, let’s 
look at Carnival Cruise Lines. (Though every cruise line has a deck-viewing tool.) On their very front page, you will see a link to Ships and Staterooms. If you choose the Staterooms link, you will get a general page that tells about all their staterooms. It might be of interest, though, as it has a short, descriptive video. In our case, though we are going to highlight “The Fun Ships.” This is a link to each ship so you can see the similarities and differences – and choose your stateroom category.
Let’s pretend we want to go on the Carnival Conquest (No pretending here! I’d love to go on the Conquest again!) Click the link to the Conquest, and right there on the next page will be another link to “Staterooms.” This one will be specific to the Conquest. Click this link, and next you will see a page that shows each category available on the Conquest. (This page will be different for each ship. For example, the link to the Carnival Dream will have a “Cove Balcony” photo that is not available on the Conquest, since the Conquest doesn’t have a Cove Balcony category.) There is a link to “View Larger,” which will give you a better view of the appearance of each type of stateroom. After viewing all the photos you want to see, use your browser’s back button to return to the landing page for the Conquest (you may need to choose “Staterooms” more than once if you want to look at more than one category of stateroom). There you will also see a link to “Deck Plans.” Choose this link, and now you will see a page for each deck, color-coded to the type of category you are considering. Although the deck plans aren’t drawn exactly to scale, you can use them to get a very good idea of the relative size and layout of the cabins in each category. Click on any stateroom in the schematic that interests you, and you will be taken to a description of that category and the amenities that are included.
By default, the first Deck Plan page takes you to the lowest deck. From there, you can use the down-arrow in the front center section of the page to choose the deck you wish to view. Keep in mind that you can view not only the stateroom decks, but also the Lido (or buffet) deck, and other decks that have no staterooms at all, like the Main/Lobby deck.
Take a minute to look carefully at the schematic for each deck. You will also see some additional details concerning obstructed view and other items of interest.
But again, look carefully at the relative size of each stateroom, because, despite the fact that Carnival has the reputation of having the largest staterooms available, nowhere on their website is square footage mentioned!
Although our example has been Carnival Cruise Lines, as your travel agent, I have excellent tools that give all this detailed information (including square footage) and much more, for all the cruise lines. Best of all, I can do all the work, and you can just sit back and relax, knowing you had enough information to make the best choice for you!
Send me an email at gharkness@choicetraveltx.com, and let’s pick out your next cabin!
