Sky Suite on Sky Princess - Part 3

Let's continue this cabin tour with a look at the second and smaller bedroom and bathroom. Sky Suites are one of the few cruise cabins I've seen meant to house a larger number of passengers that doesn't rely on sofa beds or pull down bunks. Those cabin arrangements can be great when you're traveling with your kids but this option is much more comfortable when you're traveling with multiple adults.

This bedroom only featured one window for natural light and that was part of the balcony access doors. The door featured the same dual curtain setup so you could choose to block some light or all the light. Given that this bedroom was arranged along the side outside wall of the cabin, there was more typical bedroom style furniture in here.

This bedroom's two nightstand setup featured only one drawer each. Each side had a lamp with a toggle switch and USB ports. 

Regardless of the room size, both beds are the same size.

Dad's bedroom had a nice large dresser that was perfect to hold everything that didn't need to be hung up. The top of the dresser also became a great place to hold items that would have normally cluttered a bathroom counter or desk. His flat panel TV hung above the dresser and was easily watched from the bed or the chair.

In the above picture, Dad's pajamas are hanging on the door handle that separates the bedroom space from the dressing room space. A nice touch to be able to close off the space if you want to let the other person sleep in while you get ready or you'd like a little more privacy while changing in the case of sharing the bedroom with a friend. 

This picture below shows how the three doors meet as the dressing room is around the corner of this inner wall. I am standing in the doorway leading from the bedroom to the dressing room to take this picture. The closed door to the right next to the separate thermostat leads back to the main living space. The open door across from where I am standing is the door to the bathroom. Note though that there is no lock on the door to the main living space but there is a lock on the bedroom door.

As we continue to move about the cabin we turn left to find a similar bank of wardrobe closets. Also gives us a better look at the solo bathroom door entry. This dressing room also had a full length mirror.

Looking back at the closed wardrobe:

Same set of two robes, two slippers, blue tote bag, blue laundry bag, and spare blankets as the other bedroom had.

Also tucked away in another closet is this bedroom's code programmable safe. A great help if you're traveling with a second couple where you can each store your personal valuables.

This bedroom had more shelf sections than the bigger bedroom with most of the closet space having hanging space on top and shelves on the bottom.

Also included in each bedrooms' dressing area were two of these large pointy umbrellas for us to use if needed in port.

Tucked away in the far corner filling the rest of the wall shared with the bathroom is this room's vanity table. Similar setup with a phone, various plugs, drawer storage, and a lighted wall mirror. 

Moving on to the small second bathroom. The inside of the door featured the same two hanging hooks which Dad used for the robe and his toiletry kit.

This bathroom size and layout is more of what I'd expect to find in an inside cabin. A step up to enter and only enough floor space to spin around to face each necessary part of the bathroom. 

The sink countertop had the same bottles of Beekman 1802 products and a couple washcloths. A set of corner shelves was plenty for one or two people's products. Two yellow/white lights adorned the wall mirror above the sink. Only room for one set of towels in here.

The shower had an accordian style door that folded into the shower when opened. This and the size of the shower floor were the main reasons why Dad's shower chair was never going to fit in here.

This shower featured more of a niche caddy for products rather than a mounted shelf. The shower head height was adjustable but did not have a shower wand attachment. There is a clothesline in this shower stall as well. I tried to hand wash a stain on one of my shirts using the Beekman 1802 hand soap and then hung the shirt to dry with the clothesline in this shower since no one was using it. 

Feeling a little claustrophobic in that bathroom? Ok then, let's get some fresh air checking out one of the best cruise ship balconies at sea!

Watch your step passing through the sliding glass doors as we step onto the balcony from the main living space.

One of the best Sky Suite features is the wrap around balcony. Unlike a corner aft suite balcony that may curve around the corner for another 10 feet or so, these two Sky Suite cabins are set up on their own deck because they wrap around until they literally butt up against each other. 

Looking left from these middle doors you can see the edge of the bigger bedroom doors, the partial covering, and the full size outdoor dining table that is part of your balcony. We did not get the opportunity to use this table for dining unfortunately.

Follow me as we get a closer look at the way this balcony wraps around to meet our sole neighbors' balcony.

There usually is a nice centerpiece and cushions on these chairs but the steward removed them during our windy days.

Looking out over the pool deck toward the MUTS screen - this was my vantage point when taking those crew tug of war videos shared on my social media while still on board. Make sure to follow me to get fun live updates from the ship!

To quote every old school infomercial - but wait there's more! Follow me past the dining table and around the corner.

What that window looks like from outside the bigger bedroom. As you can see, it appears reflective from the outside so there's no way for someone on the pool deck to peek in.

This door stays propped open and is still completely on your balcony. It made me think that the original ship design had this area as a balcony meeting a public deck or perhaps two closed balcony sections that they later decided to join together.

Do watch your step as we continue on so you don't trip over this raised area by what looks like a typical door out to a pool deck. This door had a keypad that was the only way to unlock it. My guess is that this is what was on the other side of the mini hallway door that stayed locked.

Mind the step down here as we move into what Princess describes as your private MUTS viewing area. 

Two padded loungers (usually with pillows and a rolled up towel or blanket) guarantee you a spot to sunbathe, view MUTS, or just people watch. These loungers will also make it easy to fall asleep on the balcony despite the noise - take it from me!

This live wall of plants provides a beautiful natural backdrop. On the other side of this tall partition is the other Sky Suite's balcony where they also have padded loungers set up in front of the MUTS screen. There is a door connecting the two balconies so if you find yourself winning the lottery, adopting me, and deciding to book both Sky Suites to treat your family, it's easy to allow passage between the two and create one wide open space to hang out. Otherwise, that door stays locked.

A small drawback is that just above this plant wall is a mounted speaker. Great for when you want to hear the MUTS movie. Not so great when you want to relax in your cabin and ignore outside sounds.

Time to head back the way we came so we can see where else this balcony leads - 

Back outside the sliding doors that lead to the bigger bedroom, we get a glimpse of what awaits had we looked to our right earlier.

The reflective doors that lead into the smaller bedroom. Not sure how anyone would be peeking in from this angle, unless there's such a thing as peeping whales!

The two armchairs at the top left of the above picture usually are sitting at the mid point between the two doors so you can sit looking out at the ocean. At the time of this picture, they had been stowed against the back partition for containment during the windier days.

The final part of the balcony is this sort of horseshoe shaped partition that blocks off the rest of your balcony from the main sun deck. Back here you can enjoy two more padded loungers and a nice round daybed. The wooden pergola style structure towering over our partition is surrounding the first set of loungers anyone can use on the sun deck. If one was taller (or crouching) or thought to peek through the small gaps where the partition panels don't quite meet the frame, you could easily peek in on this balcony. Just a heads up in case anyone thinks they can do things on this balcony that would otherwise happen in a more private space.

Why so much extra seating in this back section? So you can relax while enjoying the fourth flat panel TV that comes with your cabin. Also, hidden underneath this white tarp cover that appeared one day (forgotten perhaps after a balcony cleaning?) is a second mini fridge. This too is stocked with your choice of beverages so you can either have extra storage or have some on hand when entertaining on your balcony. The mini fridge out here is behind the tall cabinet (on the left) and things like speakers and the TV remote are stored in the smaller cabinets. On day one I found the mini fridge cabinet locked but the key for it had been conveniently left in the matching locks for the smaller cabinets. Each time I wanted something out of it, I relocked the fridge cabinet and replaced the key in the smaller cabinet's locks. I tried to lift up this tarp to get a better picture but it proved to be a big struggle and I was concerned about tearing it. Had we not had a plentiful supply in the main cabin fridge, I would have asked our steward to remove the tarp.

Looking back as far as you can see from this end of the balcony -

This door at this end of the balcony is one that always made me wonder about security. I had the same question about this when cruising in the Sky Suite on Enchanted Princess. This door, at least when standing inside your balcony, opens with simply a small twist deadbolt. On occasion, I've been able to open the door (at least from the inside) regardless of how that deadbolt is positioned. Maybe once or twice not been able to open it regardless of how that deadbolt is positioned. I've also seen it occasionally left unlocked if your steward or another crew member was the last to pass through as no one was left on the inside to lock it behind them. 

Once opened, it leads you directly onto the public sun deck. The opening straight across is where you would come out if you stepped through the automatic doors leading off of the elevator lobby. Not pictured is the single door to the right around the other side of that towel shelf that is where you'd come out if you used the one working door inside our mini hallway. 

There is a handle but no lock or scanner from outside the balcony. 

Granted, to any other passenger, it looks mostly like any other ship partition and wouldn't cause the average person to think to try and access your balcony. I suggest though in the future that something be added to allow for medallion access so the cabin occupant can come and go from their balcony and only the passengers who booked this cabin.

Thanks for coming along on the tour of Sky Suite S310 on the Sky Princess! Stick around for posts about our Portland, England ship excursion, all the cruise food, and specialty restaurant reviews to come!

Sky Suite on Sky Princess - Part 2

Let's move on to the larger bedroom and bathroom.

Looking into the larger bedroom from the living area. This little table lamp with its own toggle switch on the base worked great for a nightlight in case either of us came out of our bedrooms in the middle of the night.

My bed had a larger nightstand on the left with deep wide drawers and a smaller nightstand with a small drawer and a big open cubby space. The setup worked great because I could turn off all lights but one nightstand lamp before I got into bed. Then it was a simple reach to flip the toggle switch to turn off the last lamp when I was ready to sleep. The drawers were a great place to stow away small items like my medications and electronic charging cables.

This cabin now has the motion activated lights mounted at the bottom of each nightstand. However, it seemed like a retrofit because solely the base was attached to the furniture leaving the hardware and bulb visible. We mostly liked having these nightlights. Especially since the layout prevented them from being triggered simply by the bathroom door moving or my leg/arm dropping over the side of the bed like they would on the Sun Princess.

There was a USB port in the lamp base as well as in the wall above the nightstand. The area also included one each of a US and a European outlet. You can also control many of the overhead bedroom lights by the switches next to the outlets. Those trying to read next to a sleeping partner can use the small reading lights that extend out beside the pillow.

The bigger bedroom featured doors leading to the balcony and a floor to ceiling window on the side wall that looks out at the MUTS screen. Both have the same sheer curtain and blackout curtain options. The TV in this bedroom is mounted in the corner and was easily viewed from the bed. I may have re-watched many Gilmore Girls episodes each night before bed. The lineup of TV shows and movies as well as live TV channels provided a lot of entertainment whether you want a restful day, to give a child some downtime, or to wind down before bed. Often the movies shown on MUTS would also be available to watch on your cabin TV. A great alternative if it's cold/rainy outside or you're like me and start falling asleep 40 minutes into a movie. There is a light switch for the balcony next to the curtain.

Both windows can be seen in this picture as the cabin wall curves. 

The second nightstand area with the same reading light and plug arrangement (minus a wall mounted USB)

Looking back at the doorway to the living area:

Behind the half wall that the bed was positioned against, there was a dressing area with a vanity area and several cupboards with hangers and shelves for storage. There is a Dyson hairdryer and vanity mirror for your use as well as a lighted mirror on the wall. There is also a full length mirror mounted on the wall between the vanity and the wardrobe. This is also where you'd find one of our two cabin phones. We did have a couple moments of not being able to get to a call because we were in the main cabin space. There is some open shelving on the side of the vanity that would be a good fit for small things like a makeup bag. The three drawers on the front of the vanity make for some good hidden storage where I kept smaller clothing items like socks.

There is some outlets along the back of the vanity so you can plug in hairstyling products or your electronics if you need to work while on your cruise. If you read my Viking Radgrid blog posts, this vanity area is where I sat to write up the Explorer's Suite cabin tour posts. Is it wrong to be using your downtime on one cruise to write about the previous one? We did have the four device internet as part of the Premier rate so I was able to keep my phone, this chromebook, and my tablet connected. Dad had the option of his own four devices connected but only used his phone and tablet. Internet speed was relatively good. Routine things like email and social media loaded quickly. Uploading photos and blog posts, not as quickly. 

Inside the top drawer at the vanity was a Drybar branded hairdryer. 

The closest black plug is from my chromebook. The rest is from the hairdryer and the countertop magnifying mirror.

There is a single outlet behind the phone on the other side of this vanity but it wasn't easy to plug things in back there. The switch that says 0 and 1 is to control the light bars in the wall mirror above the vanity.

There are plenty of hangers and a variety of hanging space in the wardrobe. Both regular hangers and skirt/pant hangers were provided. Ask your steward if you find that you need more. This is where you will find the free/included blue tote bags and the replenished laundry bags. Since laundry service is included in every full suite on Princess, you can send in as many bags as you want and as often as you want. Just load up a bag and fill out the item count on the slip before leaving it on your bed. When we did this before leaving the cabin in the mornings, the steward was able to take our laundry during the morning cabin cleaning and get it back to us by the next day's evening turndown service. This is also an elite loyalty level perk so it may take as many as 2-3 days to return if there are a lot of passengers using the service. Suites do get priority.

We also got robes and slippers for use on board. Each bedroom had two robes and two sets of slippers so you're set whether you have two or four in this cabin. The blue bag with Princess logo hanging behind the robes is where you'll find new laundry bags.

I didn't have any long dresses to hang so the floor space under my hanging shirts in this closet was perfect for stowing my large suitcase. There is also plenty of room under the bed to store suitcases flat.

Looking back over the vanity area shows the one cabinet behind the vanity area. This cabinet held shelves, lifejackets, the code programmable safe (each bedroom had their own safe), and the shoeshine bag. I used it for shoe storage and for the clothing that didn't need hanging. It was also where we stored the freezer bags full of over the counter meds we bring on cruises. Always best to have it and not need it than try to find something in a foreign country or pay handsomely for a small version of the product in the onboard shop. The heavier duty freezer bags Ziploc sent me to review (#notsponsoredbutIwishitwas) worked great for corralling this supply of meds. I also use them if I have to pack potentially messy items like larger mouthwash or sunscreen bottles. It's malleable enough to nestle amongst your clothes in the suitcase and can easily be placed directly on a shelf like packing cubes. Best part is that if something unexpectedly breaks or explodes, it's contained in an easily rinseable bag and not on your favorite outfit.

Since this cabin features Princess's typical split suite bathrooms (one side is toilet and sink while the other side is sink, tub, and shower stall), there are two entrances and exits for the bigger bathroom completely within this bedroom. Also inside is a door that closes between the two sides so you can have total privacy for either bathroom task while someone else is using the other side.

Door leading to the shower side was by the wardrobe. Both sides are lockable and have a light switch. Both require a step up to walk into the bathroom.

The toilet side features a sink and a counter basically big enough to hold the Beekman 1802 liquid hand soap and lotion bottles. A few shelves lined the mirror to hold glasses and spare toilet paper. Both sides do get a trash can and there's a caddy mounted just by the toilet for collecting any feminine hygiene products in baggies for clean disposal into the trash can. You can see how the open connecting door almost lines up with the main doorway. Sometimes it was easier to shut both doors to get the most room to move around in the space.

Looking through to the other half of the bathroom:

Looking back at the toilet half - why there are towel racks there but never any towels - one of life's great mysteries.

Unfortunately, while Dad's requested shower chair was readily brought to our cabin, the shower stall in his bathroom was not big enough for it. As a result, I had to keep moving the chair in and out whenever I used the shower. On the plus side, it's a perfect fit to sit stowed out of the way in the bathtub. 

This shower half of the bathroom also featured a few corner mounted shelves on each side. Good for couples sharing the space to have their own group of shelves to use. I found it easier to unpack my most routinely used toiletries to make for an easy grab as I got ready. Note the razor outlet on the wall. 

The shower side featured only one sink but tons of counter space. This sink has its own two bottles of hand soap and lotion along with two more washcloths. Why one of the lights by the mirror had white light and the other had pink light, I never could tell. Ambience? 

Close up of the Beekman 1802 products. The brand was also provided for bottles of body wash and shampoo/conditioner.

The tub setup includes a rubber mat for traction, a small towel to use for stepping out onto, and a grab bar to hold onto when stepping out. The tub height came to my knees so it would require a large high step to climb inside. Neither of us ever used the tub. These racks are where you'd find the larger shower towels.

The glass enclosed shower stall featured a fixed shower head but also a removable wand shower head. I may have accidentally washed the ceiling a few times not realizing which way that wand was aiming. A shelf above the knobs worked well to hold the Beekman products and my products. There is a retractable clothesline inside the shower. There is one grab bar inside the shower at the same height as the knob.

The shower door swings outward to open and close. While open, it blocks the entire doorway between the two sections of the bathroom. Only really a problem when you need to step out onto the small towel for safety and then have to step to the side where there normally wouldn't be a safety towel in order to close the door to the shower. Either put one of the small hand towels down next to it and/or just hold onto the counter while you step since the space in between is really just enough for a walkway.

The inside of the door leading back to the dressing area has two hooks for hanging. For the first several days of our cruise, I would leave my nightshirt on the bed and our steward always left it neatly folded after making the bed. After a while, I found it easier to keep it hung up in the bathroom since I was changing in and out of it to wash up. Otherwise, those hooks would have been a great space to hang up my toiletry bag. The pink item on the left is my hair towel that takes up no real space in the suitcase and works so much better than trying to balance one of the provided towels on my head after a shower. I bring it home after each trip and wash it with the next load of towels.

The view when you step back out of this side of the split bathroom. This door is directly across from the wall mirror so it can be a bit of a surprise when you forget and think someone else has snuck into your cabin until you remember it's your own reflection.

Lastly, looking back toward the larger bedroom area with my back to the dressing area:

Still to come...the smaller bedroom/bathroom and the wraparound balcony!