The location of the cabin was great for the most part as it was just one cabin length's away from a door to the balcony space lining the aft of deck 3. I loved slipping out there for some private viewing and picture taking as rarely anyone else utilized the space. Walking past a few cabins in the other direction took us to the midship entrance to the open top deck or the 3rd deck lounge. Often trotted down to the lounge for checking in with email/social media during down times. Main downside is that to come back from anything else, it means climbing 2-3 flights of stairs. My knees were not happy by the end of these 2 weeks but it was fun using my Iphone's health app to see how many flights I climbed each day.
We've had several stewards in our cruising experience. Some were like secret ninjas swooping in and out before you could blink. We've had some that were efficient on time but weren't the best at cleaning. For the first several days, our steward Emma was great at taking care of our cabin within an hour or two of us heading down to breakfast. Then we started noticing that our cabin was still not done by the late morning/early afternoon. Not much of an issue when there's something else to do on the ship or at the very least, another bathroom option! When we next saw Emma, Dad asked her about the change and she told us that Deck 2 had complained that their rooms weren't being done first. I can see if this was on the other ships where suite cabins could get some priority but what makes Deck 2 think they should get special treatment? I did notice that after asking her, she'd do just a couple cabins on Deck 3 including ours and then go finish with Deck 2 before completing Deck 3. Unfortunately it often meant a rush job in our cabin and the obvious messes remained on several days.
There are railings lining the passenger cabin corridors for mobility help but they also make great places to momentarily hold our drinks while we opened the cabin door with our magnetic key cards. The few times we went out into open ocean, we felt it so much more in our cabins than on the bigger ships. Desk drawers were constantly flying open and closed until we wedged things in front like the desk chair. One night I got up to use the bathroom and I had to wait for a wave break just to go from holding onto the desk to opening the bathroom door. Once I turned the handle on the bathroom door, it flew open with so much force it slammed against our main cabin door. Thankfully that was the opposite direction of where I was standing at the time or I wouldn't have needed to go into the bathroom anymore.
This is just inside the entryway of our cabin. Main door has the magnetic "Do not disturb/Please Make up my room" sign. It was about 3 days into the cruise before I realized that the sign was proof our walls were magnetic just like the big ships. The tip of using magnets to hold important papers up on your cabin walls will also work on this ship. We got a folder of information left on our desk for each leg of the trip so I just took to storing papers in the folders. Those hanging knobs between the two doors came in handy when I needed to hang up a soaked raincoat. The bathroom door is on the right of this photo and opens out toward the main door. We quickly learned to open both cautiously because the open bathroom door blocks the main door when opened and heaven help you if you're standing in the entryway when either swings open.
Let's enter the bathroom next. Usually the big ships have a raised entry requiring you to step up into the bathroom and this one did not. It's a pretty straight shot to walk into the shower or over to use the sink or toilet. There is a little bit of a step into the shower. Tons of grab bars both in the shower and along the interior wall. One giant mirror lines the wall behind the sink and toilet. Decent counter space and a couple drawers on the left side of the sink. The cabinet under the sink held extra tissues, toilet paper, and toiletries. Dad stored his gallon of distilled water in there between uses.
We heard from other passengers that trying to take a shower in the morning was nearly useless because there would be barely any water pressure. I found that I'd have to turn the handles on the sink faucet all the way up to get more than a small trickle when washing my hands. Dad and I took to showering either in the late afternoon or before bed in shifts because we only ever had one set of towels like you'd find in your own bathroom at home. This way, we'd have had a towel refreshment in between the afternoon person's shower and the bedtime one. Major downside was the lack of cleanliness consistency. There would be days when you could tell the bathroom floor was cleaned, other days you could still see the hair, powder, and random gunk still on the floor. Worst part was that, cleaned or not, about 3 days in we had ants start appearing coming out of the baseboard and occasionally in the shower.
For those who like knowing what brand toiletries are so you can decide whether you need to bring your own, the ship had Judith Jackson Spa branded bar soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, makeup remover wipes, and the little things like cotton balls and Q-tips. That is also their supplied Purell which was also in dispensers before entering the dining salon.
It is a fixed showerhead and I'd suggest turning it on to warm up before you climb inside the shower. No room to escape the icy spray if you don't. I did use the shower gel and the shampoo but found that the shampoo would still feel like it was on my hair making it tough to comb through after showering.
The rest of the cabin with my back to the entryway - I heard other passengers talk about opening their window but I could never figure out how. Took me back to public school classrooms trying to coax those venetian window blinds into submission. They did fold closed but you could still see a nightlight's worth of light around the window frame. They say you can fit suitcases under the beds but one of the beds had the life jackets taking up all the room. Those beds not only slid on their frame with the slightest of touch but also would fly up if you plopped down on one end with too much force.
There was a narrow path between my bed by the desk and the desk itself so I got really skilled at the sideways shuffle by cruise end. I also became very aware of letting any body parts hang over the side of the bed during open ocean nights because those drawers when open come right in line with the bed.
We asked Emma for water and she brought us a couple of these tiny bottles. Really missed the fact that none of these cabins have mini fridges so we could keep these water bottles cold.
There is cold storage available if you have to store medicine like insulin. I witnessed the dining room manager retrieving a passenger's insulin supply each night at dinner and would stand by waiting until she was finished so he could take it back to put away. Also noticed another passenger asking the manager about getting a sharps container since the steward only supplied an empty soda can for them to use in the meantime. In ACL's defense, the passenger admitted that they hadn't let the line know in advance that they'd be needing medical supplies. If you need certain things like that to be on hand, take the time to not only note it on that form to send back pre-cruise but also follow it up with a phone call to customer service to make sure it's noted on your reservation.
There is a main light switch on the wall by the main door to control the one overhead fluorescent light panel. The lamp on the desk and the lamp on the nightstands are individually controlled. We had to get our nightstand lamp replaced when we noticed the socket was loose. To the back left of this picture is the only closet space in the room. There was regular hangers and skirt hangers with a shelf on top holding a second tissue box and the ice bucket. No door to the closet.
The dresser drawers underneath the TV were plenty of space for Dad to store his clothes. The TV has a small slot on the side for putting in one of the DVDs you can help yourself to from the shelves in the lounges. One of the TV channels was dedicated to ACL themed programming so part of our scheduled activity options was tuning to that channel for Ali's movie of choice in the afternoon. To her credit, she did try and pick ones that fit the theme of our itinerary. Gone with the Wind - sure I can see that fitting a southern town itinerary. Forest Gump - absolutely since we heard several times about the places we passed where the movie was filmed. Frost/Nixon though? Or as Ali wrote it in the schedule, "Front/Nixon?"
Just behind the lamp on the desk in the far right of this picture, there is a big red knob labeled as the medical emergency button. Otherwise, there is no source of communication (i.e. phone for calling other cabins or down to the office/kitchen) inside the room.
Dad brought along an extension cord just in case for his CPAP machine but was pleasantly surprised that the clock on the nightstand had outlets and USB ports on top of it.
There is a small step up to head through the door onto the balcony. We learned to make sure that we heard the door click when closing or it could fly back open.
Decent sized balcony though. Plenty of room to move past one another or around the chairs. A little odd though that it was lined with this sort of blue AstroTurf style carpeting. Those are only slats on the balcony railing, no glass in-between so keep an eye on any youngsters who could slip anything through those slats. The balcony divider shown in this picture would rattle repeatedly with any decent wind or rockiness.
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