While on Independence of the Seas for a five-night Western Caribbean and Perfect Day cruise, I stayed in the cheapest cabin available.
Normally when I cruise, I choose to stay in cheaper cabins. My reasoning is that I only need a place to sleep, store my belongings, and get ready for the day. I don’t feel the need to spend more money to stay in a cabin I don't spend much time in!
For this particular cruise, my mom and I chose an interior guarantee cabin. These types of cabins are “guaranteed” because Royal Caribbean selects the interior cabin's location on the ship. Luckily, shortly after booking, we were assigned a cabin towards the aft of the ship. I much prefer having aft cabins because you tend to feel more movement when situated in a forward cabin.
Booking this cruise about a month before the sail date, we ended up paying $2,075 for the two of us. This included pre-paid gratuities.
We were assigned cabin 6447, on deck 6. Our cabin was just one deck above the Royal Promenade, but we were far enough away that we never heard noise from this busy area of the ship.
Cabin 6447 wasn’t located on one side of the ship (starboard or port) and was considered midship. This meant to get to our cabin, we had to go through a separate hallway.
We quickly discovered there was a door we could use that was three cabins down from us that would lead us near the elevator and stairs. We used this door every time we left or came back to our cabin because it was much more convenient than going down the two hallways.
Also, being in this separate hallway away from most of the other cabins, we found that there was little to no hall noise (except for our neighbors who had a loud baby). We were afraid we would hear people coming in and out of the public door near our cabin, but it was never noisy.
Walking into the cabin for the first time, I was instantly struck by how light everything was. I was expecting the cabin to be similar to the ones on Adventure of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas, but I liked that it felt more modern with lighter colors.
The bed was separated into two per my request before the cruise. Each of us had a large nightstand next to our bed, and we had a small light above our heads. There was a switch in the middle of us that controlled all the lights in the cabin.
After reading a Royal Caribbean Blog article about questions to ask your cabin steward, my mom wanted to request a few things from our cabin steward. She requested:
- A mattress topper
- Printed copies of the Cruise Compass
- Additional hangers
- A new bed configuration
- Extra pillows
- Extra towels
My mom requested a new bed configuration because she wanted her bed (on the right) to be pushed against the wall. That way both of us could sleep against a wall. This made the twin bed feel wider, too. I really liked how this configuration created a larger walkway between our beds!
The extra pillows and mattress topper made a huge difference in the quality of sleep my mom got while on our cruise. She had never requested a mattress topper on previous cruises, so I think she will start doing this on future cruises.
Our cabin had a nicely sized couch and a glass table in front of it. We sparingly used this couch, but it was great to have another place to sit if we wanted the option.
There was a light near the couch, but it didn't work. I guess it is nice for decoration!
Across from the couch was the vanity and closet area. This included the TV, outlets, mini cooler, safe, and many drawers. The three large drawers were great for storing our clothes. There was another small drawer behind the chair, but we didn't use it.
The flat-screen TV was able to extend outward and swivel so my mom could watch TV while lying in bed or sitting on the couch.
The vanity had three outlets: Two three-prong outlets and one European outlet. I packed my adapter and I was super thankful I packed it so we could utilize the European outlet.
Next to the closet were two handles that opened up more storage spaces. The bottom drawer held the hair dryer. This drawer was small and couldn't hold much, so we didn't use it. The top drawer included three shelves - one was for the cabin’s safe. These shelves were perfect for our miscellaneous things, like hats, bags, sunscreen, medicine, etc.
Below these shelves was the mini cooler that we used to keep our water bottles cold throughout the cruise.
The closet was large and had three built-in shelves for clothes. There were only 10 hangers for the two of us (and we packed a lot of clothes), so we requested more hangers from our cabin steward. This was much appreciated!
There was someone who complained on the cruise's Facebook group about their air conditioning not working in their cabin, but ours worked great!
Next up, the bathroom. At first glance, the bathroom was updated nicely and offered lots of storage, but we did run into a few problems.
First, our toilet wouldn’t flush twice during our cruise. We had to call our cabin steward to let him know that we tried flushing numerous times with no success. He even told us other cabins around us were having similar problems. Once we reported the issue, it was fixed within an hour.
Also, the heat in the shower was quite confusing. I would turn the handle towards the heat and it would take at least five minutes to get warm. Sometimes, it would be warm and then get cold and then warm again without touching the handle. My mom and I had difficulties trying to get the knob at just the right spot so we could consistently get warm water. When it was warm, it was a pleasant shower experience.
Lastly, a small thing to point out, every time my mom and I wanted to use some toilet paper, the toilet paper would fall off the holder! We realized that we had to place our thumb on the holder so the toilet paper wouldn't fly off.
On newer Royal Caribbean ships, there is a built-in nightlight in the bathroom so when the cabin is pitch black, you can still navigate to the bathroom. However, our cabin on Independence of the Seas did not have this. We did pack a nightlight to use in our cabin and that helped tremendously.
Overall, my mom and I had a comfortable stay in our cozy cabin. Although we had some bathroom issues, this did not ruin our vacation by any means. We never felt the ship moving, and our cabin’s location proved to be ideal since it was located near the Royal Promenade and other lower-deck activities.
