Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Are Cruise Ship Cabins Claustrophobic?

Do you find small spaces claustrophobic? Does the idea of being couped up make you feel a little crazy? If so, you may be wondering how small cabins are on cruise ships and if they will make you feel claustrophobic.

I'll give you my experience.

I recently got back from a week-long cruise around the Hawaiian Islands, and I stayed aboard NCL's Pride of America. I decided to save money and book an inside cabin, which means no windows or portholes to look out. You generally don't spend a lot of time in your cabin anyway, and I was more interested in dropping my extra money on fun shore excursions.

Anyway, the cabin was definitely smaller than a hotel room, but there were lots of mirrors and built-in storage, so I didn't think it felt claustrophobic. They made a good use of space. Now I probably wouldn't want to pack three people in there (there was an extra bed you could fold out from the wall if you had three), but I'm sure there are apartments in New York that aren't any bigger, heh. For one or two people it was fine, and if you missed seeing out a window, you could turn on the TV and check out the live camera feed from the bow of the ship.