Booked Our First Interior - Any Hints - Tips - Tricks?

[PhillyFan33579]

We did an 8 day cruise on Sunshine in a balcony cabin last month and just got back from an 8 day cruise on Horizon in an interior cabin.  Without question we slept much better in the interior cabin, didn’t miss not having a balcony, and plan to book more interior cabins in the future, after cruising in balcony cabins for the last dozen or so cruises we took.  As others have also stated, we don’t spend too much time in our cabin even when we have a balcony. 

[glrounds]

With few exceptions, I've always cruised interior. I usually cruise solo and I'm seldom in my cabin - shower, change clothes, and sleep (if I must). Now and then I take my ex wife with me (have to pay double anyway ) and she loves it. I always spend every waking hour out and about on the ship involved in all the activities. At night I sleep like a baby. Pushing 80, so around the 5th or 6th day I can sure use that afternoon nap in total darkness.🙂 If I book early enough I can sometimes snag a porthole cabin at inside pricing, but those disappear quickly. However, Carnival is getting wise to this and usually charges a little more for these. Still a bargain, IMHO.

 

Edited April 1, 2019 by glrounds

[grandmarnnurse]

3 hours ago, glrounds said:

With few exceptions, I've always cruised interior. I usually cruise solo and I'm seldom in my cabin - shower, change clothes, and sleep (if I must). Now and then I take my ex wife with me (have to pay double anyway ) and she loves it. I always spend every waking hour out and about on the ship involved in all the activities. At night I sleep like a baby. Pushing 80, so around the 5th or 6th day I can sure use that afternoon nap in total darkness.🙂 If I book early enough I can sometimes snag a porthole cabin at inside pricing, but those disappear quickly. However, Carnival is getting wise to this and usually charges a little more for these. Still a bargain, IMHO.

 

We, too, book only interiors now that we are retired. It just makes more financial sense with our smaller, tighter retirement budget. And my hubby loves his afternoon naps in the darkness. As for me, Ihave never napped in my adult life, so I go out and have a coffee and read my book while he naps.

BTW—-I’m not sure if others feel the same, but I have a lot of trouble reading your posts with the font you chose. It’s just too light and small, not that it’s cursive. 

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, grandmarnnurse said:

 

BTW—-I’m not sure if others feel the same, but I have a lot of trouble reading your posts with the font you chose. It’s just too light and small, not that it’s cursive. 

 

I use an IPhoneX and I can’t read that font very well either. I stopped trying to read posts in that font awhile ago and have no idea what the post you are referring to is about. 

[glrounds]

5 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

We, too, book only interiors now that we are retired. It just makes more financial sense with our smaller, tighter retirement budget. And my hubby loves his afternoon naps in the darkness. As for me, Ihave never napped in my adult life, so I go out and have a coffee and read my book while he naps.

BTW—-I’m not sure if others feel the same, but I have a lot of trouble reading your posts with the font you chose. It’s just too light and small, not that it’s cursive. 

 

Thank you for the information. Does this standard default font with Boldness help the situation ? FWIW, my Galaxy 10 phone also has difficulties with certain fonts.

[Jamericannn]

I have booked interior a couple times and end up changing. I think I need to book a last minute interior in order to keep it.

[bahacca]

Bring a clock! Do not just use your phone. We had an interior in AK and my DHs phone kept going really wonky with time zones for some reason. We woke up to get off the ship like 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave and thought we had an hour! We also slept really well, but it was difficult to get "up and at em" for us.

 

[leight]

We did two interiors run of the ship for our first family cruise- kids were 7 & 9. We were hooked, and have always been assigned side by side rooms- even when we haven't picked our own room. Gives more room for 3 females to get ready, and only issue we ever had is that our girls wanted to be with me because I like to get room service coffee and hot cocoa with a Continental breakfast in the AM. As they got older we let them sleep in one room and we slept in the other- we were right next door. It made family vacations so much easier having the two rooms. Usually it's less then $100 total to have two rooms vs a larger room that accommodates 4. And very often it's less expensive.

 

Edited May 1, 2019 by leight

[RICKnVICK]

I didn't read this entire post so I apologize if this was already mentioned.  Set an alarm.  I never do this on vacation, but in the interior cabins it is dark as a cave!  You will wake up and still think it's the middle of the night and it is noon lol  this actually happened to friends on a cruise we took a while back.  They missed their day in Cozumel!  Have a great trip!

 

Vicki

[Organized Chaos]

On 4/1/2019 at 3:54 PM, bahacca said:

Bring a clock! Do not just use your phone. We had an interior in AK and my DHs phone kept going really wonky with time zones for some reason. We woke up to get off the ship like 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave and thought we had an hour! We also slept really well, but it was difficult to get "up and at em" for us.

 

 

With iPhones, there are a couple places in the settings that allows you to keep the time zone from setting automatically, to include one in Location Services, which sets the time zone using GPS. Ideally, putting the phone in Airplane Mode should prevent this, but if you're using wifi or the GPS receiver, it can change automatically.

[dara90210]

We've been on 10 cruises overall and have always had a balcony or Princess Mini-Suite.  We are cruising on the Miracle in November and have booked a 4K French Door Obstructed View (categorized as an interior).  It was a compromise.  My husband wanted budget and I wanted air and light.  We had agreed to an Oceanview room, but when I Googled the Miracle and was watching ship tours online I saw the 4K room and it turned out to be $100 cheaper than an Oceanview!

[SNJCruisers]

3 minutes ago, dara90210 said:

We've been on 10 cruises overall and have always had a balcony or Princess Mini-Suite.  We are cruising on the Miracle in November and have booked a 4K French Door Obstructed View (categorized as an interior).  It was a compromise.  My husband wanted budget and I wanted air and light.  We had agreed to an Oceanview room, but when I Googled the Miracle and was watching ship tours online I saw the 4K room and it turned out to be $100 cheaper than an Oceanview!

Check out the schematic as to your specific cabin and check out what other cabins in your category might still be available for you to possibly switch to for a better view.  A handful of the 4K cabins are angled so that your view is somewhat between the lifeboats so then your view is no longer 100% obstructed.  Good luck.

[dara90210]

20 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Check out the schematic as to your specific cabin and check out what other cabins in your category might still be available for you to possibly switch to for a better view.  A handful of the 4K cabins are angled so that your view is somewhat between the lifeboats so then your view is no longer 100% obstructed.  Good luck.

I believe the PVP did that for me when she booked the cabin!  🙂 

[bury me at sea]

I have sailed in balconies, ocean views, and interiors, and had a great cruise every time.

 

I have learned not to chose an interior when sailing with a teenaged grandchild.  The lack of a sofa coupled with lots of clothes can result in a somewhat untidy cabin.

 

Otherwise, an interior is a great choice.  Especially on a Dream class ship, I prefer a spa interior to any other cabin.

 

 

[RandomUser123]

I have done 4 cruises in my lifetime and have always done Interior. It really is not that bad. Bathroom light with the door cracked open works. But then again I do not spend that much time in my cabin except to mainly sleep or shower. I am doing a cruise this October on Carnival Pride and it will be the first time I ever booked an Oceanview room (because that price was actually cheaper than Interior when I booked) so it will be nice to have some natural light but at the end of the day Interior is perfectly fine. 

[Out of Iowa]

We did a family of four (two teenage daughters) for a Mediterranean interior, Barcelona to Dover (via Italy).  A longer cruise than average.  We coped quite well.  For four guests, it really is helpful to request the four single beds (two lower, two uppers) which gives the cabin a sense of spaciousness.

[TNcruising02]

I have had both balcony cabins and interiors.  I will book a balcony when I can snag a good rate, otherwise I just go with an interior.  We never use our balcony enough to justify paying a high price.  No matter which type of cabin, we will bring a backlit clock that is set to the ship time.  We position it in an area where we can both easily see it from the bed. Being able to see the time makes all of the difference for me.

[thunderingherd11]

On 3/20/2019 at 1:01 PM, SNJCruisers said:

There are three methods regarding light in the room overnight.  The first, which provides the most light, was just mentioned by turning the TV on to the bow channel.  The other methods are to turn the bathroom light on and either leave the door ajar, or if you just want a little light, close the door shut.  This way, light will still come into the cabin under the door and will act as a night light shining on the carpet.

Our upcoming cruise will be our first balcony.  The other four cruises were inside cabins and we had no issue with light.  But maybe that's because one of our favorite aspects is that it is darker, especially in the mornings if you want to sleep in.

[dgreeney]

Getting in from the casino at 2:00 am I don't want any morning light in the room.  I only use the room to sleep. I also shower in Spa.  There is plenty of storage and closest space.  I travel alone but when my gf used to cruise, we did balconies.  Not much different than the inside imo.

[MT_Sea_Cruisers]

Hands down the best sleeping ever!  

 

[CallistaSkye]

On 3/20/2019 at 10:13 AM, Schoifmom said:

I always take battery-operated candles (the little ones you can get at Dollar Tree).  We use those as night lights and they are so inexpensive that we just throw them away at the end of the cruise.

Don't throw them away! The batteries need to be taken to a battery recycling center. They have mercury in them and it's considered toxic waste.