Cabin Review

My first suite, it was sweet! We had 3 adults and a service dog in the room.

I couldn't believe all the room; it was bigger than my first apartment. It has huge closets and sooo many drawers. There is a refrigerator and bar area, as well as a desk in the bedroom. It includes a 4-person dining table, coffee table, and sofa with chaise lounge. The balcony was okay size, fitting a chaise and a small table with 2 chairs with not a lot of extra room. It also has a nice bay window in the bedroom with a chair and ottoman, perfect for viewing glaciers in comfort. The bathroom is well-appointed with a toilet and bidet, double sinks, jacuzzi whirlpool tub, and oversized glass-door shower.

The suite has a pillow-top bed, which wasn't the softest in the world, but softer than normal beds. The second bed is the couch folded out. It's not a "sofa-bed", it's more like a futon. So the side that was the seats is okay comfort, but the side that was the back of the couch is terribly hard and has no comfort. I was disappointed that this is considered a second bed for the suite. At least I had a really nice pillow from the "pillow menu".

Note: there are 5 plugs in the room, much more than a normal cabin. However, 4 of these plugs are in a tall cabinet in the bedroom (where the safe is), and one on the desk in the bedroom. Given you have a coffee maker and hot water pot in the bar area, I would have expected at least one outlet there. And, as usual, no real plug in the bathroom.

The room condition was good and bad. The marble and granite and artwork felt opulent. However, there was damage and delamination of wood in a number of spots. And, there was staining on the couch fabric at the foot area. Even though the room is right below the corner of the Windjammer, we never heard any noise from the Windjammer except on the glacier day, when everyone was dragging chairs to the windows.

With the suites, you get a lot of benefits that you share with Pinnacles and (sometimes) Key Club: special checkin line, special seating in the theater (reserved up to 5 minutes before showtime), breakfast in Chops Grill, seating in Izumi when you are eating at the Windjammer, a special brunch on Day 2. Usually, there's a behind-the-scenes tour, but there's not enough sea days on the Alaska cruise to do so.

There's also the concierge lounge on deck 13 that's separate from the diamond club. Open bar 4:30-8, continental breakfast, light snacks before dinner. The staff there were amazing, and it was cool to mingle with so many veteran cruisers. You could ask the concierge for anything (he staffs during the drinks time), and there's also a time the nextcruise person come up there. There's not that many window seats so don't go there for the view, but do go for the quiet during non-happy hour times.

I'm not used to having such service (or even a balcony), and we needed the extra room, so it was definitely worth it to invest in a suite for the Alaska cruise.