Cabins, beds and how to sleep in peace

Cabins in general
Cabin safety
Balconies
Beds
Cabin Stewards
Spillage
Liquor in cabins
Portholes and windows
Cabin size
Electronics in the cabin
Calling home
Cabin Room-service
Cabin noise/vibration
Cabin Breakages

Advice before booking,
Onboard ships, cabins will come in various size-categories, similar to hotels, starting from the top with the Penthouse suite cabin, normally located on the upper outer decks, down to the lower deck inside cabins. They will vary considerably in price, according to space and balcony allocation. Check with your travel agent or hunt around for some cruises with bargains before you book. There are always some good deals online to be had which will save you a lot of money. I used to overhear many table-side conversations with guests comparing prices they had paid for the same size cabin. It wasn't fun seeing the reaction of a guest who had paid the full price sitting for a week with another who had paid half their amount, just for the sake of 1 hour extra shopping around.Basically the difference between the cheaper and more expensive cabin is the space, the onboard location, the cabin amenities, a private balcony, butler service and the fruit and little goodies that go with it. Be aware though that generally ships' staff are not instructed, as a rule, to give priority to passengers in more expensive cabins, for example when it comes to seating arrangements or booking a tour. In other words if you paid full price for a penthouse, you paid for the cabin itself, but no other priviliges.
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Advice on your life jackets
A ships' priority is that you should have sufficient life jackets in your room for all occupants, regardless of how many are staying together. Check on arrival that you have them. They should be inside you cupboard/closet, or near the cabin entrance door. By law, the Captain is obliged to conduct a boat drill within 24 hours of emarkation. You as a passenger are equally obliged to participate in this exercise. This goes for all ships. If you are missing a jacket it is better to sort it out now, rather than later. Call reception and they will send a cabin steward around to bring you one. If you have children travelling with you as well, there will be smaller jackets present for them. At the back of your life jacket there will be a letter or number which indicates where you will need to go when the bell rings. The cruise director will advise through the ships PA' sound system of the various locations you will need to go. What ever is written on your jacket is where you will need to check in. There will be ships' staff lining the corridors outside your cabin and stair-wells so you can ask at any time during the drill where you need to go. It will probably be to a theatre, lounge or ships' disco which normally tends to be on the promenade deck.
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Advice on balcony options

Having a cabin with a balcony adds a tremendous feel to your cruise, especially when traveling with your nearest and dearest.It's what cruisings is about, regardless of destination. Relaxing and receiving room service as you sit out on your balcony whilst sailing into Monte Carlo or Mexico, or penguin and whale watching as you cruise to the poles. Apart from the spectacular scenery and sunsets you will share together, it is a place to relax and get away from the other guets and unwind in style. Pop open a bottle of champagne, nibble on some chocolate covered strawberries and watch the world sail by you.
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On booking your cruise, I can guarantee you that you will be overwhelmed by the choices and sizes of beds that will be offered to you. My advice is to ask yourself how much time will you actually spend in your cabin. This should give you an idea of what you will choose. If you have a medical issue and need a specific type of matress or sheet then advise when booking. At the end of the day the bed should be the least of your worries. Perhaps focus more time as to the cruise destination than pillows and bedsprings. You will want to drop off your bags and explore for the cruise regardless of the size of your bed.

Advice on the guys who do the work for you

Each cabin will have a cabin steward and an assistant cabin steward, responsible for ten to twenty other cabins. They are there to maintain and clean your cabin daily. The ideal cabin steward is someone you will only see on the first day of the cruise and might see walking around outside your corridor with their trolley, as you head out. Ideally they will make up the room as soon as you leave for the day, and then will turn down your bed when you go in for dinner. If you have something you want to request during the day, an ice bucket for example, call room service, as it is a seperate duty altogether on some ships. Cabin stewards are there to clean the cabins. By 2.00pm your steward will be done and on his break, so if you miss them in the corridor outside your cabin, simply leave a small note of instructions for them. If, for example you dont want them to disturb a pile of cloths you have lying on your bed, simply note it down and leave it for them to find.

If you want your clothes to be laundered, pressed, dry cleaned etc, your cabin steward will be responsible for the collection and delivery of your items, though bear in mind that you will pay per item and charged to your onboard account.
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Advice on the oooooooops factor

It might happen, a drop of wine or sauce will get accidently dropped onto an item of clothing during a meal time. All of the necessary arrangements will be made in the dining area with the dining room management advising there and then how to proceed, and your cabin steward will simply collect your spoiled item of clothing and bring it back to you clean, for free.

The Assistant Housekeeping Manager is directly responsible for the cabin stewards. They will check your cabins daily to make sure that the cabin stewards are carrying out and cleaning to the ships' standards. Responsible for all of the guest areas' cleanliness is the Chief Housekeeper. You will see them onstage during the welcome onboard cocktail party or if you have any cabin issues.
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Advice on where to store, how much to buy legaly

Firstly, find out through the reception or an onboard ships' lecture, how much alcohol and spirits you will be allowed to bring back with you into your home country. Know this before proceeding ashore and purchasing a crate. On returning to ship, the ships' onboard security might ask you to hand in your purchase at the gangway there and then. It will be stored with all the other guests' goodie bags until the last day of the cruise, when it will be distributed back to you by your cabin steward on the debarkation evening for you to take ashore and have it inspected.
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Advice on a room with a view

They will vary in size from ship to ship and floor to floor. Some ships they can be merely a little peephole, letting in just enough daylight to enable you to tell if its day or night, others  will be large enough to give you superb views of the port destinations. A major factor to be considered are the locations of the lifeboats which hang from both sides of the ships. If you are going to book an outside cabin with a window, make sure there will be no lifeboats directly infront of your window which will obstruct your views. For this, ask to see a ships' plan when you are booking. Normally portholes and windows won't open on the lower decks, for obvious reasons, and in rough seas they will be sealed shut by what's called a deadlight. (a metal shutter that is hinged above the porthole). Your cabin steward or fire patrol will do this on advice from the Staff Captain. Advice, If you do have a window on a lower deck cabin, and if the cabin steward does close the dead light above it, don't open it yourself. It is an indication that you are heading for choppy waters. I witnessed a flood recently as the occupants of a cabin opposite my office, opened the window's dead light, the port hole broke due to the water pressure outside, and the floods began. They then tried to blame it on the cabin steward when they realised that all there electronics had drowned.
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Advice on space inside your room

Will vary in size, but regardless, a regular size cabin will be smaller than what you are perhaps used to, especially the shower area. Cabins tend to be built to economise onboard space, certainly on the newer vessels' lower decks inside standard cabins. They are compact to say the least, with little room for a mass of luggage or storage space. If you are opting for a smaller cabin, consider heavily what you will bring to wear for the cruise. Pack light and check my advice on what clothes to bring in the dining related area, Dressing for day time meals
,to avoid sleeping on top of your suitcases. I have been on ships where guests have brought 15 to 20 suitcases with them for a world cruise, and still purchased more cloths enroute. They where on ships that stored all of there suitcases and had they had a penthouse suite to play with, so unless you travel in the same style, consider yourself warned.
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Advice on preventing a potentialy dangerous environment

Fires onboard are extremly rare but do happen and are a stressful thing to witness and go through. All of the interior cabin electronics will have their voltage set for that vessel. If you go ashore and purchase a local electronic product have it checked by the onboard electrician . before plugging it into your cabins electric sockets.Try to minimislise the electronics that you bring from home. Camera chargers and laptop chargers are fine but don't bring with you any heating elements such as irons or kettles. Irons will be available in the onboard laundrette and hot water is plentyful. You are not camping. As regards mobile phones, you will mostly be out of range anyway, and call cards and phone kiosks will be available in most ports. Hair dryers will be in the bathroom, or ask you cabin steward for one if it isn't.
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Advice on saving money

This is expensive when phoning from your cabin, although it is possible by calling reception, giving them the number and having them connect you. It might be up to or even beyond $8 a minute. My advise would be to ask your cabin steward or your waiter for the best port to call home. If you are friendly with a crew member, they might even be able to discretely get a phone card for you to save you hunting around ashore. Do not advertise the fact though, it might cost them there job.
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Advice on what to expect

Is free as standard. There should be a basic 24 hour menu available and a day time menu which will vary from ship to ship. Some ships offer a full dining room menu in the cabin during dining room meal hours, accompanied by a table cloth, fresh flower, and a full table set up in your cabin. Other vessels will simply just place the tray next to your TV and leave. If you have a butler, he will inform you of his working times on embarkation and will take very good care of your daily personal needs. Make sure that when returning from your day ashore, after dinner, your cabin steward has given you a new breakfast room service slip which you can fill out for your breakfast order, and hang outside your door ready for the night porters to collect before 11.30 pm. If you have a tour and need to be up at a specific time, or you might miss the bus, do not rely on the delivery of your ordered breakfast tray to wake you up. Get a wake up call through reception as well as room service. The room service staff can be overwhelmed at peak pre-tour times and you will oversleep and might not have time for a full breakfast later.If you want to enjoy a bottle of wine in the cabin and the cruise is not an all inclusive one, there will be a charge to your onboard account through room service. A service charge however will not be added, though a confirmation of receipt signature will be necessary.If you get sick and have been to see the doctor, and he has advised you not to leave the cabin for a few days, as you might have picked up something contageous shore side, room service from the dining rooms' menu will be available during meal times. The doctor will e-mail the Maitre D' who in turn will get in touch with you, to advise you what there is on offer at the time you wish to dine.
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Advice on when the ship rock n rolls

This is going to happen, especially when docking. Some cabins will shake more than others for sure, depending on the location onboard. The cabins, regardless of the price you have paid for it or the age of the ship, will shake a little for 10 minutes whilst the ship is coming into port. There is a lot of horsepower trying to stop thousands of tonnes of ships' movement to come slowly to rest, so my advice is, if you can't sleep through it, go and get a cup of coffee from the buffet, and watch the sail in which can be very dramatic and will certainly wake you up.If it is a calm sea day however and your cabin seems to be rather noisy for some reason, then call the reception. They should send someone around to advise or to fix the problem. Often it is simply the ships' crew swinging off a rope outside your cabin in order to chip rust or old paint off the side of the ship as part of ongoing ships maintenance. This should mostly be carried out however during port days when you have gone ashore.
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Advice on what to do

Call reception as soon as you notice something not working or not attached correctly in your cabin. Most common issues I have heard of were related to the cabins' Air Conditioning, which, on older vessels and in extemely warm climates, might be struggling to maintain an optimum comfortable cabin temperature. Nevertheless the AC engineer should come around and check this out for you and let you know what the problem is. If he can't fix it and you're suffering, this is the time to call back reception and speak to the chief purser or hotel manager about financial compensation.
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