cabin D148
Royal Princess Deluxe Balcony Cabin D148
The main difference between standard balcony cabins and deluxe balcony cabins on Royal Princess is that the deluxe balcony cabin has a small couch that is the size of a loveseat and the standard balcony cabin does not. Deluxe balcony cabins are slightly larger at 233 square feet including the balcony vs 214-222 square feet including balcony on standard balcony cabins. The balconies on both are about 41 square feet and have two chairs and a small table.
connecting door
As is usual for cruise ship cabins, the room contains two beds that can be separated into twins or set together as a queen. In the deluxe balcony cabins the sofa can convert to a third bed. Some cabins also have a drop-down bunk to accommodate a fourth person. Cabin D148 that we were in happened to be one of the few with a connecting door to the next cabin. Unless you are with the people in the next room cabins with connecting doors are best avoided when possible because you can often hear the people next door (and them you) a lot more easily than through a solid wall, though we didn’t hear the neighbors on this ship unless standing right next to the connecting door.
cabin layouts of deluxe and standard balcony cabins
The deluxe balcony cabin costs more than a standard cabin so you pay more for that small loveseat size couch and tiny bit of extra square footage. Across from the couch there was a small desk with a cabinet enclosing the refrigerator and a drawer above the cabinet with the hair dryer. The two 110 outlets above the desk were set far apart preventing any interference with large sized plugs from one to the other. The room had no USB ports, but I brought a clock that has 2. There was also one big round outlet above the desk, probably 22o volt. We extended our outlet capacity with a couple 3-outlet plugs, which are really only 2 each since they are set closer together than the width of most plugs, but they still double the capacity plus the 2 USB ports in the clock added more charging ability. The desk had one chair and there was a small table between the couch and desk.
couch and painting
There is just one picture in this room which is just colors rather than an actual picture of anything. With some imagination it could be water, a landscape perhaps of farm crops or a golf course in a sand dune by a beach, and sky. A wall TV is mounted across from the beds. Each bed has a nightstand with a built-in lamp, 2 small drawers, and a small shelf. There’s also a motion light at the bottom of it which is very annoying at night unless you cover it up with the spare pillow. There were 4 pillows for 2 beds so that was an option.
desk and mirror
The room has three mirrors with one mirror above the desk as well as a full-length wall mirror, and a mirror in the bathroom. The walls and doors are magnetic which is useful for hanging magnetic hooks and any other magnetic things people wish to hang.
closet
There is a large open closet area with as much hanging space as a double closet in a standard house and a small closet with a door containing the safe and shelves. The closet area adds some nice storage space, but makes the room feel smaller than cruise ship cabins of the same square footage on other ships that have smaller closets against a wall and more open room space.
bathroom
The bathroom is pretty standard for a cruise ship with a shower, toilet, and sink with small built-in counter. There is a shelf running the full length of the bathroom underneath the sink. Also 3 small shelves on one side of the mirror. It has conditioning shampoo and body wash in the shower and body wash and hand lotion at the sink. There is no separate conditioner for the shower so you have to bring your own if you want any.
no separate conditioner
Motion lights in cruise ship cabins seem to be following the trend of headlights (and taillights) on cars. Old cars had lights that were low down and bright enough to see, but not so bright as to blind other drivers. Over the years the lights have moved up higher on the vehicles and gotten brighter so whether you are behind another car or facing an oncoming one either the headlights or taillights are blinding.
cabin D148
Similarly, cruise ship cabins once had no motion lights. Then some started to have some low down near the floor, generally near the bathroom to light the way in case people got up in the night. Occasionally we found a dim one in the bathroom which was the only sort that we actually appreciate because that prevents the need to turn on the bright light – unless of course it only stays on a short while and then goes dark while in there. Next came lights on the bottoms of the nightstands lighting up the pathway right from leaving the bed, and now the last two ships we sailed on had really bright motion lights on the ceiling outside of the bathroom so anyone who gets up in the night or whoever wakes up first in the morning wakes up anyone else in the room with that super bright motion light.
cabin D148
As previously mentioned the ones that are low down on the nightstands can easily be covered up with spare pillows, but the ceiling ones aren’t quite as easy. There is no off switch giving people any option as to whether they want that or not. Kind of like when you buy a new car. There’s no option for one with lights that don’t blind all the other drivers, yet people are annoyed with the drivers of other cars rather than the people who design and build them. Unlike the car which has no options, you can stop the ceiling motion light if you cover it up with a towel and magnet the towel to the ceiling. Generally in cruise ship cabins the bathroom is right next to the door and you can usually see light from the hallway around the door so that provides enough light to find the bathroom in the dark without all the excessive motion lights. I’m sure they are considered a safety feature, but a switch for the option to turn them off if not wanted would be much appreciated.
balcony
This room had a standard size balcony, which in spite of how spacious it looks in the drawing from Princess that shows the room layout is really just big enough for the two chairs and table provided. There’s space enough for two people to sit out there comfortably, but if you had a third or fourth person in the room not everyone could sit there at once. The chair from the desk could squeeze in for a third person, but it would be quite crowded.
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