balcony cabin A612
Symphony of the Seas has both inside and outside balcony cabins. The outside cabins have a view of the ocean or whatever else happens to be outside of the ship. The inside cabins are on the edges of the open areas of the interior of the ship above central park or the boardwalk and have views of those areas below and the balconies of the cabins on the other side of the ship. The balconies there are more sheltered than the ones on the outside of the ship and are great for anyone who likes people watching.
balcony over Central Park on Wonder of the Seas
We had one over the garden on Wonder of the Seas and liked it quite a lot. That area was quiet at night, though I would imagine the ones above the boardwalk would have a lot more late evening noise – especially on nights when there is a late show at the aqua theater. Interior balcony cabins usually cost less than the exterior ones. Sometimes by a little and sometimes by a lot.
oceanview balcony
We had an ocean view balcony on Symphony of the Seas.
cabin A612
Standard balcony cabins on Symphony of the Seas are generally 182 square feet with a 50 square foot balcony, but they feel more spacious than these numbers indicate that they would. The room had enough open space not to feel cramped and the balcony enough depth for chairs with little footstools.
balcony cabin A112
The cabin that we had could have slept 4 people, but we just had 3. It did not have any drop-down bunks in the ceiling like some cruise ships have, but rather the full-sized couch both made into a bed and had a trundle type bed that could pull out from beneath it for the fourth person. A bunk would have been preferable both for separation of the people if there were a fourth in the room and because that would free up underneath of the couch for storage drawers. Not to mention when the trundle bed is open it takes up all the floor space and you can’t even open the drawers across from it. Some ships have storage drawers in the couches. They are much bigger than any of the other drawers in the room – one of them sometimes holds more than all the other drawers in the room combined. We definitely could have used those on this cruise if we’d had any.
Trundle type bed in the couch on Quantum of the Seas
We had one of those trundle beds on Quantum of the Seas when there were 4 people in the cabin and would definitely have preferred a bunk. It’s not quite a true trundle since it raises up to the same height as the couch turning into a double bed rather than sitting lower.
desk
Storage was a little tight with 3 people. The room had 4 small drawers in one side of a little dresser that also contained the refrigerator and another drawer on the other side. The drawer over the refrigerator had the hair dryer in it. Other storage space consisted of two small closets. One had all hanging space and one had half hanging and half shelves with the safe taking up one of the 6 shelves.
bunnies
Whenever the steward cleaned the room he always turned the temp to as far freezing as it could go regardless of the fact that we turned it over to the heat side every day since the room was always very cold. Sometimes we had to open the balcony door to warm up the room. It was much warmer outside than inside so the outside air warmed the room a lot better than the climate controls did. We pretty much had to turn it all the way over to as far is it went into the hot side to get the air coming from the vents to turn warm instead of cold, but then turn it down some once it actually had warm air so it didn’t get too hot. If the steward would have left it alone it could have just stayed at a comfortable temperature once it got there rather than being a daily battle. We think he was new and not very good at the job. He didn’t remember any names like stewards usually do and made other mistakes like forgetting to return a bag of laundry that was supposed to be next day service until we asked guest services about it after several days passed and found it had been sitting on his cart all that time. Guest services ended up removing the charge for it since it took so long to get it back. The steward did clean the room daily and always left cute towel animals on Hannah’s bed – once a bunny friend for her stuffed bunny.
little magnets
There were 3 outlets over the desk and one above one nightstand. It’s not a lot, but more than found on some ships. It helps to bring a plug with additional outlets to plug into one of those and make a couple more. Most ships don’t allow surge protectors, but if it’s just a plug with a couple extra outlets they never confiscate it.
magnetic hooks
Unless the ship is really old, cruise ships generally have magnetic walls. They are stronger on some ships than others. The doors are magnetic as well, strongly on some ships and fairly weak on others. Both the door and walls were strongly magnetic on the Symphony. Also the wall next to the door outside of the cabin which is handy for hanging things like decorations or duck mailboxes.
duck mailboxes
The bathroom had a small round shower with no clothesline. This is the only ship I have been on that did not have a clothesline that pulls across the shower. Even if people never wash any laundry in the cabin there’s always a need for somewhere to hang wet swimsuits. Cruise ships always have pools and hot tubs. Symphony also has waterslides and flowriders so there’s definitely a need to hang wet swimsuits somewhere. I usually bring some extra laundry line that can be either tied to whatever structure the shower has or hung on magnets if its magnetic, which they sometimes are.
shower
There was only combo shampoo/body wash in the shower, no conditioner. Bring your own products if you want separate shampoo and any sort of conditioner. There was also no liquid hand soap, just a bar of soap for the sink. No hand lotion either.
bathroom sink
One useful thing the bathroom did have was a low-level light that came on whenever it was dark so nobody had to turn on a bright light if they got up to use the restroom during the night, or if they were the first one up while others were still sleeping. That was so much better than the seriously annoying motion lights a lot of ships have outside of the bathroom.
towel bear
Overall the room was spacious enough and comfortable for 3 people.
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