Splendor in St. Croix
Some of Carnival‘s ships, such as the Breeze and the Splendor, have a row of rooms across the bow on some decks. The Splendor has 6 of these rooms each on decks 6 and 7. These rooms all have a secret. If you want to book them, you find them under the category of interior rooms. They are at the top level of the interior rooms so they do cost more than other rooms classified as interior, but they are a great bargain because they are not dark and windowless. These rooms each have a full picture window. They book as interior because the deck in front of them has a solid wall which blocks the view from the lower portion of the window. The upper portion of the window however offers quite a nice view. The end rooms look more or less to one side of the ship and partly forward, but the ones at the center offer a panoramic view of where the ship is going. Other cruise lines often book this type of room as Ocean View Obstructed meaning that you pay the lower end of ocean view rates rather than the upper end of inside rates and that can make quite a difference in the price, which makes them an even better bargain on Carnival.
view through the secret room window cabin 7202
While standing in the room, especially at the window, you have a better view than from most other cabins with windows, portholes, or balconies. Since the deck wall blocks the lower half of the view when sitting you mostly see deck and sky, which is a lot more than you would see from an interior room with no window. You also have the advantage of having natural light to know night from day inside the cabin.
deck in front of the secret rooms
To make these rooms even more special, at each end of the short hallway across the bow where these rooms are located sits a set of doors to the outside. After passing through two doors, you are on the little-used deck in front of these rooms, which makes them nearly balcony cabins. This is where the two end rooms have their advantage since they are located closest to the doors, though the few more steps to the door from rooms closer to the center is worth the bigger view.
deck at the bow of the Splendor
Once out on the deck you can see all across the front and to either side, which makes photographing things like sunrise or sunset easier than the average balcony room. If you like to see the stars at night these decks are good for viewing them since they are under the bridge so they have no lights where most outside passenger decks are lit up at night. On the Breeze these decks had deck chairs and stairway access down to the public walkway around the outside of deck 5. On the Splendor the stairs were gated off and tagged crew only except than the one between decks 6 and 7 because deck 5 is a crew deck the bow.
room 7202 from the window side of the room with the window in the mirror
The disadvantage of these cabins is that the windows are not completely private because people can walk by them out on the deck area, but other than when the ship first left port they are not normally too populated. We rarely saw anyone out there when we were in our cabin. People can see into the room as it is not one-way glass so keeping the curtains shut at night or when changing clothes is a good idea.
accessible cabin from the Breeze
Another drawback of these cabins is that interior cabins tend towards the small side, and these are no exception. The hallway into the room with closet doors on one side and the bathroom door on the other is quite narrow. The front closet is shallow due to making space for the door to open, so clothes in that closet hang front to back rather than side to side as in normal closets. The cabin interior has just enough space for the bed/s, two nightstands, a chair, table, and the stool under the desk area by the mirror. Wheelchair accessible cabins in this row are a bit bigger and don’t have such narrow entries.
looking down to the bow from the secret deck
Since there are no public smoking areas nearby it would seem this area would be smoke free, however on the Splendor the crew decks below allow smoking for the crew and sometimes smoke wafts up to the passenger deck. If you are very sensitive to smoke you may want to room elsewhere.
secret room 7202
