Cruising Quest

Most times I tend to talk more about cruising in terms of great cruises for lower prices.  But, the fact is that at the lowest priced cruises are often those that are in the most modest staterooms. Sometimes you want to have a little more space to spread out in, especially if you are going on a lengthy cruise and are traveling with family.  So, this post is going to be about the staterooms designated as suites.  The floor plans for suites will change from cruise line to cruise line as well as the amenities offered when you book a suite.  This post will talk about what you can expect in a suite on the cruise lines listed. Also, this will be a multi part topic.

Carnival

A suite with Carnival is based off of the Carnival Conquest’s plan and is basically just a bigger stateroom.  Along with what looks like a king size bed you get an entertainment area, a separate sitting area, a fridge, a VCR (hopefully a DVD player in this age), a private balcony, a dressing table, and a walk in closet. These suites are also in better areas of the ship as they are categories 11 and 12 which can be found on the Lido and Empress decks.  These suites are still one room but will give you a little more space and a little more luxury.  Don’t forget to ask about the additional perks for booking a suite on this liner, often you get some complementary gifts to welcome you to your room.

Celebrity

This cruise line actually has 4 types of suites, the Sky Suite and Century Suite are actually similar to the suites on Carnival as they are just bigger, nicer rooms with more amenities. However, the Royal Suites and Penthouse Suites are a little more to write home about.  Both have a separate bedroom and “living area” with a fold out sofa, which is nice if children are in tow and mommy and daddy want to have your own space away from them at nights (hubba hubba). They both have the big fancy entertainment systems that include 40” TVs and DVD players.  They both have wireless internet, walk in closets, separate showers, and verandas with sliding glass doors.  And this is where the two top suites separate. 

The Royal Suite has a private whirlpool tub, but the Penthouse Suite has its own oversized bathroom with double sinks  and an additional guest powder room, not to mention the private whirlpool on the veranda.  Along with these things the Penthouse suite also has a separate dining room with a butlers pantry/wet bar. And a couple of smaller bonuses to the Penthouse Suite is the king size bed in the bedroom is actually a king size bed rather than the usual twin beds converted to a queen size, and then there is a fax machine.  What more could you want! 

Oh wait!  There’s more!  Celebrity has Their exclusive European Butlers service when you book a sweet. I am just going to cut and paste here, this is what you will get with that: Welcome champagne, Daily fruit selection, Fresh-cut flowers, Daily hors d’oeuvres, Menu of pillows - Conformance, Body, Goose, and Isotonic®, Duvets and pillow-top mattresses, Leather key holder, personalized stationery and tote bag, Double-thick Frette bathrobes, Complimentary espresso & cappuccino. Holey Connolly!  That’s a lot of stuff.  And the cool thing about the European Butler Service is you get this with any of the four types of suites you have to choose from. Nice! All four types of suites are found on the penthouse deck of the ship, Sky suites are also found on the sports deck. 

 Now I want to make sure you know that I didn’t write down the suite features from each ship for Celebrity, there are differences on almost every ship and there’s just to many to cover them all.  For example on the Century Suite is not available on some of the ships, where you might find the Celebrity Suite on a few ships (really great windowed sitting area.  Also the butler service may change from ship to ship. And let me just say check out the penthouse suites on the Infinity and Millennium; 1432 square feet of posh luxury and 1098 square feet of awesome veranda!  My point is from ship to ship the suites may look very different so check them out before you book; but they will always be in prime ship locations, be the larger rooms available and will have some pretty sweet butler service!  So, enough about Celebrity, obviously in terms of the suite life, they rock.

Disney

Disney has three types of suites but only two of them have two bedrooms so I will just write about those.  The first suite is the Two-Bedroom Suite with Verandah.  This room sleeps seven people in its two bedrooms with queen size beds and living room with convertible sofa.  There are 2.5 bathrooms that have whirlpool tub, walk-in closets, and wet bar. As the name suggests there is private veranda and then all kinds of in room amenities like TV and VCR (hopefully DVD here), mini fridge, safe, climate control, etc… And you get some great suite amenities like in-suite dining from any of the rotation restaurants and Palo, Egyptian cotton linens, gifts, and all kinds of other features (similar to Celebrities European Butler Service). Rockin!  The Royal Suite with Verandah on Disney’s cruise line has all of the same setup as the Two Bedroom Suite but the second bedroom has two twin beds and two pull-down upper berths rather than a queen size bed.  Also there will be a pantry, and media library with this liner.  Disney knows how to make a family feel welcome!  These suites can be found on deck 8.

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