Inside Cabin or Outside Cabin on a Cruise Ship?

Should you choose an inside cabin or an outside cabin on a cruise ship? I should say stateroom, they call the cabins that. The decision ultimately comes down to personal priorities and how much you’d like to pay for your cruise. These are our feelings about making that call.

Both of our cruises mentioned here were with Norwegian Cruise lines. Our inside stateroom was on Norwegian Getaway, our outside stateroom was on Norwegian Epic.

Both cruises were Atlantic crossings, 11 and 12 days at sea. Be aware that floor plans vary between ships, the cruise line’s own website should have floor plans and maps of stateroom layout.

Cruising with an Inside Cabin or Stateroom

I would probably have worried about taking an inside cabin, fearing claustrophobia and stuffiness, had I not had an excellent experience with a windowless room in a hostel in Malaysia.

We found we slept particularly well there, so we were happy to take the inside cabin as it was a more affordable choice on our first cruise on Norwegian Getaway.

Cruising With an Outside Cabin with Balcony

On our 2nd cruise, on Norwegian Epic, an outside cabin cost us hardly any extra, a few dollars/night.

We took the special offer to see what cruising with a balcony room was like.

Pros and Cons of Inside and Outside Cabins.

Our feeling is that either inside or outside cabins are absolutely fine. We preferred the layout of the inside cabin, we had a reasonably large bathroom in that one.

The outside cabin on Norwegian Epic gave us a toilet cubicle and shower cubical on either side of the corridor door. Both cubicles had translucent frosted glass doors. A curtain could be pulled across the corridor end of the cabin for extra privacy. The hand basin was actually in the cabin at the foot of the bed.

The inside cabin’s bathroom was much nicer, we thought.

The outside cabin had a more luxurious look and feel but was really no larger than the inside cabin.

Your steward will put up and take down bunks every day. They make up beds, clean and change your towels.

Both cabins had the same service and in both cases the service was great, convenient and smooth.

The bunks never got in the way, they were gone in the early morning and reappeared by magic, at bedtime.

There was no difference to us in terms of ship movement and noise. Our cabins were on deck 11 and deck 12. The hum of the engine and of the air-con were noticeable, but not unpleasant.

The Third Choice, A Room With a Window or Porthole

We’ve tried cruising this way too, it was nice to be able to let in some natural light and these cabins, being low down in the ship, give you a great view of the dolphins and flying fish.

There are no disadvantages to having your own porthole, I wouldn’t pay extra for it though. This cruise was not with Norwegian and there weren’t the same superb facilities to keep us busy, so we did spend more time in our cabin.

Did We Need a Balcony?

To be honest, no. The view was lovely, but we very rarely sat out on the balcony or spent time in our room.

Cruise ships are air-conditioned and each stateroom has temperature control, you really don’t want to leave the balcony doors open for fresh air, it gets hot or cold and windy out there.

You have a whole ship to explore, a million chairs to sit in, we never felt any need to sit on our own balcony rather than a public area. To be honest, we much preferred being in public areas.

We like a bit of life around us and all the free food, drinks, activities, facilities and entertainment are up on deck.

We actually spent hardly any time in our cabins on both cruises. There is loads to do on these amazing ships, why would you sit in your room?

Another issue for us was cigarette smoke, we could smell people smoking on nearby balconies and it would seep into our room if the doors were open. The good news is, Carnival and Norwegian have recently banned smoking on state-room balconies.

So our call is, save your money and take an inside cabin if there is a big price difference. What do you think? Read more of our cruise posts here in our cruise section.