How much is a good view from a cabin worth? I put it to the test by booking an 'obstructed view' cabin with no idea about what would be obstructing it or how much.
I’m currently on a cruise and I’m staying in a balcony cabin that has a quirky downside that I’ve never had on a cruise ship before.
The cruise lines don’t advertise cabins like these and most people have no idea that they exist. I found this cabin almost by accident and booked it because of the discount price.
This cruise has taken us from Singapore to Tokyo and for me it has been a real bucket list adventure, like most bucket list things though it hasn’t been cheap and when booking I knew that the flights from the uk would likely cost more than the cruise itself.
With that in mind, I really didn’t want to spend more than I had to on the cabin but I also didn’t want to miss out on anything as I’d come half way around the world for this trip. I didn’t want to book an inside cabin and miss out on seeing something incredible, but also didn’t want to pay full price for a balcony which was almost double the inside cabin price. This was already the most expensive trip I’d ever planned.
I decided to compromise and try something new. I booked what is called an obstructed view cabin and I really hoped that I wouldn’t regret it.
There have been both negatives and positives that I hadn’t considered before the cruise, even though I thought I was well prepared.
To save a little more money I booked what is called a guaranteed cabin, that meant that I didn’t pick my specific location and could be given a cabin anywhere on the ship and most importantly for me, with any level of obstruction. I could have a tiny thing obstructing the bottom corner of my view. Or I could be facing a lifeboat head on, with no view of the ocean at all.
The lifeboats usually are a lovely colour but that didn’t mean that I wanted to stare at one for 12 days. A couple of months before the cruise my cabin was assigned, when the email popped up I was excited, but a little nervous, I hoped that I’d made the right decision.
