Normally if you take a cruise in a balcony cabin you can look forward to views of the ocean and the ports that you’ll be visiting. That is not what happened on my last cruise though because I stayed in what is called a ‘conservatory mini suite’ which although it did have a balcony, it had no clear view of the ocean. It is one of the most controversial cabins at sea and definitely the strangest cabins I’ve ever had, I saw some weird things frim here too.

There are plenty of videos and reviews online that warn others not to stay in the cabin but because I had booked what is called a ‘guaranteed’ cabin I was automatically assigned the room. Usually when you book a guaranteed cabin you get assigned the leftover cabins and I did wonder if that was what happened here.

Still, I was very happy with the cabin I was assigned. Cabin 8304 on deck 8, it’s the deck 8 cabins that are the controversial ones. On P&Os website the conservatory suites look amazing and it looks as though they have clear views of the ocean but I knew from looking at the deck plans that there would be a promenade deck between our cabin and the sea. The conservatory cabins are some of the most expensive cabins on the ship so I was looking forward to find out out what, if anything, made them worth the price.

I was sharing the cabin with two other adults so was looking forward to the extra space in the cabin over a standard balcony cabin and I’d heard that there were a few extra perks that came with the room too. I could never have predicted the perks that showed up, but more about that later.

Looking at the deck plans I noticed that we were located by the stairs and also that there was a whirlpool outside the cabins balcony. I’ve never had to think about noise from beyond the balcony before but I did wonder if this would be a problem. I didn’t want to be constantly bothered by the noise of people on the deck and I knew that there were over 900 children onboard because this cruise was during the school holidays.

When we embarked the ship we walked into this huge atrium on deck 6 and went up the staircases to deck 8 to find out room. Having a cabin on deck 8 did turn out to be a big benefit as most of the restaurants and lounges are on decks 6 7 and 8. I wondered if the walk up to deck 16 to the buffet would get difficult, but I’d test that a lot of times during the cruise.

My first impression of the cabin were very good, I loved the design and although it felt a little thinner than some other cabins I’ve stayed in it felt spacious and bright. The ship was launched in 2020, just before the pandemic which in hindsight wasn’t great timing but for a cruise ship that makes her pretty new. The sofabed to my right would become my bed for the cruise so I hoped that this would be comfortable. It’s more common for kids than adults to stay on these sofa beds so I hoped that it would be designed for somebody like me too.

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