Princess Cruises Star Princess

Overview

Measuring a tidy 160 square feet, our cabin was definitely not spacious. Given that there was no couch and only one chair, the small quarters made it a prerequisite to be on good terms with our cabin-mate! As an inside cabin, there was no view to enjoy—just a mirror that stretched across most of the rear wall of the room, which made the space feel a little less cramped. The décor was fairly bland, with token real and veneer wood finishes—not ugly, but lacking in any character.

To save a few bucks, for our cruise we had booked a “guarantee” interior cabin—this meant the exact location of our cabin wouldn’t be assigned by the cruise line until some time before our sailing date. In fact, it wasn’t assigned until the day we sailed. Initially we didn’t spot anything amiss regarding the location, but the first evening of our cruise, at 9:45 p.m., we heard music coming through the walls of the cabin. The music was not audible in the hallway, so we knew it wasn’t from an adjoining cabin. Then, when we looked at the deck plan we discovered that our cabin was one of about a dozen located directly above the Princess Theater—the floor of our cabin was also the roof of the stage and the evening show had just begun.

We asked if the front desk could move us to a different cabin but we were told that nothing could be done, the ship was fully booked. Although when inside the theater we did not find the music volume to be over-amplified, the sound leakage in our cabin recurred each subsequent night the theater was in operation, up until 11 p.m. The issue might only be a consideration for early-to-bed types, but we feel a careful perusal of cabin location is warranted for Star Princess.

Bedroom

Our queen-sized bed had a small nightstand on either side. The mattress was actually two twin beds pushed together (they could be separated for passengers not sleeping together), and the split between mattresses was evident but not a problem, concealed by a pillow-top and wrapped in good linens. There were light switches under the mirror/headboard (behind the pillows) for the two main lighting fixtures—one for each side of bed. The low-wattage reading lamps on the nightstands at either side of the bed were barely adequate for reading.

Bathroom

Like most cruise ship bathrooms, our bathroom was small but used the space efficiently. There was a large mirror over the sink to the left of the door and the shower (no tub) was to the right, with the toilet in between. On one side of the mirror there were three shelves adequate for a standard travel kit; there was no makeup mirror. The hairdryer was fixed to a mount above the desk, not in the bathroom.

The bathroom floor was elevated a couple inches above the cabin floor, while the shower stall was level with the bathroom floor—a two-inch lip kept the water in its place; there was a fabric shower curtain and, inside the shower, a retractable laundry line. There was a bottle each of shampoo, conditioner and body lotion, branded to the ship’s Lotus Spa. These products were okay, but hardly worth pocketing the leftovers at the end of the cruise (anyone with demanding hair will want to BYOB).

A sign in the bathroom asked us to help Princess conserve the environment by indicating whether we wanted to re-use our towels by leaving them on the “rack/rail/hook”; towels left on the floor would be replaced. Our towels weren’t replenished when they were hung on the towel rack, but when we hung them on the hooks on the door they were unnecessarily replaced with clean towels.

Features

The layout of features was fairly efficient, with the closet area separate from the bedroom, creating a dressing room of sorts. The closet was 6-foot 2-inches wide with a shelf overhead, allowing ample storage space for clothes on hangers (there were 13 hangers but room for many more). There was no door on the closet, meaning everything on hangers was easily accessed. There was also a cabinet with five shelves (plus two more for the safe and life vests), and space under the bed for storing luggage.

A desk was built into the wall facing the bed, with three drawers on one side along with three small shelves that didn’t have much practical use. There was a small coffee table that didn’t serve much purpose; a stool might have been better, so a second person could sit somewhere beside the bed. Also built in was a mini-fridge that contained four cans of soda (Coke, Sprint, including diet versions—$1.95 each) plus a 1.5-liter bottle of Crystal Geyser ($3.50). Above the minibar was a shelf where the ice bucket was kept, along with a pair of glasses; the ice bucket was refilled daily.

The hairdryer was on a coil next to the bedroom mirror. The bedroom had a pair of electrical outlets at the desk—110-volt. Above the desk was a ViewSonic 27” flat screen TV. The TV did not pivot, but given the limited seating options this was fine for viewing.

Our cabin was illuminated by two main overhead lighting options: There were two lights illuminating the closet area on one switch, and three lights that illuminated bedroom area on the other. These were controlled by switches at the cabin door another behind the bed-pillows. A third fixture provided ceiling lights illuminating the desk area. Combined, these were sufficient for lighting the cabin.

Two beach towels were provided and were replaced when used. A waffle-weave bathrobe was also waiting for us in the closet.

At check-in, nametags were posted outside all cabin doors, identifying the occupants and their status level in Princess Cruises’ Captain’s Circle.