Studio lounge bar

[imgoinonacruise]

I'm sailing on the Breakaway at the end of May, and am looking forward to my first studio cabin experience.  I've been trying to figure out what exactly the studio lounge bar entails - is there a bartender?  Is it open to 'grab a beer from a fridge'? I have the UBP, so I'm mostly just wondering if I'll be needing to grab a drink from elsewhere to take back to my cabin when I'm going for a nap or down time, or if I'll be able to grab something from the lounge.  Thanks!  

[zactak]

It's been a few years since I have been in the studio, and it was never on the Breakaway, so someone with more recent, and ship specific info if anything has changed from my experience. My experience is from the Epic in 2013, and I didn't have a studio, but stopped by the studio lounge on occasion during 2016. 

 

There was a bartender, but they were only around a little bit before the studio gathering in the evenings, and they left when most people cleared out after the gathering. I never saw a bartender there otherwise. 

 

I love solo traveling, and the studios with the studio gatherings are great! Have a good time!

[sid_9169]

The bar in the studio lounge is only open for awhile each afternoon for the solo meetings that take place there... Also, they only serve a limited menu due to storage space...

[Sauer-kraut]

You can grab and go with a fancy coffee or hot chocolate and cookies or other snack they might have near the machine.

[AdoraBelle]

4 hours ago, imgoinonacruise said:

I'm sailing on the Breakaway at the end of May, and am looking forward to my first studio cabin experience.  I've been trying to figure out what exactly the studio lounge bar entails - is there a bartender?  Is it open to 'grab a beer from a fridge'? I have the UBP, so I'm mostly just wondering if I'll be needing to grab a drink from elsewhere to take back to my cabin when I'm going for a nap or down time, or if I'll be able to grab something from the lounge.  Thanks!  

 

I've been in the studios on Getaway, Escape and Bliss ... but not Breakaway. 

I'm pretty sure all the others have self-serve wine dispensers in the solo lounge. Swipe your card to use. There should also be iced water, juice, a nice espresso maker, tea bags, fruit, baked goods. Some people have claimed to see yogurt in the mornings, I never have.

 

All this said, sometimes it feels like Breakaway is the red-headed stepchild of the away ships, so for all I know things could be different there. 🙂

[imgoinonacruise]

Thanks everyone, that's super helpful.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the studio experience is, having only been in larger rooms while travelling with others! 

[robin13]

I was on The Escape in a studio cabin last April and there was no bartender.  They did have a wine dispensing machine but I never used it as I always took a glass of wine from a bar back to my cabin.  It is my understanding that the Epic does have a bartender for the 5pm meetings so I'm looking forward to that.  Even though I'm staying in a mini suite I'm sailing solo so I'm planning on being in the lounge for the meeting every day.

[lepidoptera]

5 hours ago, imgoinonacruise said:

Thanks everyone, that's super helpful.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the studio experience is, having only been in larger rooms while travelling with others! 

I really enjoyed the studios when I was on the Breakaway in October. Imelda was our solo coordinator and she was great. The one thing I wasn’t crazy about was a lot of the solo rooms have connecting doors to another solo cabin and if your neighbor isn’t considerate it can be quite noisy. 

[eileeshb]

Getaway is the sister ship to Breakaway so I’m assuming the studio lounge will operate in a similar manner.  The wine dispenser is not covered by the beverage plan so if you use it you will be charged. The bar is staffed for a couple of hours per day, I felt the hours weren’t well planned as it only opened a half hour before the solo meetups which happened in one of the public bars and we then went onto dinner. 

I’m also going to be on the Breakaway in late May.

The snacks in the lounge are nice, particularly the cookies!

[Langham1865]

I have been on Breakaway several times, and recently Getaway, which has the exact same Studio Lounge set up.  There typically is a bartender in the lounge from 5-7 pm.  The lounge itself is always accessible, with an amazing coffee maker (think specialty coffee) and a self serve wine dispenser.  The self serve wine dispenser is accessed by using you key card and is NOT part of any beverage package, so you will have to pay to use.  These is also usually juice and water, breakfast pastries in the am and cookies in the afternoon. 

[FLAHAM]

The fake juice they serve in the buffet, not real juice.  Hot tea also available.

[imgoinonacruise]

5 hours ago, lepidoptera said:

I really enjoyed the studios when I was on the Breakaway in October. Imelda was our solo coordinator and she was great. The one thing I wasn’t crazy about was a lot of the solo rooms have connecting doors to another solo cabin and if your neighbor isn’t considerate it can be quite noisy. 

I had wondered about the connecting rooms, and made a point to book one that wasn’t connecting - only to read about the fact that it’s kitty-corner to a cleaning closet and there’s quite a bit of noise in the mornings from it. I guess it’s good I’m an early bird! 

[AdoraBelle]

16 minutes ago, imgoinonacruise said:

I had wondered about the connecting rooms, and made a point to book one that wasn’t connecting - only to read about the fact that it’s kitty-corner to a cleaning closet and there’s quite a bit of noise in the mornings from it. I guess it’s good I’m an early bird! 

 

Yeah, I fell for one of those “no neighbor” studios once and ended up next to an industrial ice maker in that “blank space”. Hah.

 

I’ve always had connecting rooms apart from that one. Haven’t had a problem yet except for folks listening to music or TV while getting ready to go out for the evening. I highly recommend the LectroFan micro white noise machine (see Amazon). Puts out incredible volume for its tiny size.

[imgoinonacruise]

11 hours ago, AdoraBelle said:

 

Yeah, I fell for one of those “no neighbor” studios once and ended up next to an industrial ice maker in that “blank space”. Hah.

 

I’ve always had connecting rooms apart from that one. Haven’t had a problem yet except for folks listening to music or TV while getting ready to go out for the evening. I highly recommend the LectroFan micro white noise machine (see Amazon). Puts out incredible volume for its tiny size.

That's good advice - I might see about downloading some white noise tracks on my phone ahead of time!  

[snirpville]

I'm debating between a studio and an inside cabin now. These tips are very helpful. @imgoingonacruise Could you post a review when you get back about the room and lounge? Thanks.

[Defhermit]

I was on the Bliss last year in a studio cabin.

The lounge was nice but there was never anyone in there when I came through. Granted, I sort of had a weird schedule so I wasn't too surprised.

There were signup sheets sitting there from some solo-traveler host who was organizing a group outing to a show, activity. There were magazines and books. In the mornings there was a little continental breakfast spread and juice. There was always water there in a nice big iced dispenser, as well as the juice which I really enjoyed grabbing a cup of before heading to breakfast in the morning.

It's a strange room. It seems like it would be a good place to meet up with a small group before heading to dinner or wherever, but only people in solo cabins can access it. So there's not too many scenarios where I was in there for more than 5 minutes.

[imgoinonacruise]

8 hours ago, snirpville said:

I'm debating between a studio and an inside cabin now. These tips are very helpful. @imgoingonacruise Could you post a review when you get back about the room and lounge? Thanks.

Will do!  

[warrenhii]

what is the genre of music piped into the lounge and are there times with no music?

[FLAHAM]

1 hour ago, warrenhii said:

what is the genre of music piped into the lounge and are there times with no music?

 

I have rarely heard piped music in the studio lounges on several ships.  However, at other than early morning (people grabbing light breakfast stuff) or at the solo meetup, I am often the only one (or perhaps one or two others) in the lounge (I like to read there late in evenings).

Edited May 5, 2019 by FLAHAM