Are Midship cabins really the preference of Princess Cruisers? Or is there something else going on here?

[TessieTravels]

I hope this does not come across as disrespectful in any way as that is not the intent.  It is more an observation due to Princess's persistence with not honoring our "no auto upgrades" that they confirmed is on our booking (and I understand that I agreed in the Passenger Contract that Princess has the right to move our cabin for any reason, at any time without notice). We are booked on the Island Princess in December and I have noticed something very peculiar ... it appears that Princess cruisers LOVE the Mid-ship location or Princess LOVES "upgrading" passengers to mid-ship and then work their way to forward and aft cabins.  On our particular sailing, the majority of the cabins mid-ship (from mid-aft to mid-forward) have very few available cabins, whereas Forward and Aft have quite a few cabins and entire hallways available.  Is this normal for Princess Cruises?  A preference for mid-ship vs forward or aft cabins?  Or, (and I suspect more realistic) due to Princess "upgrading" guests so that we are consolidated closer together in mid-ship cabins due to staffing OR so that more ideal cabin locations are available for new bookings?

 

[Outerdog]

Preference for midship cabins is usually based on short travel to the ship's primary areas (Piazza, etc), close to elevators and less "motion" compared to forward and aft locations.

 

Personally, give me a forward or aft facing balcony over a midship cabin any day. So the midship preference certainly is not universal. 

 

[cruzin4us]

I'm another aft (1st choice) or forward (2nd choice)......For me it's all about the rock'n and roll'n.    I want to sleep like a baby.     I also have 3 guarantees that were just given room assignments.  All are mid-ship (my luck)....LOL

[suekel]

Like the 2 posters ahead of me...I prefer aft and then way way way forward.  I love the movement of the ship.  Next cruises are M106 and D737.

[1emerald1]

Mid-ship low is my preference, due vertigo and inner ear disturbances.

[jasbo49]

I think it's a given in cruising that midship gets less rocking back and forth than either fore or aft. So midship cabins are valued higher on all cruise lines. 

 

Jim

Edited September 23, 2022 by jasbo49

[cr8tiv1]

Much depends on the itinerary.  Short voyages?  Rough seas?  Trans-Oceans?  

 

I prefer low/mid-ship.  I don't care for forward or aft.  

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Princess does sell their ships by category, and offer upgrades by category, with mid-ship being slightly higher than mid-aft or mid-foward.  And those being slightly higher category and higher priced than FWD and AFT.   This seems because of the reasons that are talked about here!   

 

I like mid-ship.

 

But, there are those forward or aft cabins that some people might want.  And, it seems that 'no upgrade' is completely meaningless to Princess right now.    I have heard of some people who had booked their favorite aft  wake-view cabins while they were still available right after the cruise booking opened up, and now Princess is changing them!!!  Not a good thing.

 

 

[AZjohn]

1 hour ago, TessieTravels said:

Or, (and I suspect more realistic) due to Princess "upgrading" guests so that we are consolidated closer together in mid-ship cabins due to staffing….

 

I think you are on the mark! 😉 

[Buckeye10640]

Used to prefer aft until I tried Lido and Sun Deck (on Enchanted). Now I prefer forward on these decks. Never had a mid-ship cabin. 

[Thrak]

We often choose a balcony cabin in the aft portion of Caribe deck. (This is on the older ships of course as the balconies are much larger and half covered.) On our upcoming cruise (also on an older ship - Ruby Princess) we deliberately chose an aft interior cabin on Rivera deck as - not only was it much less expensive - my wife wanted to be able to just slip out the back door to the aft pool. She loves that pool and there is a bar right there as well as access to the buffet. It's her "hang out" area when the weather is warm. I didn't have a problem with choosing an interior cabin this time so we booked it. (Our TA always, as a matter of course, has our bookings marked as "no upgrade".)

 

Princess automagically "upgraded" us to a mid ship interior cabin. (Yes, as I said above, we had "do not upgrade" on our booking but, as we all know, that is more of a "request".) I contacted our TA and got the original room back. Then it happened again and, once again, we got the original cabin back. Then it happened again. By this time I was getting pretty peeved. Our TA made a special point of getting our original cabin back. This was the fourth time we "booked" this same cabin.

 

I sent a (nicely worded) email to John Padgett. I didn't expect any actual response but... I was very surprised when I got a phone call from Princess. Not only did they apologize (somewhat profusely) for repeatedly changing our cabin but they also added a credit for specialty dining to our booking. I was totally blown away. While I doubt very much that Mr. Padgett read my missive and had someone contact me it is good to know that he has efficient minions. (Seriously, why would the president of Princess take the time to read my email and respond...)

 

I still check our booking regularly but, so far, it has stayed where we initially booked.

[cr8tiv1]

Princess also believes that a higher deck is more desirable so they now place suites way up high?  On the older Grand Class ships, Suites were on deck 10.

 

I don't like the direction Princess is going with their ship building (bigger is better).  MY DAYS are numbered.

[sloopsailor]

When doing a mock booking for a mini suite on a Royal Princess cruise we are looking at, when I allow Princess to select the cabin for us, they selected M105, one of the forward facing cabins at the very front, the ones with the steel railings and potential weather related balcony access limitations. There are literally dozens of standard mini-suites available in the same price category along the sides of the ship, so I find it perplexing that the cabin they direct people to is one that most people wouldn't even consider as that location has limitations that more common cabins don't have. 

 

For reference, I am quite picky about the cabin I want to spend time in, especially it's location, so I would never voluntarily pick that cabin. 

[sandancer]

3 hours ago, AZjohn said:

I think you are on the mark! 😉 

Quite the opposite for us. Booked a mid ship and have been moved to aft. Not wake view - I wish!

[caribill]

4 hours ago, jasbo49 said:

I think it's a given in cruising that midship gets less rocking back and forth than either fore or aft. So midship cabins are valued higher on all cruise lines. 

 

 

 

Since the ships do not bend, back and forth rocking should be the same anywhere on a deck. It will be more severe the higher up you go.

[caribill]

Yes, Princess does consider mid-ship to be a better location than fore or aft.

 

And, yes, Princess considers the higher the cabin is, the better the location is.

 

Some passengers agree with Princess about this and some do not.

[2 cruises a year]

43 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Since the ships do not bend, back and forth rocking should be the same anywhere on a deck. It will be more severe the higher up you go.

This is true for rolling side to side.  But if you look at the ship as a see-saw, and midship cabins as the pivot point fore and aft, there is much less rolling and pitching midship. Take a stick, hold it in the middle and notice the motion at the ends as you move the stick from the middle like sailing into waves.

[fpsphil]

Im a front or back person. As high as I can get in decks as well without public areas above

[OzKiwiJJ]

8 hours ago, TessieTravels said:

I hope this does not come across as disrespectful in any way as that is not the intent.  It is more an observation due to Princess's persistence with not honoring our "no auto upgrades" that they confirmed is on our booking (and I understand that I agreed in the Passenger Contract that Princess has the right to move our cabin for any reason, at any time without notice). We are booked on the Island Princess in December and I have noticed something very peculiar ... it appears that Princess cruisers LOVE the Mid-ship location or Princess LOVES "upgrading" passengers to mid-ship and then work their way to forward and aft cabins.  On our particular sailing, the majority of the cabins mid-ship (from mid-aft to mid-forward) have very few available cabins, whereas Forward and Aft have quite a few cabins and entire hallways available.  Is this normal for Princess Cruises?  A preference for mid-ship vs forward or aft cabins?  Or, (and I suspect more realistic) due to Princess "upgrading" guests so that we are consolidated closer together in mid-ship cabins due to staffing OR so that more ideal cabin locations are available for new bookings?

 

Princess doesn't upgrade guests just to consolidate them but do sometimes upgrade guests if the more expensive cabins aren't selling close to sail date but cheaper cabins are. However visits from the upgrade fairy are reportedly quite rare.

 

Midships cabins are very popular though and fill up mostly by being chosen by passengers when they book their cruise. On some popular Australian itineraries you have to book the day the itineraries are released to get a good midships cabin.

[MTNest93]

Good question!  We booked our 1st cruise for next year and since we picked a club class mini-suite, our only option was on Dolphin deck mid ship  (deck 9 on Caribbean Princess).  I'm good with that since I've never cruised before and while I don't think I'll have seasick issues, you just never know.  It will also be nice to be centrally located to all the venues.  

[PacnGoNow]

1 minute ago, MTNest93 said:

Good question!  We booked our 1st cruise for next year and since we picked a club class mini-suite, our only option was on Dolphin deck mid ship  (deck 9 on Caribbean Princess).  I'm good with that since I've never cruised before and while I don't think I'll have seasick issues, you just never know.  It will also be nice to be centrally located to all the venues.  

Definitely the most convenient.  I don’t usually feel seasick, but the few times I have, because of really rough seas in the North Atlantic, I went midship and low to the Piazza, deck 5. Stayed there a while and felt better.  As long as I didn’t look out the window at waves coming up over

the windows.  Lol
 

I bought those sea band bracelets at the drugstore and they seemed to help. So, good thing to take. 
 

Most of the time, haven’t needed anything.  You’ll enjoy the location. 
 

[riffatsea]

We only book mid ship suites

If they are not available we don't book that cruise

well,, we did once book a mid aft once but it was not all the way aft

We don't like facing the wake

we might consider forward

We were in deck 14 for,the first time on the Caribbean Princess instead of deck 10 and it was fine

[TravelGirlinDallas]

Do they email you when they change your cabin, or do you just have to keep checking your booking constantly?

[marden1970]

We also book mini-suites and would consider Club Class except those cabins seem to be on the Dolphin deck with the balconies being fully uncovered, so no shelter from the elements or from the cabins above.  We usually book the aft mini-suites on Emerald that have fully covered balconies.  We consider that a better location than mid ship. A little bit further to walk but that's ok; it burns off a few more calories.

[Sea Hag]

We like as far forward and as high up in the ship as we can get. It's a lot farther to go to get to things, but that's fine with us.