Which Cabin Shall I Choose?

This is a question I hum and ha over every time I'm planning a cruise. We love to cruise but we also have a budget to stick to so ....Which type of cabin? Which deck? Where on the ship? How much will each grade cost? Is the extra, significant expense worth it for a balcony cabin?

   I look at the itinerary, check out the number of ports of call versus number of sea days, and hum and ha some more.

  But so far, on the cruises we've been on round the Pacific and Asia, we've been perfectly satisfied with an interior cabin, midships, on a lower, rather than upper deck. There's less chance of seasickness then and we hardly spend any time in the cabin anyway.

   I don't choose the cheapest option, but make the position of the cabin the deciding factor. Close, but not too close to the elevators; not near the laundromats; not underneath high traffic, possibly noisy areas such as restaurants or music venues. It's great that cruise lines put deck plans on their websites. You can really do your research before you book.

   And I know I should be calling them 'staterooms' not 'cabins', but I'm the one who calls 'gangways' 'gangplanks'! I think I read too many books about pirates when I was a child!

   Mind you, finding our cabin each day can be a challenge! Take me out of an elevator, put me in a long, long corridor lined with doors on each side, and I totally lose my sense of direction! I can't tell where I am, which way the 'pointy end' of the ship is, where on earth our cabin might be.

   Except on a Pacific cruise last year. Just along from us, someone had stuck a giant paper bird with a fat stomach onto their door. I always knew where our cabin was on that cruise - four doors past the pregnant parrot!