just how coffin-like does it feel? I am in the process of booking a cruise with my cousin who is for lack of a better word a "wuss". She is afraid of water and I am just getting her to agree to a short cruise. I want a balcony room she doesn't want to see water.

On a cruise in December on HAL, we had one inside and one outside room. I hated the inside room and it was a fairly large cabin. When we ran into a tropical storm, it was uncomfortable for me to hear all the creaking, etc. without being able to see outside; and this type of thing does not usually bother me.

Much preferred the outside room. But, if you are determined to go with her, many people don't mind inside rooms, so give it a try. I would pass.

We did interior cabins on RCL's Navigator of the Seas and Vision of the Seas and we found it fine. I think it depends on what kind of traveler you are. We're the types where we're rarely in our rooms (just to sleep and freshen up) so we usually don't want to spend a lot of our dough on the accommodations. However, for future cruises, we'll probably try for an interior room that faces the interior centrum area on an RCL ship that has this feature.

Our rooms were obviously small but big enough to have a mini-couch in it. The amount of closet and storage space was fine since the design is very efficient. The washroom was tiny but I'm not sure if it'd be a lot larger in just a oceanview or balcony room (though prob noticeably larger in a suite).

Probably the biggest quirk though is the lack of natural light so you don't really get a good sense of what time it is. It wasn't a make or break issue for us as we just used alarms to wake us up and the rest of the time, it wasn't an issue.

Depending on the cruiseline, they can tend to be the smaller of the cabins offered. They are also PITCH BLACK when the lights are out. There is no natural light, so you really can't even see your hand in front of your face. RCCL has an interesting option which is an inside Promonade Cabin. It overlooks the Promonade deck with gives the illusion of being somewhat outside and you get a window so it at least lets some light in.

Personally, I am claustrophobic so I can't ever get an inside.

We always book interior cabins. Since we are always awake as soon as the sun rises, we find the absolute dark allows us to rest later - blissfully unaware of the time. The TV always has a bridgecam so we can see the weather or pier, if we choose. If you want to spend alot of time in your room - you'd probably prefer a balcony suite, but if you are like us and just use it to rest & freshen up ... you'll be comfortable. Room service - not appealing; but total darkness anytime in order to sleep - great!

We've always had an oceanview room but have booked interior rooms for our kids. I found that you can get more of a sensation of the boat movement in an inside cabin. In order to avoid this (if you are at all sensitive to motion sickness), I would try and choose a cabin more in the center of the ship and on a mid-level deck.

If that's not possible, I would take the stern (back) over the bow (front) and I would take a higher deck rather than a lower one. Be aware that Royal Caribbean decks start with Deck 2 at the water level and go up; other cruise lines start with the lower numbers at the top, so make sure you are where you want to be on your particular ship.

Some long time cruisers I know will no longer 'waste' their $$$ on a balcony or deck (feeling that they are only in the rooms to sleep anyway) while others keep upgrading with each cruise.

On Royal Caribbean, the interior rooms are the same size as the oceanview rooms.

(ps- are you SURE you want to cruise with someone who 'doesn't want to see water'? )

Thats what I was going to say. I had an interior cabin once. Never again. I could not get up in the morning. The alarm would go off and it was hard to get up. 10xs worse then trying to get up in the winter (I'm in work by 7am, I'm up at least an hour before the sun in the winter.) It was fine for at sea days, but trying to get up for port days was difficult.
And I had so many bruises from trying to find the bathroom in the middle of the night. My legs looked terrible.

Your preferences are like mine (see the sky/water, maintain contact with diurnal clues). But if you're sucking it up to try to give the wussy first-timer a comfortable introduction, maybe a compromise could help:

I have a little LED flashlight that clips to the sheets or pillow in case the route to the bathroom has uneven steps or other hazards. Since here will be two of you, a low-level nightlight might be an even better improvement over total darkness.

If the cruise is this year it's too late to worry about it, but the QE2 bridge staff used to use the bowcam to play an April Fool's joke on the pax. By April 1 QE2's route was usually in sunny flat-calm Mediterranean waters, so instead of the real-time feed, they'd substitute a tape of a rough transatlantic winter crossing with heaving 20m waves, pounding squalls, etc. They'd get calls from pax saying it was smooth in their cabins, why did the weather look so horrible way up front?

^ He heh. I came back from my first cruise a little while ago and thought it would be hilarious if they did something like that.

I was also in an inside cabin and did not mind it a bit. It was a lot cheaper, and I loved the fact that it was pitch black inside, made sleeping easy. Although as someone else mentioned, port days it was annoying getting up, but since prior to the trip I wasn't getting nearly enough sleep, it was alright.

We love having a balcony and leaving the curtains open and, if weather permits, even the door, so we can lie in bed and watch the ship come into port. I could, however, certainly see a sensible argument for getting an interior cabin if you wanted to save some money.

OBTW, mamamrt, welcome to FlyerTalk, and you too, jashsa. I hope you enjoy you time here. I have been on FlyerTalk for almost ten years now (that sounds like such a long time) and have enjoyed it tremendously and learned more than I could ever have imagined. It is a wonderful place. ^

I just noticed that jashsa has actually been here for almost four years. I guess I am such a blabbermouth that it didn't occur to me that someone could actually have the restraint to just hang out and read and not post every day. I work at keeping my posts under three per day.

Is it too late to welcome YCTTSFM? I hope not. Welcome to FlyerTalk YCTTSFM. Enjoy!

Thanks for your input everyone.....and thanks for the "welcome" Punki.