Holland America Rotterdam Cabin 7189
I wanted to talk a little bit about our cabin. This was going to be far and away our longest cruise (the previous longest was 12 nights, and the only 2 week cruise we had ever taken got cut short by my ankle injury). I was really stressed out about how we would manage four weeks in about 325 square feet (including the balcony). I was especially worried about storage since we’d need some warmer clothing.
As it happened, all my worrying was for nothing. Our cabin had plenty of storage, and some of the organizational things I brought didn’t even get used. When I start packing I’ll probably ditch them to create extra space and weight for souvenirs!😆
What I did use that I found extremely helpful were a set of six fabric cubes, hanging shelves, a hanging shower caddy, a five pair pants hanger (we could have used two), and lots of strong magnets. The hanging shelves were fantastic, and big enough to hold my hair dryer, flat iron, chargers, paperwork, and other odds and ends.
We moved the life jackets to the drawers under the bed and used that space for cubes with winter gear in them. We had most of the chunky wooden hangers removed and used a combination of our own felt hangers and ship’s wire hangers. I really dislike the wire hangers, but they helped free up a lot of space! By doing that, we were able to fit almost all our hanging clothes, all our shoes, a couple cubes with folding tops and workout clothes in the closets and hung our coats on magnet hooks in the corner of the room. We used the built-in hooks for our backpacks.
Voila! Just like that we’re on day 26 of 28. We haven’t killed each other, we’ve managed to keep things organized and put away, and there are more long cruises in our future!
P.S. I forgot to mention the absolute best deal at sea — the unlimited laundry package. We’ve sent laundry out pretty much every other day and it’s really helped to keep things neat and organized. The laundry comes back in about 24 hours — cleaned, pressed (if needed) and wrapped in tissue in a basket. We’re looking forward to becoming 4 Star Mariners so the laundry will be included, but for now $10/day is a bargain!!!
