The term ‘ship-within-a-ship’ referred to an exclusive, luxury area of ships like The Haven from Norwegian Cruise Line or MSC Cruises Yacht Club. Royal Caribbean has a bit of a focus on Royal Suite Class which indeed gathers like-accommodated passengers on a deck that has a rather luxurious aura about it any way you want to slice it. Holland America Line Suites just redid their array of top-end accommodations, Seabourn added some to existing ships and offer more on new ones. Azamara Club Cruises added 33% more choices with a third ship. Those cruise lines and others have focused on catching their share of a rather smaller pool of luxury and experience-focused buyers.  Price? Not a difficult box to check. Planning in the world of family cruising,  we eventually end up in a rather predictable place: same space for all, just more beds sometimes. Carnival Cruise Line casts a much broader net while bringing in a group of traveler into the fold that we covet here quite highly: First-timers.

We’ll come back to the needs of first-timers and why we care about that shortly.  First, accommodations those first-timers might choose from and a good information for those who have sailed before but on any ship other than Carnival Horizon.

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Spacious 185 square feet staterooms have been a Carnival Cruise Line standard for decades. Nothing new there. Inside, Oceanview or Balcony, this is the starting place for all staterooms sharing an array of amenities including:

• 24-hour stateroom service including a menu of service options presented on day one.
• Bedding from the Carnival Comfort Collection with Non-Allergenic alternative bedding an option.
• An empty Mini fridge that is really cold
• A Hairdryer
• Telephone with the ability to call between staterooms or from ship to land.
• Television with a variety of news, sports, and films plus multiple channels of shipboard and location-oriented content.  Viewing images of us captured by ship photographers, also possible as is reviewing onboard spending account balances.  Yes, bring your HDMI cable to create a giant computer monitor in your stateroom. That plug was accessible in my stateroom.  Fun for looking at your photos after a day touring or sneaking in a look at some gigantic online spreadsheet to answer the question of your work team friend who needs an answer from shore.
• Personal safe box– takes a four-digit code you make up.
• Individual climate control and my oh my how responsive it is.
• 110 AC power outlet- there were two in my stateroom along with a Euro-style plug so bring an adapter.  Not advertised: a minimum of two USB charging ports, one a super speed style.

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Why take the time to offer this much detail on staterooms that everyone will enjoy?  Because they need to be a good fit for the potential traveler.  A little story tells the tale of where I come from on this:

I will never forget a phone call I received as a travel agent decades ago.  I had booked four ladies for a ‘girls cruise’ in a standard 185 sq ft Carnival interior cabin rated to accommodate four guests. Their first cruise, I had suggested two spaces with two of the ladies in each to get twice the storage. This was at a time when it was OK to think ‘ladies will have more clothing’ and need double the per person bathroom time getting ready for dinner. Those clients had other ideas though. Focusing only on the reduced lead rate advertised by the cruise line, they booked all four in a cabin rated for that many people.

Imagine my surprise when I received a really angry phone call from those ladies as soon as they arrived at their cabin, screaming “Why in the world would you book us in this tiny space?”

Apparently, the ladies who I had not met in person were rather large in size…to the point that not one of them would fit in the small bunk bed sized upper berths.  Demanding that I move them on the day of embarkation on a sold out ship, I had no choice but to give the answer travel agents avoid like a deadly illness: “No”.That was not going to happen and two of them ended up sleeping on the less luxurious Carnival comfort floor.

I did not want that to happen ever again…but about the only choice available in avoiding that situation was to casually mention what the accommodations would offer and hope those clients would make the connection.  A few years later the same topic came up in a similar situation so the qualifying question became more direct when booking triples or quads: “Pardon me for asking this question but your answer is important since I can not see any of you: “Will those who might use the upper berths fit  in a telephone booth?” That worked.  I’m not sure what I would ask someone in the same situation today.  Phone booths are not on every street corner now as they seemed to be then.   My how nice it would have been to have accommodations to offer that bring more choice.  Now, there is.

Why Ship Within A Ship Is Good For Families

Triples and quads go fast during peak family travel season.  A good rule of thumb when looking for a cruise line that cares about this as much as you do: lots of choices.  No two families are alike so the few cookie-cutter configurations offered have lacked variety. Simply put, there are a limited number of birthing options for triples and quads.  Cruise lines want them all to be double.  Buyers are commonly put in the position of asking cruise lines to do something they really don’t want to do: dilute the per person per day price by adding discounted additional guests. That messes up the cruise line business model apple cart a bit.  Not a lot, there will always be a certain number of staterooms rated and birthed with two, three or four beds.

Or will there ?

Let’s digress for a moment and move on to a different land where only doubles exist.  No, that’s not a dream…well, maybe…but triples and quads are not offered on new and trending Viking Ocean Cruises. All balconies, all doubles. Oh, and the original Viking order of three ships is going to be sixteen now so how many more dump trucks of clues do we need that these people have an idea of what to do in the ocean?  Watch the percentage of triple/quad cabins on new ships coming out next year.  It might be a lower number.

Stepping back into the world most of the cruising public lives in, for that land to be the prettiest place ever, only doubles would sail.  But this is the great big wonderful world of new accommodations for specific groups of traveler, documented by the offerings of Carnival Horizon. They are not the same as Carnival Vista, as far ahead of other cruise lines on making ship within a ship an affordable choice as that particular vessel may be.

The Cuban-themed Havana Club area has its own bar that is also open to the public.  An Aft pool and lovely isolated whirlpool and other features are Havana-guest only until 7PM when they open to everyone else.  Think Serenity Adults Only feel with more stuff. Of particular note and not advertised: an elevated level of service in Havana Club.  On our fully sold out sailing, that place was never as busy as the main pool area.  Proving popular on older sister Carnival Vista, 18 more of these Cuban-themed staterooms were elevated to Havana status on Carnival Horizon.

Havana Club stateroom features include:

• The exclusive location: near the Havana Bar & Pool. That’s a members-only spot by day and a fun-for-all hotspot when the sun goes down.
• Havana staterooms feature a unique décor, 
• Havana Cabana staterooms (photo above) offer an extra-large outdoor chill space that features a lounge-ready hammock chair.
• Havana Cabana suites offer more space, plus a luxurious rain shower.
• Not intended for families: All Havana stateroom guests must be 12 or older.

Cloud Nine Spa Suites get premium Elemis bath products along with light and healthy design elements make the spacious accommodations seem larger to me.  They are not.  Now stop right there for a moment.  Across the board, the price of themed areas is about 10% more than the exact same space in non-themed areas.  Actually, let’s focus on price briefly and how themed areas stack up to the rest of the ship.

On a 2019 sailing of Carnival Horizon chosen randomly, a standard balcony stateroom (category 8C) like I had on our sailing is priced at $2072 total for two.  Move that exact space to the Cloud 9 Spa area of the ship and that price goes up to $2322 total for two, about 10% more.  Use that rule of thumb when comparing potential accommodations, that percentage difference applies to other themed areas as well.  Not that much more. perhaps a bargain if the area theme seems to be calling you.  Like for Spa lovers. Cloud 9 Spa staterooms bring:

• Exclusive entry access to the adjacent Cloud 9 Spa facilities,
• Upgraded in-stateroom amenities mentioned above, the Elemis products are the same as for all passengers on a Holland America Line ship. I don’t know why I thought to mention that other than the fact that someone asked me that exact question while I was on Carnival Horizon.
• Located in a low foot traffic area of the ship.  There is really no reason for other passengers to pass through your area on the way to somewhere other than the spa.
• Cloud 9 Spa Package exclusive to guests booked in Spa Accommodations.

Good to know: Only 1st and 2nd guests booked in Spa staterooms will receive the access and amenities; 3rd and 4th guests are not entitled to spa access and amenities.

So, back to first timers and why we care about them.

That first cruise is the first chance and perhaps best chance many of those would-be cruise travelers will have to expand their worldview in a cost and time-efficient manner. That first cruise opens a door that may lead to a realistic, personal idea of what the world is all about and that would be our payday here.