A Look Inside Interior Cabin B-625 on the Star Princess Cruise Ship

by Janis on October 30, 2014

I just returned from a 7-day cruise on Princess Cruises Star Princess cruise ship that sailed to Mexico and the California Coast round-trip from San Francisco’s new Pier 27 Cruise Terminal.

I booked an inside guarantee stateroom about a week before departure. I was assigned interior stateroom B-625, located on Deck 11 which is called the Baja Deck.

As Mr. Jones was traveling for work in London, I cruised solo. I found it a little uncomfortable that they put your name on the door plate, although I guess I could have removed it.

Here’s the first view inside when you open the door and enter interior stateroom B-625. The back wall is covered with mirrors, as is the wall over the desk. There is no sofa or sitting area. The cabin measures 160 square feet in total size.

I found the bed to be unbelievably hard. Didn’t every major hotel chain and cruise ship upgrade their beds back in about 2005? Not in this room. My table mates at dinner had the same issue — they complained and got egg-crate toppers added to their beds.

Here’s the view of the room from the other direction (I couldn’t avoid being reflected in the photo.) The chair at the desk is the only seating in the room.

Note the wall-mounted hair dryer over the desk. Yuck! For one person, this room was quite adequate. There was a refrigerator in a cabinet below the television.

Beside the phone are two plug-ins — the only ones in the cabin. The plugs are too close together to accomodate larger iPhone/iPad plugs and/or computer plugs. I brought our travel-size power strip with 3 outlets – it fit into one outlet and allowed me to power my computer and charge my phone at the same time.

The open-style closet was just off to the right as you entered the cabin. This area was quite spacious, and also led to the bathroom.

If Mr. Jones were along, we would have had to ask for more hangers. I was traveling fairly “lite” and used all of the hangers.

Here is the panoramic view of the small bathroom. I found it fairly similar to most cruise ship bathrooms for interior or ocean-view staterooms.

The sink had a good-size shelf underneath for storage. There were also several shelves above the sink cabinet for storing toiletries. As you can see in the photo above, there is a power plug in the bathroom, but is wouldn’t handle a blow dryer or flat iron.

A really picky comment – but couldn’t the towels be hung on the racks with more precision?

A closer look at the toilet and towel bar. These photos were shot right after I entered the room.

The shower was tiny, but similar to most cruise ships.

Here’s a close-up view of the shower gel and shampoo/conditioner. No separate conditioner was provided.

My stateroom, B-625, is considered a category IB interior cabin, the second highest interior cabin category.

As a last-minute booking, I did not choose this cabin. While it is in a fairly good location — just aft of mid-ship on Deck 11 — I would not recommend the cabin as every night about 3:15 am I was wakened by loud thuds on the ceiling of my stateroom. (Generally, I’m a sound sleeper at sea, but this sounded like someone repeatedly dropping a bowling ball above me.

I did not complain, but one day I did visit deck 12 to see what was above me (I had thought it was cabins.) It turned out to be an area marked “crew only.” I asked a staffer what was in this area and she said it was part of the two-deck kitchen for the Horizon Court buffet restaurant on deck 14. (There is no deck 13 on the Star Princess.) I imagined the noise as some middle-of-the-night baker dropping giant bags of flour.

My bottom line on the interior staterooms on the Star Princess:

At 160 sq. ft., the interior staterooms are quite small compared to other ships. The mirrors help the room feel spacious, and the open closet near the bathroom makes for a good use of space.
Interior stateroom B-625 is a Category IB stateroom, the second highest level of interior cabins.
Since I paid for a guarantee, and got upgraded, I had no complaint, but if I had paid more for this stateroom I would have asked to be moved due to loud noises from the deck above about 3:15 am each morning. (I was told the area above is part of a 2-deck kitchen for the Horizon Court buffet restaurant.
The mattress was unexpectedly hard and uncomfortable. Others on the cruise had the same issue and received “egg crate” mattress toppers on their beds.
Like many ships, the plug-ins are limited to the two on the desk. Bring a mini power strip.
The open closet is quite spacious and the in-cabin refrigerator is a nice addition.
Drawer space was very limited, but there was a nice built-in cabinet with storage shelves as part of the open closet.

Have you sailed in an interior cabin on the Star Princess or another cruise ship? If so, what did you think? Please share your thoughts in comments below.

To take a look around other cruise ships, check out these posts:

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