Ship Showers: Musing on Cruise Travel’s Weakest Link

I just took a nice relaxing shower in my home, having plenty of room to maneuver freely and reflecting on how few cruise ships have comparably-sized private cabin showers. As frequently as luxuries are touted as onboard features, showers are seldom included.

Having been traveling aboard cruise ships since before I was even two years old, I fully understand the arguments that claim cabins are expectedly smaller onboard to maximize space and are sized proportionately to the time spent therein. Thus, public venues are the roomiest, cabins are smaller, cabin bathrooms are smaller still and then presumably, showers finish off the descending trend. Of course, this usually applies to average cabins, and booking a suite overcomes most space challenges.

However, for the average passenger in a median-sized stateroom, full-sized queen and king beds are still accommodated. So, why shouldn’t cabin showers be more ample as well? To be sure, cruise lines are finally comprehending the importance of this, and most new ships are being configured with larger bathrooms accordingly. But there remain a bulk of existing fleets, and still some new ships, that feature postage stamp-sized showers that are often made worse by a cheap shower curtain that can easily blow in on you, reducing the usable space even more.

You may be thinking to yourself: well, you get what you pay for and surely these issues disappear as you ascend the luxury line ladder, and that’s definitely true. Companies like Crystal Cruises and Silversea Cruises offer some of the most spacious showers, but the inverse is not as cut and dried. In fact, Carnival Cruise Line showers are surprisingly roomy, not massive, but at least square in footprint, making it easier to turn around in. The worst I’ve actually experienced happens to be on a line I otherwise greatly admire: Azamara Club Cruises.

To be sure, its vessels are former Renaissance Cruises sister-ships as are many of Oceania Cruises’, some of Princess Cruises’ and PO Cruises’, now repurposed for the forthcoming Fathom line; and all presumably share the same problem. The showers are skinny rectangles with a shower curtain that is best kept open to avoid entanglement. At least, the bathrooms are altogether waterproofed and drain collectively when doing so.

Alternatively, the real model of ideal shipboard showers is presented by Viking Ocean Cruises and its first Viking Star. The line’s CEO, Torstein Hagen, was vocal about setting out to craft showers you could actually turn around in, and he succeeded. The value-priced premium line features truly luxurious showers across its staterooms, and its bathrooms even remove the pesky step-up found on most every other ship, favoring a bathroom floor that is delightfully flush with the rest of the cabin. The industry should take note.

Otherwise, mainstream lines like Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International are now thankfully launching ships with roomier showers enclosed by plexiglass that stays firmly put, not sneaking up on you with an unpleasant draft as you bathe. While premium lines like Celebrity Cruises also follow suit, competitor Princess Cruises inexplicably continues to favor smaller showers with curtains on its newest ships. Surely, new features like the Princess Luxury Bed are great software additions across the fleet, but the hardware should improve with it.

My recommendation for all other shower critics: stick to most of the new ships, luxury liners or the Viking Star and its future sisters to follow. As for the other fleets, ditching the flimsy curtains in favor of rigid sliding or hinged doors would help, as would expanding the shower walls out a bit into the rest of the cabin. The shower basin could even remain as is as the outer walls funnel upwards providing at least some more room for stretching your upper body. Of course, it would certainly cost quite a bit of money to make such enhancements, but I can dream at least, can’t I?

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