Have you ever cruised in a staff cabin?

One of the questions I get asked a lot about cruising is 'where do the crew sleep at night?'
On one memorable occasion I remember one person asked me if the crew went home at night!
The easy answer is that staff and crew cabins tend to be below the water line at the bottom of the ship; well out of the way of the guests.
The staff quarters tend to be a lot smaller and more crammed in than guests cabins but can be quite nice still.
A lot of guests sometimes show an interest in crew cabins and want to see them but they're normally told that the cruise line won't allow this.
However after a phone call to a cruise line this morning I've found out not only can you view some crew cabins you could book a cruise in one if you wanted!


I was talking to an old passenger of mine this morning, (he's booked several cruises with me, I'm not actually calling him old), who was looking for a cruise on the MSC Melody. I had to ring MSC about something completely unrelated to this and it was whilst I was talking to them that I noticed something on the deck plans that I hadn't seen before. The cabins were listed in this order.......

Grade 1 - Inside
Grade 2 - Inside
Grade 3 - Outside, (bunk beds)
Grade 4 - Outside, (two lower beds)
Grade 5 - Inside
Grade 6 - Inside
Grade 7 - Inside
Grade 8 - Outside

I couldn't figure out from looking at it why there would be two outside grades rated on a lower grade to other inside cabins so whilst I was chatting to the nice lady from MSC I asked her about it.
It turns out that on the Melody some of the crew quarters are above decks with an outside view. When some of these cabins are empty for any reason, MSC put them up for sale at a discounted rate. However because the cabins are smaller than normal and some of them have bunk beds they are rated 'worse' than other inside cabins - Strange but true!
So if you're looking for a bit of a bargain or have always wanted to see what a crew cabin looks like you might want to look at grades 3 and 4 on the MSC Melody, you heard it here first!

Happy cruising

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