I slept last night with the sound of the waves in my ears. I had the curtains pulled mostly back and the door open so fresh air tickled my nose. Even the sound of my neighbors could no spoil my good mood.

But let me explain. Most of you know that when traveling by myself I am normally pretty cheap having discovered that the inside cheap rooms arrive at exactly the same time as those fancy ones. And, given that the price of traveling solo is 200% (you pay for both beds in the cabin even if you are only one skinny older woman), booking an inside cabin means more cruises.

Never let it be said that wanting the best cabin kept me on shore.

So anyway, back to my tale. I had booked what is known as an inside guarantee. For the price of the cheapest inside cabin, the cruise line promises you a cabin in that class, but doesn’t assign the room number till usually 2-3 weeks before the cruise. That way they can get the maximum number of expensive cabins sold and leave the rest of us with what is left. The worst that can happen on this class of ship is that there are insides on Deck 2 below Studio B (the ice rink). Since there are not many late night parties on short cruises I wasn’t all that worried. When my deck assignment came back on Deck 6, I was a happy camper. I was on the main corridor and beyond the promenade section.

When I checked in yesterday at the pier (free shuttle between ships, about an hour’s wait standing around and the front of the line to check in….) I was informed that my cabin had been changed. Ok, I can deal with that. Deck 8 the woman said. Ok, even better.

Wait – this is an even number! Yes she said and continued to check me in. Odd numbers are on the inside of the ship (hence 6365 was an inside cabin just by the number) and this cabin was 8302. That meant it was on the outside of the ship. Porthole? Light for the next five days?

No – the only outside cabins are on Decks 2&3. (Aside here, the fact that I know all these details about this particular class of ship being that the Liberty and the Independence of the Seas are essentially the same ship except for the color of the Morgan, a few venue names and the presence of a cupcake store means that I have spent entirely too much time on RCI’s Freedom class ships).

An even numbered cabin on Deck 8 meant that I was now the proud occupant of a cabin with a balcony. [pictures when I have better bandwidth] The balcony is not large but there is a lovely little table, two chairs big enough to sit on and a clear view of the ocean with the sky brightening behind us as we steam toward Cozumel.

looking toward the balcony

back toward the cabin door

If I didn’t need my latte, I am not sure that I would bother to leave the room for the next few days except to do a happy dance down the hall….

my treats