When Jenna DeLaurentis booked the cheapest interior guarantee cabin on Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas, she expected a dark, windowless room. What she got instead was one of the rarest staterooms on the ship — a Surfside Family View Interior cabin, a category so scarce that only 20 of the vessel's 2,805 cabins qualify.
The room, cabin #8339 on Deck 8, features a porthole window overlooking the ship's family-friendly Surfside neighborhood, including The Lemon Post bar and Splashaway Bay, plus a sliver of ocean view. Despite the window, Royal Caribbean still classifies it as an interior stateroom. On embarkation day, DeLaurentis found it bright, spacious, and well-appointed — comparable in square footage to a standard balcony cabin — with ample power outlets and a generously sized shower.
Her biggest concern going in was noise. A previous stay in a Boardwalk Balcony cabin on Allure of the Seas had been marred by constant sound bleed from the carousel and AquaTheater below. The Surfside cabin, positioned directly above Splashaway Bay, proved much quieter than anticipated. The porthole window and cabin walls dampened daytime crowd noise effectively. The one consistent exception was the nightly Family Fun Hour from 7 to 8 p.m., when music carried noticeably into the room — though things quieted down considerably after that hour, a contrast to neighborhood cabins overlooking Central Park, where a jazz bar keeps things lively well into the evening.
Privacy, another common complaint about neighborhood-facing cabins, was less of an issue than expected. The porthole's smaller surface area meant less exposure than a floor-to-ceiling balcony door, and closing the blinds was simple enough when needed. DeLaurentis noted it also offered a surprisingly enjoyable people-watching vantage point.
The main takeaway: she'd book this cabin type again, but only if the price is right. Expect to pay at least $300 to $400 more than a standard windowless interior. This review originally appeared on Royal Caribbean Blog.
