My family of 5 booked an interior cabin and an ocean-view room on a Carnival cruise. Here's how they compared.

My husband and I stayed in a windowless interior cabin that had a king-size bed.

The king was actually just two twin beds pushed together.

We each had a bedside table with a reading lamp.

If one of us wanted to stay up a little later, we turned off the main lights and turned on the lamp.

My three children shared an ocean-view stateroom across the hall.

Connecting rooms weren't available, so my kids — 14, 11, and 8 at the time — stayed in their own room.

The kids' room had two twin beds and a sofa that converted into a third bed.

There was more than enough space for the three of them.

The kids' picture window offered lovely natural light.

Our room had no windows. In the future, I'd also reserve an ocean-view room for the adults.

An ocean-view room typically costs a few hundred dollars more than an interior one, though it depends on the ship and time of year.

The bathrooms in both cabins looked identical.

The bathrooms had a lot of storage shelves for our toiletries.

Cruise employees cleaned the bathrooms and replenished our towel supplies every day.

We enjoyed a clean bathroom and fresh towels every day on the Carnival Legend.

The showers had shampoo and shower-gel dispensers.

There was also a retractable clothesline in our bathroom for drying wet swimsuits.

Even with three kids sharing one small bathroom, the floor stayed dry thanks to the shower's well-designed drainage system.

I was glad to see that water wasn't covering their bathroom floor.

Both rooms' layouts made excellent use of the 185-square-foot space.

We could easily store a week's worth of items thanks to all the drawers, shelves, and hangers.

Two closets had hanging rods for dresses and coats, with enough room to tuck away our suitcases in the bottom.

My husband and I had no issues neatly stowing our suitcases and clothes.

Like many cruise cabins, our room had one outlet next to the desk.

This was slightly annoying because my husband and I had to take turns charging our devices.

The crew confiscated one of our power strips.

I packed two power strips to avoid having to take turns using the outlet, but only one made it on board. Unfortunately, the crew confiscated the other one.

Carnival's website says power strips without surge protectors are allowed, but ones that the crew deems hazardous will be removed and returned to the owner on the last day of the cruise before disembarkation.

However, the kids had no issues bringing their power strip into their cabin.

The TV screen was so small that my eyes felt strained by the end of the trip.

The too-small TV screen is no big deal if you're not a movie watcher. However, our family likes to wind down by watching shows, and by the end of the week, the tiny screen was straining my eyes.

Inside a table was a minifridge big enough to hold two bottles of wine and a few snacks.

The one downside was that our fridge didn't get quite cold enough to chill drinks.

Our rooms had thermostats, but I don't think they worked well.

The rooms had thermostats with moving dials, but turning them didn't seem to affect the temperature of our spaces.

Our cabin seemed a bit too cold, and the kids' space seemed slightly too warm.

On future family trips, I'm going to stick to booking two separate rooms.

Our cabins were small but offered a lot of storage that made them feel more spacious.

Next time we cruise or go on a vacation, I'll consider booking separate rooms for adults and kids so everyone has their own private retreat.

This story was originally published on December 25, 2022, and most recently updated on March 5, 2026.