We sailed on a 7-day cruise for $8,400. Take a look inside our 130-square-foot below-deck porthole cabin on the small ship.
Samantha Priestley
- My partner and I sailed on the Variety Cruises Unexplored Greek Islands cruise aboard the Pan Orama.
- We paid $8,400 for a category B below-deck cabin with twin beds and traveled on a half-board basis.
In June, my partner and I sailed on the seven-day Variety Cruises Unexplored Greek Islands cruise aboard the Pan Orama.
The ship is quite small at 173 feet long with 24 cabins — none have balconies and only some, like ours, have portholes. We booked a category B below-deck cabin with twin beds and traveled on a half-board basis, meaning only some meals were included in our package.
We spent about $4,200 each for the cruise and found our compact cabin to have everything we needed for our week at sea.
When I entered the cabin it was as compact as I expected it to be.
Our cabin was a cozy 130 square feet, though there are other bigger cabins available to book.
The cabin was about how I expected it to be and it had everything we could need. The porthole let a decent amount of natural light into the space.
We were nicely welcomed to our room, too.
A bottle of wine, card, and bowl of fruit were on our nightstand when we arrived.
Our room had two twin beds and we used the nightstand between and space below it for extra storage.
I felt the small space had been used well, with a TV atop the chest of drawers, and plenty of hooks on the walls for extra hanging.
Even the small space below the nightstand could fit a backpack beneath it.
The bathroom was quite tiny, but it had shelves throughout for our belongings.
We kept our toiletry bags in the shelves next to the mirror, which had small barriers so our items wouldn't fall off as the ship moved. There was also an extra shelf beneath the sink.
The corner shower made good use of the small space.
The shower was pretty standard and had toiletries mounted on the wall. Each day, fresh facecloths were brought to our room.
The room's double closet had more than enough space for the two of us.
Variety advised us to pack light, which we did. Our clothes fit in the closet really well.
In our closet, we also got umbrellas in case of inclement weather and two guest robes for use in the cabin and around the ship.
But we weren't often in our room — one of the ship's highlights was its sun deck, which was rarely full.
Although we didn't have a balcony, getting some sun wasn't hard. The sun deck at the front of the ship was usually quiet and we never had a problem grabbing a seat.
Our cabin may have been compact, but it had everything we needed.
Overall, I loved the laid-back vibe of the small Pan Orama and the extra space on the intimate ship when we felt like leaving our room.
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