Just sailed the Fantasy on November 26 - Eastern route to Tortola/St.Thomas - in cabin 9674. Our first time in an aft cabin. We had 2 sea days to start, running 20knots to get south to Tortola. At those speeds the cabin vibrated a lot. Same story on the third sea day when we motored back up to Castaway.
Our homemade solutions: 1) Deconstructed the towel mouse that was on our bed the first night and used a couple of those wrapped around the swing arm of the TV and pushed the TV back against them. If the TV was extended it vibrated a lot, but the towel trick worked well. 2) Put clothes on all the hangers = no more banging hangers. 3) Moved the darn snorkel masks off the darn metal rail of the darn shelf in the middle of the darn night after wondering what the darn sound was that i couldn't find and then discovered it was my own darn fault. 4) Solved a mysterious squeaking sound by taking four or five tissues, stacking them flat, and then closing the cabin door with them pinned just above the lock. Just enough to stop the metal rubbing.
- Does that Cabin rattle a lot at speed right now? Yes
- Will some people be fine with it and will it drive others crazy? Yes
- Was it slightly less expensive than a cabin on the side of the ship? Yes
- Was the gigantic balcony amazing, like having a second room added on to the cabin? Yes
- Are we ruined for going back to normal balconies without loungers? Probably.
- Did I count the number of floorboards and then lean around the walls to see if our balcony was wider than the ones on either side of us? Yes, and yes it is. About 2.5 feet wider.
- Would we, personally, put up with the trade offs and book that room again? Absolutely. But that's us, we've experienced it, and while we don't love the vibration, we LOVED the balcony space. It was very much like having our own private sun deck. We watched SpaceX launch a rocket from there and then we skipped the top deck sail away party for the first time and did our own from our private piece of paradise!
