I never had much of a problem getting the machine I wanted. You can see the bridge from the workout room. I enjoyed using the eliptical trainers while the ship was docking - - very interesting to see it from there.
My only complaint re the workout room was that the weight machines are spaced too close together. Once, there was a woman who was using a mat to stretch out, and I had to wait for her to finish before I could use one of the machines.