In this solo episode of Luxury Cruising, Dr. Krystal Sodaitis explores the true value of cruising in a suite. She explains how extra space, private areas, personalized service, priority access, and ship-within-a-ship concepts can transform a cruise from simply a vacation into a more seamless and relaxing experience.
Is a cruise suite really worth it?
What makes a suite worth the extra cost? In this solo episode, Dr. Krystal Sodaitis looks beyond the size of the room to explore how suite cruising can change the entire cruise experience. From larger bathrooms, balconies, and living spaces to natural light and separate bedrooms, she explains why the physical space can matter even for travelers who spend most of their time outside their cabin.
Dr. Sodaitis also explores the broader benefits of suite and luxury cruising, including private lounges and restaurants, dedicated sundecks, priority boarding and debarkation, concierge and butler services, and personalized, anticipatory service. She compares suite experiences across Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, MSC Yacht Club, and luxury lines such as Regent, Silversea, Seabourn, and Oceania, while offering perspective on when the additional cost may, and may not be worthwhile.
Episode Highlights
About the Host:
Dr. Krystal Sodaitis is a pediatrician, executive, and life coach for neurodiverse physicians—and the passionate host behind Luxury Cruising. She brings expert insight and honest excitement to every interview, helping curious travelers elevate their adventures at sea.
📍 Website: luxurycruising.net
📧 Email: luxurycruisingpodcast@gmail.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/krystalsodaitis
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[00:00:00] Welcome back to Luxury Cruising. I'm your host, Chris Soditis, and today I wanna talk about something that's really been on my mind for a little bit, and that is, what is the true value of a suite? And I'm not talking about money-wise. Like, why does a suite matter? I know that there are people out there who feel like your suite, your room, your stateroom, it's just a place you sleep.
You sleep, you shower, you change. That's the only reason that's all they're looking for in their room, and so they're perfectly happy with an inside stateroom. And, you know, listeners here know, like, we are not talking about inside staterooms here. And I think, though,
that even the time that you're in the room, even if you expect to be out of the room for the majority of your cruise, I think that the room still does matter. Suites are, especially these days with- in [00:01:00] modern contemporary or premium lines, like, often they are ships within a ship, and they have specific areas, and we'll get to that in a minute.
But I just wanted to focus a little bit on the room for a minute, because suites typically have a larger square footage. They usually have some amenities, maybe an in-suite coffee maker or kettle. The bathroom is usually larger. It's more than just a place that you go and sleep. And even just getting dressed I think that, having a place to shower and get yourself, either ready in the morning or ready for bed in the evening that feels bigger than a walk-in closet is nice.
I mean, I don't know about you all, but those teeny-tiny bathrooms on a contemporary cruise ship, if you're sharing your room with someone, even after they've taken a shower, [00:02:00] you get in there, it's still hot. It's still super, you know, muggy. Or after you've taken a shower. and when you have a larger bathroom and a larger space, it just makes that experience so much better. So, you know, your room square footage is bigger. You have the ability to sit someplace comfortably. Often there's a couch, maybe there's a dining area. You aren't just, crammed into 150 square feet where you have to find a place to, you know, not just sleep, but also maybe sit, read, relax, watch TV, have a cup of coffee, have a full meal In a regular room, that just is so tight compared to a suite where you really have the ability to even walk around without being worried that you're going to hit your, you know, bang yourself on some kind of furniture.
So even [00:03:00] for people who say, "I'm only in the room to sleep and change," I still think that the room itself makes a difference. Um, moving out to the balcony. If you're in an inside stateroom, yeah, like, there's no natural sunlight. And look, I have stayed in my share of inside staterooms. I don't necessarily have any problems with them, but it's also a very different experience than having a suite.
Those balconies with the natural light, because also the balcony is bigger. Even the balcony, when you think about the space that your balcony doors take up in just a regular balcony room, it's nice. It's definitely gives you some natural light, which is great. But you multiply that in a suite.
Often they have floor-to-ceiling windows. If you're talking about a loft suite, that's just a huge amount of light that and just air. I mean, I'm just [00:04:00] thinking about it and just in terms of the ability to breathe, even if you just are in that room to sleep and change really makes a difference.
And, I talked about the bathroom, and it's not just about the square footage in the bathroom. It is nice to have two vanities. If you're somebody who likes to get ready side by side with your spouse and maybe you're talking while you're, you know, finishing your makeup or doing your hair or shaving or whatever, that is something that a lot of suites can allow you to do because they do have a double vanity.
So I really think that the room itself does make a difference. And going out of the room, because so many of our you know, newer contemporary ships do have the suite-within-a-suite concept The area outside your room, it, you know, can [00:05:00] be really different. Instead of walking out and, immediately going into the crowds, and the promenade, and the music, and the food, and all that, it almost feels like you're in a really nice, resort, or like people have talked about a luxury hotel.
And these are not small things, but these are things that really can change the way you move through the ship and the way you relax. I have to say, you are treated differently when you are a suite class guest. Whether you're in that suite area or you're out of the suite area and maybe you're wearing a particular wristband or medallion, you are treated differently.
I've talked about the towel issue on Royal [00:06:00] Caribbean. For people who don't know, if you are in a non-suite class room, when you get your towels from the pool deck you have to check them out. you give them your Sea Pass card, they, scan it and then they give you the towels.
And then when you return the towels you have to give your Sea Pass card again so that they know you've checked the towels back in. They never actually count the number of towels, which is a tale for a different day, but whatever. When you are in a suite class, whether it's C class, Sky class, or Star class, you don't have to check your towels in and out.
And the reason they do is if for other people if they don't bring it back they charge you like $25. And and they don't charge you $25 per towel. I think they just charge you $25. But when you are in a suite class you don't have to check your towels in and out. It's a tiny thing, but also when you go to the pool, especially if you're going a couple times a day, you go a couple times, during your cruise, you can check those towels out if you're going to the beach.
[00:07:00] If you're leaving the ship and going to the beach you can take towels with you. It's a small thing but it just interrupts the flow of the cruise. And so that makes a difference. It's just being in a suite is, like saying, you know, "I want this cruise to be easy.
I want this cruise to be calm. I wanna feel, really well taken care of." And I think that really, influences even your time leading up to the cruise. You can spend less time, you know, worrying about logistics. you know, where do we have to go? Do we have to go here? Do we have to make a dining reservation? You don't have to worry about lines, like, oh, we have to make sure that we get there on time because we have to get in line to make sure we get a seat, right?
And, you know, negotiating within a restaurant, within the promenade just for your own, personal space. It's just a change in the, like, [00:08:00] psychology
when I think about the service, it's anticipatory service. It's your butler who knows that you like sparkling water and that you don't want it in the refrigerator, that you prefer your sparkling water, room temperature. Or the opposite, that your butler notices that you always want to have water in the ice bucket, and so makes sure that you have, a bottle of water in your room, a full bottle of water in your room, and the ice bucket is always filled, and the water is in the ice bucket.
The genie who knows that, you know, you've got a teenager who loves to take sunset pictures, loves to take pictures of themselves with the sunset in the background, and so tries to accommodate your dining reservations so that you can be either dinner hasn't started or your dinner has completed [00:09:00] by around the time of sunset so that you can get those pictures taken care of.
it's the concierge that, as we've heard on the podcast, that gets your key card when you lost your key card, gets one reprinted for you without you having to wait in line. It's the concierge that, like me, like prints out the map back If maybe you have a phone carrier that doesn't allow you to get data internationally, and so the concierge prints a map out for you so that you can, you know, you know where to go.
This happened back in the day. Like now I have Google Maps and it's not that big a deal, but before Google Maps, when I was cruising, the concierge printed out a map for me so I knew where I needed to go within the town. it changes your rhythm of the day. It's when at cocktail hour you walk to the suite bar and the suite bartender already knows the drink that you love or is willing to engage in a [00:10:00] conversation, a deeper conversation with you.
Because I'm sure all bartenders love to talk to the customers, but when you're in a giant lounge during cocktail hour, they're not having a deep conversation with you. You're having conversation with bartenders, um, in the middle of the day when maybe you wanna be doing something else or maybe that's where you like to be.
But at a suite lounge bar, they're more willing to engage in those fun conversations with you. And if you're like me, I like talking to the staff. I like hearing about their lives and where they've gone and where are they from. It's the access that suites allow you, right?
To have really seamless boarding. Now, I think that cruise lines in general have done a great job with boarding. Yes, we do hear about sometimes where it might take, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, even an hour to, what we call the curb to ship time. But most of the time you're just walking straight through.
It's, you know, 15 minutes, 10, [00:11:00] 15, max from 20 minutes, and you're just walking through from place to place. But when you're in a suite class, that's even elevated. Maybe you have someone that's escorting you, not just pointing you from, you know, "Oh, now go here." There's somebody that's actually walking with you.
Um, a particular place to drop your luggage so that you know it's gonna go straight to your room and you don't have to worry about, you know, is it gonna get there in time for me to change for dinner? The dining rooms, um, many of the ship-within-a-ship concepts, the suite areas have a private dining room where you may or may not even have to make reservations.
You can just walk in whenever you want. You don't need someone to arrange the time around your sunset. And for people who are on larger ships who may have a butler or a concierge, or a genie, they make those reservations for you. You don't have to fight the crowds for seating in the show.
There's a specific area for [00:12:00] you to sit, or you've got your butler or genie that reserves the specific seats for you. On the sundeck, you're not fighting for a lounger with the, 6:00 AM chair hogs, right? Who come in at 6:00 AM and plop their stuff down and reserve the chair and walk away for three hours.
When you have a suite sundeck, there's always a place to sit. the pool is generally not super crowded. In fact, we've heard from people where they and their kids were the only ones in the pool. like I said, you've got your suite lounges, you've got your suite bartender.
Sometimes there's a bar on the suite deck even to have so that you're not, like, standing three people deep at the pool bar trying to get your favorite, cocktail
The spaces for a suite are designed to be calm and quiet and really comfortable So just a general overview, we've talked about the different suite classes before, but just for people who may be new, and if you are new, welcome. Be sure [00:13:00] to, you know, listen to the back catalog.
So we've got Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean has a suite class and they have different levels of suites. They have C Class, which is basically just a larger room and you can get dinner at Coastal Kitchen, which is their specialty dining room.
And you get double Crown & Anchor points. There's not much more in C Class. And then there's Sky Class, um, which gives you more and it gives you access to that dining room for three meals, and the suite lounge, and you've got a concierge and lots of other things that we've talked about before on the podcast.
And then you've got Star Class. Star Class is their highest level where you have, um, a genie. That genie can also make you, um, dining reservations. You can eat at all of the specialty restaurants. You're never limited to that specialty to Coastal Kitchen, but in Star Class all of the specialty restaurants are also included.
it's not just that you have a designated [00:14:00] area of seating, your genie actually saves your seats based on your preference. Do you like to sit in the very first row or do you like to sit more like three rows back? Obviously you've got priority everything, embarkation, debarkation, tendering, blah, blah, blah.
And you know, it's a personalized service on a large ship. And there are some ships actually that don't have the Star Class, so some of the older ships. Any ship that's before, um, Quantum Class Does not have these three classes of suites, but some of them are selling.
You can buy the Royal Genie experience. Um, so not Quantum class, I think it's after Wonder. I always forget, but I'm pretty sure either after Wonder or after, um, Odyssey of the Seas is when they really started their ship-within-a-ship concept, where you've got a really substantial suite, you know, sundeck and lounge, and they all have a suite sundeck, but they're not really connected.
Um, a [00:15:00] suite neighborhood, that's what Royal Caribbean calls it. I think it's either starting from Wonder or Odyssey that you really have, like, a suite neighborhood. The Retreat on Celebrity is really modern luxury. Again, a suite within a suite. You've got your own designated restaurant called Luminae.
You have a lounge, you have a sundeck you have butler service. Again, priority, everything within The Retreat.
And then, you know, we've got MSC Yacht Club. We've talked to a lot of people on the podcast about Yacht Club. You've got the true, the original ship within a ship. Again, a private restaurant, a private pool, butler service for real value. I feel like Yacht Club is kind of like the gateway drug to suite cruising because you can often get a Yacht Club experience at a lower price.
a reminder that for Yacht Club, you don't have to be in a big, balcony room. You can even be in an inside stateroom and [00:16:00] still be within Yacht Club. So that's really intriguing to me when it comes to Yacht Club. And talking about MSC, I think that, Explorer Journey is the sort of the gateway drug to your luxury lines.
Also often you can get for a really good value in a ship that's, 1,000 people or less, that's modern luxury, elevated service. And then you've also got the other luxury lines like Regent, Silversea, Seabourn, where if not all, most of the rooms are suites.
They come with butlers. They're all-inclusive. And I think once we get into the luxury lines, even Yacht Club and Star Class on Royal Caribbean, is we really start to get into that all-inclusive. Everything's included, all of your drinks, your Wi-Fi. Um, on the ships, the luxury lines themselves, the whole ship gives you lots of space.
As [00:17:00] opposed to your contemporary and premium lines, when you're in that suite area and when you're in your room, you have a lot of space. But when you get to a luxury line, like Silversea or Seabourn or Oceania, the whole ship is just spacious, and it gives you a lot of room to breathe.
And
You get exceptional service no matter where you're going. It doesn't matter if you've got a specific, wristband or bracelet on. People know your name. The design of the ship, as we've heard, is really around being a luxury hotel or a resort hotel rather than a mall, as some people refer to, the big contemporary ship.
So it's just a very different feel when you go to a luxury line. And,
I think for everyone it's really different. what is that turning point? Like for me, when we sailed in Star Class, [00:18:00] for me the turning point was knowing that I could call the genie and have food delivered that otherwise may have taken hours to get. Like for example, we wanted to go to, um, Playmakers, which is sort of like the sports bar, and I think there was a game.
There must've been like a game. It was really crowded. We couldn't even find a seat. And so we called our Royal genie and we're like, "Hey, can you just have Playmakers delivered to the room?" And 45 minutes later it was there. And I just absolutely loved that I could call the genie and have something delivered to the room, and it was seamless.
It could be that you're, you know, sitting on your private sundeck with the bar and, like, you and your kids are the only ones in the pool, and you look down and you look over to the main pool and it's like what people say, it's like pool soup. There's just this, like, crowded with people, and everyone's running around, [00:19:00] and no one's really even swimming because you can't because everyone's just standing around.
And so maybe that's your turning point, where you're, like, on a very quiet sundeck. And maybe it's just being in sort of, like, your room and being able to walk around. And if you're bringing kids, being able to put, like, a little Pack 'n Play and not having to having the Pack 'n Play take up all of the free space.
Maybe it's having a full separate bedroom so if someone wants to take a nap while someone else wants to watch TV it's not a big deal. So there are these little things that really transform your cruise experience, um, when you are sailing in a suite and when you're sailing in luxury.
If you don't care about these things, if are maybe intending to spend the whole day-- maybe it's a very port-intensive itinerary. You're going to the Southern Caribbean or you're going [00:20:00] to the Med, and you legitimately get up in the morning, get off the ship, spend the whole day in port, come back, maybe eat something and go to bed.
Yeah, maybe the room doesn't matter that much. I still contend it's still nice to have the space or the balcony, um, but maybe that doesn't matter. if it's a question of paying for this cruise or paying for your mortgage, like, absolutely you should not, trade your mortgage for a seven-day cruise.
Um, but if you have the means, then I think it's worth it. And, you know, it's sort of like I tell people is this gonna make a difference for me? Like, paying my mortgage, paying my bills, sending my kids to school? If it does, then I wouldn't do it. But if it doesn't, then maybe I will."
now, one thing about luxury lines, the vast majority of them are not gonna be expedition. Yes, are some of them you know, especially, like, Seabourn that is go- or Punô that's going to, the Arctic, and we've talked about, Scenic and the importance of small ships going to [00:21:00] the Arctic to be able to really experience Antarctica and the sea life.
There are those, but if you really want true, expedition cruising, then these are probably not cruise ships for you. And honestly, if you're not someone who's going to sit down in the dining room and, if you're just gonna either order some basic coffee for breakfast, or you just like to go to the buffet because you wanna be in and out in 20 minutes, then maybe, the perks, the dining perks are not for you.
And then, you know, the cost of luxury, because it does cost more the cost of luxury, uh, the value of luxury is not really there for you. So I'm not saying that luxury is the only way to cruise. You all know I most often don't cruise in luxury. But I think when you can, if it aligns with what you're looking for you should.
And so just to wrap things [00:22:00] up, you know, you could be on the same ship, you're taking the same itinerary, you're looking at the same ocean. Does it really matter if you are in a suite or not? And I think that it does because your ability to enjoy the atmosphere and the environment is just multiplied when you have the ease of the ship.
So that's just my thoughts about why being in a suite or being in a luxury line matters. Um, if you have sailed in a suite or on a luxury line and you would like to be on the podcast to talk about it I would welcome it. There is a link in the show notes to sign up. Submit a little form to sign up and be on the podcast.
Um, you can also email me at luxurycruisingpodcast@gmail.com. Tell me you wanna be on the podcast and I will send you a scheduling link.
And otherwise if you are [00:23:00] listening on Spotify or Apple Podcast, I would really appreciate a review. If you're on YouTube, drop me a comment. Tell me if you agree with me or disagree with me or if there's a particular suite that is a dream of yours, I would absolutely love to hear it.
It really helps with the visibility of the podcast. But until next time, I wish you safe and luxurious cruising.