I recently took my teen on a Star Clippers cruise in the Caribbean. As a single mom of two boys, I am always interested in cruise options that work for our family. As my boys get older, having to share a room is less important, but when they were much younger, two rooms were not an option. This family cabin also works well for parents who have one child.
We are sailing on Star Clipper (one of three ships in the Star Clippers fleet), so my experience relates to this ship specifically. Star Flyer is an identical ship, but the Royal Clipper could have different three-person cabin options available!
Star Clipper Cabin for Families of Three
I spent Spring Break aboard the Star Clipper in the Caribbean with my 14-year-old and although there were two of us on this sailing, we had a room for three people that would have also fit my 12-year-old, no problem! 12 cabins on the Star Clipper sleep 3, and they are either on the Clipper Deck or the Commodore Deck.
We were in Room 108, which was on the Commodore Deck (the bottom deck, just one floor below the dining room). The bottom deck just has rooms, while the floor above (the Clipper deck) has rooms and the dining room. The next level up is the main deck of the ship with the tropical bar, where you get on and off the ship, and then the 4th deck with rooms is the sun deck, where the pool and pool chairs are, and there are just 2 cabins on that level. You can see in the photo above the two doors with port holes on them are the cabins on the sun deck level.
The ship itself is less than 200ft long, so it is not far to walk anywhere. Room location only matters if you have issues with stairs. I will say one thing about noise, though. The rooms at the very back of the ship do get some engine noise, so if you are sensitive to that, do not pick those cabins.
The most important consideration in a three-person room is the layout of the bunk. In 108, the bunk folded down the length of the beds, so it only covered one single bed. In other three-person rooms, the bunk folds down over the heads of the lower beds.
Star Clipper Cabins Overview
Star Clipper has four decks of cabins, with most of them being on the lower couple of decks. The ship’s capacity is 170 passengers and just 85 cabins, so there are options, but not too many options. There are several room categories, all of which have slightly different pricing. The lower category numbers have higher prices than the higher category numbers.
Which Cabins Can sleep Three People?
While there are different categories of cabins, only categories 2, 3 and 4 accomodate three people. Further to that, I would not really suggest the bunk for an adult, although my 14-year-old is 6 feet tall, so it’s not about fitting in the bed; it is more about the comfort of an adult climbing up and down a bunk and three adults sharing one bathroom. If that’s not an issue and you have three adults, then go for it! It is a full-size single bed.
Different 3-person cabin layouts
In the two photos above, you get an idea of what I mean about the third bed configuration. The pros of having the third bunk over the heads of the bottom beds are that you can see the porthole from your bed. In our room, you can see Mattias lying in one of the singles, and the bed completely pulls down over that single. The port hole is over in the corner, and as a lover of natural light, I found this a bit annoying. But as you will hear throughout my time on the ship, we did not spend time relaxing in our room to worry too much about that, when I could get sunshine and natural light on deck!
Below you can see the photo of our cabin with the bed pulled down. You can see Mattias (6 feet tall) can fit under the bunk to lie down, and you can see he has enough room up on the top bunk to sit and move around. He said he felt like the top bunk had more room than being under the bunk.
Star Clipper Family Cabin Amenities
The ship was built in 1992, and it very much still looks like a 90s ship. There is a TV with a DVD player, and you can get DVD’s from the pursers’ office. There is just one outlet in the room (well, technically two – one North American plug and one European). This is why I suggest a travel extension cord in my packing list.
The rooms have air conditioning, and we found the rooms comfortable all the time despite the Caribbean heat. The bathroom was quite small, but I have yet to be on a ship with a large one.
There is a hair dryer in the bathroom that may or may not work (it’s on the wall), but there is a modern one on the shelf outside the bathroom, so don’t worry about using the old one. There is a safe and a closet to hang and put clothes in, with nice, full-length mirrors (something missing from many modern rooms is these nice, long mirrors). There is storage under the beds for suitcases.
I will say that for three people, the closet space could get a little tight for hanging things up, but there are ample shelves for storage.
The beds are comfortable, typical twins that can be separated or together, and single duvets (perfect for those blanket hogs). There are mini shampoos and conditioners in the bathroom, so unless you are picky about what you use, you are pretty set with amenities.
I was able to see a few rooms that were not occupied on our trip, and I really liked the layout of Cabin 119 (the Star Flyer room 119 would be the same as the Star Clipper and Star Flyer are identical). This cabin is for 2 people but if I was traveling with just one kid I would like this one!
Some of our favorite things about Star Clippers are the old-world sailing charm and the crew. They were friendly, and being such a small ship, you really got to know them over the time spent on board. If you had any issues, they could easily be attended to (like locking yourself out of your room). The room attendant was never far away!
A few cons of the Star Clipper would be the tight rooms. I mean, they were fine for our needs, but I would not call them roomy. Because it is a sailing ship (versus what I would call a floating hotel), there are no modern balconies or large windows in the rooms. Each room is a little different, so choosing one that best suits your needs is going to really make the room more enjoyable (for the time you spend in it).
Our room, for example, had lots of floor space for shoes and our day bags etc, but if we had separated the beds into two singles, we would have taken up most of that floor space with the bed. The one other thing about the room that I did not like was that there were not enough hooks to hang things on. A row of hooks on the wall instead of a single one would have been great. Between beach bags, towels, toiletries, and clothes, we would have made use of more hooks!
Because the Star Clippers typically follow the sun, I don’t see much need to spend time in your room. There was always shade or sun up on the sun deck, as well as indoor lounge areas to spend time. Nowhere is ever busy, so there is not much need to retreat to your room for some quiet time.
Tips for booking Star Clipper Cabins for Three
Since there are only 12 cabins for three, booking early means you are more likely to secure the cabin you want. If you have any mobility issues, the cabins on the Clipper deck will mean you are going up and down one less flight of stairs than the Commodore Deck.
We really liked 108 and would suggest it if it is available. There was ample floor space (with the two beds configured as a double) to be able to put down our beach bags and shoes etc.
Lindsay Nieminen hails from Vancouver, Canada and shares her love of travel on this website. She is passionate about showing others that they should not put off traveling the world just because they have children or are single parents. She aims to encourage them to seek out adventure, whether it is at home or abroad by providing information on how just about everywhere can be a destination to explore as a family.