Woman booked the cheapest room on a Carnival cruise for her and her husband. Then she finds out why the room was so cheap: ‘Off to a rough start’

A TikTok user named Justine, who posts as @thatflippingagent, said she booked the cheapest cruise she could find for herself and her husband and did not read the fine print. In the video that has gained 848,200 views, she said she learned at check-in that the cabin assigned to them had one twin bed. On-screen text in that clip read, “$187 cruise is off to a rough start.”

Justine said in the first video that she was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car and heading to the port. She pointed to a photo of a narrow cabin with a single twin bed, a small desk, and patterned carpet. “I booked the cheapest cruise that I could find and I did not read the fine print. And when I went to check in, this is the room for me and my husband. There’s one twin bed,” she said.

She added that they were about to get on the boat and that a room reveal would come soon. The caption on that post read, “I really need to start reading the fine print before booking room reveal coming soon.”

Justine posts Carnival Firenze cabin tours after boarding

In a second TikTok video, Justine said they were sailing on Carnival Firenze and that the booking came to $193 per person. The caption described the clip as a cheap Carnival cruise room reveal and asked what they got for that price. She said, “Booked the cheapest cruise I could find. So here’s the room tour.” Carnival cruises can involve unexpected encounters, as one woman allegedly caught another passenger scraping flakes off her foot with a fork.

She showed a lower bed and an upper bunk and said she did not realize that setup when she booked. “Our twin beds, bunk beds. Did not realize that when I booked it, but space-wise, for $193 for 4 nights, I feel like you can’t really complain,” she said. On-screen text noted “$193 per person for 4 nights (Food included).”

Justine then showed the bathroom, which she said had yellow and brown checkered floor tiles and yellow wall tiles. “Here’s the bathroom. Smells a little funky, not going to lie about that. It looks like it’s 20 years old, but I think this boat’s only 2 years old,” she said. She added that the space still looked pretty spacious and that it included a shower.

“That’s what $190 gets you on Carnival Cruises,” she said. Another overlay asked, “Is this room worth $48 a night?” She also used on-screen text that read “I did not read the fine print” and “Overall pleasantly surprised.”

A third video on TikTok, posted as a reply, repeated the room tour and listed a total price of $386 for her and her husband for four nights, including the room and food. The caption asked, “Worth it?” Justine opened a wooden cabin door and said, “We booked the cheapest cruise that we could find. So this is the room reveal.”

The video shows her husband lying on the bottom bunk looking at his phone. The room, as shown in the clip, had patterned carpet, a desk with a TV, and a ladder to an empty top bunk. “And I’m not going to lie, this room is much better than I expected. It’s spacious and it’s clean,” she said.

She again said she was not expecting the bunk beds and called that her fault. “I wasn’t expecting the bunk beds, but that was my fault. I did not read the fine print,” she said. On-screen text read, “I didn’t realize the bed situation,” and “$48 a night per person (food included).”

Justine closed by asking viewers what they thought. “I don’t know. What do you think? Do you think that this room is worth $48 a night per person?” she said. Overlay text asked “Worth it?” and displayed a comment reply that read, “Let me know, when the room is reviewed.” The question of value on budget cruises is a common one, as seen when a woman pays $20 a day for an all-inclusive Carnival cruise only to be cornered by an older passenger with a $1,000 min offer.

Viewers focused on the bed layout after the first video. One commenter questioned the name of the mattress, writing, “Why do they call it a twin bed if it can only fit one person.” Another suggested a schedule, writing, “Just sleep in shifts.”

A third commenter pointed to the floor space, writing, “the floor looks big enough for him.” Another joked about the bed type, writing, “That’s not a twin it’s fraternal.” One viewer described a common cruise setup, writing, “It’s called an upper and lower room. Twin bed and another in the ceiling that makes like a bunk bed type situation.”