any other ships besides Disney with REAL room for 4?

[mtquinn]

Researching Alaska cruises in August, trying to find prices around $800 pp with true sleeping space for two adults and two kids, ages 11 and 8.

Though I love Disney's boats, and those pull down beds, I can't afford the prices.

Any other boats with similar accommodations, priced well? Or just a pipe dream?

Thanks!

 

[MikeAndNick]

Depends on where you live. We cruised Princess Cruise out of San Francisco. It was about $950 a person for a 10 day cruise but we did not have any air flight charges because we live in California. The cruise was round trip out of San Francisco so many people from California and Nevada were booking it because we could drive to the port and save the cost of flying. Princess was a nice cruise line.

As far as room for 4, I think all cruise ships are about the same unless you have lots of money to upgrade the room.

 

[peyjax]

Well in my recent research of Alaska cruises. In short not really.

The Norwegian Sun does have rooms that accommodate up to 5 with a pull down and a pull out sofa (so 3 seperate beds) The rooms are small like 170 sq feet small.
I did see one other ship with a pull down but it had no couch just pull downs above the twin beds. It was 140 sq feet. These were all inside. On all the other lines it is just the pull out sofa with the queen. So just 2 beds.

Norwegian sun is cheap (under $600 cheap inside stateroom) depending on when you are going and also kids are half off. However you would need to get one way flights. Which makes it cost prohibitive unless you get creative. For example get a RT flight from seattle take a train ride to vancouver ($20) and then get a one way ticket from anchorage to seattle ($140). Fly home from Seattle. Add the cost on to the cruise and you are looking at about $760 for an adult and $460 per child in an inside stateroom.

 

[stsomewhere]

We have sailed on HAL. It had a couch that made into a bed like DCl and a bunk.

We are sailing on NCL Sun- ceiling bunk and sofa bed.

Carnival Truimph had 2 ceiling bunks.

 

[peyjax]

We have sailed on HAL. It had a couch that made into a bed like DCl and a bunk.

Do you remember which ship this was and if it was an ocean view or inside. TIA!

 

[mmouse37]

Since this has nothing to do with DCL planning I am moving it to the Community Board.

MJ

 

[NHdisneylover]

Just an FYI that it is frequently nearly the same price to get connecting rooms with 2 in each as it is to get one room. If there is an on board credit for each stateroom you can even come out ahead doing it that way--and then you have so much more space.
We quit sharing a room with DD16 and DS14 about 7 years ago. We will never go back!

 

[Straitlover]

I am sailing on the Carnival Victory in September (3 of us). The balcony room we have is 185 sq ft and has 2 twins (covert to a king), a sofa bed and a pulldown bunk (over the sofa bed). They will also bring in a trundle if you want, but 5 in a room is too much IMO! There are other ships w/ rooms w/ the same configuration.

Now Royal Caribbean has a few ships that have a family stateroom that sleeps up to six. If memory serves from my searching, they are like 325 sq ft or so. It's the newer ships that have them. Check out Liberty of the Seas. That's the one I was looking at sailing on, but they are in the Mediterranean in Sept, so I had to cross it off my list.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Many of the older RCI ships have a family stateroom or two after the rehabs. Splendour did last year. Those are generally very pricey rooms--two connecting balconies would be far cheaper in most cases.

 

[ariel71]

I'm going on an Alaskan cruise in July and did the bulk of my research via cruisecritic.com. I would recommend going there - it's like disboards in terms of expertise. You'll get much more detailed info on your options for cruiselines, ships, cabins, itineraries, prices, etc. There's a search function and tons of subforums - of which Alaska is one.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php

 

[CPT Tripss]

Third and fourth person in a cabin rates can sometimes be quite inexpensive, less than the pp rate for the cabin at double occupancy and on many lines are consistent across cabin types.

 

[stsomewhere]

Do you remember which ship this was and if it was an ocean view or inside. TIA!

Massdam . It was an inside.

 

[crjack]

We cruised to Alaska in Aug 2009 on the NCL Pearl and loved it. We are a family of four and our mini suite had 2 beds (which our kids used) and DH and I used the sofa bed for the week.

It was our first family cruise, and normally we do suites when we travel to hotels, so it was a little tighter than we are used to but we really weren't in the cabins very much so we were fine.

Out travel agent got us some great discounts and credits on our mini-suite that helped to bring the overall vacation price down since we applied the credits to some of our activities.

Alaska is definitely a location where you want a balcony and for us Glacier Bay was a must so I only looked at ships that offered that in the itinerary.

We wanted a more informal type of cruise with dress & dining so NCL was a great fit for us.

Have a great time. Hope to go back some day.

 

[mjantz]

We did a Princess cruise to Alaska last year. 4 of us. King bed with 2 pull down twin beds that hung over the king. It was a bit tight but they would put away the beds in the AM & take them down at night & that really helped. We also had a balcony which gives you more places to spread out.

 

[Acklander]

Just an FYI that it is frequently nearly the same price to get connecting rooms with 2 in each as it is to get one room. If there is an on board credit for each stateroom you can even come out ahead doing it that way--and then you have so much more space.
We quit sharing a room with DD16 and DS14 about 7 years ago. We will never go back!

This is what we do. On our next trip the difference in price is about 40.00 and we end up with 2 rooms, and more importantly, 2 bathrooms.

 

[joviroxx]

We cruised to Alaska in Aug 2009 on the NCL Pearl and loved it. We are a family of four and our mini suite had 2 beds (which our kids used) and DH and I used the sofa bed for the week.

It was our first family cruise, and normally we do suites when we travel to hotels, so it was a little tighter than we are used to but we really weren't in the cabins very much so we were fine.

Out travel agent got us some great discounts and credits on our mini-suite that helped to bring the overall vacation price down since we applied the credits to some of our activities.

Alaska is definitely a location where you want a balcony and for us Glacier Bay was a must so I only looked at ships that offered that in the itinerary.

We wanted a more informal type of cruise with dress & dining so NCL was a great fit for us.

Have a great time. Hope to go back some day.

I did this same cruise in 2009 as well. I agree 100%. We had a mini-suite for the 4 of us and I wouldn;t do Alaskda without a balcony. There was something so magical just sitting out there watching the eagles fly overhead.

The balcony also gives you extra room and you don't feel so closed in.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I agree that cruisecritic is the BEST resource for these type of things

Third and fourth person in a cabin rates can sometimes be quite inexpensive, less than the pp rate for the cabin at double occupancy and on many lines are consistent across cabin types.

There CAN be a big price difference, but many people do not realize that at other times there can be very little price difference, which is hwy I wanted to point it out. In the last 6 years we have never paid more than $200 total more for a week two have two cabins instead of one and have paid as little as $12 more (which, due to OC actually worked out to saving about $80).

 

[Bren's Mom]

Carnival Miracle does Alaska.

This is their deck plan;

http://www.carnival.com/legal/~/med...iracle-accessible-cruising-deck-plan-pdf.ashx

Look for the balcony staterooms with this square:

■ 2 Twin Beds (convert to King), Single Sofa Bed and 1 Upper Pullman

Those would be best for 4 people I'd think.

 

[Ilivetogo]

We went on the NCL Star from Seattle to Alaska. (fabulous!!!!) We had 4 in our room. 3 single beds arranged in a "U" shape against the walls (only way to go -- great for floor space!) and one drop-down "bunk" bed. Worked great! Surprisingly more room than I expected.

Good luck!!

.

 

[tvguy]

Any ship built in about the last 15 years is going to have pretty similar sized staterooms.
When we cruised on the Disney Magic in a deluxe oceanview stateroom, I marked off 214 square feet in our family room to make sure the kids understood how small a space all 4 of use would be in for a week.
The other ships we cruised on had staterooms about 185 square feet, and while 29 square feet sound like a lot, I bet half of Disney's split bathrooms take up that much space, so the actual stateroom living space is about the same.