Family of 5 on Dream- 2 connecting or 1 deluxe Family room

[Mandy923]

I'm so torn as to what to book!

This will be our first cruise with DCL. We have been on RCCL ships, only, up until now.
We are a family of 5, Children's ages at time of sailing: 17G, 8B, 5G. Plus my husband and myself.

On RCCL- we have always booked 2 connecting Balcony's and had the balcony divider opened up- to give us 1 huge balcony. We do like having a balcony- but we don't use it a huge amount. We've sailed in insides when we had just the 2 children- and it was fine.

I know that Disney rooms are a little larger, in general, than other cruiselines.

For about the same money we can have:

1) 2 connecting OV Deck 2 AFT ($100 more Deck 7)

2) Family Deluxe Balcony

OR for about $300 cheaper (total) we could have

1) 2 connecting insides with the magical porthole Deck 7 Mid

2) Family Deluxe OV Deck 7 Mid

Here's what we have really loved, in the past (on other ships) about 2 rooms:

2 Tv's

The ability for 1 child to be asleep and the other to be up (or now 4yr old can't stay up as late as her 7r old brother, even on vacation. She just, literally, cannot do it!)

2 bathrooms

I guess I need to decide if having a balcony is really important or not..

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Other ideas?

I really do enjoy the planning stage of our cruise vacations! But some decisions drive me crazy, like this one!

[Mandy923]

Also- If Anyone has a PIC of how 5 sleep in the Family Deluxe with balcony- that would be SO AWESOME!

[lbgraves]

Two rooms. There just isn't that much more room in a family room for five people than a room for four.

Regarding the beds. In a regular room the room ends at the end of the couch. In a room that sleeps 5 there is a murphy bed that folds down from the wall a bit narrower than a twin bed. That will fold out and block the porthole or verandah.

Here is the listing from DCL's site. The second picture in the slideshow shows the beds made up. It is from the Magic, but the setup is the same on the new ships with the couch and murphy bed.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/sh...with-verandah/

[3Down1Up]

We've only done connecting cabins and I would never ever do anything else. The reasons you list are the biggest: two bathrooms and the flexibility of putting one or two kids to bed and letting an older one stay up. We are now spoiled by the space as well - our youngest were just 2 when we first went on DCL, and having that space then was great then and is equally helpful now that they are older and bigger!

[PrettyPrincessJen]

I felt that there was enough room for all 5 of us. (15B, 13G, 7G) I found that it was cheaper for us to do the one room instead of the 2 rooms and we would have a verandah. It was tight at times but we liked it enough to book it again this year with a now 17,15, and 9 year olds. I hope this helps : )

[Magic3forme]

we did the deluxe cabin twice when the kids were younger. Now we do 2 staterooms. it is so much more space... and 2 bathrooms!!

Our kids are a little older so we get an inside stateroom and it is less money to do 2 cabins vs one.

[MND]

Originally Posted by Mandy923

I'm so torn as to what to book!

This will be our first cruise with DCL. We have been on RCCL ships, only, up until now.
We are a family of 5, Children's ages at time of sailing: 17G, 8B, 5G. Plus my husband and myself.

On RCCL- we have always booked 2 connecting Balcony's and had the balcony divider opened up- to give us 1 huge balcony. We do like having a balcony- but we don't use it a huge amount. We've sailed in insides when we had just the 2 children- and it was fine.

I know that Disney rooms are a little larger, in general, than other cruiselines.

For about the same money we can have:

1) 2 connecting OV Deck 2 AFT ($100 more Deck 7)

2) Family Deluxe Balcony

OR for about $300 cheaper (total) we could have

1) 2 connecting insides with the magical porthole Deck 7 Mid

2) Family Deluxe OV Deck 7 Mid

Here's what we have really loved, in the past (on other ships) about 2 rooms:

2 Tv's

The ability for 1 child to be asleep and the other to be up (or now 4yr old can't stay up as late as her 7r old brother, even on vacation. She just, literally, cannot do it!)

2 bathrooms

I guess I need to decide if having a balcony is really important or not..

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Other ideas?

I really do enjoy the planning stage of our cruise vacations! But some decisions drive me crazy, like this one!

I vote for 2 rooms. We had 2 ocean view rooms on the 2nd deck on the Dream last spring for our family of 5 and it was actually a bit cheaper than 1 room with a verandah. We loved the extra space and the extra bathroom.

We're doing something very similar on our cruise on the Fantasy over Easter.

Enjoy your cruise!

Mike

[Mandy923]

Thanks so much for all the input!

I've decided to do the 2 connecting OV on deck 2. It seems like the best choice for our family. I think we will miss the balcony, a little. But if we can still look out and see the ocean- I think that will be perfect.

And with a 17yr old daughter, the 2nd bathroom is a serious plus for us!

[MND]

Originally Posted by Mandy923

Thanks so much for all the input!

I've decided to do the 2 connecting OV on deck 2. It seems like the best choice for our family. I think we will miss the balcony, a little. But if we can still look out and see the ocean- I think that will be perfect.

And with a 17yr old daughter, the 2nd bathroom is a serious plus for us!

I forgot to meniton that our connecting rooms were on the 2nd deck in the middle. We loved being that close to the water. The kids would sit in the portholes and watch the waves. I think it would be great to have a verandah, but the extra space and bathroom made up for it.

Have a great cruise!

Mike

[DVC Jen]

If it was me - I would go for two ocean view over one room. The additional expense to have the ocean view over the inside would be worth it to me.

Two bathrooms make a world of difference for us. We are a family of 4 DH, myself and our two DDs ages 24 and 20 when we sail again in June. We are getting two adjoining verandah rooms, but - I would go with two adjoining ocean view before I gave up the two rooms for one verandah.

We are a close family and normally all 4 of us stay in one room - but there is just something SOOOOO nice about not fighting for space to get ready in the mornings or for dinner.

Also if someone needs a nap - they can take one and everyone else can be in the other room without bothering them.

[Disneyof3]

This is our 2nd cruise and by all means I'am no expert on cruising but we did two rooms last year and will again this March. We have ds16/dd13/ds11. When we stay at wdw we stay in one room at POR in Alligator section. We don't mind the cramping because we only sleep there and that is it. We don't go back to change or things like that. On the cruise we found the two rooms amazing. Boys in one room and girls in the other, two bathrooms, two tv's, etc. We had deck 6 and this year will be deck 7, our rooms face the front of the ship and we loved seeing where we were going. The noise level was none and we never had issues with people screaming down the hall or anything like that. We didn't take the option of having a balcony because I'm very nervous with the balcony and my kids horseing around.