1st Cruise (June 2010) Connecting Staterooms

[sjnlkm]

We (DW, DD13, DD11, DD9, DS7) are going on our 1st Disney Cruise (Bahamas) next June, and need to get 2 staterooms. Questions: (1) are Connecting staterooms abundant?; (2) Is Deck 8 worth the money?; (3) to get connecting staterooms do I need to call (vs booking on line)? Any other advice / tips greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[KSDisneyDad]

For 3 cruises, we've always had connecting staterooms. There are a lot of connecting rooms, but they can sell out quickly on popular cruies.

If you look at a deck plan of the Cruise Ship, you can see the swinging doors for the connecting rooms.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-deckplans.htm#

To get connecting rooms, it is possible, but difficult and time consuming to do it yourself on the DCL website. After you select your first room, you have to select to Add Another Room to your reservation. To get connecting rooms, you have to know what rooms you want and keep trying until you find a pair that are available. For us, we found it simpler to just have our TA do it for us and have never had an issue. You could also call DCL directly.

Sorry, I can't help with your Deck 8 question as we've only stayed on Deck 6 or Deck 2.

 

[LETSGOFAM]

on our upcoming cruise we have connecting staterooms, booked thru DCL. I tried to do it online but could only pick out room adjacent, not connecting, so I just called them and booked directly.

 

[kcashner]

Connecting staterooms are not plentiful and do sell out quickly.

Deck 8 is not worth the extra money if you are looking at cat 4 cabins. A cat 4 is 3 feet longer than a cat 6, and can cost as much as $1500 - $2000 more on a 7 day cruise.

If you want connecting cabins with a balcony, I'd highly recommend a cat 6 cabin and using the saved money for something a lot more fun than a little extra space. With 5 of you in 2 cabins, you'll have plenty of room.

Call a good TA who specializes in DCL and let them do the leg work for you. A good TA can be your best friend on a first booking, and may even get you a little onboard credit or other thank you gift.

 

[ededmd]

We (DW, DD13, DD11, DD9, DS7) are going on our 1st Disney Cruise (Bahamas) next June, and need to get 2 staterooms.
Questions: (1) are Connecting staterooms abundant?; not at all abundant relative to demand, especially for peak season cruising (school's out).
(2) Is Deck 8 worth the money?; not for your situation unless you are considering a suite. agree with the connecting Cat 6s suggestion.
(3) to get connecting staterooms do I need to call (vs booking on line) it is easier with the new booking engine to identify connecting rooms, but as long as you don't try to call in the next (busy) 2 weeks, it might be faster to book through DCL by phone. The TA question boils down to, is it worth it to give control of your reservation to another entity for the given OBC? Only you can decide your control freak to $ ratio.?

Any other advice / tips greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Best wishes. We love connecting staterooms. It makes it all so much easier...

 

[dznymania]

We had a total of 5 on our last cruise, 4 adults and a toddler. We had connecting Cat 5 rooms and it was awesome. We rebokked onboard and did connecting Cat 6's. You will have plenty of room.