Booking 2 rooms and kids age questions

[MickeyMouse2010]

I'm totally new to Disney cruising and cruising in general. We love Disney World and I really want to plan a cruise for my family of 6. I'm clueless how to go about this. My kids would be around 9,6,4 and 2. I know we would need 2 rooms so I would probably invite my sister to come who has vacationed with us before. What is the best/cheapest way to book rooms for 7 people. I think I want one verandah and probably and so it looks like rooms across the hall are the way to go? How do I book them to be across from each other? It looks like it would be cheaper to book 4 or 5 in one room and then 2 in the next. Is this right?

Lastly, should I wait until my youngest is 3 so he can go to the kids club or is at least potty trained so he can go in the pool? Does anyone have experience leaving a 2yo in the nursery with the older kids elsewhere? Did it go well? What about a child who isn't PT'd? I feel like my other kids would have thrown a fit if they saw a pool they couldn't swim in. We are doing Disneyland this summer so I'm looking at next year but would wait until the following if it's better to wait...

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[ali in wonderland]

I'm totally new to Disney cruising and cruising in general. We love Disney World and I really want to plan a cruise for my family of 6. I'm clueless how to go about this. My kids would be around 9,6,4 and 2. I know we would need 2 rooms so I would probably invite my sister to come who has vacationed with us before. What is the best/cheapest way to book rooms for 7 people. I think I want one verandah and probably and so it looks like rooms across the hall are the way to go? How do I book them to be across from each other? It looks like it would be cheaper to book 4 or 5 in one room and then 2 in the next. Is this right?

Lastly, should I wait until my youngest is 3 so he can go to the kids club or is at least potty trained so he can go in the pool? Does anyone have experience leaving a 2yo in the nursery with the older kids elsewhere? Did it go well? What about a child who isn't PT'd? I feel like my other kids would have thrown a fit if they saw a pool they couldn't swim in. We are doing Disneyland this summer so I'm looking at next year but would wait until the following if it's better to wait...

Thanks in advance for your help!

We are also a family of six. My kids are 14, 9, 6, and 4. We booked two connecting inside rooms on the dream. I split us up 3/3. I planned on having my two daughters in a stateroom with me and my two sons with my husband. However, now that we have connecting rooms I think I will have my kids sleep in one room, and hubby, me, and maybe the 4year old in the other room. We have sailed DCL two other times. First when DD was 6 the only child with us at the time. Then a year later we sailed again with DD 7, and DS 2.5. DS was not PT'd at the time, and so he could not swim. We used the nursery on the ship, but found it hard to book time. We also hated to pay for the nursery. We love DCL, and always new we wanted to cruise with them again. Having cruised with and without a baby/toddler, we decided to wait until our youngest was PT'd and age appropriate for the kids club.

 

[lanejudy]

You are correct that a verandah with a interior room across the hall will be cheapest; you'll have to explore the deck plans to see what combination of rooms will work best for you. But do some shopping and see how much different. Do you really want to split the kids/parents? Connecting rooms might not be that much more, and you could have the kids sleep in 1 room with parents in the other.

As to booking how many into each room...the first 2 passengers in a room will be full price, so with your sis + 1 kid will be full price in the 2nd room. The other passengers shouldn't matter which room, fare will be based on age not how many in a room. Keep in mind that the muster station will be assigned based on the stateroom assigned (not necessarily where each sleeps) and it's possible to have 2 different muster stations for your family - so you probably don't want to have sis + 3 kids and you + DH + just 1 kid. That would put a burden on your sister as you couldn't assist during the Safety Drill.

As for waiting until the youngest is 3...you know your family best. If it will be a problem for your little one to only use the water play area and not the pool, and that would put a damper on your vacation, then you'd certainly want to wait. If the little one loves water play areas more so than pool, and would be happy with that option - go for it now.