UGH!!! We were in an 8D for the MV and loved it. Will be in a 5C in March and do NOT like the difference in storage space.
Glad the next ones are booked in 8Ds again! Thanks for posting the pictures so that we will be prepared for it. Thank goodness we got it at the opening day "glitch" price or we wouldn't be very happy. I guess we will be sticking with cat 8s from now on. There is no comparison for families of 4! I really do not know what I am going to do with all our clothes. There simply is not any room for them with that smaller storage configuration.
ETA: We stayed in 5516 last cruise and will be staying in 6010 on our 2014 cruise. The location was great and very quiet. There are lots of turns to get to the room from the elevators so probably slows people down and blocks the noise from the elevators.
Maybe it's me but I've never found the elevators to be a noisy location. In fact, we intentionally choose to be near stairs/elevators for convenience. Also with our door decorated, it makes it really easy to know we're going in the right direction. Maybe if I had a napping baby I would feel differently. By the time we go to sleep, everywhere is quiet.
I thought the same thing about how to fit so much clothes. We started cruising when our kids were 4 & 7. Back then I could roll up their tiny little shorts and shirts in a small drawer. Now ds16 towers over me. His feet hang past the end of the sofa bed so the murphy bed works better for him. Finding space for everyone's stuff is hard, even with the extra cabinets.
The challenge is that now that they're older and more independent, we really do enjoy & use a verandah. Last April on our 10th
DCL cruise, we got our 1st ever upgrade from a 5E to a 4C. That means the large interior space of an 8D plus a verandah. That was just heavenly.
So I upgraded our Nov 2012 cruise to a 4D. That's too expensive to cruise that way every time.
Then I read somewhere about someone bringing lots of cheap wire hangers and hanging everyone's clothes up in the closet, saving drawers for just socks, undies, etc. DCL will bring all the wooden hangers you need but they're so thick they take up space themselves.
For Alaska it was so expensive to put 4 in a verandah room, and I was able to snag a secret verandah, so we put the kids in an inside across the hall. It was so nice having 2 closets, 2 TVs, and kids could sleep in real beds, separated into twins. It was awesome.
Good to know this isn't a noisy location - we have two of the 8D cabins in the same area as yours for our Dream cruise in May. Thanks for posting pics, 2 adults + 1 child per cabin so I think we will have plenty of room
Oh yes, if they are connecting cabins & you can leave the doors open a little, it will feel even bigger. Have a great time!