Inside stateroom ?

[No1 Babe]

I really really want to do the Disney magic next year but cannot justify the prices for a verandah stateroom . Is staying in an interior stateroom really that bad ?
I'm thinking we won't be spending much time in the rooms anyway. Honest opinions please !

 

[disneyfan888]

No it is not. Everyone will have a preference, but we have sailed in all types of staterooms and while we do prefer the Verandah, we have no problem sailing inside if we think the price is not justified for a particular sailing or to simply try something new. There are many places on deck to enjoy scenery, peace and quiet.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I really really want to do the Disney magic next year but cannot justify the prices for a verandah stateroom . Is staying in an interior stateroom really that bad ?
I'm thinking we won't be spending much time in the rooms anyway. Honest opinions please !

Inside is totally fine. We prefer Oceanview, but have done an inside. One note, DCL staterooms are larger than a comparable category room on most other cruise lines.

 

[saxmangeoff]

My view: All the staterooms are on the same ship, and go to the same place.

 

[PlanoNana]

We're going on our third cruise on Nov 25th. We've always cruised in an inside stateroom since for us this is a very expensive vacation - even in an inside stateroom. On a crew member's recommendation on the first cruise (Magic) we chose a Cat 11 SIDEWAYS inside room. You don't have the split bath but we could handle that. We had three adults in the room and did fine. The sideways rooms seem bigger to me because you enter the room sort of in the middle instead of between the closet and bath. We liked the room type enough that we chose it for our last cruise (Magic) and current cruise (Wonder). The Cat 11 is definitely cheaper than the others. I don't know if the Dream or Fantasy have the sideways room. For us, the sideways cat 11 is the biggest bang for the buck. And you get all the same amenities the other non-concierge guests have.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

We've sailed verandah on Dream, then sailed inside on Magic on deck 2. Family of 4 (2A 1T 1C). This was 11 night Norway Iceland voyage, warm clothes take up more space but we had plenty of storage space for our stuff. We were only in room to change, sleep, shower - we were happy with it. We really liked the verandah too, butdid not think we would get as much use out of it due to cold weather/North Sea crossing on Dream. If you like hanging out in your room and having the private space of a verandah, then it would be a more important item to spend your money on. If you like to be out and about and would only use your room for sleeping, etc, then you'll hardly give it a second thought once you are on the ship.

 

[thumpie's mom]

We always do the inside staterooms...we simply are not in it that much during the day. It is cheaper and since we are only there to shower and sleep, it is not worth it to spend the extra money. There are plenty of places to go and watch the ocean go by on the outside decks. Everyone is different, but it really does not bother us to have a inside stateroom. Whatever you decide, enjoy your cruise!

 

[Katykins14]

We stayed in an inside room on the Magic last year and it was just fine. We didn't spend a lot of time in the room - sleeping and getting ready, and occasionally watching a movie and just resting. The nice thing is that it's nice and dark in there, if you want to take a nap or something during the day. We'd absolutely stay in an inside room again if there is a significant price difference. Our next cruise is on the Fantasy, and we're in an Oceanview, as the price difference was pretty minimal for that cruise.

 

[MunFam]

We talked about this on our WBPC Cruise (14 nights)...we had planned to sail in an inside room as we are not really people to just hang out in the room, ever, and the price made the vacation possible. However, a military rate was offered on a deck 2 midship oceanview room for a really great price, so we took that. Typically, we like to be out and about exploring and having fun. With that, we both agreed that for 3-5 or even 7 nights an inside would have been just fine. But the second half of our cruise, we found our family in the room more often to just relax and decompress. An inside room might have felt a little depressing. I am sun dependent, so we decided that if it was a shortie, we could do an inside, but anything longer and we would need a window and that applies to any cruise line for our family.

Personally, I have sailed with a verandah and saw no point. We never used it, except to go out and look for a minute or two.

 

[No1 Babe]

We talked about this on our WBPC Cruise (14 nights)...we had planned to sail in an inside room as we are not really people to just hang out in the room, ever, and the price made the vacation possible. However, a military rate was offered on a deck 2 midship oceanview room for a really great price, so we took that. Typically, we like to be out and about exploring and having fun. With that, we both agreed that for 3-5 or even 7 nights an inside would have been just fine. But the second half of our cruise, we found our family in the room more often to just relax and decompress. An inside room might have felt a little depressing. I am sun dependent, so we decided that if it was a shortie, we could do an inside, but anything longer and we would need a window and that applies to any cruise line for our family.

Personally, I have sailed with a verandah and saw no point. We never used it, except to go out and look for a minute or two.

Thanks so much for all the replies ! You are helping me make up my mind !

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We also prefer a verandah but have done an inside room and it was totally fine. Especially for a shorter cruise. We also liked how dark it was for sleeping.
Our next cruise we have a verandah but the price difference was only about $300 for a week. Any more and we would have chosen an inside cabin again. We would do it again no problem. But only on DCL. When watching some videos online of Carnival or even Royal interior rooms, they look like closets!

 

[firepuppy]

We have been on 7 cruises and have stayed in ocean view 1 time and inside the rest. I like inside the best. I do not want to pay for a view when we are never in the room.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

4 of our 5 cruises previous cruises have been inside and 2 of our next 3 are insides. They're completely fine, just go and enjoy.

 

[cheermom2four]

We've only sailed with verandahs. Our upcoming cruise next year we have a verandah and an inside room. Honestly, Im still tempted to move them both to inside rooms since its port intensive and we arent going to even be ON the ship much except to eat and sleep. We do have a little kid though and its nice to have the extra (but small) verandah to sit out on while our 5 year old took a nap on this last cruise.

 

[tink1970]

If you're not claustrophobic it should be fine. I am and I will never sail in an inside cabin again. The rest of my family has no problem with it.

 

[klbrow11]

We did the dream with the verandah and fell in love. We however had a 1 year old who naps for 2 hours in the middle of the day so we used that verandah a lot. When she gets older I would have no problem switching to an interior, especially if we will be out of the room a lot.

 

[party-of-five]

I feel like maybe we're in a minority here, but we LOVED having the verandah. I'm curious to try an inside, but I don't think I would like it. Sure, we didn't spend all day in the room, but we started and ended our days on our verandah and spent a little time during the day on it too. We like ordering coffee from room service and enjoying it on the verandah while the kids sleep in. We liked sitting on the verandah in the late evening/night, enjoying a glass or two of wine while the kids were either out at the clubs or unwinding with a movie in their room. Our cruise two weeks ago, DH went and got us drinks and we sat on the verandah for a long while enjoying the view while our little guy napped. For our family, we would rather spend the money on the verandah than stay in inside rooms and cruise more often. For us, and traveling with the kids, the verandah makes the trip more enjoyable.

 

[MSPeeler]

We sailed inside and it is plenty large enough!

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Our next cruise we have a verandah but the price difference was only about $300 for a week.

To me, this is the key. How much extra is it? My understanding is that the difference between inside and veranda can vary A LOT from cruise to cruise. On our 7-Day Western Caribbean in August on the Fantasy, the difference was like 5%. To me, that is a very small difference, so we went for two adjoining veranda cabins for our group of 9 people. Having the connecting verandas as well as the connecting door was great! The extra space was nice too with so many people.

I know a lot of people say that a cabin is just to sleep and shower in, but in my opinion, if you have a veranda, you might WANT to be there more often. Plus, if you are going with a family of 4 or something, you may well spend more time in the room than you would want, as you wait for others to shower, or wait for the kids to wake up or something. I spent plenty of time on our veranda while other family members were getting ready for the day, or getting ready for dinner, or whatever.

Another time that having a veranda was great was when leaving ports. We had early seating, so most days the ship would be pulling out as we were getting ready for dinner. Having a veranda allowed us to have that "departure experience" (waving to people on the next ship or on the dock, etc. and watching the island slip away) while at the same time getting ready for dinner.

So to us, it was worth the extra 5%, but if it were 25% more, or money was really tight, an inside cabin is still on a wonderful ship going wonderful places, so you can't go wrong!

 

[JanBlessed]

If you REALLY want to go, and feel good about booking the inside stateroom, then it's worth giving it a shot - imo. I've never stayed inside on any ship, so I can't comment on the accommodations. But if a friend asked me that question , I would answer as I just did!

Best of Luck!