Please help, need help deciding on verandah or not???

[PRINCESS VIJA]

I am looking at one of the cruises and am ready to book, but the $$$ is alot! We have cruised on a 3 night, and now we are ready to jump into a 7 night. I have always dreamed of the verandah, but is it worth the difference of $1550????? Honestly money will be tight because we just bought a house.

How much time do you spend on the verandah? Is it worth $1550?? I think it would be fabulous, but I just don't know how much we would use it. Please tell me all of your opinions, I REALLY need them!!!!

 

[TheWog]

We have cruised twice and each time we had the verandah. To us it is worth it. Not only is it nice to get the fresh air, but if DW gets a little "queasy" she can go out there. You can leave the door open at night and hear the water rush by. If you have children it is nice to have a nap time or at night when they fall asleep. You can watch docking activities in your jammies while having coffee at each port (well we were lucky enough to). For us it is worth the money, but with a new house you need to decide the value. We love it! Good luck in your decision.

 

[laujac]

We have cruised 5 times and have never had the verandah. The only time we spend in our room is to sleep and change our clothes. To us, we would rather spend that extra money on other things on the cruise.

 

[BethC1952]

We had a Navigator's Verandah on our last cruise. It was very nice, and we enjoyed, but we decided that it just wasn't worth the extra $$. There are plenty of places where you can relax outside and watch the world go by (although not in your pajamas).

We decided that instead of spending the extra money for a verandah (or even a porthole) we would spend that money on a whole extra cruise! We did decide to get a Cat. 10 instead of our usual Cat. 11, though, because we really liked the split bath of the Cat. 7.

Beth

 

[Pea-n-Me]

If money is tight then I wouldn't bother. Although it's not the same as having a verandah in your room, you can always go down and sit on Deck 4 or the secret deck on 7 aft.

To be honest, we got a verandah last trip as it was a special occasion. Originally we had a SPR and didn't opt for the verandah because it was $1500 more. But I checked about a month before the cruise and the price had dropped to about $600 extra so we got it. So you could try that too.

At any rate, DH and I went out to sit every night - and every night I nodded of in my chair, wine in hand. I was so exhausted I really enjoyed it very little. I also found it to be a distraction during the day when we tried to take a "family nap". DS7 wanted to be out on that verandah, LOL, and never napped (which explains why we were so exhausted all the time and why he fell asleep in his pizza every night at dinner).

We booked an inside room for our upcoming Magic cruise, Cat 11 even, because as my tag says, I prefer the single bath. We don't plan to be in the room all that much and when we are, I plan to nap!! (We also got a room near the secret deck). Good luck deciding.

P.S. There have been lots of threads on this issue.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

We book a verandah on every sailing.....when we got "cancelled" Nov.02 Eastern our Dec. 1 "replacement" Wonder had all verandahs sold out so we had to take a "porthole" thank God is was only a 4 nighter....I relly missed going out on thevereandah with a cup of coffe watching the ship dock drying swim suits out there or just relaxing all alone at night at sea.....the downs.....the person next to us last sailing was a smoke.......

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

thanks guys, it is a hard decision. DH gets queezy (he was really bad the first night last time) so I figured it would be good for him to have that option.

This is a special cruise, we are going just a couple days after our 15th wedding anniversary and I am so psyched! And honestly, there are so many other places that we want to go visit that I don't think we will be doing another family cruise. Maybe dH and I would go cruise years later, but for now this is it. That is why I am thinking of stretching our budget to make the verandah work, because I know this is going to be it.

Decisions, decisions!!!

 

[WDWLVR]

I love the verandahs and use them a lot. I'd rather spend an hour or two out on the verandah reading a good book them laying up at the pool. This isn't for eveyone but it is for me. Our favorite is the Cat 7 Navigator Verandahs and if you party is 3 or less this might work for you. They are the cheapest of the verandah categories but many don't like them because they do not have the plexiglass bottom rail. We prefer them being slightly enclosed because we feel it gives it a cozier feel.

We've also sailed without a verandah doing a Cat 8 on a 4 day. It was ok and we enjoyed the comfy chairs down on deck 4, but i really prefer the privacy of my own verandah.

Only you can judge what would work best for you and your family.

Mary

 

[UGAFan0829]

We chose to book a verandah room on our first cruise and liked it so well that we decided to book another for our upcoming cruise. I didn't think that I would really like it that much, but it was really nice. The DH and I would stand out on it every morning after we would get up and then we would always stand out there for a few minutes at night, just to hear the ocean. It really was nice. I would think that having a verandah would be very nice for a 7 day cruise since you'll have those days at sea.
Whatever you decide, I am sure that you will have a great time.

 

[depomas]

If it was me, I would not book the verandah. We had it last cruise, because it was a special.. We are currently booked in a cat.11. I tried to book our room as close as we could to Deck 7 aft..

This is a personal decision. I would rather go and have the wonderful memories of the trip, than putting myself out for the $$$$$$$$$. I just wouldn't be happy doing it. THat does not mean that it is right or wrong, just not right for us..

Do whatever you would be happy with, and you will have the best memories regardless....

 

[icartjetta]

My favorite thing to do on the verandah is going up to topsiders and bringing breakfast back to the room and eating out there. It's the only time we have a meal by ourselves.

 

[LAS]

For our 3 day cruise, we had a verandah because I'm a little claustrophobic and this was my first cruise. I was the only one of my party of 4 to use it. It was really nice for me but no body else cared whether we had it or not. Also, we were taking motion sickness pills but I still had a hard time the first day on board. It got better after the first day. I had several people recommend that if I did it again to get the patches for the motion sickness because they worked wonders and you never have a problem.

 

[tvguy]

Got upgraded for free to a Verandah and loved it.
Did we love it enough to pay for it? No.
This was our first Disney cruise, and my 7th cruise. First with a Verandah.

 

[plutojudy]

We cruised four times with a verandah and once without. Never again without.

 

[wonderfan]

At first I wanted to say 'go verandah' but then I remembered that not everyone is claustrophic like me -- I need the ability to get fresh air immediately if I start to feel closed-in. However, given our room location during our Feb 05 cruise, I probably could have handled a room with out -- we were in 8506 on the Wonder and the location was great -- right by the forward elevators and one flight of stairs away from Deck 9 -- plenty of fresh air up there if I needed it -- however, I think my mind would play tricks on me if I sailed without a verandah next time just knowing that I couldn't walk outside at will, in my pjs, etc...

Really is a personal decision.....