Any suggestions for family of 5

[TerriBelle]

We would really like to try a cruise but we are a family of 5. My DD is 8 and we also have 4 yr. old twins. (we were only planning on being a family of 4) Does the ship have connecting rooms or do you have to upgrade to the higher categories? What have other families done? It seems like the cheap rooms are only for 4.

 

[bcburgner]

We are in the same boat (no pun intended). We just cruised on the 4 day Wonder and connecting Cat 10 rooms. This is the lowest category with conneccting rooms. There are no windows or verandahs, but having two connecting rooms gave us plenty of space and two bathrooms. We are cruising again next year on the Magic and this time we are going to try the Cat 4 Family Suit. This will cut down on our space and number of bathrooms, but my wife insists on a verandah this time. It will cost us $400 more for this room than the two connecting cat 10 rooms. So the increased cost is not too bad. I'm just hoping we have enough room. But, I am looking forward to hanging out on the verandah from time to time.

It is too bad they don't offer a family of 5 a slightly more affordable option, but you just have to accept the costs and have a blast.

 

[mpaone]

We are a family of 5 (me, hubby, ds 13, dd10, dd8) and went on the 7 day Magic this past October. We booked the Cat 4 with the verandah. They told us at the time that to get two connecting rooms would be more expensive and thats why we went with the family suite. With all 5 of us it was a little crowded in the room but not horribly so. We really didnt use the verandah much as we weren't in the room all that often. Having the 1 bathroom was kind of annoying when we were all trying to get showered and ready for dinner each night but we made do. If I were to do it over I would probably go with the 2 connecting rooms. It depends on how much use you think the verandah would get. It is very tiny.

 

[dbond]

We have cruised the 7-day twice with our family of 5, children ages 17, 14, 8. Our first cruise, we booked the family suite. It was a tight squeeze with bags and everything, and the 5th bed pulls down like a murphy bed right in front of the verandah door. I had to climb over my sleeping 14 yr old every morning to have my coffee on the verandah. Ooops, sorry about the hot coffee spill! With smaller children, they might not take up as much space as the big kids with their larger bags and size 11 shoes left on the floor. On our 2nd 7-day, we priced the connecting rooms in catergory 6, we just couldn't bear the thought of not having that verandah. Yikes! It was going to be quite a jump in price since we had to pay for 4 full paying adults to have 2 rooms. So, we invited the in-laws along, they paid their way as the 2 adults in the 2nd room, the littlest slept with them leaving the teenagers in the room with us. No pull down murphy bed, leaving us a little more walking around room in the morning, one less bag to take up space. It worked wonderfully. We just need to invite them along every time.

 

[MELSMICE]

We have a family of 5 also. (12 yr. old daughter & 9 yr. old twin girls). We were planning on the 3 - just not 2 at one time!!!!!

Anyway, does anyone ever hear of any deals on the cruise line? It is just so expensive for 5 people. We have often thought about the 2 rooms because of the 2 bathrooms, 2 TV's & a little privacy for the parents. I thought with 2 rooms you still have to pay 2 adult fares per room, is that correct or not?

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[my3kids]

It's a twin explosion 'round here. Yep, our 5 will be in 2 connecting category 10 rooms this fall. Melanie: Yes, you are correct. With 2 rooms you pay the full/adult fare for the first 2 people in each room. Even with paying 4 full category 10 fares and 1 child, it was a little cheaper than 2 adults and 3 children in a category 4 room. If you went any category above a 10, that probably wouldn't be the case. We went with the connecters more for space, bathroom, and privacy reasons. At least our week, the prices were VERY close between these 2 options. But book early.