Best deck for family of 5 with balcony on Fantasy?

[twinsouvenirs]

Hey there folks! We are currently booked for an oceanview family stateroom with a verandah midship on deck 9. However, I am considering switching the booking for unrelated reasons and it looks like deck 9 is pretty much sold out in that category (04A).

Any pointers? Our three kids are young and will all be enjoying the kids club but will be too young to go themselves.

This will be our first cruise--Western Carribbean, 7 day. Any thoughts about staterooms would be appreciated. I think we are set on that category--as in, large with verandah, but I'm not sure about decks and location.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hey there folks! We are currently booked for an oceanview family stateroom with a verandah midship on deck 9. However, I am considering switching the booking for unrelated reasons and it looks like deck 9 is pretty much sold out in that category (04A).

Any pointers? Our three kids are young and will all be enjoying the kids club but will be too young to go themselves.

This will be our first cruise--Western Carribbean, 7 day. Any thoughts about staterooms would be appreciated. I think we are set on that category--as in, large with verandah, but I'm not sure about decks and location.

Do you mean switching to a whole different cruise? Or just changing room on the cruise you're already booked on?

A Deluxe Family Oceanview room with Verandah is a great room. Deck 9 is good, as is midship. I'm not sure why you'd want to change it.

Here's a picture of one of those rooms (deck 10, but 9 is the same):

And with the beds open:

 

[LizGirl]

It's hard to say without knowing what is available. The verandahs on deck 5 are larger so you could try for one of those. Personally, I would avoid the rooms closest to the kids club and movie theater as we walked by there a lot and I would imagine hallway noise can be an issue.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We had category 4B - deck 8, I believe stateroom 8146 which was technically aft but more mid-ship then all the way aft. Loved the location as it was the first stateroom after a "bump-out" in the hallway, very quiet. Same kind of room as PrincessShmoo posted above. It was an easy walk up the stairs to the Cabanas right above (3 decks) and 3 down to the kids clubs. We used the stairs all the time when in this room.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Do you mean switching to a whole different cruise? Or just changing room on the cruise you're already booked on?

A Deluxe Family Oceanview room with Verandah is a great room. Deck 9 is good, as is midship. I'm not sure why you'd want to change it.

Here's a picture of one of those rooms (deck 10, but 9 is the same):
View attachment 217979 View attachment 217980
And with the beds open:
View attachment 217981

We are considering rebooking with a different agent and cancelling the other reservation (long story) and deck 9 is no longer available.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

It's hard to say without knowing what is available. The verandahs on deck 5 are larger so you could try for one of those. Personally, I would avoid the rooms closest to the kids club and movie theater as we walked by there a lot and I would imagine hallway noise can be an issue.

It looks like 5 is full but rooms are available on 7, 8, and 10

 

[twinsouvenirs]

We had category 4B - deck 8, I believe stateroom 8146 which was technically aft but more mid-ship then all the way aft. Loved the location as it was the first stateroom after a "bump-out" in the hallway, very quiet. Same kind of room as PrincessShmoo posted above. It was an easy walk up the stairs to the Cabanas right above (3 decks) and 3 down to the kids clubs. We used the stairs all the time when in this room.

I like that--it sounds fairly equidistant from both zones.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are considering rebooking with a different agent and cancelling the other reservation (long story) and deck 9 is no longer available.

OK. Deck 8 would be fine, as noted. We were on deck 10, in a more aft room, but there are some people who feel that deck 10 rooms are noisy. I didn't find it that way. I actually found our deck 9 room was much more noisy than an deck 10 one.

But it was mostly due to rude people in the rooms on either side of us (on deck 9), as well as those people on the deck above seeming to prefer foot races down the passageway.

One note, be sure the TA you're cancelling doesn't charge a fee for cancellations. Some do. If that matters to you.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

Our family of 5 stayed on deck 8 of the Fantasy in a deluxe family veranda stateroom. We loved the room, but maybe we would not stay aft again on deck 8. If there was availability mid or forward on deck 8 I would not hesitate. Good luck!

 

[twinsouvenirs]

Our family of 5 stayed on deck 8 of the Fantasy in a deluxe family veranda stateroom. We loved the room, but maybe we would not stay aft again on deck 8. If there was availability mid or forward on deck 8 I would not hesitate. Good luck!

Why not aft? Too much motion?

 

[FigmentSpark]

Has the new TA confirmed that there are no 4As available? One thing you could do is book the 8th fl midship, then have your new TA watch for something on 9 to open up. Presumably, your old room should come available. He might be able to snag it for you.

Another thing is that sometimes just looking on the site isn't enough to tell you what's truly available. It takes a call to DCL (by your TA) to make sure. When we wanted connecting rooms, I was frustrated because none seemed available on the website and it was opening day. My TA didn't even check availability on the web, she just called and told them what I wanted. We got our pick, because they can see everything available.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

Why not aft? Too much motion?

If you poke around these boards long enough, you will see there are some threads about vibration issues with some aft rooms on the Fantasy. Ours was one of them. State room number 8644. Don't get me wrong, we've been on three DCL cruises and stayed in the family deluxe veranda stateroom each time (and have two others coming up); we LOVE those staterooms so much, especially for a family of five. But the vibrations were bothersome and I couldn't sleep. I think the rest of my family was OK. But it bothered me a lot at night. This is not to be confused with regular motion of the ship. That doesn't really bother us. So as I said I would never hesitate to stay on the Fantasy on deck eight in one of those rooms, but I would shoot for mid or forward, to be honest.

 

[scootch]

Why not aft? Too much motion?

We stayed aft this past cruise, just too much vibration. That being said, I still prefer aft to forward. Midship is the best. We went with oceanview though to save some money, so midship wasn't an option.