Booking RCCL with a family of five

[kittylady1972]

So we are heading out on our next DCL cruise in a few weeks, but I'm thinking in the future I wouldn't mind booking a RC cruise for us. My issue is that we are a family of five, and from what I can gather the RC ships don't seem to have rooms (or none that I can book online easily or even check prices) for families that don't fit into the traditional cookie cutter of four. This makes RCCL more expensive for us.

It seems I read they do have some rooms available for more than four, but you have to call and ask. Anybody done this and how are the prices? Obviously I pay a premium price if I have to book two rooms for the five of us, so I pay adult rates for four of us doing it that way.

We live in MD so I'd love to either try a cruise out of Baltimore or NJ in the future.

 

[karmacats]

you're right - royal does have rooms that hold 5 (i think up to 8 passengers, actually), but you have to call for prices. most if not all of these rooms are suites, so come with suite perks, like concierge lounge access, reserved theater seats, and similar. as suites, they are expensive for royal, but still are often cheaper than disney. they are often called "family suites" and i also think there are some "family oceanview" rooms, so if you search those terms online with "royal caribbean" and "prices" you may find some fares. i haven't booked them myself so i'm clueless about cost. if you do call, i've found that royal doesn't generally keep you on hold long, and they are usually pretty good about finding prices etc right away.

the royal ship out of baltimore is Grandeur of the Seas, which is an older ship that has been recently refurbed. Liberty of the seas is currently sailing out of NJ, but in a couple of months will be replaced with Anthem of the seas, which is their newest ship (though another is being built right now). if your kids are young, one thing to keep in mind is that liberty has the dreamworks experience, but anthem does not so far - it may be added to anthem when she gets to nj from europe, but no one knows. i'm not sure if grandeur has dreamworks or not. i'd say anthem probably has more for kids to do in general - rock climbing wall, surf simulator, bumper cars, skydiving simulator, trapeze lessons, etc - but it's probably also more expensive. anthem also has some family room setups where you can get a junior suite, an oceanview room, and an inside room together off their own little vestibule, if you book far enough ahead, so the rooms have a little common area when you walk in and then each person or two would have their own bedroom/living space.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

Several of the RCL ships (Freedom and Voyager class and above) have family ocean view cabins and suites that sleep more than four, but you are right, you do have to call to reserve them. There aren't that many on each ship, and they tend to book quickly. If you go out to the RCL board on Cruise Critic, there are quite a few threads going that have all the details - including photos.

Out of Baltimore, the Grandeur would work (Their Family oceanview sleeps 6). Out of NJ, you'd have either the Liberty of the Seas or the Anthem of the Seas depending on when you're thinking of booking, and both have FOV cabins that sleep 6.

 

[kittylady1972]

Thanks for the responses! My kids are getting older so the Dreamworks stuff might be as much of a draw as I think they would enjoy the other activities more, like the rock wall and bumper cars. Again I really wish I could do some price shopping online with these rooms just because it would make things easier. The Anthem setup mentioned sounds pretty nice.

Definitely something we may want to consider in the future. I know we will rebook on Disney during our next cruise, probably for summer 2017 as the next cruise. We seem to be on an 18-month between cruises trend but I'd like to try to push it out to two if possible.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

Thanks for the responses! My kids are getting older so the Dreamworks stuff might be as much of a draw as I think they would enjoy the other activities more, like the rock wall and bumper cars. Again I really wish I could do some price shopping online with these rooms just because it would make things easier. The Anthem setup mentioned sounds pretty nice.

Definitely something we may want to consider in the future. I know we will rebook on Disney during our next cruise, probably for summer 2017 as the next cruise. We seem to be on an 18-month between cruises trend but I'd like to try to push it out to two if possible.

Not sure how much this helps, but I did a lookup on a 4/15/17 Freedom of the Seas (8-night Eastern Caribbean) and the price for the Family Oceanview stateroom was $1135/adult and $708/child. That includes port fees and taxes.

 

[msjprincess]

We just sailed on Independence in a Family Oceanview a couple of weeks ago. It was $3000 for the 5 of us before gratuities. We were in room 8500 which was awesome. It has 3 separate sleeping areas with actual doors separating each area. http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/d...Independence of the Seas&cat=Family Oceanview

We live in NY but it was actually cheaper to fly to Ft Lauderdale and stay in a hotel the night before over sailing on Liberty out of NJ.

 

[kittylady1972]

We just sailed on Independence in a Family Oceanview a couple of weeks ago. It was $3000 for the 5 of us before gratuities. We were in room 8500 which was awesome. It has 3 separate sleeping areas with actual doors separating each area. http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/category.php?ship=Independence of the Seas&cat=Family Oceanview

We live in NY but it was actually cheaper to fly to Ft Lauderdale and stay in a hotel the night before over sailing on Liberty out of NJ.

Oh wow...thanks for this! Those rooms look pretty nice. How long was the cruise? Definitely something for us to consider in the future!

 

[msjprincess]

Oh wow...thanks for this! Those rooms look pretty nice. How long was the cruise? Definitely something for us to consider in the future!

It was a 7 night Eastern cruise. We stopped at San Juan, St Maarten and St Kitts.

And FYI only 8500 and 8200 are that big. 8200 is a little larger but it has curtains separating the sleeping areas instead of doors. The other Family Oceanview rooms are slightly larger than a regular OV room with an alcove with bunks.

 

[isaboo]

My understanding is that you can book 5 people in a grand suite or above but you have to call to do it! We are also a family of five and usually book one balcony cabin across from an inside cabin. It's still cheaper than a Disney cruise!

 

[holula]

At some of these prices you could probably book two staterooms on Royal and STILL come out ahead. Since Disney hasn't released their 2017 dates, I tried to compare 2016 vs 2017. With the Fantasy I chose the opening day prices and with Freedom I picked the lowest overall price.

Disney Fantasy - 7 Night Western 1/23/16
Lowest Inside: $1141pp
Lowest O/V: $1197pp
Lowest Verandah: $1351pp

RCCL Freedom of the Seas - 8 Night Eastern 1/21/17 (we are actually booked on this cruise)
Lowest Inside: $632pp
Lowest O/V: $730pp
Lowest Verandah: $912pp
Lowest Junior Suite: $1290pp (around 1.5 times the size of a regular stateroom!)

Royal says this about their Jr Suites: Some have sofa beds and can accommodate 3-4 guests. Some can also accommodate a rollaway bed or Play Yard. (Junior Suites located in the aft of the ship cannot accommodate a rollaway bed.) Helpful as always.