Cabin Options for a family of 5?

[SnoWhiteRabbit]

I just starting to think about a cruise and I was wondering what cabin options there are for a family of five -- just so I can get an idea of pricing. The kids right now are 4, 2, and 1 -- but we probably won't go for another year or so....

Any feedback is appreciated...
Thanks!!
(I post a lot on other DIS boards, but I'm new to the Cruise Forum!)

 

[sdptalk]

Since your children are so young your only option is a catagory 4 or higher.

We are traveling next March 27 on the Magic and there are five of us (our 17 year old is bringing a friend). We booked two rooms on deck six - my husband, 9 year old son and I are in a room with a verandah and our older son and his friend are across the hall in a standard inside stateroom. These two rooms were actually cheaper than one cat. 4 room!

Hope this helps. Have fun planning


Sandy

 

[Rock'n Robin]

We were just in a cat. 4 room and it was wonderful (our kids are 11, 8 and 5) but I think next time I'd split into two rooms. We used almost all DVC points to afford it. A friend of DDs was in a family with 4 kids and they had two cat. 10s on deck 2 and they were fine.
Robin M.

 

[tezb]

Our first 2 cruises we did a Cat 4 but this cruise we are going w/ 2 rooms on Deck 7...ours has a verandah, they have an inside stateroom. However, my kids are 17, 15 and 11 so it's time for the added room and extra bathroom. Being your kids are so young and it doesn't sound like you've cruised before, you will probably be better off in the Cat 4...those are very nice too! If we were only 4 we would probably still book Cat 4.

 

[Pete W.]

For a family of four, is there much difference between a cat 4 and cat 5? I understand that cat 4 automatically sleeps 4, but if you get a cat 5 w/ the pull-down bunk (and the child using it is small enough), what are you losing except a little extra floor space in a cat 4 when the wall bed is up?

 

[dvarallo]

Originally posted by Pete W.
For a family of four, is there much difference between a cat 4 and cat 5? I understand that cat 4 automatically sleeps 4, but if you get a cat 5 w/ the pull-down bunk (and the child using it is small enough), what are you losing except a little extra floor space in a cat 4 when the wall bed is up?

There aren't any category 5's that sleep 5. It doesn't matter how small the children are and that 2 of them can share one bed, you have to go with a stateroom that sleeps 5 and that would mean category 4 or above which can be very price prohibitive.
On my last 2 cruises, my friend and I went with the kids. Since she had 2 kids and I had 1, that meant a category 4 or above. My travel agent suggested connecting rooms and it worked out great. We had category 8 (Deluxe Oceanview) connecting rooms and it cost us less than a category 4 would have cost. We had almost double the space and more important than space was the 2 split bathrooms. Also, we could put all the kids to sleep in one room and talk in the other room without waking them. During the day, we kept the doors between our cabins open so we could walk freely between the cabins. Also, if you book through Dreams Unlimited and get a stateroom credit, you get double the credit because you have 2 staterooms. It was the perfect solution.

 

[Ursula's Mom]

My cousin and her husband have three children, so they asked to join me, DH and DD for our three day cruise. Their youngest child is joining us in our room so that the rest of them can get a room for 4. This way, her family is saving $$ and my daughter has her cousins for fun on the cruise! We do not have connecting rooms, but the rooms are next to each other.

After hearing about this plan, my best friend, her husband and three children want to join us for a seven day cruise in 2005!

 

[my3kids]

You can get connecting rooms in most categories. Two category 10 rooms would give more space than one category 4 room. You can leave the connecting door always open so it is more "suite" like. You could lock the hall door that the children are in and everyone always use the door into your room from the hallway. Then the children don't really even notice there is a doorway to the hall from their area....they only have used the on through Mom and Dad's room. But, with the connecting door all the way open, you would always know if they woke up at night.....they would basically be right at the end of your bed.