Cat 3 Room Size??

[Willowwind]

We're thinking of getting a Cat 3 room, and I'm curious about it's size. For those of you who've stayed in Cat 3, how many people do you think you could comfortably have in there for a small cocktail party?

We'll have a few friends along with us and I am hoping to use our room as a gathering place, and after seeing the pictures of them as a possible solution to my Vow Renewal dilemma.

 

[prymsu]

huge - compared to the majority of the other cabins. I am not sure on square feet - but I know they are pretty big. check out Barb's site for photos and info...and Dave may have stuff on his site too...


www.castawayclub.com

www.dcltribute.com

 

[Willowwind]

I know that they're 614 sqft. But it's hard for me to get a visual on how many people you could have in there mingling just from the picture. Which is why I was hoping that someone could give me an idea of how many adults could mingle comfortably inside.

From the stateroom picture on the disneycruise.com it looks like there's a place for 8 people to be sitting all at once in the living room, 2 chairs on the verandah, and 1 in the bedroom.

Would it be unreasonable to think that I could have 8 adults and 3 children hanging out in the room and be fairly comfortable?

 

[akterrye]

Why couldn't you use one of the conference rooms on deck 2?

 

[BeanoC]

We are having a cocktail party in our cat 3 suite next month. I expect 20-25 people, and that will be no trouble at all, although some may need to be on the verandah. I'd say you could have 12-14 comfortably inside, but the verandah on our suite will hold twice that.


'Beano'

 

[ennazus]

Is there a charge for those conference rooms?

 

[Willowwind]

Originally posted by akterrye
Why couldn't you use one of the conference rooms on deck 2?

Well, because we're going on the cruise to renew our vows, and I want to do it on deck. However, I can't do that if I use FTW, I can only do it in the Cadilac Loungeat 4pm. I'm not so sure that I want to do that.

So, my thought was that I could spend the money that Dis charges for a vow renewal on a Cat 3 room instead. My husband and I could then quietly exchange vows at sunset on the verandah with our guests watching.

If I could afford the Diensy Suite I'd go that way, but that's WAY out of budget for me.

Cheers!

~Willowwind

 

[akterrye]

ennazus: I have no idea, but I'm sure a quick call to DCL and they would be happy to tell you one way or the other.

 

[disneydebk]

Hi!

If you can, try to book one of the Cat. 3's that is bigger than the others.......8532, 8534, 8032, or 8034.......That is what we did.....

 

[jlima]

PLEASE do more research before you decide about your reception! We had 8546 on our cruise and our family of four people barely fit it there. . . yes, there's furniture for several people to sit but there's so little room to move around that if you have this type of room you'll be disappointed. The wet bar isn't very accessible because the dining table is pushed up against it; you have to push a chair aside to open the cabinet door where the trash can is. The door to the veranda from the sitting room isn't very accessible either; it's behind a chair and you have to squeeze between this chair and the entertainment center to access the veranda door. When the sofa bed is set up at night you can't walk between the Entertainment center and the bed; you have to lay down on the bed to operate the CD player. We spent all our time in my mom's cabin or my brother's cabin, 8532 or 8534. They never came into our cabin even once - it was too tiny to socialize in.

There are 18 cat 3 suites - 4 handicapped accessible, 4 larger suites whose room numbers end in 32 or 34, and the other 10 are the floor plan that's in the DCL marketing materials that are advertised as being 614 square feet (like 8546, the one we had). On our cruise last summer I asked the Concierge how many square feet the 32 and 34 rooms were and she refused to tell me; they sell these cabins for the same price but you certainly don't get the same quality of accommodation.

I would do the reception in your cabin ONLY if you have one of the 32 and 34 rooms. The sitting room is quite large and the veranda is very accessible, without furniture blocking the doors. I would not try what you want to do in the suite we had. NEVER - just too crowded with furniture. Hope this helps!

 

[Willowwind]

The points you make about having to move around the furniture are exactaly what I was thinking the problems might be. Even in the floor plan diagram it look over crowded with furniture pushed up against stuff. I couldn't tell if that was just the diagram or what.

Would you have been happy in a 32 or 34 room? We'll have 5 of us staying in the room (2 adults, 3 elementary school age kids).

My original plan was to go with a Delux Family Room with Verandah and just add the Disney Vow Renewal Package, which includes concierge service.

I just can't make up my mind, and it's driving my husband nuts. He wants me to just book it already, but never having cruised before, I keep coming up with new ideas. Maybe I just need to sit down and make a pros/cons list. But then again maybe I should just flip a coin.

 

[jlima]

I would have been ESTATIC in one of those cabins. We were 2 adults, DS7 & DS16 mos. We had a pack-n-play for the little guy to sleep in and we asked for a high chair to be brought to the room for him so we were more crowded. My mom was quite disappointed in our cabin; the one time she set foot in our cabin during the entire cruise all she could say was she thought we were all getting the same accommodations. I sent DCL a letter after our cruise and their response was that the cat 3 price was based on the amenities provided and not the size of the cabins!!! They don't care that stuffing all that furniture into 600 sq ft of space is inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst. I can't complain about value for money since I didn't pay for my cruise (gift from my mom) but if we had been in a 32 or 34 cabin I could have gone onto the veranda without climbing over the sofa bed, used the trash can under the wet bar without pushing aside a chair every time, used the CD player at night without lying down on the sofa bed, etc. etc. . .

If you go with a cat 3 suite and you have 3 kids, you'll have to sleep 2 of them on the sofa bed and 1 in the pull-down bed. If you have the cabin I had, THE PULL DOWN BED IS IN THE BEDROOM!!! You'd have to crawl over it and your child to go onto the veranda at night. Also, there's a chair and ottoman in the bedroom just in front of the pull-down bed . . . I have no idea where they put this if that bed is set up (we didn't use it on our cruise since the little guy was in the pack n play).

I would go with the cat 4 room and do your vow renewal in the lounge. If we ever cruise again on DCL it'll be a cat 4 cabin . . . the cat 3 cabin IMHO isn't worth the $$$ they charge. Hope this helps!

 

[Willowwind]

Originally posted by jlima
If you have the cabin I had, THE PULL DOWN BED IS IN THE BEDROOM!!! You'd have to crawl over it and your child to go onto the veranda at night. <snip> Hope this helps!

Ugh! Well that just takes away one of the bonus of having the seperate bedroom. Hubby likes to sleep in in the morning and the kids wake up early, plus I had hoped for easy access to the verandah for morning coffee. It hadn't even occured to me where the pull down bed would be. My original plan is looking better and better.

If I'm not going to be removed from the kids, and still not have easy access to the verandah, I'm not so sure that the dining table is all that important. For $1,000 less I can stay in a cat 4 room with the wedding package.

You've helped a ton Jilima, I think that I'll just stay with my original plan. Hubby always says that a decission is best made in the space of 7 heartbeats. I'll just go with my gut.

 

[jlima]

If you have the cat 3 rooms that end in 32 or 34 the pull-down bed is in the sitting room . . . another advantage to this suite. IMHO they should sell these 4 cabins as their own category & price it accordingly, and not sell the cabin I had for the same price as these four.

I think you'll be very happy in the Family Suite. I think there's a room divider that can separate you from your kids. Best of luck in your planning and I'd be happy to answer any ??s.

 

[disneyholic family]

we were in 8534 (one of the bigger cat 3 rooms) and it was GORGEOUS and well worth the extra money....
the pull down bed is in the living room...so the kids would all be in the living room (and there are two FULL baths in the cat 3 making it much much much more convenient than the cat 4 family suites...the kids would have a bathroom with a shower in it....your bathroom would have a bath and shower)....
and tehre's tons of stirage space as well..
they are slightly cramped at night when the beds are opened, but the CMs make the rooms up again first thing in the morning, so there's lots of room druing the day...
plus it's nice to have 2 tvs when you're traveling with kids...

since you know in advance which room you're getting, you'll know if you have one of these 4 staterooms (8032,8034, 8532, 8534)....at least we knew which room we were getting (we booked directly with DCL).....i looked at the deckplan when i made the reservation and immediately saw that 8534 was much bigger than most of the other cat 3 rooms...that's why i took it...

as i said, it was well worth the extra money i paid over the cat 4 (and for us it was $2000 more, since i booked so far in advance i had a huge discount for the cat 4 room i'd reserved, but the cat 3 rooms weren't discounted....so the extra cost was quite significant....it was worth every penny i paid)...

bottom line....if i were you i'd go with one of those 4 large cat 3 rooms......it's a special occasion....those rooms will make you FEEL as if it's special....they are beautiful....

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by BeanoC
We are having a cocktail party in our cat 3 suite next month. I expect 20-25 people, and that will be no trouble at all, although some may need to be on the verandah. I'd say you could have 12-14 comfortably inside, but the verandah on our suite will hold twice that.


'Beano'

No way. I had one of the larger Cat 3 suites, and there is no way that 20-25 people would be comfortable for a cocktail party in it. It will seat 12 in the stateroom (if you squeeze four skinny butts on the sofa and use the ottoman for one person, and bring the chair from the vanity in the master bedroom out), and there are six more chairs on the verandah (which will not fit into the room), but putting that many people in that room, that would be so tight that it wouldn't be enjoyable. It would also get very hot very quickly, as the AC turns off when the sliders are open. Also, if it rains, the balcony could get very wet. In one of the smaller Cat 3 suites you'd be hard pressed to put in ten people without tripping over each other. In the larger ones, maybe 16-18 people or so would work. But NO WAY 25.

Also, keep in mind that many of these rooms are connecting, and your neighbors might not appreciate the amount of noise being generated by 25 people...

Anne

 

[Willowwind]

Well, now I'm all freaking out and can't decided what I want to do!!! Aauugh!!! I'm *WAY* overplanning.. help!

Okay... I'm better now.

Taking the cocktail party out of the mix, it sounds like either way I go (Cat3 or Cat4), I'm going to have to crawl over sleeping kids to get to the verandah in the morning *unless* I have one of "the four" larger rooms Cat 3 rooms.

 

[BeanoC]

Ducklite - Wanna bet?


We already did it last year and it was no problem, although we only had 16 people but there was room to spare on the verandah. Good point though about the neighbors... we'll just keep it down and make the drinkers leave early! LOL


'Beano'