DCL inside stateroom, any advice?

[DianaMB333]

Hi.
We are planning a 3 night cruise and seems like inside stateroom will be our pick.. any advice on special requests about location? Is it a true difference vs the one with small pothole?
Thanks

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi.
We are planning a 3 night cruise and seems like inside stateroom will be our pick.. any advice on special requests about location? Is it a true difference vs the one with small pothole?
Thanks

Yes, it's different. I don't know what ship your talking about, but there's no natural light in those rooms. The Dream class ships have the virtual porthole, which makes it seem like you are looking outside, but you're not.

My, personally, I need the actual daylight coming in.

That said, I did manage to survive a 4 night Dream cruise in an interior room (I had to see the virtual porthole).

 

[DianaMB333]

Indeed it is Disney Dream... did not notice that ship will make a diffetence..

 

[GPaLarry]

Yes, the Dream and Fantasy have magic portholes while the two older, smaller Wonder & Magic do not...just four walls with pictures. Those that use them often explain that they don't spend that much time in their staterooms. Too much else going elsewhere on the ship.
Now, I can't wait to see what they do with the new ships. Perhaps a virtual verandah is in the works for the inside staterooms. Maybe you put on goggles when you enter the room and, much like in the Harry Potter series, the interior becomes a 20-room palace with bowling ally. We can only hope...

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

We sailed a 7-night cruise on the Fantasy (sister ship to the Dream, with identical staterooms), in a standard inside stateroom and loved it. We were a party of 2, so it was enough room for us. The virtual porthole was charming. We enjoyed relaxing in the room watching Disney On-Demand. We didn't at all feel like we needed to always be away from our stateroom because it was an inside. It was a nice stateroom.

I remember doing a Cub Scout overnight visit on the U.S.S. Lexington (a WWII vessel fyi) where we slept in the sailors' bunks, ate in the mess hall and used a communal bathroom. During that visit we also got to walk through the captain's quarters. It was a small, but private and comfortable, inside cabin with its own bathroom, and it was the relative lap of luxury from our perspective. I always reflect on that when reading about how some people say they couldn't possibly stay in an inside stateroom on a Disney cruise ship...

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Hi.
We are planning a 3 night cruise and seems like inside stateroom will be our pick.. any advice on special requests about location? Is it a true difference vs the one with small pothole?
Thanks

I sailed in an inside stateroom once. It was on the Fantasy so we had the magic porthole. It was fine, but I quickly decided I needed natural light, so every cruise since then has been either ocean view or verandah. But that's just a personal preference, and it is much less of an issue on a 3 night cruise than on a 7 night cruise.

One small thing, it may just be the way you worded your question, but when booking a cruise, you don't make a "special request" for a stateroom location. You either book a specific stateroom or you book a GTY room (when a certain percentage of staterooms in a category are booked, they only allow you to book the category, not a specific stateroom, and will assign you to a room either in that category or better) or a *GT rate (a discounted fare with significant restrictions, one being you have no say over what room you are placed in other than the broad category of inside, oceanview, or verandah). If you book either GTY or *GT, I guess you could ask that a request be noted for location, but you are not very likely to have your request granted.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Hi.
We are planning a 3 night cruise and seems like inside stateroom will be our pick.. any advice on special requests about location? Is it a true difference vs the one with small pothole?
Thanks

As a family of four we almost exclusively cruise in connecting inside staterooms, we all agree having 2 insides is way better than the 4 of us cramming in one balcony. On the Dream class ships we always try to get the cabins in the picture below. They are midship, but also have the same set ups in the fore and aft. They are great because you have your own little private hallway so they are really quiet. We prefer decks 8 and 9 because we don’t like to use the elevators and this way we can walk up or down a few flights to get where we need to be.

We love the magic portholes on the Dream and Fantasy. Also, as a frame of reference the portholes are on the wall opposite the door into the cabins and will have a view of that area off the ship. So, cabin 8051 would seem like you’re looking off the back deck of the ship, 8059 would have a view like your looking forward off the front of the ship.

There is also a switch for the portholes above the bed so you can turn them off at night if you want. When are kids were younger we left them on for them all night as a little nightlight.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Im a solo cruiser and I have booked my first cruise for September and I have an inside stateroom. The lack of windows does not bother me, I sleep at home with blackout blinds and have previous stayed in budget pod style hotel rooms with no windows. For me there was no option, it was either an inside stateroom with no windows or not go on the cruise.

I'm not planning on spending much time in the room, I can't wait to experience the ship.

Just some things to note,

• The standard inside rooms do not have the split bathroom, only the deluxe inside staterooms have the split bathrooms.
• There are a limited number of sideways standard inside staterooms, I'm booked in one on The Magic. These rooms have the same footprint as the regular standard inside staterooms, but are configured differently. I have read trip reports that said the different configuration makes them feel more spacious.

 

[fredandkell]

Two of my four DCL cruises have been in inside staterooms. If we book Europe 2021 that will be inside too. I like them just fine, on both classes of ship.

 

[cvjw]

We booked an inside cabin on the magic, after only having extended verandahs on the fantasy. We hated an inside stateroom. We missed being able to see daylight, see the ocean, feel the ocean breezes, and see the stars at night.

We spend a good bit of time in our cabins, so verandahs are a must do for us.

 

[Lisa F]

as you are probably figuring out from the range of responses, it really is a matter of whether you intend to spend time in your room or just use it for changing/sleeping.

I have stayed in an inside stateroom and I didn't hate it - and I slept better than I have probably in my entire life.

BUT one of the biggest pleasures for me is sitting out on my own verandah in peace and quiet so I would not book without one - not because an inside room is BAD but because that is one of my absolute favorite things about cruising.

 

[Geomom]

I just wanted to add that for oceanview rooms, the 1 porthole is not a 'small' porthole. I haven't been on the Dream/Fantasy, so I don't have personal experience with their oceanview rooms. The Magic/Wonder deck 2 porthole rooms are pretty large and let in a lot of light. DD19 and I are both a bit claustrophobic, so we need an oceanview room, just the fact that there is a window is enough for us!

Here are links to Disney's stateroom pics/info:
https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships/dream/staterooms-oceanview/https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships/dream/staterooms-inside/

 

[TRTRguy]

It is best to get a deluxe inside room, those are the ones with the split baths

 

[otten]

For me location on the ship matters more than having a porthole. I would far prefer to be in an 11a of b on decks 5,6 or 7 and not have a window than be on decks 1 and 2 with a porthole.

 

[plethera1]

Our family typically gets a verandah room but only because we don't cruise that often. My wife and I had an inside room on another cruise line and really liked how dark it stayed for sleeping as we like to sleep in a little. As others have said, if the light thing bothers you, you will just end up outside of the room more often. Not much reason to be in the room anyway.

 

[Drfate102]

One of the things to look into is an obstructed view ocean view. We had one on the Dream on the bow of the ship and the room was huge and had actual sunlight coming in. And it was cheaper than a standard ocean view.

 

[Andrew96]

I've stayed in inside, ocean view, and extended verandah cabins across the two classes of ships. While the saying "Any room on a Disney Cruise is better than no room at all" is certainly true, I do prefer natural lighting and an actual view for the little time that I do plan to spend in the room. Unless the price difference is substantially different between an inside and ocean view cabin for a particular sailing, I'll usually devote a few more dollars to the ocean view, or even verandah. Its only 2 of us travelling so any room will do. On my upcoming Fantasy cruise in Sept., I went with a Category 9B ocean view room as it was only about $150 more than a standard inside (l like Deck 2 for its proximity to many areas, and I am a stair climber anyway). We agreed not to do a verandah. While on my last sailing on the Dream I had an absolutely wonderful aft extended verandah, cabin 9176, I felt like I needed to spend more time in it to justify having such room instead of utilizing public space more. I guess it all depends on your family's preferences and budget!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

For me location on the ship matters more than having a porthole. I would far prefer to be in an 11a of b on decks 5,6 or 7 and not have a window than be on decks 1 and 2 with a porthole.

It really is personal preference because I would take an oceanview room on deck 2 over an inside room on any deck. I haven't stayed in a room on deck 1 yet so I can't say if that would make a difference for me.

 

[Andrew96]

It really is personal preference because I would take an oceanview room on deck 2 over an inside room on any deck. I haven't stayed in a room on deck 1 yet so I can't say if that would make a difference for me.

I agree, I love Deck 2 ocean views on the Dream/Fantasy. I've also stayed Deck 1 on the Magic years ago and had 2 small port holes instead of a single larger port hole. They also had a latch cover that would swing open or close which made it seem like we were in submarine haha.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I agree, I love Deck 2 ocean views on the Dream/Fantasy. I've also stayed Deck 1 on the Magic years ago and had 2 small port holes instead of a single larger port hole. They also had a latch cover that would swing open or close which made it seem like we were in submarine haha.

The one time I stayed on deck 2 was on the Wonder, and I really liked the location. It was a room with one larger porthole, not the two small ones. I thought going in that I'd miss being on a higher deck but discovered I enjoyed being closer to the water.