family of five...which cat.?

[rob'n]

Hi! We are a family of five. At the time of our cruise, dd will be 10, ds will be 8 and little ds will be 4. It is the kid's first cruise (only our second...first on DCL, though!) and we'd like to go with a verandah. Should we do the cat. 4 or two adjoining, connecting rooms at a cat. 5 or 6? I have not priced out a cat. 3...but for those who have done this, is the space worth the price difference?

Thank you so much...this is my first time asking a question! I have been taking everything in...only have posted a time or time before! I am addicted to these boards and they are really helping me get through this messy winter!

 

[Favorite Auntie]

Two Cat 5 or 6 will be very expensive...Usually when families of 5 get two rooms they go for cat 11 or cat 10. Two cat 5 or 6 would be very luxurious!

Is this a 7 day or 3 or 4 day cruise? If money is not a problem I would go woth the two cat 6 rooms....

 

[rob'n]

Thanks for the insight! I do not want to spend our hard-earned money foolishly. We are planning a 7 night in October of 2005. We understand that this is one of the cheaper times to travel (barring hurricanes) and it will give us many months to save for the trip. It is our first real family vacation in many years and the older kids have been begging for this for so long. We plan on surprising them. We are just waiting for those dates to open up!!

 

[trishy]

This family of 5 uses a Cat 4 - with the exception of the upcoming Xmas cruise because they are now sold out and we couldn't switch from our 2 cabins to one cat 4 - but that's another, long, boring story. The Cat 4 has plenty of room and the bunks for the kids. It's really comfy. We're doing a verandah on deck 7 with an inside cabin right across for the Xmas cruise - only because the Cat 4 were gone. There was no need to pay the extra $$$ for another verandah when it's just going to be for our dd15 and dd11 (at cruise time) - who will only use it for a measly 6 hours of sleep each night - there's just toooooo much to do on the cruise and not enough time.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

Too bad your kids are so young. If they were older I would say that you and your hubby should get the verandah and put the kids across the hall in a cat 11 or 10 inside..

I have cruised in a cat 11, cat 9 and cat 8, and they were all fine. You don't spend much time in your room anyway. Especially since your kids will be past taking naps. Two inside rooms might save you a ton of money and leave more momey to spend in the islands.

In November there will be 7 of us and we will have two cat 11's right next to each other. I can't wait!

 

[rob'n]

Thanks for all the great info. I absolutely do not know how I am going to stand waiting almost a year and a half! Good luck with your upcoming cruises...can't wait to hear all about them. I will be living vicariously through you all!

 

[minniesota]

I think a lot of your decision should be based on what kind of traveler you are. We just returned from the 1/24 eastern and had connecting Cat. 5 rooms with verandahs. We are a family of 4. DD12 and DS10. We like a lot of down time while on vacation and really enjoy privacy. Sitting chair to chair around the pool or at the beach does not appeal to us. So we used our verandah A LOT - and the kids used theirs to play cards, games, eat room service, and just hang with their new friends. We could never do an inside room - I'd rather save and always have a verandah.

The friends we met on the cruise had a porthole room because their travel agent convinced them they wouldn't need the verandah and that they wouldn't be in the room that much. Once she saw our verandah and spent some time there, she said she'd never NOT have a verandah again.

On the other hand, there are those travelers who love all the action and lke to be in the middle of it all! The crowds at the pool and beach energize them and they most likely subscribe to the "more the merrier" way of life. They probably are only in their rooms to sleep and the verandah would be a waste>

So it depends on how you like to travel. To us, privacy and quiet time are what we are looking for on vacation. All the activity and people are there if we're in the mood, but there's nothing like sitting together alone on your verandah looking at the sea and skies go by! To us, that's vacation time.

 

[outahere]

On the $$$$ issue............ keep in mind that the first two people in a cabin pay the adult rate. So..... if you have two cabins, you will be paying for 4 adults.

We had a cat 3 on our first DCL cruise, and the room was very nice. However, unless you plan on spending a LOT of time in your room, I would go with one cat 4.

 

[rob'n]

I had not thought about being charged for 4 adults even though we would be just 2 adults with 3 kids in two rooms!! Wow!

I have read somewhere that in the cat. 4, it is difficult to use the verandah when the murphy bed is pulled down. Any thoughts on this? We soooo loved the verandah we had on our one and only cruise. We used it way more than I could ever have imagined.

I am just saying to myself..."isn't it nice to have your biggest problem of the day be...hmmm...what room should we book for our cruise that is 20 months away??" I am pathetic but these boards go a long way in keeping me sane!!

 

[Rock'n Robin]

We had a cat. 4 on our Wonder cruise last summer. When the bed is down you have to step over it or on it if you want to go out on the verandah. I didn't think it was worth whining about, though, we loved the room!
Robin M.

 

[outahere]

If free and easy access to the verandah is important to you, I would call DCL and price a cat 3 when the dates you want open up. In some of the cat 3 rooms, there is a Murphy bed in the master bedroom which would block access to the verandah, but there is another door in the living room which you could use, even with the sofa bed pulled out. The other nice thing about a cat 3 or above is having 2 full bathrooms. I have to think that a cat 3 would be cheaper than 2 cat 5 or 6 rooms.

 

[minniesota]

rob 'n,

Not sure when you are going but I just looked at All Seasons Travel's website where we booked this year to see what you would pay in Jan. next year (just as an example). A Cat. 6 for 2 people is $2495 and a Cat.6 for 3 is $3142 for a total of $5637. A Cat. 4 for 5 people is $5137. So for $500 more you get two bathrooms - actually 4 if you count the split as 2 rooms! You get two verandahs and double the drawer space/ closet space. You also have a cabin where all three of the kids can have their own bed and you and DH get your own stateroom! You get twice the square footage. We are at the point when we travel that we like to have separate sleeping areas if at all possible. Everyone seems to sleep much better - especially me! More things to consider - have fun!

 

[scottie]

We will be sailing for a second time this May in a Cat 4 room, 3 adults and 2 kids. We thought about getting two rooms this time but enjoyed the cat 4 so much we went for it again.

 

[nato]

We loved our cat 4. We have three children, ages 10, 10 and 4. It was perfect for us and we had plenty of room.

 

[rob'n]

Thank you so much to everyone...I guess we just have to wait now til they open up Fall of 2005! I can't even imagine how much info I will have learned by then...how can people go to WDW or on DCL without these boards? I kinda feel bad for them!

Robin