Family Split between Cabins

[aliron]

What are some of the issues that may come up if one family is in different cabins on the reservation when you are checking in and on the ship?

Such as Adults being switched or children being switched. I know Disney may not care where people sleep and not trying to overload a cabin, but I am trying to spread some pixie dust for first time cruisers.

1. Does everyone have to check in at port together just to make sure everyone can get on?
   
2. What about room keys? Can Guest Services make additional cards so the right people have access to the room they want to sleep in?
   
3. Can GS keep charging privalages straight so each adult/child has the correct person paying the bill at the end of the cruise?
   
4. How do you hand charging privaleges? Say for instance an adult need to remember the room on the reservation or where they are actually sleeping?
   
5. Any other issues?

Thanks.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

What are some of the issues that may come up if one family is in different cabins on the reservation when you are checking in and on the ship?

Such as Adults being switched or children being switched. I know Disney may not care where people sleep and not trying to overload a cabin, but I am trying to spread some pixie dust for first time cruisers.

1. Does everyone have to check in at port together just to make sure everyone can get on?
   
2. What about room keys? Can Guest Services make additional cards so the right people have access to the room they want to sleep in?
   
3. Can GS keep charging privalages straight so each adult/child has the correct person paying the bill at the end of the cruise?
   
4. How do you hand charging privaleges? Say for instance an adult need to remember the room on the reservation or where they are actually sleeping?
   
5. Any other issues?

Thanks.

Another issue would be that each person must report to the lifeboat station that they are assigned by their reservation, not where they are sleeping, for the muster drill. So, if little Freddy is booked in a room with Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob, he must go to the lifeboat assigned to that room.

 

[mammacaryn]

We took the inlaws on our last cruise, neither had cruised before that.

We got adjoining rooms.

I booked my husband, myself and one of our children in one cabin.

I booked the new cruisers and one of my children in the other...this way since there was a castaway club member in the other room (my child)my inlaws got the castaway club gifts to take home as well.

One downside we didn't think about/realize until afterwards is that our travel agent booked us in 2 , three person rooms so my kids did NOT get bunk beds...

Also, our adjoining cabins did NOT connect on the verandah. There are a handful of these out there and we just happened to get one of the pairs of rooms like that.

Even though the kids were in two rooms, all consent forms etc were with our names. Our kids do not have charging privleges so that wasn't an issue with us.

Since we had adjoining rooms we didn't need to worry about the key issue we just kept the door propped.

We all checked in together since we booked our daughter in the other room. Upside to this, we were supposed to have 2 different boarding numbers but they put us all in the same group

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We took the inlaws on our last cruise, neither had cruised before that.

We got adjoining rooms.

I booked my husband, myself and one of our children in one cabin.

I booked the new cruisers and one of my children in the other...this way since there was a castaway club member in the other room (my child)my inlaws got the castaway club gifts to take home as well.

One downside we didn't think about/realize until afterwards is that our travel agent booked us in 2 , three person rooms so my kids did NOT get bunk beds...

Also, our adjoining cabins did NOT connect on the verandah. There are a handful of these out there and we just happened to get one of the pairs of rooms like that.

Even though the kids were in two rooms, all consent forms etc were with our names. Our kids do not have charging privleges so that wasn't an issue with us.

Since we had adjoining rooms we didn't need to worry about the key issue we just kept the door propped.

We all checked in together since we booked our daughter in the other room. Upside to this, we were supposed to have 2 different boarding numbers but they put us all in the same group

Adjoining = next to each other (no interior connecting door).
Connecting = having a connecting door inside.

 

[mammacaryn]

Adjoining = next to each other (no interior connecting door).
Connecting = having a connecting door inside.

Sorry....

We had CONNECTING rooms.

Don't know that you had to copy and paste my entire post to point out a common mistake

 

[mdinowitz]

If you have your family split between 2 rooms, and a person registered in one room ends up staying in the other room guest services can issue that person an extra key. The charging priveleges remain on the room where you are registered, and the extra key is blank and will only open the other stateroom door. We had two connecting rooms, and had to register an adult in each room, but on the cruise my husband and I stayed in one room and the kids in the other. I had to carry around 2 cards in my lanyard. Since I was registered in the "kids room", I used that card for getting on/off the ship and charging, and the blank card to open the stateroom door. It wasn't hard to keep straight, because one card has your name, etc and the other is blank. You can also attach individual credit cards to different people in one room. We brought along our babysitter (who decided once we got on the ship that she wasn't so intested in babysitting, but that's another story...) and after she charged drinks to our account, we went down to guest services and had her credit card attached to her room key. From that pont on we did not see any of her charges on our account. It really wasn't a hassle at all, every once in a while I had to stop and think when I was charging something and they asked me my room number. I also had to take the second card out of my lanyard to open the door- it didn't work with both cards in there- but again it was no big deal.

 

[leahmichl]

I am trying to spread some pixie dust for first time cruisers.

We did the same for our next cruise, in March. The travel agent we worked with has done this before, and has been double-checking with DCL each question I ask to be certain... Currently my family of 4 is split up over 4 rooms so we can all book excursions together at the same point. Our TA assures us it is no problem at all, and we can swap everyone around as soon as we get onboard at Guest Services.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We did the same for our next cruise, in March. The travel agent we worked with has done this before, and has been double-checking with DCL each question I ask to be certain... Currently my family of 4 is split up over 4 rooms so we can all book excursions together at the same point. Our TA assures us it is no problem at all, and we can swap everyone around as soon as we get onboard at Guest Services.

But, I will point out again, whatever room a person is registered in is the one that they use for their lifeboat station. Not the room they are sleeping in.

And it is possible for different rooms (even adjoining ones) to have different muster stations. BTDT

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

But, I will point out again, whatever room a person is registered in is the one that they use for their lifeboat station. Not the room they are sleeping in.

And it is possible for different rooms (even adjoining ones) to have different muster stations. BTDT

We've always booked 2 rooms and many times those rooms were in different muster stations- we've always been allowed to go together to ONE muster station and check in there. It's never been a problem on Magic, Wonder or Fantasy and none of them have ever made us split up and go to our assigned muster stations for each room. We generally pick the one we like best and go there and check in. They handle it smoothly without so much as a look of surprise. I think they are used to it.
(side note though- we're usually a family with only 2 adults. So maybe this is why we haven't had a problem with it. If it's more than 2 adults with the children like extended family- they may ask that you split up as you are booked instead of all together?)

to answer OP:
1. yes I think so. but then we've always been 2 rooms for our family with kids (ie: not extended family- all one immediate family-so we'd have to check in together ofcourse. the kids staying in their room can't check themselves on since they are minors LOL not sure how it work with other adult relatives and switching rooms. We only have to switch because we need one adult "on paper" booked in the rooms but not sleeping one adult with child(ren) in each rom.
2. Yes they will make you additional keys but they'll be blank (unless you ask them to mark them with room number or you mark them in some way to differentiate them. Which we did because we'd have several blank keys- for each adult to have a key to both rooms)
3. yes
4. yes you remember which room you're booked in. the room you're booked in is where you are "officially" and where your charging privileges are "located" for lack of a better way of putting it. that's not usually a problem though if you just present your key that is NOT blank (ie has your name/etc. on it- the room key you were given for the room you are booked in. NOT the blank key card you had made to get in the room you're sleeping in)
5. no other issues except making sure the room you/everyone is sleeping in has the right amount/sizes of life vests in that room.

 

[miyta]

But, I will point out again, whatever room a person is registered in is the one that they use for their lifeboat station. Not the room they are sleeping in.

And it is possible for different rooms (even adjoining ones) to have different muster stations. BTDT

this was true for us, but not difficult to handle. We split up for 30 minutes to different muster stations.
Our last cruise we had 3 cabins but only slept in one of them. We had 2 "dummy" cards that were blank but allowed access to the cabin and we ech had our assigned cards. Guest Services was great with issuing the cards no problem- arrnaging the billing all on one invoice, etc
Does everyone have to check in at port together just to make sure everyone can get on?- no as long as they are adults- you can come one at a time

What about room keys? Can Guest Services make additional cards so the right people have access to the room they want to sleep in? yes but the person registered in the cabin most of the time has to be the one requesting the "dummy" key for someone else. Although last cruise I went up and asked for dummy keys for all 3 of our cabins and they gave them to me

Can GS keep charging privalages straight so each adult/child has the correct person paying the bill at the end of the cruise? your dummy key will not allow charges- charges will go to the cabin you are registered in which may not be the cabin you are sleeping in. Although if you wanted to you could potentially have the people reassigned which seems like a hassle but we did do this once as our relatives only cruised with us 7 of 14 days and we sold their suite to some guests onboard that we had met thru cruise critic. The cruise critic friends got an awesome suite for $300- we stayed in our suite and we assumed the "inside cabin" from the cc friends (we had to have a second cabin since the suite only slept 4 and we had 5) - so we had guest services change the physical names on the cabin as we did not want to just "trade" rooms with them- we didnt want to have any responsibility for the room since we did not know them

How do you hand charging privaleges? Say for instance an adult need to remember the room on the reservation or where they are actually sleeping?
charging privileges- All charges will come to my cabin from the 3 cabins we have next cruise. the kids do not have charging prvivileges. The dummy/extra cards will not have charging privileges. each person with charging privs can have their charges billed to a different credit card or the same- you guys decide

Any other issues?

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

^^ did they tell you that you had to? or did you just go to your assigned stations based on what room you were booked in? Just curious. Ours was as recent as on Fantasy in June. They've never even seemed to have an issue with this at all. We just told them we were in two rooms but together and told them the room numbers and they just said ok with a smile and told us where to sit or stand and that was that. LOL