Family spread across 3 rooms...

[MommaBerd]

Another thread brought up some questions about our situation. We have seven people spread across three rooms - 2 rooms are connected and one is across the hall. Do we *have* to stay in the rooms under which the reservation was made? My MIL just sort of spread us out, without any real thought as to which kids were in which room. Is that a big deal? Also, since we have 3 separate reservations, is there a chance we'd be at different tables for meals?
Thanks so much!

 

[belac]

if she linked all the rooms in the reservation (which hopefully she did) for dining then they should seat you together. If not call DCL to get them linked. You don't have to all stay (sleep) where she put you. She may have done that to get privileges for the staterooms. I.E. she is a gold member and put kids in her room so they also get gold member privileges like an earlier booking window, to get better options of all of you getting the same excursions, PAT time, etc..I would ask her what her planning thoughts were. But keep in mind although booked in separate room and can change to sleep, those people have to show up at that rooms Muster station.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

It's not a big deal to switch where people are sleeping when you are on the ship. The biggest issue is that people's KTTW cards will be tied to the room they are reserved in. You can get additional stateroom keys made at guest services. Those staying in a room they are not reserved to will have to carry around both cards. Since two of the rooms are connecting, you could just leave the connecting door unlocked at all times so the only ones that will have to carry around two keys are those that switch between the single room across the hall and one of the connecting rooms.

As for dining, as long as they 3 reservations are linked, you will be dining together.

 

[Weedy]

It doesnt matter who sleeps where. but...
A child is only allowed to leave the ship with the adult of the cabin they are assigned to. You will need to go to Guest services and fill out paperwork to allow them to leave the ship. Even if that person is their parent they can only leave with the adult in their cabin.
Also you can go to Guest Services and get extra room keys. The Key Card they get will only open the cabin they are assigned to. Make sure when you leave the ship everyone has the key card with their name on it not the one that opens the door.
Some cabins only sleep 3 so if you are a family of 4 there won't be a bed for everyone.
You can split up the cabins key cards on different credit cards so each families charges goes to their credit cards, This is also done at Guest Services.
Call Disney Cruise and have your reservation "linked" that way you will all be seated together at dinner.

Have a geat cruise.

 

[MommaBerd]

Thank you all for your helpful replies! My MIL has only been on one cruise herself and probably just spread out kids by adult and for no other reason. Though, I would have hoped her TA would have asked a few more questions about room assignments.

@Weedy - Your info is especially helpful as two of our kids are assigned to the room with my MIL. So, if we were to do an excursion without her, that would have been a big surprise.

I have all of our reservations and I *think* I have linked them through the DCL website, but I will double check.

 

[aidtrismommy]

My son was assigned to my parent's room and my sister to my room. I wanted my son switched back to my room once we boarded as he would be sleeping in my room. I can't remember if we had this changed at check-in or once onboard at guest services but it was not a problem and we got new key cards reflecting the change.

 

[poohs4me]

You can get spare keys for other rooms at guest services but they will be without charging privileges and will not get you off the ship.

A child is only allowed to leave the ship with the adult of the cabin they are assigned to. You will need to go to Guest services and fill out paperwork to allow them to leave the ship. Even if that person is their parent they can only leave with the adult in their cabin

We fill this form out every cruise and every time it doesn't fail that security flags one of the kids accompanying the parent off. Its frustrating to say the least. My BIL gets very irritated at the security people has even shown them a copy of the form we filed and eventually they give in.

 

[MommaBerd]

So is it difficult to move people around on the reservation(s)? I'm assuming yes.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

So is it difficult to move people around on the reservation(s)? I'm assuming yes.

If you actually want to change who is reserved in each room, let your travel agent know and they can work it out with DCL. I don't believe it is too difficult as long as each room ends up with the same number of people. Keep in mind that some combinations of people over multiple staterooms work out better financially than other combinations. It's possible the TA organized the people in your party according to what would give the best overall rate.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It doesnt matter who sleeps where. but...
A child is only allowed to leave the ship with the adult of the cabin they are assigned to. You will need to go to Guest services and fill out paperwork to allow them to leave the ship. Even if that person is their parent they can only leave with the adult in their cabin.
Also you can go to Guest Services and get extra room keys. The Key Card they get will only open the cabin they are assigned to. Make sure when you leave the ship everyone has the key card with their name on it not the one that opens the door.
Some cabins only sleep 3 so if you are a family of 4 there won't be a bed for everyone.
You can split up the cabins key cards on different credit cards so each families charges goes to their credit cards, This is also done at Guest Services.
Call Disney Cruise and have your reservation "linked" that way you will all be seated together at dinner.

Have a geat cruise.

Another item - everyone must attend the muster drill for the room that they are actually in (on the reservation, not the room they are sleeping in).

And, yes, rooms next door to each other can have different lifeboat locations.

 

[MommaBerd]

If you actually want to change who is reserved in each room, let your travel agent know and they can work it out with DCL. I don't believe it is too difficult as long as each room ends up with the same number of people. Keep in mind that some combinations of people over multiple staterooms work out better financially than other combinations. It's possible the TA organized the people in your party according to what would give the best overall rate.

I did wonder about that...

 

[jahber]

We fill this form out every cruise and every time it doesn't fail that security flags one of the kids accompanying the parent off. Its frustrating to say the least. My BIL gets very irritated at the security people has even shown them a copy of the form we filed and eventually they give in.

It's weird that we haven't experienced this. We've sailed twice in two rooms and never had a problem. I even disembarked the ship in Miami at the end of a cruise with all three of my kids, even though one was registered in a room with my husband. This was a year ago. I wonder why they are so inconsistent about this. I had no idea it could even be a problem until after we returned and people mentioned it!

 

[guacgirl]

My group has the same situation. I already did online check in so we are just going to switch around where we sleep when we get there. Two of the rooms are connecting though. I have a question about this. Do we tell the stateroom attendant or someone else when we get on? So they know how to set up the room each night for 3rd and 4th people? Is the stateroom attendant usually the same between connecting rooms? Also are there life vests in the rooms per person that we need to move around?

Thanks for the tips!

 

[sambycat]

I want to reiterate try to get spare keys rather than a replacement key? Guest Services seems to have a difficult time (or did for us) understanding what we needed and we never got charging or keys that opened the rooms appropriately. Also I laugh at myself because the KTTW cards they printed up in trying to be helpful were all smudged and not pretty

Just get extra keys (no charging) and know to go to assigned muster stations, figure out the kid permission stuff and make sure your charging is linked correctly. That and just linking the reservations will assume your did in as pointed out above.

 

[storknurse13]

Unless you change who is in what room with DCL either before sailing or with guest services when checking in, they must attend the muster drill at their originally assigned station. This is due to accountability for each lifeboat. There has to be enough room for (adults and children) everyone and have the appropriate life jackets available. As far as the 3rd and 4th person, just let the stateroom attendant know the first night how you want it set up. Changing it every night may cause problems if she/he doesn't know who will be where.