First cruise questions

[lizardman]

Hello everyone,

I just registered and will be taking our first cruise on 12/03/05. My wife and 3 kids will be joining me on this adventure. My first question is about our room. We have room 8540, a Cat 4 room. After reading some posts, I was wondering if there are cheaper rooms for 5 people? I was under the impression that this is the lowest Category room for 5 people. More questions to follow.

Thanks

 

[GenieDana]

You could get two adjoining rooms, CAT 10. You'll save $$$ plus have 2 bathrooms and much more room. You won't have a veranda, etc.

 

[Hans Solo]

You have found the best place to ask any and all your questions. Here are a couple of sites that provide a wealth of info about the Disney Cruise Lines.

http://www.castawayclub.com/

http://www.dcltribute.com/

Have fun planning!!!

P.S. here's the link for your countdown timer. Everyone ends up asking how to do it.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=381216

 

[Gupsmom]

We use 2 category 10's. I LOVE having the extra room and extra bathroom. Our kids are 6, 5 and 4. If we go back to the room and they are a bit wired, we can let them watch cartoons and bounce around on one side of the room while we relax on the other side (door between the rooms are open, of course). The negative (which is actually a positive for me because I'm a bit paranoid) is that you lose the balcony.

Jess

 

[jrabbit]

Web sites for Disney Cruises.
Castaway Club (they've been on 35+ DCL cruises)
Dave's DCL Tribute
Magical Disney Cruise Guide (70+ pages can save Word Doc to your pc) Click on one of the links on the left side of the page (HTML or Word)
Disney Cruise Line Official Site
Order the DCL Planning Video

You got questions, we got answers.

 

[tink1663]

Hello! Although I can't offer you any advice I would like to say welcome. It seems that we will be on the same cruise. I thought I was the only one booking waaayyyy ahead of time. It will only be our second one by we are going on a 4 night cruise this December. Well I see you are going to be very well prepared for your cruise because this is the most helpful place for questions. Happy planning.

 

[hydster]

and we did the land/sea package and did the family stateroom and we were glad it wasnt for any longer than it was (4 day cruise) because we had room 8550 just a few doors down from the cabin you have and it was VERY NOISY! It was hard to get the kids to settle down at night when the deck party was still going and they could hear it. Also you could hear running all day and night and chairs scraping around up above your head. For the cost of the cabin we decided to scrap the balcony since we didnt use it much anyway with our younger kids and get 2 connecting cat 8 cabins. THat way you get 2 bathrooms (split) and 2 rooms where it would feel more like a "suite" than just a cramped room. We also didnt find that the family suite room was big enough for 5 of us..we were always on top of each other. We are going on the May 1st E. Carribean and the total for 5 of us (4 get charged as adults this way) was about 5800.00 I think (dont have the numbers in front of me right now) but it was a little less than 1200 cheaper to get the 2 oceanview connectings than it was to get the family suite and these rooms are on the 6th deck with nothing above us but other rooms. If it were me and I had to do it again I wouldnt ever consider a room on the 8th deck again but maybe we are just pansies

Heidi

 

[kcashner]

Category 4 is the cheapest category that will hold 5 people. However, you can frequently book 2 category 10,11, or 12 rooms for less than one category 4. You will pay adult rates on the first 2 people in each cabin, and you will technically list one adult in each cabin (although you can arrange the sleeping any way you wish). In addition, in Cat. 10, you will have double the bathroom space. In 11 or 12, you will have 2 full baths (cat 10 and better have "split baths" where one side has sink and tub, the other has sink and toilet.

The pricing depends on the dates you choose. In addition, you didn't tell us whether you booked thru a TA or directly thru DCL. It sounds like you NEED a good TA since this is your first trip. There are several discount TAs who can save you some money as well as helping you to get the best rate. These include Dreams Unlimited (sponsor of this board) as well as several others.....

 

[lizardman]

We did book through Dreams Unlimited. I will have to talk to my wife about possibly switching rooms. One more room question, are all the Cat. 4 rooms noisey? Or does it just depend on where the room is?

thanks again

 

[makaylee]

Originally posted by hydster
but maybe we are just pansies

Heidi

You crack me up Heidi!

 

[hydster]

You crack me up Heidi!

We were at the University of Utah mens basketball game when they played Air Force last Saturday and some guy behind us yelled out that someone (cant remember who) was just a frickin pansie...and it just stuck! LOL

Now everything and everyone are pansies around here as an inside joke!

Heidi

 

[lizardman]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their help with my question. I went ahead and changed to 2 adjoining Category 10 rooms. We saved over $1000!!! We were even able to get two of the "secret porthole" rooms, 5022 and 5024. Once again, thank you and looking foward to getting some more helpful information down the road.

Go Utes!! (Class of 96)

 

[inkkognito]

Congratulations! You will love the secret porthole rooms.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Hans Solo]

Bet you never thought that DIS was a $money$ saving tip source!!! Stay tuned for more tips.

 

[hydster]

And another fellow UTAH UTES fan!!!

Hope they DESTROY the "other" team on Monday night!!!

Glad you got some tips...keep checking back as these people's insights and thoughts prove to be very valuable!

Heidi

 

[62travelDisney]

I have 1 other suggestion even though you already changed. We have a family of 6 and this is what we did. We got 1 cat 6 room so we could enjoy the verandah and we got a cat. 11 across the hall. If you are missing the idea of having the verandah, this option might still be cheaper that what you had, and give you more total space. We needed to get either 2 rooms or a suite (none available and much more expensive). These boards are so great, I wish I had seen them before I booked because I was completely clueless about categories and pricing and the rep. on the phone was in no way going to make suggestions on how to save $$. They had me booked with the most expensive options until I persisted with questions and after talking to 3 different reps. finally ended up with what I have. Good Luck!