This is something that may be potentially put together last minute as a surprise. We are looking at a 4 day Carribean trip during March out of Galveston, on the magic staying in a Deluxe Ocean View on 9d (with 2 small windows). Some initial questions that jump out - is better for a family to possibly upgrade to a family view to have a larger window and probably the broadest question ever asked, does anyone have any tips or advice they have learned from experience that they would not mind passing along? We have been to disney several times and each trip was planned and thought-out well in advance - this one, not so much and we are essentially going in blind. Any help would be greatly appreciated - even if the advice is, give yourself more time to research and plan your trip
I would save the money on the small windows and book an inside or pay extra for a large porthole window. The small windows are about the size of a dinner plate and are about shoulder height on me ( I am 5'10''). They have large hatch that can cover them attached.
The "correct" answer where stateroom selection is concerned is that "it depends." I'd read some room reviews of Cat 9D staterooms to see if the bed configuration works, for instance. Not everyone is comfortable sharing double beds, for instance. The flip side of that is how much time you anticipate spending in your stateroom. If you have a reasonable expectation that the majority of your time will be spent on shore, at the pools, in the restaurants, wandering the ship, etc., and your stateroom is essentially the place you sleep and shower, then there's far less reason to upgrade. If, however, you plan to spend meaningful time in your stateroom (and many families do), then you'll want something that's a little more comfortable. Ultimately, that's something you have to decide for yourself. Other generic tips... Don't try to do everything. It can't be done. Don't try to eat everything. Looking at Personal Navigators in advance is helpful, but keep in mind that they can change from cruise to cruise, based on a wide variety of circumstances. I've found that most people find it much more enjoyable to plan for some highlights rather than trying to plan out every minute of every day. This is your vacation, take it at your pace. The activities aren't so much things you absolutely have to do in order to maximize your experience. They're things for you to do in order to have an awesome experience, should you so choose. There is tremendous value in lazing in a lounge chair near the pool while the world sails by. Depending on how old your kids are, getting assigned late seating isn't the end of the world. I actually prefer it. It lets us take in the earlier shows, and if we're doing a shore excursion, it gives us a much larger window to get back on board, relax and get ready. It also gives us a window to get a cheese platter to enjoy in our staterooms.
Generic tip. Silly maybe redundant. But the greatest tip I got before our first cruise was bring and over-the-door shoe thing for the bathroom. It keeps all the stuff off of the counters and floors. And bring suction hooks. There are never enough towel bars, the hooks really help keep things for feeling cluttered.
I had to laugh at this, because that is exactly what I intend to do (I miss 'American' foods, esp. breakfast) OP, fwiw, My family of 4 with 2 teenagers were perfectly comfortable in an inside. Of course, My DD and I were hardly ever in the room. Have a great cruise!
