Help with Stateroom Category Selection

[RayRing]

I am looking into a 3 Night Cruise for me and my wife, and our 3 year old daughter and 4 year old son.

I was looking at categories 9, 8 and 6, as a compromise between cost and size.

I would appreciate suggestions on the above category selections for 2 adults and 2 small children.

Some questions that I have are:
1) is there a big difference in staying in the rooms on the decks that go along with category 9, 8, and 6;
2) is the verandah really nice to have, or would I be so worried about the small children being on the verandah, that I would only take them out there once or twice, and then have the door locked the rest of the time.

All information is appriciated.

Ray

 

[JerseyMom]

I have only stayed in the category 6 but I don't think you would need to worry about the kids opening the veranda door. It can be locked and I believe that the lock is rather high up. Embarrasing to admit but it even took me 3 days to figure out how to open the door . DH and DS went to a movie and I really wanted to go out on the verandah and enjoy the view. I somehow managed to figure it out.

Personally, I loved the verandah. Just before bedtime we would all go out onto the verandah and look at the stars. Of course, if you don't think you will be spending much time in the cabin, you may prefer to save some $ to put towards the next cruise.

Enjoy!

 

[JerseyMom]

All of the verandas either have a solid railing that goes up to about chest high (at least on me) or has clear plexiglas against the railings - go to www.castawayclub.com and I believe there are pictures of the railings. If you are worried about your kids climing, you could request that the furniture on the verandah be removed.

Hope this helps.

 

[RayRing]

Thanks for the information and also, thanks for the web link. I didn't have that one, and it has some good info.

Can anyone give their impressions about staying on the different decks, that categories 9, 8 and 6 uses. For instance, Deck 5 (Cat 8 & 6), and Deck 6 (Cat 8 & 6), and Decks 1 & 2 (Cat 9).

Thanks for everyones help!

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

We stayed in a Cat 6 and loved it. On our first cruise, we stayed in a Cat 5 and I can honestly say the Cat 5 was no better/different than Cat 6, but the nice part was the money we saved choosing a 6 instead of a 5.

Verandahs come in handy when you put the kids to sleep and you're "stuck" in the room. We loved ours.

Tink

 

[TheWog]

We stayed on Deck 6 category 6, room 6088. It was great, centrally located, the verandah was wonderful. Sit out there and read, while the kids are napping, have breakfast, watch as you pull into port things like that. If you can do it, go for the verandah. We had no problem with our son. He was 6 at the time and never tried to climb and the rail came up to his chest. He was about 47 inches tall at the time. He didn't want to fall overboard so getting on the chairs would not have even entered his mind.

 

[RayRing]

Thanks for the information on staying in Cat. 6 rooms.

Also, thanks for the information about your little one's behavior on the verandah. Its easy to forget that it might be intimadating for children to jump or climb on the railing.

If anyone else has thoughts about staying in the different Categories listed above, I would welcome the input.

I think it will end up being a toss up between those categories. The next step is to pick a couple of dates, and call for prices. Once we look at the numbers, we will be able to make selection.
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We have little ones, and school is not an issue yet. We were looking at going somewhere between Feb and May of 2005.

I don't know if there are less crowed cruises, but if so, we would rather book on those.

Weather is always tricky, but we would like it to be calm, warm and sunny, but not really hot. (I know, that's what everyone wants) So if there are any suggestions for cruise dates, I welcome those also.

Thanks, it's very helpfull to get different points of view.