In a Pickle! Upgrade to Cat 2 or Stick with Cat 3?

[VAgal76]

I happened upon a Cat 2 for our sailing coming up. I already have a Cat 3 booked. It's just the 3 of us. Is it worth upgrading? I think other than space the only difference is being able to order from Palo (and when are they going to let Cat 3's order from there anyway ) and I'll have a bigger balcony because I didn't score a midship Cat 3. It has the same decor if I'm not mistaken? Should I bite the bullet and upgrade?

I've only seen the one set of photos of the Cat 2 on the virtual stateroom thread...anymore pics would be appreciated.

 

[CaptainJack]

My only question is how you scored the possibility of a category 2 stateroom.

 

[VAgal76]

I should've been clearer. I have the upgrade on a short hold until I can make up my mind. Sorry about that!

I'm really at odds at this. My DH is no help at all. He just says do whatever I want.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Twice we've have the chance to go for a cat 2 instead of a cat 3 and both times we felt it wasn't worth the extra $1,800.

We are a family of 4.

Also the cat 2's are far forward on the ship. Don't know if that makes a difference for you.

 

[CaptainJack]

If it would make you feel better about getting a category 2, my family and I are all available to go!

 

[VAgal76]

If you don't mind paying for your cruise fare you are most certainly welcome to join us.

If we booked it DS would be able to try a few treats from Palo. I don't know if that would justify the cost alone. Bigger balcony...I guess that would be nice but not a deal sealer. Uggghhhh!

 

[flexsmom]

How old is the 3rd person in your party? If young, then I say "no", just go with the standard Cat 3 - we had 4 in a cat 3 and thought it was great, and then the same 4 in a midship Cat 3 a year and half later and that was even better with older kids. I originally had a Cat 2 booked for Nov 2006 and canxed that for the midship Cat 3 in August 2006. We were totally satisfied and happy.

If I had older kids, then I might be more inclined for the Cat 2 with the totally separate bedroom, or 2 staterooms.

 

[CNB1124]

What a great dilemma to have!!

 

[jjw5nh]

I would stick with the Cat 3.

We splurged for a Cat 1 with myself, DW, DD4 and DD9. It was great. However, in retrospect, it was too large for our needs.

Last year, we did an Owners Suite on RCCL. It's about the same size as a Cat 3. We still had plenty of room and alot more $$$ in our pockets.

Have a great trip.

 

[DVC4US]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I thought only the Cat 1's got to order from Palo. We have been in a Cat 3 and a Cat 1 but not a Cat 2 so I can't tell you from experience but I thought I read this somewhere. If this is your biggest consideration for upgrading to a Cat 2 then I would make sure you verify the information.

 

[been2marceline]

My understanding is that 1's and 2' can order from Palo, while all of the 1's,2's and 3's can order from the dining room menus.

My take is why order from Palo, when you can go there and enjoy the ambiance?

I love having Marco make me each too much......

Ordering from the dining room is great for breakfast and lunch, but I don't go on the cruises to hang out in my cabin, we like to see and enjoy the experience. We have ordered dinner one time, on the August repo, but it was because they were a lot of sea days, the weather sucked, etc so it was more of a nesting thing.

The concierge staff will keep you stuffed on goodies, so most of the time dinner is the last thing on your mind.

We've done the 3's and highly recommend it, doing it again on the Med, not sure if the 2 is worth it for you, but I wouldl jump at the chance just to see what it's like.

Besides, the more room in the cabin, the bigger parties you can throw for the new friends you meet en route.

My 2 cents.

 

[VAgal76]

ITA, the Cat 3 has plenty enough space for the 3 of us. Yes, we plan on going to Palo - maybe even a couple of times. I've heard nice things about Marco also so I'm going to request him for one of our meals. Girish is another wonderful server we had on our June sailing so I've requested him already. DS is 10 and wanted to try a few things from Palo but he obviously doesn't meet the age requirements to dine in there. That's why I brought that up. We hashed it out and figured we'd only order from Palo once in order to get DS the things he'd like to try. Putting in perspective I think we're leaning sticking with the Cat 3. While it would be nice to hold a DISmeet in a Cat 2 I hadn't plan on holding a meet in my stateroom. I've actually been pretty spacy and not able to chit chat on my meet thread and still have some catching up to do over there. We sailed in June in a Cat 4 and we sat on the balcony many times just watch things in port or while out at sea. I really did have balcony envy when I looked next door at the midship Cat 3 but the Cat 3 we have will have a double balcony and that should suit our needs.

If they had a Cat 1 I wouldn't hesitate like this either.

 

[Hieatt]

Are you on the 10/14/06 sailing? If so, we are as well, and I also found out a few weeks ago they had a Cat. 2 available, and I looked into upgrading. We have 6 in our party (2 adults, 4 kids) and currently have 2 connecting Cat. 6 staterooms - we plan to put the kids in one and us in the other! However, checking on the price, we were looking at over $14K vs. just a little over $7K for BOTH Cat. 6 rooms... couldn't justify doubling the cost to pick up a larger living area. If it had been $1K or $2K more, we would have considered it, but WOW, that was quite a jump!

We booked the REAS package, so we still got to make reservations 105 days out, and order a full room service breakfast once... I just am calling our 2 connecting Cat. 6 staterooms with the REAS package our "poor man's suite"!

 

[Serena6010]

Why don't you order something that your son would want to try then bring it back to the room later. I'm sure that your server would be happy to do that for you.

 

[VAgal76]

Are you on the 10/14/06 sailing? If so, we are as well, and I also found out a few weeks ago they had a Cat. 2 available, and I looked into upgrading. We have 6 in our party (2 adults, 4 kids) and currently have 2 connecting Cat. 6 staterooms - we plan to put the kids in one and us in the other! However, checking on the price, we were looking at over $14K vs. just a little over $7K for BOTH Cat. 6 rooms... couldn't justify doubling the cost to pick up a larger living area. If it had been $1K or $2K more, we would have considered it, but WOW, that was quite a jump!

We booked the REAS package, so we still got to make reservations 105 days out, and order a full room service breakfast once... I just am calling our 2 connecting Cat. 6 staterooms with the REAS package our "poor man's suite"!

Yes, I'm on that sailing too! I hear you, but I'm not at that 14K mark either. I'm totally over the sticker shock with Disney and view other things as a good deal. Amazing how they've warped my sense of budget. I think you've gone in the right direction with the 2 rooms. We'd thought about downgrading for a deal but passed on it. For your in-room breakfast that morning, order extras because the portion sizes tend to be small for hearty eaters. I loved the REAS package for our first time cruise. See, I had a "poor man's suite" too back in June! I got to enjoy booking at 105 day mark rather than the 75 day mark where there is nothing available. I didn't know it until I started booking that I was able to go ahead and reserve brunch at Palo and all our spa appointments at the same time. It wasn't just limited to booking your Palo dinner! For the money I felt the booking at 105 days and having at least one hot breakfast in our room was well worth the couple of hundred dollars we spent since they had no suites available and we were first time cruisers. An evening at Palo is going to be special for you two. Trust me.

Me being on this sailing was a whim to celebrate my b-day. I booked a little late and I missed the 90 day booking mark. I have Palo for dinner but not for the evening and time I'd like. There were no brunch reservations available and the cabana massage I wanted was sparse too. I do have a "doable" cabana massage time so I think I'll keep that. With us flying in so late the evening before it was going to make it hard to get to port the time I'd want to in order to book brunch, spa, etc. if we went with a Cat 4, 5 or 6. Then there was the issue of not having privacy (DS kind of cramped our style KWIM? ). I could deal with the split bathroom but I wasn't fond of it. So that's why I upgraded to the Cat 3 to begin with.

How old are your kids? My DS is 10 and is always up to making buddies to hang out with.

I REALLY need to get caught up on the meet thread.

 

[VAgal76]

Why don't you order something that your son would want to try then bring it back to the room later. I'm sure that your server would be happy to do that for you.

We thought about doing that. We had to bring a little something back last time because Girish filled me to the gills. I'm wearing my elastic britches this time! We're trying to do a couple's massage the first night since they didn't have anything earlier in the day and I didn't want to miss the sail away party. So I figured we'd take an appointment while the first dinner is happening and we could then order dinner in our room so it'd be ready by the time we got back. Get back, food is ready so we eat then head off to the show. We missed the show the first night back in June and I heard it's one that we should see. It would've been nice to have gotten a few things from Palo for dinner. I wonder if bribery works?

 

[dzorn]

Lucky Dog Wish I had such problems!!

 

[VAgal76]

Just think of it this way. We all do have THAT problem when it comes to cruising with Disney. They aren't the cheapest line out there - KWIM? I'm really no different than anyone else on that ship.

 

[kaseyC]

VAgal76, IIRC, there have been some reports on this very board that some folks in Cat. 3 Suites have been successful ordering room service from Palo. So, IMO, I don't think it would hurt to ask - the worst that could happen is they say no.

 

[VAgal76]

VAgal76, IIRC, there have been some reports on this very board that some folks in Cat. 3 Suites have been successful ordering room service from Palo. So, IMO, I don't think it would hurt to ask - the worst that could happen is they say no.

Thanks!