Is it worth it?

[captJack88]

We are a family of 5 thinking about a land and sea package sometime next year. I've seen many people on these boards taking 2 staterooms instead of going with a Cat. 4 room. When I called the res center, I explored this option and from what they told me it was only going to be a difference of $300. To me, the extra 300 is worth just the deluxe hotels let alone a veranda on the ship. Am I wrong in this thinking, is the extra space that valuable onboard? BTW our kids will be DD8, DS7, and DD3 at the time of sailing, so you have an idea of what we need for sleeping space. Is it worth it or not?

 

[hydster]

Here is my take on it for what it's worth

We did the land/sea with the family stateroom in 2002. Our kids were 3,7 and 8 when we did it. We got a nice room at the Polynesian and the inlaws came and they got an adjoiner with us. The park hopper passes were nice to get as well though we got jipped out of 1 day because we arrived so late. The stateroom on the ship....We had room 8550. The location in regards to getting to the pools and scoops was wonderful. The balcony was very nice although I think we only used it once and that was right after we set sail the first night before we went to dinner. With 5 people in the room that means you will need a room that has the Murphy bed in it as well as the 2 twins into a Queen and the sofa bed and pull down berth out of the ceiling. We thought this would be a great option for us to be all together in one room BUT we didn't realize a few things...

#1 the time we spent in the cabin on the 4 day cruise was MINIMAL to say the least. We had a stop every day with Nassau, Freeport and CC and did excursions on all of them. The rest of the time was playing in the pool, eating or going to the shows. The kids were exhausted every night so we went to bed fairly early. We could hear the going's on above our head including the chair scraping, kids running, the sail away party, did I mention the kids running and chair scraping?? We were right under the Mickey pool so I'm sure that didn't help.

#2 If you plan on putting the kids to bed and THEN going out on the balcony you either need to be one heck of a contortionist or else your child has to be the most dead to the world sleeper as you would have to climb onto the Murphy bed to get to the sliding door to go outside and THEN the air would blast the child lying on that bed.

#3 The cabin felt very crowded and small with 5 of us in there. It was hard to use the steamer trunk when the bed was down out of the wall so we had to try to remember to pull clothes out of the trunk before we left for dinner each night or trying to yank jammies out was difficult.

For us I think it would have been better to book the Poly on our own and then get 2 adjoining staterooms rather than doing it all together. We didn't get the use and value out of the room like we thought we would.

For this cruise we originally booked 2 adjoining Cat 8's with a porthole in each room. About 2 weeks ago we were comp upgraded to 2 adjoining Cat 4's below the spa. I think that will be nice as the kids can be in one and we can be in the other and get use out of the balcony but we didn't feel on the 4 day that we had enough time to even breathe and certainly not enough time to laze on the balcony.

JMO
Heidi

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Since you are one who likes the deluxe hotels at the parks, I say go for it! I know most people's theory is, 'you're not in your room that much, so save your money.' While that's true, it's still nice having the monorail!

I can't answer about the ship rooms though. I would opt for two staterooms (two bathrooms!).

Have you thought of doing your own land/sea package? That way you could customize it (stay at the deluxe resorts and have two staterooms) and still save money. Many people on these boards have done just that, and said it's less expensive, and they have the best of both worlds!

 

[minniemouse1]

I have never booked 2 staterooms for our family but I think the 2 staterroms and booking the land/sea on your own and not through disney is the best option. That way you can get the deluxe hotel and get whatever cat stateroom you want on the ship. The great thing about the 2 staterroms and your children is that they can be asleep in one room and you and your wife can enjoy yourself and your privacy in the other. Couple time is hard to find.

I have read numerous posts about people saving alot of money booking the land/sea on their own. I would definately explore this option.

 

[captJack88]

TY again Heidi, this is the second "silly" question of mine that you've answered tonight...lol. That really helped alot though, you having 5 also, and staying in what we were looking at, so TY again! Mickey and Minnie, I am going to explore this option now, TY for bringing it up. Maybe if we book soon enough, we will get lucky and get upgraded to 2 cat $'s like Hydster did!!! Another silly question, if we go for a lower cat, do the porthole's make that much of a diffrence?

 

[hydster]

Capt Jack..no question is silly when it comes to figuring out what might be best for your situation!! I'm glad that my experiences can help you with some thoughts. We went into that 3/4 blind and had never been on DCL nor had we been to WDW. Now DL I kick butt in but WDW I was lost! Looking back on it going in as unprepared as I was it might have been at the time the best option for us but now...knowing a little more I definitely see that we could have done MUCH better! When we booked our 3/4 it cost my family of 5 about $7000.00 without transfers, air or insurance. At the time of booking it was cheaper than doing it myself as I did know enough at the time to price it out. This time we are going in the 2 connecting staterooms (though we paid for Cat 8's) on the 7 day cruise and even after paying tips out we are only at $5800.00 total for the 5 of us in 2 connecting staterooms. True we aren't staying at the Poly before but we are staying at POR for a GREAT rate I got on Expedia a few months ago. We had set the limit for our family for the trip at $7000.00 and we did NOT have to pay for airfare (gotta love skymiles) but we had enough money even paying full adult fare (if you want to call it that) in the 2 rooms to stay 3 nights at POR before the cruise, 5 passes to get into WDW TWICE, get transportation from MCO to POR, get a LIMO to take us from POR to the Port with gratuities and back to the Airport AND get a day room at the Hyatt. All totaled it rings in at about $6250.00 for the 7 of us for 10 days of stuff we felt we got a MUCH better deal than doing the land/sea like we did before. We went in Nov of 2002 if that helps any.

I'll let you know how the connecting categories go and you never know you just may end up with an upgrade. We've had several on our sailing and even one from a Cat 4 to a Cat 3...so one never knows! We've done 17 cruises total on all lines combined and this is the FIRST upgrade we've had! Hope this has helped a little as well!! Off to eat dinner and go to bed as I am dealing with a nasty cold and only 7 days to get rid of it!!

Heidi