New to Cruise Forum a couple of questions

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

I am new to the cruise forums, as I have spent most of my time over at the DVC board, but we have decided to take the 7night eastern cruise on May 1, 2004. Since there are 5 of us in the family we booked two cat. 10 staterooms instead of going with a cat. 4, the rooms we have are 5020 and 5022 I believe that those are the connecting ones. Our girls at that time will be 8, 5, and 2 I think that tells you a little about us so here are my questions.

1) Has any body ever had these rooms, and since they are near the elevator will they be noiser then normal.(if you can define normal I guess)

2) Do you have to contact Disney before hand to tell them how you want the beds arranged?

3) We booked on points so does that mean I have to use member services for all my contacts?

4) If we decide to put our youngest in flounders reef how hard is it to get reservations?

Thanks in advance for all your responses, I sure as we get closer the questions will continue to fly.

 

[jrabbit]

I can only help you out with one of your questions for now.

#2 - Bed arrangement) There really is not a way to arrange the beds any differently than the way they come.

The only thing they could do is pull the "main" bed apart into two sections (make it two twin beds with NOT a lot of room between them).

The other beds are: the couch which folds out into a bed and the bed that drops down out of the ceiling.

Just tell your room steward which beds you will need and they will be glad to make up those beds for you.


OK I'll take a crack at #1 - Noise) You have secret porthole rooms. There will not be a lot of foot traffic by your rooms because there are so few rooms in front of you. There is not a lot of people getting on or off at this stop from the elevators. We had room 5520 (other side of the ship) this summer. There were a couple of crew service doors across the hall from us that seemed to bang open a close a lot. Also the people next to us had several small children that never figured out how to quietly open and close the doors or how to walk quietly down the hall, etc, etc, etc. Oh yea, it wasn't just the kids, the parents too.

 

[Michelemouse]

I don't know if you realize it but you lucked out with those rooms! They are sold as inside staterooms but actually have partially obstructed portholes. Since they portholes are obstructed they cannot sell them as outside cabins, even though they are. You can see pictures of the views from the portholes at www.castawayclub.com.

As for your questions...

We had these rooms on the Wonder and they were great...not noisy at all.

Yes you have to use Member Services for all of your contacts. They act as your travel agent when making DCL reservations.

Bed arrangements can be decided on one you board. Just see your stateroom host/hostess.

I've never used Flounder's so I can't help with that one.

Have fun planning and congrats on those rooms!

 

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

MicheleMouse,

Yes I actually did know that it was the hidden porthole rooms, I guess from Lurking for so long. I did make a mistake we have the connecting rooms of 5022 and 5024 not room 5020. I was surprised that they were still available when we decided to book, blind luck I suppose. So do you know if these rooms sleep three or four people? Also do the staterooms come with a Pack n Play or are we going to have to get rails for our littlest one?

Jrabbit,

Thank you for all the info, it has been very helpful.

I appreciate the responses, I think I am more excited than everyone else in the family, so this is my outlet without driving my wife nuts.(which I can do very easily without constantly talking about the upcoming cruise)

 

[ThreeCircles]

Originally posted by Belle and Rella's Dad
I am new to the cruise forums, as I have spent most of my time over at the DVC board, but we have decided to take the 7night eastern cruise on May 1, 2004.

Hello Belle and Rella's Dad!

Welcome to the Disney Cruise Line forum! I noticed that you'll be sailing with a group of us on the May 1st - 8th cruise. We would love to have you join us on the Cruise Meets Forum. We have a thread started <a href="http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=443221">here</a>.

We also have a Disney Magic May 1st Cruise List at <a href="http://www.threecircles.net">ThreeCircles.net</a>.

Talk to you soon!

Jason

 

[lbgraves]

We needed to request a bed rail for DD on our cruise. She fell out 3 times during the night...so I was up too. I asked our host the next morning about possibly getting one & she had it up every night. It was a nice meshed one and there were no more problems. BTW our DD is 3 but uses a bedrail at home. I think she sleeps up against it as habit. Using the rail would keep the limited room from being taken up by the pack & play.

Originally posted by Belle and Rella's Dad
MicheleMouse,

Yes I actually did know that it was the hidden porthole rooms, I guess from Lurking for so long. I did make a mistake we have the connecting rooms of 5022 and 5024 not room 5020. I was surprised that they were still available when we decided to book, blind luck I suppose. So do you know if these rooms sleep three or four people? Also do the staterooms come with a Pack n Play or are we going to have to get rails for our littlest one?

Jrabbit,

Thank you for all the info, it has been very helpful.

I appreciate the responses, I think I am more excited than everyone else in the family, so this is my outlet without driving my wife nuts.(which I can do very easily without constantly talking about the upcoming cruise)

 

[ChattyKathy]

Husband of the Queen.... ( luved that!)

Best thing to do is to go and buy a Passporter's Field Guide to the Disney Cruise Line...its got alot of info in it! I guarantee you'll love it! I love mine!!

and to answer your question about your rooms, 5022 and 5024 that are connecting...they both sleep 4. That means they will have a double bed that can be made into twins, a loveseat that goes into a twin bed, and also a pull out of the wall bed. Information gotten from page 74 and 75 in the Passporter.
lbgraves-I also requested a bedrail for my daughter, I am glad to hear it was mesh and not those big-holed metal tubes... You can fall thru those and I personally think they are more bad than good.

Anyways, good luck!



Kathy

 

[my3kids]

It does sleep four, but there is not a wall bed as was mentioned. The sofa flips down to form a single bed and the 4th bed comes from the ceiling to make a set of "bunk beds." The only regular room with a wall bed is category 4. We had connecting SPR's and loved them. We wouldn't want anyother location on the ship. It was very quiet and very convenient. The main bed is called a queen, but it bigger than a queen.

We took package tape and taped over the locks on the doors between rooms so the kids just had to pull the handle but not turn it too.

 

[ChattyKathy]

gang, I was off base a little there... ( I tried) lol I was under the impression the wall and ceiling beds were basically the same things...?

Hey my3kids, on the connecting rooms~ doesn't the door between the rooms stay open on its own? I want mine to beable to stay opened too....

TY


Kathy

 

[my3kids]

Nope. Both doors latch upon closing. They are fairly heavy doors.

 

[BamaCruiser]

Since your question about Flounder's Reef hasn't been answered yet, I'll help you out with it. You can request as many different slots as you want, but they only try to guarantee your top 3 slots (you indicate these on your reservation card). DH and I only had 3 times that we wanted DS to be in the nursery, so we were able to get all the times that we requested.

You just go there during the open house which starts a few hours after first boarding the ship. They only charge you for the actual time that your child is in the nursery, not for the entire time slot. Our DS really seemed to enjoy his time there, and this was evident when he was wide awake when we would pick him up around 11pm each time.

 

[Belle and Rella's Dad]

Wow, thanks for all the great info. The ceiling beds I can see a fight over that with the two oldest, I guess we have two cabins but that sort of ruins it for the queen and I.(if you know what I mean) I think that the bed rails are a much better idea than a pack n play, I just hope that it will contain our little monster(2 year old).

Three Circles,

I was going to register, but will you let a Bush supporter on your site. I promise not to discuss politics if you don't. Actually I have to look for a picture for it and find out if the little town we live in has a website. Jason, it looks as if you have put a lot of time into your site, I think it looks great Thank you for doing it.

BamaCruiser,

The flounders reef information is great, I don't know how we will use FR yet. The queen stays home with the monster, so the attachment factor is huge for her (this goes both ways that is why I wrote it like that). So we will probably try it at first and see how it goes, I am wondering how hard if we don't book right away it will be to get in later.

Thanks Again

 

[ChattyKathy]

Maybe you should make the two kids take turns with the hide away bed in the connecting room,

THEN
Everyone will be happy!! Even the Queen and Hubby...



Good Luck.





Kathy

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Originally posted by my3kids
It does sleep four, but there is not a wall bed as was mentioned. The sofa flips down to form a single bed and the 4th bed comes from the ceiling to make a set of "bunk beds." The only regular room with a wall bed is category 4. We had connecting SPR's and loved them. We wouldn't want anyother location on the ship. It was very quiet and very convenient. The main bed is called a queen, but it bigger than a queen.

See, this is where I get confused on how a cat 4 REALLY has more SLEEPING room than other cat that say they only sleep 4. To me it seems like the same amount of sleeping arrangements/area. Can anyone tell me the true difference? When you have young children- it seems like they could sleep with just as much room in either cat 4 or cat 10! But with cat 10 then you HAVE to get 2 rooms.... why? I don't see the difference really in descriptions here, pictures, and virtual tours. And if we have to get a cat 4 then we might as well get 1 or 2 but that seems like it's hard to get? (If I'm going to pay more- I'd rather pay even more and get concierge, more room/space, etc.)

 

[hilltopfamily]

Bibbidy:

I also posted on your thread, so you can check there too.

Each Cat. 10's have: 1 queen bed, 1 upper bed that pulls down from the ceiling, and 1 love seat/couch that makes into a small twin bed. (1 of each of these in each Cat. 10 room, so each room CAN sleep 4, if you get 2 rooms you can sleep 2 adults in 1 room, 3 kids easily in the other room and have a little additional privacy for Mom & Dad). We took turns on who got the entire queen bed, who got the couch, & who got the upper bed each night.

1 Cat. 4 has: 1 queen bed, 1 upper bed that pulls down, 1 love seat/couch that makes into a small twin, AND 1 murphy bed that is a twin & pulls down from the wall, close to the veranda entrance/exit. When this bed is made out from the wall, it takes up space & blocks the veranda off from easily being used. Not a big deal for many people, could be for others.

Biggest deciding factor for us was getting 2 toilets, 2 tub/showers, & 4 sink/vanity areas by having 2 Cat. 10's. Also you end up with 428' square feet by having 2 at 214' each. With 1 Cat. 4 it is 304' square feet, which can be a little cozy for a weeks time. 2 Cat. 10's was quite spacious.