Newbie needs help from all you experts!

[N'vergone]

Hi Everyone!

Have been lurking on these boards since I found the DIS last Sept. The Info and help I received in planning my frist trip to WDW from everyone has been incredible! Now we want to try DCL.

Questions:
1. For a family of 5 (Me, DH, DS(12), DD(10), DD(8) ) what type of room do you reccomend? Would really like a verandah.

2. Am looking @ the 7 night WC, would you reccomend this for First time cruisers?

3. Travel dates, due to my school & kid"s school schedual was thinking of the 12/28/02 sailing. Can I still book for this date or is it too late. How is the weather & crowds at this time?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Michelle]

Hi N'vergone, and welcome to the Cruise Board!

For a family of five that wants a verandah I'd recommend a Category 4 family stateroom, or one verandah stateroom (Cat. 5 or 6) with an inside stateroom across the hall. Since your kids are young, though, I don't think you'd want them across the hall and two adjoining verandah staterooms are very expensive, so I'd go with the Cat. 4.

The 7- night Western Caribbean cruise is a great choice.

The 12/28 cruise will be EXPENSIVE because it is a holiday sailing. If you can go early in December or wait till early January you will pay much less for the same cruise.

Have a great time!

 

[my3kids]

I can't imagine that a Dec. sailing would be booked yet, but look at disneycruise.com, their official website, plug in your dates and see what is available. If you want a verandah and have 5 people, a category 4 is the only way to all be in one room. It is called a deluxe family stateroom. You can also get 2 adjoining cabins in other categories...5 and 6 have regular verandahs and a category 7 has something called a navigator's verandah. The DCL website explains the different rooms pretty well. If you book 2 rooms, you pay for 4 adults since the first 2 people in each cabin pay the full fare. The suites, cat. 1, 2, & 3 would also hold your family, but those book pretty quickly and might not be available for your date.

Book as soon as possible for the lowest price. Happy planning.

 

[dbond]

Just a thought, we are also a family of 5 and cruised twice. The first time, we booked a family suite. It was a really tight squeeze, our 2 oldest are teenagers and with bags, shoes, bodies, etc., we were constantly on top of each other. Your kids are a little younger, and probably wouldn't take up as much space, my boys have size 11 shoes, it seemed like there was no place to walk in the room without stepping on a pair of shoes! On our next cruise, we invited the grandparents along, we booked 2 category 6 adjoining rooms, the grandparents paid for their own fare which took care of the 2 adult fares in the 2nd room and 1 of the kids slept in the room with them. That avoided the need to drop down the murphy bed, 1 less bag and 1 less pair of shoes to trip over. It was much more spacious and comfortable. They were so excited to take a cruise with their grandkids, it was a wonderful trip.