Stateroom selection

[hswillia07]

Hi everyone! We last cruised Disney for 7 nights on the Fantasy about 5 years ago and we had a verandah room, which was lovely. We are set to sail in 2020 on the Magic for 4 nights and are currently booked into a Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom. The Deluxe Oceanview staterooms are about $500 (Canadian) cheaper and I'm wondering if the extra square footage in the Family room is worth the extra. We are two adults and two kids (9 and 6). Specific room recommendations also appreciated Thanks so much!

 

[Mommb]

Are these veranda rooms? On the Magic, there is no Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom without a veranda.

We have cruised on the Magic in both Deluxe Family Oceanview with Veranda (Category 4) and Deluxe Oceanview with Veranda (Category 5/6). The main difference is that the Family rooms have a drop-down bed next to the veranda and are thus a few feet deeper to accomodate it. On our last cruise, my son slept in that bed, with my daughter on the top bunk. That allowed us to use the sofa for seating even in the morning or evening when the beds were set up. The downside was that it was difficult to get to the veranda when the drop-down bed was set up.

The room had a cabinet opposite the drop-down bed that was very useful for clothing storage on our 8-night cruise. I don't remember a similar cabinet in the Category 5/6 rooms, but I could be misremembering.

All of the Category 4 Family rooms are on Deck 8. We have stayed in both Deck 8 Fore and Deck 8 Aft, and both locations have advantages. The Fore is right below the adult-only areas on Deck 9, which made it easy for my husband or me to dash to Cove Coffee for a quick drink or snack. The Aft is below Cabanas, which made it easy for the kids to visit the Beverage Station. With Fore, it's quicker to get to the activities in the Walt Disney Theater and the adult lounges. With Aft, it's quicker to get to meals in Animator's Palate and Rapunzel's Royal Table. We did find that both the Fore and Aft elevators were usually quicker to catch than the Midship elevators, and the stairs were less crowded.

I wouldn't choose the Family room based solely on the extra square footage with relatively young children, but if having the drop-down bed (or the space it would occupy) would work better for you, it may be worth the extra money. We started going to Family rooms once both kids were teenagers, and both they and their clothes and backpacks took up more space.

 

[dvcgirl1]

We have sailed with DCL 15 times, most of them with our two boys, and most of the cruises were in the Deluxe Oceanview stateroom. That room worked out well for us, as everyone gets along, and the boys weren't in the room much anyway, especially as they grew older and started staying in the teen clubs more. The last two 7-night cruises we have gone up to a Deluxe Family Ocean view, as the boys have grown to 6 ft tall and take up much more space. It works out perfectly for us, as there is also more storage /drawers, which we are using now that their clothes bigger. That alone is what makes the extra space necessary. With your kids still being small, I think you'd be fine with the regular Oceanview, but for 500 more, I REALLY think you will appreciate the extra space (especially for 7-nights).

 

[coast2coastmickey]

We had booked a VGT rate last year and were lucky enough to get a Deluxe Family Ocean View room on the Dream. The extra space seemed nice.

On 11/29, we're sailing on the Wonder in a regular veranda room so we will not have that extra square footage/bed. I can try and remember how that goes and report back.

On YouTube videos, it does seem smaller, but we were only in the room for mid day naps and sleeping at night, so I don't think it'll be a huge deal,

 

[fredandkell]

I'm with @Mommb - make sure you aren't comparing a verandah room to a non-verandah oceanview room. The oceanview rooms have a large window or two smaller portholes. What specific cabin #'s are you looking at, and we can help advise you better?

 

[hswillia07]

Thanks everyone! Waiting to hear back from the travel agent. Looking at two non-verandah rooms, one category smaller than the other. I think we've ultimately decided we'd rather spend the $500 on other things (like Disney World before the trip!), so we're going to go for a smaller cabin and see what it's like. I appreciate all of the feedback