Picking a ship/cabin for myself, husband, and 3 year old

[snveen]

Hi Everyone,

 

Wow, this is such a great site!

 

I am having the hardest time trying to figure out which ship/line and cabin category to consider when booking a cruise this spring or summer for my family. (we are a couple in our late 30s, early 40's, plus our 3 year old daughter).

 

I'm trying to figure out which ships have cabins offered that have a dividing wall in the room. Thus far, I have only come up with Celebrity Family Verandahs. These look ideal, but I think I read they tend to reserve them for larger parties. Are there other options that have similar accomodations that will not break the bank? (Would love to book a 2 bedroom suite, but that is not an option right now!). :)

 

We really need a place for my daughter to sleep that is quiet and dark. I wish she were the type of kid that would just conk out on couch with all sorts of stimulation around her, but she is not. Having said that, she is a very well behaved and tenderhearted girl, and I'd also like to find a nice kids program for her, as well (one that isn't a crazy "free-for-all").

 

Any advice would be very appreciated!!

 

PS-prior to the birth of our daughter we saied once of Norweigan, once on RCCL, and once on Carnival. RCCL was our favorite.

[cb at sea]

Unless you book a suite with 2 rooms, you're unlikely to find a normal ship's cabin with anything but a partial curtain to divide the space.

I'd recommend a balcony cabin....put daughter to sleep, and you go on the balcony until she's "out like a light"....the balcony gives you someplace "to be" when naps or bedtime comes!

All of the main cruiselines will have programs for 3 and up....and for younger kids, it's certainly not a free-for-all! Very organized and planned out activities for the younger kids.

[snveen]

Thanks Cb at Sea!

 

I've considered buying two ajoining rooms-that might be the way to go. If we don't, I think a balcony will be a must. I actually just noticed some rooms with tiny bedrooms on the new Celebrity and Royal. I wonder if those would be more than buying two adjoining cabins... Do you (or any one else) have any idea? I'd like to keep the cruise cost to $2000 or lower for a 5-7 "beach cruise."

 

I'm glad to hear there are planned activities for the kids-I probably need to do a lot more reading about the kids programs!

 

Thanks again for your advice!

[TheCalicoCat]

I am not sure that what you want is available...

 

In my experience (we look for reasonable accomodations), when you are a party of 3, the cruise lines try to put you in a room for 3 (unless you pony up to a suite) since the rates are per person. If they have a room for 5, but they book it for a party of 3, they miss out on revenue for 2...

 

To fit your needs, you may be forced into a pair of cobins with a door between the two. To do this, you husband will need to book as a single in room "a" (at a premium - aka single supplement) while you & your daughter book as a pair in room "b."

 

Just my thoughts on how it could work. Lucky for us, my son will sleep on the couch - I usually sit outside of the room reading while he falls asleep while my husband wanders - gets a beer & watches some TV in the bar. I go in after my son is asleep then I can upload photos onto the laptop...

[B_Mc]

We've had success with a balcony cabin as CB described. DS has his peaceful, dark room and we still enjoyed the cruise atmosphere! We're going to try it again next week, but this time in a JS! Same idea - one room, but a little bit more floor space!

[boulders]

With a 3 year old, I would just have the one room, not connecting or adjoining. Adjoining, by the way, just means that the rooms are next to each other. Connecting means that there is an interior door connecting the two rooms.

 

With connecting rooms, it's too easy for a 3 year old to open the door and "escape" to the outside corridor. There are no latches on these doors.

 

Your budget is not enough for a family verandah on Celebrity or a family cabin on RCCL. Have you included taxes and tips in your budget? Tips will be about $180 for a 5 night cruise and about $250 for a 7 night cruise.

 

I've cruised when my ds was 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Except for when he was 2, he has gone to bed when I do, which is about 10 or 11 pm. When he was 2, I got a babysitter for him so that I could be out later.

[Megsie1000]

Don't know about the room divider at all, but for a kids club that is not "free for all" I would consider HAL. It isn't what is commonly known as a "family line" but the kids club is wonderful. She would have to be 3 *and* potty trained, so keep that in mind.

 

Because there are less kids on board, the kids' club tends to be less crazy and the kids get more personal attention. That was our experience on HAL on our Alaska cruise vs. another line that shall go unnamed where the kids club was a crazy zoo every time we went past.

 

This time on HAL we are doing an inside cabin partly because of the issue of needing a quiet, dark place for napping for our 3-year old. My DH and I will just take turns on nap duty every other day while the other one enjoys the ship during that time and/or swims with the older two. We'll probably all go to bed at the same time at night (I get exhausted on ships! :D)

[boulders]

DS6 has used the kids club on Disney, RCCL, Carnival and Princess. All of the cruiselines had a well-organized program, except for Disney. That one was a free for all. The others were not.

[snveen]

Thanks Everyone!

 

I so appreciate all the tips and advice. As far as the $2000 went, I was thinking before tips, so my budget is a bit flexible. But I probably can't justify beyond $3000 though. Probably what is skewing my perspective is the fact that we used to make our plans late (within a couple months of departure) before my daughter was born. So we used to get fantastic deals.

 

Perhaps we should just go to Disneyland instead!! :)

[Kerry's Girls]

Since you don't have to worry about school schedule, you might want to look into repositioning cruises which can be amazing deals and may make it affordable enough for you to get the larger cabin you want.

 

Best,

Mia

[Parent22]

This is very general, but Carnival tends to have the best bang for your buck, so to speak. We've taken the kids on a couple Carnival cruises, and by booking early saver, have managed to get rates so good that we could book two connecting cabins. To cram us all into one cabin would have maybe been a difference of $300-$400 less than booking two cabins (due to the 3rd and 4th passenger supplements). So, it really made economic sense. (Meanwhile, my mother is taking our kids on a Disney cruise which is one fewer day than our last Carnival cruise; they will share one room; and the cost is over 2.25 times the cost we paid for two rooms on Carnival.) We weren't too worried about the kids being in their own room because the entire space of two cabins is not much larger than what you would find in one hotel room. We just prop the doors slightly ajar between the rooms with door stops. This way, there room can be dark but you can still hear anything. They are probably sleeping 8 feet away. You could also just leave the doors completely open if you wanted to feel more secure about "seeing" what was going on. In any event, we've found this an economical way to have our own "space" (plus, two bathrooms!). This may not make as much economical sense with only one child, but thought I'd toss in our experience.

[snveen]

Parent 22,

I so appreciate your thoughts! I am definitely leaning towards getting two connecting rooms (we'll just go with more budget oriented rooms, as the views, balconies, etc. won't mean much if we all don't sleep well)!

 

As far as the repositioning cruise idea... I actually have never flown into one city and out of another. Have they made that more affordable these days? It used to be really expensive to do that, so I never considered it before. But that would be a nice option if I didn't just add the savings from the cruise to the airfare.

 

I so appreciate everyone's help!!

[keyarra]

Freedom on the seas has on deck 9 at the very back a balcony connecting with an interior. Again there would be a single supplement but you and your daughter can book the balcony and hubs in the interior..

[snveen]

THANK YOU for this tip!! I was wondering if there were ever such rooms

at the end of a hallway...

[keyarra]

THANK YOU for this tip!! I was wondering if there were ever such rooms

at the end of a hallway...

 

You bet. It's the rooms we booked for our upcomming cruise in April. We booked back in June to get those rooms. here is the pics I found online for them. It is a tread already here on Cruise Critic.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=29500295

[sonogal]

You do have to remember that with Carnival they currently book according to occupancy restrictions. If connecting rooms are set up to sleep 3 and 2, they require that many people- or at least to pay for that many. They won't book with less people. I tried so hard to get connecting rooms for hubby and I in one and the 3 kiddos in another and didn't work with Carnival. Not impressed with Carnival's kid's club either. Not trying to bash Carnival as I really do enjoy cruising with them, but prefer to take the kids on a different line.

 

Disney, however, has a phenomonal kid's club! Absolutely top of the line- had many organized activities. Yes was a bit more chaotic in the upper age groups but still had lots of options. Disney actually can have reasonable rates in the off season and by booking further ahead of time. We're booked on the new Disney Fantasy for 2013 at a rate that's cheaper than what I paid for the Wonder this last year- same spring break week, same number of people, and same stateroom type.

 

I think if you are researching this far out, you should be able to find exactly what you want for a reasonable cost. Good luck.

[snveen]

Sonogal,

Thanks so much for your post! I was planning on booking on two insides and paying for 4 people (or 2+1+ single supplement). I had no idea Carnival could make things difficult in this arena. It seems so bizarre that they wouldn't let you book 5 people in two rooms! That seems totally reasonable to me. And I appreciate your thoughts on the kids program, too. Honestly, I'd like to avoid Carnival if we can. I cruised with them once, and wasn't as comfortable as I was with RCL, or even Norwegian. The crowd on the ship just seemed a lot more into partying, libations, etc. than we are. And my my daughter is a pretty sweet, well mannered little girl (and I'd like to keep it that way!). Disney would probably be perfect, I'll just have to look far ahead as you suggested to get a fare we can afford.

 

Thanks so much for your help!

[SadieN]

Freedom on the seas has on deck 9 at the very back a balcony connecting with an interior. Again there would be a single supplement but you and your daughter can book the balcony and hubs in the interior..

 

 

The Carnival Spirit class has similar cabins at the bow. The problem is the single supplement.

[cantw8togo]

We were recently on RCI's Radiance class, Jewel of the Seas in a balcony cabin with our 2 DS's and it did have a curtain divider between the sofa bed and pullman, and the full size bed. At your DD's age, I would opt for a sofa bed rather than a pullman which is up much higher. For us, I wouldn't be comfortable with the boys being in a separate adjoining cabin at that young of an age, but that's just us.

 

When our boys were little, DH would explore the ship while I got the youngest to sleep in the cabin so that there would be fewer distractions, and when he came back, I would go out and explore. Sometimes if the kids napped and were well rested, we would take in a show while sitting in the back row. If they got noisy, we would quietly leave, or sometimes they would fall asleep and we would carry them back.

 

We usually book four to six weeks before going and let date, price, ship and or cruiseline and itinerary (often in that order) dictate where we go. The more cruises we go on the pickier we are getting, but it has been interesting trying the different cruise lines. So far we have been on six cruises on five different cruiselines. While my preference is for Celebrity which we sailed on when the kids were under five yrs; now that the kids are older (8 & 11) they prefer the activities on RCI or NCL. They won't be travelling with us forever and the day will come when it is more about we want than what they want.

 

Ultimately you have to do what works for your family.

[TheCalicoCat]

I had no idea Carnival could make things difficult in this arena.

 

We were able to book 3 in a room for 4 - a year+ in advance & they did not try to move us...

 

We liked their kids club & did not have any problems with the atmosphere. (meaning when they had an event that I did not want to see/do, I avoided it...)

 

My friends found the Disney club to be to frantic... (I don't care for the licensed products in general, so Disney is not on my list of choices.)