Carnival newbies here: need advice on cabin for 4

[Kellie in Texas]

We've cruised twice (on another line), both of which we planned months in advance, did lots of research, etc. Today I got an email with a great price for the July 1 Triumph out of Galveston. We live about three hours away, so easy-peasy.

 

 

There are four of us: myself, DH, DS age 20, and DS age 11. We are trying to keep this cruise "budget" so no balcony. Any advice on interior cabins for four, preferably on a deck that isn't under a pool or bar?

 

The four of us did an Alaska cruise on Princess two years ago and we had a quad oceanview cabin with the two upper bunks. We managed fine with that, but are there any interior cabins that have two double beds (as opposed to the upper bunks)?

 

Thanks for any advice! Kellie

[Catrin]

Kellie,

Most of the interior rooms for four will have two twin/king beds and two upper bunks.

 

The ocean view rooms sometimes have one upper and a convertible sofa.

 

Catrin

[nwcruiselover]

To my knowledge there aren't any cabins for 4 that have 2 double beds. The configuration will be 2 twins that can convert to 1 king, and 2 upper bunks. On some ships there might be a trundle bed instead of the sleeper sofa. An inside cabin for 4 is going to be crowded any way you look at it. If you do an ocean view instead you would have more room and on most ships a sofa that converts to a bed.

[pinkgirlmommy]

We just inquired about this same cruise as well for 4. I spoke to a PVP today, and found that it is only a $200 price difference between 1 interior room with 4 people, and 2 adjoining ocean view rooms. I don't understand, but it seems like a better option! We are booking tomorrow possibly, so maybe we will see you! Can you share your deal? We are in Texas too so we will drive. I am trying to find a deal with some onboard credit! The are only a couple of adjoining rooms left.

[k2excursion]

I highly recommend an oceanview for 4 people. The interiors on Triumph are quite small, smaller than advertised. I've measured. The oceanview rooms have about 70 sq.ft. of extra space (in actuality). Walk from one straight into the other, and you will be able to see an enormous difference. Interiors on Triumph will either use 2 upper bunks or 1 upper bunk plus a trundle/rollaway bed. With the rollaway/trundle option, there will be almost no floor space at all. With the 2 upper bunks option, if you keep the lower beds together, there will be almost no floor space and very little space to maneuver safely in and out of bed.

 

However, the oceanview rooms, being signficantly larger, do not have any upper bunks over the regular beds, partially or fully. The 3rd person sleeps in a sofa bed (not a pullout), and the 4th person in the upper bunk directly over the sofa bed. Those 2 beds sit separate from the regular beds. This is a significantly better setup.

 

You will not find any rooms with 2 large regular beds to sleep 4 on any Carnival ship. There are some suites on some ships that have a double sofa bed which sleeps 2, but the suites are pricey.

 

As far as location goes, deck 2 has a portion that is under the galley/kitchen, which you should avoid. That space is between the midship & aft elevators. All oceanview rooms are on decks 1 & 2. I love Deck 2, forward half of the ship. There are 10 forward elevators to make it an easy trip up to the pools/slides/buffet. Everything else (nightime entertainment, dining rooms) can be walked to, as long as you can handle a couple stairs. Getting off & on the ship in ports or for debarkation is also a piece of cake. If you opt for interior, some parts of deck 6 has noisy nighttime areas right below it. Some parts of deck 8 will be below the pool or outdoor deck areas. That is mainly between the forward & midship elevators, plus back from the aft elevators.

[Kellie in Texas]

Thanks for all the info, especially K2! Thanks for taking the time to post all that detailed info. I may reconsider about the oceanview, as well as look into the two rooms vs. one room that "Pink" mentioned.

[JP4GA]

Thanks for all the info, especially K2! Thanks for taking the time to post all that detailed info. I may reconsider about the oceanview, as well as look into the two rooms vs. one room that "Pink" mentioned.

 

We are also a family of four and have found that it is almost just as cheap to book 2 rooms instead of just one room. It is crazy if you ask me, but for some reason that is how it works much of the time.

 

For our upcoming May crusie on the Fascination we book 2 balconies for only $124 more than 1 room for four would have cost and on or 2014 Cruise on the Dream

we booked 2 balcony rooms that connect on the inside for only 96.00 more than 1 room would have been. TOTALLY WORTH IT....

[PSkinner]

2 rooms are a plus because you then have 2 bathrooms!!!!

[firefly333]

Inside quads are always two lowers and two uppers.

 

I would also be carefull on this ship of getting 3 beds on some of the higher categorys and getting a rollaway as the 4th bed which takes up all the floor space.

 

insides are 185 s.f. and OVs are 220 s.f. on this ship.

 

Be sure and double check what the beds are, if you dont want a rollaway. Any carnival ship built year 2000 and before has rollaways for the extra bed in cabins as a option.

[cruizinisthebest]

Thanks for all the info, especially K2! Thanks for taking the time to post all that detailed info. I may reconsider about the oceanview, as well as look into the two rooms vs. one room that "Pink" mentioned.

 

Definitely look into getting two rooms. There was a thread up last week about it often being cheaper. That's what we did for our upcoming sensation sailing. Looking forward to it. Good luck!!

[firefly333]

Definitely look into getting two rooms. There was a thread up last week about it often being cheaper. That's what we did for our upcoming sensation sailing. Looking forward to it. Good luck!!

 

I think that both threads about it being cheaper .. one cabin was a suite on both threads, and the 2nd a inside across from the suite (instead of paying 3/4 rates on the suite)

 

I doubt that 2 cabins if they are both insides are going to ever be cheaper, but the difference might not be as much.

[cruizinisthebest]

I think that both threads about it being cheaper .. one cabin was a suite on both threads, and the 2nd a inside across from the suite (instead of paying 3/4 rates on the suite)

 

I doubt that 2 cabins if they are both insides are going to ever be cheaper, but the difference might not be as much.

 

Maybe not. I dunno. When we were going back and forth with rates and rooms and what not, it was cheaper in some cases and just about the same in others to go with two rooms. But the cruise the OP speaks of could be different.

[Kellie in Texas]

I have done a little checking on two rooms, either two interiors or one oceanview and one interior. The price doesn't seem to be that much different than for four in one room. Other issue is, we have myself, DH and two sons, ages 20 and 11. So, to be "legal," we'd have to have one parent and one son in each room. And frankly, I think I'd rather all of us be together anyway.

 

I am trying to locate on the Carnival website how much the prepaid gratuities are, but either the website isn't cooperating or my internet browser isn't cooperating. Aren't these around $20-25 per person per day?

[hockeyluver]

I would definitly go with two inside cabins.... or an ov for mom and dad and the boys inside cabin across the hall.

[RjayB]

The price isn't much different, but you prefer one room for 4 people over 2 rooms? :eek: Are you sure you are thinking this through?

We are not talking about hotel size rooms here...they are a bit crowded even for just 2 adults!

[blondietink]

We highly recommend the ocean view cabins on the Triumph for 4. This ship was our very first cruise ever and the ocean view is 220 sq. feet and had plenty of room for the 4 of us, all adults. Large bed, sofa bed and drop down. All of our suitcases fit under the large bed. We have been spoiled as most cruise lines do no have ocean view cabins that are so large.

 

Gratuities are $11.50 per person per day.

[pinkgirlmommy]

We have a 4 year old and 8 year old and it is only $200 difference on this exact cruise/dates between 2 oceanview adjoining rooms and 1 interior room. Keep the door open and you are still all together plus have 2 bathrooms. You just book 1 adult in each room but you dont actually have to sleep that way! Gratuity is $230 for 4 people that cruise.

[k2excursion]

I have done a little checking on two rooms, either two interiors or one oceanview and one interior. The price doesn't seem to be that much different than for four in one room. Other issue is, we have myself, DH and two sons, ages 20 and 11. So, to be "legal," we'd have to have one parent and one son in each room. And frankly, I think I'd rather all of us be together anyway.

 

I am trying to locate on the Carnival website how much the prepaid gratuities are, but either the website isn't cooperating or my internet browser isn't cooperating. Aren't these around $20-25 per person per day?

 

Gratuities are the same price, whether you prepay them or pay them on the ship: $11.50 per person per day. I'm so glad it's not 20-25! We always pay them on the ship, just to make it easier on us. Having it done on the ship means that there's one less thing that I have to do, because it's automatic.

 

Yes, Carnival would require you to book one adult (over 25) in each room that has someone under 21. But once you get on board, you can go to guest services and arrange everything the way you want it: parents in one room, kids in the other. Your sail & sign card is also your room key. They will either redo the appropriate cards to open the other room, or they could issue extra room keys. So there's nothing to worry about there. People do that all the time.

 

Triumph interior rooms are listed at 185 sq.ft. I have measured them to be 150 with a tape measurer. Their oceanview rooms are listed at 220, and they actually are. Their balcony rooms are listed at 185 indoors, and they actually are (and are quite a bit larger than the interiors, even though both are listed at 185).

 

One thing I didn't mention that another poster alluded to was that even with oceanview rooms for 4, they may try to put you into a room that sleeps 3 with a sofa bed, then use a trundle/rollaway for the 4th. The upper bunk for the 4th person is a much better option, as long as someone is okay with climbing up & down from it. So you would want to clarify that that is what you are getting when choosing a room. And putting 4 people in an oceanview room is not as horrible as some people may think it is. If your family enjoys being together, you won't have a problem. We have done 3 adults in one of those small 150 sq.ft. interior rooms, and it didn't feel cramped. 4 in an OV would be fine. There's plenty of storage space, and the suitcases can go under the big bed.

[Kellie in Texas]

Okay, Plan B (thanks to your suggestions!). Looked into two connecting oceanview cabins, two of us per cabin. I did get a quote for cabins 2425 and 2429, which despite their numbers, are in fact next to each other. These are aft cabins; the deck above is one of the dining rooms. My preference would be to only have passenger cabins above and below, but that doesn't seem to be working out (in my price range! :rolleyes:). But I'm thinking the dining room wouldn't be too bad, noise-wise. At least it's carpeted.

 

Any thoughts on these rooms?

[blondietink]

They serve breakfast in that dining room on sea days, which can begin as early as 7 am, I believe. You cabins are fairly close to the galley though, so you could hear some noise before that hour daily.

 

Be also be advised that you might feel a lot of motion in that area of the ship depending on how fast the ship is moving and how big the waves are.

[k2excursion]

2425 & 2429 are below the dining room, but not the galley. It's getting close to the galley, but they aren't quite below the galley. Below the dining room is fine. I've been below the dining room on 3 cruises, including this exact dining room on the Triumph. On all 3 cruises, the dining room I was under was serving breakfast. The carpeting helps, plus the amount of foot traffic is probably no worse than having a stateroom above you. I've never noticed a peep from it.

 

However, I must point out that the aft of Triumph on Deck 2 seemed to rattle and have all kinds of crazy crashing and booming sounds at random times. It woke me up many times. We stayed in room 2444, which is only 4 rooms further back than your location. Other people have reported the same things in this area of Triumph. We got that room very very cheap, so we were happy with it, but we even said out loud that we would never pay an oceanview price for it because of the noises.

 

There are plenty of options in the forward half of the ship for 2 connecting 2-person OV rooms. Are those all taken for the sailing you're looking at? 2300/2304, 2301/2305, 2319/2323, 2332/2336, 2222/2226 to name a few. EDIT: I just checked your sailing online, and I see that none of those options are showing as available. There could be more options available if you call them. The website doesn't show every available room. I was also very surprised to see that it's cheaper to do 2 rooms than it is to put 4 in one room. Even if you can't get connecting rooms, next door should work out alright.

[JP4GA]

IF you are looking online at connecting rooms you will need to call to see if they "REALLY" are booked. Every cruise we have gone on it looked as if all of the connecting rooms had been booked, but we call tell them what rooms we are interested in and have been able to get those rooms other rooms like the ones we were looking at.

 

It seems that they make it look like the connecting rooms are unavailable when sometimes they have not yet been booked.

[mpcaruth]

I recommend an Ocean View quad if you are on a budget. The OV cabins are larger and have a much better arrangement than the typical inside (IS). We had the typical IS Quad ONLY ONCE (because we wanted a cheap cruise add-on to our Disney vacation). If you book early enough (which does seem to be your case here, as you said July and it's May now) you can snag a popular cheaper special IS cabin that is larger than the typical inside cabin. See special Interior cabin categories PT (porthole), 4J (french door), and 4K (picture window).

 

 

I have posted quad cabin pictures in a previous link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1630990&highlight=mpcaruth