Booking 2 Cabins - family of 6

[dinoz2724]

My husband and I just went on our first cruise on NCL Escape to Florida/Bahamas ...we are in love. Had so much fun. We want to plan a trip with the kids. We booked our first cruise in an interior room and then got an upgrade for $100 to a balcony. Now that we had a balcony we are afraid to chance not booking one but it does so much  more. Any tips? We also would like adjoining rooms, but we do have 2 older boys 17 & 19 that could share a room. Also...best time too book? The prices seen awful high right now for November 2019...will the prices begin to drop as we get closer to that date? Any tips would be greatly appreciate 

[LuckyStar]

It depends on the itinerary and boat.  I have found with our cruise on Carnival Vista, the prices are rising.  What you can do is book your cruise and if you see prices drop, call NCL and ask for the price drop.  They might say no, but they might say yes. I always book at a price I am comfortable with with no expectation of price drops.  We did have one price drop. But they have gone back up. 

 

You should book early if you want connecting rooms.  Sometimes they are harder to get. 

 

Best of luck!

 

[angie7911922]

LuckyStar is right. If you are looking for connecting rooms, you will have to book early. If you are ok with being in separate rooms, I sometimes wait and book right before we sail, especially if your dates are a bit flexible. There is always space available (cruises rarely fill up completely), and there are usually discounts to try to fill the ship shortly before they sail (a month or so.) That being said, keep your passport updated, so you can jump on the last minute cruise 🙂

[cb at sea]

Put the 2 adults in one room, and the 4 kids in the other....have some privacy!

 

[Stacie.]

I'm not sure how NCL is, but I know for CCL if you have a balcony room you have to have at least one person over the age of 25 in a room (unless it is a married couple under the age of 25). We have two balcony rooms booked for our upcoming cruise and I had to put DH in one room and me in the other and split up the five kids among the rooms. In reality we will probably put the 15 yo, two 14 yo, and 11 yo in one room (they are all pretty mature and good kids) and the 13 yo (who picks fights with the others and needs a quieter room to sleep in) will be in the other room with DH and me. Sometimes I wish I would've booked a balcony for me, DH, and DD13 and booked an interior room right across the hall for the other kids and saved money but 14 yo boy is 6'2" and would not be able to stand straight up in an interior room with Pullman beds. If we have any issues (I don't anticipate any, but you can never say 100%) then we'll deal with it and have the two boys and DH in a room and I'll share a room with the three girls. 

[cb at sea]

You can book the cabins however you have to...then move the occupants around as you see fit, once onboard.  The "adult in each room" is only for booking purposes.  Once on the ship, they don't care who sleeps where.

 

Carnival's inside cabins are the same size as a normal balcony (less the balcony space, of course)...there is plenty of room for any adult-sized person to stand, even with pullmans!

 

[MsMolly]

We are also a family of six. My husband and I cruised a few times then decided to take our four children on a cruise. I was adamant that we have connecting rooms. It worked out great and we all had a wonderful time. The second cruise we booked with the kids there were no connecting cabins in the area we wanted so we took a chance and booked side by side cabins. We always book balcony cabins so we just used the balcony door to go back and forth between rooms...that worked just as well for us. (like you, we had teenagers so it was a safe way to do it. Actually I think my husband stayed in one cabin and I stayed in the other anyway! haha!)

[wheezedr]

When my boys were with us we usually booked 2 rooms.  A balcony for DW and me and an interior for them.  They liked that, as it stayed darker when they wanted to sleep in late.  For all together time we used the balcony room.