Family of four in an inside cabin...are we nuts?

[Mumof2]

Hi, I just got off the phone with Princess. I was trying to book connecting cabins on the Emerald for a January cruise, but they were all gone. So I have a hold on an inside cabin that accomodates 4. Our kids will be 8 and 5 at sailing time. When we do a land holiday, we always have a separate bedroom for the kids so we can put them to bed early (between 8-9 pm), and then have the evening to ourselves. With this scenario, I don't know how it will work. I mean, put the kids to bed and then we lie in the dark, or keep them up and have them overtired?

 

What do other parents do? My kids need 10-11.5 hours of sleep. To upgrade to a minisuite, which would have a sofabed and a curtain divider (at least it looks that way in the picture) will cost an extra $3000.

 

I'm wondering if I should give up on this cruise and look for something else. The lady said we had to book early to get the connecting suites...I said almost 10 months in advance isn't early?!

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Mel

[Warmer Climes]

I don't know if you have your heart set on Princess, but most if not all of RCCL's ships have a privacy curtain. The NCL Dream did also.

 

Barb

[the4ofusandallourfriends]

Mel, we do this all the time, 4 in an inside, but our kids are super-adaptable and we have learned to be really flexible. We also always travelled with family members so that when one of us went to the cabin with the kids, the other had someone to hang around with.

 

Your kids sound like they are very set in their ways. If you're going alone, I'm not sure what to say. Atleast if you can get a balcony room, you could sit out there.

 

If you don't mind cuddling up and watching tv in the dark, it might be okay.

 

You could also try to get on a waitlist. There are many cancellations just before final payment.

 

I h

[dmlee1990]

We've had four in an inside cabin before. On HAL, they have quads with a two twins/queen bed, an upper and a sofabed. Our girls can sleep with the tv on, so many times they will fall asleep when my husband is watching a movie. Sometimes I'm tired too, so I'll go to sleep with the girls, while my husband visits the late night buffet or casino.

 

Some HAL ships also have some connecting inside and outside cabins, if you prefer this type of cabin set-up. Check to see if HAL has a ship with connecting rooms to the destination you are considering. Good Luck!

[onedog]

The Mrs. and I are on the NCL Star with two youngin's 3 & 6 y.o.

 

When we have traveled in the same room (when a connecting room is not available for a reasonable price), we just put them to bed and then when they are sound asleep, we sneek out and one of my parents sneeks in and naps until we return later that night.

 

IMHO, for the extra $3k for a bigger room, I'd put up with the cramped quarters and spend the $$ of "fun" things to do. I am sure your kids would also agree.

[Ga_Cruising]

My wife and I have done this 4 or 5 times with inside cabins. She likes to crash early, so it isn't a big deal. Usually our kids are active until later than usual and end up exhausted by the end of the day. So we go back, put them in bed and they fall asleep hard pretty quickly. Then I'll either quietly watch TV or (more likely) just read a bit. In the morning, the kids are still asleep, so we'll go work out one at a time, shower, etc until they wake up.

 

The great thing about the inside cabins is that the kids have no idea what time it is outside. My younger child had a habit of getting up at 6 a.m., but in an inside cabin he had no idea what time it was, so I could sleep in a bit. :)

[abitaturbodog]

I agree with the poster that said you might want to change cruise lines. Look at RCCL and Carnival. On Carnival, you could probably get two adjoining inside cabins for the price of one on Princess!

[lostie]

I am booked on an inside with my 2 DSs and DH also. My children are very adaptable to noise/light though. I still don't see spending $3000 for a bigger room. Maybe you could take turns with your spouse each night (one stays with kids and one goes out). I'm sure you'll make friends on the ship with others that you could do things with. That's probably what we'll do. Although

NCL has group sitting until 1:00am and I'll probably be wooped by then.

[ggprincess2004]

Princess does have "babysitting" available in the kids center in the evening. You might want to check out the kids program - it might be of assistance with an alternative to tucking them in early. :D

[CarrieBl]

Our kids will be 8 and 5 at sailing time. When we do a land holiday, we always have a separate bedroom for the kids so we can put them to bed early (between 8-9 pm), and then have the evening to ourselves. With this scenario, I don't know how it will work. I mean, put the kids to bed and then we lie in the dark, or keep them up and have them overtired?

 

What do other parents do?

Mel

 

We just sailed with our kids 7 and 4. They just partied at Camp Carnival every night until they fell asleep. At home, my 7 year old ASKS to go to bed at 8 like clock work, and he even asked to go back to the hotel at Disney World, but not on the cruise! To quote him 'He was a party animal'. I've had parents come up to me at school asking me about cruising because my son had so much fun, he's apparently a walking advertisement for the industry now LOL

 

For the little kids and the tired 6-8's, the counselors set up a sleeping area with comfy pillows and blankets and once then they play a movie with the lights dimmed. If the kids have played hard all day and had fresh air, they usually don't have a problem nodding off under those circumstances. When my husband and I were done for the night, we picked them up and tucked them in their own beds. If you have an early excursion day, then you'd pick them up earlier.

 

Having the Camp Carnival option was MUCH more fun than previous vacations where we had to go back to the hotel when the kids got tired. Both kids and adults loved it so much, the first thing we did when we got home was cancel our trip to Disney next year and book another cruise. My 7 year old has me check the Carnival website every day to see the # of days until our next cruise.

 

So, maybe it's not the cabin you need to rethink, but utilizing the child care options.

 

Best of luck!

[CeleBrat]

We have been traveling in inside cabins for our last few cruises with our kids (currently 4 and 6). Like the above posters said, there is no problem having the TV on and letting the kids fall asleep. We are not night-owls anymore, so we usually go to bed at 10pm-ish when they do on a cruise.

 

Also--in a very Brady-Bunch way, DH and I also sleep in separate beds when in an inside cabins. SHOCKING! Since the kids beds are usually bunks, we request that our queen bed be separated and pushed so that 1/2 is against each wall (and under one of the kids bunks). We found that if we didn't do that, then, when the bunks are lowered and the queen bed is centered in the middle of the room, there is NO FLOOR SPACE AT ALL.

 

Go for it--book an inside!

 

CeleBrat

[katmandoo]

Thats just what I would do.

 

I would NEVER book an inside with my kids on vacation...its my vacation too and they go to bed by 8-9pm. I must have at least a balcony or an adjoining room so I can relax for a few hours when they go to sleep.

They would be dead if they stayed up till I went to sleep/ (so would I!)

 

Thats just me, my kids (3,6,8)are used to going to sleep at 8. I think they need 11-12 hrs. On vacation they do get to stay up later a couple of nights but at the end of a long day, enough is enough

(our now family of 5 needs two rooms so I book a balcony and an inside)

 

Call me a balcony snob, I may sound strict, but, I don't vacation that often and being able to put them to bed and relax is the only thing that works for me.

Good luck!

[Mumof2]

Katmandoo,

 

It's nice to know I'm not the only one...my kids would be in bed at the same time, and we want some time on our own too. I don't go to bed at 9:00! My kids need their sleep too, and if they don't get it - no one is happy!:eek:

 

I spent hours with the TA yesterday, and even looking at sharing a balcony room, they are pricing out at $500 - $600/day (Cdn). That's just too much. We could get a heck of a hotel and have lots of spending money left over doing a land vacation. Without kids, i think cruises offer a great value. But with kids, esp. younger ones, I'm not seeing it. We pay next to nothing for their meals...they usually split a kids meal since the meals are usually so big. And we rarely eat breakfast out on a land vacation. We prefer cereal in our jammies. :) So, unless I see a really great sale, we won't be cruising. :(

 

Mel (Mumof2)

[lia_b]

This is what we have done with our kids when they were about that age. I believe we were on Carnival and although we had other family members cruising with us we did not ask them to babysit because we felt it was their vacation also. We used the Camp and if I remember they were open until midnight, although you had to pay per hour. We would put them in their pj's and take them to the camp where they would layout mats and put on a kids movie. When we picked them up we would just carry them back to the cabin. This gave us a couple of hours of adult time and they enjoyed doing the "sleepover" with the other camp kids where they made friends and looked forward to meeting there again the following night.

 

By the way, we were on Princess last yearl and there was a curtain separating the beds, however, there is no way we would have enjoyed ourselves in the cabin, they are way too small.

[Karysa]

If my kids had something to look forward to they would take a nap. A one hour nap would get me at least 2.5 hours in return. They would be able to go to the kids program after dinner and you would be able to take in a show, club or just couple time. If you have an inside room it would be dark and good for napping.

[Forever Norway]

You only sleep there... and change from time to time.

[BethCarp]

Surely there's got to be something you can find. We got a Junior Suite (with a balcony) on RCI for only $2600 for the 4 of us. Granted it was only a 5-night cruise. But a 7-night wouldn't be that much more and there are 3-4 categories with balconies that are less expensive than a JS. Keep looking. I think you would find a balcony cabin to be worth the extra expense and it shouldn't be that much more.

 

ETA: Just priced a 7 night W. Caribbean cruise on RCI's Mariner in mid-Jan and you can get a D1 balcony cabin for $3400 for 4 people. There's even an Aft Junior Suite available for $4000. I don't know what your exact dates or where you're traveling, I just checked the first cruise I found. An inside on that sailing is still $2500, so I'm not sure what kind of rate you were getting on Princess, unless you're traveling over New Year's

[jimswims]

We have been on 3 cruises with our 2 kids (age 12 and 8 currently). We have been in an outside cabin 2 times (NCL Majesty) and last year we were in an inside (NCL Spirit).

 

We had no problems with the 4 of us in the outside cabins. The beds were 2 upper and 2 lower. It worked out well.

 

The NCL Spirit does not have the 2 upper and 2 lower beds for any quad cabins, inside or outside. We had 3 lower beds and one upper. It was wall to wall beds. We had a great cruise and made the best of it. However, we vowed never to book a cabin like that again. There was absolutely no floor space with the bed in the middle (much lower than the other 2 beds).

 

This year we are on the NCL Dawn. We decided to spend the extra money and booked an AB suite. We have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (jacuzzi in one), balcony, living and dining area and a butler. It was cheaper than adjoining balcony rooms.

 

We love taking family cruises.

[merela]

We have been on 4 Princess cruises, all inside cabins, except 1 with obstructed view. My kids are 5 and 7 now, but at our last cruise, they were 3 and 5.

 

I would feel unsafe with balcony rooms with such small children, even if it's deemed safe to others.

 

My kids just love the bunk beds situation. They wouldn't want it any other way.

We usually combined the twin beds so the adults can sleep together and the kids would occupy the top bunks. But occasionally, they would come down and rest with us. Sleep is never a problem because when they are tired, we are tired too. It's inevitable that the 4 of us would fall asleep around the same time. There are plenty of time for couple time because the kids are in Kids' Club most of the time.

 

It's hard to walk around the room with both bunks down during the day, so usually we just have 1 bunk down in the morning. When the kids are not in the kids' club, that bunk bed is endless source of imaginary play.

 

If you pack each person's clothes in gallon size ziploc bags and assign a drawer to each person (there are plenty of drawers in the room), you won't have trouble finding the stuff you need.

 

Bring children's plastic hangers (from Target or other clothing stores) if you have children 8 and under.

 

There is self-laundry on Princess which is a BIG plus if you have young children.

 

But I can see the Princess inside cabin being too small for teenage children. 4 adult-size people in an inside cabin would be a very tight fit.

 

The "tightness" of a 4-person cabin on the Princess is never a problem for us, especially when you think about the price you pay. But this is entirely subjective, some people will not think twice about paying for balcony rooms.

 

The only time we got an outside cabin (it was obstructed view) was because inside cabin wasn't available for the cruise we wanted to go on. That was a nice room because my kids were little enough to sit in the window space (like a little window seat).

 

But as kids get older, they will ask why we can't get outside cabins with windows or balconies. At least my 7YO does. This is when I talk about being frugal is never a bad thing! ;)

 

This inside/outside, 1 room/2 rooms choice is really a monetary one (value judgement too), so choose a room that you will feel comfortable with, and at the same time, within your travel budget.

[2Cruise4Ever]

We have been on 3 cruises with our 2 kids (age 12 and 8 currently). We have been in an outside cabin 2 times (NCL Majesty) and last year we were in an inside (NCL Spirit).

 

We had no problems with the 4 of us in the outside cabins. The beds were 2 upper and 2 lower. It worked out well.

 

The NCL Spirit does not have the 2 upper and 2 lower beds for any quad cabins, inside or outside. We had 3 lower beds and one upper. It was wall to wall beds. We had a great cruise and made the best of it. However, we vowed never to book a cabin like that again. There was absolutely no floor space with the bed in the middle (much lower than the other 2 beds).

 

This year we are on the NCL Dawn. We decided to spend the extra money and booked an AB suite. We have 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (jacuzzi in one), balcony, living and dining area and a butler. It was cheaper than adjoining balcony rooms.

 

We love taking family cruises.

 

Jim ~ I can't wait to hear what you say about the AB. You're absolutely going to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! We sail in the AB in less than 2 months!!! Remember when it was just under a year???? I can't beleive how time has flown. I really wish you were going on our cruise. Our kids would have a blast together. Maybe next year??? Rumor has it that the Dawn will be sailing from NYC to Bermuda once the Gem is operational. THAT would be the BEST! We've been waiting to go back to Bermuda for way too long. Please, please, please write a review when you get back. August, right? Are you still thinking about the 2 day cruise to nowhere in October out of Norfolk??

[sandy toes]

Hi, I just got off the phone with Princess. I was trying to book connecting cabins on the Emerald for a January cruise, but they were all gone. So I have a hold on an inside cabin that accomodates 4. Our kids will be 8 and 5 at sailing time. When we do a land holiday, we always have a separate bedroom for the kids so we can put them to bed early (between 8-9 pm), and then have the evening to ourselves. With this scenario, I don't know how it will work. I mean, put the kids to bed and then we lie in the dark, or keep them up and have them overtired?

 

What do other parents do? My kids need 10-11.5 hours of sleep. To upgrade to a minisuite, which would have a sofabed and a curtain divider (at least it looks that way in the picture) will cost an extra $3000.

 

I'm wondering if I should give up on this cruise and look for something else. The lady said we had to book early to get the connecting suites...I said almost 10 months in advance isn't early?!

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Mel

If you are not set on Princess and just set on that week to sail, check out the different deals with the other lines (connecting cabins). RCCL has a great Adventure Ocean program for Kids and Carnival has their Kids Camp Carnival that gets alot of raves from CC. NCL has some different ports that you may not find elsewhere. I would not give up that easily unless you have a family/friends group that is making you have to sail on that ship. I have had 2 children in an IS (one time ONLY). They were like yours sound, set in their bedtime patterns and that left very little for us to do in the cabin. The TV could not be on, the flashing lights woke them even if the sound was low. So we spent a week quietly reading at night. Looking back, it was a fun cruise(the day trips, family time at dinner and shows). It is all just wantever you make it. Have fun and enjoy those little ones, they grow up in a blink!

[sandy toes]

Katmandoo,

 

It's nice to know I'm not the only one...my kids would be in bed at the same time, and we want some time on our own too. I don't go to bed at 9:00! My kids need their sleep too, and if they don't get it - no one is happy!:eek:

 

I spent hours with the TA yesterday, and even looking at sharing a balcony room, they are pricing out at $500 - $600/day (Cdn). That's just too much. We could get a heck of a hotel and have lots of spending money left over doing a land vacation. Without kids, i think cruises offer a great value. But with kids, esp. younger ones, I'm not seeing it. We pay next to nothing for their meals...they usually split a kids meal since the meals are usually so big. And we rarely eat breakfast out on a land vacation. We prefer cereal in our jammies. :) So, unless I see a really great sale, we won't be cruising. :(

 

Mel (Mumof2)

I know everyone has their own picks/choices. I just hate to see you give up on cruising. If you do not wear blinders, looking at only one line but check out many different ones, ever different ships, you can find some very good deals. You may have to get 2 IS connecting cabins while the children are tiny instead of your balcony cabin to save cost. There are options out there. Lots of crusie discounters on the web offering some good resident deals.