Best Stateroom with Balcony for Family of Four

[junglejane]

I think she means side facing as opposed to aft balconies. The Caribe balconies are much bigger than the ones on Aloha or Baja (or Riviera). I believe all the Caribe balconies (other than the aft ones) are the same size. We have booked the Crown Princess for July 2009 and have two side by side BA balcony cabins on Caribe. Came out to about $300 more than putting all four of us in an AB minisuite. As others have suggested, you can also do a balcony and an inside.

 

--Junglejane

[kwcrnp]

Thanks for info on the rollaway and two cabins. I never would have thought it would be close in price 4 in a balcony or 2 cabins. I priced them and it was almost the same price for 2 cabins!! We now have a balcony room with an inside room across the hall. It will be very nice to have 2 bathrooms with a 14 yr old DD in tow!

 

Thanks everyone.

[Miss Jolly]

We have cruised in a 4 cabin when the children were 11 and 12 and it was very tight. We now go for interconnecting rooms. With teenagers, that extra bathroom sure comes in handy. We just keep our connecting door open and close it when we want privacy

[TwinCruiserMom]

What are side facing balconies? Are they mid-ship?

 

 

Sorry if I was confusing on this. I did mean the balconies that are on both sides of the ship. The aft facing balconies are different sizes than the regular side balconies and they do have more chairs.

[luvstosun]

Just FYI, you will not be able to remove the partition. There is a door in the partition that the room steward can open, but you will not have one large balcony like you would if the partition were actually removed.

 

Thanks for the information, I was not aware of that. The way the travel agent explained it to us was that she would request the partition be removed. Either way it still will be nice.

[junglejane]

Here's a picture from last year on the Diamond Princess. We had two balcony cabins on Caribe. You can see my two DD's standing in the open doorway between the two balcony partitions.

 

--Junglejane

[luvstosun]

Here's a picture from last year on the Diamond Princess. We had two balcony cabins on Caribe. You can see my two DD's standing in the open doorway between the two balcony partitions.

 

--Junglejane

Thank you for the picture. It helps to know what to expect when we get there.

[cyberfilly]

Are there symbols or nomenclature on the Princess deck plans that indicate which rooms are "connecting"? (Not via the balcony, but via a door inside the cabins.)

[Toto2Kansas]

Are there symbols or nomenclature on the Princess deck plans that indicate which rooms are "connecting"? (Not via the balcony, but via a door inside the cabins.)

 

Yes, connecting cabins show a little doorway between staterooms. Easy to spot on the deck plans. You have to really look for them as they are only offered on a few of the ships and even then there aren't many connecting cabins on the ships that offer them.

[cyberfilly]

Are they usually on certain decks or does it differ ship to ship? We're looking at either the Caribe, Dolphin, or Emerald deck.

[Toto2Kansas]

Are they usually on certain decks or does it differ ship to ship? We're looking at either the Caribe, Dolphin, or Emerald deck.

I just checked the deck plans for the Crown Princess and see no connecting balcony cabins offered that connect through an inner door.

Perhaps someone wiser than I that knows which ships actually offer real connecting staterooms can post which ones they are. I know there are a few of them, but just don't have time to look at all the deck plans right now.

[junglejane]

There are very few rooms on Princess ships that connect via an interior door. Some ships don't have any at all. We tried to book a pair on the Diamond. (Ex: Baja 702 and 704) However, the connecting cabins all included at least one quad room (a room with two upper berths) as part of the pair. Our TA was told that we could not book the quad room for only two people, as they hold that for someone who wants to put 3 or 4 in the room. That's when we settled for side by side rooms that connect via the balcony.

 

--Junglejane

[Toto2Kansas]

This is one reason I have always questioned why some say Princess is so 'family friendly'. They may offer a great childrens program onboard, but they do not offer family friendly accomodations on their ships.

 

Connecting balcony cabins (through the balcony partition) sound fine, but I sure wouldn't want two or more younger children in their own balcony stateroom without parental supervision, that is just an accident looking for a place to happen.

With all the new ships Princess has debuted in recent years, to me, if they actually wanted to target families, they would have had more adjoining staterooms to accomodate them.

[junglejane]

That's why on Princess DH and I end up splitting up, so that one of us is in each room. Our kids are now 7 and 11, not old enough in our opinion to be by themselves.

 

Interestingly, Celebrity offers lots of connecting cabins on the M-class ships, although it's certainly not perceived as a family friendly line. We have connecting cabins on Celebrity for our upcoming Med cruise.

 

--Junglejane

[Toto2Kansas]

That is my exact point. How friendly is a cruise line that forces families to split up with wife and kid/kids in one stateroom and husband kid/kids in another? I just don't constitute that as family friendly. IMHO of coarse. :)

[luvstosun]

That's why on Princess DH and I end up splitting up, so that one of us is in each room. Our kids are now 7 and 11, not old enough in our opinion to be by themselves.

 

Interestingly, Celebrity offers lots of connecting cabins on the M-class ships, although it's certainly not perceived as a family friendly line. We have connecting cabins on Celebrity for our upcoming Med cruise.

 

--Junglejane

That is what we will be doing on our cruise. Our kids are 10 and 13 and still not ready to let them be alone, especially at night.

[kwcrnp]

We're doing the same, (balcony and inner across from the balcony), each of us will be with a kid (14,9).

 

The only one who is happy about it is my DD, she doesn't have to share space with her "pest" of a little brother! ;)

 

It's still better then squeezing into a quad or paying a lot more for the mini-suite. Plus we'll have 2 bathrooms! :D

[junglejane]

Kristi, we'll be on the Crown Princess British Isles cruise the month after you are!

 

--Junglejane