Cruisin'CaveChick

I don't have answers yet, still working on it. :(

In my case, I was told that the price drop was not for my cabin class, which was Ocean View mid ship. The drop was for unsold cabins at the back section. We got the price drop, but we had to cancel our cabin and take one at the back section. I had no problem with that since it did get me a credit.

Mine was definitely for my same class, I was very careful. Midship, Main Deck, OceanView. :(

Screen shot the rate you're seeing and have your TA e-mail it to them if needed. I had a similar issue a month or 2 ago. I was eligible for a cheaper casino rate that happened to be the same price as a guarantee rate they had available. Even though I specified I wanted the casino rate, I still got bumped into the gty pool and didn't notice until the next day. Luckily when I called they were able to get me my room back along with the OBC I was owed.

That gives me hope, thank you! I've definitely been screenshotting things, so I will have her do that! :D

I do know that changing to a Guarantee type rate would require changing to a Guarantee room, that's exactly what I don't want to do. They have 2 sales right now. The 24 Hour Sale is lower, but would be a "Guarantee" room, the "Sailebration of Cruising" isn't as low, but it still $40 less than my current rate and is a "choose your room" rate. My agent spent an hour on the phone with them and they insisted their computers won't allow them to do the "choose your room" rate because the "guarantee" rate is lower than the "choose your rate", despite both being lower than my current rate.

I do not have any onboard credit currently to factor into the price.

:confused::confused::confused:

have them call back and talk with someone else

I asked and she said Carnival's Guest Services is closed for the day. :(

Has anyone had this happen before?!

I booked through a travel agent on the Early Saver deal with Price Protection. I have had 2 Early Saver Price Protection claims go through without a hitch, but today when my agent tried to get it to go through, they did the wrong sale and kicked me out of my room to a TBA. My agent called because she was very clear that was not what she had requested or approved. They insisted that's how Early Saver Price Protection always works, that there is no way to keep your room/ select which rate you want, that it will always be whatever the current lowest rate type is (which we know isn't true from both the online terms and previous experience). They finally agreed to change the booking back to how it was before, but are refusing to allow me to use the "Sailebration of Cruising" fare. They insist that I have to accept the "24 Hour Sale" rate where my room becomes a "Guarantee" room if I want to use the Early Saver Price Protection. This is not correct as per the terms of the Early Saver Price Protection and is not ok. :mad:

I'm really glad they got me my room back, but I don't see any reason for them to not honor the Early Saver Price Protection. My agent said in the 30 years she's been doing this this has never happened to her, and she tried to get them to do the correct lower fare, but they just wouldn't budge. Has anyone else ever had this happen?? :confused:

Thank you everyone for all your help! We went ahead and booked and now get to start the rest of the planning! :D

It is too bad that you could not get connecting rooms.

 

Connecting rooms would have been perfect.

I know :(

We've cruised with 3 children. We always got 2 rooms next to each other. My husband and son slept in one and me with 2 girls in the other. In the morning my husband and I would hang out on one of our balconies. Other than sleeping we would all hang out in one of the rooms. If I had to sleep with 4 other people I'd go nuts. Too much snoring, shuffling etc...

I think it bothers the baby the most, lol, but the 4 year old is getting close to ready for his own room, too, I think :p

If one of the kids gets up during the night and doesnt want to go back to sleep one parent can take her into the other cabin for the rest of the night.

 

Guest services will not care who sleeps where.

Oh good :) and that's one of the things we're pretty sure we'll be grateful for 2 rooms for, since we've had to do that a few times here at home lately. :) Thank you!

They are now 12, 11, and 5 (all girls). But they've been cruising with us for four years now. They're about to take their 8th cruise! (spoiled...compared to family vacations when I was a kid!!!) When we started, our youngest was 17 months old. The next time, she was 23 months...still just shy of being able to go to "Camp"! But we've always had fun! Through the years, we've sailed in 5-person rooms (both "regular" on the Paradise - which was tight, and the extended "family OV" on the Dream/Breeze, which were a bit roomier), connecting rooms (hard to find...only did that on the Fascination), and - more often - in 2 separate rooms. You'll get the hang of it...whatever works!!

 

Be sure to check out the "Family" board for other tips on cruising with little ones. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you can't drop them off at Camp until they're 2, and they can't swim in the pools at all if they're in diapers. But I have to say, cruising is our absolute FAVORITE family vacation!!!!

That's awesome!! My family didn't really do vacations when I was a kid, so it's all new to me, lol ;) (especially the yearly extended family vacation :eek:)

Thank you for the tip for the Family board, too!

We are on the imagination in 20 days:) We are in an oceanview that sleeps 4 it has the two twins to make king and one upper pullman DD 17 and they are bringing in the trundle for our DS 12.... I'm happy to take pictures and post if that helps you with a decision but it is 20 days away :(

I would love to see pictures! We went ahead and booked last night before the sale ended, but I would LOVE to hear from someone who just sailed on it who can give me more info and pics from it right now! :D

They don't really care where the people sleep. They just can't book a room for more people than it is designated to hold. You can move the rollaway/trundle from one of your rooms to the other. On my first cruise, my friend's mom couldn't handle the upper after trying it, so we asked for a rollaway, even though our room was not designated to take a rollaway/trundle. But, since there was an unused rollaway, they brought it to us. It doesn't have to stay in the room that it's designated for. But, I don't know if there is space to fit 2 trundles in the room. I know that you implied earlier that you didn't want a suite, but the grand suite will be your best bet to making this work. You can put 5 in many of the suites, and nobody will be in an upper.

Awesome! Thank you!! We don't need to get 2 trundles in, but might attempt to get a crib and a trundle in... The 2 year old is a violent sleeper, so we may want to put her in a crib, baby with me and dad, and 4 year old on the trundle.. Suites are definitely out of our budget, unfortunately, but maybe someday!

Getting back to one of your original questions, and my answer will differ from other responses here, but I'm totally sure. The room sizes listed are not always accurate. Sometimes they are, sometimes not. I have measured many different room types on several ships (with a tape measurer--I'm a bit of a numbers nerd), and I have discovered clear discrepancies. If the one previous poster is correct, I guess I should sue Carnival, but I seriously doubt that anyone can sue over this. One of my inside rooms was listed as being 185 sq.ft, but I measured it to be exactly 150. A balcony room, listed as 185 indoors, measured to be exactly 185. I have measured others, but those 2 are the clearest indicators that the numbers they list are confusing: sometimes correct, sometimes not. Those 2 rooms, listed as being equal, are blatantly obviously different in size. Looking at it alone makes it obvious, especially with the long sofa in the true 185 sf room. The ship that you're looking at is one type of ship that I haven't measured. But based on my experience & seeing pictures, those rooms may possibly be a little larger than the 150 I measured on Magic, but certainly not even close to the 185. I would guess either 160 or 170 at the very most.

So maybe I'm not just crazy! I'm a numbers nerd, too, so I'll probably measure it now, too ;)

Our balcony on RCCL had a sofa and coffee table, plus a bigger desk area, and I just didn't see how it was possible for them to be the same size, but started second guessing myself with what everyone else said, thought the bathroom and closet space must just be a lot bigger or something...

I'll report back in a few months on dimensions for this ship :) Might even convince other family members to let me measure their rooms ;)

They don't care if you all sleep in one room. The nice thing is that with two rooms, you will have two bathrooms, and you can use the non-sleeping room as one big luggage room/closet! Also, once you get on the ship, stop at the Guest Services desk and ask for an extra key card for each room. That way each adult will have a key card for each of the rooms.

 

We do this all the time. We sail with myself and our husband and our 3 kiddos. I will say though, that often we do end up with my husband across the hall, usually with one kiddo...it's just nice to have the extra room. We have definitely all slept in one room, though. It's tight, but usually do-able.

Oh yay! I'm so glad to hear of someone else who has done it! How old are your kiddos?

I'm confused. You are booking an OV for 2, and an inside for 3. I assume that with the baby sleeping with you, yu are planning on keeping the lower beds as a queen/king? then, the trundle occupies the rest of the floor space...and are both the 4y/o and 2y/o sleeping on it together?

This is an inside quad with one bunk down. If the 4 y/o slept there and fell out, he would at least land on you. The trundle would be next to the bed and force those in the large bed to crawl out over the foot to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

 

This is an inside twin with a rollaway, with twins separated. Much more space, but still, where does the 4th person sleep (5th sleeps with Mom)?

 

EM

That's even more room than I thought, actually, lol. We're thinking 3-4 on the queen/king, 1-2 on the rollaway/trundle, and depending on how they handle it, we might cram the crib in (the 2 year old can be a violent sleeper, lol). We're expecting it to be very very cramped, but as far as we can tell there aren't any other options :confused:

No cabins on Inspiration fit 4. Unsure if they'd allow the 5th.

There's 4 and 5 person rooms on Imagination and Inspiration, but they both have upper pullmans (for obvious reasons ;-) ), which we're trying to avoid :cool:

While I read most of the previous posts and will be repeating some of the info here goes:

 

Finding a regular room that accommodates 5 will depend on which ship.

You can not "book" more people in the room than it lists.

Since this is a family cruise you can book one of the littles with someone else. I booked grandson with great grandma but he slept in his parents room.

 

OR you can book to connecting rooms with you in one room and spouse in the other and leave the door open. I know you said in your most recent post none were available. Are you calling Carnival, working with a TA or trying to book on line? Carnival will have access to all rooms available.

 

There is so much stress planning these family cruises but I promise you when all is said and done it is worth it.

I so wish that we could book one with the others, but they used a really crappy "agent" and weren't willing to work with us to make it work (switching rooms around, etc), so we're having to book ours by ourselves :(

We've been working with a PVP and he's tried really hard to get us adjoining rooms(seriously, he's been amazing!), but the only ones they had (I don't know if they even have those now) were for 2 & 2, or 2 & 4 person, so unless we bring someone extra or leave someone home, we can't book those :(

Issue would be if there are any extra beds (trundles or rollaways) available.

The inside room says it will come with a trundle, so we'd most likely just move that trundle to the Ocean View, unless we'd get in trouble for doing that :confused:

Honestly, I don't think they will care. It's common for parents to book two rooms (if they have teenage kids) and the kids share one room and the parents the other. The only rule is that at the time of booking/check in, one of the guests in the room is 21.

Is it the same if it ends up being different numbers than what is booked? I've only been able to find things for switching rooms with the number per room staying the same, and I fear fines to my credit card or something, lol (I know, I know, I'm probably just overthinking things and being paranoid :-p). Logically, to me, I don't see why they'd care, but I've only been on one cruise. That was our honeymoon, and there was no room swapping or sharing ;)

Our extended family is going on a cruise in June on the Imagination.

My question: If we book 2 rooms, will anyone really care if we end up all sleeping in the same one? If we do sleep in one, would it matter if we put the roll-away/trundle in whichever one we do end up sleeping in?

We're planning on getting 2 rooms across from each other (there aren't any adjoining available on this cruise and there aren't any 2 person and 3 person next to each other), but we all sleep in one room at home, so will probably all want to sleep in one on the cruise. Is anyone going to get mad at us for cramming into one? Will they care if we move the trundle to whichever one we end up using as long as we put it back at the end?

We don't want to do a 5 person room because our kids are 4, 2, and a baby. Baby sleeps next to me, so I can't be on the upper, husband is too big for the upper, and kids are too little. From photos I've noticed that the rooms with upper pullmans are functionally much smaller on the Imagination because of how much room the uppers take, so we really don't want to book a 5 person and just leave them put away, either, plus this would give us an extra room for any time we do need more space and would give us an extra bathroom.

Sorry! I read everyone's responses within a few hours of them being posted, but I kept getting pulled away every time I logged in to try to reply, and by the time I could get back, I'd be logged out :-/

I greatly appreciate everyone's help and advice! I'm not sure I'll be able to find time to respond to everyone, but I want everyone to know I really appreciate it!

The advice of adjoining rooms was great, and we were all excited to go, figuring that would work, but the in-laws changed things and unfortunately the ship we're now sailing on doesn't have any available :( Now I have more questions, and I'm thinking a new thread would be good, but I'll post them here, too...

If we book 2 rooms, will anyone really care if we end up all sleeping in the same one? If we do sleep in one, would it matter if we put the roll-away/trundle in whichever one we do end up sleeping in?

We really don't think we'll be comfortable sleeping in separate rooms (we all sleep in one room at home and the kids usually won't go to sleep without everyone in there, and if they do fall asleep, they usually wake up crying for the missing parent (it's never just a missing kid ;) ), but might be able to pull off a trip with rooms across the hall from each other so we have more room to get ready, somewhere to take one of the kids when they get too wound up, etc...

I'm really trying to find a way to go on this trip and have it be a good experience! Thank you for all your help!!

Hi,

This is my first post here, so hopefully I'm doing it right! I have a couple questions that basically overlap, so I hope it's ok to combine them...

1 - Are the rooms true to size?

2 - Can I request to put 5 people in a room without upper pullmans (without it being a suite)?

Background on question 1: I've looked up info on line in written form, and I've looked at pictures and videos, and it just doesn't seem to match up... According to what I can find, the Ocean View staterooms on Inspiration are 185 sq ft, the Deluxe Oceanview with Balcony on Royal Caribbean (the only other room we've had) is 184 sq ft, but the one on Royal Caribbean had ample room to lounge around with a king size bed, couch, coffee table, writing station, closet, bathroom, etc..., and the floor plans I can see of what the Oceanview Cabins on Inspiration *theoretically* look like would be similar, but the photos and videos I can find show a MUCH smaller room with just a queen bed and a tiny writing station, plus closet and bathroom, no couch/coffee table area, so I don't understand... Is Royal Caribbean bigger than it says or Carnival smaller?

Background on question 2: My in-laws want to go on a family cruise in June, and not going will cause issues (lots of drama and we had to skip the other cruise they did because of pregnancy complications, which caused some issues with us already, so...). We have 3 kidlets under 5, they can't safely sleep on an upper pullman, and neither can hubby or I (I need to be next to my littlest baby, and he is over the weight limit). I'd rather not have them to hit our heads on and make the room feel even smaller when we can't use them anyway.

The part that overlaps: is it even possible to fit extra beds on the floor? From the videos it looks like the cabins have essentially no room aside from a couple feet between the bed and wall, and when they were convincing us to go we were picturing a room like the one on Royal Caribbean, minus the balcony (cost and safety reasons), but again, it doesn't look at all like the situation, so I don't know if this is all moot and we have to tell our kids and in-laws that we can't go because there isn't anywhere to stay safely with multiple littles? Please, someone tell me there's some way to make this work... (btw, we don't need to fit 5 beds, but we will need more than just a queen...)

Sorry, I know that's very rambly and I'm hoping it makes some sense... I'm afraid I'm going to need a vacation just from the stress of planning this "vacation", and then a vacation from the stress of taking a cruise with 3 under 5 (and in-laws...) :p

Please be nice in your responses, I know that's a lot of young kids and not the ideal age for a cruise, I know it's a less expensive room than we stayed in before, I'm just trying to figure all this out and see what options (if any) we have...