Family ocean view or 2 outside cabins on Independence of the Seas

[smileon]

We are a family of 4 with children 15 and 11 - trying to decide whether to have 2 outside cabins or family ocean view. Any thoughts advice would be really welcome! What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

 

Thank you

[SuperCoolOne]

We are cruising on carnival in april, our first cruise. We have 3 kiddos traveling with us.

 

We chose connecting rooms both for a bit more privacy as well as a 2nd bathroom.

[KingHal]

Travelling with 3 young kids (9, 7 and 4) we have booked 2 connecting cabins on Independence' - a Balcony, and an Ocean View. If cost is an issue, for 2 kids you could also look into a Balcony and (connecting) inside like 9696 and 9701 (or 9396 and 9401).

[boulders]

My favorite cabin type is the family ocean view. I love its space. Even though theoretically, 2 connecting cabins have more square footage, they seem much less spacious to me.

 

I travel with 3 children - ds14, dd11 and ds4. With the FOV, the two older ones get the bunkbeds and the youngest sleeps with me. So, we have separate sleeping areas plus the living area.

 

When we tried connecting staterooms, everyone crammed into my stateroom during the day and the 2 boys only went into their stateroom to sleep. We seemed to be tripping over each other all the time. We never really needed the second bathroom. I found it more difficult to keep track of where everyone was and get everyone moving out for dinner/shore excursions with 2 staterooms.

[josask]

We'll be cruising in a FOV on the Jewel in 3 weeks. We looked at 2 adjoinging rooms but it was significantly cheaper to get a FOV. With 3 kids, we are looking forward to putting the younger 2 (7&9) to bed in the area with bunks and oldest (13) will be on the pull out as he'll be up later. We sure hope all goes well:)