Cruising with older kids

[ysarch]

So, we want to take our family on a cruise, which we have not done for a number of years now. However, we have 4 kids, aged 16, 14, 12, and 10. Two boys (14 and 10) and two girls (16 and 14). They are too old to share a room all four of them (weird for a 16 year old girl to share a room with a 14 year old boy brother), but me and my wife would also like to have a room so we can sleep together and perhaps have a few minutes a day of adult time. As far as I know, we need one adult in each cabin with kids under 18. Is there any cruise or some configuration where we can get 3 rooms (affordably, please - I'm a teacher after all) so that me and my wife can have one, one for the boys and one for the girls? I haven't found a way to make that happen yet, but maybe someone here knows a trick...? Hopefully? Thanks!!

[Woody14]

several cruise lines will allow you to put the adults in one (balcony or ocean view) with the kids across the hall in inside cabins.   It will come to proximity they will need to be adjacent or across the hall.   You will need a good TA or if you are booking direct with the cruise line you will likely need to call them to do it as most of the website interfaces won't let you.

[WisconsinFan]

If you can swing it, put the boys in a room and the girls in a room and parents can have their own room. We tend to cruise with Royal and when our kids were those ages (and 13 or 14 at the oldest) we were able to put them in interiors across the hall from us with no issues. Again, we did have to call to do it- couldn't do it on the website. We did a HAL Alaska cruise with extended family (again all 4 kids about this age) my sister's son and daughter shared a cabin and our boys shared a cabin across the hall from the parents. Again, no issues. The interior cabins are usually priced well below the balcony cabins, only once when they were younger did they have a balcony next to us- and that was a sale happened and the balcony was cheaper than the interior so we moved them.

[mjkacmom]

We have 5 kids, 4 always shared a cabin and one slept in our connecting cabin. They were 20(g) 19(b) 16(g) 14(g) 14 (b) and it wasn’t weird.  We’ve cruised since the oldest was 11, youngest 4.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

I too don't see why it's weird for all 4 of them to share a cabin.

[Dadofsix]

We have done this plenty of times (when you have six kids you look for every configuration) and always see what the budget will allow. The last sailing out of New Orleans before the COVID shutdown we took four of our kids with us, two boys and two girls (teens down to ten) and booked wife and I in one cabin, two girls next door and two boys beside them no problems at all. This was on Carnival and I did go straight through them to have it booked correctly. Those were inside cabins at a rate to good to pass up but we have also gone adjoining spa balconies with all six kids with us (just have to get kids to do their own thing sometimes if adult time is needed) and had a blast (4 girls and 2 boys).

[oyme]

On 3/23/2022 at 8:28 AM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I too don't see why it's weird for all 4 of them to share a cabin.

 

Same, I think it's weird to think that it's weird, lol. It's just a vacation (it's not a permanent arrangement). Since there's 2 boys and 2 girls, it'd be fine.

Edited May 22, 2022 by oyme

[SusieV]

4 in a cabin may not be much cheaper than two cabins anyway. Always check the fares.