family of 5 - what staterooms do you suggest?

[vacationprincess]

I am trying to book a cruise for March 2009. After tons of research I have decided that the Crown Princess would be the best for our family of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids, 13, 11, & 6). I called Princess Friday and they do not have connecting staterooms so I asked for Caribe deck outside room and inside across. There was nothing available on the Caribe deck so I ended up with A714 & A716. I did not put down a deposit, they are holding them for me. After thinking about it I'm not happy that the inside room is the one that accomodates 3 and the balcony room accomodates 2 and there is only one chair so if all of us want to be in one room, there will be no where to sit. I thought about calling today to see if I could get a mini-suite with an inside across. I also wondered if, like other cruise lines, the divider between the balconies could be removed so I could still get two balconies and we could go back and forth from the balcony.

 

My last question is - I seem to remember that Princess has smoking on one side of the ship on balconies and no smoking on the other. Which is the non smoking side?

 

Thank you for any suggestion you can give me on stateroom selection. I thought I would have plenty of choices this far out from sailing date, however, the person I talked to seemed to have a lot of trouble trying to accomodate me.

[NeurosurgeryNP]

Yes, the balcony dividers can be opened and secured open if you bring a bungee cord with you. You need to ask the room steward to unlock the dividers. As for smoking - there was no designation on our recent Caribbean Princess cruise that you could smoke on one side versus the other.

[Toto2Kansas]

You have several options here. The family suite which is like a mini with an inside cabin connected by a joint liviing area, two balcony cabins and have the room steward open the partitian between the balconys, or a mini with an inside across the hall. For 5 people, even with three children, there is no sitting area in the balcony staterooms and they are not very large as far as floor space. If you will want to gather in the same stateroom, either the one mini with the inside across the hall or the family suite would be my suggestion.

 

As for Princess having a smoking side vs non smoking side of the ship? As to staterooms, this is not the case. Although on some of the public decks, one side is smoking and one non smoking.

 

The fact that Princess does not have connecting staterooms always made me wonder why they advertise as 'family friendly'. Most lines offer connecting staterooms for familys, but Princess doesn't seem to. They have a great kids program, but it is like they are targeting the smaller families out there with not offering these connecting rooms. IMHO of coarse.

[dcl1710]

I hve never been on the Crown, but the Grand and Golden have a family suite on the lido deck. It is 2 room combined and has a small hallway to reduce noise traffic on the Lido deck. Hope this helps.

[ellbon]

I love the Crown. I am very surprise the mini's are sold out for a year from now. the cabin you wanted looks like AC and you might ask for an AB. I always get mini's as i like the space.

i agree to try for a mini and a cabin across the hall. also as far as I know all the balconys' open to the next balcony.

 

i tihnk here are family suites on D deck .i never have seen one.

 

the last big idea- go for a HUGE suite. check to see if they hold 5. I know they all have sleep sofa's.

 

I have learned that by calling back banks etc i get the answers.

[seattlekckckc]

I have stayed in a Family Suite on another ship (the Carribean Princess) and I would NOT recemmond one. We got upgraded to it from 3 insides to a family suite (6 of us). For us it was an upgrade becasue we got the balcony that none of us had planned on, HOWEVER, the balcony is unusable at sea, if the location is at the front of the ship like the CB. It was sp very, very , VERY windy, mwe lost our balcony table the first night. After that, the room steward had to tie the chairs down every night so they wouldnt move around and keep us awake all night. Also, I had never realized how very different it is up so far forward. I had 25 cruises under my belt at the time, and I was even battling the sea sickness thing a bit, veryvery rocky.

 

You do get the benefits of having a suite, ie free internet and laundry, but is it worth the price in my opinion?? No. I would rather get 2 balconies and open the divider. The kids can really enjoy the balcony at sea then.

 

Casey

[sunsetbeachgal]

I also do not understany why Princess does not have some connecting staterooms-that reason got us to try Royal Carribbean's Mariner of the Seas last year as we were traveling with family members and a two year old. I think Princess is losing out on some business by not offering this.

[Bucky3]

Two side by side balconies on Caribe deck have worked well for our family. The balconies on Caribe deck are so much bigger you can all gather on one. I think you could go with one balcony and an inside across the hall IF you can get on Caribe Deck. Hard to imagine that they are all full this far ahead. Did you call Princess directly or another TA. If you can get availability from Princess, you could call your TA of choice and ask for those specific cabins. This must be spring break week you are doing? I should add that we have not sailed on the Crown, but we have been on many of the other grand class ships. I would think that the time YOU ALL spend INSIDE the cabin would be minimal, so that would not be a concern to me, but having two cabins and therefore two bathrooms and double storage space would be very necessary!Just MHO. Enjoy! It's a great family vacation - our favorite way to be together for all ages.

[TwinCruiserMom]

We have a family of 5 (13, 13, 17) and we cruised twice last year on the Caribbean Princess. First cruise with two insides, Dad and the two sons in one room and the daughter and I in the other. The rooms were side by side and it worked out great.

 

In December, we had one balcony on Caribe and one inside about 7 doors down the hall. DH and the sons names were on the inside and DD and I had our names on the balcony as required as my DD was not yet 18. In reality, we switched with DH and I in the balcony and the kids down the hall. No problems at all but then my kids are much older than yours. My daughter, the oldest, has always been very protective and motherly with her twin brothers.

 

DH and I split up on the first cruise because we weren't sure of safety, etc. On the second cruise we gave it a try with the 3 teens in their own room and they were wonderful. My kids are very responsible (they consider themselves nerds :) ) and I had no worries that they would be wandering the ship or annoying their neighbors with loud noises. One of us went down to their room each night at bedtime and made sure they dead bolt locked their room. They knew not to open the door to anyone and also knew that they must call us if anything seemed out of order to them.

 

If you are planning to split up the parents in different rooms, then it does not make a difference if your inside room is a little down the hall from your balcony room. Caribe would be the best for balconies because there are 4 chairs and you can bring the desk chair out to make a 5th. Also, they are the biggest side facing balconies on the ship.

 

Try calling again and see if you can get a balcony on Caribe with an inside further down the hall. Then you could just split the parents between the rooms.

 

I would not want 3 people assigned to your balcony room as it is more expensive (3rd person fare) and you would want a little more room in there because it will be your hanging out room. Having 3 in the inside is ideal because that is the room where more of the belongings will be.

 

What you have now is ok, but it will be a little tight on your balcony. Aloha balconies only have two chairs. As far as seating inside the room, the balcony rooms each have a club type chair and a desk chair and we always just lounge around on the beds too. All balcony rooms are the same size on the inside.

 

The mini suites do not have as big of a balcony as the

Caribe rooms do so I would not go to the extra expense for that unless you just want more room inside the room itself. You could try to get side by side balconies but that may be expensive and hard to accomplish as you would need one room for 3 and one room for 2. And yes, the partitions can be opened with a small doorway between the balconies.

 

All rooms are smoking rooms on the ship. However, we have never been bothered by smoke smell in our rooms or our balcony. In the public areas, port side is smoking and starboard in non smoking.

 

Maybe when you call back you will get a customer service rep who will be more helpful. I have called Princess many times and about half the time I get someone knowledgeable and the other half they are practically worthless. Just call back if you get one who doesn't know the score. Have your floor plans in front of you when you call and keep having them search around until you find something that suits you.

 

I can tell you we were perfectly happy with two insides and will be again as our next two cruises are with inside cabins. The only reason we took the balcony in December was the prices were extremely low and we knew we better jump on it. With 5 in the family, you do not want to spend all your time in the room so I am more apt to save on the room cost and use the extra money for excursions, which are very expensive for 5 people.

 

Good luck and I hope you find some great rooms and have a wonderful time cruising on the Crown!

[Queenston]

Having just returned from the Emerald (which has the same configuration as the Crown), I happened to go down to the end of Dolphin deck on which we had our mini-suite and saw the layout of the family suite--it looks excellent! When you view it from the back of the ship, with the partition between balconies open, there would be lots of space for five people. However, it seems that this category of cabin sells very quickly. On our cruise the Captain and Director of Passenger Services met with the Cruise Critic group, and during our conversations with them we learned that the "higher category" suites and mini-suites were the first to sell--I was quite surprised at that actually. In fact, we were told that the PentHouse Suites were always the first to go.

 

The alternative of a mini-suite with an inside cabin right across the hall would also be an excellent choice. I noted that there were several of these on Dolphin Deck, but it would be a tight squeeze for 5 on the balcony. On the other hand, there is the mini-living room that could also be used for the 5th person with the balcony door left open.

 

Re the smoking issue--it seemed to be sporadic throughout the ship, but not really annoying except for one chap who was smoking cigars all the time down the hall from us. Fortunately, the sea breezes carried it away.

 

Good luck on getting a good cabin configuration! Oh and by the way, the Director of Passenger Services did acknowledge that there were problems when they did the automatic upgrades and parents were separated from their children, even though the parents had made careful arrangements re cabin placement in advance. So that is something to watch for. He seemed to indicate that Princess tried everything they could to rectify such situations, but because the upgrades were assigned in a random way using computer programs, sometimes the parents did not know about this until they actually boarded the ship. Hope this doesn't happen to you!

[Colo Cruiser]

I also do not understany why Princess does not have some connecting staterooms.

 

They do have some on the Sapphire/Diamond/Coral/Island. :)

[TwinCruiserMom]

Quote - Good luck on getting a good cabin configuration! Oh and by the way, the Director of Passenger Services did acknowledge that there were problems when they did the automatic upgrades and parents were separated from their children, even though the parents had made careful arrangements re cabin placement in advance. So that is something to watch for. He seemed to indicate that Princess tried everything they could to rectify such situations, but because the upgrades were assigned in a random way using computer programs, sometimes the parents did not know about this until they actually boarded the ship. Hope this doesn't happen to you! - end quote

 

 

 

You must mark your room assignments "no upgrade" when you are traveling with a family group so you do not get separated this way. Just tell the Princess rep this and you will have no problems.

[vacationprincess]

Thank you so much for your wonderful responses and suggestions!! I am beginning to think maybe the Princess rep. I spoke with was maybe new or not as knowledgable as others. She never suggested the family suite. It may already be booked and that is why she never mentioned it. However, I had the princess deck plans right in front of me and I was giving her suggestions about rooms across from each other. She didn't seem to want to look very hard for exactly what I was looking for so I will call back and get someone else.

 

Again - you have all been so helpful and I appreciate it very much!!!

[whale-watcher]

We have generally gone for side by side cabins that connect via the balcony...this is the next best thing to a family suite, and often much more economical.

[fpat]

Thank you so much for your wonderful responses and suggestions!! I am beginning to think maybe the Princess rep. I spoke with was maybe new or not as knowledgable as others. She never suggested the family suite. It may already be booked and that is why she never mentioned it. However, I had the princess deck plans right in front of me and I was giving her suggestions about rooms across from each other. She didn't seem to want to look very hard for exactly what I was looking for so I will call back and get someone else.

 

Again - you have all been so helpful and I appreciate it very much!!!

 

To book the family suite you have to ask to be transfered to a special representative. I stayed in the Family Suite for NYE cruise on the Emerald. We are also a Family of 5 and it was a perfect configuration. The living room was a nice place for the kids to hang out and the balcony is quite large as we had 10 of us out there for sail away. The balcony is windy and not usable only when the ship is at full speed, which is not alot of the time. But the views at the ports were great, and we were able to sit out there while the ship was cruising not at full speed. As far is the motion it was not bad at all a nice rocking to sleep, I found the motion of the ship much worse in the back at the kids club then in our suite feel free to ask any questions if you have them.

 

Good luck

 

[fpat]

The only difference from the picture that I posted is the inside is a quad with 2 uppers and 2 lowers

[Taylor_Dene]

We have 5 too... two years ago, we put the kids directly across from us (balcony / inside)... This year, they are older and they are on another level. I agree that the family suite sounds like a good idea, but it also sounds rather expensive (you'll need to check it out).

 

Best of luck with your travel - we've loved Princess!

[sunsetbeachgal]

Dear Colo Cruiser,

 

Thx for the help-I was hesitant to take my business to RCI for the cruise we needed adjoining cabins for, but a change here and there is always good. I see that you are cruising on the Emerald in March-we really enjoyed our cruise on her in January. Lovely ship and great service-we had read some negatives on these boards back in Dec/Jan about Emerald

but we experienced all good. It is large, but we expected that!

 

Bon Voyage!

[Gingerxxoo]

If it were me I would book an aft cabin for 2 (the balcony is plenty big for 5), and an inside for 3 as close to the aft cabin as possible.

[Colo Cruiser]

Dear Colo Cruiser,

 

Thx for the help-I was hesitant to take my business to RCI for the cruise we needed adjoining cabins for, but a change here and there is always good. I see that you are cruising on the Emerald in March-we really enjoyed our cruise on her in January. Lovely ship and great service-we had read some negatives on these boards back in Dec/Jan about Emerald

but we experienced all good. It is large, but we expected that!

 

Bon Voyage!

 

 

Thanks we are looking forward to it. :D

[taxatty]

We have had success with a group of 5 through a mini-suite/nearby inside--with 3 kids in the inside--the mini-suite does have a large balcony with room for 4. Many of the minis hold 4, and 3 in a mini is no big deal if you prefer that. The Caribe balcony room/nearby inside would also work (the Caribes do have big balconies, as previously stated), but 3 in a Princess balcony room is pretty tight--the extra $ for the mini would be worth it. We had a section of the Caribe balcony partition removed on our last cruise to in effect create one large balcony and a quasi-adjoining room if you don't mind doing so through the balcony.

Les