what is max for 1 room

[mtebor]

My brother is considering taking his kids on a cruise. The problem is he has 5 of them, plus wife makes 6 for one room. The ages range from 2 to 11 yrs old. What are his options? I doubt very much he would want to get 2 separate rooms.

[uppitycats]

My brother is considering taking his kids on a cruise. The problem is he has 5 of them, plus wife makes 6 for one room. The ages range from 2 to 11 yrs old. What are his options? I doubt very much he would want to get 2 separate rooms.

 

Actually, aren't you talking about 7 -- 5 kids, wife and him make 7? Anyway...other than booking one of the fancy multi-room suites on the top deck of a ship, there is no way he'd fit 7...or 6...in a standard cabin. 4 is crowded. 6 is not allowed by rules. He'd have to book 2 cabins.

 

Sometimes large famililes will book adjoining cabins, other times they'll book an outside and an inside across the hall.

[alexkrn46]

Cheapest way is two inside cabins, plus you will get two bathrooms.

[mtebor]

Actually, aren't you talking about 7 -- 5 kids, wife and him make 7? Anyway...other than booking one of the fancy multi-room suites on the top deck of a ship, there is no way he'd fit 7...or 6...in a standard cabin. 4 is crowded. 6 is not allowed by rules. He'd have to book 2 cabins.

 

Sometimes large famililes will book adjoining cabins, other times they'll book an outside and an inside across the hall.

 

whoops, forgot to include.. 7 is correct. He currently has an aft cabin booked on Radiance but cant find babysitters for the 2 weeks. He was thinking about cancelling and changing to a 7 day and taking the kids...but if it is going to more more than 4K I doubt he will do this. They were looking at a balcony and if you have to get 2 rooms that would push him over

[Texas Teen]

There are no cabins that can hold 7 people on any Royal Caribbean ship. What ship are they going on?

[Guest nhrich]

There are no cabins that can hold 7 people on any Royal Caribbean ship. What ship are they going on?

 

Not true. Some of the Royal Family Suites hold up to 8, and there are suites that hold up to 14 on Freedom class.

[63galaxie]

whoops, forgot to include.. 7 is correct. He currently has an aft cabin booked on Radiance but cant find babysitters for the 2 weeks. He was thinking about cancelling and changing to a 7 day and taking the kids...but if it is going to more more than 4K I doubt he will do this. They were looking at a balcony and if you have to get 2 rooms that would push him over

He might look into one balcony and one inside. We did this when we took four kids and two in-laws. We had four in each room.

 

Another option is to look into MSC. They have kids sale free cruises. He might be able to afford two balcony cabins if the kids fly free.

 

Karen in Kentucky

[cb at sea]

Some ships have balconies that connect to an inside room....

He's going to pay per person, anyway----it's not like the kids are free, or anything!

Even if they would allow that many in a cabin (and they won't!), I'd still get 2 rooms! That's just too many bodies in one small space.

 

Perhaps a less expensive cruise line, or a different vacation might be in order for him!

[cruisinfanatic]

There are no cabins that can hold 7 people on any Royal Caribbean ship. What ship are they going on?

Ever hear of a Royal Family Suite (8 guests)?

How about a Presidential Suite (14 guests)

[mtebor]

Ever hear of a Royal Family Suite (8 guests)?

How about a Presidential Suite (14 guests)

 

His budget is 4K so I don't think this is going to happen. I guess he will just have to wait til the kids get older to do another cruise

[Mark_K]

Ever hear of a Royal Family Suite (8 guests)?

How about a Presidential Suite (14 guests)

They're not one room cabins.

[Texas Teen]

Ever hear of a Royal Family Suite (8 guests)?

How about a Presidential Suite (14 guests)

 

Oops! I forgot all about the Presidential Family Suite! :o Sorry!

 

I didn't know the Royal Family suite could hold 8 people!

[waterbug123]

Sometimes large famililes will book adjoining cabins, other times they'll book an outside and an inside across the hall.

 

A friend of mine and her husband are taking their 2 kids on Freedom. They found a balcony that adjoins an interior. Balcony for them, cheaper adjoining interior for the kids...best of both worlds!

[dancing dragon]

Maybe one of the Grandparents might be able to come down and watch the kids, next best is Balcony and inside cabin that connect....

[andynlala]

What about adjoining inside cabins? You have 2 bathrooms, and there is a door that you open up in between the two, so it ends up like having one big room. Plus inside cabins are cheaper. We just booked 4 inside cabins on the Mariner, 2 adjoining, for a total of $5400 for 9 people.

[Marie51]

7 people in one cabin would be a disaster even if it was allowed. You will be better off getting 2 connecting cabins. Also sometimes MSC and Costa have a deal where kids sail free. You might want to look into that.

[negc]

Seems to me he has seriously underestimated the cost for a 7 night cruise for 7 people if he believed that he could find one for less than $600 pp per week. I think he has to revisit his budgetary assumptions and be more realistic about what a one week vacation (land or sea) will cost for seven people. He may have to postpone this trip until he can more realistically afford it.

[DonnaK]

Seems to me he has seriously underestimated the cost for a 7 night cruise for 7 people if he believed that he could find one for less than $600 pp per week. I think he has to revisit his budgetary assumptions and be more realistic about what a one week vacation (land or sea) will cost for seven people. He may have to postpone this trip until he can more realistically afford it.

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

The most cost effective way to do this, as others have noted, is to get two adjoining interior cabins.

 

Because the kids are so young, I wouldn't recommend what we usually do, which is get a balcony for my husband and me, and an inside across the hall for the kids.

 

On Voyager and Freedom class ships, there are two pairs of cabins on deck 9 (they are the last cabins on the sides of the ship) where a balcony connects to an inside. And, at the front of deck 9, the balcony connects to an oceanview (window) cabin. These are probably considerably more money than simply getting two insides.

 

Sometimes the 3rd/4th person rate is not that much less than the 1st/2nd person rate (it's been a very long time since I've seen real bargains for the extra people in a cabin)...in that case, I'd recommend getting 3 cabins instead of two. This is what we did on our last cruise because the extra people were only $25 less than the first two.

[MrsPete]

There are no cabins that can hold 7 people on any Royal Caribbean ship. What ship are they going on?

A couple people pointed out that this isn't really true, but it IS true that RC has no rooms that hold 7 people AND can be had for anything resembling a reasonable price.

 

We're taking four kids on our next cruise, and I looked at every option. The "family rooms" and suites were considerably more expensive than the two-connecting-rooms option. Plus, as other people pointed out, with the two rooms, you get two bathrooms. We ended up with two connecting oceanfront rooms; we were sad to give up our balcony (which we've enjoyed immensely on previous trips), but we were satisfied to choose adding our nieces to our trip instead of haviang the balcony.

 

Random thoughts:

 

Not all that many rooms connect, and if you want a pair, you need to book pretty far in advance. I personally wouldn't go for the across-the-hall option -- even though I have teens. There are even fewer sets of balcony+oceanview combos (for the ships on which I've sailed, it's only two sets per ship), and if you don't grab them as soon as the dates open up, you won't get them.

 

You can "lose" in one way with multiple cabins: If they reinstate the fuel fees, they'd hit you harder with two cabins.

 

One way to lower the price is to travel off-season. A certain room might cost $1000+ per person in the summer, but only $700 or so in the fall. The weather's great in the Caribbean during the fall, though it might be nippy when you leave Florida (we cruised in late November once, and it was too cold to swim on our first and last day -- October, though, is perfect).

[gerif]

whoops, forgot to include.. 7 is correct. He currently has an aft cabin booked on Radiance but cant find babysitters for the 2 weeks. He was thinking about cancelling and changing to a 7 day and taking the kids...but if it is going to more more than 4K I doubt he will do this. They were looking at a balcony and if you have to get 2 rooms that would push him over

 

I'm thinking it may be time for him to consider a different kind of vacation. Two weeks in an aft balcony cabin, just the two of them, is light years away from spending one week in connecting interior cabins with seven kids, at least one of whom is too young for either the kids' club OR the pools.

[maggieworkman]

A couple people pointed out that this isn't really true, but it IS true that RC has no rooms that hold 7 people AND can be had for anything resembling a reasonable price.

 

We're taking four kids on our next cruise, and I looked at every option. The "family rooms" and suites were considerably more expensive than the two-connecting-rooms option. Plus, as other people pointed out, with the two rooms, you get two bathrooms.

 

The royal family suite sleeps 8 and has 2 bathrooms.

 

Maggie

[gerif]

The royal family suite sleeps 8 and has 2 bathrooms.

 

But his budget is $4,000 - if you can get the RFS for 7 at that price, let me know.

[foxgoodrich]

We have booked the RFS on the Voyager for Feb 28, sailing out of Galveston to the Western Caribbean - there are 5 of us (4 adults, 1 child) in the suite and our total was $6744. We are actually a group of 7, so we also booked an interior room across the hall for the other 2 adults at $549 each plus fees/taxes. We could have squeezed all 7 into the RFS, but the cost to add the other 2 in the RFS would have been $599 each plus fees/taxes, so it saved a little money to do it the way we did it. Since there are 6 adults and 1 child, we thought the bathroom space for the adults was better this way too!

 

I think we got a senior citizen discount (or maybe it was residency?) when we booked, and also the Platinum discount on the suite, which is only $100 I think. We've never sailed in a RFS before, but we wanted the BIG balcony (200+ sq ft) and the living room hang-out space for our group. Can't wait to try it and enjoy that great balcony!

 

The RFS rates vary with the class of ship, and this was the best deal we found for our date range. We did a lot of looking around online and also used a travel agent who ultimately found the best deal for us. Our TA does a lot of booking on RC, so she was a great resource.