Balcony cabins with bunk bed pullmans?

My kids absolutely cannot share a bed (one is an insomniac who wakes at the slightest thing, and the other is a sleeping hurricane). Bunk beds are so ideal because then each has their own separate area. Was about to book a RCI cruise, and then realized that all of their balcony quad cabins have double sofa bed rather than bunk beds. We just recently cruised on an old Carnival ship, so I know they do have bunks in the balcony rooms. But we wanted to try a newer ship with more amenities for the kids. Any recommendations for lines or ship classes with the drop down bunks? Thanks!!!

NCL has new mega ships with pull-down bunks, huge slides, ropes courses, rock climbing walls, trampolines...

Newer Carnival ships have the sofa make into a twin with bunk above. Celebrity S class have same arrangement. Celebrity M class have a foldout bed and upped bunk. Princess has two uppers. HAL has sofa and upper. Your choices are endless. EM

I think most of the mainstream lines have "pullmans" and/or sofa beds..perhaps one of each....check the deck plans...most cruise lines show what types of beds are in each cabin!

Thanks...I thought most of them had this configuration, but was really disappointed when I could not find that on either the Oasis class or Freedom class for RCI. (Apparently on RCI you need to get a suite to get that upper Pullman bunk.) I think RCI just lost our business because of it. We're looking for a Carribean cruise in the summer, and unfortunately neither Princess nor Celebrity has any sailings at all in the time frame we're looking for -- I guess they reposition everything to Alaska or Europe.

I guess we can try NCL, but we weren't crazy about the freestyle dining because of allergies in the families. I have to say that the cruise lines really could make it easier to figure out what rooms have what configurations -- this is taking me so much time that they may well just lose our business all together.

NCL has new mega ships with pull-down bunks, huge slides, ropes courses, rock climbing walls, trampolines...

I bet that is the first (and last) time that "pull-down bunks" will be listed as a feature in the same list as the water slides, rope course, etc. :p

OP, I wish you luck. You are probably is a somewhat unique situation with your kids. For many/most families, I'd guess that having the double sleeper sofa is a big feature over having a sky-bunk. We lean towards MSC for exactly this reason. Our kids are too small to sleep up top, and I don't really care to do so either.

I would think that most cruise lines do have deck maps indicating what cabins have a pull-down, which have a double sleeper sofa, etc. I know that Carnival and MSC are easy to find on their sites, and via google (if you are careful to get the right ship.) If you don't want to do the leg work, maybe engage a TA? That research is the kind of thing they can and should do for you.

Thanks...I thought most of them had this configuration' date=' but was really disappointed when I could not find that on either the Oasis class or Freedom class for RCI. (Apparently on RCI you need to get a suite to get that upper Pullman bunk.) I think RCI just lost our business because of it. We're looking for a Carribean cruise in the summer, and unfortunately neither Princess nor Celebrity has any sailings at all in the time frame we're looking for -- I guess they reposition everything to Alaska or Europe.

I guess we can try NCL, but we weren't crazy about the freestyle dining because of allergies in the families. I have to say that the cruise lines really could make it easier to figure out what rooms have what configurations -- this is taking me so much time that they may well just lose our business all together.[/quote']

 

I have a dd with celiac, and NCL is great with food allergies! There is a separate kitchen. You contact the special needs desk before your cruise, and will be instructed to meet with someone after boarding.

I share your frustration. I have spent lots of time trying to find this same sort of cabin setup as well. Our kids don't do well sharing a bed either (nobody gets any sleep) so having this setup is basically essential for us.

Disney has exactly the configuration you are looking for in their quad balcony cabins. The sofa converts into a bed and then the pullman above folds down from the ceiling creating bunk bed which our kids love. There is also a privacy curtain which closes to separate the kids beds from the rest of the cabin. Disney is definitely more expensive, but having this cabin configuration is one of the things that makes it worth it to us.

On some lines you have to really be careful of where the pullman bed is located. On HAL for instance the pullman folds down over the queen bed and not over the sofa bed so you have one of your kids sleeping right over your head.

On Princess we have found their mini-suites have the pullman over the sofa bed, but no privacy curtain. Plus the sofa fold out into the cabin rather than staying within its own footprint so it blocks access to the balcony.

I was just looking at booking Harmony of the Seas (their new Oasis class ship) for next year, and noticed that they did have a third pullman bed in the balcony cabins (at least the one I had looked at). Perhaps if you call RCL they can point you in the right direction in terms of what to book.

We usually book a balcony cabin with a Pullman and sofa for our family of 4. Last year on Splendour we could only get a double sofa but it wasn't an issue. The cabin attendant made it up to be 2 single beds with separate bedding and staggered them so one bed was positioned a foot below the other.

If you would like to see a photo let me know and I will dig one out for you.

Check the Carnival Fantasy class ships and Princess for two Pullmans.

On other Carnival ships the quads are a sofa bed (day bed style) and Pullman above, looks like bunk beds when all is made up.

Princess has the pull down bed. Doesn't have the wall climbing walls, etc., but those kind of features would interest my daughter for all of five minutes. We wouldn't go on a NCL cruise as we didn't like flexible dining the one time we had it (when we didn't clear the waitlist for traditional).