Inside Cabins....Am I Going to Regret This Decision???

I like your attitude!!

 

I found a couple more options that might work...

 

There are Boardwalk or Central Park Balcony cabins that are side by side, but not connecting. Can someone remind me if the balcony dividers can be opened up?

 

Another route would be to do 2 side by side cabins with an OV or CP view that are not connecting. Since my kids are relatively young, that would mean my DH and I would have to sleep with them in the same room. A little bit out of the ordinar but it could work. Has anyone done that?

My sister and her husband have always had to split on their cruises, they do a guys cabin and a girls cabin. Even with connecting cabins, they were always concerned that the two boys would throw their sister overboard.:eek::p

I go back and forth depending on the price. I had a balcony on the Allure, and am booked in an inside on the new Carnival ship. Either one is good as long as I am on a ship somewhere.

 

There are Boardwalk or Central Park Balcony cabins that are side by side, but not connecting. Can someone remind me if the balcony dividers can be opened up?

They do. This is what we're planning to do with my parents on our Allure sailing.

Leave you TV on the web cam channel all night and the room will lighten up as the sun rises.

 

 

 

We always have a balcony but once we decided to try a promenade just because I wanted to see what it was like. While it was small, it was fun, but we did miss the balcony. It's been balcony ever since and unfortunately I got the "suite" bug. :eek:

I love this idea. I am in an inside on the Radiance in a few weeks - mainly to force myself to socialize with the group (last year on HAL I splurged for a balcony and didn't socialize as much to get my money's worth of the balcony) and was curious about the lighting situation.

Inside is good if you sleep in. When I want to see water I leave the room.

I am balcony dependent...a nice place to get away from my husband's snoring in the middle of the night and sleep. :)

We are fine with inside cabins. We do not spend a lot of time in the cabin.

I expect your children will be dragging you from one activity to another. As an example, one of the things we 60 year olds enjoyed on this ship was the 3D movies.

Your children are a great age for this ship and you will not find the same things for them to do on other ships. I do not think I would change the ship just to get a balcony cabin unless you have children who go to sleep very early and you have nothing to do during that time but sit on the balcony.

Have you considered the OV cabins all the way at the front of the ship. They are larger than other cabins and usually the last to book (probably because it is such a long walk to everything). The cabins have more floor area because of the slanted floor to ceiling windows. It looks like they have some connecting cabins here.

I believe that's a personal decision but when I don't see a reason to book and ocean vie or balcony I always end up with interior. I go to a cruise to have fun and I'm never in my cabin specially if the cruise has a lot of port of calls. Sometimes I go for promenade to feel like I have more lights and feel how is the day atmosphere by looking down but even when the discount for booking balcony and onboard it makes no sense to expect 200$ pp or

More for a balcony.

But this is just me, 2016 I'm in interior

We just did a B2B on Star Princess Mini-suite and Celebrity Infinity Concierge Class (Balcony with Benefits). While the amenities were either the same of better with Celebrity's Concierge Class room, we really liked the extra room in our Mini-suite. DH says the extra amenities in the Concierge Class almost makes up for the 100 lost square feet. And 100% working elevators also helped a lot! On Star Princess we had only two elevators going down to our dining room, and one of them was out of order for half the cruise.

All that said, I don't think there's as much difference in square feet between the inside stateroom and the balcony. Perhaps you should book a virtual balcony, so you can at least see outside.

Another idea would be a balcony for you and an inside across the hall for the children.

When it's all said and done, the vacation is what you make it. And extra money in your pocket makes up for a lot. That's assuming that money doesn't go toward a drink package or the casino.

We stay in mostly insides, PRs, once in OV and once in a hump balcony cabin. I've read that once in a balcony, we will never go back to inside. Guess what? We went back to inside very easily and didn't miss that balcony one bit but then we aren't breakfast on the balcony in our robes folks. Great night sleep in insides and as someone mentioned, you can keep the ship cam on your tv screen.

Sounds like you have some good options available. Have a wonderful cruise, no matter what you choose.

I always bring a little nightlight to plug in at night, then I stand something tall in front of it so it's not so bright in your eyes that you can't sleep but still gives you enough light and not be in total darkness.

I don't mind sleeping in an inside cabin can't stand to be cooped up in one for too long. We have a family of 5, so we usually get a balcony and an inside across the hall. That way, we can hang out in the balcony cabin and some of us sleep in the inside.

We have had both , but we rather cruise more by going with inside rooms as we don't spend lots of time in the room especially on the Oasis.

We are looking at booking Oasis this summer and there are limited options available for a family of 4 since we are so late in the game.

 

I refuse to pay over $7000 for our normal ocean view balcony so began to look at other options. The most cost effective choice being 2 connecting inside cabins, and then the next being 2 connecting OV cabins but they are on deck 3 (waaayyy at the bottom).

 

I have only sailed on an inside once in my life and that was as a young teen. Will I regret booking inside cabins if we are used to being in balconies? While we don't spend a huge amount of time in our room...I'm worried about waking up to complete darkness and not being able to swing open the drapes and see the beautiful ocean or ports as we come in.

 

Would love to hear some opinions...especially from those that have gone with an inside that are accustomed to balconies.

I always book balconies. But for my upcoming Alaska cruise I've booked an inside because of the price. I'm apprehensive but still very excited. My first inside, I'm just going to try it out. I'd rather go in an inside then not at all. I'm sure I'll miss the balcony but I'd miss my money more. If you've got your heart set on that ship make it happen. You'll still have a wonderful time I'm sure. It's just motivation to get up early and enjoy the ship.

We have had both , but we rather cruise more by going with inside rooms as we don't spend lots of time in the room especially on the Oasis.

Even on Allure , we have stepped outside and sat on our balcony early in the morning, mid afternoon or after dressing for dinner but before heading out with a glass of wine in our hand. Even a little watching the night sky before heading to bed was nice. We had our balcony on Allure overlooking Central Park and it was nice to sit on the balcony and people watch as we looked down on CP. During the late afternoon they had soft music playing from below in CP; we watch a wedding party taking their photos....very enjoyable to sit on the balcony....money was well spent, from our POV.

It's such an individual thing. You should really just assess what's most important to your family and what you are or aren't prepared to do without.

We couldn't stay in an inside cabin, even on a short cruise. It works for many people, and that's great, but it's just not an option for us. I'd rather pay the $7K if I have it, go for a smaller ship that has a better room that I really would like to stay in, or not cruise.

Like others have posted...this is an individual decision.

I used to think that there would be no way that I could stay in an inside stateroom. Like others have said...too claustrophobic. HOWEVER...I ended up sleeping in a not-to-code basement bedroom that had no windows. And that changed my entire thoughts on interior staterooms.

As others have said...the best sleep ever. OMG.

The importance of daylight may depend on when you are normally in your stateroom...and for how long.

I was recently in a Central Park Balcony in a connecting stateroom. We were able to open the partition between the balconies. There is still a half wall there. It doesn't become one huge balcony. You have to finagle a chair through the opening to get more than the two on each side. And you won't necessarily keep two on each side and think that you were all hanging out together. Having the access is more about convenience than atmosphere.

DH shared that basement bedroom with me and agreed that being in an inside stateroom wouldn't be a big deal...but he is very flexible and adaptable to such things...willing to put up with a variety of situations for the opportunity to vacation...and also has a personality that enjoys trying new things and a willingness to most things at least once.

I have to say...I wouldn't recommend the non-connecting Boardwalk rooms and having a girls room and a boys room. Personally...I wouldn't set that precedent for more than one night in my household. And also...I don't think that my DH would consider that a good vacation...paying for two rooms to have some privacy and not being able to share that privacy with me, DW.

Also...I don't have siblings...but I would imagine that having a "kids room" would be a nice bonding thing for them, if they generally get along and have done this before. Especially while they are still at a pre-teen (pre-separate schools) age...the sharing of a room on vacation could be laying a foundation for their future relationship in ways that you can't even imagine.

My immediate family is DH, DS, and me...and we generally stay in one stateroom. We have been blessed in that we have been included in vacations courtesy of my parents and thus, have enjoyed balcony rooms. On the one vacation that we funded ourselves...we went with an oceanview...and generally, when we were in our cabin, we couldn't see out the window well because of the salt on the window...and still, we generally wanted it darker in the room and shut the curtains.

I remember thinking that we should have just booked an inside for that particular cruise because they were the same size as the OV on that ship.

Room size generally dominates my decisions because we travel in one stateroom.

See if you can get two promenade ones instead. The window makes a big difference

This is really down to personal preference. Some people mention that you'll never be in your room anyway, which is true for me too, but those first "getting ready" minutes are so important for me to have the sunrise and the opening of the drapes and so on.

I also sleep with the drapes pulled open because I hate the pitch black room at night. I don't know, you have to think about not only if you might not spending much time in the cabin, but the quality of the time you will be spending there.

I've have cruised both inside and balcony, they both really have pros and cons.

The only sailing for me that balcony has a tremendous advantage is Alaska.. ever changing scenery too much wildlife activity in the water so have your binoculars ready..

But again, there is a drawback if you have trouble sleeping with some light.. in Alaska during summer, it is still daylight at 10PM..even if you close the curtains.. some light still goes in.

It's completely individual. However I disagree with people who tout the great night's sleep you'll get on an inside. It was the worst sleep I've ever gotten. The lack of natural light completely disrupted my sleep rhythms. Somehow my brain knew that I was sleeping in a cave and therfore woke me up constantly all night to check if it was morning yet. It was terrible. And your body doesn't respond to the TV light the same way it does natural light so that didn't help other than to give me something to check every time I woke up!

My husband is perfectly fine with cave-sleeping. In fact I had a hard time getting him up when it was time. Which meant h see was crabby in the mornings!

In hotels I always leave the curtains cracked open for some natural lught. Since that is not possible on a ship I simply won't book an inside room. I either pay more, choose another ship or would take a great land vacation instead. My dh? Inside would be his last choice, but he would do it. So it really depends on the individual if it would be a good choice for you or not.

Happy sailing!

We have always had a balcony cabin on our cruises but recently we sailed on Brilliance on a Transatlantic in our normal balcony cabin. Instead of flying back, we decided to try the Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York. We did not want to spend the extra money for a balcony and settled on an inside cabin. We went with the attitude that it's only for sleeping in and that's exactly how it was. We had no regrets with the inside cabin. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise on this beautiful ship, even in an inside cabin.

Sure it's nice to have some natural light but if cost is a factor, I'm sure you'd rather be on a cruise ship in an inside cabin than staying home. :) That's our thinking!

Happy cruising. :D

I love the insides. I hate sun light if I don't want it. If I want it, I go out.

Only you can tell.

I know that wouldn't book it.

But that is all I can really say.

But then I DO spend time in my cabin other than to dress and sleep and I want to see and hear (and even feel) the ocean, otherwise why bother cruising.

But that's just me.

I also want to know if it's sunny or raining, hot or cold, even night or day. Without having to run outside or turn on TV and guess.