Cruising with 5 on Divina or Seaside

Hi! I'm looking into an MSC cruise for next fall/winter and wanted a bit of advice from those who may have sailed as a family of 5. Our children will be 5, 3 and 1 at the time of sailing. The family suite is way out of our price range. What other options would make sense for us?

Thanks!

I’d suggest a balcony cabin that’s set for 4 and use a pack and play for the youngest one. Going with a balcony would give you more space and room for the pack and play. You will find an inside cabin very crowded. Believe the seaside has some rooms where the couch pops up and becomes a bunk bed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’d suggest a balcony cabin that’s set for 4 and use a pack and play for the youngest one. Going with a balcony would give you more space and room for the pack and play. You will find an inside cabin very crowded. Believe the seaside has some rooms where the couch pops up and becomes a bunk bed.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you think they would allow us to book one room for 5? This was what I was hoping to do, since the youngest is so little and I wanted to avoid booking two rooms, if possible.

You can only book a stateroom for 5 if it sleeps 5. Size/age of guest #5 doesn't make a difference.

I’d suggest a balcony cabin that’s set for 4 and use a pack and play for the youngest one. Going with a balcony would give you more space and room for the pack and play. You will find an inside cabin very crowded. Believe the seaside has some rooms where the couch pops up and becomes a bunk bed.

 

 

You definitely can't book a cabin for 4 and then put one more person in - cruise lines don't work like that.

OP, what is your price range? On MSC, kids sail free or nearly free depending on the time of year (if they are 3rd/4th guest). I didn't realize this at first when I looked at the pricing and thought the price was per person in the room, not per adult.

You can not add more people to a stateroom than you have in your official booking. This includes bringing a 4th passenger to a stateroom that fits 4, if you have only booked it for 3.

But as far as I know you can call MSC or let your TA call them to ask for a manual booking with an additional infant in the cabin (if maximum people for the corresponding muster station allow it)

MSC has much more beds in staterooms then max allowed passengers on bord, so it is possible that a stateroom for 4 can only be booked for 2 people if the maximum for the corresponding muster station is already reached

We sailed on Divina last year. We are also a family of 5. We booked directly with the cruise line and were told we could fill out a form for a crib for our youngest (3 at the time). The agent told us that if we are approved, we could use the crib or request for it to be removed. I was doubtful that we would be approved, but we were!

With your youngest only being 1, I think you shouldn't have a problem. If you book directly with the line, ask if there is a form that can be filled out. We weren't aware of it when we called, the agent suggested it. Saved us a lot of money since we didn't have to book 2 rooms.

We sailed on Divina last year. We are also a family of 5. We booked directly with the cruise line and were told we could fill out a form for a crib for our youngest (3 at the time). The agent told us that if we are approved, we could use the crib or request for it to be removed. I was doubtful that we would be approved, but we were!

 

With your youngest only being 1, I think you shouldn't have a problem. If you book directly with the line, ask if there is a form that can be filled out. We weren't aware of it when we called, the agent suggested it. Saved us a lot of money since we didn't have to book 2 rooms.

Wow, so they let you book a room that only held 4 but you could actually have 5? That's pretty amazing.

Having sailed on both. I think Seaside has more things for the kids to do. Great pool area for the young ones.