Family Cabin ?

[Jetefrog]

We are planning a Alaskan cruise next summer with family of 4 (2 teens)on Holland America. Should we do 2 connecting balcony cabins or 1 Neptune Suite? Around the same price. We are Cruise rookies. Thank you!

[oakridger]

Two connecting balcony cabins would be my choice!  An extra bathroom and some privacy for people on different sleep schedules.  Everyone gets a real bed instead of a sofa sleeper or pullman from the ceiling!  You can ask the steward to open the divider on the balcony so you can hang out together easily.  

 

~Nancy

[oakridger]

Welcome to Cruise Critic, by the way!  What ship are you looking at?

[Crew News]

Welcome to CC.  Feel free to ask lots of questions to help in your planning.

 

I would choose an aft Neptune Suite for the family hangout and an inside stateroom right across the hallway for the teens.  As noted above, two bathrooms are better than one shared by four.  The views from an aft Neptune Suite are amazing, the balcony is large enough for outside dining for all four family members, two different internet accounts, and the Neptune Suite large enough for family time (Room Service breakfast together, share Neptune Suite appetizers each afternoon, and use Neptune Suite loungers on the balcony).

[Jetefrog]

Volendam is the ship I am considering out of Vancouver. Thank you everyone! Do you need to contact a Holland America Cruise agent to book 2 rooms?

[kentuckycruiser]

Just going to chime in. We did a neptune with 4 when boys were 8 and 10 ish and they barely fit on the pullout. I don't think two teenagers would enjoy it at all.

Two weeks ago to Alaska we did a balcony for parents and an inside room across the hall for teenage boys and they were delighted to be in a dark room. 

HAL requires even for teenagers that they be across the hall or next door.

I"m not sure I would spring for two balconies although I do like connecting rooms.

We have also done a neptune and an inside room and that was super. 

You can do it yourself on line with two rooms.

 

added: I like Neptune suites on the 7th floor near the lounge. We had a neptune for our alaska trip a few years ago and it rocked. Sooooo nice to have the big balcony to watch the glaciers. That may have been the year we were all in one room. But it is big enough that 4 fit fine except for the 2 on the pullout.  

Edited June 20, 2022 by kentuckycruiser

[PACD_JG]

Something I learned because I was booked on Princess with two teens.  A balcony room plus an interior room will cost you the same as one of their mini-suites, which is similar in price to a regular verandah on HAL.  So on Princess you'd get more real estate for your dollar, plus it's likely that your teens would enjoy it more (watch YouTube and look for young people on HAL).  Since you're rookies, you should be coming into this with an open mind...meaning you wouldn't know if HAL's higher prices made it a better value than Princess anyway.  FWIW, I only switched to HAL because my Princess ship was changed (from Sapphire to Royal), which meant my route and itinerary changed.

[Tampa Girl]

I would vote for a NS and an across-the-hall inside.  A verandah cabin, which, BTW, is larger than Princess's balcony cabins, does not give enough room for family time.  The NS is much larger and has a much larger balcony.  OTOH, how much family time in a cabin does a family usually enjoy?  Family time the teens get at home.  On board ship, I suspect that togetherness may be more limited.

[willoL]

On 6/19/2022 at 11:01 PM, Jetefrog said:

We are planning a Alaskan cruise next summer with family of 4 (2 teens)on Holland America. Should we do 2 connecting balcony cabins or 1 Neptune Suite? Around the same price. We are Cruise rookies. Thank you!

People often opine that young people don't like HAL, but you should judge this based upon the actual personalities of your own teens. My family runs introverted, and my kids prefer HAL (and the sadly defunct Crystal) to Carnival or other "big ship/big party" lines. (For example, they like quiet spaces like a library or card room more than water parks.)

 

As for staterooms, I will do *almost* anything to avoid sharing a bathroom with my otherwise very much adored and enjoyed family. We spend lots of time together, playing games, touring, but I really don't like using the same sink where they knock over my toothbrush... For that reason, I would take any two "lesser" cabins over one large "luxury" room if those are my only options. An inside across the hall for the teens is what we personally selected for a sailing this August, though we did splurge on a Neptune Suite for the first time ever because of COVID concerns when we booked. (If we feel like retreating more, we will enjoy that extra square footage.)

 

Inside + Balcony would be more affordable. I actually like Oceanview cabins, too, but my husband demands access to the outdoors via a balcony.

 

If you do opt for the larger suite, the tip to encourage the teens to bathe in the gym locker rooms is a very good one that might enhance family harmony. 😄

[Torquer]

I would also vote for a Neptune plus an inside, if you can afford it.  Your family will really enjoy the much bigger room where you all can spend most of your time, plus the perks the Neptune provides, and your kids will be happier for their own room when they don't want to be around the adults and for sleeping.  Just be aware there used to be a minimum age for children staying in their own room without an adult; you will have to look it up what it is now.  Of course you can always book it as 1 adult + 1 child in each of the rooms, but then technically, the one adult would lose out on the perks of the Neptune Suite.  I'm not sure how tightly the concierges would enforce access to the Neptune lounge, for example, in that scenario.

 

BTW, we have been cruising on HAL since our sons were in their early teens and they are now in their mid 20s.  They have always really loved the experience and have become quite sophisticated and discerning travelers.  I doubt they would have enjoyed it nearly as much on a cruise line where kids were running wild.

[willoL]

22 hours ago, Torquer said:

... you can always book it as 1 adult + 1 child in each of the rooms, but then technically, the one adult would lose out on the perks of the Neptune Suite.  I'm not sure how tightly the concierges would enforce access to the Neptune lounge, for example, in that scenario...

My kids are going into 10th grade and college next year (i.e., NOT very young), and we were required to book with DH officially assigned to the inside cabin as @Torquer said. Someone must be over 21 (I think; certainly 18 was not sufficient.)

 

Luckily, this worked out for us since my youngest cruises more often with me anyway and will get more benefit from double Mariner points for the suite than my husband would have. We put Dad and the college student (less likely to do family travel next few years) in the cheaper cabin.

 

Also, my youngest feels pretty pleased with himself that only he and I will have Club Orange access to a special dining room this trip. Since DH prefers to dress down and go the a buffet, this works out fine in my family where we are more likely to split up for dinner than breakfast or lunch! 😀 My youngest enjoys dressing up, as do I, so gala evenings are special dates just for he and I.

 

OP, think through which parent should be officially earning suite perks if you are like us, with very different top priorities.

[Torquer]

11 minutes ago, willoL said:

OP, think through which parent should be officially earning suite perks if you are like us, with very different top priorities.

Thinking about this further, it really isn't fair that 1/2 the people don't get the perks when you book an NS plus an inside versus all 4 people staying in the same NS.  You are paying more than one NS but in some ways getting less.  This is the kind of thing HAL could make an exception for on a case-by-case basis, but I doubt that they would.

 

We are fortunate that we have been able to stay in a Pinnacle Suite on all our HAL cruises, so we never had this problem; all 4 of us fit very comfortably into the huge suite and the extra fold-out-of-the-wall bed is very comfortable for our sons.  We have also cruised on Oceania and their top-level suite only sleeps 3, so we had to get an inside cabin for our sons in addition to the adults in the big suite.  In that case, when we got extra keys to the suite for our sons to use, they were coded to allow access to the suite lounge, priority tendering, etc., so our sons ended up getting all the perks we did.  I suspect it is not the same on HAL, but don't know for a fact.

[MereBooty]

I asked a similar question a few years ago and I now realize I never followed back up to report on the result.

I shared all the pros and cons with my family and let them vote, and they were unanimous in choosing a shared larger suite. It worked out great for us and we loved every minute of the trip. We are by-and-large an easy going, introverted family and I can see this would not be best for all or even most families. And our kids were past being moody teenagers.

Our favorite perks were the Pinnacle breakfasts the dedicated concierge in the Neptune lounge where we could get help without waiting in a line (and while picking up afternoon snacks and coffees) and the balcony big enough for all of us at once.

The fold out sofa bed was comfortable enough for us.

 

 

[Jetefrog]

Thank you so much everyone!