Mini-suite or 2 ajoining balcony cabins for family of 4 ??????

[Dexysgirl]

Advice needed please. We are a family of 4 (girl 8 and boy 4). We are traveling on the Caribbean Princess in October for 7 nights . Our last cruise was on Voyager of the Seas in the Med. where we had a Junior Suite and found it very good. However the children are a bit bigger and the sofa bed may be a bit small for them both. Would ajoining balcony cabins be better and give us even more room.

Thanks in advance

 

Ann

[Toto2Kansas]

Not sure I would want to put a 4 year old (even with another child) in a balcony cabin without adult supervision. Just my opinion of coarse, but I would be worried sick about them climbing over the railing.

 

What about a mini suite with quad sleeping arrangements? Sofa bed and pull out bed over the top? Link to picture: http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1290537902015325211uKRMuQ?vhost=travel

[Whimsy]

How about a mini suite with an inside cabin? This way you can have the luxury of the mini and extra beds and bathroom? The mini will give you the extra seating area during your time together and a full bath with a tub. Otherwise I would do the mini suite as there is a pull down bunk for one child and the sofa bed for another.

[sultan_sfo]

Advantages of 2 Balconies:

Two bathrooms (albeit small ones)

Connect the balconies for going from one cabin to other.

Two "independent" TV's

Privacy

Making kids responsible for their own mess!

/Sultan

[Toto2Kansas]

Making kids responsible for their own mess!

/Sultan

 

But a "4 year old"? Doesn't sound feasible to me. ;)

[Dexysgirl]

If we got 2 ajoining cabins, the interconnecting door would always be open so we would see and hear everything(I hope!!!).

Perhaps there is a way to lock one of the balcony doors.

Carnival has some balcony and inside cabins connected-I wonder does Caribbean Princess have the same?

 

Ann

[Dexysgirl]

Forgot to add---

Thanks for the photo of the fold out bed. Thought there was only a sofa bed in the mini-suite. This makes a big difference. Big sisters do not like sharing a bed with their little brother!!!!!!

[Toto2Kansas]

Some minis do have quad sleeping arrangements. To find the ones that do you can either check the deck plans or put 4 passengers in the Princess search engine and it will only pull up those mini suites for you that will sleep 4.

[Colo Cruiser]

Only the Diamond/Sapphire/Island/Coral have very limited connecting cabins by way of an interior door. :)

[Whimsy]

It is my understanding there are no connecting interior doors in any rooms on the Caribbean Princess. The balcony doors can be opened to connect the balconies.

[Dexysgirl]

Thank you one and all for your great information and help.

We will go with a mini suite.

 

Thanks

 

Ann

[whale-watcher]

I think that's the best plan for young kids...when they are a little older you will enjoy having the side by side balcony cabins that connect via the balcony, but I would not want my 4 year old out on the balcony alone.

[ellbon]

why not put the paretns on the sofa bed-seems big enough. plus you have two twin beds for the little people and a bathtub.

[grandmaa]

Hi..just for a point of information..if you are going to get two cabins you will have to list one adult in one cabin and other adult in other cabin...we encountered this problem on the last cruise with our grandchildren. The documents all had to be redone when we were updating the info for boarding passes and such. When on board you can the children in their own cabin..but for the record an adult will be listed with each of them.

Happy cruising!!

Grandma A

[CruiseNut7]

Thank you one and all for your great information and help.

We will go with a mini suite.

 

Thanks

 

Ann

 

Good choice, Ann. We love the mini-suites anyway, but I was also worried about the little one in a separate cabin with a balcony.

 

Have a fabulous cruise - we love Princess! :)

[Queenston]

why not put the paretns on the sofa bed-seems big enough. plus you have two twin beds for the little people and a bathtub.

 

This is the best idea--do you want your kids right next to that balcony in the mini-suite, when the parents are off into a sound sleep towards the inside? If it were my nephews at that age, they would have thought it to be a great adventure to have woken up, managed to get the balcony door open, and be out standing on the table looking at the waves below. And then, hit a big wave, OOPS . . You wake up and they are gone . . . I know this is the worst case scenario, but kids being normal kids, they like adventure and doing stuff their parents wouldn't be liking them to do. So I think this idea of the parents on the balcony side is a great one, if you go the route of a mini-suite, because at least they would have to trip over you to get out onto that balcony! But of course that fold out bed is not particularly comfortable.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Advice needed please. We are a family of 4 (girl 8 and boy 4). We are traveling on the Caribbean Princess in October for 7 nights . Our last cruise was on Voyager of the Seas in the Med. where we had a Junior Suite and found it very good. However the children are a bit bigger and the sofa bed may be a bit small for them both. Would ajoining balcony cabins be better and give us even more room.

Thanks in advance

Ann

 

As a family of 4, we always get either:

a.) two adjoining balcony cabins

or

b.) a full suite.

 

We've found that we're much more comfortable when the kids have their own room & bathroom. Also, when DH is taking forever in the bathroom, I can use the kids' bathroom. It makes getting ready for dinner much easier too & is less stressful.

 

With Princess, there are very few adjoining cabins, but if you get two balcony cabins, your cabin steward can open the balcony door between your cabins so that you can go between the 2 cabins that way. It works out very well. It's also nice to have the extra large balcony and be able to peak in on the kids to see if they're asleep.

 

Edited to add: we didn't start getting the kids their own cabin until they were a bit older than yours though. You know your kids better than anyone & what they will, or will not, do - trust your judgement.

[Livabeth]

Hi Dexysgirl,

 

You made the right decision!! We were making the exact same decision about a month ago. We have 2 children (8 year old and 4 year old girls) and one balcony was not big enough ... and we didn't like the way the beds were set up (bunk bed style). We were trying to decide between a balcony and an inside across the hall or a mini suite. We went with the mini-suite for many of the reasons posted above. We are so happy with our decision.

 

We cruise in October as well, but on the Crown Princess out of Fort Lauderdale. Have you considered the Crown Princess?? It would be great for our girls to have other children their same age aboard the cruise.

 

Happy Planning!!

 

Livabeth

[mjmalino]

We did a mini this past year for my family of 4 (our DS were 9 and 8). On the Coral, the sofabed was only a single bed with the fourth bed coming down above it. That is something that you might want to keep in mind as you decide on sleeping arrangements as I know that my DH or I wouldn't want to climb up the bunk every night.

 

This year, we did decide to get 2 cabins: one balcony and 1 inside directly across the hall. I think that this will work for us (I do have some reservations, but mainly because I worry too much), my kids will be 10 and 9 and I plan on only using their cabin for them to sleep in and get changed in (I'm also going to try to bring a baby monitor so that I can hear what is going on in their room. We will be able to have a larger balcony as my In laws are joining us and will be in the cabin next to us.