Diamond NB Vancouver to Whittier-- First Princess cruise, lotsa questions

[violetbluesky]

Hello, everyone.

 

My brother and I are taking our mom (and stepdad) to Alaska at the end of July for her 60th birthday. After a lot of research and looking at schedules, itineraries, and reading reviews, we've placed a hold on the Diamond Princess. DH and I have three kids (10, 8, 6). We've been on three Disney Magic cruises, to Caribbean and Mexican Riviera. We love the Magic and always book a mid-ship Cat 3 suite (1 bd suite, triple wide verandah). Cost to fly from ATL to Anchorage and back from Vancouver makes a large suite on the Princess cost-prohibitive (esp since brother and I are sharing our mom's cruise cost).

 

Princess doesn't have many connecting staterooms... we managed to get 2 connecting balcony cabins on Baja deck: B633/B635. These cabins are considered "midship" but the deckplan shows them as opposite the stairs/aft lifts. They must be the last set of rooms before being called "aft".

 

If I hang out too long in the aft of the Magic, I tend to get queasy from the vibrations of the engines, so I'm slightly concerned. The motion doesn't get me but that vibration does-- go figure.

 

Anyone know how much engine vibes I'll feel in those cabins?

 

Am I correct (from reading other posts) that the balconies are closed off with a cover over the whole thing?

 

Has anyone taken their kids on a late July sailing? How many kids onboard?

 

I trust my older two 100% not to touch the balcony door unless they ask first... but my son. Hmm. Is the balcony door lock up high or middle of the door? I wonder what can be done at night to keep that door from possibly being opened. Anyone have any ideas? (Princess initially suggested I get the mini-suite cabins that connect only via balcony-- yikes)

 

Sorry for the length of this post-- my head is kinda swirling from all this research in a short amount of time. Thanks for reading!