Hi OzBargainers, I am planning going on a cruise for a few nights. I am wondering if it is realistic or make sense to book two rooms for my family of four?
One thing I found is that two rooms are actually cheaper, however I can’t figure out how do we communicate if we split up in two rooms without cell phone or other means of wireless communications ( assuming we don’t use WiFi onboard:)).
What’s your opinion, please share yours thanks heaps!
Used to do a few cruises as a kid and my family of four always did two rooms. Not sure if it was requested for adjoining rooms or not but we always had rooms that were a bit apart and sometimes on the other side of the ship.
Donno how old your kids are but back then for a ~15 year old I really enjoyed being a little bit away from my parents and being a bit independent and making new friends etc.
If you’re concerned, use the savings to buy a couple of cheap walky talkies for the kids to keep in contact.
Some cruises can supply interconnected rooms.
I saw cruise room choices and thought you were off to Oxford St.
U should get some walkie talkies
Good for when u even want to split up to do your own thing and meet up at another unspecified time
But u should also definitely try to book 2 adjacent rooms. U should be able to select yourself when booking online
You can choose not to go on a cruise.
If you're picking the cabin, just get two close by. Some are adjoining, which means there's a door inside between the two.
I'm assuming that you're talking about a guaranteed cabin, i.e. you have no idea where you'll end up. I've done this many times. Sometimes they're next to each other, sometimes they're on completely different decks with one fwd and one aft. Also, just because you book a room for two doesn't mean it won't be capable of sleeping four. If one of the two rooms has the extra beds in the celing, ask the steward to pull them down. You don't have to sleep in the room you're booked in.
Walkie talkies are great in theory, but even using powerful ones with larger antenna (I'm not talking huge, but the antenna was nearly as long as my hand) had issues on what's now considered a midsize ship. There are phones in each cabin though, and as long as you can keep them plugged in (i.e. you don't have a toddler who'll call who-knows-where at $5/minute) they work well enough.
I can’t figure out how do we communicate if we split up in two rooms without cell phone or other means of wireless communications
Rooms have phones, you can call the other room for free. There are also phones around the ship you can use to call rooms for free.
Or just select rooms in the same part of the ship and knock on the door.
or get interconnecting rooms.
or GASP arrange plans to meet at certain times and go from there
https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/articles.cfm?ID=2056
This might be worth looking at. You will need to confirm availability of service on boat.
What company are you looking at, e.g. Carnival, Royal Carribean?
They use morse code and giant shifting spanners to communicate on the Poseidon.
Depending on cruise line you can select interconnected rooms or at least rooms next to each other. Alternatively you can use a set of walkie talkies (have done that in the past), effective and cheap.
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, I am planning on PO Pacific Explorer. I will try adjoining rooms first. I have also checked the deck map for that ship, some rooms like Balcony View ones which seem only have one big bed in there, how can thw booking site reckon it can fit for 4？
Ask for adjoining rooms, you can choose to leave it lock/unlocked.