Disney wonder- room for 5

[pinkxray]

I am starting to save for my 40th bday present to myself which I’m hoping will be a cruise to Alaska.
What options are available for family of 5 on the Wonder? The kids are too young too be on their own yet.
No suites.

 

[disneylandlocal]

Your choices are all staying in one family verandah that sleeps 5. Or getting connecting rooms in another category. We are sailing the wonder with 3 kids in a family verandah but I’ve second guessed whether we would be more comfortable with 2 ocean view connecting rooms and it’s too late to swap. I wish the ships had affordable more options for bigger families. Adding the 5th family member shot the price way up.

 

[Mommb]

The non-suite rooms that sleep 5 are the Family Oceanview Staterooms with Veranda (Category 4). These have a bed for 2, a sofa bed for 1, a ceiling bunk for 1, and a pulldown bed for 1.

If the kids are small and you don't expect to spend a lot of time in the room, this should suffice. You could also get two connecting rooms in a different category and keep the connecting door open.

 

[TreeFalls]

Definitely price more than one option. We got two connecting oceanview rooms on the Magic, and the price was really close to a room that sleeps 5, but now we will have more space. Our kids are too little to stay alone, but we are ok with the connecting door being open (and we plan to physically block their room door at night. If the lock is not sufficient we will pile luggage there. My 4yo sometimes gets disoriented at night in a new place, and we don't want him to wander into the hall).

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

We did a cat 4 when we went to Alaska. It's the only option on Wonder for our family of 5 in one room. Connecting rooms are cheaper on Magic/Wonder than Dream/Fantasy so that's an option. We're doing the connecting rooms down on deck 2 for our upcoming Med cruise (kids are all teenagers now and we need the room). Not cheap, but compared to a cat 4 it was 4K cheaper for the 12 night med cruise. Our Alaska for the five of us in August 2018 was 12.2K in a cat 4

 

[Trera]

we did a Cat T room. That gives you a queen bed, pull out couch bed and pull down murphy style bed.

 

[wilyum]

we did 2 connecting inside staterooms which worked a lot cheaper than the family suite, plus more room/storage, two bathrooms, more privacy for mom and dad ;-), two gift bags from DU, two stateroom gifts if your entitled, two marvel day bed throws, 2 free internet packages, 2 on board credits if you attend the sales pitch, but no verandah.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Alaska is shockingly expensive so I would definitely price two rooms. On the classic ships two rooms (inside/OV) are almost always cheaper than the family verandah rooms for 5, as there aren’t many of those available on the classic ships. They are also all up on deck 8 which I don’t like as it’s right under the pool deck. With two rooms you will have to book one adult in each room. We just did this and it was all fine, but my kids were 6, 7 and 10 and knew they weren’t allowed to leave the room without letting us know.

 

[lilsonicfan]

You will find that a family of 5 makes cruising cost MUCH more. Here's an example*:

Disney Wonder May 18, 2020 7 night Alaskan cruise

4 people (2A 2K) in an inside room: $6,419 total. $1806 per adult and $1041 per kid plus $181 in tax per guest.

5 people (2A 3K) in a verandah room, the lowest category than can hold 5: $12,997 total. $4207 per adult and $1209 per kid plus $181 in tax per guest.

5 people in two separate inside rooms (1A 2K, 1A 1K): $9,169 total. $1806 for the first 2 guests in each room and $1041 for one kid, plus $181 in tax per guest.

If an inside room could have fit 5, which it cannot, you would have been able to pay $1806 per adult and $1041 per kid plus $181 in tax each = $7,639. But because no inside room can hold 5, you would be paying an additional $1,500 instead to get that second inside room, or as you can see, an additional $5,000+ to fit in one room.

*Yes it's just an example, yes opening day pricing would probably be lower -but not that much lower I bet-, yes you could also compare oceanview rooms but the same principle applies, yes pricing on the newer ships is a bit different due to the family oceanview rooms that can hold 5

 

[pinkxray]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I have a lot to consider.
We haven’t cruised as a family of 5 yet but have 2 upcoming cruises booked. Thankfully both the Fantasy and Oasis of the Seas have better options for us.
Im not opposed to connecting rooms but for Alaska I would like at least an ocean view. Kids will be 17,7 and 5. The 17 year old would not be ok with being by herself and I wouldn’t be comfortable without the 5/7 year olds in our room. Maybe we could try for connecting oceanview or maybe a balcony for 2 and an inside across the hall for the older 2.
I am trying to keep it under 10,000 but that’s not looking good.
We are also looking at RCL, NCL and maybe Princess.

 

[pinkxray]

Of course another option is waiting one more year until DD goes off to college but I’m not she’ll be too happy about that.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I have a lot to consider.
We haven’t cruised as a family of 5 yet but have 2 upcoming cruises booked. Thankfully both the Fantasy and Oasis of the Seas have better options for us.
Im not opposed to connecting rooms but for Alaska I would like at least an ocean view. Kids will be 17,7 and 5. The 17 year old would not be ok with being by herself and I wouldn’t be comfortable without the 5/7 year olds in our room. Maybe we could try for connecting oceanview or maybe a balcony for 2 and an inside across the hall for the older 2.
I am trying to keep it under 10,000 but that’s not looking good.
We are also looking at RCL, NCL and maybe Princess.

Connecting oceanviews would be a good choice and you may be able to get it around that $10,000 range - depends on the week - but check out 2020 pricing to get an idea. We really loved the connecting rooms. It meant that the kids could sleep in one room OR one of them could also sleep in ours (we had two oceanviews that each slept 3 people) and so at night sometimes DH or I would go out while the other stayed, but there was still sufficient space for kids to sleep while we watched a movie or something.

NCL has some ships that have rooms for 5, I believe both Bliss and Joy have family oceanviews that sleep 5.