Be REALLY careful when booking your rooms...

[tigger2on]

So Feb 2010... we booked 5 cabins for 2 separate cruises. When booking, I asked that the cabins hold 4 people as my kids will NOT sleep together so I needed the extra beds.
Today... I wanted to add Grammy into one of the cabins in October and when I called, I was informed that both cabins hold 3 people = 2 beds!!!! That is NOT going to work. DCL claims I never asked for 4 people but I asked the CM who booked the rooms as I picked them out!
GRRRRRRRRR!
Now what do I do???

 

[kcashner]

Well, first of all this is one of the reasons I like to work with a TA. You have the situation that it is your word against DCL, and they have no real reason to be cooperative.

What you do--insist that you need to be moved to cabins that sleep 4. We used to do this when DD was younger because she liked the bunk. Be very insistent. They don't WANT to put you in a 4 person cabin because they are hoping to sell it to a 4 person family. This is where an agency that books 100 cruises a week may have more influence than a person who books a couple cruises per year!

Are they telling you that your cruise is sold out? If not, are they trying to say that there are no 4 person cabins left? (you can find this out--go to the web site and try to make a ressie for 4 adults). Just keep insisting, even if it means calling them every day.

 

[kittyscrap1]

We had two cabins one year for 2adts and 3 chd...I had wanted to add my sil and family which are 3 more...which should have been fine with 2 beds in each cabin..but they said no because of the life boat capacities in that area and had to move us to 2 cabins at the rear of the ship where it was available. We ran into the same problem booking this cruise in July...we wanted a 5 person room..they had them but could put us in one due to life boats..so we had to go with 2 rooms and more $$.

 

[DisneyMom2008]

Most cruises in October are sold out so this may be the reason why they will not allow anymore add-ons.

 

[SweetSpot]

I had the same problem. When I booked for the Dream the day it openned up, I booked first thing in the morning during the rush. I was transferring a reservation booked online to 2 rooms across the hall from each other and adding a another person other than our family. The inside room needed to hold 4, we had a verandah. The CM and I talked about making sure the bed was split (that won't happen), and confirmed their was a pull down and the couch was the 4th bed. I gave them all the information, most he transferred plus the new info, made a deposit, got a confirm number, and only recieved the confirm email for the verandah. I didn't worry about it thinking I would get the confirm hard copies in the mail like before and then didn't think about it being the cruise was 2 years away.

Six months later we decided to make it a back to back. The inside wasn't available so we had to book the verandah room next to us for. We went to transfer the info from the first cruise and they only had 3 in the room and the 4th was no where to be found. They went to add her and now the room only holds 3. I added her to our room but was not happy!

A couple months later as the ship was getting closer to being complete and seeing if the problem might have been a life boat issue as it was suggested, I called again. The CM was wonderful and had a couple supervisors working on what the problem could be for quite a while. The next day I got an email fixing everything. In the end it was a glitch, the room did sleep 4 and she is back in the inside room.

Try again with another CM. Make sure they are correct and the room truly doesn't hold the 4th passenger. It may be they are correct but they could possibly be wrong. Check room reports to see if there is a report on the room to see if it could possibly sleep 4.

Good luck!

 

[tigger2on]

I booked on board with the Onboard Booking agent on the Disney Wonder and she checked to make sure that there was a 4th bed. Guess she was wrong. My TA has been great at trying to work it out (Dreams Unlimited Rock!) and DCL gave us options but the 2 cabins can NOT be on the same deck. We don't feel safe splitting up the family onto 2 decks at opposite sides of the ship but they have nothing else available. We have decided to stay where we are and bring our 3 yr old his Tot Cot.... small camping bed. It folds up and can be hung in the closet during the day but it will give each child their own bed. Not perfect but it'll do I guess.
I was told today that they are not allowing 4th person add ons in any category... not sure if I believe this as i can still get a cabin of 4 on their website...
oh well... I have learned from this experience and will make sure to triple check next time...

 

[Purdue Mouse]

When it comes to children and expensive cruises, let me just say that he who pays gets to decide about sleeping arrangements. Are the kids excited about going on a Disney cruise? Of course! Then it's... you will sleep in bed A or B with_______. If you don't like that arrangement, I hope you will be very comfortable on the floor.
But, I'm sure DCL will do thier best to accommodate you since you "need" 2 cabins $$$

 

[tigger2on]

When it comes to children and expensive cruises, let me just say that he who pays gets to decide about sleeping arrangements. Are the kids excited about going on a Disney cruise? Of course! Then it's... you will sleep in bed A or B with_______. If you don't like that arrangement, I hope you will be very comfortable on the floor.
But, I'm sure DCL will do thier best to accommodate you since you "need" 2 cabins $$$

easier said than done but I would rather not deal with the repercussions of them not getting enough sleep and having to listen to them whine and fight all day long while on our expensive cruise. I also think that fellow cruisers would also be grateful that my kids get sleep as well...

 

[SweetSpot]

When it comes to children and expensive cruises, let me just say that he who pays gets to decide about sleeping arrangements. Are the kids excited about going on a Disney cruise? Of course! Then it's... you will sleep in bed A or B with_______. If you don't like that arrangement, I hope you will be very comfortable on the floor.
But, I'm sure DCL will do thier best to accommodate you since you "need" 2 cabins $$$

Much easier said than done. My DS is 21, over 200 lbs and AS. He wiggles horribly all night and must be covered in heavy bedding to sleep. No one would sleep for a second in the same bed as him.

Even in a normal situation I don't know many (any really) male/female late teen siblings who want to spend vacation in the same bed. Don't know many parents who would demand it either.

People ask questions of trained DCL employees when booking a cruise to book a room to fit their family needs. The post is a warning to double check the information you receive, not for to you to take the opportunity to tell a parent that they are being too lenient and bending to their children's demands.

 

[LollieFollie]

I'm relatively new to cruising but I cannot figure out why this is such a recurring problem with DCL. When we got our room assignments I called DCL to see what the accomodations were and was surprised to hear that we have a room w/ the murphy bed since we don't need that extra bed. I asked the CM if there was a way to flag our room incase someone like you, who needs the extra bed, ends up with a room that only sleeps 4, and needs to switch. She said there was no way to do that but agreed that she was aware of several people who had had similar complaints.
The only advice I have is to call back and hope that someone else can help you. Good luck!! If all else fails, maybe you can start now prepping the kids for having to share a bed. I would probably even say something to mine like "Would you guys rather share a bed on the Disney Cruise -OR- we could cancel the cruise and y'all can sleep in separate beds at the Holiday Inn?" hahahah

 

[LIFERBABE]

So Feb 2010... we booked 5 cabins for 2 separate cruises. When booking, I asked that the cabins hold 4 people as my kids will NOT sleep together so I needed the extra beds.
Today... I wanted to add Grammy into one of the cabins in October and when I called, I was informed that both cabins hold 3 people = 2 beds!!!! That is NOT going to work. DCL claims I never asked for 4 people but I asked the CM who booked the rooms as I picked them out!
GRRRRRRRRR!
Now what do I do???

Yes, thank you for posting. Too late for me!! I specifically asked for a 4 person cabin because I was not sure if DH would be able to go with us.

I booked on points, and I checked our room assignment and it is a 3 person cabin with only 2 beds.

It will be myself and 2 Ds's (13 and 15) both the size of Dh so no, they wont share and we may cancel and move our dates because of it. Cant see putting 1 on the floor on a $4K cruise

It makes no sense to put 1 A and a 13 and 15 yr old in a cabin with only 2 beds, period!!! But they did and now I will have to make some hard choices

Good customer service would have been to question that booking, but no one is really that fluent on the layout of the ship when you book almost 2 years prior and the ship has not left the shipyard.

 

[taaren]

Wow that situation really sucks. My sympathies. For future reference my TA recommended if you think someone might sail with you just list them on initial reservation since its easy to delete people but often hard to add since they are only allowed a certain amt of ppl per lifeboat section of the ship so even if your room could hold four they can't sell the fare for that 4th body and still be under the legal body lifeboat limit. Good luck getting them to fix this for you!

 

[job09]

I just booked 9146 and 9144 on 4-5-12 Disney Dream, how do I find out how many beds? We have 3 and 3 but my twins really want the bunk with the view of the stars. The website only shows suites as being left and the CM said the ship is filling up (a year out?) How hard is it to change rooms?