Choosing a Stateroom with Disney Cruise Line

Choosing a Stateroom with Disney Cruise Line

So, you’ve decided you’re going to book a Disney Cruise, and after much deliberating have also chosen which itinerary you’re going to do. But what about staterooms? There are so many different categories, where do you begin?

Well, the first decision is concierge or non-concierge? Concierge rooms come with several added benefits, the first of which is pre-arrival planning help. A Concierge Service Specialist will help you plan shore excursions and other reservations including Palo / Remy dining, and for the nursery. Once at port, concierge guests are given priority boarding, and can attend a private welcome reception once on-board. Concierge crew members are there to assist with on-board reservations and dining changes, celebration planning, and can help arrange for concierge guests to eat in their rooms instead of the rotation restaurants each evening. There’s also the private concierge lounge, which serves up complimentary snacks and drinks.

Royal Suite on the Disney Dream

If you opt for concierge and have a large amount of dollars to spare, you can splash out and book one of the suites. Alternatively, there are regular oceanview staterooms, all  with verandahs, within the concierge bracket (on the Dream and Fantasy).

Concierge Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah

On the Disney Magic and Wonder ships, concierge room choices are: Concierge Royal Suite (Cat R),  Concierge 2-Bedroom Suite (Cat S), and  Concierge 1-Bedroom Suite (Cat T). These suites sleep between five  and seven  guests.

On the Disney Dream and Fantasy ships, concierge choices are Concierge Royal Suite (Cat R),  Concierge 1-Bedroom Suite (Cat T), and  Concierge Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah (Cat V). These suites and rooms sleep up to  five guests. Follow the links for full details of the rooms.

If you just want to opt for a regular stateroom, the next decision you need to make is verandah or no verandah?

Verandahs are great for sitting on and watching the world go by. Imagine stepping out onto your own private balcony in a morning, and sitting down there to eat breakfast served up by room service! The luxury of fresh air does come at a premium though! You do also get a small amount of extra space with verandah rooms.

Disney Dream Stateroom with Verandah

There are two categories of Verandah rooms – Deluxe Family Oceanview with Verandah which sleep up to 5 guests, and Deluxe Oceanview with Verandah which sleep up to 4 guests. The Family rooms are slightly larger and have an extra pull-down bed, but are also higher on the price scale.

From a safety point of view, which will be of particular interest to those with small children, the verandahs all feature solid railings which are higher than adult waist height. However, as there are chairs and a table on each verandah (which could be climbed on), I’d strongly recommend not allowing children on the verandah unsupervised. The doors out to the verandah do have sufficient locks on to prevent children letting themselves out.

If sailing on the Magic or Wonder, you have the option of the Deluxe Oceanview with Navigator’s Verandah rooms, which feature an enclosed private verandah with large open-air porthole, so you’re still getting the fresh air, but it’s not fully open like a regular verandah.

Disney Dream Oceanview Stateroom

On the Dream and Fantasy, the Deluxe Family Oceanview rooms feature a large porthole window with built-in seating – perfect for cosying up on and watching as the ship sails into port.

The family rooms (Dream and Fantasy), with or without verandah, have a round tub and shower in one room, and a toilet in a separate room. Whereas the standard oceanview rooms have a regular tub and shower, and separate room with toilet.

If you’re on a tight budget, and don’t mind doing without the oceanview, there are the inside staterooms. There’s so much going on on board the ships, you probably won’t spend much time in your staterooms anyway. Choose from the Deluxe Inside or Standard Inside stateroom. The standard inside stateroom is much smaller than the deluxe inside, and although they officially sleep up to 4 guests, it may be a bit of a squeeze with so many. It’s also the only category just to have a single bathroom. You do get the added bonus of Magical Portholes on the Dream and Fantasy, with live views from the bridge, and special virtual  visits from some of your favorite Disney characters.

Inside stateroom on the Disney Dream

There are various sub-categories of room within each category, all priced differently. So it’s worth studying the details of each room that we have in our DCL staterooms section, which also features handy comparison charts so you can see the differences at a glance.

We’ve sailed in rooms with verandahs, but on our last cruise on board the Disney Dream we opted for a Deluxe Family Oceanview with the porthole window seat. With two adults, a 3 year old and an infant it suited us just fine, and we didn’t have to worry about our daughter climbing on the verandah.


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