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Jewel of the Seas rooms with bunk beds


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I have three little children and I’m currently thinking about taking the risk to book a guaranteed interior room for 4 and possibly adding a fifth passenger later. The guaranteed room rate is way cheaper than if I select a room. I was told the 5th passenger can be added to a room with bunk beds but not to a room with a sleeping sofa.
Is there a way to know what interior rooms have the bunk beds versus the sofa? Is this like a 50/50 chance? Or most rooms have the bunks? 😊

 

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I think you'll find the only cabins that can sleep five on this class are the 1K ocean view on decks 7 & 8 forward and a handful of balcony cabins.  

There are not very many cabins that can accommodate 5 guests so be very careful booking 4 now with the intention of adding 1 more later.  You may want to consider booking 5 now otherwise you may end up with a cabin that is capped at 4 guests with no ability to add a 5th.

The forward facing ocean view category 1K on decks 7 & 8 are great for families of 4 or 5 because the bunks are in an area of their own with a curtain and the cabins are larger.   

For example, the cabins with the 5+ symbol on deck plans.

 

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

I think you'll find the only cabins that can sleep five on this class are the 1K ocean view on decks 7 & 8 forward and a handful of balcony cabins.  

There are not very many cabins that can accommodate 5 guests so be very careful booking 4 now with the intention of adding 1 more later.  You may want to consider booking 5 now otherwise you may end up with a cabin that is capped at 4 guests with no ability to add a 5th.

The forward facing ocean view category 1K on decks 7 & 8 are great for families of 4 or 5 because the bunks are in an area of their own with a curtain and the cabins are larger.   

For example, the cabins with the 5+ symbol on deck plans.

 

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Correct. Officially only those rooms with the 5 symbol are for five people but, unofficially a children under three years old can be added as the fifth person to a room for four people as long as the room has the bunks. This is why I am trying to find out what rooms have the bunks. Is it possible to find this information? Thanks 

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Also be aware that the lifeboat capacity must be considered.  Even if a room can accommodate 5, but only 4 are booked, then it can be possible to deny an additional passenger if the lifeboat capacity has already been reached.

I concur with posters above - if you need a room for 5, book 5 people initially.  It’s much easier to remove someone later than to add someone later.

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24 minutes ago, Colombia20102018 said:

Sure but the issue is that RC does not let me book the 5th passenger with a guaranteed rate.

Rooms that can handle 5 passengers are both popular and limited.  It's very likely that those willing to pay more to choose their own room will choose those rooms.  Possibly before guarantees are even offered for your sailing.  Royal likely doesn't allow booking 5 on a guaranteed rate because it would be very hard to guarantee an appropriate room would be available.  Unfortunately for you (and your wallet), I don't think this is a risk you should take.

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32 minutes ago, Colombia20102018 said:

Sure but the issue is that RC does not let me book the 5th passenger with a guaranteed rate.

I think what we are all advising is to not book with a guaranteed rate and to pay the higher price to ensure you will have a room that meets your family’s needs. This is a good example where a good travel agent would be worth their weight in gold helping you navigate through this.  Stressing out over not having a room that will work for your family is not worth the little you may save with a GTY room. 

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1 hour ago, DoomSlayer said:

I think what we are all advising is to not book with a guaranteed rate and to pay the higher price to ensure you will have a room that meets your family’s needs. This is a good example where a good travel agent would be worth their weight in gold helping you navigate through this.  Stressing out over not having a room that will work for your family is not worth the little you may save with a GTY room. 

Thank you for the extra advice but my question is if there’s a way to know what rooms have the bunks 🤣 thank you All!!!

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26 minutes ago, Colombia20102018 said:

Thank you for the extra advise but my question is if there’s a way to know what rooms have the bunks 🤣

Very few rooms have actual bunk beds but some do have beds that drop down from the ceiling and over the beds below.  Without an actual tour of the room (you can google videos of rooms from Jewel of the Seas) I don't think you will be able to figure this out.  Even if they drop down, if the room doesn't allow for 5 I'm not sure you are getting accurate advice that you can simply add a 5th passenger.  The safest thing you can do is book a room for 5...if you're kids are all little perhaps you can time this with the kids sail free promotion and 2 of your kids would only have to pay taxes and fees.  Otherwise, you may want to consider one cabin for 3 and one cabin for 2 (one adult in each room).  There is far too much risk in "hoping" to get the room you want and being able to add a 5th person - the gamble you are taking in not locking in a cabin and price now could result in a re price later and you will find you end up paying more.

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I am using the legend and deck plans from cruiseline dot com. The cross means rooms with two Pullman beds (bunks) and the triangle means rooms with a sofa bed. After reviewing all the Jewel OTS deck plans, I did not find any interior rooms with sofa beds. Is cruiseline information accurate? Because if that’s the case, the risk of being assigned a room with a sofa bed  is zero. 
Now, I understand there’s also the risk of capacity. How likely is this? Are there any real examples outside of pandemic times where Royal refused to add a passenger due to capacity?

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1 hour ago, Colombia20102018 said:

Are there any real examples outside of pandemic times where Royal refused to add a passenger due to capacity?

They are still bound by muster station capacity which isn't usually based on total berths available. Once a muster station has hit capacity, no more berths assigned to that muster station can be sold.  There's no way to know that capacity has been hit until you go to add another person.

This is why sometimes you can see a room that has a 4 person capacity show up on a search for a cabin for 2, but that same cabin doesn't show up when searching for 3 or 4.

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15 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

They are still bound by muster station capacity which isn't usually based on total berths available. Once a muster station has hit capacity, no more berths assigned to that muster station can be sold.  There's no way to know that capacity has been hit until you go to add another person.

This is why sometimes you can see a room that has a 4 person capacity show up on a search for a cabin for 2, but that same cabin doesn't show up when searching for 3 or 4.

Thank you for your answer. Do you think at that point, they could move us to another cabin in an area that has muster capacity? Or move us to another muster station? I would guess they must have at least some extra seats somewhere. What if one of the guests doesn’t get to the muster station on time during an emergency? They leave without her and don’t let her in another boat when she shows up? 🤔

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2 hours ago, Colombia20102018 said:

Thank you for your answer. Do you think at that point, they could move us to another cabin in an area that has muster capacity? Or move us to another muster station? I would guess they must have at least some extra seats somewhere. What if one of the guests doesn’t get to the muster station on time during an emergency? They leave without her and don’t let her in another boat when she shows up? 🤔

You are counting on another identical cabin with the same capacity in your category to be available when you go to add the 5th passenger. With the number of cabins that can actually hold 5, that's asking for a lot to fall into place.  

Your original post is discussing booking a GTY for 4 with the hopes of adding a 5th person later.  A GTY cabin means you aren't picking your own cabin. There have been instances where the cabin number isn't actually assigned until very close to the sailing date, often after you have to make final payment.  

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I'll be very honest - it feels like you're looking for a loophole and validation for it. If you're going to have 5, reserve a room for 5. Period. Don't gamble with a 4-person guarantee room when it may blow up against your traveling party. Yes, it costs more, but ensuring that you have room for 5 is better than not. 

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33 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

I'll be very honest - it feels like you're looking for a loophole and validation for it. If you're going to have 5, reserve a room for 5. Period. Don't gamble with a 4-person guarantee room when it may blow up against your traveling party. Yes, it costs more, but ensuring that you have room for 5 is better than not. 

I understand that but there’s nothing wrong with asking for actual data and the price difference is quite significant. So if there’s anyone out there that has been thru this exact escenario, it would be nice to hear from their experience. 😊

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Just because someone else had this work out in their instance, doesn’t mean it will for you. They are not under any obligation to accommodate a GTY booking when that booking type no longer works for you. Again, just because maybe they did for someone else in the same exact scenario, doesn’t make them have to do it for you. Heck, they may not even be able to if they wanted. What if all the 5 person cabins are booked by non-GTY passengers? Those cabins go quickly and are popular. How would you get one then? Banking on that to NOT happen is a gamble. Just like you booking a GTY cabin is a gamble. They don’t hold those rooms open on the off chance someone with a GTY booking wants one later on. Booking a GTY and then expecting flexibility and accommodations when maybe wanting to modify the reservation down the road isn’t a reasonable expectation. You booked and paid GTY for a reason. The reason being a cheaper price for YOU being accommodating to whatever cabin is available, not the other way around. If you have certain requirements or expectations, then you need to book and pay for the appropriate cabin type.

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I'm planning a family cruise a few years out, so I can be ready to book when a particular sailing is loaded into Royal's system for the best rate, and after playing around with mock bookings, my suggestion is to either book a cabin for 5 now or two connecting rooms (assuming your party needs to stay together) with the other adult, assuming the person who may join you is an adult, otherwise you'll need a cabin for 5 as there must be at least one adult in the cabin for booking purposes. Here's why.

Rates will rarely be cheaper than they are today. Cabin availability will probably not get any better.  Cabin pricing seems to be a base rate for the specific cabin plus so much per person in the cabin (ex. base rate $2,700, two people in the cabin at $200 / person yields a total room fare of $3,100; if there was 4 people total fare would be $3,500) plus taxes, fees, and gratuity. If someone cannot make the ship, then Royal will refund port fees, taxes, and their part of the gratuity. However, if you want to add a person later, Royal reprices the whole cabin at the current rate (and rates seem to move only up, up, up these days). So maybe the new base pricing on the cabin is now $3,400 and the per person rate is $350. Adding a fifth person at these rates would mean the new total fare would be $5,150 from $3,500 for 4 (from the previous example). If you booked under the earlier mentioned rates with 5 people, your fare total would be $3,700; a whopping $1,450 less than the hypothetical future rate. So yes, you're paying slightly more today on the chance this person will join you. But the amount of money you'll possibly save is far greater than the loss if they don't show up.

Since it sounds like you might be stretching your budget with how you're writing about the situation, I'd personally ask if they're in or out, and if they say they're out, book for 4. If they change their mind later they can book their own cabin, at their own expense, if any are available on the same sailing.

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22 hours ago, Colombia20102018 said:

I understand that but there’s nothing wrong with asking for actual data and the price difference is quite significant. So if there’s anyone out there that has been thru this exact escenario, it would be nice to hear from their experience. 😊

I think the bottomline is - you're simply not going to "know" without trying.  By consensus,  you can see that many of us would not be willing to take the chance.  If you are ok in doing so then go ahead and book it and hope for the best.  You can always keep checking Royal's website to see if you are able to make a booking for 5 at a price you are happy with.  Keep in mind most ships are sailing at full capacity so not much chance you will be able to switch cabins closer to your sailing date. 

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2 hours ago, need2cruz said:

The chance of this working out for you is very remote and not worth the risk.  We can give you examples of how someones lottery ticket won them 100 million dollars.  Then, you are going to go buy a lottery ticket but not understand why your ticket didn't win 100 million dollar, too.

Based on what evidence is the chance very remote? Did it happen to you or someone you know? Thanks 🙏 

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2 hours ago, Colombia20102018 said:

Based on what evidence is the chance very remote? Did it happen to you or someone you know? Thanks 🙏 

It just isn't how I would book a room.  I booked 4 rooms for 8 of us today.  We all have assigned rooms.  But they were booked through a travel agent at a group rate discount.  If I would have booked the rooms on my own, they would have cost more than double what the agent could get them for.  Have you contacted a travel agent?  This way you can have a guarantee and not a gamble.  I don't play the lottery or go to  casinos, either.  I like to know what I'm getting for my money.  I guess some people like gambling.

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On 3/4/2023 at 2:17 PM, Colombia20102018 said:

I am using the legend and deck plans from cruiseline dot com. The cross means rooms with two Pullman beds (bunks) and the triangle means rooms with a sofa bed. After reviewing all the Jewel OTS deck plans, I did not find any interior rooms with sofa beds. Is cruiseline information accurate? Because if that’s the case, the risk of being assigned a room with a sofa bed  is zero. 
Now, I understand there’s also the risk of capacity. How likely is this? Are there any real examples outside of pandemic times where Royal refused to add a passenger due to capacity?

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The legends on CDP are very much outdated. Royal simplified their deck plan symbols several years ago now: triangle = capacity of 3, asterisk = capacity of 4, 5+ box = capacity of 5+, shadowed square = obstructed view. They stopped trying to accurately track which rooms have pullmans and which have sleeper sofas. If you call and ask if a room has a particular setup, 50/50 chance the answer is incorrect -- and yes, I've actually seen it happen.

Also, bear in mind that GTY rates for 5 don't exist. Should you call to add the 5th person to your reservation before a cabin is assigned -- which can be quite late in the game -- there is a very real possibility that you will lose your GTY rate for passengers 1-4 and have to book at the prevailing rate for passengers 1-5 (and as we have seen with cruise pricing in the past 12 months, that will likely be higher than it is today).

Gaming the system only works until the system games you back.

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21 minutes ago, XtremeGK said:

The legends on CDP are very much outdated. Royal simplified their deck plan symbols several years ago now: triangle = capacity of 3, asterisk = capacity of 4, 5+ box = capacity of 5+, shadowed square = obstructed view. They stopped trying to accurately track which rooms have pullmans and which have sleeper sofas. If you call and ask if a room has a particular setup, 50/50 chance the answer is incorrect -- and yes, I've actually seen it happen.

Also, bear in mind that GTY rates for 5 don't exist. Should you call to add the 5th person to your reservation before a cabin is assigned -- which can be quite late in the game -- there is a very real possibility that you will lose your GTY rate for passengers 1-4 and have to book at the prevailing rate for passengers 1-5 (and as we have seen with cruise pricing in the past 12 months, that will likely be higher than it is today).

Gaming the system only works until the system games you back.

Ok, it is good to know that the legends might be wrong.  If true, it sucks because imagine having to share a sofa bed with a non-spouse relative rather than each having their own Pullman bed. There would be a lot of unhappy guests. 

 I’m not worried about the price changing when adding the fifth passenger. RC confirmed that the 5th passenger will pay the same rate as the 3rd passenger. The price gets locked. 

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14 minutes ago, Colombia20102018 said:

Ok, it is good to know that the legends might be wrong.  If true, it sucks because imagine having to share a sofa bed with a non-spouse relative rather than each having their own Pullman bed. There would be a lot of unhappy guests. 

 I’m not worried about the price changing when adding the fifth passenger. RC confirmed that the 5th passenger will pay the same rate as the 3rd passenger. The price gets locked. 

This is only true if the rooms is the same. You would be moved to a 5+ room which would trigger a reprice. That means while pax 3-5 pay the same rate, it would be the prevailing rate. 

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17 minutes ago, Colombia20102018 said:

In this case the rooms are the same. 

Not according to your post, you booked a GTY for 4 in hopes of adding a 5th later. Rooms for 5+ people are a different category. For reference there are multiple interior, balconies, OV and suites based on pax capacity.

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15 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Not according to your post, you booked a GTY for 4 in hopes of adding a 5th later. Rooms for 5+ people are a different category. For reference there are multiple interior, balconies, OV and suites based on pax capacity.

A child under three years old can be added to a room for 4. Same category.

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2 hours ago, Colombia20102018 said:

A child under three years old can be added to a room for 4. Same category.

That isn't guaranteed.  It's done on a request basis and they can and do turn down the request sometimes.  It depends.  

You don't appear to want to receive the answer that many people are trying to give you.  Proceed at your own peril and when it doesn't work out the way you are hoping it might, blame only yourself.  

Also, bunk beds does not equal pullman beds.  They are not the same.  

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6 hours ago, twangster said:

That isn't guaranteed.  It's done on a request basis and they can and do turn down the request sometimes.  It depends.  

You don't appear to want to receive the answer that many people are trying to give you.  Proceed at your own peril and when it doesn't work out the way you are hoping it might, blame only yourself.  

Also, bunk beds does not equal pullman beds.  They are not the same.  

You are correct. That’s the reason I made this post 🙏

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6 hours ago, Colombia20102018 said:

You are correct. That’s the reason I made this post 🙏

Well I think that makes it easier to predict your chances of receiving a room with bunk beds - slim to none as the oceanviews that sleep 5 and the all of the suites have pullman beds and not bunks.  In my experience the only actual bunk rooms are the large spacious oceanview balconies on the oasis class ships.  They have a set of bunk beds when  you walk into the room and are roped off.   Those and the ultimate family suites.   All other set ups are pullmans.  As @twangster indicated, you are at your own peril if this doesn't work out.  I second what I said before - try to time your sailing with the kids sail free promotion and book the cabin you need at a price you will be happy with.

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1 hour ago, recogneyes said:

Well I think that makes it easier to predict your chances of receiving a room with bunk beds - slim to none as the oceanviews that sleep 5 and the all of the suites have pullman beds and not bunks.  In my experience the only actual bunk rooms are the large spacious oceanview balconies on the oasis class ships.  They have a set of bunk beds when  you walk into the room and are roped off.   Those and the ultimate family suites.   All other set ups are pullmans.  As @twangster indicated, you are at your own peril if this doesn't work out.  I second what I said before - try to time your sailing with the kids sail free promotion and book the cabin you need at a price you will be happy with.

I later clarified that bunks and Pullman beds are interchangeable. Thanks for the input.

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