Add 6 year old to Friends Room but sleep in our room

[A2ndChance]

I have a unique scenario that I am hoping someone might have some insight or advice on. I believe I have thought through everything and have been on a handful of cruises myself.

There are no triple occupancy rooms available for a cruise my friend, his wife, and their 11 year old have booked. There is a ton of double occupancy rooms. Because they already have a triple occupancy room booked, a 4th child can be added to their room for just the taxes. I would just have to pay my friend the taxes incurred for child. I would then let our 6 year old daughter either sleep in the bed with us or on the couch in our room. She won't need her own key to the room as she won't ever be by herself. I know I can get an extra key no matter what though. She shouldn't need to charge anything to a room because she is free. Anything that would need to specifically be charged to her card for any kids activities I can also just send money to my friend. Then it was suggested to add my name to the waitlist for a triple occupancy room and there's a good chance it could become available. It is still 6 months out. 

I want to ensure I don't inconvenience my friend and family for even one single thing on their first cruise because of how I am attempting to approach this. Am I not thinking something through here? Like entering and exiting the boat will it be required that she is present with the adults listed in her room. If we are in Nassau and they want to come back on board earlier than we would like to, will it be required that the adults listed in my daughters room must be present when my daughter comes back on boat. 

The sad part of this is people usually go through something like this to save a buck or two. This is solely so I can confirm a spot on the boat for my family and it'll still cost the same.

 

Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice. 

[Doug_Texas]

You are on the right track and there is no problem.  When our kids were teenagers they wanted their own room so we officially had two rooms where we switched occupants and got spare keys at guest services.  At the time an RCL policy was you couldn’t have two sole guests under 18 in a cabin.  We were next door and it was all fine.  RCL on the ship was happy with it too, I guess they had their legal obligations covered with an adult in the cabin.

[sleepy425]

Are you positive their room sleeps 4? Some rooms really do only fit 3.  I would confirm that (we have 2 rooms of 3 for a cruise coming up.  Took in another child and had to book a third room because our rooms were definitely for only 3.  And switching to a 4 person room would have been substantially more expensive).

[A2ndChance]

I did confirm with agent on phone that the current booked room can add a 4th kid for free. Only additional fee added to room would be taxes for child. Family friend is an agent for RC. She said shouldn’t be an issue. Book the double occupancy room and get on triple occupancy waitlist. Alot of times people don’t finish making payments and rooms open up. 1 month prior, book child in friends room if needed. Seems like a pretty fair plan. 
 

Still interested to know how a child gets on and off cruise with another adult other than their parents. Same goes for entering and exiting kids club. I know families don’t all get off boat every time with kids. Grandma, uncle, cousin, and adults not in same room must take kids on and off all the time. 
 

 

[Xaa]

You'll be fine.  Couple things I can think of.

If a triple occupancy room does open up from the waitlist, there will almost certainly be a fare increase.  You should expect that.  Second isn't about getting off in port etc, but you may have a different muster station than your friend and in the very unlikely event you need to muster, your daughter will need to go to her assigned station.  Very unlikely though.

[sleepy425]

9 hours ago, A2ndChance said:

I did confirm with agent on phone that the current booked room can add a 4th kid for free. Only additional fee added to room would be taxes for child. Family friend is an agent for RC. She said shouldn’t be an issue. Book the double occupancy room and get on triple occupancy waitlist. Alot of times people don’t finish making payments and rooms open up. 1 month prior, book child in friends room if needed. Seems like a pretty fair plan. 
 

Still interested to know how a child gets on and off cruise with another adult other than their parents. Same goes for entering and exiting kids club. I know families don’t all get off boat every time with kids. Grandma, uncle, cousin, and adults not in same room must take kids on and off all the time. 
 

 

We travel with  my parents often, and sometimes my kids are assigned to their rooms.  I make sure all of our reservations are linked.  We have never had a problem with my parents leaving the boat with them. You do not all need to be together to check in, you can check your child in even if they are in a different room.  And adults can be assigned to get the kids from the kids club - we all take turns getting them.

[Larry Muster]

All of these workarounds sound fine but are magnets for hassles that may pop up during the cruise.  This scenario complicates boarding, the job of your stateroom person and heaven forbid mustering if there is an emergency.  If I'm paying thousands of dollars for a vacation, my policy is that I will not entertain any workarounds that could complicate anything.  

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

11 hours ago, A2ndChance said: 
 

Still interested to know how a child gets on and off cruise with another adult other than their parents. Same goes for entering and exiting kids club. I know families don’t all get off boat every time with kids. Grandma, uncle, cousin, and adults not in same room must take kids on and off all the time. 
 

 

So, we took our kids and grandkids on a family cruise in July.  I booked my daughter and her husband in a room by themselves.  I booked their 3 girls in a room with my husband (Grandpa).  When we were at the check-in they asked my husband for a note verifying he was ok to be with the girls!  Luckily my daughter and SIL were at the next check-in desk and she verified.  On the cruise we had to get a separate pass key for my room for my husband lol and we got one for my daughter for the girls’ room!

Most of the time everything was fine.  We were in Nassau and as my granddaughter was getting off with me but they stopped her.  She needed a parent to verify she could disembark!  Again…luckily…my daughter was behind us a bit so she had to push forward to prove it was ok.  As others always comment…every staffer is different and you never know when you will have it easy or need to show proof about something!

[27th Lady]

I’m not sure where your six year old would sleep in a double occupancy room? If they are not listing the couch as an option for a pullout then it may not be suitable as a sleep surface, and I wonder if the room steward would agree to make it up for you. Has anyone tried this?