Changing Stateroom Occupants at the Port

[fromthePDX]

Hi All,

First of all, I just want to say that I am so grateful that this board exists! It is jam packed with so much information and I am really kicking myself in the behind for not finding this before our 3-day Dream Cruise a couple of weeks ago.

Anyways, I have a question regarding stateroom occupants. I tried using the search function to see if there was anything on my question already posted but I did not seem to find any definitive answers.

My husband and I decided to do 2 OBB placeholders on our cruise, one in hiss name and one in my name. We did this in the hope that we will be able to convince my sister and her family to join us on a future cruise so our son and her kids can have the time of their lives. I completely understand that we cannot change the names on the OB so when we went on to book the rooms for a Western Caribbean Very Merrytime Cruise next year, we assigned the stateroom occupants as follows:

Room 1:
Husband
Brother-in-Law
My Son

Room 2:
Myself
Sister
Sister's Son
Sister's Daughter

So while finalizing the reservation with Disney, the CM repeated their policy of needing to keep my husband's name on one reservation and my name on the other. I told him that it isn't a problem and we knew this beforehand. He THEN mentioned that it really shouldn't be a problem because once we get to port, the CM at check in can rearrange the stateroom occupants so that we can have each family be "officially" in their own staterooms.

Is this "official" rearranging of occupants really possible at the port? Has anyone done this before? If so, it would really make thing easier in terms of assigning credit cards to the stateroom, excursion planning, etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mmouse37]

I have switched people around onboard at Guest Services. I guess you could ask at the port.

MJ

 

[fromthePDX]

Thanks for the quick reply mmouse!

When you say "switching people around", do you mean just getting an extra key or actually changing the stateroom occupants in the system so that all room charges from one family would be charged to one stateroom? Also in case of muster drill attendance, the switched occupant would be going to the station for the room that they are staying in and not the room they booked under?

Sorry for all the questions! Appreciate the help!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thanks for the quick reply mmouse!

When you say "switching people around", do you mean just getting an extra key or actually changing the stateroom occupants in the system so that all room charges from one family would be charged to one stateroom? Also in case of muster drill attendance, the switched occupant would be going to the station for the room that they are staying in and not the room they booked under?

Sorry for all the questions! Appreciate the help!

Just to be clear, each KTTW card will have it's own back up for payment. So persons A & C in room 1 and person A in room 2 can have the same credit card assigned to them. Person B in room one and the other 3 in room 2 can have a different credit card (or payment method) applied to their KTTW cards.

OR everyone can have their own payment method for their own KTTW card.

Doesn't matter what room you're in.

For the muster drill, you must attend at the station for the room you are actually booked in, not the one you are sleeping in.

 

[Weedy]

FYI: the children can only get off the ship with the adult assigned to their cabin. If you want them to get off with anyone in your party (including the parent in the other cabin) you will need to go to Guest Services and sign a paper allowing them to get off the ship with the adult assigned to the other cabins.

 

[Cheerio]

I wasn't able to change occupants in rooms, just got extra keys and luckily they were at the same muster station - but you can give different credit card #'s for the adults in the rooms, so your BIL/Sister can just point their room keys to their own CC's. Excursions you can book for anyone in the rooms, it doesn't have to be the entire stateroom - so they can book what they want.

 

[iheartjuppy]

When I called to book our upcoming cruise, I requested one single occupancy cabin for a family member and then one cabin with four occupants (myself, my husband, my daughter and son). The CM on the phone strongly advised booking one of the kids in with the single occupancy family member for cost savings and said I would be able to move my child back to my room officially at guest services on board as soon as we boarded with no issue (or change to charges). I sure hope she was right, because I took her advice and booked that way! Definitely do not want to be apart from my son on our trip, and don't necessarily want to encourage multiple keys etc.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

When I called to book our upcoming cruise, I requested one single occupancy cabin for a family member and then one cabin with four occupants (myself, my husband, my daughter and son). The CM on the phone strongly advised booking one of the kids in with the single occupancy family member for cost savings and said I would be able to move my child back to my room officially at guest services on board as soon as we boarded with no issue (or change to charges). I sure hope she was right, because I took her advice and booked that way! Definitely do not want to be apart from my son on our trip, and don't necessarily want to encourage multiple keys etc.

You can have your child sleep in your room, even without officially moving them on the reservation (as long as the room that has 3 in it can accommodate 4). Just tell you room host how you want the rooms made up (how many beds). The child that's in the "other" room will just get a new KTTW card (works as a key only, no charging) for the room they are actually going to sleep in.

I will point out, however, if you keep your child on the other room's reservation, the adult in that room will have to sign a permission form for you to take your own child off the ship. And the child will need to attend the muster drill for the room they are assigned to.

 

[UFDisChick]

Hi All,

First of all, I just want to say that I am so grateful that this board exists! It is jam packed with so much information and I am really kicking myself in the behind for not finding this before our 3-day Dream Cruise a couple of weeks ago.

Anyways, I have a question regarding stateroom occupants. I tried using the search function to see if there was anything on my question already posted but I did not seem to find any definitive answers.

My husband and I decided to do 2 OBB placeholders on our cruise, one in hiss name and one in my name. We did this in the hope that we will be able to convince my sister and her family to join us on a future cruise so our son and her kids can have the time of their lives. I completely understand that we cannot change the names on the OB so when we went on to book the rooms for a Western Caribbean Very Merrytime Cruise next year, we assigned the stateroom occupants as follows:

Room 1:
Husband
Brother-in-Law
My Son

Room 2:
Myself
Sister
Sister's Son
Sister's Daughter

So while finalizing the reservation with Disney, the CM repeated their policy of needing to keep my husband's name on one reservation and my name on the other. I told him that it isn't a problem and we knew this beforehand. He THEN mentioned that it really shouldn't be a problem because once we get to port, the CM at check in can rearrange the stateroom occupants so that we can have each family be "officially" in their own staterooms.

Is this "official" rearranging of occupants really possible at the port? Has anyone done this before? If so, it would really make thing easier in terms of assigning credit cards to the stateroom, excursion planning, etc.

Thanks in advance!

Hi...I know this is an older post but you have quoted my exact question. We also did the OBB placeholder on our last cruise for two staterooms and put my husband's name on one and mine on the other. Now we have picked a sail date and my brother and his family have decided to join us. We would like to book a second stateroom for them under the one in my name, and then move me over to my husband's stateroom. I called DCL and she said we could change the names at the port as long as one adult is in each room. I didn't mention the OBB discount though....did you ever get a solid answer on whether or not this will work? We aren't sailing until next July but anxious to book so we can lock in the prices. Any help you could give would be great!

 

[fromthePDX]

Our cruise isn't until November so I can't comment on the whole cabin-occupant switcheroo scenario. But based on the feedback from the other board members, it looks like, at the very least, we will be able to request extra keys to the rooms for access and so that each can sleep with their respective families.

Regarding the OBB discount, it shouldn't be an issue for as long as you keep the original names from the OBB on theor respective reservations. We plan to keep our booking this way through our PIF date until we get to port then try to figure out our options on the best way to switch up the room occupants.

If you are worried about room charges, you can assign a different credit card to each of the KTTW cards regardless of which room the person is booked.

I wish I could be a little more definite, but like I said, we aren't sailing until late November. But it does look like there will be options and worst case would be some people on our party would be carrying two card keys (first one would be the "official" KTTW card and the other a spare key card for access into the stateroom).

 

[GoofyLovingFamily]

We have had success moving people at guest services as soon as we boarded.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

I'm glad I found this post.
We are doing exactly the same thing for our Norwegian cruise next year. I asked our TA about this and was told we could move people into their appropriate room once on board. I'm glad to read that there are people that have actually done it. I wasn't told that you could also get extra key cards made up as well for additional people to have access your stateroom.

 

[UFDisChick]

Thank you all for your replies! It is especially helpful to know that we can designate a different credit card to each KTTW card, that will save the hassle of sorting through charges at the end. I think we are going to go ahead and book that way...thanks again for the help.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Even if you decide to 'sort through all the charges', for example, if people are paying cash or using their share of an OBB, everything is listed by person. Even the kids' charges are listed under their names. The excursions and tips are charged individually, too, so it makes sorting things out much easier.

 

[KristiMc]

When I called to book our upcoming cruise, I requested one single occupancy cabin for a family member and then one cabin with four occupants (myself, my husband, my daughter and son). The CM on the phone strongly advised booking one of the kids in with the single occupancy family member for cost savings and said I would be able to move my child back to my room officially at guest services on board as soon as we boarded with no issue (or change to charges). I sure hope she was right, because I took her advice and booked that way! Definitely do not want to be apart from my son on our trip, and don't necessarily want to encourage multiple keys etc.

Hopefully the room at you, your husband and daughter is in sleeps 4. Being that the CM knew you wanted to sleep together she should have put you in a room that can accommodate your son.

 

[dvcdisney]

When I called to book our upcoming cruise, I requested one single occupancy cabin for a family member and then one cabin with four occupants (myself, my husband, my daughter and son). The CM on the phone strongly advised booking one of the kids in with the single occupancy family member for cost savings and said I would be able to move my child back to my room officially at guest services on board as soon as we boarded with no issue (or change to charges). I sure hope she was right, because I took her advice and booked that way! Definitely do not want to be apart from my son on our trip, and don't necessarily want to encourage multiple keys etc.

I'm not sure if you've already cruised, but I would be nervous about my son as well, especially if his name had to stay there and you end up with 2 different muster station. In your situation, I would call DCL and switch my son with either myself or my husband so that one of us would be with the children.

We had a similar situation, but when we got to port, the CM said it would be better to just issue extra keys. I didn't see too much of an issue with this since I can assign credit cards to each person so there's not issue with payments. But I didn't like the fact that my husband may have been in a different muster station that us. It turned out that we were all in the same one since our stateroom was beside each other, but that's not a guarantee. For this reason, if someone was going to be in another stateroom, it would be myself or my husband. One of us would need to be with the children.

 

[iheartjuppy]

We have the space for all four of us, as each of our cabins are the "Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah" which say they sleep five. We had fully intended on booking my son in with us, with my sister in her own room, but the Disney rep on the phone suggested splitting us up on the reservation because either my sister's rate would have been higher as single occupant, or ours would have been higher with a fifth person (or both) but it was pretty significant and they assured us that once we were ON the boat we could move him to our room officially without issue and at no charge. There was no mention of her being responsible to sign him off the boat to go with us (and on the reservation he is clearly listed with our address, etc. while she is listed under her address). She won't be involved in his kid club time and is unlikely to take him with her anywhere on her own since we will either all be together or he will be with my husband and me. We'll have him formally moved to our room when we get on the boat as planned, and hope the CM was right that it won't change the charges to either room, but if it does change the cost I'll still do it so that I can be sure all paperwork is consistent that he is our responsibility (physically and financially).

 

[lanejudy]

We have the space for all four of us, as each of our cabins are the "Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah" which say they sleep five.

Are you positive that your actual stateroom has a 4th sleeping surface? Not all of the deluxe family rooms actually sleep 5, I believe they are noted as "sleeps up to 5" and some will only have beds for 3 or 4 guests.

There was no mention of her being responsible to sign him off the boat to go with us (and on the reservation he is clearly listed with our address, etc. while she is listed under her address). She won't be involved in his kid club time and is unlikely to take him with her anywhere on her own since we will either all be together or he will be with my husband and me.

I don't know if the phone CMs are even aware of this, since most may never have set foot onboard a DCL ship. It's just how the system is set-up. A minor is officially under the supervision of the adult in the room to which the minor is booked, even if the actual parents are onboard and in a different stateroom. The system unfortunately doesn't recognized between reservations like that. It's a simple form to complete that allows the parents in another stateroom to officially be recognized by the computer. Once you have done registration in the terminal, I'm not sure if adjusting who-sleeps-where with Guest Services will officially change that. Just so you are aware. Assuming your reservations are linked, you can still do his kids club registration and name both parents as adults to check him out of the Club/Lab.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We have the space for all four of us, as each of our cabins are the "Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah" which say they sleep five. We had fully intended on booking my son in with us, with my sister in her own room, but the Disney rep on the phone suggested splitting us up on the reservation because either my sister's rate would have been higher as single occupant, or ours would have been higher with a fifth person (or both) but it was pretty significant and they assured us that once we were ON the boat we could move him to our room officially without issue and at no charge. There was no mention of her being responsible to sign him off the boat to go with us (and on the reservation he is clearly listed with our address, etc. while she is listed under her address). She won't be involved in his kid club time and is unlikely to take him with her anywhere on her own since we will either all be together or he will be with my husband and me. We'll have him formally moved to our room when we get on the boat as planned, and hope the CM was right that it won't change the charges to either room, but if it does change the cost I'll still do it so that I can be sure all paperwork is consistent that he is our responsibility (physically and financially).

If a minor is in a room with an adult (other than the parents) the adult in that room must sign a paper authorizing others (and who they are) to be able to take the minor off the ship.

That's one of the forms available in the online check in process

 

[FigmentSpark]

We have the space for all four of us, as each of our cabins are the "Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah" which say they sleep five. We had fully intended on booking my son in with us, with my sister in her own room, but the Disney rep on the phone suggested splitting us up on the reservation because either my sister's rate would have been higher as single occupant, or ours would have been higher with a fifth person (or both) but it was pretty significant and they assured us that once we were ON the boat we could move him to our room officially without issue and at no charge. There was no mention of her being responsible to sign him off the boat to go with us (and on the reservation he is clearly listed with our address, etc. while she is listed under her address). She won't be involved in his kid club time and is unlikely to take him with her anywhere on her own since we will either all be together or he will be with my husband and me. We'll have him formally moved to our room when we get on the boat as planned, and hope the CM was right that it won't change the charges to either room, but if it does change the cost I'll still do it so that I can be sure all paperwork is consistent that he is our responsibility (physically and financially).

You may not be able to 'officially' move him, as there may no longer be space in that lifeboat, if your two rooms are in different lifeboats.

Why didn't the CM suggest you book with your sister and keep the kids with your husband. None of this would be a problem, except the paperwork to ensure you are able to sign your kids out, etc. But then your sister would not be responsible for your son.