Tag Archives: budget travel

We just returned from a Disney cruise to the Bahamas aboard the Disney Dream. I’ll be writing a series of posts about our trip, so stay tuned for more!

Our stateroom was outstanding in every category: clean, comfortable, roomy, stylish. We stayed in a verandah stateroom on Deck 10. Before we departed, I had read some people complain about Deck 10 because it is right beneath the very busy Deck 11, which is home to the pool, hot tub, and other busy areas of the ship. However, noise was not an issue at all in our stateroom. I actually thought the location was very convenient. We could run up a quick flight of stairs and be at the pool or at one of the casual lunch/breakfast spots. We were also only a floor away from the frozen yogurt station, which is of course of the utmost importance.

We didn’t know our room number or what deck we would be on until just a few days before the cruise. That’s because we booked a special rate through disney.com. Disney describes the rate like this:

What are Category GTY staterooms—or restricted-fare staterooms? Category GTY (Category VGT, OGT, IGT) staterooms — also known as restricted-fare staterooms — are available on a limited basis, although the following terms and conditions do apply when booking these rooms:

This category guarantees you a stateroom within the selected stateroom type: Inside, Oceanview and Verandah. Disney Cruise Line will assign the stateroom at a later time, based on availability. Staterooms are assigned run of house, and location requests are not accepted. Category VGT staterooms may feature a whitewall verandah. Full payment is required at the time of booking for all Guests and is non-refundable. Sail date and stateroom category changes are not permitted. The stateroom offer cannot be combined with any other discounted or promotional offer. Full legal names of all Guests are required at time of booking as no name changes are allowed.

In other words, we were able to book a verandah stateroom at an inside-stateroom price. This might not always be the case, but this was our experience with the Category GTY rate. We were very happy we took advantage of this reduced rate and loved having a verandah. Since we booked our cruise only two months ahead of time, many of the restrictions didn’t bother us, since we knew we wouldn’t need to request name changes, refunds, etc.

We thought the stateroom was very spacious. We had two little bathrooms: one with a toilet and sink, and the other with a sink and shower. This made getting ready in the morning much easier, since two people could be getting ready at once. We also had a “sitting area” with a couch and a bunk bed that pulled down from the ceiling. E. slept in the bunk bed rather than the pull-out couch and thought it was so much fun to climb a ladder to bed each night.

Our stateroom gets an A+ for cleanliness. Housekeeping came by once a day, and we received turndown service each night, which included preparing the bunk bed. (It had to be stowed away during the day.)

The verandah was great. There was enough room for two chairs and a small table. Waking up each morning was like being a kid on Christmas. We’d rush out to the verandah and take in the new view before getting off the boat.

I would absolutely recommend a verandah stateroom, and if given the choice, I’d stay on Deck 10 again. Here are some photos, so you can see the room for yourself:

Note: All opinions are my own. I was not given any discounts in exchange for writing this post.