Iberostar Paraiso Maya Suites - Room selection??

Hello there!

We landed on the Iberostar Maya Suites for our family of 8 (two sets of 2 adults and 2 children, ages 2-4). But now we've got to decide rooms.

We'll be going on Thanksgiving, just FYI, so may be more crowded than usual? The question is whether or not it makes any sense to splurge for the Junior Suite near pool vs just the bottom tier. Looks like bottom tier is closer to the water slides and all the food in the lobby anyways...

And then, is it worth spending the extra money to hand pick the rooms? That's an option on the site, to literally pre-book the rooms (we do want to be next to each other...).

Thanks ahead of time for any info you can share!