RCL or Disney please help?!

Blessed_wth_Triplets · Jul 18, 2015

Hi! We are going to do our first family cruise - me, husband, and fours kids ages 6-13, and I can't decide between a 7 night RCL to Southern Caribbean OR a 5 night Caribbean (Cozumel and Castaway Cay) on the Disney Wonder. With RCL we would have connecting balconies, but with Disney only thing left is connecting inside state rooms.

Also, I'm not hearing such great things about the Wonder as far as a ship, and have started to look at some of the higher class RCL ships and they are amazing! I know my teen boys would love them! It's all soooo overwhelming.

Has anyone done both and can you offer any advice? A LOT of my friends swear that Disney is better, and I don't doubt that, but honestly the itinerary on RCL sounds more appealing. The Disney cruise is about $1,000 saving over the RCL one...which is appealing too....but two nights less of course. And we have to fly into San Juan for RCL, which is expensive...but so is Miami I'm finding. Airfare is a killer.

Any help appreciated!!

Momof4DisneyLuvrs · Jul 19, 2015

We did the Wonder last November. My kids are 21, 17, 11, 8, and 6. We did not have connecting rooms but side by side. It was our first cruise. I love, love, loved it. Every single one of my kids said it was the all-time favorite vacation. We have traveled quite a bit too. That being said, we are trying RCL this fall. I can't beat the price. We're getting ready to book the Allure for a 7 night cruise. I'm nervous because we loved Disney so much but I think it will be great too. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale on Southwest when we went out of Miami last year. You may want to look into that for an option for airfare. I found Miami much higher.

Good Luck with your decision. Honestly, I don't think you could go wrong either way.

eskimoinparadise · Jul 19, 2015

Blessed_wth_Triplets said:
Hi! We are going to do our first family cruise - me, husband, and fours kids ages 6-13, and I can't decide between a 7 night RCL to Southern Caribbean OR a 5 night Caribbean (Cozumel and Castaway Cay) on the Disney Wonder. With RCL we would have connecting balconies, but with Disney only thing left is connecting inside state rooms.

Also, I'm not hearing such great things about the Wonder as far as a ship, and have started to look at some of the higher class RCL ships and they are amazing! I know my teen boys would love them! It's all soooo overwhelming.

Has anyone done both and can you offer any advice? A LOT of my friends swear that Disney is better, and I don't doubt that, but honestly the itinerary on RCL sounds more appealing. The Disney cruise is about $1,000 saving over the RCL one...which is appealing too....but two nights less of course. And we have to fly into San Juan for RCL, which is expensive...but so is Miami I'm finding. Airfare is a killer.

Any help appreciated!!

Which RCL ship, and which itinerary? We prefer virtually any southern Caribbean cruise to a cruise that only does one port (especially when that port is Cozumel). While we love Castaway Cay, a beach day is no match for two or three ports that you may otherwise never get to visit.

Also, what is the cost differential? The additional airfare to get from Miami to San Juan isn't usually a big difference from just flying to Miami.

Blessed_wth_Triplets · Jul 19, 2015

Good point - the airfare seems similar right vs. Miami and San Juan. I'm waiting for Southwest to release their prices.

The RCL is Adventure of the Seas and the ports are St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John's, St Lucia, Grenada. I know...that's what sold me...the ports...BUT I have to say I've done some research and I have yet to read a stellar trip report. That cruise gets about a 78% on Cruise Critic. And right now at least, with other airlines, flights on those dates from Michigan to San Juan are around $900!! And looking at the current prices/flights on Southwest...they are horrible. Like one flight a day with bad times and layovers.

eskimoinparadise · Jul 19, 2015

Blessed_wth_Triplets said:
Good point - the airfare seems similar right vs. Miami and San Juan. I'm waiting for Southwest to release their prices.

The RCL is Adventure of the Seas and the ports are St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John's, St Lucia, Grenada. I know...that's what sold me...the ports...BUT I have to say I've done some research and I have yet to read a stellar trip report. That cruise gets about a 78% on Cruise Critic. And right now at least, with other airlines, flights on those dates from Michigan to San Juan are around $900!! And looking at the current prices/flights on Southwest...they are horrible. Like one flight a day with bad times and layovers.

Adventure is a Voyager Class ship, and there would be tons more for your kids to do on that one than on Wonder (Ice skating; rock climbing wall; full sized basketball court; miniature golf; and depending on when you're planning, they have an inline skating track (I believe that will be replaced by a surf simulator after her next dry dock). As for flights, I'd look at the difference between flying from Michigan to Miami and flying direct from Michigan to San Juan compared to the cost differential between a 5 night Disney Wonder cruise and a 7 night adventure cruise. My guess is when you net it all out, two extra days cruising and three extra ports on a much better ship and balcony cabins will still net out as less expensive per day than Disney.

eskimoinparadise · Jul 19, 2015

hit the button twice by mistake

Kenny1113 · Jul 19, 2015

We LOVE the Wonder!!! Have been on the wonder 3 times. That being said we are doing RCCL next March because it is 8nights vs 5 on DCL. eastern Caribbean vs ports we have done mulitple times. Less than 3K for highest room class vs more than 4K for oceanveiw. We haven't sailed yet so unfortunately I cannot answer your question but I am nervous about RCCL-love the service on DCL.

eskimoinparadise · Jul 19, 2015

Kenny1113 said:
We LOVE the Wonder!!! Have been on the wonder 3 times. That being said we are doing RCCL next March because it is 8nights vs 5 on DCL. eastern Caribbean vs ports we have done mulitple times. Less than 3K for highest room class vs more than 4K for oceanveiw. We haven't sailed yet so unfortunately I cannot answer your question but I am nervous about RCCL-love the service on DCL.

It is highly unlikely that you will notice any difference in the level or professionalism of the service between the two cruise lines. We've done nine Disney cruises, 25 RCL cruises, and about a dozen cruises on other lines (HAL, Princess, and Carnival), and the level of service across all of the lines has been equally good. Probably the worst service we've ever had was (ironically enough) on the Disney Magic this May. It was probably the only time in more than 10 years of cruising that we've been disappointed by a lack of professionalism and attention to the guest.

ramkam · Jul 20, 2015

I think it depends on the RCC ship. We have sailed on all four of the Disney ships. We all know Disney is generally more expensive. We just got off RCC's Jewel of the Seas for an Alaska cruise. I believe the Jewel also does Caribbean cruises. We chose RCC because we were able to have a balcony and we thought this was extremely important for an Alaskan cruise. For the same money we would have had a lower deck port hole room on the Wonder and that was with a 10% discount for onboard booking. Our staff on the Jewel was great. However, at least as far as the Jewel of the Seas goes, we cannot think of anything that isn't better on a Disney ship. This is especially true for the food and the entertainment. My family also felt the cabins on the Disney ships with better beds and split bathrooms make a big difference. As the dad in the family, when you are sailing with three females you quickly learn that something like the shampoo and conditioner provided can be a deal breaker. In this case, the Jewel came up short. We also feel that Disney ships are kids ships with great adult spaces. The Jewel is an adult ship with kids spaces (we did not need to use the Kids areas so we cannot share about the quality of their programs.) My wife and two daughters (20 and 17) all agree that if we had it to book again the best choice would have been to pay the extra $1500 and sail on the Wonder with a balcony. To be fair it is entirely possible that one of RCC's new big ships would provide a better experience than the 10 year old Jewel. At the end of the day we enjoyed our cruise and we all agreed that had this been our first cruise we would have not been so critical of the Jewel. Unfortunately of for the Jewel we have been spoiled by Disney.

eskimoinparadise · Jul 20, 2015

ramkam said:
I think it depends on the RCC ship. We have sailed on all four of the Disney ships. We all know Disney is generally more expensive. We just got off RCC's Jewel of the Seas for an Alaska cruise. I believe the Jewel also does Caribbean cruises. We chose RCC because we were able to have a balcony and we thought this was extremely important for an Alaskan cruise. For the same money we would have had a lower deck port hole room on the Wonder and that was with a 10% discount for onboard booking. Our staff on the Jewel was great. However, at least as far as the Jewel of the Seas goes, we cannot think of anything that isn't better on a Disney ship. This is especially true for the food and the entertainment. My family also felt the cabins on the Disney ships with better beds and split bathrooms make a big difference. As the dad in the family, when you are sailing with three females you quickly learn that something like the shampoo and conditioner provided can be a deal breaker. In this case, the Jewel came up short. We also feel that Disney ships are kids ships with great adult spaces. The Jewel is an adult ship with kids spaces (we did not need to use the Kids areas so we cannot share about the quality of their programs.) My wife and two daughters (20 and 17) all agree that if we had it to book again the best choice would have been to pay the extra $1500 and sail on the Wonder with a balcony. To be fair it is entirely possible that one of RCC's new big ships would provide a better experience than the 10 year old Jewel. At the end of the day we enjoyed our cruise and we all agreed that had this been our first cruise we would have not been so critical of the Jewel. Unfortunately of for the Jewel we have been spoiled by Disney.

Agree with some of this, but since some of it is purely subjective (food and entertainment) I'll avoid that. I presume you were sailing with four adults (3 females) in a single cabin. (Not something we'd ever do. I'd book adjoining cabins, if only to preserve my sanity.) If that's the case, then a split bathroom would be a major benefit. I could never understand why RCL doesn't have decent shampoo or conditioner in their regular cabins either - not sure it's worth $1,500 to get better shampoo, however. We've sailed both Magic and Wonder several times, and for us the major differences between those two ships and the Radiance class ships (we've sailed Jewel, Radiance, and Brilliance several times each) is the use of the public space. The last time we were on Magic (this May) the pools and hot tubs never opened before 9:30. On Jewel there's at least one pool that's open 24 hours a day. We find the interior space on Disney ships dark and cramped (mostly inwardly focused hallways to get you from one venue to the next) while Radiance class ships are very open and with great views of the sea from virtually everywhere. And I'll take the Schooner bar on a Radiance class ship over any bar on any Disney ship any day of the week. If I was travelling with three adult females for a week, not having that would be a deal-killer for me

Melski94 · Jul 20, 2015

We travelled RCL last spring break with 4 kids (ages 3-14) on Brilliance. It was a smaller ship without the big ship amenities but my kids still had a blast. We put the younger 2 in the kids club which they enjoyed and my older 2 met other kids. We thought it was a great first cruise...we had low expectations and were pleasantly surprised...we are trying Freedom (a larger ship) for next spring break. DCL is hard for me because it's is almost double the cost of a similar cabin (2 balconies) than RCL and I can't justify it. I think your choice is hard since you aren't really comparing similar staterooms, days etc. I think you'd enjoy either cruise but there's no way I'm giving up my connecting balconies! Are you set only between those 2? If not and airfare is so expensive, maybe look at airfare to Galveston, Tampa or Orlando and pick another ship. I think you will have a great time no matter what.

RevRuss · Jul 20, 2015

Blessed_wth_Triplets said:
Hi! We are going to do our first family cruise - me, husband, and fours kids ages 6-13, and I can't decide between a 7 night RCL to Southern Caribbean OR a 5 night Caribbean (Cozumel and Castaway Cay) on the Disney Wonder. With RCL we would have connecting balconies, but with Disney only thing left is connecting inside state rooms.

Also, I'm not hearing such great things about the Wonder as far as a ship, and have started to look at some of the higher class RCL ships and they are amazing! I know my teen boys would love them! It's all soooo overwhelming.

Has anyone done both and can you offer any advice? A LOT of my friends swear that Disney is better, and I don't doubt that, but honestly the itinerary on RCL sounds more appealing. The Disney cruise is about $1,000 saving over the RCL one...which is appealing too....but two nights less of course. And we have to fly into San Juan for RCL, which is expensive...but so is Miami I'm finding. Airfare is a killer.

Any help appreciated!!

I've done 4 DCL to Caribbean both with and without children/grandchildren. Can't imagine not doing DCL for this. With that being said just booked RCI for Alaska because of inside passage route that DCL don't have yet.

DnA2010 · Jul 22, 2015

My DD11 rates her cruise on Oasis of the Seas and her cruise on the Fantasy as the same- now these are the larger ships compared to what you are thinking. The 5 days vs 7 days would matter to me- I have done 3 cruises now (2 RCL, 1 Disney) and I find 7 days too short...
For us, and where we are at with our traveling, DCL will only happen if we find good deals (our Fantasy was on a VGT rate) as I'd rather have the savings for port excursions, or more vacations- even $1500 can be a pretty awesome get away to Las Vegas or a good chunk of a Disneyland trip for us

Frozen2014 · Jul 29, 2015

Blessed_wth_Triplets said:
Hi! We are going to do our first family cruise - me, husband, and fours kids ages 6-13, and I can't decide between a 7 night RCL to Southern Caribbean OR a 5 night Caribbean (Cozumel and Castaway Cay) on the Disney Wonder. With RCL we would have connecting balconies, but with Disney only thing left is connecting inside state rooms.

Also, I'm not hearing such great things about the Wonder as far as a ship, and have started to look at some of the higher class RCL ships and they are amazing! I know my teen boys would love them! It's all soooo overwhelming.

Has anyone done both and can you offer any advice? A LOT of my friends swear that Disney is better, and I don't doubt that, but honestly the itinerary on RCL sounds more appealing. The Disney cruise is about $1,000 saving over the RCL one...which is appealing too....but two nights less of course. And we have to fly into San Juan for RCL, which is expensive...but so is Miami I'm finding. Airfare is a killer.

Any help appreciated!!

Wow...Disney is $1000 cheaper? We found RCL Allure $1500 cheaper than Disney Magic.. But guess the 2 days less makes a difference.

sarbah77 · Jul 30, 2015

Blessed_wth_Triplets said:
Good point - the airfare seems similar right vs. Miami and San Juan. I'm waiting for Southwest to release their prices.

Any reason you won't fly Delta? They have non-stops to Miami or FLL and, I think, San Juan. I know they don't offer free bags to the public, but we fly often enough that we got the Delta AmEx and the annual fee is more than offset in the savings for bags (1 bag per person on your reservation, up to 7 people)... plus, also, I really hate layovers.

bdiddy · Aug 8, 2015

I was just thinking about this very subject. My husband and I have been on 2 RCL before we had kids and really want to go on another one. We love Disney as well and it seems like everyone we know goes on a Disney cruise but it just seems like SO much more money than a RCL cruise. What exactly are we paying more for? The Disney name? The Character experiences? The Disney shows? Because now that my kids are 9 and 11, they are completely over the characters. They don't care about that aspect at all. And is it worth it to just have everything Disney themed and see Disney type shows? Are the Disney cruises honestly any better than a RCL cruise? Granted, it's been 10 yrs since we've been on one and now the boats we went on are one of the smaller classes but we'd probably go on one of the Freedom or above classes. I'm assuming they still take amazing care of you and go above and beyond on RCL like they did before. I'm just trying to figure out when you compare the basics and take out the "Disney" aspect are they cruises really that different?

Frozen2014 · Aug 11, 2015

bdiddy said:
I was just thinking about this very subject. My husband and I have been on 2 RCL before we had kids and really want to go on another one. We love Disney as well and it seems like everyone we know goes on a Disney cruise but it just seems like SO much more money than a RCL cruise. What exactly are we paying more for? The Disney name? The Character experiences? The Disney shows? Because now that my kids are 9 and 11, they are completely over the characters. They don't care about that aspect at all. And is it worth it to just have everything Disney themed and see Disney type shows? Are the Disney cruises honestly any better than a RCL cruise? Granted, it's been 10 yrs since we've been on one and now the boats we went on are one of the smaller classes but we'd probably go on one of the Freedom or above classes. I'm assuming they still take amazing care of you and go above and beyond on RCL like they did before. I'm just trying to figure out when you compare the basics and take out the "Disney" aspect are they cruises really that different?

I'm sure some will disagree, but Disney cruises cater to kids...it's all about them....the shows & entertainment, activities, meals....it's very busy at the pools. Royal caters to families - kids and adults.

We did a Disney cruise and it was great...disney knows how to do things. But I've been on 2 Royal cruises to date (Grandeur and Voyager) and both were great. Beautiful ships and so much to do (personally Dh and I were bored on Disney when our kids were in the club/nursery). To us the extra cost for Disney isn't worth it and we're gonig on Allure next year. To me, the only thing missing that Disney has that Royal does not are waterslides...but the line is slowly adding them to their fleet.

I don't think you can go wrong with either cruise line.

bdiddy · Aug 11, 2015

Frozen2014 said:
I'm sure some will disagree, but Disney cruises cater to kids...it's all about them....the shows & entertainment, activities, meals....it's very busy at the pools. Royal caters to families - kids and adults.

We did a Disney cruise and it was great...disney knows how to do things. But I've been on 2 Royal cruises to date (Grandeur and Voyager) and both were great. Beautiful ships and so much to do (personally Dh and I were bored on Disney when our kids were in the club/nursery). To us the extra cost for Disney isn't worth it and we're gonig on Allure next year. To me, the only thing missing that Disney has that Royal does not are waterslides...but the line is slowly adding them to their fleet.

I don't think you can go wrong with either cruise line.

Thank you! That's pretty much what I had thought. It's just hard for me to justify the extra cost just for the Disney theme. As much as I love Disney, it IS a big price difference. And I know Disney does a fantastic job with everything but so did RCL on the 2 cruises we were one.

StarCruiser · Aug 21, 2015

We have done RCCL 3 times (Mariner, Explorer and Freedom) and Disney 1 time (Dream). Overall, we thought the the Disney experience was better than the RCCL experience, but not enough so to justify the cost difference. We currently have a 7 night cruise on Freedom booked for Arpil and are paying about $400 less for 2 rooms (balcony & outside stateroom) on that 7 night cruise than 1 room (balcony) on the Dream 4 night cruise. To us, RCCL is still a great option and you get more value for what you pay.

MommyP · Aug 21, 2015

I don't have teenagers yet but the RCCL is amazing for families (adults & kids). It can be just as amazing as Disney but I wouldn't say it's better :/ . There's something about the magic of Disney that sweeps you to another dimension. If you're not a Disney person then perhaps you won't notice or experience this. Also the cost savings is probably in stateroom choice and port fees & taxes (less stops?). I always say if you're going to do Disney make sure you have a lot of AT SEA days to actually enjoy the Disney aspect of the cruise, if not it's not worth the extra money if you're just getting on/off the ship every day.

RCL or Disney please help?!

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