Done with DCL

There are a ton of factors that will determine whether DCL is "worth it" or "better" or "unique." It all comes down to individual wants/needs and likes/dislikes.

We went on a RCCL cruise a few months ago. It was certainly less expensive. And we had a good time overall.
But to me the feel of RCCL was too shopping mall/casino. It was not as fun and light-hearted. That mattered to me.

RCCL had a couple tv channels that might have something I like on them. Disney has a ton of their movies on demand. Television might not mean a darn thing to someone else, but we stay up late and I really loved ending the day watching a Disney movie on the couch.

More than anything else, the difference was food. I am on a very restricted diet. The MDRs meant a lot to me. DCL handled my diet much more gracefully than RCCL. And I love the different dining rooms. We got so sick of staring at the same thing every night in that nice but boring dining room. (And that makes a difference when it takes them over an hour to get you food you can eat.) The dining rotation is something I love about DCL.

These are the things that matter to DH and I. And that's why we came home and almost immediately booked our next DCL cruise.

Over time, things will change for both those cruise lines. Some stuff better, some worse. And we'll try other lines too I'm sure. And our preferences may change. But right now DCL is at the top of our list. So we'll keep going because for us, it's still worth it.
 
If your kids love love love Disney, then by all means, save and scrimp and make that your ONE vacation. You'll have one vacation to remember (and it will be great!). But if your kids are like mine and think Disney is OK--but also like other things more--then use your money wisely and take TWO vacations on another line. That's double the amazing memories and fun. It's a no-brainer for our family. Two super-fun vacations are better than one super-fun vacation plus characters my kids don't care a lick about. (My 8yo--at the time--once asked Snow if she could please move over a bit so she could access the interactive painting she was standing in front of during one of her unscheduled appearances on the Dream. Poor Snow! She thought my daughter was coming in for a hug. My daughter didn't even know who she was. Now THAT was a priceless memory. Not so much for my daughter, but for me. Not sure if it would be worth paying thousands more for, though...)

We took a risk on Carnival's Dream class ships and wow! People are right when they say Carnival doesn't compare to DCL. They were better than DCL on some things! And at least as good on most. A couple of things weren't as good (no chicken strips :( ). But for the price and the amount of fun we had, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, we did. And have plans to again. There's life after DCL and it is GOOD!
 
I'm being lured over to "the dark side" (aka NCL) by a room. Not just any room. A two-bedroom in The Haven. It calls to me from the YouTube videos, singing the siren song of "I have two full bathrooms, a separate bedroom for your son, and my cost will not put you in the poorhouse". I'm so. . .tempted.
 
I was surprised at the 2017 prices. I knew DH and I would have to "jump ship" due to Disney's limited itineraries but it may be sooner than I thought. We are on Disney's Panama Canal cruise in two weeks and it looks like we won't book another cruise while on the ship. We are going to try Royal Caribbean or NCL next year instead of Disney.
 


Yes Orukal, I didn't think your words needed any "fixing" from someone else. If he or she wasn't so busy "fixing" your words, maybe they could have fixed their own. I've never heard of a "kind under age 12".
 
Yes Orukal, I didn't think your words needed any "fixing" from someone else. If he or she wasn't so busy "fixing" your words, maybe they could have fixed their own. I've never heard of a "kind under age 12".

Seriously? You compare a typo to grammatically nebulas sentence? SMH
 
Last edited:
I'm being lured over to "the dark side" (aka NCL) by a room. Not just any room. A two-bedroom in The Haven. It calls to me from the YouTube videos, singing the siren song of "I have two full bathrooms, a separate bedroom for your son, and my cost will not put you in the poorhouse". I'm so. . .tempted.

I ran the numbers for an Alaskan cruise and NCL is by far the best deal in terms of real estate.

I think the reason the other cruise lines make these awesome deals is to get you to try something else in hopes that once you try them you will love them.

DCL is for families with kids. No one can compete with them. Out of that market and DCL can't compete.
 


Now this is something I have to agree with about DCL. There are a serious lack of food options at night. We did sit down cabanas service for dinner and it was just limited selection of the main dining room menu. That is one place the other lines do it better than Disney in my opinion is the food options at dinner time.
This I do agree with 100%. I would kill for a dinner buffet! Especially when we were on the Southern and had five long port days. That was a tiring cruise.
 
I completely agree with the OP. Those that say if you don't want to pay disney prices, don't cruise with them, thats fine. But the way things are going, maybe sooner than you think you too will be in the same position where you are questioning the cost vs. value or worth?
 
I ran the numbers for an Alaskan cruise and NCL is by far the best deal in terms of real estate.

I too have never found a comparable price on DCL with any other Cruise Line in Alaska. My parents want to cruise Alaska in 2018 for their 50th anniversary. I will do a lot of checking when the time comes to book that cruise but so far my current research into pricing and perceived value for what I will be paying, DCL has not been even been close.
 
Edited to add: I just can't help it. I'm sitting here remembering the absolutely amazing time we had on Carnival and then apologizing to my kids for not taking them on DCL. I know you loved the fantastic water park and ropes course and kids clubs, but I did you wrong by not sailing with the mouse. I'm SO SORRY! :sad2:

Yes you are a bad parent for taking them on a vacation that did not include the mouse....LOL. I also had a great time on Carnival the two times we sailed with them. The food may not have looked as fancy but it was decent, the service maybe not as sharp but it was still really good and Cozumel, Jamaica and Grand Cayman looked the same from DCL as they did from Carnival. (this kinda disappointed me as I would have thought Disney would have somehow spruced them up with a little magic and made them better) Now the one place you can’t compare is Castaway Cay............

I completely agree with the OP. Those that say if you don't want to pay disney prices, don't cruise with them, thats fine. But the way things are going, maybe sooner than you think you too will be in the same position where you are questioning the cost vs. value or worth?

You are so right when people book they should book the cruise that rights for them at the time. There are so many things to look at, it’s all about your research or picking a good TA that knows all the ins and outs.
 
our first 5 cruises were with other lines, based upon date/place/price. And we had some awesome cruises. When my kids were 5-9, we went on a super cheap RCCL 4 day to the Bahamas---. My 5-6 yr olds did not want to come out of the kids club--we had to drag them out of the club on Coco Cay, as well. We had never been on DCL and did not miss it a bit and couldn't understand why people paid so much more. When we went to Europe, we sailed for $3500 on RCCL and it would have cost us $12K on DCL---so not even an option for us.
Then we went on a DCL b/c I got a great rate and we were hooked--glad I didn't go on DCL 1st. After that, all other cruiselines were always compared to DCL. We are thrilled when we can go on DCL, but the difference in price over spring break is staggering. We don't do the newest RCCL ships, so pricing for RCCL, esp. when booking very early is a very good deal ($2500 for a family of 4 for a week-long Easter cruise). We will miss the DCL larger room, theater, awesome shows, better TV, fun (and better than RCCL MDR, IMHO) dining, etc. but will do 1-2 speciality dinners. I have a list of family things to do--putt putt, games, shuffle board. As another poster said, the 4 port days will be the exact same as DCL. I'm using the price difference to pay for my Princess cruise to Aruba the next spring break ($3K). We all really liked the evening Princess outdoor movies---funny the things that tilt the scales.
 
Yes - on Carnival there are two types of less expensive cabins that I highly recommend.

1. Porthole cabin - these are priced the same as their regular inside cabin and on the newer ships (which BTW, sail out of Galveston) are 220 square feet with 2 port hole windows.

2. Deluxe Ocean view cabins (not balconies - they have the big picture window). These are designed to sleep 5 and have a split bath (same as DCL).

The Carnival Breeze is moving to Galveston in May 2016. It's Carnival's newest ship and has some really great bells and whistles including the Waterworks area, ropes course, Guy Fieri Burgers, Sports Square, and the Red Frog Pub.
Thank you. I just looked at their website and it looks great. Thinking about march 2017.
 
If your kids love love love Disney, then by all means, save and scrimp and make that your ONE vacation. You'll have one vacation to remember (and it will be great!). But if your kids are like mine and think Disney is OK--but also like other things more--then use your money wisely and take TWO vacations on another line. That's double the amazing memories and fun. It's a no-brainer for our family. Two super-fun vacations are better than one super-fun vacation plus characters my kids don't care a lick about. (My 8yo--at the time--once asked Snow if she could please move over a bit so she could access the interactive painting she was standing in front of during one of her unscheduled appearances on the Dream. Poor Snow! She thought my daughter was coming in for a hug. My daughter didn't even know who she was. Now THAT was a priceless memory. Not so much for my daughter, but for me. Not sure if it would be worth paying thousands more for, though...)

We took a risk on Carnival's Dream class ships and wow! People are right when they say Carnival doesn't compare to DCL. They were better than DCL on some things! And at least as good on most. A couple of things weren't as good (no chicken strips :( ). But for the price and the amount of fun we had, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, we did. And have plans to again. There's life after DCL and it is GOOD!

I wouldn't assume everyone that cruises on Disney has to scrimp and save and limit themselves to one vacation a year to take a Disney cruise. There are cruise lines for every budget, and their are plenty of people in this country that don't bat a eye at shelling out 10k for a Caribbean cruise in the Summer. I'm not one those people unfortunately. :worried: There were some kids in the Edge on our Hawaii cruise that were on their 22nd dcl cruise in 4 years so I guess there are some people out there with mucho dinero. DCL's market is the upper to upper middle class, and those of us that can cruise in the off season get the middle class prices.
 
I ran the numbers for an Alaskan cruise and NCL is by far the best deal in terms of real estate.

I think the reason the other cruise lines make these awesome deals is to get you to try something else in hopes that once you try them you will love them.

DCL is for families with kids. No one can compete with them. Out of that market and DCL can't compete.
DCL was replaced by RCCL in the 2015 Cruise Critic Awards for Best Cruise Line for Families
 
I wouldn't assume everyone that cruises on Disney has to scrimp and save and limit themselves to one vacation a year to take a Disney cruise. There are cruise lines for every budget, and their are plenty of people in this country that don't bat a eye at shelling out 10k for a Caribbean cruise in the Summer. I'm not one those people unfortunately. :worried: There were some kids in the Edge on our Hawaii cruise that were on their 22nd dcl cruise in 4 years so I guess there are some people out there with mucho dinero. DCL's market is the upper to upper middle class, and those of us that can cruise in the off season get the middle class prices.


You are right that some people don't need to skimp and save to take a Disney cruise. We spent nearly $30k on the maiden Baltic cruise on DCL We could have done it for a lot less on another cruise line but I am so glad we sailed on DCL for that trip.

Money is always a factor though. We usually fly first class if first class is less than 2x as much. But on some routes it is 4x or more as much as economy and so, in my value system, it is not worth it.
 
i'm kind of surprised that this thread has gone off topic. its 'i'm done with dcl' not 'why you should stay with dcl' yet so many of the posts are for the latter.

i'm one of the ones who feels i may very well be done with dcl, i won't close the door completely but i'm on the way out. i don't need someone to tell me why dcl is better for me or even why dcl is better period. i'm smart enough to figure out what is best for me and my family. your smart enough to figure out the same. i personally would like to hear more from the people who have decided that the title of this thread fits them. i would love to hear their reasons.
 
Fixed that for ya.

Looking back on our DCL memories when the kids were young if I'd paid 10x as much for Disney it would have been worth it to us.

For kinds under age 12 DCL is the ONLY cruise option IMO. Been on a few cruises and my opinion is based on experience.
That's great that you felt your Disney cruises with your kids were well worth the money...and more. However, for you to imply that YOUR experiences and memories on your DISNEY cruises are superior to those of other families is quite presumptuous! ANY child who gets to go on a cruse is very fortunate. However, neither cruises nor trips to Disney theme parks are required to have a happy childhood.
Wow, sorry. I was just trying to keep things light. You came across as rather dogmatic IMO. You imply DCL is 40% more and that is not true.

Sail with the lowest bidder. When your kids are grown and heading off to college you will have an extra $1000 in the bank to comfort you.

Cheers
That was absolutely unnecessary.
 
Last edited:

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!







Top