Comparing Disney Cruise Line & Royal Caribbean

[ldo]

I have been on Epic, Liberty (sister ship of Freedom) and Fantasy. I strongly prefer DCL (we love the dedicated movie theater with movies all day, movies at the pool, great dining (A), staterooms, private island and overall ambience of DCL). But, when there is a big price difference we sail others. We usually get an OV room, will pay only slightly more for a balcony.
Epic pros--nice ship, fun bowl type slide, good entertainment, fun pub, fun bowling alley, MDR food was good (B+). cons--weird cabin layout, pool area congested and seems confined, lack of outdoor space, no movies played during the day except once in Atrium, poor use of outdoor movie screen even at night (this was in Europe, so Carib might be different).
Liberty/Freedom--MDR food is just OK (B-), no daytime outdoor movies (poker and sports) and hard to hear movie screen. We liked the mall area, pizza parlor, flowrider, putt-putt, climbing wall. Entertainment is decent--ice show and 1 Broadway style show, other shows were just OK. The mall area is more like an enclosed "street" with café areas with some stores. You have a pub, pizza parlor (with fruit and anti-pasta), coffee shop with seating around/outside the areas, not like a mall with store after store. I enjoyed getting coffee/snack and people watching for a while. The pizza parlor is also a fun environment.
Prior to sailing with DCL, we sailed many times on RCCL (older ships) and always had an excellent cruise. We feel food in MDR has slipped some with cost cutting, but other than that, RCCL is still a good cruise and excellent value, IMHO. We are now just spoiled by DCL.

 

[DnA2010]

I am still trying to weigh my options on choosing the Fantasy or Freedom of the seas for an Adults Only cruise. The rotational dining seems more interesting on DCL, but FOS does have the specialty restaurants. DH won't go to Muscial type shows, at which DCL excels, but might like comedy or a Cirque like show if another ship had it. We did enjoy the game shows on MAgic last time.
Still can't get a good feel for which ship would have a more pleasant Adult Pool area. Since Fantasy may not have as many adults without kids, is it less crowded? Or still more crowded bc FOS has 'better pools' from what I have read.

Does FOS feel like a shopping mall inside? I tried to watch a YouTube video of it (but I got sea sick (LOL!) with all the spinning around of the photograher. It did look very mallish to me.

A verandah room on FOS is at least $1000-1500 cheaper for the same itinerary, but the Fantasy is already booked and DH wonders why I can't just leave it alone.

I think I would say that the adult areas and our experience at both were similar. We drank more on Freedom (DH got a drink package) so we had a nice time getting to know the bartender. Liked the pool more on Freedom. I think the Fantasy would have been a bit less crowded perhaps.

As far as shows, I will have to see if I did my travel journal for the cruise but I know there were broadway types, comedians (2 different ones- both which we really enjoyed) the ice show which we liked.
We didn't see any movies on board so can't really comment in that area. When we were on the Fantasy, DH did see Avengers but that's about the extent of our movie viewing on our 3 cruises.

I guess the promenade would be kinda mall like, I honestly can't remember- what I do remember is that we spent a lot of time at the outside table of the British pub people watching and also at the champagne bar at the other end. We enjoyed the variety of live music.

Dining- we found the main dining room (we were on the flexible dining so always had our own table when we went down) just fine. For the two of us, we found the private dining nice, and we still had the same servers, just not always the same table. I actually preferred the food, as I found the food on the Fantasy a bit bland/boring.


You can get some pretty good excursions for $1000-1500.

We didn't do any planning (and I love planning) for the cruise as it was booked totally last minute- we were suppose to go to Hawaii and our flight was cancelled, so aeroplan let us re-book to wherever I could get flights- Orlando it was and a last minute cruise on the Freedom. We were even in an inside room and didn't mind at all as we were rarely in our room

 

[krisinparis]

no hidden fees. soda is extra, so decide in advance if you want to buy a soda package or just buy a soda as you want it. My kids drink little soda, so they do not miss it. DH and I get a diet coke or just drink free iced tea. our ending bill on RCCL is very similar to DCL--a few drinks, bottle of wine, souvenirs, usually under $200 for the week.
We also really like Princess. Ifyou have athletic/adventurous kids, then RCCL with rock climber/flo rider is a good choice. If your kids won't use those, then you might also consider Princess--a bit larger rooms, better MDR food. During EAster, they showed kids G movies in the AM at one of the pools and had a fun (clean) lip sing at the main pool during the day. They also show a movie outdoor every night--but the are PG-13/R usually. My teens liked Princess a lot. It is #2 after DCL for us now.

I agree about the food, it's much better on Princess! (We still like DCL best, but Princess is our #2 also).