Just got off Royal Caribbean, nothing compares to DCL!

DisneyDoc5

Making memories...
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May 7, 2008
We (Dis fans) have all heard this before, but just got off a RC cruise (no kids this trip) and after being on the Fantasy - NOTHING COMPARES to the quality, staff, food, cleanliness, and beauty of DCL! We have cruised RC 6 other times, we had a great cruise don't get me wrong, but again, nothing compares. Most important thing for us to note as parents, is the the RC ships and environment in general is not what we would desire for our kids to be around - again, don't get me wrong, they would have a great time and it's safe, but after experiencing DCL, it would be like having McDonalds after eating at LeCellier - we like McD's, but we love LeCellier! Bottom line, DCL is the most family friendly and children friendly cruiseline. We enjoyed the Dreamworks characters on RC this time, but..... please, need I say more, not the same, no pixie dust.pixiedust:

So, they point is people, don't fret the small details and over planning of your DCL cruise, you will love it, you will have a blast, and you will be on a beautiful ship no matter which one you are on.:thumbsup2
 
We (Dis fans) have all heard this before, but just got off a RC cruise (no kids this trip) and after being on the Fantasy - NOTHING COMPARES to the quality, staff, food, cleanliness, and beauty of DCL! We have cruised RC 6 other times, we had a great cruise don't get me wrong, but again, nothing compares. Most important thing for us to note as parents, is the the RC ships and environment in general is not what we would desire for our kids to be around - again, don't get me wrong, they would have a great time and it's safe, but after experiencing DCL, it would be like having McDonalds after eating at LeCellier - we like McD's, but we love LeCellier! Bottom line, DCL is the most family friendly and children friendly cruiseline. We enjoyed the Dreamworks characters on RC this time, but..... please, need I say more, not the same, no pixie dust.pixiedust:

So, they point is people, don't fret the small details and over planning of your DCL cruise, you will love it, you will have a blast, and you will be on a beautiful ship no matter which one you are on.:thumbsup2

Which ship were you on?
 
What ship were you on?

And I"m curious....how do the RC character meets work? Do they do shows? Do they do dance parties? Signings? Photo ops?

We're interested in an RC cruise at some point...but we weren't sure if Dreamworks characters are on all the cruises or certain designated Dreamworks cruise...
 


What ship were you on?

And I"m curious....how do the RC character meets work? Do they do shows? Do they do dance parties? Signings? Photo ops?

We're interested in an RC cruise at some point...but we weren't sure if Dreamworks characters are on all the cruises or certain designated Dreamworks cruise...

They are scheduled meets around the ship. Usually around 15-30 minutes. There is a Dreamworks Parade that is on the Royal Promenade. I think there were some dance parties too.

The characters are on all cruises on the Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas, and Mariner of the Seas

Also, there is a character breakfast that you can book in advance (totally free). It's almost always sold out before the cruise so reserve that early.
 
The Allure of the Seas has the most Dreamworks activities. The Allure also has a How to Train your Dragon ice show and a Madagascar Aqua/Acrobatic show, but these are only on Allure.
 
Hi All,

We were on the Liberty (we have sailed on most RC ships except the Oasis and Allure - the two newest ones). The Liberty is in the same class as the Freedom and Independence. They are great ships. If we took our kids, we decided the Oasis and Allure would be our choice for them.

Yes, they did have lots of character interaction and I THINK they did autographs but I'm not sure. They were not in the shows and the shows were very adult oriented.

Ask any other questions...have a great night!
 


I've only been on DCL, but I've heard most of the other lines are constantly trying to "upsell" stuff on board. Was that the case with RC?

I don't gamble and I don't get drunk on cruises. What else is there to do on RC? I know I can keep busy all day on DCL.
 
lilpooh108 said:
What ship were you on?

And I"m curious....how do the RC character meets work? Do they do shows? Do they do dance parties? Signings? Photo ops?

We're interested in an RC cruise at some point...but we weren't sure if Dreamworks characters are on all the cruises or certain designated Dreamworks cruise...

We were on Liberty of the Seas. Dreamworks characters for us was a bust. We did the character breakfast...but frankly, acting was so wooden. Only Fiona had a personality. Everyone else was was a costume. We did a couple of character greets and they were ok. Same wooden personality.

They were fun to watch in the parade and sailaway show.
 
Yes, upsell and more upsell. We didn't use the casino, so not a big deal to us either. Spa is nice as is the gym. When we cruise without the kids, we are pool people, and reading, eating people. The shows are decent quality, but not Disney of course. We are pop drinkers so DCL is super nice for us, having to order pop over and over from a bar or waiter is a pain. Another bonus of DCL - they are very nice about bringing on your own alcohol. We were going to take the ship tour, but ah.... $150 per person, not. I personally think there is MORE to offer for children and adults on DCL. The adult areas on DCL are better appointed then RC in my opinion. And the kids areas on DCL, well, there is no comparison.

I do like the shopping area on RC ships, very nice, and more social then the shopping area on DCL ships, but of course I prefer the Disney merchandise on the DCL!

Food - hands down better on DCL. The quality for us on RC has gone down, especially in the casual eating department (buffets, quick service). They do have a Starbucks and fun cupcake store. It was good food, but not WOW. I missed Flo's Cafe and the variety at Cabana's. One super nice perk on RC is the breakfast room service - hot food versus the cold breakfast served in room service on DCL. But overall, the DCL room service was great. We do enjoy the hot breakfast and enjoy it on our balcony, with the kids, it was just easier to go up to Cabana's anyway so it was fine.

Staff - wonderful, well trained. Again, I am biased to DCL because I was so impressed with how well they attended to our children.

One big complaint for me this RC cruise was smoking everywhere, everywhere. I have no problem whatsoever with smoking areas, I am in the medical profession and understand this addiction. But we had to move constantly around the pool to get away from smoking - and I am not talking about 1 cig, I am talking about 20 people and cigars too. So that was a HUGE difference compared to DCL - where I never 1 time noticed this being an issue. And in defense of those smoking, I don't think it was clearly indicated to them where they were supposed to go, so guests were smoking everywhere, in their pool chairs, in the common areas, both sides of the ship, etc. Kind of a bummer and I would be even more bummed if my kids would have been with me.:crazy2:
 
We (Dis fans) have all heard this before, but just got off a RC cruise (no kids this trip) and after being on the Fantasy - NOTHING COMPARES to the quality, staff, food, cleanliness, and beauty of DCL! We have cruised RC 6 other times, we had a great cruise don't get me wrong, but again, nothing compares. Most important thing for us to note as parents, is the the RC ships and environment in general is not what we would desire for our kids to be around - again, don't get me wrong, they would have a great time and it's safe, but after experiencing DCL, it would be like having McDonalds after eating at LeCellier - we like McD's, but we love LeCellier! Bottom line, DCL is the most family friendly and children friendly cruiseline. We enjoyed the Dreamworks characters on RC this time, but..... please, need I say more, not the same, no pixie dust.pixiedust:

So, they point is people, don't fret the small details and over planning of your DCL cruise, you will love it, you will have a blast, and you will be on a beautiful ship no matter which one you are on.:thumbsup2
You mentioned no kids this trip. The wife and I have only sailed once, that was the Fantasy. We absolutely loved it. Our child is older so no kids.We would like to try another cruise line just to compare but a little apprehensive to take the chance. Would you go on RCL without kids again or would you stick with DCL. Not sure from your post whether you meant you would stick with DCL because of kids or also just adults.
 
We were on Liberty of the Seas. Dreamworks characters for us was a bust. We did the character breakfast...but frankly, acting was so wooden. Only Fiona had a personality. Everyone else was was a costume. We did a couple of character greets and they were ok. Same wooden personality.

They were fun to watch in the parade and sailaway show.

I agree with this completely - my DH and I walked around like robots with perma-grins pretending we were Shrek and Fiona and laughing hysterically at ourselves because they were so 'unconvincing' (perhaps we had too much to drink here!!!:rotfl2:). Maybe not the fault of the 'friends of Shrek and Fiona', perhaps better training and costumes would help.

We did not do the character breakfast, but the little girl sitting by us in the dining room at night really enjoyed it. It's just hard for Dis fans not to compare everything to the Disney standard.

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and a cupcake....

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You mentioned no kids this trip. The wife and I have only sailed once, that was the Fantasy. We absolutely loved it. Our child is older so no kids.We would like to try another cruise line just to compare but a little apprehensive to take the chance. Would you go on RCL without kids again or would you stick with DCL. Not sure from your post whether you meant you would stick with DCL because of kids or also just adults.

good question...hmmm....honestly, price does come into play here for us. RC is cheaper, period, and because we spend a chunk on our family Disney vacations, we do try to find a better value for our adult only trips. I guess I would encourage you to try a Royal Caribbean, but would suggest the newest ships, such as Allure and Oasis, for the clean and totally updated and current appearance and offerings. I think we will always price out the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity options as well as DCL when considering our adult only trips and likely go for the best value. However, the draw for us back to DCL is strong, and we need to try an adult only cruise on DCL next time. This may sound odd, but my only concern about an adult only trip on DCL is that I might be missing my kiddos too much:sad1:, which is already a bit of a problem for me whenever we travel without them!
 
I hate to say this, but my reaction was the exact opposite. I got off the Dream and could not figure our how Disney continued to charge so much more for their product. Service was not good and ship had no charm.

My Disney cruises are all going to be on the older ships. If I want a megaship experience I can get the same or better for less on RCL
 
I hate to say this, but my reaction was the exact opposite. I got off the Dream and could not figure our how Disney continued to charge so much more for their product. Service was not good and ship had no charm.

My Disney cruises are all going to be on the older ships. If I want a megaship experience I can get the same or better for less on RCL

Bummer, I am sad you had this experience:worried:. There is definitely something to be said about the conveniences of smaller ships compared to some of these mega ships, no doubt about it, there are pros and cons. But that is a shame you had bad service, no excuse for that! It only takes a few bad apples.....
 
I've been on all 4 DCL ships as well as the Oasis. I believe the quality of food and it's offerings were better on the Oasis than DCL. Palo is still my favorite, but I love the roast beef sandwiches on the Oasis. Grant it, on DCL the kids programs are second to none. It's a preference, no more no less... It's what you want.... Please do not turn this thread into Pro-DCL and bash RCL thread as others have done on the Cabana thread.
 
I am not bashing RC at all, as I stated there are pros and cons and I would recommend both for different reasons. I don't think anyone was bashing, we were just comparing and answering questions, providing helpful information for those people wanting to learn more about the offerings on both, it's a travel board, discussing travel. We have sailed RC many times and will do it again, but it is my opinion that DCL is a higher standard in the cruiseline industry, doesn't mean I am bashing RC to compliment DCL.:)
 
Not saying you did.. I just don't want to see it.. Too many times, lurkers come on a thread and destroy it.
 
Not saying you did.. I just don't want to see it.. Too many times, lurkers come on a thread and destroy it.

I know, I agree:thumbsup2, I hesitate to even post sometime because things can get ugly. Thanks a bunch, have a great night:wave2:
 
I am not bashing RC at all, as I stated there are pros and cons and I would recommend both for different reasons. I don't think anyone was bashing, we were just comparing and answering questions, providing helpful information for those people wanting to learn more about the offerings on both, it's a travel board, discussing travel. We have sailed RC many times and will do it again, but it is my opinion that DCL is a higher standard in the cruiseline industry, doesn't mean I am bashing RC to compliment DCL.:)

I thought your comments were good. :thumbsup2 It's nice to hear about the differences.

The problem for me is spending $$$$ to find out that I don't like something...so I don't mind hearing about others' experiences to decide.
 

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