A Non-Disney Cruise

[bostonlass]

I have failed to try to convince my fiancee to take a Disney cruise alone for our honeymoon. The issue is too many kids and although he loves his and I love mine.........we'd like to be kid free as much as we can during this time.

So................................my dilemma is to pick a cruise line that will live up to the Disney standards in the food and service area. I'm wondering if any of you know of any good review sites out there similar to this board where we can check things out. I've done some research on cruiseopinion.com and looking at our available dates it has come down to either going on the Celebrity Century or the Carribean Princess. The hard decision is due to the fact that Celebrity has been well known for it's wonderful food (although I've heard cutbacks have happened) and due to the fact that the Carribean will have only sailed a few months when we'd be on it so it'd be cool to be on a brand new ship.

I soooo wish he'd just say ok to Disney but I understand the want to have tons of peace and quiet. I'm just afraid of being disappointed on my honeymoon.

thanks for any advice you can give me!!!

 

[Vivig]

For our first cruise, my husband and I cruised with the Celebrity cruise line. What an experience!! IT was great For our 10 year anniversery we celebrated by taking our son with us on the Disney Magic.....and all three of us had a wonderful time ...


I would recommend Celebrity...we loved it...But our optimal choice with or without kids would be Disney.

Hope this helps,
Vivian

 

[WDWLVR]

A good site for a wide variety of cruise lines is www.cruisecritic.com

The people aren't as friendly as those on the DIS, but they cover every cruise line and all possible ports of call.

I've been on a number of other lines, but that was years ago. We love Disney! No kids here and if I was planning a honeymoon I would definately do it on Disney! But then we honeymooned at WDW at the Grand Floridian.

The ship is not overrun with kids and the adults only areas are kept that way.

To me there is no more perfect place on earth than Castaway Cay!

Good luck with whatever choice you make!

 

[Hygiene99]

To Bad we have been on 6 cruises and have 7 booked the kid thing is not an issue .................. u wont even know they r there...

 

[alexandrew]

If food and service is very important to you....definitely Celebrity.....although the typical cruiser on Celebrity is in their 50s and older...

...However. IMO the closest thing to the total package that DCL offers (food, service, entertainment, ambiance, fun) is definitely RCCL Voyager Class ships....particularly Mariner of the Seas (leaving out of our very own Port Canaveral) and Navigator of the Seas....

 

[CRSNDSNY]

I just want to say that we honeymooned on a 7-day Eastern with Disney in 2001 and wouldn't change it for anything. In fact, we loved it so much that I am trying to plan a Disney Cruise #4.

Personally, I would try another line for the heck of it, but I can't talk DH into it. He's really hooked on Disney.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[gizfish]

The cruise we took after our second disney cruise was on the Grand Princess. I thought Disney would spoil us and we would never enjoy another cruise again, but I was very wrong. In my opinion, the Grand was equal to Disney, but they each excelled in different areas. The Grand had better food and more availabilty of quality food. The Magic had, well all the magic. I guess the Grand gets a 10 in technical skills, while the Magic gets a 10 in artistic merit. They both had excellent service and attention to detail. While I have not been on Celebrity, a close friend of mine and other family members have, and they said the cruises were really geared to an older and quieter crowd. Having been on HAL, which is similar in that respect, if you are used to Disney, the lack of wonderful things to look at, things to do, and just the general lack of things that will make you want to just be out and about on the ship may disapoint you. Then again, it is a honeymoon, so maybe the quiet wouldn't be a bad thing

 

[Hygiene99]

we actually know of a couple that is doing a 4 day cruise then GF for a couple nights then a 7 day cruise for there honey moon....

they also have been on 2 other cruises and loved it with no kids...

 

[Jules1]

I'd go with Princess. We thought that the food on our two Celebrity cruises (3 weeks total on Celebrity ships) was very overrated. We prefer Princess for both entertainment and their food.

 

[rundogrun]

Can't speak from experience about Princess, but we've sailed Celebrity (Galaxy, Mercury, Millenium) and all three Celebrity ships offer better food (it's fine dining, if that's your thing...) and better service.

Not that there's anything wrong with Disney food or service, but we felt Celebrity operated on a whole different level. We're in our 30s as were many others on our cruise. There are plenty of activities, but it's up to you to keep track of them from the dailies...one of Celebrity's big thing is to keep announcements at a minimum. It's actually rather nice to not hear "Bingo" announcements every 10 minutes.

 

[Dancind]

Do read the Cruise Critic reviews for the ships you're interested in, but pay close attention to reviewers that mention that they've been on numerous cruises on a variety of lines. There are many reviewers that "only cruise Celebrity, or RCCL, or Princess". (sort of like loyal DCL fans!) I have read some scathing reviews of Princess over there, and Norwegian you either love or hate I guess. We did a Celebrity cruise over Christmas, and yes, the food and service were excellent. However, we felt the entertainment and activities were geared toward an older crowd, and we are 50ish! One good thing, if you like to dance, there usually was plenty of room to do so after 11 pm. Other cruise lines are often not as careful about keeping kids out of adult areas. They were in the Celebrity disco until 11, and I mean LITTLE kids, and there's lots of debate about kids in hot tubs, since they don't enforce that rule. But any line will have fewer kids during school, even Disney. We went in Oct. '02 and didn't feel overrun with kids at all. Even our own kid wasn't around much! Just a note, if it were my honeymoon and I had the $$, I'd love to try a Crystal or Radisson cruise, or maybe the Queen Mary II. Very adult and very swank. Diana

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by Dancind
Other cruise lines are often not as careful about keeping kids out of adult areas. They were in the Celebrity disco until 11, and I mean LITTLE kids, and there's lots of debate about kids in hot tubs, since they don't enforce that rule.

That's what scares me about cruising another lines. That and I'm so worried that other cruiselines aren't as meticulous about cleanliness as Disney is.

 

[awatt]

Bostonlass- I would not choose DCL for a honeymoon. There were 1000 kids on the Magic last week and this makes dining rooms much noisier as well as the open deck areas. Lots of kids not all that well behaved either- i.e. jumping in the Goofy pool despite sign saying "No jumping" and kids next door to us having a spitting contest over their balcony. This is not for your honeymoon IMHO.

Go on DCL for the theming and a relativeliy casual,family friendly cruise. They affer a great product for families.

Go on another line for romance and a more elegant experience. DH and I went on Radiance without the kids and it was so memorable. We would not have had quite the same experience and atmosphere on DCL.

Cannot speak for Princess or Celebrity,but we found service on RCCL and NCL was a notch better than DCL,particularly in the dining rooms. Quality of food was similar for all three. Entertainment was better for adults on NCL. Kids liked DCL's kids club a little better than the others. They were all very clean,DCL has not cornered teh market on cleanlimess.

MY point is that each line has its strong points and some are better than DCL in certain areas.
Pick the line based on what matters to you most. You will not be disappointed in other cruise lines,in fact you may find on some ways they exceed the DCL standards you are accustomed to.

Have a great cruise!

 

[NCRedding]

We tried Radiance of the Seas to Alaska in July of 2003. There were only 120 kids onboard under the age of 12, but it felt like so much more!! I've travelled DCL 4 X with at least 500 kids onboard, but never felt overrun my kids and teens like I did on the Radiance. I think that had the outdoor areas been more accessible during the evening it probably wouldn't have felt so "crowded". I also found that RCCL didn;t enforce adult only areas like DCL does.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Our honeymoon was a 7-day during CHRISTMAS and we never once felt overrun by kids. Disney is really great at keeping 18 and over just that....18 and over. No need to step around tots or wild teens.

 

[bkline]

If you are looking for great food and service, I would look at Holland America. We were on Disney in 2001. It was a wonderful cruise. The food and service were top notch and my DS enjoyed the characters and club activities. We have been on several lines before Disney: Royal, Norweigan, & Dolphin. Last year, we went on the Zuiderdam which is the new ship from Holland. I would and will go back on Disney. I just like to get to different Caribbean islands. The food was superb and service was great on the Zuiderdam. The one area Disney tops Holland in the food category is the lunch buffet area. The specialty buffets were amazing. Holland has a specialty restaurant called Odyssey. It's similar to Palo's( no souffle(sp), but some great desserts). Holland can't compete in the kid's area, but since this will be a no kids cruise anyway that isn't a factor. Holland has very limited hours and the activities are not as varied for the children.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

I definitley would go on over to cruisecritic.com. You will find everything on those boards that you find here and more (here you only really get the good, once in a while you'll get an average report, but on cruisecritic.com, you'll get the good, the bad, the ugly and the fantastic. It really gives you a well rounded view of the actual cruise, line, ship, etc. The boards are very active especially for RCCL, NCL, Carnival and Princess. Disney boards there are sleepers. I have cruised on over 12 cruises on NCL, RCCL, CCL, Princess, Dolphin, Aloha Pacific, & Windjammer. I would highly recommend any of the above for a honeymoon except Carnival. It was fine, it just missed those fine details that makes a cruise special, and that makes its passengers feel special. It was great fun, but more like a cattle call everywhere we went. I have also heard great things about Celebrity, but haven't had the pleasure yet.....Someday. We are cruising DCL for the first time in March. No kids, so we will give an honest, well rounded review comparing DCL to the others when we review. It should prove interesting since I am not a huge Disney fan, but I am a huge cruising fan!!!! I will and have cruised many other ships and can compare without bias. Enjoy your honeymoon! We just honeymooned 2 yrs ago and went Windjammer to Venezuela because we wanted something different. We had been on many "regular" cruises. This was something special!
Hope that helps!!

Maureen