Avid Cruisers Just off the Fantasy.....

[shelbell77]

I guess everyone has unique perspectives.

I've been on 3 other cruiselines and prefer Disney overwhelmingly. And cruise without children.

I've never been bored on a Disney cruise, but have had little interest in the activities on other cruiselines, which I always felt were quite limited compared to Disney.

I've done drink packages on the other cruiselines, but you have to drink a lot to make up the value, I feel like I come out ahead just paying for what I want.

And although Disney always has more kids, because of the amazing kids clubs, I've always felt the kids were more obtrusive on other cruise lines. And I enjoy the adult areas and activities immensely on the disney ships.

 

[xuxa777]

They've grown and changed to meet the market, which for many of us Disney has not. I don't think you...

On the contrary, I think the premium price that Disney is able charge proves they are meeting the market quite well. They are also growing by adding the new ships and buying an additional island.

 

[lilsonicfan]

No time to read the entire thread, but cruising with 5 is significantly more expensive on DCL for sure and it really highlights the price difference. Sometimes I see people say "well for 2 people, it's only $1000 more to sail with Disney". But for 5, we either pay 4 adult fares + 1 3rd person/kid in inside/oceanview, or we pay 2 increased adult fares + 3 kids for a bigger "family" room. DCL could use more options for 5, for sure.

 

[kaseyC]

I, for one, am glad DCL does not offer the beverage package, ala Carnival. Like the addition of a casino, as has been mentioned on other threads, I would consider a change like that on DCL to be a negative. Some of my coworkers are frequent CCL cruisers who always get the beverage package and they freely admit that they are drinking pretty much nonstop all day while on the ship. After all, they are paying an extra $50/night for unlimited alcohol. And while there are definitely those who over imbibe on DCL, I just don't want to cruise where there are lots of people doing this and there is a structure set up basically encouraging it.

This drink package/excessive drinking argument that posters on these boards often bring up makes me laugh. Did people forget that up until a few years ago you could bring on as much booze as you wanted on DCL. As long as it could be carried on and fit through the scanner you could bring it. I've seen folks literally roll on cases of liquor- not wine and/or beer, the hard stuff on some our transatlantic cruises. The drunkest person I've ever seen in my almost 30yrs of cruising was on the 2007 Disney WBTA. This person was so drunk and obnoxious that they were finally banned from the evening activities in the Rockin Bar D. Excessive drinking is not exclusive to "other" cruise lines, no matter what your cousin's friend's coworker's sister's great Uncle Bob said.

 

[tinkerone]

This drink package/excessive drinking argument that posters on these boards often bring up makes me laugh. Did people forget that up until a few years ago you could bring on as much booze as you wanted on DCL. As long as it could be carried on and fit through the scanner you could bring it. I've seen folks literally roll on cases of liquor- not wine and/or beer, the hard stuff on some our transatlantic cruises. The drunkest person I've ever seen in my almost 30yrs of cruising was on the 2007 Disney WBTA. This person was so drunk and obnoxious that they were finally banned from the evening activities in the Rockin Bar D. Excessive drinking is not exclusive to "other" cruise lines, no matter what your cousin's friend's coworker's sister's great Uncle Bob said.

Also I find that people never account for the other things the drink package covers. Water, both plain and sparkling, specialty coffees, smoothies, fresh squeezed orange juice, lots of other stuff. I don’t drink much in the way of alcohol, glass of wine at dinner, one maybe two pina colada type drinks. I do get my ‘monies worth’ as some like to put it. Selling drink packages doesn’t always equate to drunk.

 

[Joe Brig]

I thought about trying RCCL but my son doesn't think the teen clubs could compare too DCL. I read that there are more smoking areas, some indoors, on a RCCL ship, that is not for me. So we stick with DCL.

 

[3monkeys4me]

I thought about trying RCCL but my son doesn't think the teen clubs could compare too DCL. I read that there are more smoking areas, some indoors, on a RCCL ship, that is not for me. So we stick with DCL.

I can't really speak about the clubs as my kids don't really care for them. RCCL used to have a smoking lounge/cigar lounge on some ships but I think those are all gone now. They have indoor smoking in the casino and that is about the only place left that is completely indoors that allows smoking. I think most of the ships are going to the "bus shelter" smoking areas that keep the smoking areas more contained.
FWIW, our last sailing on RCCL was out of Australia so there was no smoking allowed indoors, including the casinos. It was very nice.