Carnival/Royal cruisers looking to try Disney Wonder for 1st time

[mjkpreno]

We are looking to finally book our first Disney Cruise for early October, 7-days on the Wonder out of San Diego. The price for us is substantially higher than I can get 7 day cruises on both Royal and Carnival due to status on both lines (and Casino perks on Carnival) so while I am pretty confident we will book, I just want to gather a little more information before I pull that costly trigger.

We will have a 7 year old girl and 15 year old girl with us and I am 40 and my wife is 38. Our youngest is ABSOLUTELY in the right age group/no-brainer for Disney - loves Princesses, Aladdin, and everything Disney. My 15 year old is very much into the social aspect of being a teenager and easily finds friends (after a little ice breaking). She loves mostly playing foosball/ping pong with other kids, teen "activities" (scavenger hunts were big with the teens on our last Carnival cruise), playing arcade games (which I don't think the Wonder has). However, for her the difference for Disney is that she is SUPER SUPER into animation and drawing. When we visit Disneyland she coul be in the drawing sessions the entire day if we let her so I think with the drawing classes offered on board that would be a huge win. We love Disneyland and Disney in general and would get season passes but we live in Reno and are just barely too far to justify annual passes to the parks for now.

My wife and I don't really drink and are not into "fancy" foods (my wife is a vegetarian, as well) and rarely eat specialty restaurants. We're into salads, burgers, Mexican, easy to eat casual fare. My wife isn't usually into shows on other lines (though we do absolutely love the Aquashow on the Oasis class ships) mostly due to the "high school choir" feel we usually get from them. With Disney, my expectations are very high and I think my wife would enjoy the shows. However, I am mostly concerned with daytime activities. My wife is big into crafting and daily activities on the ship and Carnival usual has so much going on we can never hope to do everything, Royal was a little less so. How are the daily activities on board, especially going into the post-covid world?

We also don't really cruise to meet new people so I know that Disney is (or was?) big on potentially seating us with other people for dinner. I think I can request that we dine alone as a family (would I have to do that through my agent or through Disney directly?).

I've been watching endless videos but I think some of my trepidation is just the cost being so much higher and I am a value proposition person (what is my ROI). I know I saw some people compare the differences like "Disneyland versus Six Flags" and what my logic would be justifying the added expense. For us it's the Disney "Magic" that gets us into the parks so I hope that is the same as I get going from Royal/Carnival to "Disney".

Any information would help!

 

[MomOTwins]

We are looking to finally book our first Disney Cruise for early October, 7-days on the Wonder out of San Diego. The price for us is substantially higher than I can get 7 day cruises on both Royal and Carnival due to status on both lines (and Casino perks on Carnival) so while I am pretty confident we will book, I just want to gather a little more information before I pull that costly trigger.

We will have a 7 year old girl and 15 year old girl with us and I am 40 and my wife is 38. Our youngest is ABSOLUTELY in the right age group/no-brainer for Disney - loves Princesses, Aladdin, and everything Disney. My 15 year old is very much into the social aspect of being a teenager and easily finds friends (after a little ice breaking). She loves mostly playing foosball/ping pong with other kids, teen "activities" (scavenger hunts were big with the teens on our last Carnival cruise), playing arcade games (which I don't think the Wonder has). However, for her the difference for Disney is that she is SUPER SUPER into animation and drawing. When we visit Disneyland she coul be in the drawing sessions the entire day if we let her so I think with the drawing classes offered on board that would be a huge win. We love Disneyland and Disney in general and would get season passes but we live in Reno and are just barely too far to justify annual passes to the parks for now.

My wife and I don't really drink and are not into "fancy" foods (my wife is a vegetarian, as well) and rarely eat specialty restaurants. We're into salads, burgers, Mexican, easy to eat casual fare. My wife isn't usually into shows on other lines (though we do absolutely love the Aquashow on the Oasis class ships) mostly due to the "high school choir" feel we usually get from them. With Disney, my expectations are very high and I think my wife would enjoy the shows. However, I am mostly concerned with daytime activities. My wife is big into crafting and daily activities on the ship and Carnival usual has so much going on we can never hope to do everything, Royal was a little less so. How are the daily activities on board, especially going into the post-covid world?

We also don't really cruise to meet new people so I know that Disney is (or was?) big on potentially seating us with other people for dinner. I think I can request that we dine alone as a family (would I have to do that through my agent or through Disney directly?).

I've been watching endless videos but I think some of my trepidation is just the cost being so much higher and I am a value proposition person (what is my ROI). I know I saw some people compare the differences like "Disneyland versus Six Flags" and what my logic would be justifying the added expense. For us it's the Disney "Magic" that gets us into the parks so I hope that is the same as I get going from Royal/Carnival to "Disney".

Any information would help!

It kind of feels like you answered your own question—the Disney “Magic” is why people sail Disney. Your 15 year old will love the animation classes and when you eat at dinner at Animator’s Palate, the walls come to life with Disney animations, plus the teen club is very fun. Your youngest sounds like he will love the Disney characters and the kids club full of Disney themed activities. Your wife will have plenty to do, there are dozens of activities, game shows, crafts etc. each day.

No vacation is fun if you constantly dwell on the cost and question if it is worth it, though, so if you go into the attitude of feeling like Disney needs to give you exactly $X worth of extra fun compared to other lines you’ll be miserable. I think you need to let go of the urge to compare and just decide if you are willing to pay Disney prices or not and if the answer is yes, don’t think about any other cruise line and just enjoy your Disney cruise. I often remind myself of the saying “comparison is the thief of joy.”

 

[mjkpreno]

It kind of feels like you answered your own question—the Disney “Magic” is why people sail Disney. Your 15 year old will love the animation classes and when you eat at dinner at Animator’s Palate, the walls come to life with Disney animations, plus the teen club is very fun. Your youngest sounds like he will love the Disney characters and the kids club full of Disney themed activities. Your wife will have plenty to do, there are dozens of activities, game shows, crafts etc. each day.

No vacation is fun if you constantly dwell on the cost and question if it is worth it, though, so if you go into the attitude of feeling like Disney needs to give you exactly $X worth of extra fun compared to other lines you’ll be miserable. I think you need to let go of the urge to compare and just decide if you are willing to pay Disney prices or not and if the answer is yes, don’t think about any other cruise line and just enjoy your Disney cruise. I often remind myself of the saying “comparison is the thief of joy.”

Thank you very much! An unfortunate side-effect of my career path is that I spend a LOT of time doing cost/benefit analyses and that makes it a bad habit. Just need to force myself out of that when NOT working

I did the same thing when we started booking "nicer" hotels, I used to be of the mentality of "it's just a room and let's get it as cheap as possible" and realize there are benefits I enjoy as I get older (not killing my back on a hard as rock bed is something worth paying for haha).

The things we NEVER liked about Carnival was the unfortunate bottom of the barrel pricing on some of the cruises also brought in people who were looking for the "cheapest possible trip" and that definitely made for some moments we did not like. I also know that the passenger space ratio on Disney is MUCH better than anything we've had on Carnival, though seems closer to the Oasis class on Royal. However, we also got spoiled by the lack of crowds in the last year and our most recent trip over spring break the crowds were back and Carnival reminds us of WHY we want to move on...and I hope Disney is a potential option in the future. This looks like a good opportunity to try it out (we have done the MX Riviera a bunch of times, but never gone to Mazatlan oddly enough so this would be a nice bonus).

I think it'll totally be worth it!

 

[anjuan]

Thank you very much! An unfortunate side-effect of my career path is that I spend a LOT of time doing cost/benefit analyses and that makes it a bad habit. Just need to force myself out of that when NOT working

I did the same thing when we started booking "nicer" hotels, I used to be of the mentality of "it's just a room and let's get it as cheap as possible" and realize there are benefits I enjoy as I get older (not killing my back on a hard as rock bed is something worth paying for haha).

The things we NEVER liked about Carnival was the unfortunate bottom of the barrel pricing on some of the cruises also brought in people who were looking for the "cheapest possible trip" and that definitely made for some moments we did not like. I also know that the passenger space ratio on Disney is MUCH better than anything we've had on Carnival, though seems closer to the Oasis class on Royal. However, we also got spoiled by the lack of crowds in the last year and our most recent trip over spring break the crowds were back and Carnival reminds us of WHY we want to move on...and I hope Disney is a potential option in the future. This looks like a good opportunity to try it out (we have done the MX Riviera a bunch of times, but never gone to Mazatlan oddly enough so this would be a nice bonus).

I think it'll totally be worth it!

While we haven't sailed on Carnival we've sailed on Royal Caribbean and both my teen and I prefer DCL because of their level of customer service. My daughter likes that the teen club age is 14-17 on DCL while she thought the age range was too wide in RCL (12-17), not having to carry a cup around for beverages, and my teen also said that on Royal she noticed a lot of teens either getting alcohol from their parents or trying to get it from others which DCL doesn't allow and she's not interested in. I really like that there is no casino and that there is only a limited smoking area that is really out of the way.

Since you mentioned beds, DCL's beds are amazing compared to RCL beds. (I've had back surgery so this is really important to me.) You'll even see posts here about people buying the beds for their home.

We really love the staff on DCL and the overall vibe of the ship.

 

[ghtx]

My son really loved the drawing classes on the last cruise - I think there was about one per day, a different character each time, and he went to pretty much each one.

 

[Happy100]

My 17 year old son has sailed on Disney and Royal and as a teenager he prefers Disney. Your teen will have a great time if she likes to draw and is creative. Disney is all about imagaination.

As adults my husband and I prefer Dinsey over Royal because of service, offereings for kids and Disney seemed to have a lot more activities for adults and families that were included in the price and not an extra cost. I work in Finance so understand your inability to turn off your cost focused mind but in the end I only get a limited amount of time a year for a vacation and therefore I value my time above everything, so we pay more to get a better experience and are not concerned about the fact it cost more.

 

[mjkpreno]

While we haven't sailed on Carnival we've sailed on Royal Caribbean and both my teen and I prefer DCL because of their level of customer service. My daughter likes that the teen club age is 14-17 on DCL while she thought the age range was too wide in RCL (12-17), not having to carry a cup around for beverages, and my teen also said that on Royal she noticed a lot of teens either getting alcohol from their parents or trying to get it from others which DCL doesn't allow and she's not interested in. I really like that there is no casino and that there is only a limited smoking area that is really out of the way.

Since you mentioned beds, DCL's beds are amazing compared to RCL beds. (I've had back surgery so this is really important to me.) You'll even see posts here about people buying the beds for their home.

We really love the staff on DCL and the overall vibe of the ship.

This is awesome to hear! My wife HATED the beds on Royal (OMG they were so hard) and Carnival USED to have great beds, but lately not as much but better than Royal. This will be a huge win if the bed is super comfortable! Good to hear about the teen club, too. We are NOT party atmosphere people so that has always been something that never suited us on Carnival. The primary thing we liked about Carnival was bang for buck that we got, convenience to Reno (West Coast), and the casual/quick grab good (we love the Carnival Deli, Guy's Burger, Blue Iguana, and Shaq's Chicken), and the kids programming.

Looking forward to something different!