Competition with Disney?

[SL6827]

As a price comparison, I just booked an Easter Sunday 4 Night from PC 4/20/2025

MSC Seashore Yacht Club DeLuxe -- $3,552.00 https://www.msccruisesusa.com/cruise/msc-yacht-club

DCL WISH on 4/21/2025 -- INSIDE $4,458.00

FYI, we have sailed many times and itineraries are not as important as the Cruise Ship Experience

Almost a grand!!

 

[John VN]

Almost a grand!!

Comparing a WISH INSIDE CABIN to a MSC's Verandah Cabin in YC-(Concierge) that is beyond DCL's Concierge Level/Cabin Size/ and Perks at $10,634.00

 

[LAS2AMS]

We sail multiple times per year on DCL. We have gotten to know many cast members that we see when we cruise. All of them have worked on different cruise lines before coming to DCL. Doesn’t mean everyone has, but the ones who have are happy to tell us about their prior ships.

I read all the time on here ‘the employees who worked elsewhere said DCL is the best and that’s enough for me.’ It’s like asking an 18yo who’s worked at Kroger and Walmart to tell you which is the better place for a family to shop - ultimately they lack the exposure to give you an objective answer (and their answer will be base on where they had the better experience working as an employee).

Again… cruise lines use a de facto seniority system, which minimizes movement, and people that move either weren’t happy with their employer, weren’t offered another contract or really wanted to work for Disney.

 

[DCLMP]

FYI, we have sailed many times and itineraries are not as important as the Cruise Ship Experience

FYI, Itinerary is the most important thing for me. I don't think you can generalize that. We all cruise for different reasons.

 

[DCLMP]

Since Covid, all of the major cruise lines have heavily invested in improving kid and family activities. That includes Holland, which is basically a retirement home at sea Some of the programs have a minimum age of 3, but Royal caters to 6 months and up.

Disney’s entertainment and activities is pretty lacking for older children. I get that most of us are Disney families and some of us have teenage boys that sing a long to MK’s Happily Ever After… but average teenagers will prefer Royal’s etc activities and entertainment

Teenagers and young adults like being with other teenagers and young adults. Teenage boys may not like the entertainment on Disney which they don't participate in it anyway. They will like hanging out with all the other teenagers on Disney. I can assure you my boys never sang along to happily ever after......you are stereotyping.

My son has outgrown the Vibe, but still prefers Disney for the 18-20 meetups. You can criticize Disney for a lot of things, but I would never. ever criticize Disney for their teen programming.

My kids also cruised on RCI and Carnival as teens. Yes they have wave runners, rock climbing etc., but the teen clubs and activities didn't compare. They also weren't open all day and the teens had a curfew which they don't on DCL.

 

[beckicnm]

I read all the time on here ‘the employees who worked elsewhere said DCL is the best and that’s enough for me.’ It’s like asking an 18yo who’s worked at Kroger and Walmart to tell you which is the better place for a family to shop - ultimately they lack the exposure to give you an objective answer (and their answer will be base on where they had the better experience working as an employee).

Again… cruise lines use a de facto seniority system, which minimizes movement, and people that move either weren’t happy with their employer, weren’t offered another contract or really wanted to work for Disney.

I was on Celebrity last month, and our cruise director had been with Disney for 10 years before moving to X.

 

[jwalk03]

I'm surprised women have trouble getting their husbands to comply. Men are easy.

Too many wives try to get what they want with vinegar. It’s much easier to manipulate a man with honey!!

 

[Disneymom8181]

We did DCL when my kids were younger, and are planning another cruise next summer with our 11&16 year old sons. For us, we are going with Royal as my 16 year old son is an athlete who lifts 5 days (and will want to run on a treadmill daily) a week-not being able to use the gym as needed is a deal breaker for our family. (Son is being recruited as a D1 athlete).

 

[DodgerGirl]

When it came to travel in the 1980's to the 1990s cruises were the third biggest vacations second to amusement parks and family road trips but why I think why cruises became popular in the 1980's was due to the popularity of the show The Love Boat and "I bet when you watched The Love Boat when it originally aired in the 70's or in reruns you probably imagined yourself wanting to take a fabulous cruise just like they did on The Love Boat" and thanks to The Love Boat cruises became popular again because I think people were afraid the same thing that happened to the Titanic would happen again when they took cruises. But back in the 80's Carnival and Princess were the two biggest cruise lines in the world but in the 90's The Big Red Boat made it's debut and they were actually the first cruise line to have Disney characters on board their ships and based on that alone Disney got inspired to create DCL. And when DCL debuted in 1998 with their very first ship Disney Magic Disney knew that they would have competition with Carnival and Royal Caribbean and DCL was the ticket. And when the second ship Disney Wonder debuted in 1999 cruises sold like wildfire. But what I think sets DCL apart is that it is geared to families and children and offer chances such as character dining entertainment themed days such as Marvel Day At Sea for Marvel fans but they do offer adult geared restaurants and adult activities such as spa treatments and more. But I also think when DCL was created Disney had a target audience which was families and young children but when older kids and teens started attracting DCL cruises they changed their image which is why you see the new image of DCL today. But with newer cruise lines for adults such as Virgin Cruise Line making their marks in travel Carnival and Royal Caribbean and DCL attract families while Princess Cruises and Holland America Cruises attract the senior citizen crowd today. But with the debuts of the Disney Treasure and Disney Destiny cruise ships DCL will become the biggest cruise line in the world due to this and knock Carnival and Royal Caribbean out of the top spot in cruise line ratings and will become huge again

 

[mousefan73]

When it comes to dining ( all inkl. no upsell ) I would say Virgin. IMO Virgin food is miles beyond Disney or any cruiseline for included meals. Also great focus on entertainment and variety.

VV Staff also super - just like DCL level but less annoying and happier ( no pressure for tips or "exceed expectations" crap as VV is tipless) and VV crew are the best paid and best benefits and boy does it show. Seems like many VV crew were past DCL. from what I heard one of the hardest lines to get a job in.. They let their non-officer crew eat above deck and free wifi for example.

I think DCL management has put additional pressure / work on their crew and it is showing (not so happy)... IMO

 

[Mango7100]

We sailed the Apex class of Celebrity this summer and the food in the main dining room was vastly superior to DCL (at least the opinion of the 3 of us). DD11 is getting over the same Disney stuff over and over. There’s only so many times you can watch Beauty and the Beast and see Minnie and do Pirate night for a tween to lose interest. She preferred the shows on Celebrity as well as the kids club (which I was not anticipating her enjoying the kids club more than DCL). There were enough kids to find friends and do stuff (350 on our sailing), but not be overrun with them.

 

[DCLMP]

When it came to travel in the 1980's to the 1990s cruises were the third biggest vacations second to amusement parks and family road trips but why I think why cruises became popular in the 1980's was due to the popularity of the show The Love Boat and "I bet when you watched The Love Boat when it originally aired in the 70's or in reruns you probably imagined yourself wanting to take a fabulous cruise just like they did on The Love Boat" and thanks to The Love Boat cruises became popular again because I think people were afraid the same thing that happened to the Titanic would happen again when they took cruises. But back in the 80's Carnival and Princess were the two biggest cruise lines in the world but in the 90's The Big Red Boat made it's debut and they were actually the first cruise line to have Disney characters on board their ships and based on that alone Disney got inspired to create DCL. And when DCL debuted in 1998 with their very first ship Disney Magic Disney knew that they would have competition with Carnival and Royal Caribbean and DCL was the ticket. And when the second ship Disney Wonder debuted in 1999 cruises sold like wildfire. But what I think sets DCL apart is that it is geared to families and children and offer chances such as character dining entertainment themed days such as Marvel Day At Sea for Marvel fans but they do offer adult geared restaurants and adult activities such as spa treatments and more. But I also think when DCL was created Disney had a target audience which was families and young children but when older kids and teens started attracting DCL cruises they changed their image which is why you see the new image of DCL today. But with newer cruise lines for adults such as Virgin Cruise Line making their marks in travel Carnival and Royal Caribbean and DCL attract families while Princess Cruises and Holland America Cruises attract the senior citizen crowd today. But with the debuts of the Disney Treasure and Disney Destiny cruise ships DCL will become the biggest cruise line in the world due to this and knock Carnival and Royal Caribbean out of the top spot in cruise line ratings and will become huge again

How is DCL going to become the biggest cruise line in the world by adding two ships?

 

[starvenger]

But what I think sets DCL apart is that it is geared to families and children and offer chances such as character dining entertainment themed days such as Marvel Day At Sea for Marvel fans but they do offer adult geared restaurants and adult activities such as spa treatments and more.

What sets DCL apart is that it is a Disney Experience on a cruise ship. I don't think there's that much need to overthink this. Almost everything else we see on cruise ships are comparable, and are good and bad based on our own subjective tastes. But the Disney Experience is the Disney Experience.

But with the debuts of the Disney Treasure and Disney Destiny cruise ships DCL will become the biggest cruise line in the world due to this and knock Carnival and Royal Caribbean out of the top spot in cruise line ratings and will become huge again

Biggest cruise line? They're not even as big as P&O UK in terms of fleet size. And I think adding two ships makes them juuuuuust bigger than P&O. If anything, I'd say that MSC is making the push to become the biggest cruise line in the world.

And in terms of ratings, the only thing we should be concerned about is if a cruise line has bad ratings. If all the major cruise lines have great ratings, it's a win for all cruisers.