Could really use some opinions on DCL v Something like the Oasis OTS for ppl that have ONLY ever done Disney vacations.

[DCLMP]

I took my first non DCL cruise last year (I had done 3 so not super experienced, I am in Europe so there used to be less opportunities!). I went on Oasis of the Seas with my 13 year old son on a Mediterranean round trip.

I will try not to repeat the other pros cons, so my thoughts were:

• We had a huge room at the front (14126) and it was so nice to have the king bed split into two good size singles. We had room to play a large card game on the floor and my son really enjoyed spending time in the room. I think it was a standard outside cabin, we just got lucky.
• I think we slept a lot better on RCCL than on DCL because the beds were comfier, although there was more vibration on docking. Our bathroom was also a really good size.
• Getting on and off - so much more organised for RCCL - I couldn't believe the orderly embarkation/debarkation, I had been used to DCL scrum of people in the atrium at the end of the cruise, this seems a small thing but getting on and off the ship at all times was better and I felt calmer.
• I liked the evening buffet on RCCL, I miss Cabanas being open on DCL. My son is also a very bland eater and I feel like he ate better on RCCL
• As someone who doesn't drink, with a 13 year old, there wasn't that much we wanted to do in the evening on RCCL but we didn't feel it was too boozy/too adult an atmosphere. We did just play crazy golf every evening after dinner and then play card games so maybe we just avoided it.
• If it was itinerary led holiday I would do RCCL now. I did miss the DCL magic though, so for the right deal I would definitely go back.

I've done a lot of sailings with just my son and I wish DCL did the split bed. He barely fits on the sofa bed. It was nice when we sailed on Royal having two normal beds.

 

[DCLMP]

3. I also like that DCL does not nickel and dime me. It's expensive but I'm not paying for specialty dining or soda or treats for the most part.

Speciality dining is not free on DCL unless you are platinum. Palo is 50pp and the other speciality restaurant is much higher than that. They also have ice cream and treat store on the Dream and Triton class which is not included in the cost.

 

[DisneyDad0315]

Obviously you can like whatever cruise line you like and spend your money however you like. But some of your points to justify why DCL is better are a bit disingenuous…

You paid $50 for Palo and it was awesome. OK, I paid $50 for speciality dining on another line and it was also awesome. When we sailed NCL we didn’t even pay for specialty dining because we didn’t feel the need to. We were in the Haven and the upscale restaurant, but the Haven cruise was cheaper for our family of 3 compared to the week long Fantasy cruise in a regular verandah over the same week.

I have absolutely seen people on DCL fall down drunk and over served. I’ve seen it on other cruise lines too. It can happen on any ship, DCL is not immune to bad guest behavior. Not offering a drink package does not stop people from getting drunk. I’ve seen more bad behavior from kids on DCL compared to other cruise lines.

You can get as many lobster tails as you want on DCL? Does DCL offer lobster every night in the MDR? I have been on 4 DCL cruises and do not remember this being offered. Are steamed crab legs available for dinner on DCL or are they only available chilled at Cabanas? I have never seen them at dinner…

For your family the rotational dining and shows are worth it and that’s cool. But some people hate the shows and would prefer to have a sit down dinner without a show blaring at them. But other than grabbing a pizza slice/room service or paying for Palo every night (hello nickel and diming if you pay for Palo every night), people have no choice but to do MDR if they want to eat dinner. Some people don’t like having a set dining time and don’t like sharing tables with other families. Those things make DCL different but for some not necessarily better. For others it does.

Obviously DCL is not for you and that's cool. It's for me and my family for the reasons I stated. I am literally laughing at your drink comment. You think guest behavior is the same on a 3 night Carnival cruise with drink package than a DCL 3 night cruise with no drink package. Yeah buddy, you are being disingenuous because we both know that is baloney. The 3 night Carnival or Royal with a drink package will have much more drunk people than DCL. It's a fact. Why is there a limit on alcoholics drinks per day with the drink package? Because people over do it and get completely wasted.

If "some people" hate rotational dining, they probably should not do DCL. I am giving you my and my families opinion. DCL is for us and not for all.

Why would I pay for Palo every night if I want to spend rotational dining with my family? I do Palo brunch once with my wife. That's $100 plus tip and that's it. We do not go every night. We enjoy spending time with our family. That's why my kids don't do kids club either. Having a set time for dinner is great for my family and my children. That's a plus for DCL. If it's not a plus for you, spend your money elsewhere. You seem like you've made up your mind about DCL

 

[DisneyDad0315]

Speciality dining is not free on DCL unless you are platinum. Palo is 50pp and the other speciality restaurant is much higher than that. They also have ice cream and treat store on the Dream and Triton class which is not included in the cost.

My wife and I only go once to Palo Brunch on our cruises. If I was on Royal, my family would be eating at specialty dining every night and it would cost me quite a bit.

 

[Mango7100]

Obviously DCL is not for you and that's cool. It's for me and my family for the reasons I stated. I am literally laughing at your drink comment. You think guest behavior is the same on a 3 night Carnival cruise with drink package than a DCL 3 night cruise with no drink package. Yeah buddy, you are being disingenuous because we both know that is baloney. The 3 night Carnival or Royal with a drink package will have much more drunk people than DCL. It's a fact. Why is there a limit on alcoholics drinks per day with the drink package? Because people over do it and get completely wasted.

If "some people" hate rotational dining, they probably should not do DCL. I am giving you my and my families opinion. DCL is for us and not for all.

Why would I pay for Palo every night if I want to spend rotational dining with my family? I do Palo brunch once with my wife. That's $100 plus tip and that's it. We do not go every night. We enjoy spending time with our family. That's why my kids don't do kids club either. Having a set time for dinner is great for my family and my children. That's a plus for DCL. If it's not a plus for you, spend your money elsewhere. You seem like you've made up your mind about DCL

Obviously DCL is not for you and that's cool. It's for me and my family for the reasons I stated. I am literally laughing at your drink comment. You think guest behavior is the same on a 3 night Carnival cruise with drink package than a DCL 3 night cruise with no drink package. Yeah buddy, you are being disingenuous because we both know that is baloney. The 3 night Carnival or Royal with a drink package will have much more drunk people than DCL. It's a fact. Why is there a limit on alcoholics drinks per day with the drink package? Because people over do it and get completely wasted.

If "some people" hate rotational dining, they probably should not do DCL. I am giving you my and my families opinion. DCL is for us and not for all.

Why would I pay for Palo every night if I want to spend rotational dining with my family? I do Palo brunch once with my wife. That's $100 plus tip and that's it. We do not go every night. We enjoy spending time with our family. That's why my kids don't do kids club either. Having a set time for dinner is great for my family and my children. That's a plus for DCL. If it's not a plus for you, spend your money elsewhere. You seem like you've made up your mind about DCL

You stated DCL is obviously not for me….I guess I should cancel my DCL cruise that my family is taking this year. I like DCL. I like other lines. I don’t think DCl is the end all/be all of cruise lines.

I was also stating that in my experience I have seen overly served and extremely intoxicated people on DCL despite them not offering a drink package. Thats a fact as well. Never did I say that a 3 night Carnival cruise is the same as a 3 night DCL cruise as far as guest behavior. I said that not offering a drink package does not stop people on DCl from getting drunk. I apologize if that was unclear and caused you to misunderstand my comment and laugh at me.

I did not comment on length of cruise as being a factor. 3 night cruises are notorious for being party cruises, that’s well known. Is the guest behavior seen on a 10 night cruise the same across cruise lines? Is the drinking the same on a 7 night RCL Alaskan cruise the same as a 3 day Bahamas cruise on DCL? I don’t know. Is the behavior the same on a 10 day DCL cruise in summer compared to one in February? There were several reports on this board from people on the 10 Southern Caribbean DCL cruise in July that behavior was so bad that they will never do another one.

You stated you can eat lobster tail for free at DCL and they bring you two as one of the reasons you like it. I asked if DCL serves lobster every night in the MDR because I have not seen that and also would like to have unlimited lobster. Another posted said DCL only serves it one night on a 7 night cruise and does not even offer it on anything less than a 7 night. So I was just curious about that if you could clarify.

If you don’t mind, please don't refer to me as “buddy”. Thank you!

 

[John VN]

^^^^^ ding-ding-ding -- End of round 3 and now for some wassup humor --

 

[DCLMP]

My wife and I only go once to Palo Brunch on our cruises. If I was on Royal, my family would be eating at specialty dining every night and it would cost me quite a bit.

Is there a reason you would do that?

 

[DCLMP]

You stated DCL is obviously not for me….I guess I should cancel my DCL cruise that my family is taking this year. I like DCL. I like other lines. I don’t think DCl is the end all/be all of cruise lines.

I was also stating that in my experience I have seen overly served and extremely intoxicated people on DCL despite them not offering a drink package. Thats a fact as well. Never did I say that a 3 night Carnival cruise is the same as a 3 night DCL cruise as far as guest behavior. I said that not offering a drink package does not make DCL immune to having drunk people. I apologize if that was unclear and caused you to misunderstand my comment and laugh at me.

I did not comment on length of cruise as being a factor. 3 night cruises are notorious for being party cruises, that’s well known. Is the guest behavior seen on a 10 night cruise the same across cruise lines? Is the drinking the same on a 7 night RCL Alaskan cruise the same as a 3 day Bahamas cruise on DCL? I don’t know. Is the behavior the same on a 10 day DCL cruise in summer compared to one in February? There were several reports on this board from people on the 10 Southern Caribbean DCL cruise in July that behavior was so bad that they will never do another one.

You stated you can eat lobster tail for free at DCL and they bring you two as one of the reasons you like it. I asked if DCL serves lobster every night in the MDR because I have not seen that and also would like to have unlimited lobster. Another posted said DCL only serves it one night on a 7 night cruise and does not even offer it on anything less than a 7 night. So I was just curious about that if you could clarify.

If you don’t mind, please don't refer to me as “buddy”. Thank you!

I can answer your lobster question. It's just one night on longer cruises. I'm sure they'll bring you more if you want. It's not very good lobster. If you are used to fresh lobster you might be disappointed.

 

[Mango7100]

I can answer your lobster question. It's just one night on longer cruises. I'm sure they'll bring you more if you want. It's not very good lobster. If you are used to fresh lobster you might be disappointed.

Thank you. I figured it was going to be some scrawny 2 oz tail just like any cruise line would use trying to feed 4000 people.

 

[ilovebassets]

My two cents as Gold Castaway member and having sailed 3 RCCL mega ships.

Things that were distinctly better about Disney over the RCCL

1. Much better room layout for a family of 5 even if the Jr Suite had more sq footage.
2. Felt like less nickeling and diming although in reality, I'm not sure it's that different
3. Better entertainment overall for DCL (movie theater, movies around pool, on demand movies in cabin all great for kids) although the AquaTheatre and ice skating shows are pretty incredible. Obviously entertainment is quite subjective.
4. Less being treated like second class citizens for not being in higher level suites. (Royal Carib reserving the ENTIRE middle section of the AquaTheatre for suite guests?!)
5. Much more beautiful ship with constant access to ocean views everywhere as opposed to feeling like being on a floating mall.
6. Overall service slightly better with seemingly happier crew (but who really knows?)
7. I prefer Castaway Cay to CocoCay. That's going to be pretty subjective though.

The Oasis did have a few things going for it over the Fantasy though
1. Better/less crowded pool deck with more for kids to do. In fact, the whole ship feels less crowded to me than Disney ships which seem to have crowds everywhere.
2. Central Park is amazing. One of my favorite places to be.
3. Debarkation experience much better. I don't know why DCL just can't get their act together on this.
4. My kids overall prefer RCCL kids club to the younger Disney kids clubs which don't seem too organized and mix together kids of too variable ages.

Dining is hard to say. I like the evening buffet on RCCL and miss that on DCL. Allure of the Seas was some of the best dining I've had on a cruise ship. Oasis of the Seas was some of the worse. You wouldn't think it would be so variable within the same cruise line, but it was. DCL does get old in the MDR even if it's good food. The menus need updating.

Equivalent between ships? Embarkation experience, crappy internet, and shore excursions.

 

[DCLMP]

Thank you. I figured it was going to be some scrawny 2 oz tail just like any cruise line would use trying to feed 4000 people.

I'm not a huge lobster fan, but if goes right from the tank to the pot it can be pretty tasty. Frozen lobster tails taste like rubber to me, but the crew makes a big deal out of it. I never order it.

 

[rere101399]

Platinum on DCL, Diamond on RCCL.
I like them both, they both have a place in my life. I’m comfortable with that. They are different. I love DCL the most and that’s mainly just a feeling. There are things Royal just does better. That’s ok, it didn’t change that I love DCL most…which doesn’t change that we’ll still sail RCCL.

On DCL, we sail Concierge whenever we can. We avoid main dining except for 1 night on a short sailing or 2-3 nights on a 7+ night sailing. When we do eat in MDR, we choose the ones that we already know have menu items we enjoy. This food in particular, the MDR food we seek out and know we enjoy, is to our tastes, far superior than any item I’ve ever had in any MDR on RCCL.

On Royal, we no longer go to the MDR at all. Zero nights. Specialty dining, buffet, coastal kitchen, room service…we do it all, and we love it. All of these places we eat on Royal are better than even our favorite MDR items on DCL. But not the MDR. Never again will I waste my time or tastebuds on RCCl MDR food.

On DCL, pros are: we love the high quality production shows, the adult spaces, the concierge spaces, the concierge food, Palo (dinner 2x and brunch 1x on every sailing), the kids’ club, the tween club, the teen club, the customer service, the cleanliness of the public bathrooms, and the overall feeling and vibes in all of the ships’ spaces. We love Pelican Plunge, In Da Shade, riding bikes, and the cabanas on Castaway Cay.
Our DCL cons: We can’t stand Cookie’s BBQ or the lack of a beach club on CC. We we can’t stand being stuck in the MDR every night on the ship, the lack of a buffet option for dinner, the lack of specialty or specialty or other dinner options we can do with our kids besides the MDR.

On RCCL: We love all the specialty dining options, especially since we can take our kids sometimes. We also love the varied deck activities like zip lining, Flow rider and rock climbing. We love coastal kitchen when we sail in a suite. We absolutely love the beach club on coco cay and think our experience there is is superior to even a day in a cabana on castaway cay. Our cons for Royal include: once a day cabin service for non-suites, the MDR, the kids clubs at all ages can’t even touch the DCL ones, the staff aren’t as friendly or helpful or knowledgeable, the charge for room service, the often watered down drinks, the lack of cleanliness in the public space bathrooms as well as general areas.

Again…we love both lines. We’ve had great sailings on both, and will continue to sail both. We plan differently and have different types of vacation based on which line we’re on. I’d rather be on either than neither!!!

 

[tidefan]

Platinum on DCL, Diamond on RCCL.
I like them both, they both have a place in my life. I’m comfortable with that. They are different. I love DCL the most and that’s mainly just a feeling. There are things Royal just does better. That’s ok, it didn’t change that I love DCL most…which doesn’t change that we’ll still sail RCCL.

On DCL, we sail Concierge whenever we can. We avoid main dining except for 1 night on a short sailing or 2-3 nights on a 7+ night sailing. When we do eat in MDR, we choose the ones that we already know have menu items we enjoy. This food in particular, the MDR food we seek out and know we enjoy, is to our tastes, far superior than any item I’ve ever had in any MDR on RCCL.

On Royal, we no longer go to the MDR at all. Zero nights. Specialty dining, buffet, coastal kitchen, room service…we do it all, and we love it. All of these places we eat on Royal are better than even our favorite MDR items on DCL. But not the MDR. Never again will I waste my time or tastebuds on RCCl MDR food.

On DCL, pros are: we love the high quality production shows, the adult spaces, the concierge spaces, the concierge food, Palo (dinner 2x and brunch 1x on every sailing), the kids’ club, the tween club, the teen club, the customer service, the cleanliness of the public bathrooms, and the overall feeling and vibes in all of the ships’ spaces. We love Pelican Plunge, In Da Shade, riding bikes, and the cabanas on Castaway Cay.
Our DCL cons: We can’t stand Cookie’s BBQ or the lack of a beach club on CC. We we can’t stand being stuck in the MDR every night on the ship, the lack of a buffet option for dinner, the lack of specialty or specialty or other dinner options we can do with our kids besides the MDR.

On RCCL: We love all the specialty dining options, especially since we can take our kids sometimes. We also love the varied deck activities like zip lining, Flow rider and rock climbing. We love coastal kitchen when we sail in a suite. We absolutely love the beach club on coco cay and think our experience there is is superior to even a day in a cabana on castaway cay. Our cons for Royal include: once a day cabin service for non-suites, the MDR, the kids clubs at all ages can’t even touch the DCL ones, the staff aren’t as friendly or helpful or knowledgeable, the charge for room service, the often watered down drinks, the lack of cleanliness in the public space bathrooms as well as general areas.

Again…we love both lines. We’ve had great sailings on both, and will continue to sail both. We plan differently and have different types of vacation based on which line we’re on. I’d rather be on either than neither!!!

I 100% agree with this, though our alternative lines are somewhat different as we cruised over 50 times, but never in a suite...

Yes, we love DCL (I am Platinum and DW is Pearl), but we also love...

Virgin Voyages with its amazing included food and relaxed, adult-only atmosphere. A ship with Duel Reality is a big plus. Beach Club at Bimini is surprisingly also great.

Royal-class Princess ships that we've always found great and love their buffet and Alfredo's pizza (NOTE: for whatever reason, we find the buffets on Grand-class Princess ships to be lacking). We also think that the Princess Plus package is one of the best at sea and we really like having the medallions where you can sit out on the back deck (or wherever) as you sail away from a port and order room service and bar service and have it brought to you. Love it.

Excel-class Carnival ships, which we think are amazing. The included food options blow RCCL away IMHO.

All that said, we still love DCL, but actually don't go to many of the shows anymore (seen them all) and aren't fans of the MDR every night. However, we love having the full movie theater, wrap-around promenades (on the first 4), fish extender groups, Disney trivia, etc...