Cruise Line comparisons

[BeachQueen]

I hope this is not an "illegal" post. If so, please let me know. My family and I cruised the Disney Dream last year and absolutely loved it! We thought about going back next year. Then we heard about the Oasis of the Seas cruise on Royal Caribbeans's line. Basically, we are going to pay $7000 for 4 nights on Disney Dream or $5000 for 7 nights on Oasis of the Seas. My husband thinks we should do Oasis and take the $2000 difference in price and upgrade to a Butler suite when we go to Sandals Antigua. Has anyone cruised both ships with kids? If so, what are the differences in terms of kids activities? We just want our children to have a great time, and we know they will on Disney! At the time of this cruise, our kids will be 1, 3, 7, and 9.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

I hope this is not an "illegal" post. If so, please let me know. My family and I cruised the Disney Dream last year and absolutely loved it! We thought about going back next year. Then we heard about the Oasis of the Seas cruise on Royal Caribbeans's line. Basically, we are going to pay $7000 for 4 nights on Disney Dream or $5000 for 7 nights on Oasis of the Seas. My husband thinks we should do Oasis and take the $2000 difference in price and upgrade to a Butler suite when we go to Sandals Antigua. Has anyone cruised both ships with kids? If so, what are the differences in terms of kids activities? We just want our children to have a great time, and we know they will on Disney! At the time of this cruise, our kids will be 1, 3, 7, and 9.

There is a Royal Carribean Cruise section of Disboards that you can check. You could also Google the reviews for the ships you are interested in and you will most likely come up with some informative results.

 

[bumbershoot]

I hope this is not an "illegal" post.

There's a whole Royal Caribbean section on this board. It's not illegal.

My husband thinks we should do Oasis and take the $2000 difference in price and upgrade to a Butler suite when we go to Sandals Antigua.

I think that sounds like a terrific idea.

The ONLY thing that you're going to find different is that all three of your older kids will be in different kid clubs, unlike on Disney. The kid clubs on Royal are GREAT, I mean seriously good, with direct interaction with the kids from the counselors (unlike the very hands off kid clubs on Disney), so they will have a super time, but they won't be together. (unless you're going at a low-kids time, when they might combine the 6-8 and 9-11 age groups like has happened on both of our Royal sailings)

We haven't been on Allure, but we loved Freedom same/maybe more than Dream. Vision was great, too. I have heard good things about Oasis class, though it might be "too much ship" for me, personally.

 

[SpaceSquirrel]

I hope more people answer for you.
I'm thinking about an Alaskan RC cruise, their rates are much lower than Disney's. We would have to fly to Seattle to do an Alaskan so saving a couple thousand would make all the difference, if the experience is comparable.

 

[Winston Wolf]

So here's my experience but not on Royal Caribbean.

My wife and I sailed on Norwegian Breakaway for an anniversary trip about 2 years ago. Loved it. Can't wait to go back to Breakaway or one of her sister ships.

We just sailed as a family on Disney Fantasy for a family vacation in January. Loved it. Can't wait to get back on DCL.

The thing is, when I think about how my kids enjoyed Fantasy, they wouldn't get the same experience on Breakaway. The pools are much more adult oriented and my comfort level with letting my 9 year old have some freedom to go back to the room by herself, etc is a lot higher on a ship where families are the majority clientele. We had a RC cruise booked for April 2017, but did an OBB while on Fantasy and cancelled the RC trip when we got home. We'll sail Disney until the kids are bigger, then look to move to either NCL or RCI.

Just my $0.02. But the RC Oasis class ships do look incredible.

 

[BeachQueen]

I truly appreciate everyone's response and hope we get even more responses!

 

[Skiton]

We did a Royal cruise sandwiched in between two DCL cruises. We were on the Independence, which is a Freedom class ship. My kids had a very nice time, but prefer Disney hands down. There's just more stuff geared toward their ages (young elementary school) on Disney. They didn't much care for the club on Royal. It's mostly organized activities and not a lot of opportunity for independent play, so when they were there, they had to be "on" the whole time. They couldn't just go play on their own for a while. (I imagine some kids would adore this set up, just not mine.) I will say that the Royal pool area was far superior to the Fantasy's. Almost too superior, the H2O Zone (for kids) is pretty big and I sometimes had a hard time keeping track of them there, but they loved it.

 

[DLM1980]

The latest Dreams Unlimited podcast talked about other cruise lines and compared differences

 

[Marlyn]

Can't beat Disney for kids IMO...or adults for that matter. I cruised Norwegian Epic and found myself comparing it to Disney the entire time. I preffered Disney. There is a reason it costs more. I've cruised on the Wonder, Magic and Fantasy, all 7 day cruises (Alaska, Mexico and Caribbean). Loved them all!
Would I cruise non-Disney again? With just adults yes....with kids no.