Cruising based on itinerary or ship?

[celina14]

Makes sense - I guess itinerary should be first to consider. We just really loved the Fantasy. Perhaps if we had more cruises under our belts, we could think about the ship first. I think we actually enjoyed the size of the ship too - I’m probably over thinking that the Classic ships are smaller and therefore we may not have as much to do. Thanks for the responses - I will continue to search out our next cruise with Disney

We just got off the Wonder and while this was our first Disney cruise so I can't compare it to other ships, we loved it! There was no shortage of things to do! I'm contemplating our placeholder booking right now and cost/itinerary come first for us. Maybe if we had done all of the ships and had an absolute favorite that we loved we may book based on ship.

 

[kcamozzi]

We just got off the Wonder and while this was our first Disney cruise so I can't compare it to other ships, we loved it! There was no shortage of things to do! I'm contemplating our placeholder booking right now and cost/itinerary come first for us. Maybe if we had done all of the ships and had an absolute favorite that we loved we may book based on ship.

Yes - maybe if we sail on all the ships, choosing by fav ship might make more sense. As I read everyone’s comment, I’m thinking more and more that perhaps we loved Fantasy so much because we don’t have anything else to compare it to - and it was such a great ship! I can see that everyone who has sailed on more than one ship has enjoyed each ship they were on. I think it’s the Wonder that sails the itinerary that I’m next interested in.

 

[lorimay]

For us, it's all about the destination.
We call Disney our floating hotel.

 

[KashasMom]

For us it would be:
1) Date (working around a school schedule)
2) Itinerary (won't do Eastern, don't care to go to CC, not interested in Alaska on DCL)

We prefer the Fantasy but always seem to end up on the Magic. Disney ships to us are pretty similar (not a huge difference like an older class RC compared to Oasis class, for instance). Price is last - we're content with any type of room - and Disney prices are what they are.

 

[Quellman]

For us, it's all about the destination.
We call Disney our floating hotel.

Funny. We don't care about the destination. We usually stay on the ship!

 

[anjuan]

For us its dates around school schedule, especially since my daughter's in high school now, then itinerary, number of days on cruise, price. We've done most of the itineraries that work around our available dates so now it's becoming more about just enjoying the ship. That's why I can't wait until the new ships come out and hopefully there will be more itinerary options.

 

[lorimay]

Funny. We don't care about the destination. We usually stay on the ship!

LOL! When we cruise with our grandkids, all they want is to be on the ship. The only place they don't complain is on CC.

 

[Pens Fan]

For us it's definitely itinerary. Our first couple of cruises, we just wanted to take a cruise and didn't really care where it went. While those were great, after taking some other cruises with more interesting ports (for our tastes and interests), we now stick with itinerary, timing and price. The ship is the last consideration.

That being said, one nice difference between Disney and other cruise lines (to me at least) is that there isn't a significant difference between the onboard experience between their ships. While there are differences between the Classics and the Dream class it's not enough to sway me one way or the other. You pretty much know what you're going to get on a Disney ship - regardless of which one it is. That's not necessarily true for other cruise lines where you can have a very different experience on their older, smaller ships vs the newer mega ships. I think for those you do have to pay attention to the ship if certain things are important to you. Me? If I'm on a cruise and it's going somewhere fun, I really don't care which ship I'm on. Barring some type of catastrophe, I'm going to be having a good time.

 

[kiford]

We pick our cruises based on different criteria at different times. Sometimes it's itinerary, sometimes dates, sometimes ship. Our most recent Eastern Caribbean one was based on dates. We wanted to do something warm in January and that fit with my schedule. The previous time we cruised in 2016 we picked it by ship (wanted to do the Fantasy which was only ship we hadn't sailed) and then by dates which fit our schedule which dictated Western Caribbean. Med/Europe cruises for the itinerary. Currently picking the next one(s) by itinerary. It can also simply depend on the kind of vacation I want to have (sightseeing versus relaxing; historical sightseeing versus scenery; warm versus not warm).

 

[OKW Lover]

We have cruised multiple lines and itineraries. We are at the point that we just pick a cruise based on when we want to sail and convenience. Occasionally, we will do a cruise to a unique/different port just to go there.

When booking a cruise, price does also enter into the decision. We don't mind cruising in less-expensive times as our schedules are very flexible. We aren't cheap when it comes to a cruise, typically sailing in a suite on RCL, but still look for the best price on a specific ship/itinerary.

 

[kcamozzi]

Thanks again everyone for all the input! It will be another couple of years before we can do our next cruise but I will definitely be looking around to get ideas of the itinerary that we like and what ships go there. I still really want to sail on the Fantasy again, but am open to the other ships...In fact, I really want to try out Tiana's Place on the Wonder

 

[JM_97]

For this next one we're getting ready to book, it's both, but it will only be our second Disney cruise. We are going both for the Dream and the two stops at CC

 

[DCLDVC1]

1) School calendar
2) Ship

We don't really care about the itinerary, it's all about the ship for us.

 

[orion2185]

we almost always choose based upon ship and travel dates. Itinerary rarely matters to us at all. Don't really find ourselves getting off the ship at ports. But we do tend to do the Caribbean cruises (been to those ports countless times).
We enjoy the ship so much as 2 adults, with no children.
Now there might be (use this loosely with DCL) some rare itinerary that would draw us to book that cruise.

 

[Ccll4]

Always by itinerary, which is why we never went on the Dream.

 

[Budzooka]

Dates are first, then itinerary, then ship. Have been on 3 of the ships and are mostly the same. We sailed on the Fantasy for our first cruise and thought the others wouldn’t live up to it, but I was wrong. It was great, but so are the others.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Our first two cruises were Thanksgiving and then New Year’s, I insisted on Disney and took what was available for that date.

The next one was for the itinerary Alaska. Booked on silver day.

Our fourth cruise was a last minute three day sale price Caribbean just my daughter and I. It happened around spring break time and we were in Florida anyway.

5th cruise went with friends, Took a low cost re-positioning cruise from Texas to Puerto Rico, during semester break in January.

6th cruise, had to be rescheduled because of schooling conflicts. Found a last minute Royal Caribbean we could take a day earlier and arrive home a day earlier.

7th cruise, Will be a 4 day Disney Dream in January 2021. We might include a three day Royal Caribbean before or after. The Dream was selected because we have never been on a Dream class ship only the Magic class.

I plan to get a placeholder so that I will be able to try the Wish before January 2023.

so I’d like to offer that your reasons for selecting for future cruises might change as time goes on.

please excuse spelling errors as my fat little thumbs have a mind of their own and I really should have my reading glasses with me.

 

[kcamozzi]

Thanks again to everyone for all the comments and examples of your experiences! As we are still new to cruising, I’m sure how we cruise will likely change as time goes on. I tend to over think things so I am going to try to just take things as they come - if we find an itinerary that we really like but on a different ship, it will be ok. Or if dates don’t work for the itinerary that we like, then maybe we will look at the ships first. It’s great to read about everyone’s choices - I will continue to learn more about cruising DCL for sure