For us, it is worth the higher price.
We have cruise, with kids, Carnival (no interest in repeating), and Royal Caribbean (prefer Disney but we would, and actual we are, going to cruise with them again).
Here is a list of some of the Disney differences that we feel make
DCL our #1 choice:
1) The staff is extremely friendly. RCI staff did their job, but nobody went out of their way to chat or seemed remotely interested in making any sort of connection with you. We enjoy getting to know the staff on DCL. My kids look forward to seeing any staff members that may be there from a previous cruise..and they remember the kids (we are onboard now and Marc walked up to my DH on the first day and said, "Andrew's Dad?"). On DCL, every staff member that walks by you says hello. Many of them stop and chat. That just didn't happen on RCI. We are very outgoing and social people (even our kids) and we found this to be a huge difference.
2) Disney does the little things better. They are just so organized and efficient. It's hard to explain until you go on another line. One small thing...RCI, you rent your towel. You must keep track of that towel (the same towel that everyone else has) for the entire cruise and if you do not turn in that towel, you are charged $20. Now...try to get 7 people to keep track of their towels for a week. My 11 yr old put his towel down on a bench and came back and it was gone (duh...if everyone has the same towel and some dishonest person loses theirs, do you think they won't take yours). It was a BIG pest. There are lots of small things like this. They may not seem like much, but when your juggling a family and lots of activities, these small things make a giant difference over the course of a week.
3) People on here have said that you cannot avoid the kids. Obviously, DCL has kids...lots of kids. Heck, I bring 5 with me. BUT...what I like is that on DCL if you go to an adult only area, it is ADULT ONLY. RCI didn't enforce this at all. Also, I had more problems with kids on the run on RCI (even if there were less kids), than I have ever had on DCL. I'm not saying there weren't any kid problems on DCL...but RCI had many more kids running loose and causing problems. On this note...my kids prefered DCL's kid programming much more than RCI. They said that on RCI they did not feel the councelors did much with them. It was more like group babysitting than fun activities.
4) Castaway Cay...you can't get less stressful beach day (especially with young kids).
5) Still having toddlers..NURSERY!
6) Even with older kids, we like that the DCL kid programming is all day (no breaks). It's not that our kids are in there all day (unless they choose to). It's just that, RCI goes 9-12, 2-5, 7-10 and then pay after 10pm. Well...lets say you sleep in past 9 and then get dressed and have breakfast. Now it's 10:45 or 11am and the kids are ready to go to the clubs. They're closing in 1 hour. Same thing if there is an activity at 2:30pm...the entire afternoon kid's programming is basically lost for you. On DCL you can come and go, at your convenience, all day. This is another one of those small things I mentioned above.
7) Family appropriate entertainment. I don't want to ditch my kids all day. We like to do things together too. RCI didn't really have family shows/activities. They had rock climbing, and the H2O zone (very cool but not really something for adults to do with their kids) and mini golf. They did not have things like the Mickey 200, or Disney trivia, or family appropriate shows, or family dance parties/karaoke/etc.
I'm sure there are more reasons but I'm tired from a long day of fun at sea. Although my 9 and 10 yr old are still having fun at the girl's party in the lab and my 11 yr old is heading back to his age group to go to the arcade. Since tomorrow is another sea day (and we can sleep in), we're letting them have a late night.
Jess
