DCL, RCI, or NCL?

[MillauFr]

I'm sure everyone here loved their Disney cruise as much as we did.

Everyone here loves Disney Cruise. They just don't like that they charge double.

We loved out NCL Pearl cruise to Alaska. The only negative was it didn't have Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.

 

[Annabell]

Everyone here loves Disney Cruise. They just don't like that they charge double.

Agreed !

As DCL is getting more and more expensive, we are slowly moving away from cruising with DCL.

We still have one upcoming cruise planned with DCL but after that we will probably try RCI.

 

[CrawfordMomof2]

Are the itineraries similar? And has everyone in your party cruised before? This question ( with slight differences ) gets asked a lot, and I think it depends on what you are looking for.

For example, my youngest is autistic, and while we can do a short vacation ( 2 or 3 nights usually ) he can't handle anything over that. We booked Disney since a 3 night on any other line can be considered a "booze cruise". I know not every one is like that, but we didn't want to take the chance.

But if the itineraries are similar, how important are the extra nights on board? How about the night life/adult entertainment? I know all of the major ships have kids clubs now, but how do the youngest ones feel? Do they LOVE Disney, or would they be just as happy on another line?

Just my thought process if it was my family. I hope that points you in the right direction. And coming from someone who has not cruised before (we have a cruise booked for May) there is some great and not so good on every cruise line ( Including Disney) so I don't think you can really go wrong with any of your options.

HAPPY CRUISE PLANNING!

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

There are.times Disney charges alot.more then some lines.

There are also times and cruises where DCL charges nearer what other lines and occainally even less. IT depends on the cabin class, time of year and discounts available.

Where other lines provide good cruises and others not so good they are simliar. You will not find any other line with the classic style vessels, high quality, excellent service.and the Disney Pixie Dust and Magic.

So to each there own.

AKK

 

[redsonja76]

We have done DCL and RC (as well as others) and I have to say, just for the kids programming alone, DCL kicks butt. RC is a wonderful line that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I wouldn't do it again with my kids. RC closes their kids clubs several times a day, specifically for meal time. And if your child doesn't want to do the activity at the time, too bad. My youngest doesn't like sports (except horseback riding, which you won't find on a boat lol) and there were lots of activities she didn't care for. On DCL if she didn't like the activity in one section of the kids club, she just went to the other. She always found something to do that she loved. If the cost is similar, I would do DCL hands down. If I was going without kids, I'd go on RC

 

[pgroom48]

We've been on all of them (DCL, RCI, NCL and CCL). I will NEVER go on Carnival again, especially anything that goes to the Caribbean. It's been years so i don't know if it's changed but they let you drink at 18 and the pool area was like a frat party with college kids between 18 and 20. I'm not a party pooper and I am definitely not a tea teetotaler by ANY means but I don't want to go to or have my kids go to a FRAT party either.

Regarding kids club, I echo the same problems as other posters. RCI and NCL close them at times that don't make sense and I remember RCI charging after a certain hours (that was a few years back).

I think if the cruise is port intensive then another line wouldn't bother me so much but if your kids are young and you are doing Bahamas or Caribbean the DCL is the way to go. Better Private Island, no tendering, better kids club, DCL really keeps the kids out of the Adult areas and it's a good mix of couple time and family time. Just my opinion. My kids are too young to do really port intensive cruises so we typically stick to Bahamas and Caribbean for now. When they get a little older we would like to do Alaska and the Greek Isles, pricing will probably dictate the line then but for now we are DCL whenever we can.