DCL vs Royal Caribbean, Opinion after traveling on both

[mcd2745]

Wow! Beautiful room. What category and room # is that? I want to go check it out. Thanks!

Jodie

NICE! i'll be looking into that. thats amazing!

It's room 1864, Deck 12. These are Category F staterooms. If you look at deck 12 on the deck plans, you'll notice that 1864 is a larger "pie-shaped" room as opposed to rest of the the rectangular rooms in that category. The only concern is that since they are all the way forward and being up on deck 12, there can be some motion issues if seas are rough.

If prices were in the same ballpark or even if DCL were only around $500-$1000 more...we would probably choose DCL. We feel they are worth a premium cost over other lines, but there's a limit. A 10-20% premium maybe...but not a 50-150% premium. With the money we're saving going with RCCL instead of DCL, we'll get our Disney fix with 6 nights at WDW (in the Beach Club, no less) before the cruise on Freedom and the total cost of the WDW stay and the Freedom crusie is still less than what just the Fantasy would cost us.

 

[bumbershoot]

We had a panoramic room on Vision last October. Loved it, though it wasn't a special room like 1864 on Freedom. The window wasn't floor to ceiling and it was smaller but we did adore it.

We have Freedom 1864 booked next March and I am soooo excited for it.

 

[Ofinn]

I'm pretty new to the cruise game, but it sounds like travel spending and cruise spending is WAY up lately, I guess because of the improved economy, and the lines that aren't jacking up base costs are playing all sorts of shenanigans with things like specialty dining (lowering the quality of buffet and MDR food to get you into the specialty restaurants, which also now cost a lot more), increased auto-gratuities, extra room service costs (a la carte pricing and significant 'convenience fees'), big alcoholic drink price increase across the board on RCCL, etc. NCL seems to be the worst of the offenders, in the sense that people who already paid for a cruise are losing things that should have been included. For example, if you booked a cruise before NCL added their $8 room service charge, you're still going to pay that charge even though it didn't exist when you first booked.

Short version: I feel like I picked the wrong year to get into this hobby.

I paid less for our cruises in late 2014 and 2015 than I did the first half of 2014 and 2013. Prices have gone up, but their have been so many last minute discounts over the last year. As homeschoolers we have definitely benefited. As you can see from my ticker I have given DCL a lot of money, and I have no complaints. I have loved every cruise, but I'm not about to overpay. I would not spend 6-10k for a basic verandah room on 7 day Caribbean cruise. I wouldn't spend that much on any 7 day cruise I don't care where it goes. I know a lot of people on these boards are willing to pay it, but many have jumped ship.

I have priced out many different cruise lines for Europe and Alaska and they are thousands less, and sometimes half the price of DCL. The little extra charges don't make up the price difference. As long as we can continue to cruise in the off season, and take advantage of cruises that don't sell I will stick with Disney. When I decide to take a prime season European cruise it will be on a different cruise line.

 

[goNDmay9]

Anytime I've compared prices for the two lines, it has never even been close. DCL is always much, much higher. This August, for example, we are doing a 7-nt on the Freedom of the Seas...2A, 2C (13 & 10 yrs old).

Wow! So....I would seriously think about giving up a balcony for that!!! What an amazing room.