disney v. other cruise line

[tecdavidt]

We have cruised on Carnival, Celebrity and DCL. We liked them all and my opinion Carnival's food was the best of the three. My husband prefers Celebrity's food. We took the kids on Carnival once but it was after their first DCL cruise. They were bored but other children that cruise these other lines do have a good time. DCL just spoiled our kid's cruise experience, they had high expectations. The teen boys did prefer the constant food on Carnival although they loved using DCL room service.

Hard to believe but Celebrity had the most obnoxious people on board back in Feb. '02. This is suppose to be a high class line for RCCL. Security had to get the drunk adults out of the hot tubs when they started to take their clothes off. They had just gotten back from a party boat at our Antigua stop. These were adults in the 40 to 50 range.

This has been what we experienced: The only time you will see the hard party type on Carnival is on a 3 day. It was a different crowd on their 3 day verses a longer cruise. I suppose they want to get the most for their vacation time so they did party hard.
Kathy

 

[ciska]

I have been on several cruises with the HAL I think they have wonderfull ships great service and food but the average age on the ship is 52. I am 40 and I have a daughter of 10 I don't think she would like the HAL as much as we did so now we are going on our first disney cruise and hope it will be as good as the HAL the price is the same. I love the HAL also because I am from the Netherlands.

Ciska

 

[invaderzim]

We have been loyal and faithful advocates for DCL over the past 5 years. We just finished our 3rd DCL cruise and will be doing the two-week CA-FLA Repo cruise next August.

I jumped on the phone with a TA on 9/29 when the 2006 itineraries opened up. I spent 3 hours going back and forth trying to find a week that we could afford. The prices kept going up so high that we couldn't keep up. I felt like I did the day we were trying to get the ressies for the Repo cruise! We paid $6,900 for the three of us for a Category 5 next year for a two-week cruise because we got in on the first hour. For 2006, the lowest rate I could get for a summer cruise was $4,900 for a Catetgory 6. We just couldn't justify that for a 7-day cruise.

So, after completing four cruises by next year, we decided it was time for a change of venue and ports! We decided to give both the Caribbean and Disney a rest and go with someone else in 2006. Since my DH and I were always "it's DCL or nothing", we figured we'd sail until they ran out of itineraries we had done. Well, they have. And considering the trouble we had on this past cruise with uncontrolled and rude children, we figured after a 2-week stint next year, we had to finally admit to each other that it would be too soon to go right away again less than a year later.

Also, I must admit, we were rather disappointed in Disney's food this time. We have always thought their food was top notch; but this last cruise it was a bit of a let down. Most of the dishes were very repetitive and the deserts were definitely not as good as the last two times.

Soooo -- we are booking an Alaskan cruise for 2006. We have it narrowed down to HAL or Princess -- although I have been told that HAL is a little stuffier and appeals to an older generation. The only reason we are not considering RCCL is that they don't offer the land tours with the privately owned lodges that HAL and Princess do.

However, I will wholeheartedly admit that I am very apprehensive about trying another cruise line. We've always felt that you know what you are going to get with Disney. And since we know the layout so well and all the "ins and outs" and "secrets", it will seem odd to go on a new ship.

Will we cruise DCL again -- ABSOLUTELY. Hopefully, on the new ship, whenever that is launched. We may go on this new cruise and find that we really don't like other lines, but we need to at least try it once.

If anyone has any Alaskan cruise experience, please feel free to give me as much advice as possible about what to look for and who to cruise with.

 

[buzz2400]

We went on 7 day disney cruise a few years back and it was a lot of fun but because I am a single mom I have to pay full price for my ds. I looked into another disney cruise but it was way to expensive. (When we went I booked an inside cabin and went in may). We just went on the four day bahama cruise on norwegian cruise in July and had a terrible time. We basically stayed in our cabin. There was nothing to do for families. We then had the opportunity to go on a carnival cruise to bahama and had a blast. Since Disney is so expensive we will probably go on carnival again.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I have to say I always recommend Princess cruises, travelled with them a few times and the food was perfect, the ships nice, and the service very high.

They had a joke that they have the English on the bridge and the Italians in the restaurants, so you knew exactly where you are going, and the food is great.

But if it was swapped you would have Fish and chips every night, and have a fight about which way we were going every few minutes.

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

My take on it is that if you are travelling with children between the ages of 3 and 9, there is nothing better than a DCL cruise. Their kids programs can't be touched by other cruise lines, IMNSHO.

I'v had great experiences on RCCL, Norweigan, and Celebrity; I've only been on one bad cruise, and it was a cheap, lesser known line that I can't even recall right now. But those were in my pre-kids years, and I can't imagine taking them on a non-DCL cruise.

Marcy

 

[PlaneJoy]

I think Tvguy had it right... DCL has its own distinct personality. I have been on 3 other lines and have enjoyed each one in its own way. Our DCL experience was probably last on our list, however we believe it was a fluke and will be much better next time. We are currently looking to book again sometime in 2006.

The kids program on Disney is next to none - it just can't be beat. But going on any cruise is better than no cruise at all. So don't sweat it is Disney isn't the one at this time.

Enjoy!

 

[DPC]

This is a tough question. I have been on one other cruise (Golden Princess, 2001). I just returned from the Magic two days ago. Between the two, Princess gets my vote. I think mostly because the food is a thousand times better. I love to cook and I love to eat different things, etc., so this aspect was important to me. Do I regret taking the Disney cruise - not at all. I was able to take my son's (9 and 6) on their first cruise and I am so proud that I was able to make it extra special for them by making it Disney. It's a beautiful boat and I think they had a blast. I only found these boards a week or so before we left and I have to say that some things about the Magic are overrated and some not mentioned enough. I guess it's all in what you are looking to get out of your trip. This Disney trip was for my boys (one in specific who is ill) so as long as they had fun, well, I guess that's what counts. I plan on posting a trip report in the near future with some of my pros and cons. Good luck!

 

[chrisn]

We LOOOOVE DCL but it's all about the atmosphere. We cruised a 7 night Eastern on the Disney Magic and a 7 Night Western on RCCL's Voyager of the Seas. Both were outstanding wonderful vacations. I STRONGLY disagree that Disney's Kids Club cannot be touched. RCCL's Kids Club hands down whipped Disney's in the behind. Way less crowded, more individual interaction, more and funner activities. DS never took to Disney's but We could not drag him out of RCCL's. I was very impressed. He was 4 at the time. Voyager's verandah cabin was fabulous and the food was better then Disney's. Activities were wonderful. Disney has better shows. Not that Voyager's were bad. It's just what I prefer. Teen club on Disney was better but only the teen club. Atmosphere is better on Disney. Really it was a toss up. Voyager was a grand floating city. Disney was all about magic. We thouroughly enjoyed both. We board the Wonder in February for a 4 nighter but after that one, the next will be RCCL!

 

[Mjasp]

ChrisN...Thanks for your input. My DD8 does not like Disney's clubs didn't like them when she was 6 or when she was 8. So I am looking to try another cruise to compare.

Joanna

 

[Minybear]

We have been on the Wonder and the Magic. Just last month we sailed HAL. We like Disney better then HAL but HAL was still good in customer service.

We have just made resv's on NCL for Hawaii for Dec/2005. We want to hop the islands and see as much as we can in 7 nights. The only thing I haven't heard anything good about the Aloha ship. My DH is very strict at what he wants for us to cruise and he doesn't want to fly between islands (to much packing and unpacking and in airports.) So we are stuck on this cruiseline

 

[lookingforward]

I have to concur about RCCL. They had an awesome kids program that my daughter absolutely loved. She did not take to the DCL kids club recently but I think part of that was her fear of the dark. The club was very, very dark. On RCCL they had a kids pool that the counselors took them too, also. The dressed up like pirates and marched around the ship, even in the casino. It was cute.

I think DCL is state of the art, their facilities were amazing. But they were also crowded (at least the 5 to 7 crowd). The counselors were great on both ships. As I said before, the smaller the crowd the more attention your kid will get. For some children that is good (my daughter!) and for some they would rather have more kids to interact with.

The only cruise line I have sailed that I would not bring kids is Costa. That ship was geared towards Europeans and the kids "room" was about the size of my closet (and I don't have a big closet!). That was on the Romantica.

Here is, in my opinion, the difference between DCL and RCCL. DCL has the fanciest and most technologically advanced centers. RCCL has nice playrooms but they had more "hands on" activities around the ship (treasure hunts, pirate marches, etc.) For 5 year olds DCL tended to stay put in the very nice facilities. A lot of the time was for free play and dress up.

One thing to remember, RCCL does not offer meal service every day for the kids. At least not when we went. They would have a club dinner a few times a week. At least that was the way it was last year.

 

[DARWIN91]

Ok, someone help me out here. I am interested in trying another cruise line and to be quite honest I don't see any that are cheaper than DCL except Carnival. Is it the room selection as I am only looking at outside cabins but most of those RCCL mega ships seem like they cost more. Is it because I book DCL on the ship that my price is lower? I see most of them coming in around the same price and the 3rd passenger is more on the other line than what I pay for more daughter on DCL as she is under 12. What am I doing wrong? I am an internet junkie and check all sites constantly.

 

[jlmarr]

Originally posted by Minybear
We have just made resv's on NCL for Hawaii for Dec/2005. We want to hop the islands and see as much as we can in 7 nights. The only thing I haven't heard anything good about the Aloha ship. My DH is very strict at what he wants for us to cruise and he doesn't want to fly between islands (to much packing and unpacking and in airports.) So we are stuck on this cruiseline

The most recent sailing of the Aloha seems to be getting rave reviews from experienced cruisers, so perk up!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=86673

 

[lampy]

This is a great thread. We too are looking for alternates to DCL, as we have sailed 3 times and our kids are older and not into the clubs or characters anymore.

What about family activities onboard? We seldom split up as a family and need lots of activities.

Who has the best family atmosphere in the carribean, next to DCL?

I hate to leave DCL but the price is driving me away.

 

[momofmeg]

We went on Disney Wonder Sept. 19 and I felt it was well worth the extra bucks-I have been on Sovereign twice and the 2 have the same ittenary but ofcourse with Sovereign you do Coco Cay instead of Castaway Key. I have never done Carnival Fanasty but I have done 2 fanasty class Carnival ships and have done Freeport a couple of times so that did not make me want to do that cruise.

I loved the classiness of the ship-the fact that it was so much better quality built, the veranda class 6 was suberb-we did not hear our neigbhors when they were out on the balcony the way we did on Miracle, the split bathroom was great. I loved the bathtub the only other line that I have had a bathtub was HAL. I felt Castaway Key was tons better the Coco Cay.

The only downside for me is Disney does not have enough different choices and I am not one to keep doing the same cruise over and over. I do want to do the Magic sometime but our next planned cruise is on RCCL Mariner. We are doing Western carb. and I prefer that over Magic's choice because it goes to Jamaica. I do though hope to do eastern carb. on Magic. I feel I would prefer her for that cruise over Carnival Glory or RCCL Mariner.


Another thing is we are not wealthy so if we only did Disney we would not cruise near as often as we do now. So my hope is to throw in a Disney cruise every couple of years or so. I will still cruise other lines though. to me it is like comparing Six Flags to Disney World. Six Flags is great, I always have a good time there but lets face it Disneyworld is a whole lot better. I will still go to Six Flags though. I just don't expect Six Flags to be Disneyworld so my expectations are lowered when I go to Six Flags.

 

[Disneefun]

Originally posted by DARWIN91
Ok, someone help me out here. I am interested in trying another cruise line and to be quite honest I don't see any that are cheaper than DCL except Carnival. Is it the room selection as I am only looking at outside cabins but most of those RCCL mega ships seem like they cost more. Is it because I book DCL on the ship that my price is lower? I see most of them coming in around the same price and the 3rd passenger is more on the other line than what I pay for more daughter on DCL as she is under 12. What am I doing wrong? I am an internet junkie and check all sites constantly.

I agree DARWIN91. I've looked and tried to compare "apples to apples" -- that is staterooms on other lines that would be about the same size as a Disney room and it's not any cheaper than if you book onboard a disney cruise. It looks like it is cheaper if you don't get that onboard incentive, but if you do, it comes out about the same. I could choose a much smaller room than Disney's and save some $$$ but for the same size, it all works out about the same.

However, the one thing I like about other lines is that most have a frequent visitor program that entitles you to discounts whenever you book (most increase the discount the more you sail), not just when booking onboard so you don't have to make that decision on the spot and cough up the deposit money when you've already just paid a small fortune to cruise. IMHO disney's castaway program is pretty useless. With other lines, once you've cruised once your price is probably driven down by that discount to a level that would make it much cheaper than Disney.

 

[invaderzim]

Minybear HAL also has island cruises in Hawaii, as does Princess I think. Check them out. You can always cancel the NCL.

Unfortunately, I had read some bad reviews NCL and that is why we didn't consider them for our Alaska tour. But maybe their Hawaiian line is different!

 

[Minybear]

Originally posted by jlmarr
The most recent sailing of the Aloha seems to be getting rave reviews from experienced cruisers, so perk up!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=86673

I had read that post and I am hoping that is what we will also get and I am praying that all the kinks will be worked out prior to our cruse. I also saw this on cruisecritic.com look at this recent article: http://www.freep.com/features/travel/pride3e_20041003.htm

I have also looked at HAL, Princess, and Royal Caribbean but my husband is very strict at what he wants. He wants the cruiseship to pick us up in Hawaii and we depart in Hawaii and not go to any foreigh port. I was looking at the Royal Caribbean it's from Honoulu to Vancouver BC (we have been to Vancouver due to our HAL sailing), but we cannot get any sailings in Dec/2005 or Jan/2006 due to our anniversary and its about the same price we are doing for NCI.

Lots of these Hawaiin cruises do 4 days of sailings to Hawaii and 4 days of sailing from Hawaii (or something like that) and that is days lost. With NCI we can do 2 days in Maui, 2 days in Kawaii and 2 days in Hilo (Big Island). So the itenerary is what we are looking for. Lets just hope the kinks are worked out prior to our sailing Dec/2005. I will have to keep happy thoughts

Minybear

 

[TheWog]

Originally posted by DARWIN91
Ok, someone help me out here. I am interested in trying another cruise line and to be quite honest I don't see any that are cheaper than DCL except Carnival. Is it the room selection as I am only looking at outside cabins but most of those RCCL mega ships seem like they cost more. Is it because I book DCL on the ship that my price is lower? I see most of them coming in around the same price and the 3rd passenger is more on the other line than what I pay for more daughter on DCL as she is under 12. What am I doing wrong? I am an internet junkie and check all sites constantly.

Maybe this helps. What time of the season are you sailing? I have gotten a quote from DU and my TA for DCL Western Magic on January 14, 2006. The cost for a cat. 6 for 3 is $3,719.54 (DU subtract $100.00 so $3,619.54 - which is about the cost I paid for my Eastern in January of this year). That's 7 days with stops at KW, Cozumel, GC and CC with 2 days at sea.

I requested a quote for RCI's Mariner of the Seas, which is their newest Voyager (largest) class ship for a Deluxe Ocean view room with balcony (and the balcony is what we want) for leaving Port Canaveral on January 15, 2006 going to Labadee, Ocho Rios, GC and Cozumel with 2 days at sea. Quote was $2,704.00 for the 3 of us. The room is slightly smaller (by about 40 sq. ft I think), but ship is larger. My DS7 says he may want to do the rock climbing, ice skating, mini-golf, kids club, etc. So the price difference and his desire to try other things may have us switching, but I wanted to outline the cost difference I have found between 2 different lines.