For those of you who have cruise other lines....:?

We have loved DCL and are committed to 2 more cruises (non refundable deposits).

We also recently booked the Norwegian Pride of America Hawaiian cruise for next year and cannot wait. I would also like to try Celebrity too, perhaps a Southern caribbean out of San Juan hitting ports I'll never see with DCL unless they start mixing up their itineraries more.

We were on the POA when it first sailed in Hawaii.
It had an ALL AMERICAN crew and it was really bad!
They had no idea how to treat guests :scared1:
At each port workers were leaving the ship to go home :rolleyes1
I would hope its better now ??
On another note we just sailed the Celebrity Silhouette and it was my best cruise ever!
The ship was ultra modern and the service was great!
This ship along with the Fantasy were built side by side in the same German shipyard. Was a blast to watch both. Will be going on the Fantasy in December :yay::yay:
 
I just got off Celebrity Silhouette last week, and I'll be on Brilliance of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) on Saturday. The Silhouette was beautiful, and it had the best buffet food of any ship I've sailed. I also enjoyed cruising with Holland America and Princess - in addition to 3 Disney 4-night Bahamas cruises. Other than the much larger number of kids on Disney, I haven't noticed much difference between DCL and other cruise lines in terms of service. In spite of DCL's much-touted superior service, we had the worst dining room servers on 2 Disney cruises.

I also thought that it had the best buffet of ALL my cruises! Loved the Mexican section !:banana::banana::banana:
 
We have sailed NCL, CCL, RCCL, DCL. We are loyal to Royal. My take on this is Disney is way over priced. Your costs will be at least half on a Carnival cruise. If you don't feel like partying you don't have to. My elderly parents also cruise Carnival and never felt like it is party central, it is all in how much you want to do. Sure you can bring your own alcohol onboard Disney, but the extra you pay for a Disney cruise doesn't make up the difference by any stretch of the means.

I agree with what you said!

Don't forget about the FREE SODA that is included in the cruise price ! :laughing:
 
We were on the POA when it first sailed in Hawaii.
It had an ALL AMERICAN crew and it was really bad!
They had no idea how to treat guests :scared1:
At each port workers were leaving the ship to go home :rolleyes1
I would hope its better now ??

I have seen mixed reviews regarding the service on POA with the all US crew. I'm hoping that being in a deluxe family penthouse suite will make a difference. I booked it so the 5 of us will be comfortable - its comparable in size to a 1 bedroom suite on DCL (650 sq ft) ..... If not, that cruise is not so much about the ship as the itinerary. about 100 hours in port in 7 days. It stays overnight in Maui and Kauai in does Kona and Hilo other days from 8am-6pm. For me it seems like a great way to see the islands.
 

I have seen mixed reviews regarding the service on POA with the all US crew. I'm hoping that being in a deluxe family penthouse suite will make a difference. I booked it so the 5 of us will be comfortable - its comparable in size to a 1 bedroom suite on DCL (650 sq ft) ..... If not, that cruise is not so much about the ship as the itinerary. about 100 hours in port in 7 days. It stays overnight in Maui and Kauai in does Kona and Hilo other days from 8am-6pm. For me it seems like a great way to see the islands.

It is a great way to see the islands!
 
We have cruised Princess, Carnival, RCCL & Celebrity.

I disagree with Carnival being a party cruise line. The cruise we took was filled with families. My kids had a wonderful time. I'm sure there are some cruises that are more party intense, but I wouldn't generalize the whole cruise line.

I think Celebrity has the best food. It is an older crowd, but we had a great time. The Celebrity experience is definitely a more sophisticated cruise. On the Celebrity cruise we took there were very few children.

We loved RCCL. The food wasn't as good as Celebrity, but I certainly didn't go hungry!!!! :rotfl:

Princess was ok. I wasn't that impressed with the food. I probably won't sail Princess again, but that's just me.

I'm not loyal (obviously) to one cruise line, one hotel chain, one ski resort....I like to try it all!
 
We cruised, RCCL(Freedom), Celebrity(Solstice) and Disney(Magic & Wonder). We enjoyed them all. The Celebrity Solstice beats them all on food, and service, and the ship is awesome! The only thing Disney does better is the entertainment...

You will have a great time whichever one you choose...Have fun:goodvibes
 
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It is a great way to see the islands!

And it's a beautiful ship. That's the only good things I can say about NCL Hawaii.

PP, I really hope you have better service than we did. Waiting an hour between courses during dinner while hungry passengers are lined up out in the hall just isn't my idea of a good cruise!
 
We had a wonderful time on the Dream in March, our first cruise.

So my two girlfriends and I are thinking about a beach vacation in August, and a cruise idea materialized.

Of the three choices we have, Carnival, Norweigan and Celebrity. Has anyone cruised with them before? Are they terrible compared to Disney?:confused3

I'm afraid nothing else will measure up! But it's just three adults, surely we can have a good time without Mickey?:rolleyes1

We have booked our first Disney cruise for January - so I can't really compare that - but I have cruised the other 3 cruise lines. We sailed on Celebrity for our honeymoon. Food was top notch, crowd was older, ship was beautiful. We sailed Norwegian 3 years ago as a family cruise. We were on an older boat - and it felt a little run down compared to other cruise ships we had been on. Food was very good, kids programs were excellent. Overall, had a decent experience. We sailed on the Carnival Glory this past summer. I thought the ship was lovely. Our state room was quite large - much bigger than our room on the Norwegian ship (Dawn). Some of the service was amazing, other mediocre. Food was fine. We sailed out of NYC. Friends took the same ship out of Miami in December and didn't have the same positive experience as us. Hope that helps!
 
Well I've only been on this board a few short months and have seen the unfair bias here about Carnival. I am not exactly sure why it is this way. Many have not even sailed Carnival but "have heard" or "know someone" that says it's a party ship. In just a week and a half (!) we'll be able to compare it to DCL, but for now I've sailed CCL 4x and NCL 1x. I have 27 nights at sea on CCL and have NEVER seen anyone horribly drunk or it being a party ship. We love CCL and will be taking a CCL cruise next year. The price is right and the food, rooms, and atmosphere are great!!

I didn't enjoy NCL as much, but to me a cruise is a cruise. I'm happy and feel lucky that we can take a cruise on any line.
 
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE DCL.
But also cruise on other lines. Different lines have different strengths [and weaknesses]. If you go planning to have good time, that's what you'll have. If you're a sourpuss, you'll have a bad time. We liked the shows and entertainment on Carnival better than Royal. Food was comprable. It's been a few years since Norwegian and Celebrity.
 
It totally depends on what ship you sail. We sailed on the Carnival Miracle a few years ago and had a fantastic time. We were on Carnival Ecstasy last week and it did not measure up. The older Carnival ships (where you will get the cheapest prices) do not have the same features as the newer ships do. We found food on Carnival last week to be so-so. The buffet was pretty decent- grill had fresh burgers, mongolian wok was great. The main dining rooms were just ok. We love food, so it was a disappointment. Most nights, I ate very little of what was on my plate. Then I realized that the best food in the main dining rooms was the basic items (steak from everyday menu, fried shrimp, etc). This is fine if you want to eat like you're going to TGIFridays, but I prefer my cruiseline food to be better quality/more diverse.

We have enjoyed NCL in the past as well, but again, some ships measure up better than others. I doubt I'd go back on the NCL Spirit, but would be glad to go back on the Jewel and would like to try one of the newer ships which have more features.

I haven't been on RCCL yet, but after our disappointing Carnival cruise, I'm ready to try them next. Not that Carnival was BAD. We still had fun, but some items didn't measure up to our past experiences.
 
Well I've only been on this board a few short months and have seen the unfair bias here about Carnival. I am not exactly sure why it is this way. Many have not even sailed Carnival but "have heard" or "know someone" that says it's a party ship. In just a week and a half (!) we'll be able to compare it to DCL, but for now I've sailed CCL 4x and NCL 1x. I have 27 nights at sea on CCL and have NEVER seen anyone horribly drunk or it being a party ship. We love CCL and will be taking a CCL cruise next year. The price is right and the food, rooms, and atmosphere are great!!

I didn't enjoy NCL as much, but to me a cruise is a cruise. I'm happy and feel lucky that we can take a cruise on any line.

Same here and I am usually up until 2-3 am:confused3:confused3 Some just like to jump on the "lets bash Carnival" wagon.
 
I haven't cruised on DCL yet so can't compare it to the other lines we've cruised. I've been on Carnival, NCL, Royal, Celebrity and Costa :sad2:.

CCL - we've cruised the most with Carnival for the value. I have to agree with other posters and say that it is NOT the party ship that everyone seems to think it is. My experience is that it's a family cruise that has a whole lot of adult venues. Definitely a great time at a great price for us.

Royal - I wasn't impressed with my first RCL cruise but loved Freedom of the Seas - very large, impressive ship. DH and I are going on it's sister ship Liberty of the Seas in November on a 4 night to celebrate our anniversary

Celebrity - only 1 cruise, it's a bit more expensive than Royal but it was our best cruise by far - service, food, entertainment. Very classy, but not a lot of families. Will definitly cruise again but probably when we go without kids

NCL - not crazy about freestyle dining, but we have enjoyed our 2 cruises. Just went on Epic this past Feb and we absolutely LOVED it!! Food was only so-so, the ship is not the prettiest, and we didn't like the bathroom layout in the cabin, but the entertainment was fantastic! DS loved the waterslides, pools and Kid's Club. His smile rarely left his face... until the cruise ended.

Costa - worst cruise ever... would never book again.

We saw Disney Dream while in port on our Epic cruise, and DS hasn't stopped talking about going on a Disney cruise, even 3 months later. Our upcoming Fantasy cruise will be a surprise for his Birthday.
 
We have sailed Carnival, DCL, Royal, Louis, Paul Gauguin and NCL. The line you like best is going to be a personal choice, we do Disney when the destinations are similar because of the superior service and condition of the ships. We will however never do another NCL, food was awful, had to purchase soft drinks, crew less friendly, rooms small, ship was tired and did I mention the food was awful.

The only problem with DCL is when you have done all the itineraries a couple of times you are ready to go somewhere else. We don't want to to the North East but end up on each of he other new itineraries when they change them up.
 
I have not cruised Carnival or Norwegian so I cannot personally speak to those. However, we have cruised Princess (3 times) and Celebrity (once - Solstice) as adults-only and we are just off our first DCL (Fantasy) cruise as a family. I do not think you could be disappointed in Celebrity. The service is comparable to DCL (better in some areas) and the food is definitely better on Celebrity! The price is much better as well!! (We did not feel the DCL product warranted the almost triple price...and yes, we are "Disney people" - DVC owners, visit a Disney park at least once a calendar year, etc. so we know that you pay for the Disney experience. But that much?!) If we cruise with our kids again, we will stick with DCL...at least until they are older. They had experiences that I cannot imagine would be matched on any other cruise line. For an adults-only cruise, we will definitely choose Celebrity again! It was a fabulous experience all around. Their pre-paid drink packages are a great option and made for a relaxing and carefree week for sure! We did not feel the crowd was much older (we are in our 30s), minus the lack of kids. Yes, entertainment is not Disney, but who else can match that?

Princess offers a good product for the money and we have never been disappointed, but Celebrity is definitely a step above.

I have relatives that swear by NCL but they are extremely laid-back people (they live on a houseboat, year round, on a lake in Georgia) who don't like formalities or being tied to a schedule. But that's the only input I have on that one.

Regardless, I am sure you will have a great trip. And I am jealous!!
 
Thank you all for the fantastic advice! You've definitely got me thinking!

We are looking for a short cruise, carribbean for a good price!

I had been pricing all inclusives in Dominican etc.... and the cruise prices seem so much better and more fun!

I'm going to check all these ships out, this will be exciting, thank you all!:love:
 
I've been on 6 CCL cruise and had a good time on all of them . We sailed the CCL-DREAM last summer, the ship was beautiful, very clean, and our kids had a wonderful time. Stick with the newer ships, the BREEZE just sailed Saturday. It looks like an amazing ship, has all the new upgrades.
My family and I sail with DCL in July and can't wait. We have heard how wonderful their cruises.
No matter what cruise line you choose, you'll have wonderful time. Cruising is the best vacation!
 
I think no matter what line, it depends on the ship. I have a brother and a sister who like Carnival. Both have told me that the food was good on one of the ships. They both recently did another Carnival cruise (different dates, but same ship) and both said the food was terrible.

We did NCL Epic this past Feb and really enjoyed it. We did feel Disney is a better overall experience, but the entertainment on Epic is wonderful! Epic food was just okay. We liked the pub a lot, but the buffet was not so great. The food in the MDR was really good the first night and good the other nights, but not great. The pay restaurants were really good. I would not sail NCL again, unless it is Epic because of the entertainment (Blue Man Group, Howl at the Moon, etc). My kids loved NCL Epic more than Disney.

I really want to go on RCCL Oasis or Allure, but we are booked for Fantasy next April.
 
I agree with you on NCL, however, we will be on the Norwegian Epic this fall, this is the ship our kids picked, so it will be interesting to see how it rates.

Your kids will love Epic. One thing I did not like about Epic is the kids club hours - you have to pay if you want them to stay after 10. I also did not like that they will not feed the kids. Inconvenient for the nights we ate in the specialty restaurants and didn't want to take them with us.
 

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