HELP - DCL seems really expensive

[rundogrun]

My response was based on personal experience as well as the experience of my two children who have participated in both programs (3 x Disney, 1 x Celebrity). Yes, there may be a rare charge at certain times (late night babysitting, for example or in-room babysitting, a service DCL doesn't offer). It was never an issue for us.

But from an activities perspective they are the same. The list you pasted above are the smae things my kids have done on all 4 cruises. I didn't notice a difference in staff ratio, but with fewer kids, there are fewer counselors needed. In fact, based on my own observations, the ratio was better on Celebrity.

What was your experience with Celebrity? I'm curious if perhaps ours was a fluke.

 

[AnnMorin]

So as to not end up on the debate board I will just reitterate to each is own.. the end..

 

[kajohn]

I agree that everyone's opinions vary, that is why so many cruiselines are in business.
I will say however, from experience, sailing both RCCL (two different ships) and DCL, I found the service on both cruise lines to be excellent. I would not rank DCL service any better than RCCL and in my opinion the Cruise director staff was far superior on the Radiance, with Voyager second and last would be the DCL staff.

I think the reason DCL prices are higher is because they can! DCL only has one ship sailing 7 days with less than 3000 passengers on it. Whereas RCCL has approx 10 ships sailing 7 day itineraries in the carribean with room for approx. 28,000 passengers each week. It's basic supply and demand.

DCL also has every person in the US and most of the world knowing the name Disney, whereas many people who have not cruised before, don't know much about the other lines before they start looking into cruising.

I think DCL offers a great product, however I think RCCL offers an equal product, based on my experience (this is my opinion, everyone has their own).

I will say we enjoyed our DCL cruise very much, but will I sail it again? Not unless they lower the prices. I just cannot justify spending $8000 for a cruise on DCL when I can take the same week on a Voyager class ship for $5000!


Good luck CarolynK in whatever you decide. I truly beleive any cruise can be a blast if you have the right attitude even (gasp) Carnival!

There is a whole world out there to explore that is why we like to try new things all the time, and new itineraries, this year we are doing the Southern, I've never been to Aruba, and I don't know why, but to me that just sounds like the most magical tropical place!

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by kajohn
I will say we enjoyed our DCL cruise very much, but will I sail it again? Not unless they lower the prices. I just cannot justify spending $8000 for a cruise on DCL when I can take the same week on a Voyager class ship for $5000!

Kelli
Thanks for a very informative and honest opnion. I appreciate it.......... and agree with your post above.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

Did you also look into going in August? We were going to take our kids out of school in March for a 7 night Western cruise, but I got a job in the schools lunchroom, so I can't be off for a full week. I also looked into June and July, but found them too expensive ( I would have spent more on the difference between March and July than I'm making the whole year in the lunchroom!). We're going Aug 14 on the 7 night Western and we're only paying $300 more than if we would have gone in March. Plus, since the kids aren't in school yet we're going to spend a few days at WDW when we get off the ship.

 

[ripleysmom]

If you are a Costco member you can get very good DCL pricing through their travel agency.

Also I would just like to add that I have cruised Carnival as well as DCL. When we were pricing cruises for President's week, DCL was twice as much money as Carnival. DCL was definitely not worth that. I was very satisfied with our Carnival cruise. The food and entertainment were much better on Carnival than on DCL.....again just MHO.

Would I cruise DCL again? Yep, but only with my DVC points.