Help us Decide!

[writersblock]

Really undecided and could do with some help from people who have more experience than us! Ideally we want to book this weekend.

History: No kids. We love Disney World and have been 4/5 times. We like deluxe resorts, we are foodies, we love animals. We love planning and we love long road trips but also trying to find ways to relax. Traveling from UK.

We have been on the Treasure last year and loved it. Favourite things: upper deck dining, Enchante, Bingo, sea days, Castaway, speciality coffee, the shows, quiet time on our verandah with books.

We didn’t like: rotational dining (quality of food), how small the bars were.

We are booked on the transatlantic this year with Disney Dream and hope that we like the food better (and if not, we will do more room service/top deck/paid for, so it’s clearly not the deal breaker).

We are looking ahead to 2027 (Jan to July period) and we want to make it one to remember as we may not be able to travel for a couple of years after. These are our narrowed down options:

1) Transatlantic again - DCL Wish. Paired with some WDW to start. Why? I think we will love the ship. Plus, sea days. And value for money. Cons: Will have already done a similar one this year.

2) Alaska & Canada. Plan would be Vancouver round trip cruise (unsure of cruise line - considering Princess for value and Glacier Bay and DCL seems so expensive for this - plus only 7 days, but we also know we will be comfortable with Disney - for those who chose Disney for Alaska, why?) paired with self-drive Canada for a week. Why? Totally different, spectacular scenery, nature. We’d like to see bears. Cons: cold (I run very cold usually), longer travel, expense, really unsure about cruise lines for this one.

3) Hawaii. Considering two options here. Either, a longer round cruise from California that stops off at multiple islands (Princess! We are aware of NCL inter-islands too), and pairing that with DisneyLand CA for a few days (never been). OR flying and doing it ourselves - Aulani for a few days then perhaps a couple of the other islands. Why? It looks stunningly beautiful, plus warmer, and it would be a ‘wow’ type holiday. Cons: the DIY version with Aulani seems really a lot of travel - from UK to USA mainland then Hawaii plus the flights between the islands. But we can’t do Aulani if we pick the cruise version. Gah! Also: expensive. Any advice?

4) WDW/Universal. Old faithful. We would do 2-3 weeks and really slow the pace down. Lots of nostalgia for us here and if we can’t travel for a couple of years it’s like a one last hoorah. Would resort hop and finally do some Epic (not huge universal fans but wanna do the new park just to see). Would involve lots of food. Why? We love it. Cons: expensive, already done it loads.

I think our problem here is we love so many things it’s hard to narrow them down. One of us is strongly leaning towards Alaska and that’s the one I am least leaning towards. We are also wary about cruising with other cruise lines which seems daft when I say it. We are not big party people.

Open to other options.

Thanks in advance!

 

[holula]

I would do Alaska, but with Disney. It’s hands down my favorite cruise. I’ve done it twice on Disney and always said I’d do another line for Glacier Bay but just end up with Disney (I booked a third time for this summer but the World Cup priced me out with hotel and flight prices.)

If you can get a May/early June sailing on Disney the rates are normally reasonable, still more expensive than other lines, but reasonable. My first cruise was May and the second was September, overall I preferred May as the mountains still were white capped and the weather was overall better. The only thing you don’t get in May is the salmon run. Vancouver is also a great city to explore for a few days pre cruise.

 

[happycamper47]

I would do Alaska, but with Disney.

Ditto...On the Wonder in particular.

 

[Skippyboo]

The Wish is basically the same as the Treasure with slightly different theming. Haunted Mansion Lounge is Star Wars Hyperspace lounge. It’s not Oga’s Cantina like. Coco is Frozen themed Arendelle.

I am doing the Wonder this May for Alaska. The Alaska cruises start in May. That’s not really bear season that further in the summer.

Disneyland does a food festival in the spring. You could combine a couple of days in DL and then do a DCL cruise from SD before the ship moves up to Alaska.

 

[cruisehopeful]

We have been on the Treasure last year and loved it. Favourite things: upper deck dining, Enchante, Bingo, sea days, Castaway, speciality coffee, the sh
I think our problem here is we love so many things it’s hard to narrow them down. One of us is strongly leaning towards Alaska and that’s the one I am least leaning towards. We are also wary about cruising with other cruise lines which seems daft when I say it. We are not big party people.

Open to other options.

Thanks in advance!

You sound like me. There are way too many choices that sound amazing, but not enough money to cover all of them.

One idea that might help is to imagine you had unlimited funds and think about which itineraries that you are willing to exclude. That might help narrow it down.

Since you don't like the food on DCL, I would think about how much of a premium that you are paying for DCL when you don't really like the food. Is everything else about the ship worth the premium price?

Does Princess have a closed loop Hawaii cruise? Last I checked (years ago) NCL was the only line allowed to have that. If not, you'll want to heavily research the particular ship to see if you would enjoy all the sea days. Princess is different than DCL in that the service/experience on the ships can vary from great to not so great.

I would do Alaska, but with Disney. It’s hands down my favorite cruise. I’ve done it twice on Disney and always said I’d do another line for Glacier Bay but just end up with Disney (I booked a third time for this summer but the World Cup priced me out with hotel and flight prices.)

If you can get a May/early June sailing on Disney the rates are normally reasonable, still more expensive than other lines, but reasonable. My first cruise was May and the second was September, overall I preferred May as the mountains still were white capped and the weather was overall better. The only thing you don’t get in May is the salmon run. Vancouver is also a great city to explore for a few days pre cruise.

You sound like me. I've done 2 DCL Alaska cruises. We were booked for Princess this year and then ended up switching it to DCL. I still think I'll do Alaska on Princess at some point (I love the food and adult add on areas), but I also won't be surprised if we just keep going on DCL.

 

[tidefan]

A couple of notes:

1) Princess is great in Alaska, it (along with HAL) gets preferential dock treatment since they've been there so long. My only consideration is that we prefer the Royal Class ships to the older Grand Class ships. They are different. Also, Princess Plus, IMHO, is one of the best value packages out there if you are planning to drink a bit.

2) The great thing about Disney in Alaska is that they go out of Vancouver, which allows a complete Inside Passage. In other words, it typically travels between the British Columbian mainland and Vancouver Island. It's like cruising down a river and makes for an amazing "sea" day. The Magic and Wonder are far more similar than different. Magic has Rapunzel's and Wonder has Tiana's. The Tangled show on the Magic is amazing. Also, I think that the Magic has the Shawarma station, and I am not sure if the Wonder has that.