Honest Question on Not Liking the Ships

[tidefan]

Ever since our DD turned 18, we've pretty much moved on to Virgin Voyages. Absolutely love cruising with them. The food is much better than say HAL or Princess (have not done Celebrity) and so much better than RCCL. Strangely enough, I actually find that the best non-VV (or non-DCL) food is Carnival...

That said, we are big relaxation, food, and itinerary people, so the entertainment isn't as big of a factor for us, though we definitely enjoy the DCL shows. Problem is, after you do a number of sailings, since they don't change them, it loses the luster a bit. I mean, there are only so many times one can see Dreams or Believe...

Another weird thing for us is laundry. We have status with VV, so we each get a free bag sent out (we have this on Princess too), but I could not imagine going on say a 10 night Med cruise and not having laundry on the ship. I do appreciate the DCL and Princess ships that have laundry. That's another thing I don't like about RCCL...

 

[AquaDame]

Hi DCL Fanatics. Looking for feedback on when people say they dislike, hate or won’t gone on X ship ever again. I guess I am asking this as i am in the planning phase of taking our first non DCL cruise ( 5 x DCL cruises ). I love all the DCL ships I’ve been on Dream, Wish, Fantasy, Magic. Have there been some some not so stellar service experiences, sure there have been. But there has also been some amazing service experiences. My question I guess is really more the ship itself that you dislike. It’s hard for me to understand someone actually disking or hating a ship to the point they won’t go again.

It might help to reframe - WHY would I sail the Wish again when I did not like sailing on her? She doesn't have anything unique that would bring me back onboard (personal opinion for sure), and she goes places other cruises go. In my case it is enough that the layout and amenities just weren't as nice as I find them on the other ships. I don't "hate" the Wish, but I have no plans on sailing her again. It would take an extra push from something - a unique itinerary, or unmoveable dates - to overwrite my conviction. I also have no intention to sail on Radiance or Jewel of the Seas either - we only chose them for the itinerary and timing; we did not enjoy our time aboard enough for me to seek them out in the future.

 

[asgur5]

To each their own. What you call “enhanced” used to be the expectation of what’s included and still is on the more premium lines. There’s a word for what Royal has been doing since Covid, en-bleep-ification. Giving you less and less for your base fare and up charging for everything. I don’t want to have to spend on top of my cruise fare to have a decent experience regardless of how much cheaper the total ends up compared to other lines, and increasingly you’re forced to. The MDR menu changes are a prime example of that. On DCL I don’t feel forced to eat at Palo, it’s just a treat. Rotational is pretty solid to good. Royal MDR is dog food now outside of the Indian dishes. And if I’m going to be forced to do specialty dining to have a decent meal then I’m just going to do Virgin.

Gonna be honest, none of the mass market cruise lines do truly interesting itineraries to me. I would rather do those on newer, smaller ships on the premium lines or get into river cruising.

So you want to pay more money for the same experience as long as you pay it all up front. Thats completely irrational.

 

[DCLMP]

Maybe once I reach Pearl, I will agree with your assessment. Right now, I don’t want to jump ship from DCL. In the future, we want to try the Haven on NCL and the Retreat on Celebrity. (Think I got the names right!). Along with Viking for a river cruise.

Maybe you will get lucky and they will add some benefits.

 

[DCLMP]

So you want to pay more money for the same experience as long as you pay it all up front. Thats completely irrational.

Strawman argument.

 

[dreamer17555]

So you want to pay more money for the same experience as long as you pay it all up front. Thats completely irrational.

I know SO many people who prefer to pay upfront for everything vs being charged as they go even if it costs a bit more. We used to do the dining plan for the exact reason because some people in my group were easily freaked out by the high cost of the sitdown meals but prepaid as a meal plan were completely fine. It was not a great value (my daughter is a vegetarian) but it was worth it to lower stress and complaints.

 

[DCLMP]

I get the concept of the all inclusive. There was a time years ago when the dining plan was actually a good deal.

As far as DCL goes there's nothing included that's not included on any other cruise line. The other cruise lines have more activities and they charge for them. Disney chose not to put those things on their ships.

As far as paying for the extras up front. It's smart they run sales and offer discounts especially around Black Friday. Your going to pay more if you book them onboard.

 

[DCL58]

Maybe you will get lucky and they will add some benefits.

I really just don’t want to have to stay up til midnight to do online checkin! And get to arrive at the port earlier. Not expecting much.

 

[DCLMP]

I really just don’t want to have to stay up til midnight to do online checkin! And get to arrive at the port earlier. Not expecting much.

Oh come on! You deserve more.

 

[asgur5]

Strawman argument.

Its not an argument at all. Its simply re-stating the implication of what someone else posted. They stated they dont want to pay less for a cruise if they didnt pay all at once.

Personally if people act this way it benefits me. They pay more for an experience enabling me to pay less. Disneworld meal plans work exactly the same way. Customers who pay them are making my disneyworld trip cheaper for me.

 

[DCLMP]

Its not an argument at all. Its simply re-stating the implication of what someone else posted. They stated they dont want to pay less for a cruise if they didnt pay all at once.

Personally if people act this way it benefits me. They pay more for an experience enabling me to pay less. Disneworld meal plans work exactly the same way. Customers who pay them are making my disneyworld trip cheaper for me.

It was a comment about the post you were quoting. I've seen the same argument over and over on this forum. It's how they justify paying more. There is not rationality to it. I personally prefer to just pay for what I want to do vs paying for what everyone else on the ship wants to do.

 

[Hubie]

With Seabourn many of the long long time sailors prefer the 458 passenger ships as opposed to the 600 passenger ships viewing the 600 passenger as too large this is primarily because they started with the company when it was very small ships (of which several are now Windstar ships). Many newer passengers seem to prefer the 600 passenger ships.

We actually got to tour one of the Expedition ships of the company when it was docked along side us. Those ships have a max of 264 passengers and while talking with the passengers while touring their ship (they got to tour ours too) they gave the information that it has a different type of vibe of the ship when the particular one is not actually an Expedition one which at that time that particular cruise was NOT considered sailed as one (and thus lacks an Expedition team). We thought the styling of the ship was quite cool and could picture ourselves relaxing in multiple of the spaces but did wish we could have toured a room. We're hesitant on whether we would want to try and sail that sometime when it's not an expedition cruise (which means it's slightly less in price point).

At the moment we have stayed away from the 458 passenger ships (soon to be only one left after May 2026) primarily because the upcharge for the balcony is a bit high for us (although we almost booked a French Polynesia cruise for 2026 on one). Those ships the lowest category is an ocean view and the window is quite large still but we would prefer the balcony. The larger 600 passenger ships (there's two of them) are all balcony ships and the price point better for them. Another thing is while we don't eat sushi we like the bento boxes served during lunch at the Sushi restaurant on the larger ships, sushi was so well received they started serving it on the 458 passenger ships but only in a particular spot because they don't have a dedicated restaurant like the larger ships do.

I know for us when we were looking at what company to do a cruise with we did do a lot of youtube videos to help give us an idea of the feel of the ship once we had narrowed down more the company. The first Expedition ship had just been completed when we started searching out cruises in summer 2022 and we for sure didn't want to sail a brand new ship with a newer type of ship with them in favor of waiting it out a bit, their second one started sailing in 2023. Now with several years under the belt and having been fortunate enough to be able to tour one we have a much better idea if we would pay the increased fare to sail it.

I think it's hard to always know exactly what you may dislike about a particular ship but I do think you can get an idea by doing a lot of research once you've done a few cruises to pick up your meh, dislikes and likes.

We've sailed on 10 DCL cruises to date, and our favorite ships were the two classics (Wonder and Magic). That said, we've been blown away by Swan Hellenic's expedition ships (SH Diana and SH Vega that have capacities for less than 200 paying passengers). Yes, the two cruises were not cheap, but you just have to wait for a deal. I've included a few pictures: