Is a Disney Cruise Worth it?

[_auroraborealis_]

I don't find lack of bottled water an issue. The water on board is potable. Most bottled water is tap water from near the bottling plant. I carry a Brita filter bottle on most trips and air travel to use for my water.

health/sanitary issues on cruise ships is almost never via the water.

 

[SunnyDhappy]

I would definitely say taking a Disney cruise is worth it as compared to the other cruise lines. We have done 13 DCL cruises while our kids were under 10 and 11. 8 and 9 are ages where they will still take so much pleasure in the characters, shows, activities and the Disney magic.

It is a truly magical experience that can't be replicated on the other cruise lines. Sure the other cruise lines all have pluses to them but DCL when the kids are your kids age is magical.

 

[SunnyDhappy]

I have to disagree with you on the bolded point. DCL only offers soda (and carbonated beverages) in the dining room and on the pool deck. If you want a soda in the theatre or at a club or bar, you'll be paying for it. Bottled water is also not included. Nor is juice available outside of the buffet in the morning, the MDRs at meals and through room service (i.e. no place to just walk up and get juice). I'd rather than DCL dropped the included soda and had a package that your could choose to purchase (or not) that was more inclusive than what they offer now.

Other lines include bottled water, specialty coffee drinks, canned soda anywhere on the ship and a variety of juices (even fresh squeezed) in their non-alcoholic drink packages.

DCL is one of the only cruise lines that allows you bring bottle water on the ship. We always bring a 24 pack of bottle waters on which costs like $5 total versus NCL where you can buy one bottle of water of $5.

Also, our kids just go up to the soda machine before a show and get a soda. Simple if you don't want to pay for a can of soda. I love going up on top deck in the evening and being able to grab a tea while watching a movie. We have always found Disney's soda/coffee/tea/juice and water options to be easy and sufficient.

 

[cruiser21]

Because some of us really like DCL and we are expressing our opinions on why we like it. If you do not really care for it, that is fine, but do not downgrade our opinions with comments like "some of the statements made on her have me laughing".

I love when people pull phrases out of context, and then get accusatory. My point was bashing other cruise lines isn't really necessary since OP has cruised other cruise lines and has been happy with them. I think I explained in two posts why I think OP SHOULD TRY DCL. I can build up DCL without being negative about other cruise lines.

 

[cruiser21]

DCL is one of the only cruise lines that allows you bring bottle water on the ship. We always bring a 24 pack of bottle waters on which costs like $5 total versus NCL where you can buy one bottle of water of $5.

Also, our kids just go up to the soda machine before a show and get a soda. Simple if you don't want to pay for a can of soda. I love going up on top deck in the evening and being able to grab a tea while watching a movie. We have always found Disney's soda/coffee/tea/juice and water options to be easy and sufficient.

You can buy a 12 pack of water on Carnival for 3.99. You can buy your water online and they will be in your room when you arrive. I wish other cruiselines would adopt this. The 30+ dollars cruise lines charge is insane. The problem is a lot of people don't have a car to pick up water. It is nice that DCl allows you to bring in on if you have the means to get to a store.

 

[SandeeJim]

My husband and I are planning to take our 8 and 7 year old boys on a cruise this fall. We have done several Royal Caribbean/Carnival cruises. We have taken them to Disney World. Is a Disney cruise worth the extra expense? What makes it better/different than a typical cruise?

We are looking at November. Does anyone know if any promotions typically come available? I know with Disney the free dining comes out in May for the fall months, and wasn't sure if the cruise promotions followed suit.

The Cruise is worth every penny!! And I don't even like cruises but LOVE Disney cruise. Service, food, activities, room were all great. No promotions that I know of.

 

[DnA2010]

We cruised on RCL's Oasis of the Seas and then on the Fantasy- even booking a VGT rate our cost was still double to go on the Fantasy.. (and our Royal cruise was a busy week and our Fantasy was off season) in all honesty, while we love love loved our cruise, it wasn't worth double to us- we found our room just as clean on Oasis, the MDR service was just ok (maybe I was too built up by the Disboards and my expectations were too high?) and we found the food a bit bland...DD loved both clubs, we loved the shows on both boats, did love Palo, but missed not having pools on the Fantasy, stuff like that. For us, being from Canada with the exchange right now, we just can't bring ourselves to drop the bucks for DCL again.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

You can buy a 12 pack of water on Carnival for 3.99. You can buy your water online and they will be in your room when you arrive. I wish other cruiselines would adopt this. The 30+ dollars cruise lines charge is insane. The problem is a lot of people don't have a car to pick up water. It is nice that DCl allows you to bring in on if you have the means to get to a store.

I agree. I end up paying more for a 6 pack of water on DCL then I do for 24 bottles on Carnival.

 

[ChicosWife]

Please go read the Classcs vs Dream class thread near the top of the boards and see if you still hold that opinion. A lot of people are not impressed wth the shape of the classcs, and this isn't new criticism either. Also note one of the defenders of the classics, me a family jumping ship for now. The Magic is home for me, lumps bumps and smells included

I tend not to go by the complaints of others, because no matter what you do, you can't please everyone. I read the complaints that people have about the Dream class ships also, and my experience is completely different. The Disney magic is what I look forward to anyway.

 

[richkaryn]

In my opinion yes it is worth it. (of course I'm also the person who listened to everyone who said it was a must to pay the extra $2000 for a balcony on our alaskan cruise .....then spent maybe 45 mins using it the whole cruise because we were always up on deck or somewhere on the ship besides our room if we weren't sleeping or showering. So, I don't always agree that everything about it is "worth it").
My reasoning:
We cruised RCCL before prior to having a child. And we paid $3.50 (the rate at the time) each for a cherry coke from Johnny Rockets every single day of our cruise, because we just love those that much. (this was before they offered soft drink packages). I've since read that there is now also a "cover charge" essentially to go in to Johnny Rockets on RCCL. The nickel -and- diming of these other lines to me makes up a significant portion of the price difference of DCL (by the time you add drink package, a cover charge to go in to a "quick service", etc) . With DCL I don't have to add on a soft drink pacakage for each person at a per person per day fee. And no charge to go get a burger either.
Rooms on DCL also tend to be slightly larger to comparable categories on the other ships.
We never went to a show on RCCL because they didn't have any that appealed to us. Did we use the casino? Yes, but only spent $20 each and when it was gone, it was gone. So that is never a make or break for me on a ship--and there is plenty to do on DCL without needing to go to a casino in our opinion. On RCCL we got bored and that's why we went to casino to begin with. (granted this was several years ago and they have new ships/new things to do).
There was a thing I wanted to go to on RCCL and I remember not being able to find where it was being held as the location was kind of vague.
I had no trouble finding the location of anything we wanted to do/go to on DCL.
DCL also has first run movies at sea.....meaning I didn't have to wait until I got back home from the cruise and pay $40-50 per movie for our family to see Captain America Civil War, The Jungle Book, Big Hero 6 at the theater...just a few that were out during some of our cruises. RCCL didn't have anything we hadn't already seen or wanted to see. And the interior of the RCCL ship reminded me of a shopping mall.

Honestly, after we cruised RCCL, we came back thinking maybe we just weren't cruise people. We were disappointed that we'd spent several thousand dollars on a trip neither of us were thrilled with. (We were originally going to go to an all inclusive resort, but a family member convinced us we'd enjoy a cruise much more.) Then DS came along and when he turned 7 we decide that for his birthday that might be the time to try a short DCL cruise to see how he'd do on a ship and to see if we were ready to give cruising another shot. (We'd been contemplating alaska but just didn't know if we had it in us to cruise again, and definitely didn't want to get on a 7 night to alaska and find DS gets sick, or doesn't like cruising.) We did a 3 night Bahama cruise and we were hooked -- everything about DCL, the looks of the ship, constantly having things we wanted to do onboard (and sometimes not enough time to fit it all in), the staff, the no nickel-and-diming, the broadway style shows, adult only areas.....for us DCL has it all and then some. We can't bring ourselves to cruise anything but DCL now. Essentially to us, it comes down to "You get what you pay for " and we don't mind paying more to guarantee we get a vacation we know we will enjoy.

 

[cgolf]

I tend not to go by the complaints of others, because no matter what you do, you can't please everyone. I read the complaints that people have about the Dream class ships also, and my experience is completely different. The Disney magic is what I look forward to anyway.

Totally agree with that, the Magic is our favorite ship, but man it does take a beating on here at times, but she will always be number 1 for us

 

[MUN]

My husband and I are planning to take our 8 and 7 year old boys on a cruise this fall. We have done several Royal Caribbean/Carnival cruises. We have taken them to Disney World. Is a Disney cruise worth the extra expense? What makes it better/different than a typical cruise?

We are looking at November. Does anyone know if any promotions typically come available? I know with Disney the free dining comes out in May for the fall months, and wasn't sure if the cruise promotions followed suit.

I haven't bothered to read the 3 pages of responses, but as my neighbor likes to point out, price is what you pay, value is what you get.

 

[JWG]

I haven't bothered to read the 3 pages of responses, but as my neighbor likes to point out, price is what you pay, value is what you get.

That's fair.
The reality is I do not think the mark-up paid for DCL compared to other cruise lines is worth it, meaning having to pay essentially double for DCL does not bring double the stuff or experience.

That said, we only do Disney cruises...so either I'm really dumb or we find the comfort of the brand to be worth it.

 

[KashasMom]

The nickel -and- diming of these other lines to me makes up a significant portion of the price difference of DCL (by the time you add drink package, a cover charge to go in to a "quick service", etc) . With DCL I don't have to add on a soft drink pacakage for each person at a per person per day fee. And no charge to go get a burger either.

This is just not true. I know everybody says it to justify the "free soda" on Disney. Disney charges for photos, spa, Alcohol, the nursery, snacks for evening shows and movies, souvenirs, gratuities/tips, Royal Court Tea, Bingo, specialty dining, laundry, those light up kids cups in the dining room, etc. just like every other cruise line. Many people don't buy a soda package (we don't drink a lot of soda, especially my daughter) so to justify thousands of dollars more for soda just doesn't make any sense. There's a great thread on here that mentions all the things Disney charges for - not sure how to find it though.

 

[dixie47]

That's fair.
The reality is I do not think the mark-up paid for DCL compared to other cruise lines is worth it, meaning having to pay essentially double for DCL does not bring double the stuff or experience.

That said, we only do Disney cruises...so either I'm really dumb or we find the comfort of the brand to be worth it.

This is so much fun! Writing/reading about cruising .....I think most of us can't wait until our next one.

I'm a grandma. I have loved cruises on Princess and RCI Freedom and Oasis class. I have loved cruises on Wonder. I tend to stay on the ship b/c in my experience excursions (except in Alaska) don't really do a country justice. When I want to visit a place, I take a land trip.

Castaway Cay is the nicest private island experience of those I've visited. Wonderful family beaches, characters, music, dancing, lunch, even the kids club is available there for the day. Free lounges, chairs, and umbrellas.

In my opinion food is comparable on all those lines. Service is good, staff is friendly.

Lots of adult evening fun on RCI. On DCL the evening shows are fabulous and family friendly.

Going with kids age 10 or so and under, I'd choose Disney every time. Kids generally love the clubs, easily see characters, enjoy fireworks and parties. We can see movies appropriate for families. Parents can relax while kids are at the club.

An adult trip, Princess or the newer RCI ships are just as good, maybe better. Water shows and ice skating shows and evening shows along with fun in the evening lounges.

Trying now to plan a family trip for teens and young adults. Probably go to RCI Allure or Oasis. However just returned from a Disney cruise with children ages 8 and 6. My third and it was perfect!

Good luck!

 

[dixie47]

This is so much fun! Writing/reading about cruising .....I think most of us can't wait until our next one.

I'm a grandma. I have loved cruises on Princess and RCI Freedom and Oasis class. I have loved cruises on Wonder. I tend to stay on the ship b/c in my experience excursions (except in Alaska) don't really do a country justice. When I want to visit a place, I take a land trip.

Castaway Cay is the nicest private island experience of those I've visited. Wonderful family beaches, characters, music, dancing, lunch, even the kids club is available there for the day. Free lounges, chairs, and umbrellas.

In my opinion food is comparable on all those lines. Service is good, staff is friendly.

Lots of adult evening fun on RCI. On DCL the evening shows are fabulous and family friendly.

Going with kids age 10 or so and under, I'd choose Disney every time. Kids generally love the clubs, easily see characters, enjoy fireworks and parties. We can see movies appropriate for families. Parents can relax while kids are at the club.

An adult trip, Princess or the newer RCI ships are just as good, maybe better. Water shows and ice skating shows and evening shows along with fun in the evening lounges.

Trying now to plan a family trip for teens and young adults. Probably go to RCI Allure or Oasis. However just returned from a Disney cruise with children ages 8 and 6. My third and it was perfect!

Good luck!

 

[dixie47]

Oh, and Disney ships are smaller and much easier to get around than the larger new RCI. That's a factor with children, I think.

 

[cgolf]

Oh, and Disney ships are smaller and much easier to get around than the larger new RCI. That's a factor with children, I think.

I think that it depends on the ship, the Freedom of the seas was super easy to Navigate, while we were lost on the Dream lol. I think some ships are easier than others, but you really won't know till you get on them.

 

[cruiser21]

This is just not true. I know everybody says it to justify the "free soda" on Disney. Disney charges for photos, spa, Alcohol, the nursery, snacks for evening shows and movies, souvenirs, gratuities/tips, Royal Court Tea, Bingo, specialty dining, laundry, those light up kids cups in the dining room, etc. just like every other cruise line. Many people don't buy a soda package (we don't drink a lot of soda, especially my daughter) so to justify thousands of dollars more for soda just doesn't make any sense. There's a great thread on here that mentions all the things Disney charges for - not sure how to find it though.

I'm always shocked people would buy a soda package for their kids. My kids have never had a soda in their life and they are teenagers. I don't care about the free soda either. My body can do without that garbage.

 

[richkaryn]

This is just not true. I know everybody says it to justify the "free soda" on Disney. Disney charges for photos, spa, Alcohol, the nursery, snacks for evening shows and movies, souvenirs, gratuities/tips, Royal Court Tea, Bingo, specialty dining, laundry, those light up kids cups in the dining room, etc. just like every other cruise line. Many people don't buy a soda package (we don't drink a lot of soda, especially my daughter) so to justify thousands of dollars more for soda just doesn't make any sense. There's a great thread on here that mentions all the things Disney charges for - not sure how to find it though.

Yes, I know disney charges for those other things you listed....but so do the other lines. THe point I was making in my post is TO ME, I feel that the soft drinks being included and not paying a cover charge to go and get a burger from one of the quick service places on the pool deck on DCL vs a Johnny Rockets on RCCL are worth the difference. We paid for pictures on RCCL just like we did DCL....and also gratuities, alcohol, (although DCL lets you bring some of that on board too vs the other lines), Bingo, etc......it's the few things DCL doesn't charge for that I personally take advantage of that makes it worth the price to me. And maybe you and your daughter don't drink soda, but some people do. The OP asked for opinions on if we thought it was worth it......I gave mine.....you can't tell me my opinion "is just not true". An opinion is an opinion...nobody said it was fact.....but it is fact that DCL doesn't charge extra in addition to cruise fare for soft drinks or for a hamburger from the quick service on board.