Is a non-disney cruise full of drunks and party animals?

[stevenpensacola]

We've only been on one cruise....a 4 night Disney Cruise during the Christmas Holidays last year.

Looking into going again (without the kids )....we LOVED the Disney Cruise....especially the family atmosphere on board the ship...even during the sail-away and pirate deck parties. We're not party people...don't smoke....don't gamble....don't get drunk.....

I've got the impression that a non-Disney cruise is full of loud, obnoxious drunks stumbling down the hallways at all times of the day....am I off base here?

Would we enjoy a non-disney cruise.....they're cheaper, but at what cost?

some of you more experienced cruisers help me out....
Thanks!

 

[mommasita]

Wow..I will give you "my" thoughts...

As per my siggy, you see we have done 3 Disney, and one Princess. And we honestly did not see a difference in the alcohol part of it. There was a casino on Princess, and that was a difference, but IMHO the cruises that are NON dcl and 3 or 4 nights, have a lot of younger people looking to party. When they are 7 nights or longer, there seems to be an older, more relaxed crowd.

The price was definitely cheaper, and closer to home, thus we drove there, save on airfare. We loved every minute of it, granted it was not DCL, but we knew this, and went with it, and had a blast.

I think we will try RCCL next time, as there seems to be more to do for kids on there. Cruise Critic is a great place to mosey around, and see for yourself what kinds of folk there are. I went there when we were planning our Princess, and got great insight. I do find the people a little more harsher than here, but helpful none the less.

I hope this helps you a bit, and it definitely was hard for me to grasp that there was a world of cruising beyond Disney, but there is.

Now having said that, my kids are getting older, and looking for a change also, so we tried, and we liked, had they been younger, I might not have been so willing..

 

[MCourtney]

We've only been on one cruise....a 4 night Disney Cruise during the Christmas Holidays last year.

Looking into going again (without the kids )....we LOVED the Disney Cruise....especially the family atmosphere on board the ship...even during the sail-away and pirate deck parties. We're not party people...don't smoke....don't gamble....don't get drunk.....

I've got the impression that a non-Disney cruise is full of loud, obnoxious drunks stumbling down the hallways at all times of the day....am I off base here?

Would we enjoy a non-disney cruise.....they're cheaper, but at what cost?

some of you more experienced cruisers help me out....
Thanks!

Have 2 to comment on, and it has been several years since I was on either.

1. Celebrity - Fantastic, fun and everyone was extremely pleasant and very well behaved. Very nice ship. I would definitely cruise Celebrity again.

2. Carnival -Boat was full of loud, obnoxious party animals. DH and I would NEVER cruise Carnival again.

Good luck!!!

 

[Buzz & Woody]

Mo opinion, and only my opinion. I think that Carnaval is a more "boistorious" line. But I think that the other majors like Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Princess, Celebrity etc are more family oriented, higher class, family lines

 

[mer1015]

My family (Me, DH and DD) have been on RCCL 2 times and loved it. The first time DD was 8 and the second she was 10. The kids program was great and as for the partying is there if you want it in the night club but we always felt it was a great family vacation.

 

[CaptJackSparrow]

I've got the impression that a non-Disney cruise is full of loud, obnoxious drunks stumbling down the hallways at all times of the day...

Ah yes, isn't it lovely? I do try my best.

 

[tvguy]

Never encountered a drunk on Disney, NCL, HAL, RCCL or Paquet.
But I have never been on a cruise less than 7 days long.

Those 3 day Carnival Cruises out of Southern California have a bad rep, a co-worker went on one and never even used his cabin.......went on a 3 day drinking binge.

 

[owtrbnks]

As a veteran of 10 cruises (with the 11th coming in 2 weeks - 1st time on DCL ) here's MHO:
1. Princess (3x) Already put a deposit on the next one!
2. RCCL (5x) 2nd choice by far.
3. Celebrity (1x) Once was OK.
4. Norwegian (1x) Never again.
5. We have never tried Carnival and never will! (I believe I've seen a few of the reasons above.) Speaking with cruisers that have been on Carnival was enough for me.
Details: Me and DW: 40's, N/S, Been known to have a few beers or bottle of wine with dinner - but have never fallen overboard, 1DD, 1DS. Kids say cruises were better than going to WDW! (They've both been to WDW too many times to count.)
P.S. - We've seen a drunk or 2 on every ship, but nothing that really affected our good time. Caribbean is cool, but Alaska is awesome!

 

[cats mom]

Well, I only have first hand experience with DCL and Carnival and I'd say they were very different.

Of course I'm sure it didn't help that our Carnival cruise was over spring break.
It was definitely a party cruise (and it was a 7 day too)
Plenty of smoking, drinking and gambling going on.

One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned is the entertainment. We loved the shows on DCL and not so much on Carnival. Of course it has been quite a few years since our Carnival cruise, so things could be different now, but I remember some pretty risque performances and nothing that I felt was up to the standards of DCL.

Sounds like there are other lines that would be better choices though.

 

[dizneefreak29]

I've been on two Disney cruises (my third next week! ) and decide to book with Royal Caribbean this past summer. We went on the Enchantment of the Seas. It was awesome! As much as I love Disney, we found a lot more to do on the Royal Caribbean cruise. I took my brother for his graduation gift (I'm 32 he is 18) and I practically had to drag him off the ship when we were done! On our cruise the drinking age was 18....we saw a couple teenagers who clearly couldn't handle as much drinking as they had done...but for the most part I didn't see a difference between Royal Caribbean and Disney.

 

[mmouse37]

Carnival and DCL are different....but not all Carnival cruises (or other cruiselines for that matter) have loud, noisy drunks and in that vein...not all DCL cruises are perfect.

You must be careful on what cruise you book...as stated above shorter cruises (other than DCL) tend to attract younger crowds that drink more (the reason being shorter cruises are cheaper)....the longer the cruise the more mainstream the passengers are going to be.

We have done several Carnival cruises and never experienced drunks....we have cruised DCL 16 times and saw terrible drunks...where secruity had to be called.... and on our last DCL cruise on 11/4/06 a few people were put off the ship in Key West due to obnoxious behavior in one of the bars.

So...it not the cruise line per se...but the people. You can get idiots who will over drink on any cruise line. We found Carnival to be a great cruise....much more strict than DCL on formal night with the dress code and much stricter on proofing people before they let them in the clubs. Personally, Carnival and RCCL have much better nightlife than on DCL...that does not make them bad...just different. I don't really get into gambling so I could take or leave a casino, but just because there is a casino onboard does not mean everyone is going to be drunk in there.

We have also cruised RCCL and Princess....the biggest difference I find in the caliber of people is the length of the cruise and the itinerary.

Please don't give a cruiseline a "blanket" assessment that it is bad. As I said we have done a few Carnival cruises of 7 days or more and they were great.

We should not be cruise "snobs" and try other things for ourselves.

 

[Vanvmom]

On the double scoop cruise we just got back from, we cruised with a family that had done a Carnival cruise before. They said that hands down DCL was much better - the food, the ship, the service!

Their Carnival cruise was a 3 day, and they did it because it was very affordable. They also said that it was very much a booze cruise. They don't drink that much, and said that if you cruise Carnival you have to be prepared to see a ton of intoxicated young folks roaming the halls.

 

[Hans Solo]

As you can see in my sig, we have sailed with Disney and Royal Caribbean.
Disney will cost more but they do a Wonderful job of creating a Magical cruising experience.
We have not experinced any rowdy drunks or party animals on the RCCL Mariner of the Seas. It's not to say it doen't happen, but we didn't see or hear of any incidents. Also RCCL has discontinued the drinking wavers for the 18-21yo age group to futher promote themselves as a family cruise line.

 

[my3kids]

I thought there was a lot more drinking on the Disney Cruise I took than the Royal Caribbean cruise I took. The 2 trips seemed to attract a very different group of cruisers.

 

[my3kids]

In terms of smoking...the casino was very smokey but other than that there wasn't a smoke problem on RC for us.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We've never been on a cruise that we've regretted. We've been on 15 cruises, mostly RCCL, Carnival and Princess, but also DCL and a few lesser known companies. We were afraid to go on Carnival because of perception, but we are so glad we didn't let preconceived notions stop us. We've had wonderful cruises. Our next one is planned for Sept. '07, Carnival, 5 nights, our last cruise was Princess from Puerto Rico, 7 nights in March '06. We pick our cruises by the itineraries. Except for CC, we were not overly enamoured by the DCL.

Bobbi

 

[kplatt]

I love to research ships and their itineraries in my free time -- lusting for the day when I can book our next cruise.

If you log on to www.vacationstogo.com you can look at the amenities listed for almost every cruise ship afloat. Most of the listings will say exactly how many bars/lounges are available (I think the most I saw was 22 on a Carnival ship! ), whether there's a casino, etc. I think it's a quick measure as to what the atmosphere of the ship may be.

Good luck,

 

[crisi]

I don't think anyone has mentioned it but cruisecritic is supposed to be (I've spent all of twelve minutes there) one of the best cruise boards on the web (if not THE best) for general cruising information. You may want to ask the folks over there to help you choose a line and ship that meets your needs.

Obviously, each cruise line and ship is going to have a different niche. Celebrity tends to attract a younger crowd, its a less expensive cruise. Cunard is going to attract a crowd that is older and better off - if there are drunks, they'll at least have gotten drunk off Grey Goose martinis and not Capn Morgan and Coke. Where DCL attracts families and Disney fans - which does not mean people don't get drunk (DCL has great kids clubs!!!! And apparently some people use them extensively while they drink).

But, the point was made earlier but is worth repeating, each CRUISE is different because it has different people on it. If you have a Carnival "Fun Ship" cruise half booked by the BYU Alumni Association it will be a very different cruise than one completely booked by University of Wisconsin Seniors on Spring Break. Likewise, you can book a DCL cruise where you have a few partying family reunion families on board and the whole feel of the ship can change.

 

[Kaitysmom]

We have only done RCCL and Disney so I don't have a lot of experience. We found more of a party atmosphere with Disney with sailaways at each port and lots of fun. RCCL was deserted on deck at the end of the day - we didn't go to the clubs or the casino because it's not our thing but we were surprised at how quiet the ship was at night. They didn't have any on deck sailaways at the ports - kind of a letdown after what we were used to with Disney. (we did the 12 night Mediterranean cruise)

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

On the double scoop cruise we just got back from, we cruised with a family that had done a Carnival cruise before. They said that hands down DCL was much better - the food, the ship, the service!

Their Carnival cruise was a 3 day, and they did it because it was very affordable. They also said that it was very much a booze cruise. They don't drink that much, and said that if you cruise Carnival you have to be prepared to see a ton of intoxicated young folks roaming the halls.

You shouldn't categorize an entire cruise line based on 1 family's opinion of 1 sailing.
We have been on 3 Carnival cruises, variety of long and short cruises,(5-7 days but never a 3 day,) older and brand new ships, and different seasons. We didn't see any drunks, rowdiness, etc. Yes, people drank but nothing annoying. BTW, we don't drink, smoke or gamble. We just like to relax by the pool and visit some islands with our kids. If I had to say what was most annoying was just sooo many kids which we'd expect on DCL too.
They have a massive slide, way bigger than DCL's that was loads of fun, even for adults. If you consider laughter to be obnoxious behavior then it's just not for you.
Overall, I think they make cruising affordable for people who may not otherwise afford it. Not everyone can afford a DC or stay at the GF.