NYDisneyMom
I need to have a vacation planned at all times...
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2003
- Messages
- 1,122
...if anyone is thinking about comparing another line to Disney.
I have to say I was completely spoiled by our Disney cruise last May (7 day, Eastern). BUT, I am happy to report that there is life after DCL.
We just sailed on the NCL Spirit for 10 days, Southern Caribbean. We did five islands and had a FABULOUS vacation! Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Tortola.
I picked the Spirit for two reasons, the first being the itinerary. The second for its kids' facilities.
The Spirit has an awesome kids' pool on the back of the ship, complete with pirate ship, water cannon, two slides, a kids hot tub and a baby pool. The deck area around the pool is an "amphitheater' style, so there is lots of places to sit, lounge and/or eat while watching the kids. The arcade is also right off of the pool area, as is the kids' club.
Now for the comparing. The kids' club was just okay. My boys are 10 and 8, and we were traveling with my friend and her daughter who is also 10. So the three kids really had each other to play with the whole time anyway. Now...sit down for this one. I think there were probably less than 40 kids on the entire ship! LOL! Compared to something like 900+ on our Disney cruise.
So..as they don't get large numbers of children, they don't need large areas for their facility. My kids went to the club just about every night after dinner from 7:00 to 10:00 (after 10:00 you have to pay extra for the club). They had activities like "Spy Kid" night, Survivor Night, Carnivale Night, Pajama Party night, etc. They don't have the computers, video games, etc. that Disney has, but they did have a little movie 'theater' for the kids and did lots of crafts and games with them. My boys did fine there. If we were on the ship during the day they spent most of their time in the pool and hot tub, and I gave them an allowance for arcade games.
The food on the ship wasn't as good as Disney, either. But it was good. Nothing spectacular about their desserts -- an example, I ordered a poached pear dessert one night and I got a parfait glass filled with vanilla ice cream and two slices of pear on top.
The buffet was decent..my boys enjoyed the barbecues by the pools. Oh..the adult pool area was very nice. Large pool...a lot bigger than Disney's adult pool. It was beautifully done with a Roman theme, four hot tubs and a little stage area for the reggae band that seemed to play there most afternoons.
As for the shows...I don't know, I didn't do any. My friend and her daughter saw one show with a Broadway theme and said it was decent. The kids were taken to a magic show one night with the club, and they enjoyed that. I spent only an hour or two at the casino, which I hear is one of the largest on any ship. The movie theater is tiny!! So small that I couldn't find it!! LOL! We saw Shark Tales one night in their theater.
The cabin was nice...I couldn't get a balcony, they were all booked. But we had an oceanview room and the window was very large. The ship was originally built for the Japanese to sail, so the cabin is where you will really notice the smaller scale for the Asians. The beds are lower to the ground, bathrooms are a bit tighther. The bathroom in the cabin was nice though, the shower had a real door to close, the sink was in the middle and then the toilet on the other side also had a sliding door for privacy. I think next to Disney's two separate bathrooms, this is a great design.
What else can I compare?? Oh..dining on NCL is 'freestyle', meaning you don't have an assigned time to eat. You eat where you want, when you want. There's a lot of debate over this, but really it's a personal preference. If you need to know you're eating dinner at a certain time, in a certain restaurant with a certain server than stay away from NCL. Having kids I personally liked the flexibility of freestyle. I did miss the personal service we received from our server and assistant server on DCL though.
The islands were fabulous! Again, this was the main reason we booked this cruise. And I'm here to say that 10 days on a cruise is NOT too long! LOL!! We were at sea the first two days, then the next five days we did the islands and the next two days at sea again. In fact, 7 days seems too short for me to cruise now!
Overall, this 10 day cruise cost about half of what our 7 day DCL cruise cost and I'd do it again without hesitation. I think I'm going to book our next cruise on Royal and do some further research.
If I can answer any questions, I'd be happy to.
Here's a link to a few photos from our cruise last week: http://community.webshots.com/user/phylliskelly
I have to say I was completely spoiled by our Disney cruise last May (7 day, Eastern). BUT, I am happy to report that there is life after DCL.
We just sailed on the NCL Spirit for 10 days, Southern Caribbean. We did five islands and had a FABULOUS vacation! Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Tortola.
I picked the Spirit for two reasons, the first being the itinerary. The second for its kids' facilities.
The Spirit has an awesome kids' pool on the back of the ship, complete with pirate ship, water cannon, two slides, a kids hot tub and a baby pool. The deck area around the pool is an "amphitheater' style, so there is lots of places to sit, lounge and/or eat while watching the kids. The arcade is also right off of the pool area, as is the kids' club.Now for the comparing.
The kids' club was just okay. My boys are 10 and 8, and we were traveling with my friend and her daughter who is also 10. So the three kids really had each other to play with the whole time anyway. Now...sit down for this one. I think there were probably less than 40 kids on the entire ship! LOL! Compared to something like 900+ on our Disney cruise.So..as they don't get large numbers of children, they don't need large areas for their facility. My kids went to the club just about every night after dinner from 7:00 to 10:00 (after 10:00 you have to pay extra for the club). They had activities like "Spy Kid" night, Survivor Night, Carnivale Night, Pajama Party night, etc. They don't have the computers, video games, etc. that Disney has, but they did have a little movie 'theater' for the kids and did lots of crafts and games with them. My boys did fine there. If we were on the ship during the day they spent most of their time in the pool and hot tub, and I gave them an allowance for arcade games.
The food on the ship wasn't as good as Disney, either. But it was good. Nothing spectacular about their desserts -- an example, I ordered a poached pear dessert one night and I got a parfait glass filled with vanilla ice cream and two slices of pear on top.
The buffet was decent..my boys enjoyed the barbecues by the pools. Oh..the adult pool area was very nice. Large pool...a lot bigger than Disney's adult pool. It was beautifully done with a Roman theme, four hot tubs and a little stage area for the reggae band that seemed to play there most afternoons. As for the shows...I don't know, I didn't do any.
My friend and her daughter saw one show with a Broadway theme and said it was decent. The kids were taken to a magic show one night with the club, and they enjoyed that. I spent only an hour or two at the casino, which I hear is one of the largest on any ship. The movie theater is tiny!! So small that I couldn't find it!! LOL! We saw Shark Tales one night in their theater. The cabin was nice...I couldn't get a balcony, they were all booked. But we had an oceanview room and the window was very large. The ship was originally built for the Japanese to sail, so the cabin is where you will really notice the smaller scale for the Asians. The beds are lower to the ground, bathrooms are a bit tighther. The bathroom in the cabin was nice though, the shower had a real door to close, the sink was in the middle and then the toilet on the other side also had a sliding door for privacy. I think next to Disney's two separate bathrooms, this is a great design.
What else can I compare?? Oh..dining on NCL is 'freestyle', meaning you don't have an assigned time to eat. You eat where you want, when you want. There's a lot of debate over this, but really it's a personal preference. If you need to know you're eating dinner at a certain time, in a certain restaurant with a certain server than stay away from NCL. Having kids I personally liked the flexibility of freestyle. I did miss the personal service we received from our server and assistant server on DCL though.
The islands were fabulous! Again, this was the main reason we booked this cruise. And I'm here to say that 10 days on a cruise is NOT too long! LOL!! We were at sea the first two days, then the next five days we did the islands and the next two days at sea again. In fact, 7 days seems too short for me to cruise now!
Overall, this 10 day cruise cost about half of what our 7 day DCL cruise cost and I'd do it again without hesitation. I think I'm going to book our next cruise on Royal and do some further research.
If I can answer any questions, I'd be happy to.
Here's a link to a few photos from our cruise last week: http://community.webshots.com/user/phylliskelly
