Maybe Some Other Time...

[Curtis McCrea]

I think the ports of call for the ship is Cozumel, Nassau and Half Moon Cay (Private Island)...doesn't look nearly as exciting as CC though!

 

[quentina]

Really? Cold? Weird, that's not how it's suppose to be, is it?

Probably not...but it was, on all 3...or....maybe it starts out warm and buy the time I get to my table, it's cold

It's just a part of the cruise buffet's that I accept. It doesn't ruin my trip or discourage me from cruising again!

 

[Curtis McCrea]

Probably not...but it was, on all 3...or....maybe it starts out warm and buy the time I get to my table, it's cold

It's just a part of the cruise buffet's that I accept. It doesn't ruin my trip or discourage me from cruising again!

The food in the buffet for my cruise in March was kept under heaters above it's container.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Our family has sailed almost as many Carnival cruises as we've sailed Disney. Disney is our all time favorite, but Carnival is a close second. The Conquest class ships are the way to sail. The prices are great too if DCL is out of your price range for your sail dates. We thought the food in the main dining room was a little better than DCL's (though Palo is a little better than the Carnival steakhouses.) I think you will still have a great time!

 

[DW2010]

I'm having serious doubts about booking the Fantasy for 6/2/12. It's just about $1500 more than the Carnival Dream sailing 12/11. Yes, I know that December cruises are less than June, but Fantasy doesn't have pricing out for 12/12. Plus our DD starts Kindergarten in the fall of 2012 so we won't want to take her out of school. I mean $1500 is A LOT of money. Not to mention that we could even get a Balcony on the Carnival for almost $1100 less than the least expensive stateroom on the Fantasy. Is Disney worth this much more. FWIW, our D will be 5 when we sail.

 

[DW2010]

I think the ports of call for the ship is Cozumel, Nassau and Half Moon Cay (Private Island)...doesn't look nearly as exciting as CC though!

The Carnival itinerary I'm looking at goes to Roatan which looks very nice. I badly want to go to CC, though.

 

[Angelhalo]

We enter every cruise with a positive attitude. We were troopers on our Carnival Splendor cruise. All the great attitude in the world just doesn't always make up for poor quality. Our Carnival cruise was better than staying at home and going to work, but you definitely get what you pay for, and thankfully we've been able to get some great deals on DCL

 

[StJohnfamily]

After MAJOR discussion, we've chosen to cancel our Disney Cruise and book a Carnival Cruise.

We just find it a little too expensive for us.

Maybe some other time, DCL.

We made this mistake last February to join some friends. I would have to say that the ship itself was beautiful. The service SUCKED!!!! They nickeled and dimed us to death. The amount we saved on the front sure got sucked into the paying to get off the ship. They add your gratuties right onto to your ship board credit. They charge for the kids club after 9:00, which when you have late seating meant every night for our daughter to have fun with other kids rather than hang with us at dinner. They also charge for craft/fun things to do in the kids club. The drinks were very watered down and when asked for more an additional shot in the drink, the cost was $15 per drink!! I can say we will never cruise with them again.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

There are deals to be had from time to time on DCL. In March we got cat 12 rooms for $699 pp, 7 night Western! And pixie dusted up to a cat 9... although truthfully, we really wanted to see if we'd be "happy" with an inside room!

And we got a great deal on KSF for this March's spring break MR cruise.

 

[tigger2on]

Sorry to hear you had to cancel...
Hopefully you will be able to try Disney one day!
My advice is to watch for the "special offers". They had 25% off for Canadians recently.

 

[Tower]

I hope the Fascination is better than the Sensation was. After 4 DCL cruises, we gave that one a try and for a change, were actually happy when the trip was over.
Just remember..."You get what you pay for"

We were on the Fascination twice over the years. The first one was a 4-night to Key West and Cozumel with a day at sea. They really encouraged a lot of drinking in order to be the 'fun ship'. I don't like spending time around a lot of drunks and we were happy to get off the ship.
Years later, with 3 kids in tow (6, 4 and 6 months) we found a price on the Fascination we could not turn down. It was a 3 night with one day in Nassau. Completely different experience!! Love it! The kids cried when they found out they had to leave the ship the next day.
So, now we've sailed the Disney Magic last December and we're doing the Carnival Dream this December. We'll gauge it on a few comparitive features, one being the parents' experiences, the excursions and finally, 'Did the kids like it as much as Disney'? When we get back at Christmas, I'll do a trip report and go from there.
BTW, I'm still addicted to DCL so our 2011 Magic cruise is being moved to 2012. Moved, but not cancelled

 

[Evan&Kimberly]

I have to admit that DCL is expensive but we have such a great time! I am booked on the Dream for next year but I know for 2012 I will not do the Fantasy, I think that I can get get a better deal on RCCL's Oasis or Allure of the seas, I will know more tomorrow when DCL releases prices for 2012. I will tell you that if you jump cruise lines I would not jump to Carnival,and if you do PLEASE dont do Carnival smaller ships

 

[DW2010]

I have to admit that DCL is expensive but we have such a great time! I am booked on the Dream for next year but I know for 2012 I will not do the Fantasy, I think that I can get get a better deal on RCCL's Oasis or Allure of the seas, I will know more tomorrow when DCL releases prices for 2012. I will tell you that if you jump cruise lines I would not jump to Carnival,and if you do PLEASE dont do Carnival smaller ships

We really want to stick with Disney. We can definitely afford the Dream for 4 nights, but would love to go on the Fantasy for 7 nights. I wouldn't mind trying the Oasis, but we are planning on driving to PC and I don't think we'd want to drive to Fort Lauderdale. That would be a long drive. If we didn't flying becomes an extra expense. Someone tell me what to do. I'm about to just give up...lol.

 

[Evan&Kimberly]

We really want to stick with Disney. We can definitely afford the Dream for 4 nights, but would love to go on the Fantasy for 7 nights. I wouldn't mind trying the Oasis, but we are planning on driving to PC and I don't think we'd want to drive to Fort Lauderdale. That would be a long drive. If we didn't flying becomes an extra expense. Someone tell me what to do. I'm about to just give up...lol.

I am in the same boat, driving all the way down to FLL. I will have a year and a half to monitor flights for me and my 5yr old son so that we can get the best price. Evan loves DCL but I think he will enjoy seeing the Dream Work Characters on RCCL Mega Ships. I have done some price comparisons and actually most of Disney’s Magic sailings are more expensive than the Oasis. I hope that RCCL will consider moving the Oasis or the ALLURE of the Seas to Port Canaveral? I hope that RCCL realizes that many families are willing to jump DCL to try another cruise line that is comparable and less expensive. For me I will continue to sail Disney but I can’t help but want to sail on the BIGGEST Ships in the world and they belong to RCCL which is a great cruise line! I heard that the Oasis will be on the Discovery Channel
(I think) on Oct 24th I think the show will be called extreme cruise ships. I will have to let my son see this ship so that I can get him syked up for the Allure of the seas 2012, because whenever I show him another ship from another cruise line he says mommy that’s not Mickey’s Ship

 

[Page4]

I think DCL prices will start coming down. This thread is evidence that the supply and demand is shifting a little. The OP is a Disney fan but has made a choice concerning budget. I'm sure the OP is not alone.

btw, to the OP, hope you have a good time on your cruise! Let us know how it was.

 

[DW2010]

I am in the same boat, driving all the way down to FLL. I will have a year and a half to monitor flights for me and my 5yr old son so that we can get the best price. Evan loves DCL but I think he will enjoy seeing the Dream Work Characters on RCCL Mega Ships. I have done some price comparisons and actually most of Disney’s Magic sailings are more expensive than the Oasis. I hope that RCCL will consider moving the Oasis or the ALLURE of the Seas to Port Canaveral? I hope that RCCL realizes that many families are willing to jump DCL to try another cruise line that is comparable and less expensive. For me I will continue to sail Disney but I can’t help but want to sail on the BIGGEST Ships in the world and they belong to RCCL which is a great cruise line! I heard that the Oasis will be on the Discovery Channel
(I think) on Oct 24th I think the show will be called extreme cruise ships. I will have to let my son see this ship so that I can get him syked up for the Allure of the seas 2012, because whenever I show him another ship from another cruise line he says mommy that’s not Mickey’s Ship

We are highly considering the Dream for 1/3/12 as it's a double dip and $1852. That's $400 more than we were quoted for a 4 night in December 2011, but we're given an extra day and another day to spend at CC which I hear is great. It's $1K less than the Fantasy would be for 6/2/10. We just can't do the Fantasy. Technically we could drive to Fort Lauderdale to try RCI's Oasis or Allure as we're in the panhandle but the drive to Disney World last month was about all DD could take .

 

[jerelle]

Hi there. We cruised Carnival Glory in Feb this year. We too were told how easy it was to "sneak" alcohol aboard. We were allowed our one bottle of wine pp which we put in our carry ons. Against my better judgement, we also put 2 bottles of booze in our luggage. They were found and confiscated. (and we felt so foolish-at our age doing this, right?!)Now, we did get them back at the end of the cruise. Likewise any alcohol brought back onto the ship from port is confiscated until the end of the cruise. My advice, since you sound like you'd like the :"extras" is to put them into your carry ons. Our carry ons were never checked, let alone x-rayed. A fellow cruiser aboard told us Carnival is really cracking down hard on alcohol being brought on board and even has the technology to find "rum runners" and such. They really do have the best pricing and they depend on alcohol and gambling to make up the difference. All that aside, we had a nice time. We did enjoy RC a little more, but your vacation is what you make it. I see you are from Ottawa-me too. Did you check out the 25% per fare off the Jan and Feb 2011 cruises. This is why we chose Disney. (plus I'm a bit of a Disney freak and it's been a long time dream to sail DCL)Our cruise fare was EVEN pricing with Carnival's sail to St Thomas/St Maarten at the same time of year.

Just a thought.

 

[KingRichard]

Isn't one of the reasons DCL cost more is the rooms are much bigger?

When I was comparing prices it was hard to ignore how much is was to upgrade to something even close in size.

With 5 of us, size does matter. lol

 

[MelissaE1]

I have to admit that DCL is expensive but we have such a great time! I am booked on the Dream for next year but I know for 2012 I will not do the Fantasy, I think that I can get get a better deal on RCCL's Oasis or Allure of the seas, I will know more tomorrow when DCL releases prices for 2012.

DS asked for a Disney cruise for his HS graduation and I booked the Fantasy for June 2012, category 4A for DH, myself, DS18 and DD13 for $5,091.40 total (includes about $450ish discount for rebooking onboard).

We will be taking our kids on Oasis of the Seas in a couple of weeks, their first non-Disney cruise. Just in case he decided he like the RCCL megaships better at his age I priced Allure of the Seas for the same week. For a D1 cabin that's more than 60 sq ft. smaller it would be $6,189 total.

I know that there are cheaper options than DCL, but at the moment, Oasis class ships don't appear to be one of them.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

We really want to stick with Disney. We can definitely afford the Dream for 4 nights, but would love to go on the Fantasy for 7 nights. I wouldn't mind trying the Oasis, but we are planning on driving to PC and I don't think we'd want to drive to Fort Lauderdale. That would be a long drive. If we didn't flying becomes an extra expense. Someone tell me what to do. I'm about to just give up...lol.

Have you priced out the Oasis?

I priced it for the same exact date as the Disney Fantasy. It's also nearly the same itinerary (St. Maarten & St. Thomas). The only difference is that the Fantasy visits Castaway Cay and the Oasis visits Nassau (yuck!!). The Oasis was actually $1,100 MORE than Disney!!

To the OP: I've never cruised another line, but I'm sure you'll have a great time. Perhaps sometime you can do a shorter cruise on Disney. We've done 4, 7 and 15 nights. We love the longer cruises, but if shorter is all we could do, we'd do them as they are great.