Royal 1 bedroom concierge or DCL verandah -Alaska 2023

[Chica1581]

I am looking at Alaska for July 2023. A DCL verandah is about the same price as an RCL one-bedroom concierge. Both are 7-night cruises.
My kids will be 11 and 5. We have never sailed RCL but I know my 10-year-old would like the bumper cars and roller skating. What would you pick?

 

[lklgoodman]

We did Alaska on DCL in 2014. It was fun to see the characters in their Alaskan outfits. My dd was 6 yrs old at the time and enjoyed it. We are going to Alaska again in 2023 on NCL. My dd will be 15 yrs old. She no longer cares about the characters and doesn't care for the teen club on DCL. NCL has more activities for teens like race car track, laser tag, virtual reality games, and an escape room. We got a family club room with a balcony that comes with a ton of perks for almost $4k less than an Oceanview on the Wonder. Alaska has some amazing port adventures that my dd was too young to do when she was 6 yrs old. I would rather use that $4k on the port adventures than sailing on DCL. We've done 8 DCL cruises and love them, but we're excited to try another line. My dh has a coworker who has done both DCL and RC. His kids are around the same age as your's and they loved RC. I don't know which ship, but I know it was one that had a lot to do on it.

 

[Lorraine]

We did RCL for Alaska a few years ago. The cost was a third of the DCL cost. We were told by the travel agent that RCL concierge was really good so we decided to go for that. The cruise itself was fab, rooms lovely, crew great, however Concierge does not compare in anyway shape or form to DCL! I think if we had gone knowing that we would not have felt quite so let down. The minute you turn up at DCL you feel the concierge spirit! When we got on RCL the concierge lounge was not staffed and did not really open until around 6pm - we were there at 1pm as we would be with DCL! We bought the drinks package, but i have to say we did two 'meal events' that included drink and the drinks were free flowing in the lounge (when it opened)! so would not do the drinks package again. This trip Alaska was the destination rather than the ship while on DCL it was always about the ship. Alaska was amazing!

 

[MomOTwins]

One thing to double check with those activities on Royal's shops is that several have height limits that may exclude your 5 year old. I don't know about your kids but my 6 year old would be livid if he was shut out of a bunch of activities his older brother could do.

I understand switching to another line if there is a big obstacle to DCL (for example, we are sailing another cruise line to Alaska this summer so we can sail out of Seattle rather than Vancouver because we just aren't okay with the risk of getting stuck in Canada due to a positive test after the cruise). Or I also understand wanting to take advantage of substantial savings--but you'd be paying the same since you'd be upgrading to a 1br on Royal. But you really can't beat DCL for being family friendly, and if I were free to choose I'd pick DCL every time. The cruise experience matters more to me than the room.