Royal compared to Disney?

[bbel]

I just had a look at photos of the Independent, which has been in the Med. for the last few years, Anthem is a very poor cousin!

Independence was pretty poor before it had its massive dry dock last year. It was the first Royal ship to be Amp'd. Personally I prefer quantum class to freedom class.

Did you do Ifly at all? Probably my favourite thing on the ships!

 

[starvenger]

If it wasn't for the Amped refurb (plus cruise credit my wife got from our Allure cruise in 2018) I don't think I would've booked Indy.

9 days until pif. I'm getting kinda giddy. Or maybe that's the triple IPA I just had.

 

[msjprincess]

If it wasn't for the Amped refurb (plus cruise credit my wife got from our Allure cruise in 2018) I don't think I would've booked Indy.

9 days until pif. I'm getting kinda giddy. Or maybe that's the triple IPA I just had.

I've sailed Independence twice (pre refurb) and Freedom once. I had a great time one both. I don't like it as much as Oasis class ships but it's a close 2nd.

 

[tinkerone]

We have two cruises booked with Royal for next October, B2B's. I watch prices several times a week and from my date of booking to yesterday I have managed to bring the cost of the two cruises down by $954. It's usually $25 here, $25 there but as I told my husband each $25 counts. In that time period we have also managed to get $150 US OBC (that's seven million Canadian ) for each sailing, we started with none.
I was happy with the prices I booked at, now I'm really happy and I will probably get a few more decreases before sailing as well. This is what I really love about Royal. While DCL only seems to go up, RCCL sometimes comes down.

 

[starvenger]

I've sailed Independence twice (pre refurb) and Freedom once. I had a great time one both. I don't like it as much as Oasis cl*** ships but it's a close 2nd.

Is it me or has a bad word filter gone haywire?

 

[msjprincess]

Is it me or has a bad word filter gone haywire?

That's weird. I can still see the word in my post

 

[starvenger]

Hmm, maybe it's my safari browser. Chrome seems to be fine.

ETA: yeah doesn’t seem to be happening on my phone anymore. Weird.

 

[rramsr]

Hi, I just booked Mariner of the Seas for April 2021. We have been on two Disney Cruises and my daughter has been saying the last couple days she can't wait for 2021 to go on another cruise. I priced out Disney Dream for the week I think will be school vacation and for four people for 4 nights $3975.44 for an oceanview room. Royal Caribbean for the same exact dates for a junior suite is $2685.68, no brainer here

 

[paule350]

Hi, I just booked Mariner of the Seas for April 2021. We have been on two Disney Cruises and my daughter has been saying the last couple days she can't wait for 2021 to go on another cruise. I priced out Disney Dream for the week I think will be school vacation and for four people for 4 nights $3975.44 for an oceanview room. Royal Caribbean for the same exact dates for a junior suite is $2685.68, no brainer here

I am also pricing a 4 night cruise and disney is 4000$ and royal is 2300$ for Jr suite same dates and locations haha.... I am just worried the 4 night cruise will attract the younger party crowd.. thoughts?

 

[Denise W]

Most of the “spring break” party cruises you hear about take place during college spring breaks in March. If you are cruising in April you should not have a lot of college kids on board.
Denise

 

[tinkerone]

Two days ago I was able to reduce one of my upcoming Royal cruises, on Symphony of the Seas, by $189. Yesterday I was able to reduce it by $88 more. This brings my one week cruise, veranda cabin, to $2688 Canadian. That is less than $2000 US. Take that DCL, lol.
Seriously though, DCL is so out of whack.

 

[Denise W]

Two days ago I was able to reduce one of my upcoming Royal cruises, on Symphony of the Seas, by $189. Yesterday I was able to reduce it by $88 more. This brings my one week cruise, veranda cabin, to $2688 Canadian. That is less than $2000 US. Take that DCL, lol.
Seriously though, DCL is so out of whack.

You will love the Symphony! We were on it in January.
Denise

 

[aoconnor]

Having been on both (DCL twice, RCL 5 times) I would say DCL is slightly better in most ways. The issue is the price difference is not slight at all- it's literally double or more. Outside of a special one-time trip I can't rationalize DCL. RCL is a great product.

 

[tidefan]

Having been on both (DCL twice, RCL 5 times) I would say DCL is slightly better in most ways. The issue is the price difference is not slight at all- it's literally double or more. Outside of a special one-time trip I can't rationalize DCL. RCL is a great product.

But, RCL can be double that of other great options! I never understand why people apply the cost logic to DCL, but then don't bother to look at how much more RCL is than, say Princess. We priced out a Thanksgiving 7-night on RCL Harmony. It was close to $4,000 for the 3 of us in an interior. Regal Princess was $2,000 (plus $300 OBC). We thought Regal Princess was a much better value (though we don't need a rock wall or waterslide).

 

[starvenger]

We've been wanting to do Princess for a few years for our 3-gen family cruise. The value is definitely there.

But my youngest brother has an infant and a toddler, and didn't like what he read about the facilities and babysitting for the little ones. Might be real, might be imagined, but we gotta wait until 2021 at the earliest before he'll be comfortable going on board.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

But, RCL can be double that of other great options! I never understand why people apply the cost logic to DCL, but then don't bother to look at how much more RCL is than, say Princess. We priced out a Thanksgiving 7-night on RCL Harmony. It was close to $4,000 for the 3 of us in an interior. Regal Princess was $2,000 (plus $300 OBC). We thought Regal Princess was a much better value (though we don't need a rock wall or waterslide).

The two ships your comparing are not in the same class. Regal Princess is the size of RCL's freedom class ships.

Not sure the full details of your cruise but the Oasis class ships are quite desireable. We are sailing on one in March and it's close to double the cost of some other options from RCL.

 

[starvenger]

It's a bit of a problem to compare since Princess doesn't have anything as large as Oasis class. But Regal is part of their newest and largest class (ironically called Royal) so its not a like for like comparison, but I would say it's at least on opposite ends of the ballpark.

 

[tidefan]

The two ships your comparing are not in the same class. Regal Princess is the size of RCL's freedom class ships.

Not sure the full details of your cruise but the Oasis class ships are quite desireable. We are sailing on one in March and it's close to double the cost of some other options from RCL.

That's my point. It is worth twice the money? People seem to go haywire when DCL is more, but not when RCL is more. I don't get that.

Regal Princess is a larger ship (around 4,000 pax), yes, not an Oasis class, but still a large ship... I'd still rather pay half to go on it than what we would have paid to go on RCL. That being said, we are going to give RCL another try next summer on the Harmony. We've only sailed RCL once (Serenade, it was our worst cruise - I've recapped it on these boards before so I won't go back through it here) and people we've talked to have said to try the Oasis class that it would be a very different experience than what we had on Serenade, so we really do hope that we'll have a much better opinion come next summer...

Thinking about this... Does Carnival's Mardi Gras change the dynamic for any of you folks that love the Mega-ships?

 

[tidefan]

It's a bit of a problem to compare since Princess doesn't have anything as large as Oasis class. But Regal is part of their newest and largest class (ironically called Royal) so its not a like for like comparison, but I would say it's at least on opposite ends of the ballpark.

Yes, I would agree that it is a different experience than you would get on say RCL or Carnival. However, the food is much better (IMHO), room service is still no extra charge, and there are a lot of things going on. It's a bit more elegant and is probably more like Celebrity, so yes, not an apples to oranges comparison, but still an excellent cruise.

 

[Frozen2014]

That's my point. It is worth twice the money? People seem to go haywire when DCL is more, but not when RCL is more. I don't get that.

Regal Princess is a larger ship (around 4,000 pax), yes, not an Oasis class, but still a large ship... I'd still rather pay half to go on it than what we would have paid to go on RCL. That being said, we are going to give RCL another try next summer on the Harmony. We've only sailed RCL once (Serenade, it was our worst cruise - I've recapped it on these boards before so I won't go back through it here) and people we've talked to have said to try the Oasis class that it would be a very different experience than what we had on Serenade, so we really do hope that we'll have a much better opinion come next summer...

Thinking about this... Does Carnival's Mardi Gras change the dynamic for any of you folks that love the Mega-ships?

Is Regal Princess good for kids? Both Disney and Royal (depending on the ship) are very family friendly ships with lots to do for both adults, kids and activities for the whole family. Princess looks like a great cruise ship, but I took a quick look a Regal Princess and it doesn't seem like a ton of activities for kids outside of the clubs and general swimming.

But I would include Carnival and NCL in the loop of comparison.