Royal Cruiser Embarks on a Fantasy Cruise

[LisaT91403]

Greetings, fellow cruisers!

I’ve read many amazing trip reports here on these boards, and they were really helpful as I planned my recent voyage (January 3 – 10, 2015) on Fantasy. I hope that my report, while probably not as comprehensive or entertaining as others, might still be helpful for a few of you.

First, let’s start with the contestants on this trip: DS(6), Grandma (in her 70’s), DH and myself (in our late 40’s). We are all Diamond members on Royal Caribbean…except for Grandma, who is Diamond Plus. I only mention this so as to give you some perspective – we’ve all cruised quite a bit, and it’s all been on Royal Caribbean.

Our family loves Disney. We live in Los Angeles, and have had Disneyland annual passes for years. We’ve visited Aulani twice, and had fantastic vacations each time. So when we were planning our next trip and considering a cruise, we thought “Hey, we love Disney and we love to cruise. Maybe we should try a Disney cruise!”

I admit, I had no idea where to even start when planning a Disney cruise. I spent some time on the DCL website, and many hours on the message boards. I was worried that we wouldn’t enjoy Disney as much as Royal. After all, we were “used” to Royal…and new things are sometimes daunting. But the allure (no pun intended) of the AquaDuck and the Disney “magic” were calling us, so we decide to take the plunge.

For the purposes of this report, I am going to compare our trip on Fantasy to our most recent cruises on Royal’s Oasis and Allure ships. If you are looking at Royal for a different class of ship, then your mileage may vary quite a bit.

 

[LisaT91403]

Booking Process

For our most recent cruises, we used Costco Travel to book our trip. I have found them to be pleasant and efficient to work with, and I really like the monetary incentives that they offer. On Royal, we received shipboard credit as our incentive. On DCL, Costco offered the incentive in the form of a Costco Cash Card (delivered a few days after we completed our trip). In both cases, the amount we received was equal to approximately 8% of the cruise fare.

Transportation to the Port

Since we are coming from the West Coast, we need to fly in the day before the cruise. For our Royal cruises out of Fort Lauderdale, we stayed at The W Hotel and they provided us with complimentary car service to the port.

For our Disney cruise, we decided to go to Animal Kingdom the day before the trip. Therefore, we rented a car at MCO, and returned it in Port Canaveral the day of the cruise.

We rented from Budget. I had read on the boards that Budget was not great to rent from, but I figured “Oh, they are all the same. How bad could it really be?” Let me tell you, it was horrible. Do not rent from Budget. You will regret it. It took well over an hour at MCO to get the car, and the customer service rep tried to scare us into buying their insurance. I know that the rental companies always encourage you to buy their insurance, but this woman was a real piece of work. She even went so far as to tell us that our particular car insurance company has a $5000 deductible for rental cars (which is not true). It was crazy!

Even more crazy was the return process at Budget in Port Canaveral. There were 3 ships leaving that day, so the rental car lot was full. We were lucky to have gotten one of the last parking spaces at around 12:15pm. After that, Budget started asking people to park the cars across the [busy] street. The lot was so crowded that the shuttles could not come pick us up to take us to the port. After waiting in an orderly line for almost an hour, a couple of shuttles pulled up at the curb (not in the Budget lot itself, as there was no room)…and everyone made a break for it. This was really frustrating, as the orderly line had turned into an angry mob.

It was a terrible way to start the trip, and I strongly encourage you to stay away from Budget. If I had it to do over again, I might consider dropping the car back at MCO and then taking Disney transfers to the port.

Embarkation

As I mentioned before, we are Diamond members on Royal…and we also travel in Junior Suites. Because of these factors, we are always whisked through the embarkation process and never wait in any lines at all.

There was no whisking with Disney. The line just to get through security was very, very long and slow. Once through security, we found another extremely long line to wait in. It was nice that they were showing movies in the waiting area so that DS had something to keep him occupied, but I think this speaks to the fact that Disney knows you are going to have to wait.

It was nice to be welcomed aboard once we finally set foot on the ship, but the greeting could not make up for the long waits that we had experienced.

Advantage: RCCL

 

[LisaT91403]

Cabins

When we cruise, DS and Grandma share a cabin. We always book cabins with a connecting door, as I like to be able to look after both my son and mother.

On Royal, we book Junior Suites (JS). These cabins are larger than a regular balcony cabin, and have a privacy curtain separating the bedroom area from the living room area. They also have walk-in closets and bathtubs.

DCL does not have a cabin comparable to the Junior Suite category. We booked the largest non-suite cabin available, which was a Deluxe Family Ocean View with Verandah (Category 4C on Deck 7).

The cabins on Oasis and Allure are some of Royal’s smallest. However, the JS cabins are 287 square feet with 78 square-foot balconies. So when we entered our 4C on DCL, it really took some getting used to. By comparison, the 4C is 256 square feet with a 43 sq-ft balcony.

I found the closet and storage space on DCL to be at a premium. Yes, we eventually got everything put away…but it seemed cramped when compared to the JS on Royal.

I was excited about DCL’s split bathroom concept. At first, it was a little confusing because DS and I couldn’t figure out which bathroom should be “his” and which “mine”. But we got the hang of it, and ended up liking the set up.

Some may argue that it’s not fair to compare a “suite” on Royal to a standard cabin on DCL. I will argue that it’s a fair comparison because the prices are comparable (meaning within a couple hundred dollars of each other for any given cruise). So when comparing the two, I have to say that I really missed the space and storage in the Junior Suite.

Both of our cabins on DCL had major problems, whereas we’ve never had problems on our Royal sailings. In one cabin, the “shower” bathroom had a terrible, horrible musty/mildew smell. DCL housekeeping and engineering tried their best to fix this problem over the course of 4 days. They did everything they could possibly think of, including replacing the pipes. Nothing worked, and having to deal with this problem throughout the course of 4 days really took away from the “magic”. Nobody wants to spend their vacation dealing with plumbing problems (we can all do that at home!) Eventually, DCL gave up on trying to fix the problem. We had to leave that door closed, and all 4 of our party had to use one shower bathroom for the trip.

The other problem was that there was terrible vibration in our cabins. I think there were only 3 nights where I had a good night’s sleep…on the other nights, the vibration made it impossible. The vibration was worse in the bed than it was in the living room area. It was noticeable when the ship was going long distances (for example, the first couple of nights at sea when we needed to get from Florida all the way to St. Martin). I have never experienced this kind of vibration on any other ship that I’ve sailed on. The Fantasy was also noisy – lots of creaking sounds at night, again something I have not experienced on Royal.

For both cabin problems, DCL offered to move us to a different cabin. However, there was only one cabin available to move to. I was not comfortable leaving my son and elderly mother alone, and there was no chance the 4 of us would share one cabin. So we had to live with the problems for the entirety of our trip.

Advantage: RCCL

Dining

Let me start by saying that we do not cruise for the food. It’s never been a highlight of our trips, and cruise food is not something we look forward to.

I did not enjoy the food on Fantasy at all. Cabanas had a good variety, and I think the food was a little bit better than the Windjammer on Royal. The main dining room food was a wash: better bread & dessert on DCL, better entrees on Royal. The food on the pool deck of DCL was inedible, so Royal definitely wins on this one. I enjoyed the meal while we were on Castaway Cay. We had dinner at Palo, and my meal was just okay. The service was great, but the lamb was over-cooked and a bit tough. I’ve been to Chops on Royal a few times, and have always had outstanding meals there.

You know what I really missed on DCL? Salad. The salad bars (Cabanas, pool deck) were not good. The one on the pool deck wasn’t even really a salad bar – it was the condiment bar for the disgusting, hockey-puck burgers. The one at Cabanas was “okay”, but really not great. I kept longing for something similar to the Park Café, where I could get a nice, custom-made, fresh salad for my lunch. I wish DCL had better options in this department.

DCL was much more low-key about pushing alcohol. On Royal, it seems that you can’t walk 5 feet without someone pushing a tray of drinks in your face. You could certainly get alcohol whenever you wanted on DCL, but nobody was pushy about it.

The iced tea on DCL was a million times better than on Royal. I was so glad to find a Starbuck’s on my last Royal cruise so that I could have a decent iced tea each day. On DCL, the iced tea in the dining room was perfectly acceptable.

As for the dining experience, that’s a tough call for me as well. I really liked changing dining rooms each night on DCL. It was fun! It kept things fresh, and it was also entertaining at times (Animator’s, for example). On the other hand, I sorely missed My Time Dining on RCL. Early seating is way too early for us, and late seating is a bit later than I’d like. I really love My Time and getting to eat whenever I’m actually hungry (and/or when it fits into my schedule for the day).

The service we received on DCL was better than on our RCL trips. The servers were more friendly, and really tried hard to make sure we enjoyed our meal. One night, there was nothing I wanted on the dessert menu. I asked for a Mickey Bar because that seemed like the best option. The server was really upset that I didn’t like the choices on the adult menu, so he had the chef bring me a special dessert plate (chocolate dipped strawberries, petit fours, truffles, etc.)! This is the Disney magic and service that I had heard about, and it was really nice J

Advantage: Service advantage to DCL. Food quality – no clear winner. Royal is the clear winner on dining options. DCL is the winner on beverages (soda included, good iced tea, not pushing the alcohol).

 

[LisaT91403]

No idea if anyone is reading this, but I guess I'll keep posting (?)

 

[daneenm]

I am reading! Keep them coming

 

[Famcruise]

I'm reading-I've only done one cruise so far and it was Disney so I enjoy hearing the differences! Thanks for posting!

 

[MC0810]

I have been reading. Looking forward to reading more comparisons.

 

[princessnicchia]

I am reading! I've been on one RC cruise and we are taking our first Disney cruise in April, so am super interested! Please keep posting!

 

[LisaT91403]

Great, I am happy that I've got a few readers! Thank you all for speaking up so that I have motivation to continue.

Entertainment

This is a tricky section. If you ask my 6-year-old, he will tell you that DCL definitely has the better entertainment/shows/activities. Because to him, anything involving Disney characters is the best entertainment you can have. The adults in our group preferred the shows on Royal. Royal has a lot of variety (shows in the Aqua Theater, Broadway-style shows, ice shows, etc.), while DCL is a one-trick pony – shows with Disney characters in them. Don’t get me wrong…I do like shows with Disney characters. But I also like other types of shows, especially when I’m on a ship for a week.

DS absolutely loved the character meets on DCL. There is nothing to compare to this on Royal. He also loved the Midship Detective Agency, and did all 3 mysteries. Thank goodness DH was up for running all over the ship so many times! We enjoyed the animation classes, but found the game-show type entertainment to be similar to Royal (and not something we enjoy). Bingo was pretty much the same on both cruise lines. We definitely missed not having a casino on the DCL ship, especially at night/after dinner.

Pirate Night was a lot of fun, and there's nothing to compare on Royal. Disney really knows how to do a "theme", don't they? The activities, the CM's, the cruisers...everyone was into it, and it was fun! The show on the pool deck was great, and we all enjoyed the fireworks. How cool to have fireworks at sea, right?



One thing that we much preferred on DCL was that we weren’t constantly bombarded with announcements about activities. If you wanted to hear the announcements, you either had to go in the hallway or listen on the TV (I think that was an option, anyway). I think there is a way to turn down/off the announcements on Royal as well, but here’s the big difference – for DCL, you have to “opt in” if you want the announcements, and on Royal you have to “opt out” if you don’t want them. And it also seemed like there were WAY too many announcements on Royal, and I didn’t find this to be the case on DCL.

Advantage: Royal for the shows and casino, DCL for the character meets and pirate night

 

[perditax]

Keep posting! I appreciate viewpoints from outside the Disney "bubble" and as an adult/no kids I'm still apprehensive as to whether my first cruise should really be on DCL. It sounds like you're saying cruise food is just generally icky?

 

[LisaT91403]

Keep posting! I appreciate viewpoints from outside the Disney "bubble" and as an adult/no kids I'm still apprehensive as to whether my first cruise should really be on DCL. It sounds like you're saying cruise food is just generally icky?

Thanks for following along, perditax!

Food is one of those really subjective things, isn't it? When I first started cruising, well over 20 years ago, I enjoyed the food. Was it better back then, or was my palette less sophisticated? I'm really not sure. I just know that I have not enjoyed the main dining room food on the past few Royal cruises I've taken, nor on this DCL cruise either. There were some dishes that were "fine". I think most fell into this category. There were a few that were not good, and one that was so horrible on DCL that I simply couldn't eat it.

I felt guilty about not liking the food because it upset our server on DCL. He tried very hard to make us happy. I tried very hard to like the food and make him happy. It didn't always work out, though But it wasn't a big deal to us. We never walked away hungry, even if we just ate the appetizer, bread and salad. And there was always a Mickey Bar to be found!

 

[MC0810]

We have sailed on the magic, and although the food wasn't horrible by any means..our entire group felt it was lacking diversity and flavor and ranked dcl on the bottom of our cruises which includes several on carnival,rccl,and princess.

My son's are 4 and 6 years old so I am eager to find out how your son liked the kids club as we areceive sailing on the fantasy in may. And what his favorite activities where in the club. Enjoying your report.

 

[perditax]

Thanks for following along, perditax!

Food is one of those really subjective things, isn't it? When I first started cruising, well over 20 years ago, I enjoyed the food. Was it better back then, or was my palette less sophisticated? I'm really not sure. I just know that I have not enjoyed the main dining room food on the past few Royal cruises I've taken, nor on this DCL cruise either. There were some dishes that were "fine". I think most fell into this category. There were a few that were not good, and one that was so horrible on DCL that I simply couldn't eat it.

I felt guilty about not liking the food because it upset our server on DCL. He tried very hard to make us happy. I tried very hard to like the food and make him happy. It didn't always work out, though But it wasn't a big deal to us. We never walked away hungry, even if we just ate the appetizer, bread and salad. And there was always a Mickey Bar to be found!

I know what you mean about one's tastes growing over time. I hesitate to use the word "foodie" but I'm way past the point in my life where Outback Steakhouse is a special-occasion meal. I don't mean I only like ritzy/expensive food, just that I feel like I know the difference between a good meal and a bad one (inckuding at the cheap end--one of my favorite meals right now is a six-buck combo plate at a Peruvian chicken place that opened recently nearby). One of the guides I read likened the DCL "MDR" food to Applebee's or TGIF, which seems...disheartening. I know a lot of it has to do with the logistics of feeding thousands of people in the middle of the ocean, but I keep hoping that I'm being too pessimistic.

I have my first DCL cruise (first cruise ever) booked for sept, and your descriptions of the food and the deal with getting to/waiting at the terminal have me worried. But please don't feel bad about that, I'd rather have the reality check ahead of time and I'd probably be someone who writes a review much like yours.

Not sure what the answer is--I guess the economy is recovering a bit and I see some unhappiness with RCCL too. I did some searches for "cruises with best food" but got priced out of that market in a hurry.

 

[perditax]

Could you let me know how debarkation went in terms of getting back to a car rental place and picking up a car? I guess it's not possible to just grab a taxi?

I had plans of doing the "rent car at MCO, drop off in Canaveral" and reverse at end of cruise thing, but it sounds like a thousand other people will be trying to do the same thing at the same time?

 

[LisaT91403]

Could you let me know how debarkation went in terms of getting back to a car rental place and picking up a car? I guess it's not possible to just grab a taxi?

I had plans of doing the "rent car at MCO, drop off in Canaveral" and reverse at end of cruise thing, but it sounds like a thousand other people will be trying to do the same thing at the same time?

We did not rent a car on the way back. On the way there, we rented because we were staying 2 nights in Orlando before the cruise, and it made sense to have the car for a couple of days.

On the way back, we used the Disney transportation and checked our luggage using their service. We loved it! It was soooo easy...just step off the ship, go through customs (no need to hunt for luggage or drag it through the line), walk right onto the bus, and off you go. I was tired, and was really glad I didn't have to drive all the way back to the airport. We loved having our boarding passes, and never having to check luggage. The whole experience was perfect, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The cost of the Disney transfers was well worth it because it included the luggage service.

I know that Royal also offers the luggage service. They charge $20/person for the service. However, you are not required to use their transportation to the port in order to use the service, whereas you are required to do so on DCL.

 

[LisaT91403]

Pool Deck

One of the main draws for sailing with DCL was the Aqua Duck. DS loves both rollercoasters and waterslides, so the Aqua Duck sounded perfect. It was fun! However, on our 2nd sea day it was closed due to weather. And on the days when it was open, there was usually a 15-20 minute wait. The novelty wore off after a few rides, and DS then decided that it wasn’t worth all of the waiting in line to do it again. He did not enjoy the Mickey slide at all, as he said it was too slow, small and boring.

The movie screen on the pool deck was really amazing. It was fun to have the Disney movies showing up on the deck, and we were amazed at how good the screen quality was. It was also fantastic to have all of the Disney movies on-demand in the cabin. DS was under the weather one day, and he got to watch a couple of movies that he’d never seen before.

But aside from this, we did not enjoy the pool deck on DCL. The pools themselves were ridiculously crowded. It really was like people soup. The deck itself felt extremely crowded, and it was not at all relaxing up there. Most of the chairs weren’t loungers – this really surprised us. How do you have a pool deck without loungers?!

Advantage: Overall, the edge goes to Royal because the decks and pools are less crowded, more relaxing, and have loungers. The food was also better on the Royal pool deck vs. the really gross food on the DCL pool deck.

 

[PeggyKate]

Your trip report is very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to make the comparison between the two cruise lines.

I totally agree with you about the lack of salads on Disney Cruises. There is no excuse for not having more options for a healthy lunch in Cabanas & on the pool deck.

We just went on our 9th Disney Cruise & our first time in Concierge. The food in the Concierge Lounge was amazing. There was always a choice of small sandwiches, delicious little fresh salads & yummy deserts day & night. This type of freshly prepared food should be available all over the ship.

We are ready for a change & I am going to check out Royal Caribbean based on your recommendation.

 

[perditax]

Which Royal ship do you usually go on, or do you have specific ones you can recommend?

Your report has several times made me go and price cruises on RCCL similar to the one I'm taking in Sept (Bahamas--newbie cruiser) on DCL, and of course I always drop my jaw when I see the gigantic suite I can afford for the same price as the DCL cruise, but then the stateroom pictures, while large, always look a bit dated (and non-flatscreen TVs), and worn, and I find a lot of unflattering reviews. (I think my last random search brought up "Enchantment of the Seas". I don't know the fleet at all.) I'd be interested in any specific ship recommendations you have for shorter sailings. (I lurked on cruisecritic rccl for a few days recently but there was a lot of 'things aren't as good as they used to be' sentiment so I wasn't picking up much useful info.)

(And thanks for continuing to post and let me pick your brain, it sounds like you have a similar mindset to me when it comes to a lot of this stuff so it's very helpful.)

 

[LisaT91403]

Your trip report is very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to make the comparison between the two cruise lines.

I totally agree with you about the lack of salads on Disney Cruises. There is no excuse for not having more options for a healthy lunch in Cabanas & on the pool deck.

We just went on our 9th Disney Cruise & our first time in Concierge. The food in the Concierge Lounge was amazing. There was always a choice of small sandwiches, delicious little fresh salads & yummy deserts day & night. This type of freshly prepared food should be available all over the ship.

We are ready for a change & I am going to check out Royal Caribbean based on your recommendation.

Seriously, what does DCL have against salad? It's a running joke in our family that my favorite food is salad. It's not really my favorite food, but it's the food I most often order if we are having lunch in a restaurant. I was going through withdrawals on DCL!

Did I recommend Royal? I will write more in the "conclusion" of my report, but I didn't really feel like one cruise line was better than the other. They were different. I liked some things better on Royal, and I liked some things better on Disney. But as I said...more on this later.

 

[perditax]

Seriously, what does DCL have against salad? It's a running joke in our family that my favorite food is salad. It's not really my favorite food, but it's the food I most often order if we are having lunch in a restaurant. I was going through withdrawals on DCL!

Did I recommend Royal? I will write more in the "conclusion" of my report, but I didn't really feel like one cruise line was better than the other. They were different. I liked some things better on Royal, and I liked some things better on Disney. But as I said...more on this later.

So far I think we're seeing a lot of Advantage:Royal but maybe we are jumping the gun.

(no pressure though!)