Spring Break Fantasy disappointment

[MC0810]

Hi OP!

We felt the SAME WAY after our Magic Cruise in 2012. I went in expecting to be WOWed and was NOT. We have also sailed RCCL, Princess and Carnival. I guess the extra cost of a disney cruise is the "disney" part of the cruise. Infact our favorite cruise to date was a 10 day cruise on Carnival.

We received mediocre service on the Magic, and even had a few bumps I never experienced on other lines. But in reality I believe getting a Great room host or server is "luck of the draw". Because while ours were OKAY, the table next to us had a GREAT serving team..so I am hopeful.

My kids are old enough to do kids clubs now and I expect disney to blow them away, excited about that.

I said I would give Disney ONE MORE TRY and we are sailing on the Fantasy next year. I hope our experience will be much better.

 

[Ofinn]

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise. We always cruise offseason, and usually on a GT rate. I think if I was paying peak prices I might have a different opinion of DCL.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/cruiserschoice_index.cfm?src=nav

Fantasy rates the highest on the Cruise Critics Choice Awards based solely on reviews.

Oasis comes in second. I actually would get on the ship sometime, but I didn't even remember my last RCCL ship name (turned out to be the Legend) since it wasn't a particularly memorable cruise (although the Hawaiian ports were amazing). So RCCL hasn't wowed us enough to come back, but maybe we will try it next. I either want to do Oasis or Fantasy, and neither is a cheap trip by any means... (glad I have a Disney rewards card... which paid for half my cruise and a third of my Disney tickets...)

 

[Luv2Diz]

Cruising is such a relaxing vacation. If your budget does not include Disney, there are plenty of other offerings. And if I were going for an all adult cruise, I would go for a Celebrity or Princess, not Disney.

We love Disney and have had 3 great cruises. The cost, though, is getting to be more than we want to pay. We are a group of adults and have been looking at trying Princess or RCCL for our next cruise.

 

[amyh13]

Just to clarify, I do not have to deal with food allergies or special diet requests but our traveling companions have a daughter with food allergies and a son with type 1 diabetes. And when they cruised with RCCL they thought he had celiac disease.

She and I had several discussions throughout the trip comparing our experiences on other cruiselines. I asked her if there was an issue on RCCL with the special needs and she said not at all. I think they had a better time than we did but she did not feel the price was worth it either.

And as for cheesy contests and bingo on Carnival, I hear about them but never see or participate in them. And yes there is smoking the casino but that doesn't really bother me. We tend to stay away from the buffets. We enjoy coffee on our balcony and typically dine in the sit down restaurants for breakfast lunch and dinner unless a shore excursion interferes.

We have small kids and are generally tuckered out by 10 so we miss the party crowd. My husband definitely preferred the more sophisticated atmosphere on Disney.

 

[mcd2745]

We love Disney and have had 3 great cruises. The cost, though, is getting to be more than we want to pay.

We're seeing this thought more and more around here. We feel the exact same way. We have a Fantasy cruise coming up in August, but who knows if or when we'll cruise DCL after that? It has nothing to do with the quality of the ships or service. It has 100% to do with pricing. We're still willing to pay more for DCL than the other lines, just not 100%-200% more for a comparable cruise.