We are coming back to DCL

[rkwier]

Originally Posted by aznaphrodite

Any experiences with other cruise lines from couples without kids? We're in our early 30's with no children. So far, we've only cruised DCL but we're not ruling out other cruise lines. We can drive to Galveston so taking a cruise from there would save us on airfare. We also want to cruise Alaska in the future too.

We also do not have children. We have taken 2 CCL trips and had two vastly different experiences. The first one was on the Valor and it sailed out of Miami - nice, fairly new, well-kept ship with very friendly staff. The second one was on the Conquest - old ship, very unkept, and staff who basically ignored you. We kept asking each other if we had turned our cloaks of invisibility on. We were in the most forward aft cabin on the port side of deck 10 for both cruises. We were continually picking up empty cans, cigarette butts and other assorted trash off of our verandah on the Conquest. That cruise we drove down to Houston for because Galveston was closed after the hurricane. Honestly, if that had been my first cruise, I would never go on another one.

As far as activities, they were basically the same on both ships. They both had "hairiest chest" and canninbal contests. There were also some clubs and the casino. Both had fairly decent health clubs. The spas were nothing to write home about and really pushed product sales on you. Any of the free health clinics were really sales pitches. The shows were "Las Vegas" style and to me some of the costumes seemed a little racy, especially if you did bring children. The Conquest did not have the big screen on the pool deck to watch movies on, but the Valor did. To me, most of the activities seemed geared towards the 20-something crowd, but we are also in our 40's, so it may just seem that way because we are old. The Conquest also had pretty much zero enforcement of smoking sections, adult only areas or chair saving.

BTW - I see we are neighbors. Lovvve Stonebriar Mall, but hate 121 to get there!

 

[ch10dad]

Here's my 2c

We've been on DCL for many years and were curious about some of the other lines, cost, value, etc.

We recently sailed on the Carnival Valor- 7 day

Age wise, there are a lot of 18-24ish folks. If you were single and "on the hunt" you might find it interesting.

Lots of bars, about every 20-30 ft there was another bar.

The "kids club" was not what you would expect. Short hours, not much creativity in the program, mostly a babysitting service. If you travel with kids, take friends with you, or be prepared to have them with you the whole trip.

Entertainment was much more "adult" themed than I would have guessed.

Speaking of adult themed, on the first day we were waiting outside the teen club while our kids were "checking it out" and on the floor in front of me, in the middle of the hallway, while I was talking with my 9yo, there was an empty condom wrapper on the floor.

Even the tv avalible for the kids to watch at 'off hours' was not particularly "kid friendly."

All in all, I'd say DCL does things a bit better than we experienced with Carnival. If we go on Carnival it will only be because we are traveling with another family, or due to price. (Realistically, DCL has gone up a lot since we started traveling with them.)

 

[Rogillio]

Fundamentally a cruise ship is floating resort/hotel. If you stay at a Best Western and have a bad experience you would be hard pressed to stay there again. If you stayed at the Hampton Inn a few times and always have a great experience/stay then why 'risk' your vacation trying out other hotel if you don't have to?

DCL does not sail to AK and HI so if you want to go there, you don't have much choice.

We said the Med with DCL becuase we trusted DCL. Are there others that do a great job in the Med? Probably. But I didn't want to risk $25k and 2 weeks of our yearly vacation on an 'unknown'.


~Mike

 

[Cruise]

Any experiences with other cruise lines from couples without kids? We're in our early 30's with no children. So far, we've only cruised DCL but we're not ruling out other cruise lines. We can drive to Galveston so taking a cruise from there would save us on airfare. We also want to cruise Alaska in the future too.

We're in our 30s with no kids. We tried a CCL and I have to admit I doubt we'll do another one. It just wasn't our thing. It may have been because it was a West Coast cruise (which always seem to be the older ships), but it just didn't seem like anyone was excited to be there - not even the other passengers. We ended up only eating in the dining room two nights out of 7 because the food just wasn't worth the effort of dressing up and sitting through dinner. The shows could only be described as "cheesy." Again - maybe this was all because it was a West Coast cruise.

If we cruise someone other than Disney again, we'll probably try RCCL or NCL.

 

[Inkmahm]

Which Princess ship were you on? I've been on only one Princess ship so far (Coral to Alaska), but will return to Alaska on the Golden Princess in May. I enjoyed Princess, and am considering it for a Europe cruise in 2010.

I've been on the Island Princess and Diamond Princess for Alaska and wouldn't hesitate to use Princess again for Alaska cruises in the future. I've also been on DCL 4 night cruises twice and we're booked for a 7 night in December. Depends on where I'm going but I like both cruise lines.

 

[Had2disneycruz]

We also do not have children. We have taken 2 CCL trips and had two vastly different experiences. The first one was on the Valor and it sailed out of Miami - nice, fairly new, well-kept ship with very friendly staff. The second one was on the Conquest - old ship, very unkept, and staff who basically ignored you. We kept asking each other if we had turned our cloaks of invisibility on. We were in the most forward aft cabin on the port side of deck 10 for both cruises. We were continually picking up empty cans, cigarette butts and other assorted trash off of our verandah on the Conquest. That cruise we drove down to Houston for because Galveston was closed after the hurricane. Honestly, if that had been my first cruise, I would never go on another one.

As far as activities, they were basically the same on both ships. They both had "hairiest chest" and canninbal contests. There were also some clubs and the casino. Both had fairly decent health clubs. The spas were nothing to write home about and really pushed product sales on you. Any of the free health clinics were really sales pitches. The shows were "Las Vegas" style and to me some of the costumes seemed a little racy, especially if you did bring children. The Conquest did not have the big screen on the pool deck to watch movies on, but the Valor did. To me, most of the activities seemed geared towards the 20-something crowd, but we are also in our 40's, so it may just seem that way because we are old. The Conquest also had pretty much zero enforcement of smoking sections, adult only areas or chair saving.

BTW - I see we are neighbors. Lovvve Stonebriar Mall, but hate 121 to get there!

Easy, now....I am in my 40's too, but I am not old!!!!!!!!!! (not THAT old!)

 

[DMMarla07860]

I want to try another cruise line besides disney, I know my friends would never go on DCL, but till I can actually get them to go away on a trip I won't be trying another cruise line and I'll stick with DCL, get to take a vacation and spend time with my dad(mom doesn't like vacations she loves when we go on them though) and I get to see friends I've met on past cruises that cruise DCL

 

[belle26]

We have no children either and have sailed mostly Disney. We have taken 3 Princess cruise, the Diamond to Alaska and the Caribbean Princess to the Caribbean and also Canada. We loved the Diamond, although were not thrilled with the any time dining. While we very much enjoyed the Caribbean Princess,it was a much different ship than the Diamond. You needed to be at the shows at least 45 minutes early to get a seat, and the dining room service left something to be desired. That's not to say we won't sail them again - we just know that they have a different way of doing things than Disney. We actually had another cruise booked this summer on the Caribbean Princess, but decided to go to Disney World instead. We look at other cruise lines because we want to see different places.

 

[RedSox68]

We just got off a 7 day Princess cruise and all I can say is we are coming back! You just don't know how spoiled you are on DCL. Our cruise was fine if I was about 20 years older and didn't have a kid. Now the question is where do I want to go next??

Well, we felt this way after we took our first non-Disney cruise last year after 7 Disney cruises. We sailed NCL in Hawaii for our anniversary. To make a very long story short (I also mentioned this on another thread), we HATED NCL -- filthy rooms, horrific attitudes of servers and customer service and terrible food. The only good thing they had were the excursion companies they used, checking the carryons in the theater to make lunching easier, and (without a doubt) the gorgeous scenery. First time in 35 years of travelling with my husband I ever heard him say in a port "I don't want to get back on that ship" We cannot WAIT to see the Magic again in October! I'm hoping they eventually go to Alaska so we don't have to try another cruiseline

Plus, I don't want to sail another cruise line that has casinos onboard. NCL didn't because they were U.S. based, but I know I wouldn't like the gambling or smoking aspects on other cruise lines.

 

[NancyIL]

I got home today from a lovely 2-week vacation: 5 nights at WDW, 1 night in San Juan, and a great repositioning cruise on Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas from San Juan to Norfolk, VA. The ship was beautiful, the food and service were very good, and the itinerary was great. We were in Tortola the same day as the Disney Magic, and it was fun to watch the Disney ship join the Grandeur at the dock. While I'm sure I would've enjoyed being on the Magic, there was nothing lacking in my cruise experience on Royal Caribbean.

Plus, I don't want to sail another cruise line that has casinos onboard. NCL didn't because they were U.S. based, but I know I wouldn't like the gambling or smoking aspects on other cruise lines.

Your NCL ship in Hawaii is the only one in NCL's fleet that doesn't have a casino. It's also the only one that is an American-flagged ship, and many people have had complaints about the service by its mostly-American crew. I would not judge Norwegian Cruise Line by your experience on the NCLA ship.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

We took a 7 day Princess Mexican Riviera cruise without our kids, before our Wonder cruise. We enjoyed the cruise very much, but did note that many passengers were much older than we were (late 30s) and very few kids. We had the anytime dining, which had it's pluses and minuses. Some nights we had great tablemates, and some nights duds. We liked the servers much, much, better on DCL.

Would we cruise Princess again? Yes, on the right itinerary. Our friends cruised them on the same itinerary a few months later during spring break, and the ship was packed with kids. So that may depend on the time you choose to cruise. We had a nice balcony on Princess, but the room was soooooo tiny. No way we could comfortably have our family of 4 in that room, like we can on DCL. We'd have to spring for a suite on Princess. There was also a lot more to do on DCL, in our opinion. Princess did have Ultimate Balcony Dining, which was fantastic. Disney would do well to have something like that on the new ships.

That said, I'm not opposed to trying new cruise lines. We just happen to have 2 future Disney cruises already in the works!

 

[slowly]

It comes down to what your preferences and costs. If you prefer a family type of cruise and cost is not a factor then DCL is for you. This will be our third consecutive DCL cruise in a row. The kids have been on NCL before and my wife and I have also been on Celebrity. The kid's program is second to none! They have a very friendly staff that take care of the kids with activities.

Here are some positives:

1)Service-second to none
2)Kid's clubs-Hours, security, friendly staff
3)Disney-shows, characters, movies
4)No casino
5)Castaway Keys

Here are some negatives:

1)Food-quality is good but the taste is avg. in the Main dining areas
2)Cost-very expensive for the same itinerary-except Castaway Keys
3)No casino

 

[poohmomof5]

I am afraid to try anyother cruiselines.
Afraid that I will keep comparing everything to the way Disney does it.

I have the same fear. We really really want to do an Alaskan cruise n the next year or so, but we have only done DCL, and with 5 kids, we don't want to take a chance that they won't like it.

That being said, my kids are very easy going, but I don't want to spend the whole cruise saying "Disney does this better", or "I wish we were on the Magic."

I wish we knew the itineraries of the new ships!

 

[NancyIL]

I have the same fear. We really really want to do an Alaskan cruise n the next year or so, but we have only done DCL, and with 5 kids, we don't want to take a chance that they won't like it.

That being said, my kids are very easy going, but I don't want to spend the whole cruise saying "Disney does this better", or "I wish we were on the Magic."

I wish we knew the itineraries of the new ships!

DCL may go to Alaska in the future, but I doubt it will ever be on one of the new ships. They are TOO BIG!