What makes a 4 day Disney cruise worth more than a 7 day cruise on another line

[Rogillio]

No offense but I never understood how watching a movie on a DCL cruise could be a difference maker , don't you have movie theaters in your area ? The movie theaters near me are far superior to the ship's as well with large auto reclining leather chairs and more space between seats. Also a movie for us is a great way to kill time when there is nothing else to do. Not like DCL gives you free popcorn either

I would not say Disney movies are a 'deciding factor' but they are a factor.

When we sailed on DCL's maiden Baltic cruise we saw an early release of Toy Story III in the Walt Disney Theater (the big theater, I think that is the name of it). This is the Toy Story where the little boy has grown up and will be heading off to college. This was exceptionally poignant movie for me as my son was heading into his senior year in HS and would soon be heading off to college. I remember tears flowing watching that movie and thinking this might be our last Disney cruise with the kids as they were growing up.
Some moments in time will be forever etched in my heart and this was one of them. Sorry for being all sappy.... for me, this Disney movie was a big factor.

 

[gumbypee]

There is something magical and indescribable about a Disney cruise. You can try to quantify it but you really can't but a price tag on quality. I've cruised Celebrity (horrible), Princess (okay), and Disney (yippee) and if I had only ever done another line I probably wouldn't have been bitten by cruise bug. I cannot cruise as often as I would like but when I do I know it will be quality. Service, magical, just awesome vacation. I wouldn't do less than 7 day Disney either

And I am an adult with no kids btw

 

[bumbershoot]

The shows on DCL are directed towards kids.

The shows on CCL are directed towards adults.

There are big shows every night on DCL.

There are only 1 or 2 shows on CCL.

There are more kids their age and more activities for kids their age on DCL.

But the OP's family WANTS to do Carnival. The things you're saying are downfalls of CCL aren't for the OP's family, because they know CCL and like it.

OP, if you want to experience Disney but the others don't, go solo. Or with a friend.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

I don't blame your kids. Had a great time on my last Carnival cruise and looking forward to our next - which is 21 days. Our last cruise was 14 nights on the Carnival Pride - taking in the cabin cost, the sodas we purchased and 1 in room movie we purchased, we would have been able to do only a 7 night on the Disney Fantasy. I'll take twice as long of an enjoyable cruise on another line any day (and I do find other lines almost as or as enjoyable as DCL).

 

[TinkRose]

No offense but I never understood how watching a movie on a DCL cruise could be a difference maker , don't you have movie theaters in your area ? The movie theaters near me are far superior to the ship's as well with large auto reclining leather chairs and more space between seats. Also a movie for us is a great way to kill time when there is nothing else to do. Not like DCL gives you free popcorn either

I like the movie theater because it gives us something to do out of the sun and it's a relaxing break. If we were on land on vacation we would probably see a movie then too. Not every day but one or 2 during the week. Much better use of space on the ship than a casino.

 

[BrytEydBelle]

Just got off a four day on the Dream. I have previously done five seven day cruises on other lines and I can tell you I feel like I had 7 days worth of fun on this shorter cruise. I am surprised as I reall thought the trip would be too short.

I fit an amazing amount of entertainment, character experiences, fun and relaxing into those four days.

I rebooked onboard and will likely do another short cruise on DCL but I will still continue to cruise other lines as well for the longer cruises. I have NCL booked for next May on one of their newer ships, but I might try to squeeze in a quick DCL trip in the meantime.

 

[NancyIL]

The shows on DCL are directed towards kids.

The shows on CCL are directed towards adults.

There are big shows every night on DCL.

There are only 1 or 2 shows on CCL.

There are more kids their age and more activities for kids their age on DCL.

Can you compromise and take a 5 day DCL cruise?

Or maybe spend a day or two at the Disney parks before your cruise so make it a 6 day vacation?

I didn't want to fly to MCO on the moring of our cruise in case we had a flight delay so we are flying the day before. And since we get in Orlando at like 1 pm, we figured we might as well get a hotel at WDW. And since we'd be at the mouse house....well, might as well get tickets to the park....and then we decided 1 day in the park is not enough....so we are flying 2 days before and spending 2 days in the parks.

DCL generally has 3 production shows - whether you're on a 3-night cruise or a 15-night cruise. On the other nights, Disney cruises have comedians, magicians, vocalists, movies, etc. On my 2nd 4-night Wonder cruise in Dec. 2009, I was pretty unhappy that the show the 4th night was a movie in the main theater that had been showing throughout the cruise in the movie theater!

Other cruise lines I've been on also have 3 production shows, and they fill-in the other days just like DCL does.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

DCL provide amazing.vessels, designed along the lines of the great little ers of the 30s, 49 and 40 in the art decoom and.novo style, with just enough DCL touch. Top service and attention, great/GOOD food ( which of is sujective), excellent entertainment with the quality of boardwalk with the Disney touchs, great for.all ages and none of the crude acts you fine on some other lines

Add in Disney movies some.first.run and let's face it Disney quality movies are better then most of the.other movies being.released these days.

Yes some line provide good standard cruises. Yes indeed they do And RCCL is.one.of them. But none come close to the DCL cruise with the Disney Magic andPixie Dust. It is just that specail. and well worth the money..

Now if your not.a.Disney fan or like the.style of the great liners and.enjoy the las Vagas boxy ships other lines run DCL may not be.for.you.


AKK

 

[Rogillio]

DCL generally has 3 production shows - whether you're on a 3-night cruise or a 15-night cruise. On the other nights, Disney cruises have comedians, magicians, vocalists, movies, etc. On my 2nd 4-night Wonder cruise in Dec. 2009, I was pretty unhappy that the show the 4th night was a movie in the main theater that had been showing throughout the cruise in the movie theater!

Other cruise lines I've been on also have 3 production shows, and they fill-in the other days just like DCL does.[/QUOTE]

.

That was not our experience on a 5 days CCL out of New Orleans. They had ONE production show. Another night they had a kereoke/sing-along which we skipped and absolutely nothing on the other nights. 1 decent show in 5 days. I frankly don't rememebr any shows on HAL or NCL. Maybe there were some shows but they obviously were not memorable. RCCL had a couple of fantatic shows! Best show I've ever seen on cruise line was ice skating dance show on RCCL.
I've seen a lot of different shows on DCL.....like 7 or 8 different shows but you may be right and they only do 3 shows on any given sailing

 

[mcorbo]

That was not our experience on a 5 days CCL out of New Orleans. They had ONE production show. Another night they had a kereoke/sing-along which we skipped and absolutely nothing on the other nights. 1 decent show in 5 days. I frankly don't rememebr any shows on HAL or NCL. Maybe there were some shows but they obviously were not memorable. RCCL had a couple of fantatic shows! Best show I've ever seen on cruise line was ice skating dance show on RCCL.
I've seen a lot of different shows on DCL.....like 7 or 8 different shows but you may be right and they only do 3 shows on any given sailing

I just got off a 7 night cruise on the Carnival Pride. It has just gotten their Funship 2.0 upgrade. The shows are now different then they were. They now have Playlist Productions 4 nights. Which is a smaller cast (maybe 10 performers) signing and dancing to a theme.

Night 1-Welcome Aboard Shiow
Night 2 - 88 Keys (Billy Joel etc)
Night 3 - Heart of Soul (Blues and Sould music)
Night 4- Hasbro the Game Show/Love & Marriage Shoe
Night 5- Getaway Island (beach boys type music)
Night 6- 80's Pop to the Max
Night 7-Showcase of Stars (Passenger talent show which we thought was as good as if not better than the Playlist Productions)

They also have a Comedy Club which has 4 different performers on 5 nights with multiple shows (adult and family oriented per night)

They added the Blue Iguana Cantina (FREE-burritos and tacos, excellent breakfast burritos bu the way) , Guys Burger Joint (FREE-best burgers at sea) as well as an excellent Sushi Restaurant (small fee)

 

[californiamomofboys]

We did 3 nights on the Disney Dream in January and then 7 days on NCL's Epic this March. My boys loved both but when I asked them which one they preferred, they said the NCL Epic....Ages are 10 and 11. The adults preferred the Dream. The boys loved the SpongeBob activities and Blue Man Group on the Epic but never went to the kids' clubs on NCL. They spent a lot of time in the clubs on the Dream and liked the movies in the theater. The said the beach day we had in Cozumel (Paradise Beach) was their favorite day ever, even better than Castaway Cay. You will have a great time on another line, just do your research and pick a ship that has the itinerary and activities that appeal to your family.

 

[Rogillio]

I just got off a 7 night cruise on the Carnival Pride. It has just gotten their Funship 2.0 upgrade. The shows are now different then they were. They now have Playlist Productions 4 nights. Which is a smaller cast (maybe 10 performers) signing and dancing to a theme.

Night 1-Welcome Aboard Shiow
Night 2 - 88 Keys (Billy Joel etc)
Night 3 - Heart of Soul (Blues and Sould music)
Night 4- Hasbro the Game Show/Love & Marriage Shoe
Night 5- Getaway Island (beach boys type music)
Night 6- 80's Pop to the Max
Night 7-Showcase of Stars (Passenger talent show which we thought was as good as if not better than the Playlist Productions)

They also have a Comedy Club which has 4 different performers on 5 nights with multiple shows (adult and family oriented per night)

They added the Blue Iguana Cantina (FREE-burritos and tacos, excellent breakfast burritos bu the way) , Guys Burger Joint (FREE-best burgers at sea) as well as an excellent Sushi Restaurant (small fee)

Sounds like some cool shows but obviously geared more towards a more mature audience. Not too many kids are into Billy Joel, the 80s, blues, soul and marriage games.

 

[elaine amj]

We have only done 2 cruises - a RCCL 5 day Liberty of the Seas and a 3 day Disney Dream. Both a year apart during the same week. The price difference between the two was not much. We were booked on a 10 day RCCL cruise (price was great) but changed our mind and did the 3 day Dream instead. We were thrilled we made the switch. At that time, Disney cruise commercials were playing constantly and it just built our anticipation in a way RCCL couldn't.

I am typically super value-oriented and we ended up preferring the Disney cruise over the previous year's RCCL cruise for a few reasons:

- the Disney magic (not quantifiable - but there it is).

- the number of activities the whole family could do together. RCCL tried but there was only a few things to do together. We tried all the family activities listed but the range was limited.

- better kids clubs. My kids did just fine in the RCCL kids clubs but my friends' kids rarely went. On the Dream, they loved the free-flowing kids clubs and not being structured. We were ones that appreciated the mixing of ages as our kids (of varying ages) could be together. The stuff in the Dream's kids clubs were amazing. All different and felt worth paying the premium. The RCCL kids clubs were fine - but they just did basic stuff you see at daycamps everywhere (incl lots of gaga ball - which admittedly was fun!). I was disappointed because we never saw any of the premium activities that were advertised on the RCCL website. Part of the reason we were paying to cruise was so the kids could do cool stuff they don't always have the opportunity to do at home.

- We didn't really have time for the extra adult activities on the Dream so not a fair comparison - but we tried some activities on RCCL. I attended 2 line-dancing "lessons". They were a complete bust, lasting all of 5-10 minutes. I was completely bummed after making the effort to be at that spot at that time. My friend went for the scrapbooking session - where you could purchase a scrapbooking kit and they would show you a thing or two if you wanted. She was so bummed.

- RCCL's rock climbing wall, Flowrider, ice skating rink...very cool. Disney's Aquaduck...also very cool.

- characters. The Dreamworks characters we met were obviously people in costumes (other than Fiona - who was awesomely in character). On Disney, they're characters

- Disney's Pirate Night party and fireworks were so much fun and very family friendly. RCCL's white night party had a more adult vibe (naturally).

- we loved the rotating restaurants on the Dream.

- Service was the same with both lines - excellent.

- as a side note, the movie theatre on Disney was an actual theatre. On RCCL's Liberty, it was a room with reclining chairs, a projection screen on a wall, and terrible sound. I can watch better at home (and I don't have anything special). We left after 10 mins.

- we like Disney-style shows better although we did like the shows on RCCL, that's just a personal preference type of thing. My friend's young son was bored and a little scared when watching Saturday Night Fever. It's not the best show for young kids although we adults enjoyed it. The ice skating show on RCCL does deserve its rave reviews

All in all, we loved our Disney cruise much more. That said...the parks are better value for money for our family right now. I would cruise again, even on a cheap Carnival cruise - but only if the price was right. I keep looking every once in a while, but the price hasn't been right.

 

[bumbershoot]

Sounds like some cool shows but obviously geared more towards a more mature audience. Not too many kids are into Billy Joel, the 80s, blues, soul....

That's really too bad. We have "music-ation" evenings where we okay all sorts of music from many decades, so that DS can appreciate all sorts of music. Recently we shared *some* Blues Brothers music which led to Funk and Soul. He really liked Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

My mom loved all sorts of music, and DH had a much older father so was naturally exposed to a variety of music, so it would be embarrassing to us if DS weren't exposed to many decades of music while young.

Doesn't mean they have to love it all (I myself am still not a fan of most Jazz) but hearing it live would be neat.

but they just did basic stuff you see at daycamps everywhere (incl lots of gaga ball - which admittedly was fun!)

You know dcl has gaga ball as well? And according to DS they play it wrong but that's beside the point.

My friend went for the scrapbooking session - where you could purchase a scrapbooking kit and they would show you a thing or two if you wanted.

Did she just assume that purchasing was the only way? Did she get there late after the packages were all gone that they give for free? They give a basic, small, package and give you access to tools. Many people come prepared with projects and tools and plans and it's easy to miss that they also have a few free pages and some embellishments. I got there early each time so got the free packets and saw how prepared people were! Nothing like that on dcl that I've seen. The jewelry making class on Vision was cool too, but I was slow and still haven't finished my necklace, bracelet, and earrings.

 

[elaine amj]

You know dcl has gaga ball as well? And according to DS they play it wrong but that's beside the point.

Did she just assume that purchasing was the only way? Did she get there late after the packages were all gone that they give for free? They give a basic, small, package and give you access to tools. Many people come prepared with projects and tools and plans and it's easy to miss that they also have a few free pages and some embellishments. I got there early each time so got the free packets and saw how prepared people were! Nothing like that on dcl that I've seen. The jewelry making class on Vision was cool too, but I was slow and still haven't finished my necklace, bracelet, and earrings.

You know - some level of circle type group games is completely expected in a kids club type atmosphere. There's a reason why they're so popular I think my expectations were rather high. I wanted my kids to do all kinds of cool stuff they can't do at home. To my mind, that was a lot of what cruising on a large ship meant, which Disney provided. On the other hand, the Pirate Parade they did for the little kids was very cool.

As for the scrapbooking thing, I didn't go with my friend. Perhaps she got there late? She told me she talked to a staff there and they said all she could do was buy a package - which she wasn't interested in so she left.

 

[SeattleSuz]

IMO, the customer service, the environment is what makes us want to book DCL. And even our travel agent says that Disney does it the best when it comes to cruising. I am sure when our DD gets older, we might do a different cruise line. But for now, it's DCL for us.

 

[Motherofcats8]

We did the 5 day Disney Cruise out of Miami on the Wonder in 2013. 5 days was almost too short, so I would think that a 4 day would definitely be too short. I totally understand the cost concerns, though. We priced pretty much all of the cruise lines when we decided on Norwegian this time. We found that the 4 day Disney cruise, Verandah room, without excursions, drink packages or dining upgrades cost as much, if not more than the 7 day, Eastern Caribbean, Verandah, drink package, upgraded meals, included on NCL. There were also more adult activities on the Norwegian, and since it is just my husband and I, it suited our wants better this time around. That being said..... I am not so sure I will enjoy the casino on board, due to the smoky atmosphere. I'll let you know when we return if taking the less expensive cruise was worth it, or if we will just save up longer for a longer cruise on DCL next time.

The pros for DCL: I do LOVE that there is very limited smoking area on DCL. I also really liked all of the Disney themed shows... being a Disney Geek, of course! I like that the same waiter follows you from one dining room to another, and they get to know you and your family so they can cater to your specific requests, the beds are super comfortable, the rooms are larger, and I cannot say enough about having the 2 separate bathroom areas. With kids, I would definitely say the DCL is the way to go.

 

[Rogillio]

That's really too bad. We have "music-ation" evenings where we okay all sorts of music from many decades, so that DS can appreciate all sorts of music. Recently we shared *some* Blues Brothers music which led to Funk and Soul. He really liked Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

My mom loved all sorts of music, and DH had a much older father so was naturally exposed to a variety of music, so it would be embarrassing to us if DS weren't exposed to many decades of music while young.

Doesn't mean they have to love it all (I myself am still not a fan of most Jazz) but hearing it live would be neat.

That's a good point. This would be an opportunity to let them experience different types of music. Might not be as fun as singing along with the Lion King song but it would be educational....and isn't that what vacations are for? Just kidding.

I am actually strong believer in allowing kids to experience different things. From our frist cruise with then kids were 5 and 7 we never let the order off the 'kids' menu' at dinner. They could have hamburger and mac and cheese off the buffet for lunch but for dinner, they had to try different foods off the main menu. They are grown now and it is my believe that this is the reason they are NOT finicky eaters.

 

[El Cid 94]

What makes a 4 day Disney cruise worth more than a 7 day cruise on another line...

With out trying to sound like a smart-Eyore... they are worth more because people pay more. I would say there is no "one" reason people pay more, but all of us that do, must have some reason. The fact of the matter is that they have a great product and people want it. Ask 100 people why and you may get 100 different answers.

That does not mean that a Disney cruise is for everyone. In fact, I think Disney appeals to a smaller cross section then most other cruise lines... but it's Disney... and the product they offer cant be found anywhere else.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

What makes a 4 day Disney cruise worth more than a 7 day cruise on another line...

With out trying to sound like a smart-Eyore... they are worth more because people pay more. I would say there is no "one" reason people pay more, but all of us that do, must have some reason. The fact of the matter is that they have a great product and people want it. Ask 100 people why and you may get 100 different answers.

That does not mean that a Disney cruise is for everyone. In fact, I think Disney appeals to a smaller cross section then most other cruise lines... but it's Disney. And the product they offer cant be found anywhere else.

You said it much better then I ever have been able to

AKK