which cruise to pick?

[jim o'reilly]

Option #1: Southern Caribbean from San Juan, on Disney Wonder. Goes to St Kitts, Martinique, Antigua, Aruba in January 2018. Cost $3589 for Oceanview room.

Option #2: Eastern Caribbean from Port Canaveral on Disney Fantasy with Star Wars day at sea. Goes to Tortola BVI, St Thomas, Castaway Cay in February 2018. Cost $5000 for Oceanview room.

My wife and I have been on several cruises before but never with DCL. (Others being RCL, celebrity, princess). My DD, who's 6 yrs old, has never been on a cruise before. She's not that big into star wars, only exposure was riding "Star Tours" at DHS, when she cried profusely 2 years ago.

We leave out of JFK, so both MCO and SJU are direct flights. SJU airport is slightly more expensive, maybe $75 per person more expensive, so would the $1200 difference be worth it on the Fantasy?

Other concern we have is the quality of passengers leaving from san juan. We've left a few times from San juan and the quality of the passengers wasn't great. Also, the embarkation and disembarkation process of both ships are a concern for me.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Option #1: Southern Caribbean from San Juan, on Disney Wonder. Goes to St Kitts, Martinique, Antigua, Aruba in January 2018. Cost $3589 for Oceanview room.

Option #2: Eastern Caribbean from Port Canaveral on Disney Fantasy with Star Wars day at sea. Goes to Tortola BVI, St Thomas, Castaway Cay in February 2018. Cost $5000 for Oceanview room.

My wife and I have been on several cruises before but never with DCL. (Others being RCL, celebrity, princess). My DD, who's 6 yrs old, has never been on a cruise before. She's not that big into star wars, only exposure was riding "Star Tours" at DHS, when she cried profusely 2 years ago.

We leave out of JFK, so both MCO and SJU are direct flights. SJU airport is slightly more expensive, maybe $75 per person more expensive, so would the $1200 difference be worth it on the Fantasy?

Other concern we have is the quality of passengers leaving from san juan. We've left a few times from San juan and the quality of the passengers wasn't great. Also, the embarkation and disembarkation process of both ships are a concern for me.

Option 1. Even though I'm not thrilled about flying into San Juan. I'm just not that "into" a fully themed cruise (Star Wars), also.

 

[hanscarlet]

I've never done option 1 or have experience with flying to St. Juan and doing the southern itinerary. I have done the eastern on the Magic and we had a wonderful time. We are going to try and do the southern itin maybe in 2019 as we have our cruises already booked for 2018. It all depends in my opinion on whether you prefer the ship experience vs the port experience - if you care more about the adventures and seeing new places go with #1. #2 option will still take you to nice places but you'll get more of a ship experience because there are more sea days.

 

[Shanti]

Option #1: Southern Caribbean from San Juan, on Disney Wonder. Goes to St Kitts, Martinique, Antigua, Aruba in January 2018. Cost $3589 for Oceanview room.

Option #2: Eastern Caribbean from Port Canaveral on Disney Fantasy with Star Wars day at sea. Goes to Tortola BVI, St Thomas, Castaway Cay in February 2018. Cost $5000 for Oceanview room.

My wife and I have been on several cruises before but never with DCL. (Others being RCL, celebrity, princess). My DD, who's 6 yrs old, has never been on a cruise before. She's not that big into star wars, only exposure was riding "Star Tours" at DHS, when she cried profusely 2 years ago.

We leave out of JFK, so both MCO and SJU are direct flights. SJU airport is slightly more expensive, maybe $75 per person more expensive, so would the $1200 difference be worth it on the Fantasy?

Other concern we have is the quality of passengers leaving from san juan. We've left a few times from San juan and the quality of the passengers wasn't great. Also, the embarkation and disembarkation process of both ships are a concern for me.

I imagine your 6 year-old will be more into the ship experience than the port experience, and the Eastern on the Fantasy would likely be better for that, with 3 days at sea and a ship with more bells and whistles. The entire cruise isn't completely Star Wars-themed, just parts of it, btw. If you choose that, you might want to at least show her the original classic Star Wars movie, so she gets the basic concept.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Fantasy. Star Wars day is one day. Sure, they show the movies all week as one option and sure, there are signs up and stuff to buy all week, but there's really only 1 day where Star Wars takes over - themed music and characters. The rest is all about Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and the princesses.

 

[dcassetta]

The southern cruise has more interesting ports and I prefer the classic ships. In my experience, I have had the best service on the Wonder. The eastern cruise is a regular run for Disney, and can be done at almost any time of year, so you could choose to do that another time when it is not a Star Wars cruise.

 

[MUN]

I would go with option 1

 

[hanscarlet]

I imagine your 6 year-old will be more into the ship experience than the port experience, and the Eastern on the Fantasy would likely be better for that, with 3 days at sea and a ship with more bells and whistles. The entire cruise isn't completely Star Wars-themed, just parts of it, btw. If you choose that, you might want to at least show her the original classic Star Wars movie, so she gets the basic concept.

Thanks she loves Star Wars, including the classic movies, in fact one day she asked me why Han Solo and Leia were so old lol now. My husband really wants to do the eastern again but we're locked in for another B2B on the Dream next year, it will prob be our last B2B since the kids are getting older and may appreciate the ports going forward.

 

[LSUfan4444]

would the $1200 difference be worth it on the Fantasy?

IMO, absolutely not. The only reason that cruise is priced that much higher is simply because of demand. More people want that eastern itinerary and the "ease" of sailing from port canaveral but it's not a "better" cruise by any stretch.

 

[Tulip2796]

What does the "quality" of the passengers leaving out of San Juan mean? We've considered a Southern Caribbean out of SJ and I still keep it in mind bc the ports interest us. I wondered if it was comparable to the cruises leaving from PC or Miami.

 

[KristiMc]

Option 1. I prefer the Wonder over the Fantasy and they don't offer the Southern Caribbean cruises that often.

 

[jim o'reilly]

What does the "quality" of the passengers leaving out of San Juan mean? We've considered a Southern Caribbean out of SJ and I still keep it in mind bc the ports interest us. I wondered if it was comparable to the cruises leaving from PC or Miami.

Last time we went on a cruise from San Juan, there were tons of teenage kids from PR that we causing a raucus. For example, they were peeing everywhere (in the pools, hot tub, by the elevators). Also, the cruise line kept having to make announcements that certain groups weren't sanitizing their hands and touching everything at the buffet. The nightclubs had to be shut down early in the night because of the fights between puerto ricans yelling something in spanish.

Let's just say, that cruise from PR wasn't the greatest. (RCCL)

 

[DizMagic]

Our favorite cruise (besides Alaska - which there is no comparison) is the Southern Caribbean. We would pick this one again in a heartbeat. And we loved San Juan. no issues as all.