Why do you cruise?

[Rogillio]

With all the threads about the prices increases and all the threads about alcohol I think it would be fun to share reasons WHY we cruise. Why did you or will you chose a cruise vacation? I doubt people sail for any one reason and I also think our reasons for cruising change over time.

I was working a couple of months down at KSC and was staying at a condo in Cape Canaveral and had to drive right past the port every morning and every night. I remember the first time I saw a ship there I nearly drove off the road! I was so excited. We were big Disney fans and had been to WDW a few times and would see all Disney movies/cartoons when the day they came out.
The idea of taking a cruise for a family vacation had never occurred to me! And had Disney not had a ship, we'd of never taken a cruise. To me a cruise was for old people......and my only knowledge of cruises was from watching the Love Boat back in the 70s.

So then, we started cruising just because it was Disney! Period.

We next cruised to spend more time with Disney and also to see some cool ports of call in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Then we cruised the Mediterranean and Baltics because we trusted Disney and didn't want to gamble on some other cruise line with 11 of our vacation days.

Our last cruise was with my Mom and sister and daughter. By this time we had sailed RCCL, NCL, HAL and CCL and I chose Disney because I know my mother (who has Alzheimer's) would enjoy the family style shows.

We have cruise for a variety of reason and we have cruise on other cruise lines. Disney is our favorite and RCCL a close second.
When the kids were younger the cost of a cruise was not a factor. We were sailing with Disney or we were not sailing. As the kids got older and we'd been on Disney a few times, then it seemed ok to try other cruise lines.....especially if DCL was not an option like for our Hawaiian cruise.
So why do you cruise?

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We started cruising because we wanted more Disney but different from WDW. We keep cruising because it is a completely relaxing and yet exciting vacation!

 

[cgolf]

We cruise to unplug from life. We were a fringe Disney family, not crazy for Disney but did like it so we took the plunge on DCL in 2008 and will be on our 11th and 12th cruises in 2016. Cruising is a convenient excuse to not use your cell phone or internet and is one of the most peaceful vacations I can think of. About the only thing that tops it for me is my yearly fishing trip where I isolate myself on my 16ft ship in the middle of a lake and catch a mess of fish

 

[LocustPoint]

My husband works in a very stressful job and we cruise so he can relax and decompress. We cruise Disney because I'm the Disney fan in the house. We've cruised other lines but we always return to Disney.

 

[ludari]

I cruise to visit different countries, hang out with other Disney fans, unplug, relax and let DCL handle the basic but necessary details (room, food, entertainment, cleaning, etc) while I just go with the flow.

 

[tinkerone]

i never ever wanted to cruise, it was always a land based vacation, mostly because i get seasick on boats. i worked in the financial area so i needed relaxation bad. then a close friend asked if i would go with her and her children on a dcl cruise. it was going to be her, her children, her mother, me and another of our friends. it was really to help her so i went. did not get sick at all and it was so relaxing that when i got home i told dh that was going to be our new go to vacation. up until now it has always been dcl however we are now turning to rcl. its a exciting/scary thing to switch like this but it could be a good thing……or bad. time will tell but i do enjoy the relaxation of cruising.
so very glad my friend talked me into cruising.

 

[ChicosWife]

We are cruising Disney, because we have 2 kids, 10 and under, and we want to create wonderful Disney memories for them. We have been to Disneyland, but this is something different. There are no rides, just a good ole' family vacation with Disney characters mixed in, plus the ability to have a romantic dinner with DH, while the kids are busy exploring the kids' clubs. On top of all that, we get to go somewhere tropical, that none of us have ever been! It's an all-around win!

Side note: I looked into other cruise lines, and the prices weren't that much different AND they didn't have the same kid-friendly experiences.

 

[Orukal]

We cruised for the first time because it was what our son wanted to do for his Make-a-Wish. Being strong Disney fans, we weren't at all upset with his choice. We soon discovered, as we had expected, that we loved it. Our next trip, a, Eastbound Panama Canal Cruise aboard the Wonder is coming up on the 23rd of this month as a celebration of his completion of chemotherapy. We love both the cruise and Disney aspects which is what drove us to this decision. I think if I had to nail it down, we love the cruise vacation lifestyle. My wife loves where the cruises take us, I prefer just being on the boat. We love DCL because it ties Disney in with it.

 

[tinkerone]

We cruised for the first time because it was what our son wanted to do for his Make-a-Wish. Being strong Disney fans, we weren't at all upset with his choice. We soon discovered, as we had expected, that we loved it. Our next trip, a, Eastbound Panama Canal Cruise aboard the Wonder is coming up on the 23rd of this month as a celebration of his completion of chemotherapy. We love both the cruise and Disney aspects which is what drove us to this decision. I think if I had to nail it down, we love the cruise vacation lifestyle. My wife loves where the cruises take us, I prefer just being on the boat. We love DCL because it ties Disney in with it.

congratulations. thats a hard road, glad its over for you all.

 

[cdoc29]

With two young kids Disney was the easy choice. My wife and cruised PK (Pre Kids) with several different lines and always heard good things about DCL. After our first trip I have to admit I was hooked. My kids loved the clubs, even my 2 year old who would cry to go into it’s a small world nursery to play (and she hates being left anywhere, gym, sunday school, etc...). The counselors did such an awesome job. I have heard other lines do a good job as well but since both my kids love watching Disney Jr why would I go on a cruise that doesn’t feature what they both love? The other advantage I found was the adult areas were practically deserted and my wife and I could go have a quiet drink when the kids were in the club. My Favorite time was when I could just sit with my wife in ooh la la, or in the Cove Cafe at night and talk sans children.

 

[squirk]

We started cruising because we wanted more Disney but different from WDW. We keep cruising because it is a completely relaxing and yet exciting vacation!

This is pretty much my answer. We trust the Disney brand, knew they had something totally different to offer from the parks, and liked the idea of getting far away from "normal life".

As much as I complain about DCL's pricing, I still believe the Disney brand offers value above the competition. I just think they might be starting to overestimate that value.

 

[bumbershoot]

First cruise was our honeymoon, and it was a nice way to get somewhere without being in a plane, and it was relatively inexpensive b/c of food being included. Also, DH was on tankers in his 20s and wanted to get back to the ocean (it's seriously in his blood). (RCCL, roundtrip 7 day Alaska)

Second cruise just happened to be DCL b/c that's what my cousin's family talked us into. If they'd been on Celebrity or Carnival and had such a good time we would have been likely to go along with that, too. Third cruise Disney b/c the cost seemed fine.

Since then it's been two more DCL and two Royal.

Cruising is a way to get to places I don't feel like flying to. To get to places I might not feel like spending a week in. To find places where I *might* want to take a land-vacation to (San Juan is one on that list! and next year Yuletime we'll be combining land/cruise/land there thanks to our halfday there via Freedom). To get the best sleep ever. To sit in the sun for my skin's allowed hour and still have other things to do once my hour's up. To get to see ice skating shows, to get to ice skate, while at sea (not DCL obviously). etc.

Whether Mickey or Shrek is onboard is absolutely unimportant to me. Whether ANY characters are onboard is unimportant to me.

I go with the value of the trip (with ultimate total cost being the absolute limit) to decide when, where, and how I go.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

We cruise to unplug from everything as well, I love spending a week without email and texts. We also enjoy it spending a ton of time together as a family, our kids rarely use the clubs and we play tons of trivia, bingo, towel folding etc. Our cruises are the most relaxing vacations we take every year and I can't imagine not cruising anymore.

 

[Chrisey]

We cruise because of my 6 year old. He has a physical disability. A Disney cruise is probably the only vacation or even activity where he feels that he can do everything all the other kids can do. Everything is accessible, he can be included in all of the activities and never has to sit on the sidelines and just watch. The CM's totally go out of their way to make his trip as great as possible.
For me, it is one of the best feelings and I really look forward to our cruises knowing how easy it will be fore him to feel like every other kid!

 

[Happy100]

We love cruising because you truly unplug as most have noted on this thread. Being on a ship to us is like being in a floating resort that transports you to exotic destinations that you can experience or not if you prefer to stay on the ship.
We really like the all inclusive feel of it. My son can go eat what he wants, whenever he wants and we and our money, don't have to be there with him to order it. Our son is fully entertained and we feel it is a mostly safe environment.

We like Disney because we don't like Casinos, don't drink much and love movies. We are not "Disney" brand people but we like cruising with them.

 

[MunFam]

I prefer cruising when there are a lot of ports of call. It allows our family to sample different cities without sitting in a car all day road tripping. It also allows us to unpack and pack once, but see lots of places.

We chose the DCL EBPC because we live in San Diego and it ends there...and we liked the idea of all the sea days because we knew DCL was very on board activity oriented.

We will likely not cruise with DCL again. We qualify for military rates, travel agent rates and we also have a 25% off a future cruise coupon, but I still think we will stick to more port intensive cruises in the future. Like Alaska, we like Princess' itineraries best. IF we did cruise DCL again, it would be a transatlantic.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We chose the DCL EBPC because we live in San Diego and it ends there.

The West bound Panama Canal cruise ends in San Diego. The East bound one begins in San Diego.

 

[over50visits]

I prefer cruising when there are a lot of ports of call. It allows our family to sample different cities without sitting in a car all day road tripping. It also allows us to unpack and pack once, but see lots of places.

We chose the DCL EBPC because we live in San Diego and it ends there...and we liked the idea of all the sea days because we knew DCL was very on board activity oriented.

We will likely not cruise with DCL again. We qualify for military rates, travel agent rates and we also have a 25% off a future cruise coupon, but I still think we will stick to more port intensive cruises in the future. Like Alaska, we like Princess' itineraries best. IF we did cruise DCL again, it would be a transatlantic.

Well put! On the PC cruise we took, we really enjoyed the sea days. I think we'd love to do a transatlantic.

I agree about another cruise line for Alaska. My reason is the visit to glacier bay, which we found to be the absolute highlight of our Alaska cruise. Since DCL doesn't have permission to go there, they can't. I other markets we've sailed Disney wins for a variety of reasons, but for Alaska not being able to see glacier bay is a deal breaker for us.

 

[michellekcm]

Our first cruise was because we had been to all the Disney parks and this was the Disney thing we hadn't done. It was a 7-day Eastern Caribbean, and we enjoyed it, but didn't book onboard as we weren't going to cruise again. Been there, done that, too far from Australia, etc.

We now have cruises 6 and 7 booked. Lol. We enjoy the relaxing, unplugging, unpacking once and seeing multiple places, the kids love the clubs....it's all just fun and easy. Of course, we still go to the parks too

 

[Bree]

I love the ocean and I love boats and being on the water. I love being out on deck or my verandah and looking out at the water with nothing to see for miles. I like having someone make my bed in the morning and turn down service in the evening. I am the vacation planner in the family. If is was not for me, the kids and I would do nothing. My DH does not ever help with any type of vacations or even weekend activities! If I don't do it, it will never happen and it's frustrating. A cruise is an easy vacation for me to plan. I don't have to worry about what restaurants to eat at, activity selections are provided for me to choose from and we can be active or just laze around. The fact that the ship actually docks somewhere is a bonus, but we prefer more sea days than port days.