Yes, Disney cruises are expensive, but what hidden costs am I not factoring?

[Happy100]

What are you getting for the increased price besides what have been mentioned already...

Staffing Ratios-not positive if they are higher on DCL but compared to my RCL it sure felt like it.
Service-Great on DCL
Cleanliness-DCL is very clean even the public areas they are always cleaning.
Day time activities-So many great ones to choose from on DCL and never enough time.

Disclaimer these are in my opinion and only related to my experience. They do impact my overall cruise experience and I do place a value on these items.

 

[Laurie Bee]

I'll go back and look at Princess and HAL. I initially priced out one-way northbound cruises for all the lines who offered them, but I doubt that my MIL can fly back from Alaska so we're limiting the search to round-trip itineraries. Thanks for the tip!

We have done 2 Princess Coral Alaskan cruises and loved both. The only reason I would do Disney to Alaska would be for grandchildren joining us.

 

[phinz]

I'll go back and look at Princess and HAL. I initially priced out one-way northbound cruises for all the lines who offered them, but I doubt that my MIL can fly back from Alaska so we're limiting the search to round-trip itineraries. Thanks for the tip!

Princess's round trip from Seattle is wonderful. It's what we did last June.

 

[phinz]

Agreed. I did cruise on HAL to Alaska and was pretty "meh" about Glacier Bay. Granted it was kind of foggy and overcast when we were there, but i just didn't get the big deal about it.

We were lucky enough to be awed by Glacier Bay because of views like this, and that's unfortunate. The weather is such a craps shoot in Alaska. Mendenhall was *miserable* for us. Rain, rain, rain and so many people that it was awful, which was sad since it was what I wanted to see most of all, given that it was named after my great, great-whatever uncle:

 

[dani24]

We just got off our first Disney cruise. We've previously done 4 with Princess. I spent much of the cruise comparing DCL to Princess, and my husband and I have talked about it quite a bit.

Bottom line, in our opinion, the ONLY reason to sail Disney over other lines is for the kids and the kids programming. Disney blows it out of the park for kids.

However, Princess was either better or equal to DCL on just about everything else.

Food: Princess won hands down (food on DCL was mostly pretty average, and sometimes actually rather bad), although the Tiana's Place and Animator's Palace dining rooms on DCL were better aesthetically than Princess (Triton's seemed equal to Princess)
Service: We've always left our Princess cruises feeling like we were pampered and doted over... on DCL we felt it varied from on par with Princess, to definitely beneath Princess. We didn't experience any service that was better than anything we've experienced on Princess.
Shows: The Frozen show was spectacular... but all of the other DCL shows were either on par or not quite as good as the shows on Princess. Other acts (like the magician, variety show, etc.) were equal to Princess.
Activities: DCL wins if you're a kid. If you're an adult, we felt like Princess had more.

We did like that DCL had slightly bigger staterooms, and we did enjoy the dual bathrooms. We don't drink soda, but it was nice that it was included. And we thought it was a nice touch that we got special little giveaways like the pirate bandanas, Frozen light up necklaces or the chocolate bar from Anna's scavenger hunt. The fireworks off the ship were awesome too (though the deck party was just okay).

But Princess has several things we love that Disney did not... and we didn't feel like any of the things above justified paying significantly more for Disney over another cruise line (the same itinerary on Princess with one extra day would have cost us half of what we paid for our Disney cruise). The only reason we'd do it again (if we found the right price) is because of the experience for our daughter. But we'll wait until she's a few years older. Our next cruise otherwise will be on Princess.

 

[phinz]

Our experience was the exact opposite.

We have no kids and feel that the adult areas of Disney far exceeded those of Princess. The bars were OK, but nothing special. I don't care about the casino, so that doesn't really matter to me.
Food: There was no comparison for us. Disney's food, especially in the specialty restaurants, was far superior, and the restaurants on the Crown Princess were bland brass and wood. Nothing to write home about.
Service: We were Vista Suite guests and other than the special breakfast restaurant we felt we were pretty much ignored. The bartenders weren't engaging, table service in the bars was virtually non-existent, the servers in the dining room were slow and not very attentive and, other than the shops, the rest of the staff was stoic and arms-length at all times. The boat itself was dingy, and our stateroom wasn't much better. It really needed a deep cleaning. There was hair on the bathroom floor, dirt in the corners of the bathroom floor and big stains on the couch. It took our stateroom host 4 days to just wash the window to our verandah. It was coated in salt. I ended up wiping it down myself so we could see out of the room. The rails were peeling and the chairs on the deck had a black patina to them that came off on light colored clothes, much like uncleaned teak will do.
Shows: I've seen one Disney show (Aladdin) in all my cruises and it was leaps and bounds better than the awful Grease-style show I watched on the Crown Princess, but when it comes down to it, I couldn't care less about shows.
Activities: I wasn't interested in art auctions, bingo or the casino, so the only activities I did on Princess were the naturalist and photographer presentations. The naturalist was awful. The photographer was amazing. The funniest thing I encountered was that the piano bar pianist didn't know the Love Boat theme, which I thought would be de rigeur on a Princess boat. He was a lot of fun, though, and it made me wish they would do more of a piano bar-type entertainment thing on Disney. I know they have pianos, but unless you've sat in a piano bar, with its repartee and humor from the pianist and guests then it's a bit hard to explain.

Overall, though, the value for Princess when it comes to Alaska was far superior to the value I would have realized on the Wonder, primarily with money taken into consideration. I got to cruise in the equivalent of a 1-bedroom Concierge suite (though there were no Concierge hosts or lounge) on the Crown Princess for several thousand less than a Verandah, non-concierge room would have cost on the Wonder, and I didn't have to go through Canadian airport customs. The idea of being able to fly without having to deal with customs from any country appeals to me vastly. Ultimately, our Alaskan cruise was about Alaska instead of about the ship, so we were willing to deal with a few bumps and disappointments because the savings let us stay downtown in Seattle for a couple of days before and after so we could visit with my family, who all live out there.

 

[hanscarlet]

I drink the DCL koolaid and can make an argument for why we do DCL over other lines everyday... however when it comes to Alaska, I think this is where we may cut the cord and try another line. We usually don't care the destination except for in most cases it's somewhere warm and usually select DCL because of the DCL ship and the DCL experience. When we go to Alaska, we are doing that for the destination and therefore the importance of the ship goes down and when I look at the price difference, it would appear to be a no brainer.... I really want to try Tiana's place and see Frozen but I'm going to try and do that when the Wonder is in the Carribean... the Alaska DCL prices are just shocking and I'm usually on the team that says "DCL prices are what they are because of demand"... I don't get the Alaska prices however people keep buying them so whatevs... we are east coast so that also contributes to my viewpoint on this topic (airfare to Seattle much cheaper and better experience than flying from east coast to Vancouver)

 

[Sanchez]

We just got off our first Disney cruise. We've previously done 4 with Princess. I spent much of the cruise comparing DCL to Princess, and my husband and I have talked about it quite a bit.

Bottom line, in our opinion, the ONLY reason to sail Disney over other lines is for the kids and the kids programming. Disney blows it out of the park for kids.

However, Princess was either better or equal to DCL on just about everything else.

Food: Princess won hands down (food on DCL was mostly pretty average, and sometimes actually rather bad), although the Tiana's Place and Animator's Palace dining rooms on DCL were better aesthetically than Princess (Triton's seemed equal to Princess)
Service: We've always left our Princess cruises feeling like we were pampered and doted over... on DCL we felt it varied from on par with Princess, to definitely beneath Princess. We didn't experience any service that was better than anything we've experienced on Princess.
Shows: The Frozen show was spectacular... but all of the other DCL shows were either on par or not quite as good as the shows on Princess. Other acts (like the magician, variety show, etc.) were equal to Princess.
Activities: DCL wins if you're a kid. If you're an adult, we felt like Princess had more.

We did like that DCL had slightly bigger staterooms, and we did enjoy the dual bathrooms. We don't drink soda, but it was nice that it was included. And we thought it was a nice touch that we got special little giveaways like the pirate bandanas, Frozen light up necklaces or the chocolate bar from Anna's scavenger hunt. The fireworks off the ship were awesome too (though the deck party was just okay).

But Princess has several things we love that Disney did not... and we didn't feel like any of the things above justified paying significantly more for Disney over another cruise line (the same itinerary on Princess with one extra day would have cost us half of what we paid for our Disney cruise). The only reason we'd do it again (if we found the right price) is because of the experience for our daughter. But we'll wait until she's a few years older. Our next cruise otherwise will be on Princess.

I could have written this report (and have written something similar.) I agree that DCL's strength is with children. My direct comparison is Disney Fantasy versus Regal Princess. Ships are about the same size and age. Cleanliness, noise level, service, adult amenities, food, pools, fitness center mostly came out in favor of Princess.

Last Christmas we did 11 days on Regal (Verandah for us and interior for boys ages 17 and 20.) Total cost around $4,800.

DCL option was 7 day on Fantasy. Same room setup was almost $10,000.

I guess I could have paid $5,000 more for 4 fewer days, a lesser (substantially) itinerary, fewer adult options, lower quality food, and noise level 11 in the dining rooms. I will say that when both ships were docked in St. Thomas I felt . . . . gleefully satisfied.

 

[lucas]

Just to add regarding Princess... If you have Carnival stock (they own Princess) and have - I think it is 100 shares - Princess will give you a shipboard credit for being a shareholder. Plus, Princess gives shipboard credit to ANY veteran (serving now, retired, or anyone who served in the past). You won't get either one of those perks from Disney.

About the shows... For us, Disney production shows are far better than the Princess shows. (And, it is just dh and myself - no kids.)

 

[Notyourtypicaldisney]

I would say the best explanation I have is the Princess Cruises are about 90% as good as a Disney Cruise at what seems like half the price. Great value trade off. Disney has priced itself too high compared to its peers. I will pay a 10 to 20% premium for Disney which is a lot. I am seeing prices now 40-50% higher. Too much premium for smallish advantage.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just to add regarding Princess... If you have Carnival stock (they own Princess) and have - I think it is 100 shares - Princess will give you a shipboard credit for being a shareholder. Plus, Princess gives shipboard credit to ANY veteran (serving now, retired, or anyone who served in the past). You won't get either one of those perks from Disney.

About the shows... For us, Disney production shows are far better than the Princess shows. (And, it is just dh and myself - no kids.)

We were recently on the Star Princess. They have one show on that ship that's really good. Born to Dance. Other than that, the "other" main theater show was a typical Vegas-style review.

 

[byanks7]

The extended family asked me, a cruising novice, to research a multi-generation cruise to Alaska sometime in the summer of 2018. I've narrowed it down to the following, all assuming an interior room for 2 adults and a 7yo, another interior room for 2 adults, and a balcony room for 2 seniors:

• Disney Wonder out of Vancouver - $19,000
• RCCL Explorer of the Seas out of Seattle - $8500 due to a sale
• NCL Pearl out of Seattle - $11,000
• Carnival Legend out of Seattle - $9600

EDIT: added Princess and HAL​

• Princess Ruby out of Seattle - $12,000
• Holland Niew Amsterdam out of Vancouver - $11,000

What does the extra $8000+ get us on the Disney Wonder, other than intangible Pixie Dust? Are more meals or activities covered up front?

For me, its easy to explain why i pay more to cruise DCL. It is like being at Disney World and staying at a Disney resort located on a cruise ship. When it is just us, my wife and I cruised Princess, but with the kids and grand kids, it is always Disney!

 

[KashasMom]

I would never sail DCL for a port intensive cruise - to Europe or to Alaska. We've sailed Celebrity and RCI to Alaska. The RCI was a repositioning cruise from San Francisco - excellent itinerary. Both cruises were great. Our daughter doesn't go to the kid's club and finally(!) on our last Disney cruise (5th one, I think) we had some of the service that people rave about on Disney. I don't think DCL is worth the premium (especially for Alaska).

 

[LovesTimone]

We have cruised with Disney, Carnival, and RCCL.

For my family we love cruising with Disney it is our top choice. We love the fact that rotate thru each of the restaurants and that your table servers rotate with you. Each restaurant has different theming, and its more of a experience instead of eating in the main dinning room night after night. Palo is our absolute favorite bunch spot... Amazing. This is the only added restaurant expense that we incur while cruising with Disney. The shows can't be beat plus the movie theater running current movies, We have found that the room is consistently bigger and cleaner, and the cabin host or hostess goes out of their way to make it memorable.

Carnival is what we consider a booze cruise, more drinking and gambling, party at the pool and all night kind of cruise. We go out on carnival with a bunch of other couples, more to just hang out and catch up for a grown up cruise than for a family vacation.

RCCL - is somewhere in the middle of them.