Yikes!!

[bumbershoot]

I just looked at some of the most recent Dream reviews there, and had to look for the 2 and 3 star. There weren't that many at a quick glance. And the ones I saw were VERY specific about their reasoning.

Are you not reading the 4+ star reviews at all?

In fact, we had to set some rules about having family time or we never would have seen her!

FWIW, the nice thing about Royal is that their clubs aren't open all day, so you *have to* have family time.


(feels funny to defend DCL since I'm just about over them, especially the cost, but when people are looking at (for example) 5 bad reviews and skipping over 10 good reviews, it's just odd)

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Two points:

1. It's YOUR 50th so I assume that the DCL cruise is what YOU want. So frankly, should it matter if the kids may have a slightly better time on another cruise line?

2. If you're taking DCL because you think you teenagers would want Disney - there must be a reason why you thought that in the first place.


If you teens are super sporty kids who would die to try rock climbing and flow riders and iFly or whatever new craze Royal is touting on their ships - then yes, they probably would LOVE a cruise on a ship with those features.

OTOH, if your goal is to celebrate together as a family on DCL and just enjoy a quick getaway then stick with DCL.

And I guess one more opinion - if you're doing a short Dream cruise because that's what your budget can afford by sailing DCL but could swing a 7 night on a Royal ship that has all the bells and whistles that your family would enjoy, you need to decide for yourself if the Disney "magic" is worth shorting yourself another 3 days of vacation.

 

[winterface]

if you only look for the negaives, you'll only find the negatives.

Currently on cruise critic, the Disney Dream has a 4/5 Editor rating, and a 4/5 user rating. That is incredibly high.

I'm not sure how they could do any better than Disney Dream, or any of the DCL ships for that matter.

For 2016 it also won the following awards from CruiseCritic:

Best Overall
Best for Cabins
Best for Entertainment
Best for Public Rooms
Best for Service
Best for Families

 

[GeneMachine]

On any review site, from yelp to Trip Advisor to Cruise Critic, I find the most useful reviews to be the ones who give three stars. The reason is because they aren't written by people who want to find fault with everything (the high maintenance reviewers) or the ones who will gloss over shortcomings (from people who are positive. about. EVERYTHING!). The reason why they are valuable is because they will give what they think are the good and the bad, and then I can decide for myself how those things will be received by my family. The truth is in the middle; you just have to search it out.

Happy 50th!

 

[camiandmattmom]

Thank you so much for all the help!

 

[MickeyD]

I have noticed quite a few less than stellar reviews on CC of late. The top two for the Fantasy say something along the lines of "Not for adults!" and "never again." When you read into the reports it is easy to see why the poster said what they did. Either their nose got bent out of shape for a minor incident (like the room steward failed to regale them with stories like they heard people say they do), or the one was because the Fantasy experienced technical difficulties and this person didn't feel Disney compensated them "enough!" Those are the kind of reviews I readily discard.
I assure you that a teen can, and will, have fun (if they choose) on the ships, as will you. Set your expectations to what works for your family and not what others have said. My son chose a Disney cruise for his high school graduation trip and loved it! That was back in 2007 and he is still friends with several of the teens he met on board. He is very social though, so gauge that on how your teens are.
I wanted to add that I did the Fantasy for my 50th and I really enjoyed it. Would I rate it 5 stars, no, but overall, it was an experience I will never forget...in fact, we are going in September for dh's birthday and our anniversary, so I will see how it rates again.

 

[soniam]

They had some really good comments in the Dreams Unlimited podcast from 3/28. A grandmother was discussing taking her tween/teen grandkids on DCL and RCCL. I have done both, but only when DS was 4 and 8 years old. He loved them both but liked DCL better. DCL had a lot of computer games in the kids club that he really liked. I got the impression that RCCL had a lot more sports/physical activities. Also, I think the pools are bigger on RCCL. I don't know much about the Aquaduck vs RCCL's pool attraction. Here's a link to the podcast. You really can't go wrong on either though. It just depends upon what your kid/kids like to do.

http://www.disunplugged.com/2016/03/28/dreams-unlimited-travel-show-032816/