Your comparison of DCL with another cruiseline...

[smkiya]

Is Disney soooo much better? Once you've done Disney how does another cruiseline compare?

I already booked my Disney cruise for Nov 2010 and it's our first cruise ever! Just curious, as I see many more cruises in our future!

 

[kcashner]

If it's your first cruise ever, prepare to be amazed and thrilled.

There are lots of lines for lots of people...and it's hard to compare across the board. In general, Disney is more expensive than other "family" type lines. It has no casino, it has much less smoking...and in my opinion a better family atmosphere.

Obviously no one else had the characters and the special "Disney" touches. The kid programming is the best we've seen, especially for the younger kids. When the ships were built, they set a new standard for cabin size...but other lines have copied that. A friend who cruised with us felt that the service on DCL was much better.

DCL CMs generally stay on board longer than on other lines, which might imply that they are more satisfied. They are great!

 

[tvguy]

Disney is better than almost every cruise line. So it's not soooooo much better, just better.
HAL was comparable or slightly better in everything except kids clubs (which we didn't use).
Old NCL was comparable, NCL Freestyle is far inferior. RCCL was a hair below Disney.
My first cruise, on the now defunct Paquet blew Disney out of the water. Every meal was gourmet, wine was INCLUDED with lunch and dinner, suits were required for dinner every night but formal night. Tuxes were required for formal night. But that cruise was $5,000 a person ( in 1980 dollars), for 14 days, for a cabin that was probably 60% the size of the smallest Disney cabin. And no, I didn't pay for that cruise, I was working on it videotaping a series of TV shows.

 

[TheWog]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1873096

Here's a thread to give you a little light reading. This one is geared towards RCI, which is an excellent family line as well.

We loved DCL, but also had a great time RCI and are probably going the Freedom of the Seas for our next cruise.

 

[tvguy]

DCL CMs generally stay on board longer than on other lines, which might imply that they are more satisfied. They are great!

Wonder what the average tenure is on Disney. HAL made a big deal that the AVERAGE employee on our cruise with them had worked for HAL for 6 years.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I have also cruised on Princess Cruises, and other cruise lines.

I found Princess 'better' on the food, different on entertainment ie more Adult, casinos etc, then worse on stateroom size and service, pools, kids clubs, guest services, and a wiliness to do that extra bit.

Their Island Princess cays is a tender port so you cannot just walk off and it takes a long time to get a tender boat, and the facilities really cannot compare to Castaway bar a beach.

The Midnight buffet on Princess every night was nice, and in addition they had a Gala dessert buffet night.

I feel where all cruise lines miss out is on 'teen' food with the meals, there is young kid stuff and adult stuff, what about more plain unfussy food, for the kids that are growing up and do not want chicken or salmon each night.

 

[kcashner]

Wonder what the average tenure is on Disney. HAL made a big deal that the AVERAGE employee on our cruise with them had worked for HAL for 6 years.

The problem DCL would have in a numbers comparison right now is that they are hiring and training a lot of new people in preparation for the new ships. They need 150% more onboard CMs for the new ships, and have learned that they need to start training NOW.

We still see people on the Magic that we remember from the maiden voyage. MANY of them stayed 7-9 years, but they are becoming fewer now....sad. Still, it's a hard life with a family regardless of what level of staff they are.

 

[sharen24]

I've sailed on Princess, NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Disney. Princess wins in the food department, followed by Carnival, with NCL, DCL, and Royal Caribbean being tied for 3rd place. As far as kids clubs for the 2-5 age group, Carnival wins hands down! Disney wins for service, staterooms and entertainment.

It's amazing how much $$$ I will pay just to experience the feeling I get when the DCL bus pulls up to the terminal and I see the ship, when they "announce" our family as we board the ship, and when the horn plays "When you wish upon a star." No other cruiseline can generate the feelings Disney can.

 

[KELLY]

Thanks getting excited for our first cruise.

 

[tvguy]

The problem DCL would have in a numbers comparison right now is that they are hiring and training a lot of new people in preparation for the new ships. They need 150% more onboard CMs for the new ships, and have learned that they need to start training NOW.

We still see people on the Magic that we remember from the maiden voyage. MANY of them stayed 7-9 years, but they are becoming fewer now....sad. Still, it's a hard life with a family regardless of what level of staff they are.

I know on our HAL cruise a lot of the wait staff from Indonesia expected to spend about 7 years on the ship and then retire. Our waiter had been on board 5 years, was 27, and expected to retire by age 30 a rich man (by Indonesian standards).

 

[pppiglet]

There is just something special about a Disney Cruise, but don't know if paying so much extra for it is always worth it. So we've had to switch to Carnival and RCL the last couple of times. Carnival had the best food and the rooms compared in size with DCL. Royal Caribbean was a good cruise too, but rooms a lot smaller and food not so good. Skipping other lines next year to afford a DCL in 2011.

 

[over50visits]

A ship that looks new all the time, cast members who are well schooled to be friendly and available, every child's dream to meet the characters, and the little touches that start with the family announcement when you board and continue through the trip. Yes, more expensive. We love the other lines, and have a ball sailing on them, but we always are comparing them with Disney. That says it all, and we are always talking about the next time we get to go on DCL.

 

[inkkognito]

We've done 69 Disney cruises and 4 Royal Caribbean cruises so I'm sure you can guess our preference. Not that RCCL was bad, but we just like certain things about Disney much better. The Voyager class RCCL ships are amazing (the ice show was one of the best shows I've ever seen at sea), and I loved their little quick service food place and the parades down the 'street.' The rock climbing wall was very cool too. But the staterooms were tiny and there was no enforcement of the adults only areas at all. Also, RCCL's "private" island Labadee was a slum (not to be confused with CocoCay, their other island, which is great). Labadee is actually part of Haiti, with natives all over this supposedly "private" island. They wanted money to allow us to sit on the cruise line's own chairs, and a woman in the restroom tried to get money out of me for handing me a paper towel...uh, I don't carry money in my swimsuit. I can't ever imagine Castaway Cay being like that. Also, RCCL's disembarkation is horrible compared to DCL's...hours crammed in a "non-smoking" lounge surrounded by smokers while waiting for my color to be called so I can disembark vs. just walking off the Disney ship when I feel like it...this morning we were off by 7:30 a.m. and back home in Celebration before 9.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

We've only cruised Princess and DCL. We have one of each currently completed- and 2 more DCL cruises upcoming!

Food- pretty much a tie. We haven't eaten in the adult restaurants such as Palo yet, on either line. Princess had a better and larger buffet area. DCL had better poolside food. EXCEPT- Princess has Ultimate Balcony Dining, which is a private dining experience you can book. The most romantic meal of my life. On our balcony at sunset in Cabo, 6 courses, champagne, wine, flowers, a photographer to come take pictures of us! And the pictures were included!! The server literally waited outside our room door for us to finish a course, run down to the kitchen to get our next course. Amazing. And only $100 for both of us!!

Rooms- oh my gosh, hands down DCL. We had a balcony room on Princess that had to be half the size of our cat 10 on the Wonder. Really. And with the separate beds, split bath, and privacy curtain, it made sharing a room with our kids pretty comfortable. On Princess the extra 2 beds would have come down from the ceiling OVER our own queen bed! YIKES!! I would be beyond claustrophobic!!!

Service- we had far better servers on DCL. But a better stateroom host on Princess. Not that our DCL host was bad- we just never saw him. Everything was always tidy. But on Princess he went out of his way to pop in, ask what he could do for us, be sure to always have fresh wineglasses in the room for us, etc. Overall the friendliness of the CMs on DCL was superior.

Entertainment- DCL wins easily.

Pools- pretty much a tie. DCL's actual pools were better, but Princess had those nice padded loungers on Deck 10 and poolside were nicer loungers than the ones on DCL. The DCL ones reminded me of ones in anyone's backyard.

Price- ay yi yi- DCL just keeps going up. We have cruised very cheaply on the Wonder and upcoming on the Magic. We've been able to cruise off season and save money, and get SPH rooms on top of that!

DCL is hands down our favorite. It has been a wonderful balance of adult activities, kid activities, and things for all of us to enjoy together. I dragged my DH on the first Disney cruise and he is sold, sold, sold. It does help that we are big Disney fans in general.

I am curious what 2011 is going to look like, price-wise. We are planning an Alaskan cruise for 2011 with friends for our girls' 8th grade graduation. They have several Princess cruises under their belts. I don't think I'll be able to sway them to DCL (if indeed they go to Alaska) if the prices are so much higher than on Princess. If we go the Princess route, we'll get balcony rooms for the adults and throw all the kids in the inside cat room across the hall.

 

[orlandothebeagle]

Ive only been on 2 disney cruises and loved them, my hubby who is 50 talks up them or expected one every single day, I am not joking!He has obsesive disney cruise tendancies!
We would be too scared to go with some one else, I dont think he would have it anyway, It would be all my fault if it was inferior in anyway!
We did look at other cruise lines, but..............

 

[NHdisneylover]

The biggest reason we keep going with DCL is Castaway Cay. otherwise, we would probably take equal numbers on DCL and Princess. We have had excellent service on both. When the kids were little DD actually prefered the children's programming on Princess--we have not been on Princess to try our the tween programming. Food is good on both, bit I liked Princess a bit better and really enjoyed afternoon tea (that the kids could attend) every day.

We hated Carnival and NCL and will never do either again.

 

[blanq]

There is just something special about a Disney Cruise, but don't know if paying so much extra for it is always worth it....

ITA! I really love DCL, and Castaway Cay is just special beyond belief, but I think that the price you pay is ridiculous. Even with some of the specials they have offered recently, like kids sail free, I can get a cruise on another line, in a higher stateroom category, for far less. Each cruise line and ship is different, so it is hard to compare but I personally have never been on a cruise I did not like.

 

[Morgey24]

I feel where all cruise lines miss out is on 'teen' food with the meals, there is young kid stuff and adult stuff, what about more plain unfussy food, for the kids that are growing up and do not want chicken or salmon each night.

Sorry to hijack, but I absolutely agree (and so would DD if she weren't in school right now! )

Cruise lines do a horrible job with "too big for chicken nuggets, not into Puff Pastry wrapped Beef Wellington! (Which DD did order at Animators only to find a hair baked into it!!!)

Finding plain unfussy food at the sit down meals is a big challenge.

 

[KSFrogge]

It's amazing how much $$$ I will pay just to experience the feeling I get when the DCL bus pulls up to the terminal and I see the ship, when they "announce" our family as we board the ship, and when the horn plays "When you wish upon a star." No other cruiseline can generate the feelings Disney can.

This is our first Disney Cruise and the idea of the "announcement" upon boarding the ship makes me emotional. My kids will go nuts when they SEE this ship, let alone being announced and hearing music and everything.

 

[MickC]

I agree. We were on the Magic 2 weeks ago, and our family of 5 (children of 12, 15, and 17) shared a table with another family of 5 (children of 13, 15, and 17) and five of the six kids ate off the children's menu (mostly mac & cheese) during several of our dinners.

Our waitstaff were very accommodating in trying to provide meals that the teens would like (none of them were interested in mushroom gravy).

So I would say that there is a gap between the children's meals and the adult's meals.