Anyone else only sailed Disney, considered another cruise line

[MissDaisyofTexas]

We've done 7 DCL cruises, but we're sailing on Royal's Anthem of the Seas in less than 2 months. I plan to write a post comparing the two lines. My kids are older now (8, 11, and 14) so the recreation on RCCL is very appealing to them.

 

[smmco]

I think if you cruise once a year or every couple of years and just want a great family atmosphere DCL is the best. If your goal is to vacation more, visit new places and aren't super wealthy there are a lot of great alternatives. As far as service goes I haven't noticed a difference between DCL and RCCL. Food in the MDR's is about equal, maybe a little edge to DCL because of the entertainment. Buffets are close, but I'd give the edge to Royal. Outside the MDR's Royal wins hands down. DCL fast food is gross.

 

[mevelandry]

We are gold CC on DCL, but have sailed other lines when DCL doesn't suit a particular goal for any given cruise. For example, our very first cruise was on the Dream when my DS was 3 1/2. He was on complete sensory overload on the trip and really didn't enjoy it. He would not go into the kids club on his own and, though I felt the ship was beautiful (I'm the biggest Disney fan in the family), it just wasn't worth paying that much for a cruise when DS was completely out of sorts. We switched to NCL for a couple cruises after that. While I definitely preferred the Dream over any of the NCL ships, for the price point, NCL provided what we needed and my DS was a little more comfortable in their kids club as it was smaller. We then switched back to DCL when DS was 6 years old and did 5 more cruises - he loved the kids club at that point, so they were much more enjoyable trips, though DH and I really wanted more "adult" things to do and the DCL adult clubs weren't doing that for us, plus DH wasn't really into the DCL shows. We then also realized, we were a bit tired of the same DCL Caribbean itineraries and, though, we had done B2B European cruises on the Magic, they kind of broke the bank and when DS turned 10, we decided to try a Europe land tour which he did well with. We also wanted to sail through French Polynesia which DCL doesn't offer, so we opted for Paul Gauguin for that trip (amazing and best kids program EVER if your children are into marine biology). We also just sailed on Celebrity for the first time in December and really enjoyed it - it's super low key and the kids club is much smaller than DCL which my DS enjoyed. We are doing a Lindblad Expedition to the Galapagos this summer. All in all, I would say DCL still has the most beautiful ships of the lines we've gone on and the best service (and shows!), but if you want a bigger variety of itineraries, a lower price point and still an enjoyable cruise, there are lines that can accommodate. That being said, if we go back to a "family" line, it will always be DCL. NCL was a little tacky and I have zero interest in the gigantic RCCL ships. So, perhaps I should rephrase it. If you are looking for a more "sophisticated", lower key cruise line that still has some activities for children, they are out there, but DCL is still best-of-the-best in family cruising IMHO.

OMG! The Gauguin in French Polynesia is my biggest (most likely non-accessible) dream!!!

 

[Mikamarii]

We have done 3 cruises with DCL. Being cdn we have to deal with the exchange rate so that adds to the cost.
We had planned to do Alaska with dcl but it was taking so long to release the itinerarys I got bored and looked at others. Celebrity gave us extras (wifi, obc, gratuities, premium drink package) for less cdn than dcl did in American. We enjoyed the cruise, it didn’t have the Disney stuff but the food, shows, cleanliness, staff were the same. Yes it was different, but different does not mean worse. For us Alaska was abt the ports and not the ships so it was a no brainer.

We have a dcl cruise booked for next Jan. I checked out RCCLs kids sail free sale and our rccl cruise came in at 3700cdn less than our dcl. We have it booked as well and it’s just hard to justify the cost difference. We love dcl and this isn’t a spiteful switch. We would do dcl again for sure and would recommend it to people to try. Everyone has their own justification and limits for their vacation dollar.

Like I said, other cruise lines are different. They aren’t Disney. But that doesn’t mean they are bad.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well I didn’t start with dcl but I’m about even with status on Disney and Royal, so...

Cleanliness has been the same on both.

Food has been the same on both.

Service has been the same on both. In general very good.

Royal went over the top in attempted kindness once to the point where it got uncomfortable, but then a concierge host on dream was so condescendingly obnoxious with my son that it made us just as uncomfortable.

I preferred my time on coco cay more than castaway. Alas coco is now ruined, IMO, so I expect they’ll be the same now. I preferred the less groomed, more wild look of coco in 2015. That said, castaway is nice and holds a place in my heart that let me know that I *am* a laze-on-the-beach person, after all.



Oh staterooms. I try to go for the neat ones.

Radiance class we had ocean view right up at the front.
Vision class we had what was billed as panoramic but isn’t now (it was not actually “panoramic”), but was VERY cool.
Freedom we had an aft cabin that was superneat.
Freedom we had a forward panoramic cabin that was, again, superneat.
Adventure we had an aft with a crazy-deep balcony, loved it.

Dream... we’ve done concierge twice in the smaller category. Suddenly can’t recall the category name. Both times on deck 12.
Once in an inside cabin. Best sleep ever.
Once in a BIG porthole cabin with Murphy bed and the awesome room number 6666. The reactions we got from that cracked me up the whole time.

Ship makers in general do an amazing job of finding space, so I’ve never felt that the Disney staterooms are bigger than the Royal rooms.

My son, whose first earthside cruise was when he was 8 (he’d been a teeny tiny stowaway on our first cruise, since I was, like, 3 weeks pregnant at the time), prefers royal’s kid clubs. It’s more counselor-led, with tons of interaction, and he prefers that to the relative free for all in the club/lab. He’s a major extrovert and joiner, but many other kids are not, and family groups tend to be exclusive and unwelcoming, so he likes it when everyone “has to” play together and have fun like that.

most cruise lines put their casinos in pretty commonly traversed areas on their ships.

On Royal it’s easy enough to avoid the casino when going from point a to point b.

My first cruise with them we didn’t even try to avoid it; we didn’t study maps or anything. That was our fault.

The only time that the casino has impacted me with smoke (without me going through it) was during some awful weather days when no one was allowed outdoors. The placement of the casino on Vision combined with all smokers going to the casino got difficult. Not sure what dcl would do if weather was so dangerous that no one could go outside to smoke. Sounds tough on everyone.

we associate casinos with cigarette smoke, which we prefer to avoid as much as possible

I think Disney is the only mass market line without casinos. (A reason for the expense).

I believe that Celebrity is 100% indoors smoke free, so you might try them if you want to expand your horizons!

I tried to sail Royal but our cruise with Oasis of the Seas just got cancelled because a crane fell on it so we just went back to trusty Disney and leave this Saturday on the Fantasy!

Such a bummer. You guys are being amazingly compensated, though, that’s for sure! 100% refund AND a future cruise?

 

[mj2vacation]

After many cruises with Disney, my wife and I sailed on the Norwegian Bliss in February. Beautiful ship.

She is vegetarian and I also avoid dairy. Despite numerous communications prior to the cruise, while boarding and at the restaurants, we were very disappointed with their options in most of the restaurants. We also did not have one meal that was delivered correctly. We did better at the buffet.

Smoking. I am highly allergic and have asthma. The Bliss has an enclosed casino. It does not keep all of the smoke in. We could smell it in the elevator waiting areas several decks above. We were attending a seminar onboard, and the restaurant it was in, Manhattan, reeked of smoke on sea days.

Service. I had a conversation with the hotel director. After telling me the Bliss is Norwegian’s best ship for non smokers (well, cross off any other ncl ships!), He said they would test the system. I told him that I appreciate them testing the system. Never got back to me.

It was bad enough that i actually considered flying home from one of the ports. I realize I am more sensitive than most, but I really like breathing....

The spa on the Bliss was amazing. Jersey Boys was very good.

The observation lounge is really nice.

Ironically, DCL was stalking us on the trip. Saw 3 out of the 4 ships. We were in Nassau next to the Magic and Wonder. Saw the Fantasy in the middle of the ocean one day.

Luckily, we were on the Fantasy a few weeks after the Bliss. DCL is awesome for plant based options!

 

[breakingd_awn]

We had just reached gold with DCL when we decided to try another cruise line. Our decision to try another cruise was based solely on price. We wanted to try something cheaper. We went with the Carnival Vista 5 day Caribbean cruise. It was about $700.00 cheaper than with DCL.Here's my thoughts...

1. General cleanliness.
The hallways/stairs were always littered with trash/paper/food trays. Any bathroom you could find had trash on the floor, sinks a mess.

2. Family friendly atmosphere,

I have a beautiful teenage daughter and there was a table of drunk men, old enough to be her father, outside of the overrated burger place openly ogling her. It was basically a floating mall, you'll see ALL kinds of people that can afford to visit the mall.

3. Carnival had a Casino and to get to certain places, we had to go through the Casino, so your kids have to walk through alot of cigarette smoke. You could also smell cigarette smoke in the shops .

4. Service.
It's like night and day.
DCL goes above and beyond, Carnival doesn't.

5. Food,
Our dinner was always cold. The atmosphere was like a cafeteria. We were always overdressed compared to the majority.
6. Stateroom.
DCL has bigger rooms, we had an oceanview room. We loved our Stateroom host !!! He did a great job, our room was always clean.
7. CC.
We really missed Castaway Cay

 

[mevelandry]

After many cruises with Disney, my wife and I sailed on the Norwegian Bliss in February. Beautiful ship.

She is vegetarian and I also avoid dairy. Despite numerous communications prior to the cruise, while boarding and at the restaurants, we were very disappointed with their options in most of the restaurants. We also did not have one meal that was delivered correctly. We did better at the buffet.

Smoking. I am highly allergic and have asthma. The Bliss has an enclosed casino. It does not keep all of the smoke in. We could smell it in the elevator waiting areas several decks above. We were attending a seminar onboard, and the restaurant it was in, Manhattan, reeked of smoke on sea days.

Service. I had a conversation with the hotel director. After telling me the Bliss is Norwegian’s best ship for non smokers (well, cross off any other ncl ships!), He said they would test the system. I told him that I appreciate them testing the system. Never got back to me.

It was bad enough that i actually considered flying home from one of the ports. I realize I am more sensitive than most, but I really like breathing....

The spa on the Bliss was amazing. Jersey Boys was very good.

The observation lounge is really nice.

Ironically, DCL was stalking us on the trip. Saw 3 out of the 4 ships. We were in Nassau next to the Magic and Wonder. Saw the Fantasy in the middle of the ocean one day.

Luckily, we were on the Fantasy a few weeks after the Bliss. DCL is awesome for plant based options!

Interesting that you are talking about plant based options because I recently changed my diet and I am trying to add MUCH more plant based meals to it (I'm going for "flexitarian diet")... Going on Carnival soon and I usually eat mostly meat there so I don't know how this upcoming cruise is going to be like with my new diet. I asked other cruisers for recommendations and I think I will be fine but I'm still a little worried.

 

[mevelandry]

We had just reached gold with DCL when we decided to try another cruise line. Our decision to try another cruise was based solely on price. We wanted to try something cheaper. We went with the Carnival Vista 5 day Caribbean cruise. It was about $700.00 cheaper than with DCL.Here's my thoughts...

1. General cleanliness.
The hallways/stairs were always littered with trash/paper/food trays. Any bathroom you could find had trash on the floor, sinks a mess.

2. Family friendly atmosphere,

I have a beautiful teenage daughter and there was a table of drunk men, old enough to be her father, outside of the overrated burger place openly ogling her. It was basically a floating mall, you'll see ALL kinds of people that can afford to visit the mall.

3. Carnival had a Casino and to get to certain places, we had to go through the Casino, so your kids have to walk through alot of cigarette smoke. You could also smell cigarette smoke in the shops .

4. Service.
It's like night and day.
DCL goes above and beyond, Carnival doesn't.

5. Food,
Our dinner was always cold. The atmosphere was like a cafeteria. We were always overdressed compared to the majority.
6. Stateroom.
DCL has bigger rooms, we had an oceanview room. We loved our Stateroom host !!! He did a great job, our room was always clean.
7. CC.
We really missed Castaway Cay

Sailed on the Vista in 2017. Thankfully our experience was completely the opposite (super clean/spotless, nice and polite guests, extremely nice staff, excellent food). It's been out favorite cruise out of the 7 we have done so far.

Regarding the casino smoke, we usually went through deck 5 to go anywhere and while we were mid-ship we could see the casino on deck 4 (downstairs) but there was a window blocking the smoke from entering deck 5. We were never incommodated by the smell of smoke outside of the casino. My husband has asthma and I hate smoke and this is the only ship where I could actually spend one hour in the casino without being too incommodated by the smoke.

 

[lilsonicfan]

We had just reached gold with DCL when we decided to try another cruise line. Our decision to try another cruise was based solely on price. We wanted to try something cheaper. We went with the Carnival Vista 5 day Caribbean cruise. It was about $700.00 cheaper than with DCL.Here's my thoughts...

I’m going to be honest, for a difference of $700 on a 5 night cruise I would absolutely choose DCL over Carnival. That price difference is really small. And it seems odd that you would say that the sort of people who are on board are those who can afford to be at the mall, given the slight price difference. But as you didn’t enjoy the cruise I can understand the hyperbole.

I said this elsewhere but I was super keen on next year’s Med/Greek islands cruise. But the price for the 9/10 night itinerary was almost 3x more than what I booked, which is an 11 night on NCL. A price difference of about $10,000-12,000 for my family. DCL isn’t going to win that battle no matter how much NCL may not be like Disney.

 

[Corwin]

...Smoking. I am highly allergic and have asthma. The Bliss has an enclosed casino. It does not keep all of the smoke in. We could smell it in the elevator waiting areas several decks above. We were attending a seminar onboard, and the restaurant it was in, Manhattan, reeked of smoke on sea days.

Service. I had a conversation with the hotel director. After telling me the Bliss is Norwegian’s best ship for non smokers (well, cross off any other ncl ships!), He said they would test the system. I told him that I appreciate them testing the system. Never got back to me.

It was bad enough that i actually considered flying home from one of the ports. I realize I am more sensitive than most, but I really like breathing....

Thanks for posting this. One thing I dislike even more than casinos is being exposed to smoking. We have several casinos near us here in Connecticut, and while they have nice restaurants and entertainment (and since I'm not a gambler it's the only reason I'd consider going there in the first place), we stopped going there entirely because of the pervasive secondhand cigarette smoke. Being trapped on a ship with this would be an absolute nightmare for me. (I also have asthma.)

 

[RamblingMad]

What cruise lines you guys consider superior to Disney? For example, I consider the Red Carnation Hotel Collection to be vastly superior to Disney resorts.

 

[starvenger]

What cruise lines you guys consider superior to Disney? For example, I consider the Red Carnation Hotel Collection to be vastly superior to Disney resorts.

With cruise lines in roughly the same sphere it's less about superiority and more about preference. And you'd also have to break most cruise lines up by ship class. You can’t exactly group the mega ships with their smaller sisters.

And if you want to just go in general there are certainly more “luxurious” cruise lines that one could go on. My parents, for example, prefer the Vikings and Crystals of the world because they provide more amenities that they like.

Bit of a non-answer, I know. Apologies for that.

 

[RamblingMad]

With cruise lines in roughly the same sphere it's less about superiority and more about preference. And you'd also have to break most cruise lines up by ship class. You can’t exactly group the mega ships with their smaller sisters.

And if you want to just go in general there are certainly more “luxurious” cruise lines that one could go on. My parents, for example, prefer the Vikings and Crystals of the world because they provide more amenities that they like.

Bit of a non-answer, I know. Apologies for that.

Let me simply. Superior for food and customer service?

 

[MichelleCanada]

We are going on our 3rd cruise with DCL this summer (Alaska). We have only sailed with DCL. Next summer we are doing two Mediterranean one week cruises with RCCL. We thought with the cruises being so port intensive that going with another cruise line would be good. The two 7-days cruises are costing us about the same as one week with DCL (I know Alaskan cruises are more).

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Let me simply. Superior for food and customer service?

I think the food tastes better and there is more variety on Carnival. However, presentation of the food in the MDR is far superior on Disney. In my 6 Disney cruises, service has been better on some of them compared to Carnival but not all. Our worst serving team and cabin host in alllour 10 cruises was on the Wonder and Fantasy. But at the same time and on the same Fantasy cruise the serving team was the best we ever had. Our best cabin attendant was on the Carnival Vista. Really just depends on what you get for each cruise.

 

[lklgoodman]

We've only cruised on DCL, our first cruise was in 2001 for our honeymoon. We've cruised with extended family and just our small family of three. We've enjoyed all of our cruises, have gone on 3 out of the 4 ships, haven't done Dream, because we only do 7nights. I never thought I'd consider a different cruise line until our last cruise, it was a great cruise, so nothing bad happened to make me want to switch. Main reason I'm looking at different lines is because I'm tired of the same old things with Disney. I enjoy Anyone Can Cook, first time I did it was on our Alaskan cruise in 2014, every time we've gone to it, it's been the exact same dishes(even on different ships). I'd also like to go to some different islands, other cruise lines go to places Disney doesn't. We're tired of the same Disney shows and would like to see something different. My almost 11 yr old dd no longer cares about the characters, so seeing them on the ship really isn't appealing to us anymore, if she did care, I wouldn't be looking at the other lines. We have another DCL booked for 2020, while I'm looking forward to it, I'm not overly excited like I used to be for our cruises. I've been looking at the newer Carnival ships for 2021, they have me very excited! Now when the new Disney ships come out, I'm sure I'll be looking to book on them! I still recommend DCL to friends and family who haven't cruised before, especially for those who love Disney.

 

[starvenger]

Let me simply. Superior for food and customer service?

Food is so subjective that it can change from cruise to cruise on the same ship, never mind different cruise lines.

With that in mind, best desserts and mains I had were on Princess, but that was 12 years ago. On DCL we got plastic in our food - twice - but everything was fine otherwise. Royal was arguably better, but it wasn't slam dunk better.

Buffets are buffets. DCL is better with the sushi, Royal was better for variety of Asian foods - South, Southeast and East Asian all well represented.

Customer service - I thought the wait staff on DCL was the best, and with rotating dining rooms I feel like they had the highest degree of difficulty.

Dealing with issues, I felt that all the lines did a credible job addressing them and following up. So I don't know that one was "superior" to the other.

 

[DisneyConvert]

The only other cruise I've taken was on RC. It was one of their older ships ~same size Dream/Wonder . . . and I would not go again, although I recognize the amazing diversity of recreation, dining and entertainment options they can offer on their Oasis Class ships.

I love the small/medium scale or DCL's "classic ships" and the themed design makes it feel very familiar.

No casino is great with me. I like the family-friendly atmosphere.

The two areas that DCL overwhelms me with are:
1) The Kids Clubs that don't close at lunch, and do special pick-ups at the MDR ~9:15pm by YAC's who bond with their kids and let them feel that it's their cruise too. At RC, the kids activities seemed like an afterthought.
2) We appreciate the fastidious efforts on DCL to ensure my wife doesn't get sick from food (or food traces) that she can't handle. She has a lot of dietary restrictions, and both times she's been on RC (despite detailed instructions to the servers), she has ingested fish/oil and gotten sick. On Disney, I can order fish whenever I want . . . and over 12 cruises, she has never gotten sick

Ok, the itineraries on DCL are limited, and we're hoping that changes with the new ships. We book early, so for us, the pricing is not as bad as it could be (again, may change with more Supply). IMO, there is less upselling and nickel-and-diming on the Disney ships (e.g, free shuttle buses into town centres, only 1-2 small dining +options, free soda on Deck 11, etc.), so maybe that ameliorates some of the differential.

 

[mevelandry]

I’m going to be honest, for a difference of $700 on a 5 night cruise I would absolutely choose DCL over Carnival. That price difference is really small. And it seems odd that you would say that the sort of people who are on board are those who can afford to be at the mall, given the slight price difference. But as you didn’t enjoy the cruise I can understand the hyperbole.

I said this elsewhere but I was super keen on next year’s Med/Greek islands cruise. But the price for the 9/10 night itinerary was almost 3x more than what I booked, which is an 11 night on NCL. A price difference of about $10,000-12,000 for my family. DCL isn’t going to win that battle no matter how much NCL may not be like Disney.

For us the price difference is not small. As a Canadian, 700$ USD difference means 1000$ more (and that's 2 months of grocery for the two of us). And since we have enjoyed the Vista more than the Dream and the Wonder... The choice would be easy.