ukintheus
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2009
My take on RCI as a couple with no kids, kind of vs. DCL but not really because they are so different 
Cabin - we LOVED our bigger cabin and veranda - hands down a winner for us. It was clean, in good condition and the AC worked well (better than DCL I thought). The closet was awesome – it gave us plenty of room to put all our stuff and keep the clutter out of the room. The mini fridge does also serve as a mini bar with items for purchase stocked in it. We didn’t ask to have them removed (I’d read that they no longer do that) but we had enough room to keep about 4 bottles of water at a time easily. The only strange thing was that our bed didn’t have a mattress cover, just the (thin) sheet over the mattress. I even pulled the sheet partly off one day to double check. Seemed strange and if it had bothered me enough I would have asked for one but I didn’t. The bathroom probably didn’t have as much storage as the split bath does on DCL but there were lots of other places to put stuff that didn’t necessarily need to be in the bathroom. They don’t put the toilet paper into little points – LOL – Oh, the humanity!!
Overall condition of the ship – Very good, you couldn’t fault anything in terms of the condition and cleanliness and IMO it was almost in better shape than the Magic was after its dry dock. The various areas were easy to find and we didn’t have any issues at all with navigating our way around.
Elevators – we didn’t use them much but they just never seemed to be full even though they were only front and midship (kind of). On DCL there are many times that you can't get in, or not everyone in your party can get in. They also seemed to be bigger than the elevators on the Fantasy and Dream. We didn’t even have any problems with our luggage when disembarking.
Sanitation – I’m adding this in because of the Norovirus. Overall the whole hand cleaning situation was never as good as DCL (even after they announced Noro). A fter the notice about Noro we saw no real difference in enforcement at the eating establishments and yet people standing outside the retail spaces with a tub of hand sanitizer to squirt which seemed silly. However, the day we got off the ship, the crew were all having to do extra duty to sanitize the ship, so they obviously do take it seriously. Only other comment is that the public bathrooms on the pool deck weren’t maintained quite as well as DCL, for example, I went in right after the attendant had been in cleaning and it was clean, but she hadn’t emptied the “sanitary bin” which had the lid open and it was full.
Casino – non issue for us – we didn’t use it, but I will say the one time we walked through it, that it was much smaller than I thought it was going to be.
Smoking – 95% non issue for us. The smoking section of deck 11 by the pool was probably a bit busier than DCL. Maybe they all actually use the smoking section though and don’t use their balconies
. The day the wind was blowing toward the solarium from the smoking section was the only day we noticed the smell in a non-smoking area.
Pool towels – this was something I had heard was a big pain – we didn’t find it a problem at all. We never waited in line to get a towel, or replace one. They had a check in and check out when you got on and off the ship at the gangway for excursions and it all worked smoothly.
Beverage package – I can’t say that we came out ahead from what we spent on the package but it was nice to be able to get anything we wanted and it was nice to have it paid for well in advance of the trip. You can’t say we didn’t try to get our monies worth! Ha ha. We would probably get it again, but maybe not the ultimate that includes coffee.
Entertainment – We only did one show but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Different, and nice to have an adult theme. The theater was beautiful and I liked the fact that the bar was inside it!
There was adult trivia offered several times during the cruise and we usually go on DCL. It seemed to always be held in the Schooner Bar though, which was right next to the Casino and was too smoky for us so we didn’t participate in anything there. I felt that the rest of the entertainment offerings, aside from the pools/water slides etc., were on the weak side. Their daily compass had tons of stuff listed but a lot of it was nothing we were interested in and a lot of it seemed to be based around goings on in the Casino or sales in the retail shops, so basically involving trying to get you to spend money.
Internet – worked about the same as DCL and wasn't super speedy but it worked for what we used it for. In future I would probably buy the data package if it is offered at a discount, which it was on this cruise, at $9.95/day.
Food & Dining Service – We found the drink server service at the pool to be slow, almost non-existent some days. The service in the other bars was good, about the same as DCL. Service in the MDR was good the two nights we were in there and the service in Chops was excellent. Giovanni’s and Sabor weren’t as good, and not as good as the MDR on DCL, but you can always get a not-so-great server, and so I’m leaving that one open really, we've had fantastic and not so great on DCL too.
Stateroom host – awesome – just as good as any of the best we have had on DCL. Friendly, helpful, and like a ninja - loved him.
Other crew we interacted with – cleaners and maintenance people were very friendly and often said hello and asked how your day was going, even the painter guys (who typically on DCL have that panic look when they see you – LOL). One thing that I didn’t like was that the name tags for the crew had their full name and half of the tag was taken up with the RCI logo, so you couldn’t read their names – I like being able to see the name of the person as I’m not great at remembering names. The name tags on DCL are much better.
Passenger demographic – this cruise had a lot of older couples so the vibe was totally different from DCL but we found them to be a courteous and friendly group on the whole. Lots of saying hello as people passed you by. There was seat saving going on, but I had been prepared for that and we didn't encounter anything (apart from Ms. 29 and counting - LOL) that was ridiculously over the top.
Food: Windjammer - no big shock if you’ve read through this that the food on the buffet was definitely not our favorite and we tried it for breakfast and lunch. We did not try it for dinner. I don’t think it compares to any of the DCL buffets at all in terms of quality or choice but that curry right at the end gave it bonus points!
MDR - Our limited experience was that it appeared to be hit or miss and overall probably 1 step below DCL for quality and a couple of steps below in terms of an interesting menu. Specialty restaurants. We had a hit with Chops, and miss with Sabor, and Giovanni’s was somewhere in between. Johnny Rockets was not worth the upcharge to me. I would rate their burger and fries about on par with the burger on the pool deck on DCL.
Overall - Things that were awesome on RCI - The ship was beautiful, and much nicer than I had been expecting. The Promenade and the pool decks were fantastic especially with all the activities on the pool deck if you chose to do them. Being able to pre-purchase our booze was a HUGE deal for us. Loved that. Things we missed/preferred on DCL - It was a surprise to me that we missed the soda station on DCL as it is something I didn’t really think we used, having freestyle soda machines (which several RCI ships have) would have solved that issue. We also really missed the quick dining options on the pool deck on DCL. It was inconvenient to have to go down to deck 4 to get a sandwich or a slice of pizza, or to go into the always busy Windjammer to grab something when we were out at the pool. We only ordered room service for breakfast but the menu was limited compared to DCL and nothing stood out that we wanted to order.
Pre-purchase options – We had a lot of discounted options available for pre-purchase on our cruise vs onboard pricing. My understanding is that not every cruise offers this many. Our beverage package was discounted 20% and our specialty dining package was 4 nights for $80.00 per person. We also could have purchased discounted internet and a photograph package. Big thumbs up in my book that we could book ahead of time and get a discount.
Embarkation – This was really easy for us because we had suite privileges. It was the fastest we have ever got onto a ship at Galveston – about 30 mins total from when we arrived at the port to when we were onboard.
Debarkation – Self-assist different and slower than I thought it would be, but we haven’t ever done walk off on DCL – so can’t really fairly compare. I hadn't ever noticed immigration being so slow in Galveston, but this ship had more passengers so that has to be taken into consideration.
AND FINALLY - - the questions that everyone asks.
1. Was it really cheaper? Yes. Our room was cheaper than a regular verandah on DCL. Overall the total we spent was about the same as we would have on a 7 night on DCL, BUT, that's because we chose to spend more money on nice bottles of wine than we normally do on DCL because we knew that we weren't going to have a catastrophic bill on that last morning. If you take that out of the mix, then, yes, it was cheaper and we were in a much larger room.
2. Would you book RCI or DCL for your next cruise? Both for different reasons. If it's just us two and we are looking for a reasonably priced get away we would definitely book RCI again. If it is a sailing with family then we would book DCL just because I think the activities offered on DCL appeal to our family more than RCI.
So, in the words of the famous Two Ronnies in the UK - "It's goodnight from me and it's goodnight from him"
Thanks to everyone that followed along and for all your kind comments and putting up with my ramblings.
Cabin - we LOVED our bigger cabin and veranda - hands down a winner for us. It was clean, in good condition and the AC worked well (better than DCL I thought). The closet was awesome – it gave us plenty of room to put all our stuff and keep the clutter out of the room. The mini fridge does also serve as a mini bar with items for purchase stocked in it. We didn’t ask to have them removed (I’d read that they no longer do that) but we had enough room to keep about 4 bottles of water at a time easily. The only strange thing was that our bed didn’t have a mattress cover, just the (thin) sheet over the mattress. I even pulled the sheet partly off one day to double check. Seemed strange and if it had bothered me enough I would have asked for one but I didn’t. The bathroom probably didn’t have as much storage as the split bath does on DCL but there were lots of other places to put stuff that didn’t necessarily need to be in the bathroom. They don’t put the toilet paper into little points – LOL – Oh, the humanity!!
Overall condition of the ship – Very good, you couldn’t fault anything in terms of the condition and cleanliness and IMO it was almost in better shape than the Magic was after its dry dock. The various areas were easy to find and we didn’t have any issues at all with navigating our way around.
Elevators – we didn’t use them much but they just never seemed to be full even though they were only front and midship (kind of). On DCL there are many times that you can't get in, or not everyone in your party can get in. They also seemed to be bigger than the elevators on the Fantasy and Dream. We didn’t even have any problems with our luggage when disembarking.
Sanitation – I’m adding this in because of the Norovirus. Overall the whole hand cleaning situation was never as good as DCL (even after they announced Noro). A fter the notice about Noro we saw no real difference in enforcement at the eating establishments and yet people standing outside the retail spaces with a tub of hand sanitizer to squirt which seemed silly. However, the day we got off the ship, the crew were all having to do extra duty to sanitize the ship, so they obviously do take it seriously. Only other comment is that the public bathrooms on the pool deck weren’t maintained quite as well as DCL, for example, I went in right after the attendant had been in cleaning and it was clean, but she hadn’t emptied the “sanitary bin” which had the lid open and it was full.
Casino – non issue for us – we didn’t use it, but I will say the one time we walked through it, that it was much smaller than I thought it was going to be.
Smoking – 95% non issue for us. The smoking section of deck 11 by the pool was probably a bit busier than DCL. Maybe they all actually use the smoking section though and don’t use their balconies
. The day the wind was blowing toward the solarium from the smoking section was the only day we noticed the smell in a non-smoking area.Pool towels – this was something I had heard was a big pain – we didn’t find it a problem at all. We never waited in line to get a towel, or replace one. They had a check in and check out when you got on and off the ship at the gangway for excursions and it all worked smoothly.
Beverage package – I can’t say that we came out ahead from what we spent on the package but it was nice to be able to get anything we wanted and it was nice to have it paid for well in advance of the trip. You can’t say we didn’t try to get our monies worth! Ha ha. We would probably get it again, but maybe not the ultimate that includes coffee.
Entertainment – We only did one show but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Different, and nice to have an adult theme. The theater was beautiful and I liked the fact that the bar was inside it!
There was adult trivia offered several times during the cruise and we usually go on DCL. It seemed to always be held in the Schooner Bar though, which was right next to the Casino and was too smoky for us so we didn’t participate in anything there. I felt that the rest of the entertainment offerings, aside from the pools/water slides etc., were on the weak side. Their daily compass had tons of stuff listed but a lot of it was nothing we were interested in and a lot of it seemed to be based around goings on in the Casino or sales in the retail shops, so basically involving trying to get you to spend money.Internet – worked about the same as DCL and wasn't super speedy but it worked for what we used it for. In future I would probably buy the data package if it is offered at a discount, which it was on this cruise, at $9.95/day.
Food & Dining Service – We found the drink server service at the pool to be slow, almost non-existent some days. The service in the other bars was good, about the same as DCL. Service in the MDR was good the two nights we were in there and the service in Chops was excellent. Giovanni’s and Sabor weren’t as good, and not as good as the MDR on DCL, but you can always get a not-so-great server, and so I’m leaving that one open really, we've had fantastic and not so great on DCL too.
Stateroom host – awesome – just as good as any of the best we have had on DCL. Friendly, helpful, and like a ninja - loved him.
Other crew we interacted with – cleaners and maintenance people were very friendly and often said hello and asked how your day was going, even the painter guys (who typically on DCL have that panic look when they see you – LOL). One thing that I didn’t like was that the name tags for the crew had their full name and half of the tag was taken up with the RCI logo, so you couldn’t read their names – I like being able to see the name of the person as I’m not great at remembering names. The name tags on DCL are much better.
Passenger demographic – this cruise had a lot of older couples so the vibe was totally different from DCL but we found them to be a courteous and friendly group on the whole. Lots of saying hello as people passed you by. There was seat saving going on, but I had been prepared for that and we didn't encounter anything (apart from Ms. 29 and counting - LOL) that was ridiculously over the top.
Food: Windjammer - no big shock if you’ve read through this that the food on the buffet was definitely not our favorite and we tried it for breakfast and lunch. We did not try it for dinner. I don’t think it compares to any of the DCL buffets at all in terms of quality or choice but that curry right at the end gave it bonus points!
MDR - Our limited experience was that it appeared to be hit or miss and overall probably 1 step below DCL for quality and a couple of steps below in terms of an interesting menu. Specialty restaurants. We had a hit with Chops, and miss with Sabor, and Giovanni’s was somewhere in between. Johnny Rockets was not worth the upcharge to me. I would rate their burger and fries about on par with the burger on the pool deck on DCL.Overall - Things that were awesome on RCI - The ship was beautiful, and much nicer than I had been expecting. The Promenade and the pool decks were fantastic especially with all the activities on the pool deck if you chose to do them. Being able to pre-purchase our booze was a HUGE deal for us. Loved that. Things we missed/preferred on DCL - It was a surprise to me that we missed the soda station on DCL as it is something I didn’t really think we used, having freestyle soda machines (which several RCI ships have) would have solved that issue. We also really missed the quick dining options on the pool deck on DCL. It was inconvenient to have to go down to deck 4 to get a sandwich or a slice of pizza, or to go into the always busy Windjammer to grab something when we were out at the pool. We only ordered room service for breakfast but the menu was limited compared to DCL and nothing stood out that we wanted to order.
Pre-purchase options – We had a lot of discounted options available for pre-purchase on our cruise vs onboard pricing. My understanding is that not every cruise offers this many. Our beverage package was discounted 20% and our specialty dining package was 4 nights for $80.00 per person. We also could have purchased discounted internet and a photograph package. Big thumbs up in my book that we could book ahead of time and get a discount.
Embarkation – This was really easy for us because we had suite privileges. It was the fastest we have ever got onto a ship at Galveston – about 30 mins total from when we arrived at the port to when we were onboard.
Debarkation – Self-assist different and slower than I thought it would be, but we haven’t ever done walk off on DCL – so can’t really fairly compare. I hadn't ever noticed immigration being so slow in Galveston, but this ship had more passengers so that has to be taken into consideration.
AND FINALLY - - the questions that everyone asks.
1. Was it really cheaper? Yes. Our room was cheaper than a regular verandah on DCL. Overall the total we spent was about the same as we would have on a 7 night on DCL, BUT, that's because we chose to spend more money on nice bottles of wine than we normally do on DCL because we knew that we weren't going to have a catastrophic bill on that last morning. If you take that out of the mix, then, yes, it was cheaper and we were in a much larger room.
2. Would you book RCI or DCL for your next cruise? Both for different reasons. If it's just us two and we are looking for a reasonably priced get away we would definitely book RCI again. If it is a sailing with family then we would book DCL just because I think the activities offered on DCL appeal to our family more than RCI.
So, in the words of the famous Two Ronnies in the UK - "It's goodnight from me and it's goodnight from him"
Thanks to everyone that followed along and for all your kind comments and putting up with my ramblings.
Last edited:
Karen
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