holula

Disney isn't necessarily better. It is different. I've sailed on Freedom and Enchantment on Royal buy never sailed Carnival.

My thoughts:

Pro-Disney:

- Theming

- Characters

- Rotational dining is good with kids

- AquaDuck

- Larger staterooms if in an inside / oceanview

- Palo (up charge dining)

- No kids club charge

Pro-Royal:

- Better pool decks

- Freestyle soda machines even if you have to pay for them!

- More activities that are not kid centered throughout the day

- Kids club open later if willing to pay

- Casino if you like that

Similar:

- Food

- Service

- Shows

For two adults (which is what we are) we will probably be sailing lines which have good deals in the future and not Disney because of the $$$.

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I stayed in the Walt a year ago on the Magic and heard some minor noise but nothing that would wake us up.

I do have pictures somewhere and will try and hunt them down. :)

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You can walk all the way forward but I believe only on one side of the ship.

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I can see it fine when I try and search for two adults in a room. There are only verandah rooms available though.

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Open boarding usually starts around 12.30-1pm so I would advise arriving then. If you arrive any earlier you run the risk of being asked to wait outside due to overcrowding in the terminal.

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How many people are you trying to book and what are their ages?

I doubt it's sold out but it could be a lifeboat/nursery/kids club capacity issue.

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For that price it's a no brainier - Med!

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LHR has always had crazy high taxes but some of these recent fares are absolutely insane. For the Olympics in London in 2012 my friend flew LAX-LHR for $1200 return. Now I can't even find that from Florida. Flying into anywhere but LHR is almost always cheaper, even if you have to book another flight from that airport to London.

Just booked my family on our first non-DCL cruise - the Escape looked great from the website and the promo videos, so figured why not give it a try and see whether "The Mouse" is actually worth twice what NCL is charging, for virtually the same itinerary (my hunch is that it isn't).

Welcome. :) I recently sailed on NCL for the first time (Epic) after nine Disney and one Princess cruise and had a great time. I wrote a review on my blog (link is in my signature) if you are interested in reading it. I used to swear by Disney but since I have branched out to other lines I am enjoying them just as much. We also booked the Escape for 2015. :)

We have 2 older teens (16 and 19), do you think that they will have a good time on the either the Magic or Fantasy out of Port Canaveral? The perception is that it is for the younger crowd and wondered if that is perception or reality? We have been on the RCI line of boats (Freedom and Oasis class) the past 5 years and have had a great time because they find a good group of teens there age and are able to form relationships from there. Just not sure if that can happen or does happen on the Disney cruises.

 

I want to try Disney because I know the food is great and customer service would be also first class.

Honestly I think after Freedom and Oasis class ships then your teens would be disappointed with the limited range of activities on Disney. The adult section on Disney is 18+, so your 16 year old wouldn't be allowed in there. Same with Palo, or the adult shows at night. I don't have any experience with the teen clubs but there always seem to be groups of teens on board hanging out in the stairwells.

I found the MDR food marginally better on Disney and the buffet marginally better on Royal. Overall it's very similar. We have had great and not so great MDR teams over our nine Disney cruises. Customer service recently on Disney has been VERY hit and miss for us. It's not even the same as when we started cruising Disney three years ago.

For that much of a price difference I would pick Carnival. I've never sailed on Carnival, but from the things you have listed I think that Carnival is a better fit right now for your son. The waterslides do look like a LOT of fun on the Breeze! The ports your originally listed are 50% in favor of each itinerary (not a fan of Nassau but loved Antigua, and Cozumel is so-so).

I don't think rotational dining is all that. I LOVE the classic AP restaurants (Magic and Wonder) but not the newer ones. The Animation Magic show is great and I love the updated original show also, but I would be fine with never having to sit through Crush again.

What you are really looking for is for someone to justify that Disney is twice as good as other lines. I've been on Princess, NCL and RCCL and Disney isn't twice as good as any of those lines. I haven't been on the Breeze but it's a newer Carnival ship and I've only heard good things about it. (I wouldn't sail on one of the older Carnival ships, but I like the look of the Breeze.)

Gambee does excellent reviews of ships, and recently sailed on the Breeze which may help in your decision making: http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/

I haven't been on the Oasis or Allure but I've been on the Freedom, which is the next class size down on Royal.

I like the Fantasy fine, but the prices on Disney are getting out of hand. I find the pool decks on the Fantasy unmanageable and the atrium even worse, especially between dinner seatings. The lines for characters can be insanely long (45+ minute wait). We have sailed once over Spring Break and once in January on the Fantasy and I didn't seen any difference in crowds, other than maybe slightly more people in the adult area on the January cruise. The AquaDuck is a lot of fun but can attract long lines especially on sea days, and ESPECIALLY on a holiday sailing. We had average MDR service on one cruise and amazing on the other. I like the shows on the Fantasy and they probably have two of the three 'best' Disney shows at sea (I love Believe and Wishes).

Even the Freedom has tons for kids, and I know the Oasis has more. Meeting the Dreamworks characters was a lot more relaxed and easy than the Disney ones. Your 6 year old may not be tall enough for rock climbing and the Flowrider though, which are two of the main draw attractions on Royal. I believe there is also ice skating on the Oasis class. Royal has better sized pools for the amount of people on the ship than the Fantasy (the Fantasy has similar size pools as the Magic and Wonder, which have 1600 less people). I never saw the 'kid soup' on Freedom like you get on all of the Disney ships. Soda isn't included but I absolutely love the Freestyle machines on Royal, which have over 100 drink options. I don't drink soda but LOVE the sparkling water from the machines on Royal. I felt food Freedom vs Disney was similar. MDR service was much faster than Disney and I really enjoyed that! The ice show was really great on Freedom and I imagine it's similarly good on Oasis.

If there is a huge price difference, go with Royal. If it's minimal then I would probably try the Fantasy with a 6 year old and Royal later when the kids are a little older.

We have had two great cruises on the Wonder, but the last one (over Christmas) was a disappointment. Our stateroom was in desperate need of some TLC, so it's good they are refurbing them 50 rooms at a time. Service wasn't up to the standard we have previously experienced on the Wonder. Neither was the food. The rest of the ship looked good though. Disney does an excellent job of maintaining their public areas.

Don't try and do too much. Don't overplan.

I was on the same cruise as you, and apart from the slightly weird 'insular' layout I loved the Epic. I found that I could be as busy or as relaxed as I wanted to be. I really enjoyed Freestyle dining as it kept me from having that mid-afternoon snack I need on other lines, when early dining is too early but late is too late. I loved all of the entertainment except for Legends, which I wasn't too impressed with. A week on Epic for me wasn't nearly enough time to experience everything as I missed most of the game shows each night.

The rain was brutal while we were docked in Jamaica but it wasn't so bad on the other two port days. I don't understand how the deck can flood so badly though. There were 2-3 inches of water in some parts and they weren't draining at all.

The one other thing I didn't like was the waterslide opening times - they made absolutely NO sense. Some days they would open at 10am and others at 2pm, and it didn't seem to matter if it was a port or sea day. But that tube slide was so much fun!!

I loved both. Tulum is amazing just for the location whereas Chacchoben is in the jungle and doesn't have that 'wow' factor. However, the journey to Chacchoben is much shorter and doesn't have a possibly rough sea crossing to the mainland. Tulum is a VERY long day.

They did NOT have this on the Epic on the 12/14/14 sailing. I asked.

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Anything but NCL Epic! Loved the ship but it's so ugly.

But seriously, the Disney Wonder since she is now the only Disney ship that doesn't have a slide ruining her silhouette.

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7 nights since you get longer in Bermuda.

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I was on this cruise as well and experienced the same mess! I arrived with my husband at noon and didn't get on board until QUARTER AFTER THREE. It was an absolute disaster. I was surprised no one apologized or offered some sort of compensation for the hassle. When we got on the Windjammer was closed and we could only muster BREAD and an APPLE for lunch because it was closed. Had to wait until dinner to eat. Debarking took us almost an hour as well. I was surprised no announcements were made about anything. The cruise itself was fine and fun, but the traffic on and off was absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately it was my husbands first experience with RCI (we've done Disney before) and he says he doesn't want to do it again. I've never experienced anything like that and I think because it was only a two day I feel like our time was wasted on the first day with boarding issues. Very sad.

I've also done mostly Disney before and I have experienced embarkation delays on Disney (and Princess). I don't have issues with having to wait. It's unfortunate that it cut into a two night cruise but things happen. I have issues with the fact that Royal had 3000 people waiting outside in 80+ degree heat with NO water provided. That's the difference we got on Disney and Princess - Disney had the Captain actively handing out bottles of Evian and Princess had staff directing you to their water stand. Royal had no one outside other than someone apologizing for the delay. Royal knew they would be late and didn't bother contacting any of the passengers either - if we had known we wouldn't have arrived at the port so early or we would have brought water and snacks. (FWIW, we arrived around 12.30 and boarded around 2.15ish.) They also both extended their buffet hours and pushed back the muster drill about 45 minutes so everyone had a chance to eat, and Royal didn't.

My SIL ended up in the medical centre with a $500 bill from dehydration and low sugar from being in the heat so long (she is English and isn't used to 80 degree temps ever) and Royal basically said its not their problem.

Other than that, I had a great time and I loved Freedom. It only took us 45 minutes to debark so no issues there.

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I have a UK passport and I've never had a separate immigration line after a cruise - all passengers have ended up in the same line. Sailed from 5 ports and done 12 cruises and sometimes I wish there was a non-US line!

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The fact that they knew the ship would be late and still didn't say anything to the people embarking (including us!) is ridiculous. There are zero refreshments outside in 85 degree heat. We have experienced delays embarking on Disney and Princess before but both provided water while having to wait outside.

Not a good first impression from Royal.

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I live 45 minutes north of Tampa and it takes us 5 hours to get to Miami. Right now, there are tons of roadworks in Tampa on I-275 and driving there is just a mess.

Your plan is possible if you had your own car parked at the port but it's something I wouldn't risk if you have to get a rental car. I would not be comfortable with it at all.

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Thinking more about Priscilla today and why they would wait until completely out of US waters to stage the show...then it hit me. A lot of the southern US would flee the Epic in droves if this was the show. They had to wait until the ship got to the more accepting Eurocontinent to switch over.

Completely agree with you. I love Priscilla! It's a lot of fun. I'm on the 12/14/14 Epic cruise and I'm looking forward to BMG though. I've NEVER seen it but mostly only heard great things about it.

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I've been to Tulum with another cruise line. I would NOT do this excursion on my own. There is a 45 minute ferry ride followed by a 45-60 minute bus ride. And the same again on the way back. We barely made it back to the ship and we were docked 8-5. There are too many things that could go wrong with the journey and the length of the excursion.

Tulum was beautiful though! What an amazing place to build a Mayan temple.

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