tinybiny

Something to keep in mind with going in October is they will have the Halloween Horror Nights. If you are there on one of those days, the park closes early. I think the park closed at 5:00pm the day we visited last year. If you want to go to the Horror Nights, you buy an extra ticket for that and they do sell out very quickly.

I agree that taking an uber/lyft is probably the best way to get there and at that time in the morning, you are looking at about an hour, maybe a little longer. The VIP tours are normally scheduled in the mornings. I would recommend booking the latest one if you are going to take one just to make sure you have plenty of time to get off the ship, get transport and get there. The downside of the VIP tours is you'll be grouped with other people and the guide will often decide where you go based on majority vote. For example, if you don't like motion simulator rides, but the majority of the tour does, you'll spend a lot of the VIP time going to motion simulator rides.

I mostly cruise because it is such a kick back vacation. I normally prefer land travel, but I get exhausted from all the planning, driving, organizing food and activities, etc. We have had a number of timeshares and I am slowly letting those go because I got so burned out of having to cook, do dishes and take the trash out. One a cruise ship, I don't have to do anything. Too bad it is so limited where the ships go with my very short amounts of time that I can take off.

BJs warehouse sells $100 Disney gift cards for $94.99. You can buy them online without being a member and they ship to you for free. Currently, Discover card is offering 5% cashback from BJs when you activate your cashback bonus offer. So, it is nearly a 10% savings if you buy the cards from BJs with your registered Discover card.

Can someone explain Meta Upgrade to me? When I was booking a future cruise on the ship, I was told that choosing automatic upgrades could land us anywhere on the ship and we may not even know until we board. Because of that, we excluded the automatic upgrade.

I've mostly cruised on the Wonder and had the same experiences as you. Since I've mostly been on the Wonder, I didn't know it was unusual - I thought it was just part of cruising. The creaking at night is annoying, though. Docking doesn't last long - once docked, the noise/vibration stops. The swaying makes me sleep really deep and I love it. I haven't had the trembling all night, just the creaking and hangers jingling to the point where I have to get up and move stuff around in the closet.

We used the online special dietary request form months before the cruise. Our first night at dinner, both the waiter and the head waiter came to our table and asked which one of us was gluten free. They brought a basket of gluten free bread and my husband pre-ordered his dinners on the other nights. There was no delay in timing or anything. We had excellent service at dinner. I don't know if there was a dedicated kitchen or not.

In the buffets, my husband just helped himself to stuff that he knew he could eat.

While it is generally better to book when the dates first come out, the cost of the cruises seem to go up every year. You are probably better off booking for 2018. My first cruise was similar to what you are considering. We did a few days at WDW and then a 3 day cruise. The 3 day cruise flew by. There were parts of the ship that we never saw. I recommend doing the 4 night.

This has just come up in another thread, but here goes…it's strictly against the rules for a waiter to pocket the tip you left. Procedure is that you hand him the tip in an envelope with his name and your cabin number on it, he hands it in to the higher-ups, and if you haven't removed auto-tip, gets it back at the end of the cruise. Otherwise he's supposed to put in the general tip pool. Or else he gets disciplined. (Keel-hauling, I think.)

 

You might argue that he probably will get away with just pocketing your tip. But given the traffic in the dining room, it's a gamble. And, of course, if the assistant waiter clears your table and you wanted to tip the chief waiter….

Honestly, I don't care what happens to tip after I leave it. To me, it is similar to tithing. I give the money with an intention. What people choose to do with afterward is their business. My part of the transaction is done.

I haven't cruised club class, but when I did want to leave extra tips for someone, I just put a few folded bills under my plate as I was leaving.

I guess I need to wrap up my comparison because I didn't take any notes and the cruise is already fading from my memory since there's so much going on back in non cruise life.

Overall, I'd say that Disney is a more elegant ship. Pretty much anywhere you look, you'll see something pretty. Things are kept very clean, sparkling clean. The public bathrooms are gorgeous. It's like going to a very nice hotel lobby bathroom.

Food is much better and more plentiful on Princess. There's really no comparison. This can be a double edged sword, as it would be easy for me to eat too many calories on Princess.

Service is excellent on both.

Adults only areas - Princess has much more to offer. Disney has areas, but parents are always walking their kids through the areas. For some reason, kids need to stomp when they walk through it. I can always tell when a kid is walking through before I even look up. The floor vibrates. The Sanctuary on Princess is truly a Sanctuary.

I didn't really see kids running wild on Princess. I was in the quieter areas most of the time, though. Kids run wild on Disney. I've never used a pool on a ship, but there are more pools which seemed generally better on Princess. Although, I have to give the fun factor to Disney for their water slides and features.

Princess pricing is much better than Disney.

Disney has full blown broadway caliber stage shows. They are great, but also a minus to me since they are only Disney themed.

Staterooms are far better on Disney. Since I don't spend much time in my room, that doesn't matter much to me.

My husband said he liked Princess more than Disney and I did, too. I'll still sail both. Disney sails out of my home port in San Diego and that is very convenient, especially their quick weekend getaways. Princess seems to have more west coast options.

One thing I didn't like on the Star was that we couldn't walk across all the decks. I am fairly certain that I always walk across every deck on Disney. There were places were we had to go up and down levels to get where we wanted to go. I was pretty sure I was never going to cruise on Star again after the first couple times that I needed to do that, but I did eventually get used to it.

I recently added another Disney cruise (only 2 nights) in September because I had some timeshare points I needed to use up and it's way more convenient and easier for me to take a 2 night cruise out of my home port than book another timeshare stay somewhere.

I have a Disney 5 night Baja cruise scheduled next year. I actually looked to see if Princess had a similar itinerary around the same time and didn't find a close enough match. I was going to cancel Disney and go with Princess. I guess that could still happen after my 2 night in September on Disney if I feel like a need a longer break from the constant Disney music and kids running around.

We canceled our Disney Alaska cruise for next year (already did it twice with them) and booked on Island Princess instead. I think I am more excited about that cruise than any other cruise I've ever booked.

I'm still interested in trying other lines,too. Since I don't care to fly, I'm pretty much only looking at cruises that sail out of southern California. I did think about flying to Oahu and taking the Pride of America, but the reviews are generally bad and I think I'll stick with my land visits to Hawaii for a while. I get bored on sea days, so round trip Princess isn't something that I'd do - especially with having to pay $100/day for pet sitting.

1. If we only use it on specific days, can it be booked in advance? Or must we get up at the crack of dawn and stand in line for that day? Does it always fill up, especially on sea days? They let me book as many days as I wanted on the first day on the ship. It looked full on the sea day in the afternoon. My other day there was a port day and it was pretty dead.

2. Is the cost still $20 for a half day? Yes.

3. Is it worth it? Yes

4. Is it the only place on deck for peace and quiet? Is there music playing on all the other deck space and around the other pools? I was there last week and could still hear the music/sounds from the MUTS screen and bar area. There were also some louder people at the Lotus pool that I could hear. It was generally quiet, though.

I also found some peace and quiet in the Thermal Spa, the Library and some other areas on the top deck that are a bit blocked off from the pool noise.

5. Do they offer food and snacks? I only booked afternoons and got there after they did the lunch rounds. They did have tea with sandwiches and cookies/scones/pastries around 4:00pm.

6. Are any of the loungers in the shade? Yes.

On the Star recently they did insist that everyone going into the buffet and MDRs use the hand sanitizer. It was also out at the coffee place, the ice cream place, the pizza place - basically anywhere food was. I have a habit of washing with soap and water before I eat, but happily used the hand sanitizer whenever I walked past one. They are right there in your way. How sad that some people don't use them.

Often the movie studios will put out a DVD with an R movie edited so it can be shown to a young audience. This is done for movies shown on airplanes.

 

 

So, do you know if the version shown on MUTS was the unedited original or the one edited for showing to all audiences?

No, I don't know. I didn't see any reference one way or the other in the Patter. I did not happen to be in that area during the show, either.

Ports/Excursions: Of course these vary greatly. I just want to point out that the cost of excursions on Princess was not that much higher than booking directly with the operators. Princess also has the low price guarantee, that if you find the exact same thing for less, they will give you back the difference.

I decided to have a leisure morning on the ship and not deal with waiting for our number to be called to get on a tender. When we decided to go ashore, there was no wait. We had quite the time trying to tender in Catalina. It was not windy, but our tender driver had a very difficult time getting in the right position on the dock. The other drivers were not having any problems. Many people on our tender were saying that it must have been the driver's first day.There was a lot of clapping when he finally lined it up good enough for the deck hands to tie it down.

The last time we were in Catalina was on our honeymoon almost 26 years ago. We walked around a lot to see what changed. It was a nice day and it was easy to walk up the hills without getting overheated. We both decided that we just didn't care for Catalina and probably would never be back unless we were on a cruise that was stopping there. I did hear from Cruzsnooze that the submarine was worth doing. Another couple we sat with at dinner seemed to really enjoy the back county drive. We noticed a little beach resort/spa place past the casino (movie theater) that wasn't there before. We walked down there and decided that would be a nice place to spend the day, but our day was nearing the end at that point.

Our other port was Ensenada. I've never been there before, even though I've lived in San Diego for 45 years. Since we didn't know what to expect, I booked us a tour through Princess that included a narrated drive to La Bufadora and a quick, very quick stop at the old original resort (right next to the dock) to get a sample margarita and a coke. Our tour guide, Leslie was great. Our driver, Carlos, was also excellent. As we drove past horses on the beach, I wished I did that instead, but I don't know how to book that, it wasn't offered through Princess.

La Bufadora was beautiful. The area reminded us of the cliffs/ocean in La Jolla, CA, only without the mulit million dollar price tags. I was really looking forward to the shopping there, but didn't see anything too exciting for prices that were impressive enough for me to buy anything. It seemed like I could buy most of the stuff in San Diego for nearly the same price. I'd rather buy at home in case I need to return something. I did buy one bag, though, just for the sake of a memory.

I liked the stop at the cultural center (former resort where the Margarita was created), but we didn't spend enough time there. Our guide stood in front of a map and talked about all the movies filmed there and in Rosarito. Then, we got a small sample of coke and a margarita. We didn't have time to wander about. Next time, I will visit the center on my own. The ship was only a couple blocks away. It looked easy to do a nice city visit without a tour. I would have just stayed on my own, but we needed to get back to the ship for our afternoon tea at the sanctuary.

EDIT TO ADD: I did appreciate the hand sanitizer when returning to the ship and the cold wet washclothes.

Thanks for the review!

Pools: There are far more pools on the Star than on the Disney ships. You have your choice of loud, movie screen, relaxed or very small. On the Disney Wonder, there has been a recent update, but before the recent update, there was an adult pool, a Mickey Mouse kids pool (we call it the pee pool) and the loud pool with the movie screen. Star didn't have any slides or anything particularly interesting. To me, the pools looked boring for kids, but the covered pool always had kids in it when I walked by.

I used one of the hot tubs at the Lotus pool one night. The Lotus pool is supposed to be the quiet, tranquil place. It looked like nobody was assigned to clean it up. There were lots of wet towels and empty cups and beer bottles laying around. There were only 2 young people there when I was there, but every lounger had a wet towel on it or some type of trash next to it. I did notice the next day that the area was completely full, over full by my standards during the day and they weren't the quiet tranquil type. I would have been disappointed if I wanted to use the pool during my Sanctuary visits. It's the closest pool to the Sanctuary and I was under the impression that it was a quiet place.

I've never seen anything sloppy like that on my Disney cruises. Stuff is cleaned up. There are less pools, so maybe that makes it easier, but I found the Lotus pool area a bit disgusting. I didn't see messes like that at the 2 main pools, which were always busy.

MUTS and the Screen at the Pool: I didn't watch any movies and haven't watched any on Disney, either. On Disney, they run Disney movies during the day and night. It has been my experience that it is far too loud with kids/people to ever hear the movie. I've only walked through and I did get in a lounger one evening to watch a movie, but decided it was too cold. I assume it is easier to hear at night, when the pool is closed.

On the Star, they were running some concert flicks the first day. I did see/hear some Phil Collins and Pink because we were walking through there and also had a sail away drink at the bar there. The sound system is very good and very loud. It is easy to hear the movie, no matter how many people are milling around or are in the pool. We did see people watching the late movies. They had blankets and popcorn. It seemed to be a popular event. I noticed in the Patters that one day, they showed Moonlight during the day. If I was traveling with kids, I would have had to avoid this area during that time. My kids weren't allowed to watch R rated movies and I thought it was odd to show it in the middle of the day on a giant screen at a pool. Is that area adults only? If it is, I never saw anything to that effect.

So, while I haven't had the experience of sitting and watching a movie, I give the edge to Princess because it seems like you can really hear the movie.

Live Music: Live music can vary greatly depending on who they have so I don't feel it is fair for me to judge, but I did find the live music much better on Disney than on Princess. I have had performers on Disney that I liked enough to go out of my way to go see. On Princess, it ended up being more of a there's nothing else going on right now, I'll sit here and listen to these people for a while.

Live Shows/Comedians: I can't give a lot of info in this area because I ended up not going to any shows on the Star, but did sit in on a comedian for a while one night. The comedian was very funny and made a lot of jokes about race and sex - things that you'd never see on a Disney cruise. Disney does have adult only shows later at night, but they still have to be relatively clean, keeping Disney standards. I didn't see anyone checking ages walking in and wondered if teens could easily get into the show. On Disney ships, kid and teens run wild. Parents don't always know where their kids are. Between this comedy show and the R rated movie on the big screen at the pool, I don't think people could let their kids run wild on Princess. Personally, I think people should always know where their kids are, especially on vacation, but that isn't the mindset on the Disney cruises.

I talked to someone in the elevator who went to a stage show on the Star. He said the show was only 30 minutes and it wasn't worth going to. He sounded surprised and disappointed. I'm glad I didn't go. Disney has full blown first class broadway productions. I don't even go to all of those (they are all Disney themed). The bar is set too high for me, probably, even though I wouldn't mind a non Disney show once in a while.

Art Auctions/Jewelry Sales/Upsells and Nickel and Diming: I didn't go to any of those. I am only mentioning it because the die hard Disney cruise fans often say that Disney doesn't shove these things down your throat and other cruise lines do. I found the opposite on this cruise. There were art auctions and watch sales and jewelry sales. I didn't go to any of them. At no time did anyone ever suggest that I do go. Perhaps other cruise lines are very pushy with these things, but I never saw anything like that on the Star.

We were asked if we wanted to buy a wine tasting event for $9.50/pp. It included 5 wines, cheese and crackers. We did sign up for it, but ended up cancelling it. It was no problem to cancel it. We had too much going and both felt a little queasy the day of the event.

At dinner, we were always asked if we wanted anything to drink. When we have dinner on Disney, they push a wine package. I actually feel like we have more nickel and diming and upselling on Disney. That could just be because we have been on it more, but I didn't experience the doom of being constantly nickeled and dimed and upsold on Princess like what I've always read happens on every line other than Disney. We had our picture taken once at dinner. If we wanted to buy, we could go buy it in the photo area a different day. There was no pressure to buy anything.

Our Star cruise was not typical. The passenger mix was very different from my other Princess cruises. I'm afraid I'll sound like an entitled snob if I say anything other than the people watching was very entertaining.

It was different than what I expected and I was told by several people that Princess is more of a senior/retired line. That certainly was not the case on this cruise. There were a lot of drunk people at the pools. Even the Lotus pool was kind of gross with empty beer bottles and empty cups everywhere on the evening that I used it. I planned on posting about that. Disney pool areas are always cleaned up quickly. For some reason the Lotus pool seemed like a forgotten area with no one assigned to clean it up.

I know there was a wedding, a large group for a 40th birthday and Farmer's insurance sent a lot of their agents on this cruise as a pay out. It was my first Princess cruise and it seemed like it was for many other passengers, too. There were a lot of first time Princess cruises and also a lot of first time cruisers in general.

I just got back from a short Princess cruise. Only cruised Disney prior. I have a comparison going on the Princess forum. Disney definitely has a better look/feel and the staterooms are overall nicer. However, the pools, food, adult only offerings are quite a bit better on Princess - at least it was on my cruise.

I think Disney is great for families with children. I am a big Disney fan, but I get tired of the piped in Disney music everywhere. The shows are only Disney shows. It gets to be too much for me. Maybe I'd feel differently if I didn't go to Disneyland so often.

I think Princess is better for adults. I will continue to sail both.

Breakfast: I had one sit down breakfast and ate at the buffet the other mornings. I found the sit down breakfast to be excellent. We shared a table of 6. I enjoyed the service and talking to the other cruisers. After that first breakfast, my husband wanted to look at the buffet and he said he would rather have buffet because there were so many choices. I would have stuck it out with the sit down breakfast in the restaurant because I was enjoying the service. He was right, though. The buffet had so many choices and I was able to get a yogurt parfait and a salad along with my eggs and cheese, etc. I felt they had a lot of very healthy choices as well as lots of sweets if we wanted to go that route.

On Disney, I tend to do the breakfast buffet, but there are far less choices. I am thinking there's about 1/3 of the choices on Disney compared to what the Star buffet offers. It's completely tolerable on Disney, but I think I just got spoiled with choices on Princess. When I have a sit down breakfast on Disney, it's a very formal feeling event. Again, the servers seemed more stressed out on Disney. They are helpful and willing to get whatever we want, but there's a feeling of trying to too hard. It disrupts my meal in a way.

Pizza: I've had cheese pizza near the pool on Disney a few times. It's not particularly tasty, but it is convenient to get when I am super hungry coming in from an excursion. The hours are limited and more often than not, it isn't open when I am looking for something to eat.

I wasn't going to eat Pizza by the pool on the Star, but someone said it was knee buckling good and I didn't believe them, so I decided to try it out. It's a good thing I was sitting down when I ate it. I had a four cheese, all white pizza slice. If I wasn't sitting down, my knees would have buckled and I would have dropped the pizza on the ground. I was sitting alone, yet speaking out loud about how good it was. I was near all the drunk people at the pool and there was live music, so I don't think I looked too insane, but I was talking out loud to myself about how good it was. I suppose a server was aware of that since she was refilling my water so often.

I'm glad people are enjoying the review/comparison. Since I don't have pictures, I wasn't sure anyone would read it.

Thanks for all the info on the chicken strips, too. That may come in handy some day.

I am going to post now specific things that stood out one way or another. I probably won't be going in order of what we did on which days, but will do my best to answer anything that anyone asks about stuff like that.

Coffee: I read that the coffee in the buffet wasn't any good and that we needed a coffee card. My husband bought a coffee card at a table near the pool on the first day. That table also sold beverage packages, soda packages, etc. I had already learned everything I needed to know about the coffee from this forum. Disney doesn't offer a prepaid coffee card. They do have a frequent buyer card that gives you a free coffee/espresso/tea after you purchase a certain number of coffees/teas. Both Princess and Disney had help yourself free coffee and tea 24 hours/day by the buffet. Both have terrible coffee by the buffet.

International Cafe was where my husband got his brewed coffee. The people working there were very friendly and remembered us each day. There is a lot of free food at the coffee bar on the Star. On Disney, there is a small selection of stuff, sometimes veggies and meat/cheese with crackers. Other times, Disney puts out some desserts. There is no comparison between the food at Disney's Cove Cafe and Princess International Cafe. International Cafe has a huge variety of snacks, desserts and stuff you can make a meal out of pretty much all day. I had a croissant once and some beet salad and pudding on my return from port one day. My last night on the ship, I had a couple of the desserts. Okay, this is the hard part - the food is so good that I could easily eat too much and get really fat. I don't have that problem on Disney. It's a strange plus and minus, I guess. While the food is good, it's also nice to not be tempted constantly.

The coffee itself and the espresso drinks were very good. On Disney, they are also good and my cappuccinos on Disney come with a Mickey Mouse head of cinnamon. I have to admit, I like the Mickey Mouse head on my cappuccino.

The Cove Cafe on Disney is for 18 + only, while International Cafe on Star is right out there in the open for everyone. The 18 + thing is kind of strange on Disney. For one, people carry in their babies/toddlers to get their drinks to go. Another issue is that they card people who are hanging out. Last year, my daughter and I were in there (she was 19) and a server asked her how old she was. She said 19 and then he asked to see her cruise card to make sure. Personally, I found it offensive to ask her and then ask for the card as if she was lying. It would have been better to ask for the card. Meanwhile, there were plenty of times when kids who looked under age 10 were in there looking for their parents. They should just make it for all ages.

At one point, my husband lost his coffee card. We found out they won't replace it. They said if it had our name/room number on it, it would be returned to us. Otherwise, it was like cash and they wouldn't give us a new one. My husband was very annoyed by that. We retraced our steps, checked lost and found, asked pretty much everywhere we were the day before and eventually found it at the spa. We used thermal spa the night before and I figured he may have dropped it when pulling out his cruise card. He wrote his room # on the card after that.

We used it a couple times at dinner. Once they marked the card, the other time they didn't mark the card, but didn't charge us for our drinks, either. A couple times at International Cafe, my husband got brewed coffee and I got brewed decaf and they didn't punch my decaf, they just said they saw the card and we were fine. I don't know if they normally do that or if they felt sorry for us for losing the card earlier. At any rate, I usually gave them an extra $1. They were so quick to clean up after us when we sat anywhere around there. There was one server who checked with us every day, asking what did on the cruise, what our plans for the day were, etc. He was so friendly that I ended up filling out a comment card about him.

Water: I drink a lot of water. I drink nearly a gallon per day. When I cruise, I order water bottles because I want to drink water easily. Drinking water on the Star is a billion times better than on Disney. The price of water bottles is reasonable on Star (I do read people complaining that it is too expensive here, but it's much more on Disney). In addition to that, there is water available to drink everywhere all the time. There were pitchers of ice water near the pools, by the buffet, in the spa, in the sanctuary... I am not sure where else, but I never had to look for water. Servers were constantly filling me up, too. One time I was eating a slice of pizza near the pool and anytime my water glass was low a server came up and asked if I wanted a refill. When I'd eat at the buffet - same thing - they were constantly refilling my water glass. I don't know if that is normal on other cruise lines, but it is not normal on Disney.

Soda: I don't drink soda normally and I didn't on this cruise. I may have never had soda on a cruise - I can't remember. Disney has help yourself soda stations with coke, diet coke and sprite and then some ice tea, I think and maybe a powerade? It's a big selling point for their cruise line. Free soda and ice cream (meanwhile I learned the free ice cream also exists on Princess). Since I am not a soda person, this does nothing for me. My husband was surprised that he wasn't going to get free soda on Princess. I explained the price difference and he still couldn't believe that there wasn't any free soda. I asked him if he will ever drink $1,000 worth of soda and why would he when it would make him fat. I don't think he ever drank any soda on this cruise.

When I got back, my daughter asked me if they had free soda. I honestly believe that soda drinkers would like to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for "free" soda. I am perplexed, but I would probably do the same thing if one offered free water and the other didn't.

In the past, in addition to the free soda pitch that people say about why Disney is worth more money, they do talk about the unlimited tea and coffee and hot chocolate. I didn't see if there was free hot chocolate on Princess (not a fan of it), but they did have coffee and tea out 25 hours/day. I am not sure if they always had the lemonade and ice tea, but I did see it out often.

Soft Serve Ice Cream: There are pluses and minuses to both cruise lines with this. On Disney, it's serve yourself and it is always messy looking (even though it is constantly being cleaned) and there are dripping wet kids from the pool cutting the line constantly. The sight of it is gross to me being out in the open with grubby hands everywhere and dripping wet kids shoving in front of me. So, when I saw on the Star that you don't help yourself, they serve it to you, I was very happy. It looks cleaner and more sanitary that way with a counter keeping people away from the machines. However, the consistency was blech. On the Star, it was clearly ice milk and didn't have a feel of soft serve ice cream at all. On Disney, it's like a frostie, a true soft serve ice cream. So, I like the serving better on Star, but the ice cream better on Disney. Of course, I don't need the calories and I'm better off avoiding the whole area on both cruises.

The Star also had a sign by the soft serve that said you could get a milkshake for $2.50. They don't have that by the soft serve on Disney, but you can get a shake made at Cove Cafe (18+) and at another place indoors on the ship. I think $2.50 is a reasonable price. I don't remember how much the charge on Disney.

I've gone end of May and early/mid June. You really don't know what you will get. If you are hoping for more ice, go earlier.

I was just on the Star and agree is looks worn, but it was still a great ship. I would have no problem sailing her again, but chose Island for Alaska because the itinerary is slightly different than Star.

Spa Tour: We went to the spa as I read on here that if we wanted the Thermal Spa, we needed to secure that right away. I asked if we could look at it, they offered us a tour of the entire spa. I have never done a tour of the Disney Spas, but did get stuff done on Disney before. I do believe Disney offers spa tours on the first day, I just never go there on the first day. The spa tour on Star was great. I met lots of the people who work there and heard all about their treatments and offerings. There was no hard sell. If I showed an interest in anything, they did offer to book an appointment, but weren't pushy when I said I wanted to think for a while. I get a monthly massage or facial at home and therefore had no interest in doing one of those on board. We saw a gentleman getting a facial treatment and it looked like it would be good for my husband. We asked about it. It included a shave, facial, neck, scalp, arm and hand massage for $95. We felt that was comparable to what we'd pay near home and my husband would never book that for himself at home, so we decided to book it for him that same night. I opted to get my hair colored at the same time. Ridiculous as it sounds, I've been meaning to get color in my hair for several months, but never take the time to do it. I had my hair colored and washed\/blow dried while he had his facial. I didn't have a hard sell for any products. I did have a hard sell for products all 3 times I had spa treatments on Disney Wonder. It was truly relaxing to not have to say no several times at the end of the treatment. I looked at pricing for some of their other treatments and found everything on par with what is charged near me in San Diego. Disney pricing is generally much higher than what I'd pay for similar treatments near home.

We saw the thermal spa and decided to book it. $69./each for unlimited for the 4 night cruise. I think we used it 3 times. I won't book it again in the future. While it is nice, I'd rather pay per use, which wasn't offered at the time. However, a couple days into the cruise, I saw someone touring it. So, maybe if they don't sell out on the first day, I could have purchased a pass for the remaining days. The thermal spa package comes with a scrub that you can use in one of the steam rooms. There are 2 steam rooms, one tiled sauna, and four heated tile loungers. The heated tile loungers were very comfortable. There is a sign that says not to use them for more 20 minutes at a time so others can use them, but they were never full when we were there. Overall, it was nice, but unless you plan to use it every day, I don't see the value. When I saw there was a free sauna and steamroom in the women's locker room, I knew I wouldn't be in a hurry to book the thermal spa in the future. The benefit to the thermal spa is that it is co-ed if you want to use those things with travel partner of the opposite sex. I believe some of the Disney ships offer something like this, but I've never looked into it.

The Sanctuary: WOW. All ships needs this. I read on here that you need to hit the Sanctuary right away to pick your lounger (thanks PaminCA who I actually sat by). After the spa tour, we went to the Sanctuary. They were letting people book by the day and not making anyone book the entire cruise. We chose 2 afternoons, our sea day and our Ensenada day since we had a morning excursion on Ensenada day. I know it depends greatly on how you like to cruise, but for those of us who want to sit quietly and read a book or take a nap or just feel like we have our own secret place, the Sanctuary is the place to be. Disney has absolutely nothing like this. The sanctuary sits up high in the front of the ship. I had an almost center front row lounger. There is afternoon tea service. I think they came around with it around 4:00pm. First they bring you coffee or tea. Then, they came around with a bunch of cookies. I decided to try a couple of them. Then, they came around with scones with clotted cream and jam - okay, I had to try one of those. Then, they came by again, this time with a plate of pastries. I wasn't expecting that much. On my second day, I was sure to pace to myself and was prepared for all the treats coming my way.

I will book the sanctuary again. Spoiler alert (didn't update my signature yet), I canceled my July 2018 Disney Alaska cruise and booked one on Island Princess instead. If they have the sanctuary like the one on the Star, I'll book it for every sea and glacier day for sure.

Leaving Ensenada, I was looking forward to sitting on my lounger and feeling like I was driving out of the port, but we had 3 people who were late getting back to the ship and the ship set sail later and my time in the Sanctuary expired just before we were sailing out of port. Ironically, the captain had several comments about the late people. I recommend that you never be late. Their names and stateroom # were called over the loud speaker many times. When they were finally found on shore, the captain announced that they finally figured out where the ship was and they were running as fast as they could to get back to the ship. Even from the sanctuary, I could hear the rest of the ship hollering and clapping when the late people finally got back.

Muster Drill/Safety: On the Star they referred to this a safety instruction, which was a good description because there was a lot more information than just the muster drill. I was seated in the Vista Lounge so the experience was easy and pleasant. I've had both indoor seating and outdoor standing on Disney. Disney's is shorter because it is literally a muster drill and nothing else. We don't even bring our life jackets to it. Although, the last Disney cruise I was on, a family was missing for a long time and we all had to stand outside in our lines for a long time while the entire ship was searched for them.

Cruise Critic Meet and Greet: We had a meet and greet set up by Paristravel. It was nice to meet everyone who attended. I was able to ask a lot of the experienced Princess cruisers lots of questions about how things are done and also about future itineraries, etc. Overall, I would say that Princess loyalists seem like a satisfied bunch. Before I booked this cruise, I had looked into Celebrity, Carnival and Norweigen. Those, along with Disney regulars seem to be unsatisfied with all the cut backs, upcharges, etc. I do read some of that in the Princess forum, but much less than all the other forums.

Dinner: I ended up booking early MDR. Originally, I had chosen anytime dining, something that Disney needs desperately. Anytime I mention on any Disney board that I don't like their dining, a bunch of people post about how great it is and that there is so much food for me to chose from. After 5 Disney cruises, I am 100% sure that their overall food doesn't work for me. It works great for my daughter, who can get chicken strips any time of day. When I saw I could choose anytime dining on Princess, I thought it was going to be love at first bite. As my cruise got closer, I read a few threads on here about people having to wait a long time if they ate before 7:30 and my husband has a gluten intolerance and I thought it would be easier to have the same wait staff every night.

Our cruise was sold out and early dining was full, but I put us on the wait list. We were #81 on the wait list, but a few days before take off, I noticed we were confirmed for 5:30 dining. I requested 6:00, but we were confirmed for 5:30, so I planned on that. When I got my cruise card, it said 5:15. It kept getting earlier, but it didn't really matter. Our table had seating for 9, but 2 didn't show up. Our servers were exactly what I would have requested if we could pick exactly what we wanted. First off, I noted my husband's gluten intolerance online before the cruise. At dinner, they gave him a gluten free bread basket and said they would be taking his order a night early every night to make sure he got whatever he wanted and that it would be gluten free. Aside from that, my husband seems to always decide he wants a glass of wine after they've already done drink orders and removed the wine glasses. They never batted an eye and got him his wine quickly, even though they had to do things out of order for him.

Disney makes a big deal about their dinners. I never care for the loudness of the places and servers are very uncomfortable if we don't order much food. They also give a speech about how they want everything to be excellent. My head server on my last Disney cruise told me the theme of the restaurant, the food and the service all needed to be excellent. Well, what can she possible do if I think the theme isn't any good? If I put on my comment card that I don't think animator's palate lighting and walls, it comes off of the server's reviews. it's ridiculous. They are a bundle of nerves and generally don't leave us alone because they want their excellent marks. I often avoid the MDRs on Disney because I like to relax when I eat and not have someone constantly asking if I need anything and if everything is excellent. I don't hold it against the servers. It does make me annoyed with Disney the company, though.

My Star Princess dinners were very relaxed. I could tell my server was eaves dropping while we were eating, but he wasn't being invasive. He was just listening to see if we wanted anything else or more and was very quick when we did. He was absolutely perfect in his non invasive approach. I filled out a comment card about him and the assistant server (as well as a server at the International Cafe). I've never taken the time to fill out one on a Disney cruise, but felt that these guys deserved special recognition. No idea if they will get any, but they made our cruise dining experience excellent. I also like sitting at the same table in the same restaurant every night. They don't do that on Disney.

More later if I can remember, lol.

Excellent comparison review. Looking forward to the rest.

Glad you are enjoying it. I feel like I need to hurry and post the rest before I forget, lol.

Ok, here is the deal. First, thanks for the comparison and glad you enjoyed your Star cruise. Maybe you should ask for things. If you don't see chicken strips; ask for them.

My daughter wasn't on this cruise. If she was, we would have asked about chicken strips for sure. I didn't even look at the room service menu - it could have been there like it is on the Disney room service menu. I also never asked for the child's dinner menu (might be on there), but I did request a child's dessert one night. I told my server I read about a Love Boat dessert and he explained 2 versions to me. I asked for the volcano one (read about it on here) and he brought it. It was crazy good and I could only eat about half of it. Tips from reading here gave me a huge edge on this cruise.

Now to try to post as much as I can before I forget everything that I wanted to post. :p

I've only sailed Disney prior to this cruise. We just got back from a 4 night on the Star princess and it was spectacular. I don't have pictures to share (only took pics of my stateroom and a couple at the ports). I do, however, have many comparisons between Star Princess and Disney Wonder. I've been on Disney Wonder 4 times and Disney Dream once. At this point, I can barely remember Disney Dream.

Overall, Disney ships are much cleaner. I never saw a dirty window on the Wonder, but don't think I ever saw a clean window on the Star. The ones that weren't exactly dirty were scratched.

I could easily go hungry on a Disney cruise. I could easily overeat and gain a ton of weight on the Star Princess. The food was spectacular and there was never any end to the food. Most of the desserts on Wonder look pretty, but don't taste like anything. The desserts on the Star taste #^@^!^ delicious.

The servers are excellent on both Disney Wonder and the Star. The servers are much more relaxed on the Star, which made me much more relaxed. My husband said maybe the servers on Disney are in constant fear of losing their jobs. There is a huge difference in how they come across. Disney servers give a speech about wanting excellent ratings. I never heard anything like that on the Star.

I've always had excellent cabin stewards. I usually don't make special requests, but this time we asked our Star steward to bring us robes and ice. We had our items immediately.

There are a million more places for adults only on the Star than on the Wonder. We used the Thermal Spa and the Sanctuary on the Star. They were both very good.

I could easily become a Princess convert. The only things that are keeping me sailing with Disney in the near future is that it sails out of my home port and if I travel with my daughter, she eats chicken strips every day. I didn't see any chicken strips on the Star. They may have been around somewhere, but I wasn't looking for them and they didn't jump out at me. My husband thinks I am crazy that I would pay Disney prices for chicken strips. Since my daughter is an adult, she pays her fare. If she wants chicken strips, she can pay for those.

The Disney ships look cleaner and that gives off an overall cleaner feel. It's a strange thing to describe. The public restrooms on Disney are fancy and well maintained. I didn't find any like that on the Star. I actually found the public restrooms to be what I'd consider "yucky" on the Star. She is getting a makeover soon, so maybe that will change. Often the toilets had out of order signs on them.

A more detailed review for those who like to sit around and read....

Boarding the ship: First off, the port in San Pedro is very easy to deal with. We drove around to the porters to drop off our luggage. A man ran up to us right away and offered to help us. I don't know if they are all the good, or if it was because I was holding some dollar bills in my hand. He took all our stuff and told us how to drive around to park. Very friendly and fast service. I was very impressed. We don't have that kind of service at the San Diego port.

After I parked, we walked in and only had a couple people ahead of us in line. Check in was very fast and easy. Boarding the ship was easy. They had us board in the rear of the ship on deck 7. On Disney, we always board in the central atrium and they make a big deal, announcing us when we board. It wasn't like that here. We were directed to elevators. They had elevator stewards for this part. Our was annoyed that we didn't know which floor we were on. We told our deck name and room number and he told us we were on deck 9, but never seemed to get over the annoyance that we didn't know which deck we were on when he first asked.

Score one for Disney for the actual boarding (walking into the ship).

Stateroom: We had an aft balcony. It is hard to compare rooms from Disney to Princess. There aren't any comparable rooms from what I can tell. Perhaps a Princess mini suite would compare to a Disney balcony cabin. I have only stayed in ocean view rooms on Disney. It seems like the Disney ocean view rooms are bigger than the Princess balcony rooms. Disney ocean view has a fold down couch (that becomes a bed) and a center table that we didn't have on Princess. Disney also has a split bathroom which is like 2 bathrooms. So, one person can shower while the other uses the toilet. There are bathtubs in the Disney ocean view rooms, making the shower a lot larger. Star Princess has a large walk in type closet.

I will say I was disappointed walking into my stateroom on the Star. I am used to the look of Disney and their rooms have a very neat and clean appearance. It must be the colors or something. I was worried about the bathroom on the Star, but it turned out fine once I got used to it. On Disney, I've always had the one very large, very clean window. On the Star, I had the aft balcony, which was spacious and awesome. I learned that I actually don't spend much time in my room and room size actually doesn't matter to me, especially on Princess with the food everywhere all the time. On Disney, we've been stuck ordering room service a few times because of the lack of anytime food. I think the couch and table are more necessary on Disney if we continue to eat at off times.

More to come later.

The cruise goes by really fast. You board in the afternoon on day one, have the entire next day to enjoy and then the following day, you are up and off the ship very early. Prioritize what you want to do before you get there. You won't have time to do/see everything.

I've been on a couple 2 nighters out of San Diego and they both had a pirate night. I think you'll also have a Halloween night. So, people will be dressed in full costumes both nights.

I can't answer your other questions since I didn't visit the MDRs or do any character meets on my 2 night cruises.

There is a very small parking lot near the port. It will be full - don't count on it ever. You can prebook parking across the street at the Wyndham hotel. It will also get full, so be sure to book it ASAP. It is literally across the street from the ship. It is the closest parking. I've been parking at Aladdin, which is about a mile away. Aladdin has shuttles, but it's faster for me to walk the mile. If I were traveling with a 5 year old, I'd use their shuttle.

I chose 6:00pm and show I am confirmed for 5:30pm. I don't think there really is a 6:00pm based on everything I've read here. Not sure why it comes up as a choice when managing the booking.