We have done a few cruises in the past with both NCL and Disney and were happy with both lines. We travel with our teenage kids, who are fairly easy to please. The thing we liked about NCL is the freestyle dining and the drinks package (even though we're not huge drinkers we both like to have wine with dinner, etc and don't want to worry about the bill in the end). My ONLY complaint about disney is the current price.
I am starting to look at cruises for March 2025, which will be my daughter's senior trip before grad. I'd like to do a few days at Universal and then cruise out of a port in Florida, but didn't love the NCL choices for about 5 - 7 days. Itinerary is less important as we haven't visited a lot of ports, and those we did we would be fine to revisit, or stay on the ship.
However, I am overwhelmed at the different cruise line options. I'm happy to do research, but I was wondering if someone could give me a quick rundown of lines that may be in the same class as NCL. We don't mind spending a bit more if it's a much better product.
Priorities would be flexible dining times, half decent pool deck, good food, nice cabins, and some teen friendly activities. We don't care much about the big mainstage offerings (we'll attend, but if it's not great we'll just be amused).
Any direction would be appreciated - or even warnings of other lines to avoid.
Thanks.