Dmgmd50

I recently was on the Disney Wonder and loved both walking and sitting on the wooden deck chairs on their promenade deck. Brought back many memories from 1962 of being on the then new Rotterdam transatlantic in first class. What a disappointment to view this video of HAL's newest version. I hope the one on the Eurodam is better than the video I just viewed.

sometimes you need a sense of humor when accidents happen.

Please do not blame the kids as it was a elderly man that had the problem. You are very correct in that the children were very well behaved.

 

D:)

I guess that could be a problem when there are a lot of old farts onboard. LOL

Have not been on HAL but we have taken five family cruises. Our sons both depend on the Internet to keep in touch with work. They are able to work while still being away on vacation. On RCCL and Celebrity we all took internet packages . We were able to use Viper to text each other on ship, to find out where family members were, to set up meeting times and places. The best system so far was on Disney where we did not have to purchase a package but we could all message anyone or everyone in our group.

We do watch the news on the TV in our stateroom. We still certainly still feel like we are on vacation, but that we are connected to the world

We are considering a family cruise next March on the Eurodam.

Thank you 1of4 for the detailed answer. You have it down to a science.

Have other HAL passengers been bothered by so little drawer space in the staterooms? Do all the rooms have drawers under the beds that can be used for storing clothing?

The Disney cabins are superior, in my opinion, to the cabins on HAL. Their designers had families in mind while on HAL families seem to be a second thought with very few quad cabins. The new build is changing that but we won't know until tomorrow when paying passengers board and start taking pictures.

 

Disney cabins beat HAL in all areas: configuration, storage, bathroom space and housekeeping. Don't get me wrong - I am not saying HAL cabins are horrible, just Disney did it better for families. The beds are configured in the bunk bed style while HAL designers put in a single pull out sofa bed and a bed that goes right across the top of the main bed. Not great but we got used to it. There is extra storage in the Disney cabins and we were in an ocean view compared to insides and verandahs on HAL....

We would only be two people in each cabin so I am not worried about the extra bedding. When I looked at the pictures of the HAL verandah rooms, I could not see much storage space except over the sofa, though perhaps there are drawers in the closets which are not shown. Where did you keep your shirts, underwear, etc?

BTW thanks to all for your helpful replies.

Everyone is looking for something different. I personally had a cabin steward that spoke next to no English but it wouldn't register with me to have that affect our cruise experience. Just goes to show that everyone is different. That point will be proven with my next statement" Our children like Club Hal over Disney kids club...

 

But different strokes for different folks. You your kids need to be entertained then Disney is better. If you like to have some family time throughout the day, especially for meals, then HAL is better.

 

We will never step food on a Disney ship again. Beautiful ship, stunning décor, better photography system but the food was the worst I have ever paid for ...

 

I would save the money and go with HAL...but that is just us.

Though I said my grandchildren loved Disney, they never went to the kid's club. They did like the family events however such as karaoke, trivia contests, movies, etc. They probably never will go to Club HAL.

Interestingly, I went transatlantic first class on the Rotterdam when I was in high school in 1962, a very elegant luxury liner. The decor on the Disney Wonder reminded me of that sailing, especially the beautiful promenade deck with the wood deck chairs.

How would you compare the cabins on HAL with those on Disney?

PS: the worst food we ever had on a cruise ship was on Silversea which was considered a very upscale line

HAL doesn't nickel and dime any more than the other mass market cruise lines. Have you considered Royal Caribbean? They have loads of activities for kids (Check out their mega-sized ships if you're okay with cruising with thousands of others).

We in fact have done two family cruises on the Allure of the Sea, and though the kids loved all the activities like the Zip line and wave rider, we thought the ship was too large for our liking. My wife and I prefer smaller ships like Seabourn and Oceana when we travel without the family but they are not good when we take the kids. We thought HAL might be a good compromise for all ages.

It sounds like the review we read on CC might have been written by a disgruntled passenger and that most of the responders do not share that opinion.

We just got off the Disney Wonder and thought it was great but quite costly. Next year there is a cruise on the Eurodam which has a great itinerary. However I just read a terrible review about the ship on Cruise Critic, especially the service. That reviewer called the waitstaff and cabin stewards "zombies" who could barely speak English. The reviewer claims that HAL is declining from a luxury line to a "Carnival" line, nickel and diming passengers and crowding everything up. Have other people found this to be true?

We would be bringing our 14 and 10 year-old grandchildren (and their parents) for their sping vacation. Though they loved Disney, they have also been happy on Celebrity and RCCL so I assume they would be okay on HAL.

Any comparisons with the other lines would be appreciated.

On the Wonder, is there a similar place for lunch on embarkation?

Can men wear shorts for dinner in the dining rooms on any evenings? I am talking about nice shorts like Tommy Bahama.

Sounds like we should not use off-site parking. We will be sailing on a Friday. Can we reserve and pay in advance for the POM lots?

We will be driving two cars from Boca to the Port of Miami. All discussions I can find about parking near the port are outdated. Anyone have any recent experience parking near the ship? We would prefer not to spend $20/day/car at the POM parking. I would like to hear about other lots, shuttle service, safety, etc.

We would have preferred Port Everglades but Disney leaves from Miami!

Will I need a Sport jacket for my upcoming Caribean cruise on the Wonder? It is a five-night cruise.

Also I read something about a Pirate night? What do I wear that night?

What time are staterooms ready? Where is lunch served on embarkation day?

Actually I was only concerned if I had to wear a sport jacket one night and then would have to tuck in my shirt.

Since the time that I booked our cruise I had to have bladder surgery. Because of my new "plumbing" system, I prefer not to tuck my shirt into my pants. Will it be a problem if I want to wear my shirt outside my pants for dinner?

Do you get to see the same shows in the evening if you go to either seating for dinner?

Well said. We most likely won't sail them unless we are bringing children along, but that doesn't mean we think it is too expensive. Instead we've found a preference for smaller, more intimate ships. But unlike most other large ships, I wouldn't say "no way" to cruising Disney again if the circumstances warranted doing so. I feel they offer a good quality to price ratio for the right consumer.

 

They aren't cheap, but then again we lost $8K taking a crappy cruise on Royal Caribbean. That was money and a week of our lives we'll never get back. I'd rather have spent the same amount on Disney and known I would have had a great time. Lesson learned.

Do a lot of adults sail on DCL without kids? With all the references to pixie dust, I never would have thought so.

 

All in all, going back to the title of this thread ("Why is Disney so much more per day?") when you boil it down to cold numbers, there just isn't a contest. Traveling DCL, at currently-published '16-'17 prices is unjustifiable from the numbers perspective. So the answer to OP's question is: because 1) they can and 2) people will pay for it even if makes no economic sense whatsoever.

I am the OP. We will take a five-night cruise on the Wonder next March, paying the same total amount for five Oceanview cabins that we paid this year for five verandah cabins for seven nights on the Allure. But we were so bothered by the poor service on RCCL that we decided to try DCL. I just hope the Disney service and activities will justify the higher per diem!

As I said in the post right before yours, it's not just a theory. That's _is_ the reason they do it. Mess and the extra staff and popcorn materials they'd have to get = higher cost. Also popcorn takes a bit of time between batches. If it was free, there'd be lines stretching back the animator's palate (yes, hyperbole), at least for the 6pm show since the people there are dining late and likely hungry.

Good explanation. I never thought about it that way.

One more question: do a lot of teens wander down the hallways on their way to the Edge which is located on deck 2?

I've wondered why they bother selling popcorn. They can't make that much money from it. Just make it free.

Everyone says you are not nickel-and -dimed on DCL, but paying for popcorn would be the ultimate!

Thanks for all your support. I definitely now do not feel guilty about speaking up to my TA and telling her what I thought I deserved her to do for me. I realize that nobody can make you feel guilty without your permission! And if she says anything again to me, I will show her this thread and let her know that she is lucky that I stayed with her

The tub is a combination tub/shower but it is much bigger than the shower in any Celebrity room I have seen that is not a suite. I find that extra space very welcome even though I too use it for showers, not baths. Room sizes vary quite a bit across the Celebrity fleet (more variation than Disney) and they are mostly larger than rooms on RCCL but even in S-Class, ordinary veranda rooms on the Reflection are 194 sq feet, not 198, according to the Cruise Deck Plans web site. In M-Class, veranda rooms on the Infinity are 170 sq ft, concierge rooms are 191 sq ft and Sky Suites 251 sq ft. That means that a Sky Suite on the Celebrity Infinity is only 1 sq foot larger than a Family Oceanview room on the Disney Wonder. Celebrity Sky Suites usually costs more than Disney Family Oceanview rooms. (Of course, the Sky Suites come with suite "perks".)

We find the shower stalls large enough for us, but when we see some of the full-sized passengers, we do wonder how they fit in them, especially on RCCL!

Do you take Family Oceanview on DCL for just two passengers? Does Disney sell them that way?