A Princess Cruiser takes a Disney Cruise

First of all I know most of you read the thread title and your first thought was either "no way, no how" or "only with my kids and grandkids." I hope this thread will give you help in making your decision. I did a Live From on the DCL board (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2442443) but wanted to keep this thread strictly about differences; showcasing the winners and losers between the two. Enjoy the read and feel free to ask any and all questions. I'm not a DCL expert, this info is based on my experiences, strictly on the Disney Wonder, I may get some things wrong unintentionally. Also, some of these points are my opinions, YMMV and some may disagree or agree, I welcome feedback, commentary and a wonderful discussion.

Firstly, a little about us. DW and I are DINKs, in our 30s and have been cruising since our honeymoon well over a decade ago. We have 9 cruises under our belts, 7 Princess, 1 NCL and a Carnival cruise for DW. We are huge Disney fans, through and through love any and all things Disney so since we love cruising we wanted to try Disney's cruise product.

We always have done 7 day cruises or longer in at least a balcony. For this cruise we did a 7 day cruise out of Galveston in a deluxe ocean view stateroom with a verandah (DCLs version of what I would call a minisuite on Princess) on Disney's Wonder, which has just come out of a major dry dock and is one of the smaller ships of their fleet.

For those in the TL;DR category: If you are a Disney fan, with or without kids, do a Disney cruise atleast once, it's worth it. I think those with kids that are Disney fans in the 4-12 age groups will get the most out of a DCL cruise. Otherwise, I think Princess does as a good, if not a better job, than DCL for almost half the price in many cases.

Pre-cruise

Disney doesn't discount cruises (with some limited exceptions which I will get into later). The price you get with your TA is the price you get by booking direct. The difference is that TAs can give OBC, rebates, etc as an incentive for booking with them. Costco for example gives you a Costco cash card based on a percentage of your total cruisefare. Also, in stark contrast to Princess, you will get the best cruisefare on the date they open bookings and the prices will steadily rise the closer you get to the cruise. I never once saw a better price over the 16 or so months that we had this cruise booked.

That all said, DCL for a balcony cabin is almost double the cost of a comparable Princess cruise, thus there is a significant Disney premium that you pay for.

Winner in this area is Princess.

On a DCL cruise the steps before the cruise can be almost more important that anything else. Their loyalty levels give you staggered access to checking in which allows you to book the following before people with lower or no loyalty level at all:

-Specialty Dining Reservations

-Excursions

-Spa treatments

-Character meet and greets

-Cabana reservations on Disney's private island Castaway Cay

-Port Arrival time

Disney's system isn't perfect and despite saying it opens at midnight, in reality it's hit and miss and resulted me staring at my web browser and eventually giving up, going to sleep and doing it after I woke up. Being new booking specialty dining was no issue, but Cabana's were long gone both on the family side and the adult side of the private island (more on this later).

We all know that Princess suggests what time you should arrive at the port. And we all know we never listen to them and show up super early and it's first come first on with the exception of the higher loyalty folks and suites getting preferred checkin. On Disney when you check in you have to select a 30 minute window for your arrival to the port. Circumventing the system and trying to get there before your time does you no good as your boarding time is assigned to your port arrival time, no matter what time you show up. I understand Disney's thinking on this as it's an attempt to control crowds but TBH even before we hit platinum on princess I never felt like the boarding process was horribly slow.

Winner here is a toss up, if you like enhanced loyalty perks this is great, but for first time cruisers I felt like I was back in college waiting up until midnight to try and get the best class for next semester before it filled up.

Other items of note:

-Disney still mails out luggage tags and a very nice booklet with important contact information, your booked activities etc.

Port Operations, boarding

This was difficult to judge as we were very late in boarding due to the ship's late arrival because of fog. I would say the checkin process is setup similar to Princess, with one very big caveat. Your ability to board the ship is directly tied to your Port Arrival Time that you selected upon checkin, even if the boarding is very late. We arrived to the port and checked in and received a boarding number of 19, which was based on our original 12-1230 Port Arrival Time. They were only boarding 1-12 when we reached the boarding area and thus had to sit and wait while others behind us in the checkin line walked right into the boarding line.

I could see how this could help with crowd management, but I much prefer the Princess process and really have never seen a need for Princess to change their approach to boarding.

Winner here for me is Princess.

The ship

We loved being on a smaller ship, with 2400 pax and 10 or so decks it was great being on a "small" ship. The layout is not as open as a Princess Ship, the lounges and public spaces seem very segregated and closed off. The one glaring difference is the lack of an atrium seating area in the center of the ship. We really missed this from the Princess Ships we have been on. The ship does have a central atrium but its just an open space, with very limited seating (maybe 6 seats) and other than the guest service desk and an entrance into one of the restaurants there is nothing else there.

There are numerous adult only areas including a pool, bar and coffee shop on deck 9, 3 lounges in a beautiful "After Hours" area of the ship, and a single specialty dining restaurant.

Here is the Crown and Fin pub in the After hours area:

Deck 5 is almost completely dedicated to the children's program and spaces for them. There is a movie theater on deck 5 that shows Disney owned movies as well and offers movies in 3D as well.

One hard thing on this ship was trying to get used to finding your stateroom. Both sides of the ship have odd and even numbers and they both have the same carpets. I will say that they have numerous signs all over the ship including by the staterooms that will indicate which side of the ship you need to be on, but it sure is nice to have an easy visual indicator.

The decor on the ships is not overly Disney. There are many Disney themed decorations but they are all state fully done and there really isnt anything thats over the top (I would say with the exception of the Animators Palate restaurant, which was done purposefully). Be prepared to hear a lot of Disney music though. Music is piped throughout the ship (in 32 different music zones we later found out during a tour) and you will hear all types of Disney music while on board. I would say it's noticeable but not intrusive.

They do have the Princess version of Movies under the stars, they call it funnel vision, and it shows movies constantly on deck. I thought their screen was actually mush clearer than those on Princess ships.

Their theater is setup much like the Princess Theater, but their effects and use of the space is much better than what Princess does, see below when I talk more about the entertainment.

Cabins

We got a deluxe ocean view with Verandah, basically a fancy name for a Princess minisuite cabin. It is about that same size, has a full sized couch that converts to a bed and has a split bathroom design, which is the most amazing idea ever. One side of the bathroom has a tub/shower combo and a sink in its own separate compartment. In another compartment next door is a toilet and sink, thus allowing 2 people to get ready at the same time. Its my understanding that not EVERY stateroom has the split bathrooms but that most do. Also, the tub/sower combo is standard for obvious reasons. The balconies are good sized (think Grand class ships) and the furniture is similar to the new balcony furniture on Princess, thus not very comfortable.

I do miss the large closet with numerous shelves, but Disney does offer a lot of drawer storage space and a small closet for hanging clothes.

The most important part, Dining and the Food!

DCL does not offer drink packages like Princess does. They have no soda package and nothing like the AIBP. They do offer free soda in the MDR and buffet as well as a self serve dispenser on the pool deck. They also allow all adults to bring 2 bottles of wine or 1 6-pack of beer on at initial boarding and at each port of call, and you keep it no tagging it to retrieve at the end of your cruise. A much more liberal policy than most other lines. But I found the drink prices to be reasonable on board. They had a different drink of the day each day that ran $4.75, and most of the other drinks I ordered were around $6-7 each.

No anytime dining on DCL in the traditional sense (see below about the buffet) it's either traditional early/late seating. One of the great things about DCL is that you rotate restaurants every day, but your serving team moves with you. The menu will also change with the restaurant with the exception of ship wide events like Pirate Night where the same menu is in every dining room across the ship. On a 7 day itinerary you will get each restaurants unique menu plus the special shipwide event menus as well.

I know that dining is very subjective, so these are just my thoughts. I feel that the food is comparable to Princess if not slightly better. I do like that with the nightly bread service is a rotating complimentary dip to accompany the bread.

The biggest difference in dining is that on Disney dining is an experience beyond food service. For example, in the Animators Palate restaurant TV's lining the wall will discreetly show animations being drawn throughout dinner. The Tiana's Place restaurant has live jazz music during dinner.

Disney has a buffet, but it is not open at all times during the day like on Princess, I really miss this part on the Princess ships. They will literally close the doors between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner etc. Also, for dinner, it is not a buffet but rather a sit down anytime dining restaurant where you order from a menu based on a compilation of other menus from around the ship. The buffet times are very limited, 11:30-2pm for lunch and 6:30-8:30pm for dinner. If you are in there when they shut down service they drop curtains blocking access to the food, which was really disappointing and made us feel uncomfortable.

There are a number of food options around the pool deck from pizza, to hamburgers, to even shawarma pitas. The problem is this is the only place on the ship to grab a snack. So if you are in the main atrium area and get hungry, you have to make your way to the pool deck, and thus I really missed the IC! P.S. Compared to Princess the pizza here tastes like cardboard covered with sauce and cheese. Also the majority of these places close by 9:30 leaving only the pizza place open past that time. The only late option (after 11pm) is room service.

Specialty Dining

The Wonder has 1 specialty restaurant and it is adults only, no kids are allowed. It's called Palo and appears similar to Sabatinis in their food style. Palo does offer both brunch and dinner for an added fee of $30pp, we elected to go for brunch as we wanted to eat in the main dining rooms for dinner.

We havent eaten in Sabatini's but have eaten in the Crown Grill before. The service in Palo for brunch was exceptional and the food spread was amazing. It was in part a buffet and in part a menu service. The food included a huge cheese spread, shrimp, crab legs, etc. I really liked that they offered this brunch service and think Princess should do something similar as I think it would be a big success. It's as definitely well worth the money and the Chicken Parmesan offered on the menu was one of the most amazing dishes I have had in cruising.

On board activities, including Entertainment

Disney shines with its entertainment as long as you are aa Disney fan. Their production how's blow anything on any other line out of the water in the quality of not only the cast but the sets and special effects. There were 3 main production shows on our 7 day cruise and all of them were fantastic.

Disney also does Pirate Night on onboard. This is a themed night where people can dress in all varieties of Pirate outfits, there is a special menu in all the restaurants and there is a large on deck party and show followed by fireworks. They played music for kids as well as for adults (such as classic rock songs). The fireworks were amazing, its truly a unique experience to be on the deck of a cruise ship and watch a fireworks show right in front of you. We had a blast at the party and it was a highlight of the cruise and it something you will see on any other line.

They also had the typical magician/comedian, who were really not very good, but they had some excellent musicians playing in the smaller lounges located in the adult areas. I enjoyed going to these performances more on the Disney ship than I have with many of the performances on Princess. They really did an amazing job with the adult area on the ships with dark rich colors and theming.

The DCL version of the Patter is called the Navigator and is setup just like an old school TV guide with times along the top and down the side the activities are broken up into age groups, Adult, Fun For All, and various younger age group breakdowns based on the kids club programs. This made it easy to look for activities that applied to you easily and see everything at a glance. I actually preferred this to the Patter. Although after the first day they were no longer 4 page handouts but a 2 page handout with activities on the front and amenity locations and hours on the back.

The adult area of the pool deck has a bar, sizable pool, and 2 spas. The loungers in that area were wood and had very nice padded cushions. I normally dont like sitting around the pool but found myself really enjoying the space and escaping from the chaos that was the family pool section. I wouldn't directly compare the loungers to those found in the Sanctuary but they are close in comparison.

Other:

DCL has the best mobile app period. Their app had their full Navigator which can be sorted by activity, age group and you can look at any day on the itinerary starting the moment you board. You can favorite different events and will be notified 15 minutes before they start with a notification. Their communicator is built into the app and is just like the message app on the iPhone, with actual notifications and all. You can view the dining rooms menus for any restaurant, any night. It will also list the drink of the day.

Internet on board is usage based compared to the time based options Princess offers. DCL offers 50mb free to all passengers regardless of status only if you sign in on embarkation day. You don't realize how fast 50mb goes until you have to monitor it lol. I consider myself pretty tech savvy and turned off every conceivable background process that I thought could sneakily use my data without my knowledge. Alas, iCloud was my downfall. When connected to wifi iCloud will sync photos. The only way to turn this off is to turn off photo syncing which deletes the photos from your phone. Ugh that would cause more trouble than it's worth. So after eating 20mb on my first venture I decided just to use my iPad as I knew it had no new photos on it that it would try to sync. Lesson learned.

Kids, kids and more kids. Yes, there are a lot of kids on the ship. Its a Disney cruise, I would expect nothing less. That being said I never felt overwhelmed by kids while onboard. Even during the shows, which outside of the kids club and dinner probably has the highest concentration of kids, they weren't overly instructive and parents did a great job in dealing with fussy children. Plus, DCL does a great job in offering areas just for adults to escape to.

So in the end was it worth it, did we like it, would we do it again? For us it was worth doing once, we are Disney Fans, and ultimately want to get to each of their properties and we considered DCL one of their properties. We were not disappointed in our cruise, but didnt feel at the end of the day that the Disney Premium is worth it for our particular situation. As I said above I think the real sweet spot is families with kids 4-12 that enjoy the Disney experience and characters. But do yourself a favor, if youre a Disney fan give it a try atleast once and dont worry about being overwhelmed by kids.

Great Review !!!!

Thank you for a great review and great comparison. I looked at Disney cruise for my family. With 11 in our family; Disney offered three insides and one verandah on four day cruise for more than Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas; which for less money provided an owners suite, plus three inside cabins and it was for seven nights. Lots to do on that ship. Again thanks

Thanks for the review!

2 questions - was disembarkment different? I have heard (awhile ago) it is like walking out of a hotel.

Did you go to their private island?

Thanks.

Thanks for the post. I am in the opposite camp - only cruised Disney and going to try Princess. The more I read about Princess, the more I think I will like it more than Disney. I do consider myself to be a major Disney fan, but I get really tired of the music and all the shows being a Disney theme. And, it is very difficult to find good, healthy food when I am hungry.

DH and I did just one Disney cruise. Had a great time. Loved the dining room traveling and the cabin. The only downside is that he caught a cold, possibly from one of the multitude of adorable little kids and possibly from another source.

Thanks for the review!

 

 

 

2 questions - was disembarkment different? I have heard (awhile ago) it is like walking out of a hotel.

 

 

 

Did you go to their private island?

 

 

 

Thanks.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by walking out of a hotel. We did express walk off so I'm not sure I can answer your question but it was similar to princess. Line up, scan your card, wander through the terminal where you would collect your bags then go through customs.

Yes we did go to their island Castaway Cay. I can't believe I forgot to talk about it. In all honesty we have never been to Princess' because DW doesn't do well on a tender and we never thought it was worth the attempt. Disney's island the ship docks which is amazing! The beaches are beautiful and separated into a family and adult only side. The family side has water slides and fun activities for the kids to do in the water. There are shops and 2 restaurants on the family side all serving BBQ via a buffet. The adult side had a bar and restaurant which served the same BBQ. They had a guitarist playing at the bar which was easily heard on the beach. Both beaches has a number of loungers and umbrellas at no cost. The adult side had hammocks. I can't say if the family side did or didn't because I honestly didn't pay attention.

They had tubes and snorkel gear for rent and excursions such as parasailing, a stingray encounter, jet ski's amongst others.

Having the ship docked was a huge benefit. When I get home I'll post photos of the beach but I took those on a waterproof camera and can't access it now.

Very nice! :)

Thanks for the informative review.:D

Thank you for your review!

Thank you. Know I know for sure it's not for me.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by walking out of a hotel. We did express walk off so I'm not sure I can answer your question but it was similar to princess. Line up, scan your card, wander through the terminal where you would collect your bags then go through customs.

 

I read a review years ago and it may be out dated today. The review bragged about disembarkment on Disney. They indicted that they didn't gather in groups based on their disembarkment time. They indicated you left the ship when you were ready (obviously there was a time you had to leave by). They made it sound like it was very different than the other lines. Granted this was years ago.

Thanks for the info on the private island.

Were the kids well behaved on the ship? If kids get bored on a ship, they tend to form groups and roam together and sometimes cause issues. I assume the kids probably were thrilled with the programming and didn't do this on Disney but am unsure. Thanks.

I have always wanted to try one as we are huge Disney fans, but the costs are just too high! Also we are in our 60's and I think the amount of kids would be unnerving. Thanks for your review. (Off to Disney and Universal in February)

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I didn't see a mention of the lack of a casino. That was a bonus for me when I sailed on Wonder and Magic when they were new. Do they still not have one?

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I read a review years ago and it may be out dated today. The review bragged about disembarkment on Disney. They indicted that they didn't gather in groups based on their disembarkment time. They indicated you left the ship when you were ready (obviously there was a time you had to leave by). They made it sound like it was very different than the other lines. Granted this was years ago.

 

Thanks for the info on the private island.

 

Were the kids well behaved on the ship? If kids get bored on a ship, they tend to form groups and roam together and sometimes cause issues. I assume the kids probably were thrilled with the programming and didn't do this on Disney but am unsure. Thanks.

Correct, DCL does not assign times to leave the ship. For the port Canaveral cruises they offer bus and luggage service. If your airline participates with DCL's program, DCL will take the luggage from outside your cabin door the night before and check it into the airline for you. That way you don't have to Mrs with luggage until you get to your destination airport.

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I didn't see a mention of the lack of a casino. That was a bonus for me when I sailed on Wonder and Magic when they were new. Do they still not have one?

 

 

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Correct, none of the DCL ships have a casino.

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I have always wanted to try one as we are huge Disney fans, but the costs are just too high! Also we are in our 60's and I think the amount of kids would be unnerving. Thanks for your review. (Off to Disney and Universal in February)

 

 

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Off peak season when the kids are in school is not as bad. But DCL is definitely more expensive then RCCL, NCL ect.

The wife and I are thinking about doing a DCL cruise for a second honey moon.

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Thanks for the review! I think your review was spot on.

Our first cruise was on this same ship back in 2006. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we have been on a cruise every 18 months or so since, but always on other lines for variety. We'll be trying Princess for the first time early this summer.

We were four adults then, all in our 50s. We all had a great time. My wife and I couldn't have kids, but we are big Disney fans. We never felt overwhelmed by the number of kids on board. The adults only areas were great, and the crew was very good about making sure it was only for adults.

The private island was a wonderful experience. We spent our time at the adults beach, where we had so much fun snorkeling the long, shallow beach. I still remember standing on the bottom and watching dozens of colorful fish swim around and between my ankles. One little guy even claimed me for his own, chasing off any intruders! A bit later we took a banana tube ride, which actually went out of the protected area into open ocean. We were laughing so hard on that ride that we could hardly hang on!

Palo restaurant was the best we've experienced on any ship, and we try them all when we cruise. The food was amazing, the service outstanding, and the elegance of the decor relaxing. Our server was as excited to be serving us as we were to be enjoying the experience. He kept suggesting we try different items - and he perfectly matched out tastes with his suggestions. The dessert he suggested was sublime.

I agree with your sentiment - Disney is worth trying at least once. The product they provide is top notch. Although expensive, it is also unique in the industry due to it's connection to the Disney world. For a first cruise for us, and a fourth cruise for the other couple, we all came away from that cruise feeling very pleased with it.

There are 2 things I just realized that I missed.

Lanyards are big on DCL. The cruise cards (called Key To The World (KTTW) on DCL) are all the same color, but many people wear Club lanyards that indicate what level in the Castaway Club (Captains Circle) they are at. Others wear a variety of different lanyards and they sell a number of different ones in the onboard gift shop. When I say they are popular I would estimate that half the ship was wearing a lanyard with their KTTW cards.

The second thing is, because there are soda machines on the pool deck that are free to use MANY people bring cups, thermos', and insulated containers and carry them around the ship. Again, more than half the people I saw had some kind of container they kept with them. DCL does have small, probably 8 ounces, paper cups to use by the machines.

Just a note to the OP.

I wanted to read this but the pics are so gigantic that I have to scroll left and right in order to be able to read the posts. I gave up on posts of that sort quite a while back.

Excellent review.

The restaurants on the ship sound interesting.

FYI: don't forget not to mention travel agents. OOPs!!:cool:

Just a note to the OP.

 

I wanted to read this but the pics are so gigantic that I have to scroll left and right in order to be able to read the posts. I gave up on posts of that sort quite a while back.

What browser are you using? It should auto resize the pics to prevent the scrolling?

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Happens with both Chrome and Firefox. Firefox is my normal browser.

Just a note to the OP.

 

I wanted to read this but the pics are so gigantic that I have to scroll left and right in order to be able to read the posts. I gave up on posts of that sort quite a while back.

Sorry about that. I use tapatalk and so the photos always size correctly for me. I have always uploaded on the highest resolution especially when posting things with text as I have noticed when others post lower resolution pictures you can read the patters or menus.

Thanks for letting me know.

It's easy to send pics to photobucket or a site of that sort then resize them so they aren't huge but still easy to view. Like you, I don't like the thumbnails that are posted as they are so tiny I can't tell what they are supposed to be showing me. A menu that I can't read even with a large magnifying glass is pointless but there is no reason to post gigantic pics either.