Is Disney that much more luxurious than NCL?

Holy bleep Disney's prices are higher than NCL.

What do you get for that price, besides a prettier boat and Mickey? I've heard the food is largely equivalent.

I have not cruised Disney personally. Never felt I could justify the price.

I just had some clients sail the Getaway and they are very frequent Disney cruisers. They felt their upsell to the Haven and some specialty restaurants made Norwegian similar to Disney. They are not casino people, so that is not a factor to them.

But they did tell me they prefer Disney and if they cruise NCL again they would only do haven, which puts prices on par with Disney

I have not cruised Disney personally. Never felt I could justify the price.

 

I just had some clients sail the Getaway and they are very frequent Disney cruisers. They felt their upsell to the Haven and some specialty restaurants made Norwegian similar to Disney. They are not casino people, so that is not a factor to them.

 

But they did tell me they prefer Disney and if they cruise NCL again they would only do haven, which puts prices on par with Disney

yeah but haven prices on ncl get you a standard balcony cabin or less. the disney premium rooms are more expensive still.

I have been on both. If my choice was haven on NCL or Disney I think you would be crazy to not chose NCL. Lol. Disney is awesome boat but you really are paying for the characters. It doesn't even come close to getting the haven experience. If the Disney characters are a big deal then maybe I would sway towards Disney. :)

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It depends on what you want. Yes, I would say the Disney ships are a little nicer and offer a more refined experience than NCL standard (the Haven is a different matter, but honestly that's more adult oriented).

That said, Disney charges a premium and its a big one, because they can get it. You are paying for character experiences, Disney quality shows, insane kids clubs and much more attention to kids/teens.

If those items are not important to you, the premium probably isn't worth it.

For perspective, our two room Haven Spa Deluxe suite on the Escape was less than a concierge standard balcony on Disney without all the same amenities, so we went with the escape. If I had a 5 year old kid who loved Princesses, I would have chosen Disney hands down despite the price difference.

Also no casino on Disney ships, got to make money up somewhere!

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Disney is better in every aspect.. food, rooms, entertainment (although the Million Dollar Quartet was AWESOME!), pools, cleanliness, staff, ect.

Disney just has 2 drawbacks... the prohibitive cost and the number of kids. I am not really a kid person so I am glad that my nephews are old enough that we didn't feel like we had to go to Disney this year. That said, I was disappointed with NCL and I think I will try a different cruise line next year.

My first cruise ever was on Disney. Honestly, I tell my friends who ask, to save their money. For the price difference, balcony-to-balcony, I personally didn't feel it was worth it.

I've been on 16 DisneyCruises since 2002, the last was in January 2016. I've been on 3 NCL cruises in 2015-2016.

Just adults, so I don't know about the kids clubs on Disney but I assume they are excellent. Disney ships are spotless, the food is good, the service is excellent and the entertainment is great- IF you like Disney movies and characters.

NCL provided the same, minus Mickey and friends.

We will most likely no longer cruise on Disney, in part because the prices have risen so much in the last few years, but at the same time the menu items have never changed, imho,the food is very bland to appease the American palate and there is not the variety of cuisines I find on NCL or RCI. Shows are always geared to families, there is very little adult entertainment on the Disney ships anymore compared to the early years. The adult entertainment staff has been pared back and the new ships have a design flaw that keeps kids funneling through the adult only pool area. We began to feel that over the years our fares are subsidizing the kids and family areas of the ships, and good luck finding anything to do after midnight!

That said, if you love everything Disney and are cruising with kids it's probably the perfect cruise line for you.

We are so happy we jumped ship and canceled our October 2015 cruise and booked the Getaway instead, we have found a cruise line that provides all we are looking for and at much lower cost to boot.

I personally cannot imagine what Disney offers that justifies such a big price difference. Obviously the Disney experience for kids is a primary reason, and I have heard that the service onboard Disney is superb. I dunno, I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much for a weeklong cruise so we booked a 3 night on the Disney Dream. We figured we'd fly down there and take the kids to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, etc for a few days and then give cruising on Disney a quick try. If it turns out to be worth the money then we will book a longer Disney cruise. But I guess we'll see.

We're converted Disney Cruises who switched to NCL. The ships are nicer. They feel very special. It's hard to describe. They are spotless. The decorations are very classy. The attention to detail is crazy. There is a significant wow factor. The funny part is that if you'd asked me whether I cared about that stuff I would have laughed and said no way. I care about the ports. I'm not expecting any vessel with thousands on board to be a gourmet experience. Luxury amenities and furnishings are mostly irrelevant to me in hotels.

But, weirdly, I find that I miss it. It was very very nice to have. It felt more special. But there is simply no way to justify the price difference. I learned about myself that I actually would pay something for the attention to detail and luxury that Disney provides. But nothing close to the premium they command.

I have done 5 Disney cruises with one time going Concierge. I have to say that while they are fun the price has skyrocketed especially with my kids getting older. They do not really change the shows much and the food is nothing to write home about. I guess if you really like that super personal touch of knowing your servers and room stewards then it is worth the extra cost. Personally we do not like people all up in our business on our cruise.

We did our first NCL cruise last year after we were on a Disney cruise the year prior and our kids were longing for more stuff to actually do on the ship. While Disney is great the activities are a little too PG for us. My teens loved Howl at the Moon, the comedy shows heck even the lobby shows.

I am a 100% Disney fan too (my entire arm is completely Disney tattooed up) but they have priced us out of the market and I just cant justify it.

I wouldn't say there are kids everywhere on the ship. Disney does a great job of making places where you can avoid them. But having the 2 dining times is rough it is either 5:30 or 8:30.

So we have booked 2 more NCL cruises right now for the price of basically what one Disney would cost us. To put things into perspective a Xmas cruise on Disney is $13000 for a balcony room a NCL is $5,000.

We're converted Disney Cruises who switched to NCL. The ships are nicer. They feel very special. It's hard to describe. They are spotless. The decorations are very classy. The attention to detail is crazy. There is a significant wow factor. The funny part is that if you'd asked me whether I cared about that stuff I would have laughed and said no way. I care about the ports. I'm not expecting any vessel with thousands on board to be a gourmet experience. Luxury amenities and furnishings are mostly irrelevant to me in hotels.But, weirdly, I find that I miss it. It was very very nice to have. It felt more special. But there is simply no way to justify the price difference. I learned about myself that I actually would pay something for the attention to detail and luxury that Disney provides. But nothing close to the premium they command.

I think that they are decorated maybe more like a classic cruise ship, but I like that NCL is maybe more modern. There are small things like the bathrooms and how they are setup but then I found the Getaway had way more storage than Disney did in the cabins. Disney dining has great themes but then there are so many people in there it is so loud. NCL on the Getaway took so long to get our food but that happened on Disney too.

The problem w Disney is the price keeps creeping up there but people will keep paying it. The funny thing is I see people complaining about NCL prices and I am like What they are a steal!!

We are Disney Cruisers but cancelled our 5 nighter out of Miami for a 7 night on Escape , for which we leave in another week. Very excited to try her out and really hoping we like it since it fits our budget a little better. So far, we are a little apprehensive...2 in 1 shampoo, paper luggage tags, lack of deck/pool space, smaller rooms, charge for room service, not allowed to carry on water, but we will give it a shot!

It's the kids clubs. Ncl needs to step up their kids clubs. Otherwise we actually like ncl better. But the minute our kids stepped into splash academy they said it looked like school or a day care center. (The employees heard them and looked annoyed btw). As cute as splash academy was, I had to agree with them. They refused to go. We made them try it. They got the counselors to track us down because they wanted out. Another time we said give it another try- same thing. It looked like there were a lot of other kids there having fun, but not our kids. On dcl, we could not get them out of the kids clubs. My advice is to not ever take your kids on dcl (LOL), because everything else on the ship does not justify the price AT ALL.

Forgot to add: marketing. No one markets like Disney. They do a great job making you feel like everything's better on dcl, but it isn't. After several dcl cruises, the first room steward we had on ncl was superior to any room steward we had on dcl. The food in the ncl buffet blows dcl out of the water. The employees are happier on ncl than on dcl. The guest services people are more helpful on ncl. The dining room servers are better on ncl. The cruise next people are far more friendly and helpful than the people at the dcl on board booking desk. There are more activities on ncl (especially the newer ships), unless you like to stand around waiting to take photos with Disney characters (ugh). I can go on and on and on. But dcl's marketing and presentation, their navigators, their welcome book, that is superior. If you can see through to the substance and do not have kids who have been spoiled by dcl kids clubs, dcl is a rip off.

We are Disney Cruisers but cancelled our 5 nighter out of Miami for a 7 night on Escape ' date=' for which we leave in another week. Very excited to try her out and really hoping we like it since it fits our budget a little better. So far, we are a little apprehensive...2 in 1 shampoo, paper luggage tags, lack of deck/pool space, smaller rooms, charge for room service, not allowed to carry on water, but we will give it a shot![/quote']

 

There is a huge amount of chairs on the cruise on NCL. Just not by the pool. But I always had problems finding spots on DCL by the pool. I brought my own shampoo. And I ordered the luggage tag protectors from amazon. I did not find a problem with the water on the cruise ship but I also did not ever bring any on Disney.

 

I did find NCL to not have as smooth of a check in process but that could have been that we showed up when everyone else did as well.

It's the kids clubs. Ncl needs to step up their kids clubs. Otherwise we actually like ncl better. But the minute our kids stepped into splash academy they said it looked like school or a day care center. (The employees heard them and looked annoyed btw). As cute as splash academy was, I had to agree with them. They refused to go. We made them try it. They got the counselors to track us down because they wanted out. Another time we said give it another try- same thing. It looked like there were a lot of other kids there having fun, but not our kids. On dcl, we could not get them out of the kids clubs. My advice is to not ever take your kids on dcl (LOL), because everything else on the ship does not justify the price AT ALL.

Forgot to add: marketing. No one markets like Disney. They do a great job making you feel like everything's better on dcl, but it isn't. After several dcl cruises, the first room steward we had on ncl was superior to any room steward we had on dcl. The food in the ncl buffet blows dcl out of the water. The employees are happier on ncl than on dcl. The guest services people are more helpful on ncl. The dining room servers are better on ncl. The cruise next people are far more friendly and helpful than the people at the dcl on board booking desk. There are more activities on ncl (especially the newer ships), unless you like to stand around waiting to take photos with Disney characters (ugh). I can go on and on and on. But dcl's marketing and presentation, their navigators, their welcome book, that is superior. If you can see through to the substance and do not have kids who have been spoiled by dcl kids clubs, dcl is a rip off.

I do agree that the kids clubs are great until they get out of the fun ones. Once they get to the tween club they just run around the ship. That is when I realized mine were probably too old for Disney cruises. On the last 2 Disney cruises it was kids riding elevators and running up and down the halls. I think that they do great with the younger clubs but need to work on that tween/teen level.

There was a thread not long ago on this. I feel that with the current Disney prices we won't do it again. I would say for little ones (toddler-8) Disney is great, kids are really catered to. They have extras like fireworks, stage shows by the pool (characters), Pirate night, kid friendly pool games/activities. The dining rooms are exceptional, each a different theme and service wonderful. We thought food was a touch better on Disney but not by much.

However we don't feel those extras are worth it for us, especially now that my daughter almost 12. She likes the slides, rope course, etc....on NCL.

Disney is better in every aspect.. food, rooms, entertainment (although the Million Dollar Quartet was AWESOME!), pools, cleanliness, staff, ect.

I must strongly disagree. Got off of Disney Magic two weeks ago and while there are some things that Disney does nicely, definitely not better than NCL (or Celebrity, that's my current point of comparison) "in every aspect".

Disney cruise is definitely a good choice if you have kids in your party but for only adults (we are DINKs in mid-30s) the experience isn't that special unless you're a hard-core Disney fan.

I only considered DCL because I was positively surprised about the experience in the parks a year ago, but unfortunately was disappointed as the "magic" just wasn't there onboard - if you take out the characters, the exactly same experience is much cheaper on other cruiselines.

My grandkids have been on two NCL and two Disney cruises. They like both! We agree with Karima -- Disney is great for kids 9 and under -- if you can afford it.

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In my mind there's no comparison, DCL is far and above other lines when it comes to service and overall feel of the cruise. They make every guest feel special. They are so committed to everyone have a good time and will make sure if you have a complaint that it is taken care of immediately.

I see a lot of comments saying it's so much more expensive because of the characters, but that's only a small portion. The biggest money maker on ships are the casino and alcohol. DCL does not have casinos and their clientele is doesn't drink as much since the ships are family oriented. So they make that money up with higher fares. We were going to do DCL out of NYC but my dh didn't want to because they don't offer alcohol packages!

I do agree that the kids clubs are great until they get out of the fun ones. Once they get to the tween club they just run around the ship. That is when I realized mine were probably too old for Disney cruises. On the last 2 Disney cruises it was kids riding elevators and running up and down the halls. I think that they do great with the younger clubs but need to work on that tween/teen level.

Two of my kids were 9 and 11 on DCL and didn't like the club at all (although my 4 and 6 year olds did).

I was a tried and true Disney Cruiser. Not anymore. I.Can't.Afford.It. This is my personal opinion (and yes, everyone has one, I know)Yes, you do get to rotate places to eat (for free). Yes, you do have a couple of nice upscale places to eat (for a charge).Yes, on most cruises out of Port Canaveral you get to stop at their private Island. Yes, it has a 5K you can do and get a medal.

Yes, it does have bigger rooms. Yes, it does for the most part have split bathrooms. Yes, you get all the free soda you want, when you want it. Yes, room service is free.

That being said.

A Concierge lowest level room (1 bedroom - 614 sq feet)) for Alaska in May for Disney: 6860 per person

A Concierge 2 Bedroom (H4 - 572 sq feet) for Alaska in May for NCL: 5779 per person

An inside level room (214 sq feet)) for Alaska in May for Disney: 1750 per person

An inside level room (143 sq feet)) for Alaska in May for NCL: 1029 per person

So, for the price of NCL, I can do a top of the line room and then have enough money left over to take another full week cruise in an inside room. Yes, its not apples to apples in square feet, but its as close as I could get for comparisons.

Plus NCL throws in something for the H4 (usually all 4 offers they have going). For example - for my upcoming cruise, I was given $200 OBS, free gratuities, free UDP for everyday I am cruising (10), and a $50 shore excursion credit per port. ( I booked almost 2 years ago and that is what the extras were then and I'm not in an H4, I am in an SF).

Disney is just out pricing itself for the normal cruiser. My last NCL cruise, I was made to feel so very special every time I turned around, and no, I was not on a honeymoon or having a birthday. NCL just went above and beyond in my eyes.

That being said, if you have kids, pay the extra money - it's worth it for the joy in their eyes as they are immersed in Disney 24/7.

But if you are an adult, with no kids, and you are not in the situation where you have extra money to just throw away, choose NCL.

Disney prices are insane, but people line up to pay it! Glad to know I haven't missed anything by not going on DCL. My kids were never heavy into the characters.

I must strongly disagree. Got off of Disney Magic two weeks ago and while there are some things that Disney does nicely, definitely not better than NCL (or Celebrity, that's my current point of comparison) "in every aspect".Disney cruise is definitely a good choice if you have kids in your party but for only adults (we are DINKs in mid-30s) the experience isn't that special unless you're a hard-core Disney fan.

 

I only considered DCL because I was positively surprised about the experience in the parks a year ago, but unfortunately was disappointed as the "magic" just wasn't there onboard - if you take out the characters, the exactly same experience is much cheaper on other cruiselines.

Then we disagree :) Just curious though, what specific element that I mentioned do you think that NCL is better at? I get that you have a better time on NCL, but what specifically? (I am not planning to argue with you, just curious)