Hard Call: Disney or Back on Celebrity (Summit)

[MaggieAtSea]

This is a tough one... I had reserved the Summit out of San Juan for us but then we took the Wonder and my 7 y.o. loved it... so we switched our deposit for March over to the Disney Magic.

 

But the Magic has 3 sea days... and they've changed their kids club policies in a way we don't think is particuarly favorable for what we hoped for.

 

But, judging by our experience on the Solstice, the kids clubs on Celebrity are loose on security and loose on developmentally appropriate planned activity. Maybe that was just the Solstice... but we're thinking not.

 

As you can see by my signature, dh and I are frequent Celebrity cruisers... but things change when children are involved... or do they?

 

Anyone out there faced with the Celebrity vs. Disney choice? I'd love to hear your thinking on it all...

 

WIth appreciaition -- and holiday greetings...

[Essiesmom]

When is final payment for you....and how much would you lose if you might wait until there is some feedback about the new arrangements...EM

[MaggieAtSea]

My TA says I can transfer the deposit with no problem... final payment is due beginning of January... so not a lot of time... but I'd love feedback from others to help us in our decision making.

[boulders]

I am in the process of making a similar decision for the Med. Disney Magic vs Celebrity Equinox. My kids are ages 14, 11 and 4. They all love cruising. The 4 year old loves Mickey. The other 2 actually don't like character meet and greets and never have. :confused:

 

Originally, I had booked Disney at the beginning of this past summer. Cruise costs alone were in the 5 digit range. Then the Equinox sailings came out. I could get something similar for half the cost, and a better itinerary, so I switched. And made flight reservations with ff miles. :rolleyes: Then I got a big upgrade for a small sum to a spacious family oceanview with verandah.

 

So, now Disney comes out with kids sail free and $999 pp for the first 2. So, the cost of the cruise is now close to 15% of the original cost. :eek:

 

Now in doing many hours of research on Disney over the past week, my feeling is that the Disney shore excursions are much better for families -at least the descriptions are. The med is all about the ports. The Celebrity shore excursions all read like versions of see the ruins for x number of hours and be on your own/shop for y number of hours. The on board entertainment seems more appropriate on Disney as well. I'm not too sure about the rotational dining. I've hear several reports of disappointing food on Disney - but I've heard that on other lines. I'm sure that we won't get any stinkeye from other pax on Disney, whereas I can't make that assumption on Celebrity. DD11 was looking forward to the glassblowing on Equinox, but will be equally happy with the perfume-making shore excursion on Disney. Equinox is new, whereas Magic is 10+ years old.

 

It's probably going to come down to this: I'm a widowed mom with 3 kids. When I travel, and at home too :p, I only have one pair of eyes and one pair of hands. I need to be in a kid-friendly, or at least not unfriendly environment. If my kids are bored or I start getting poor service because I've got kids (and I've heard reports of this on Celebrity), then my vacation experience is going to tank. We took an Adventures by Disney trip last year and had a fabulous time - because it was so kid-friendly (and mom-friendly too).

 

As you can see, I've got 2 cruises in my signature - Equinox and Disney Dream. The Dream cruise is because I just want to cruise Disney sometime before the youngest is too old. Well, I can kill 2 birds with one stone with the Med cruise.

 

The stars seem to be aligning for the Disney cruise. I've checked airfare - although I'll need to pay out of pocket, there are other flights I can use my ff miles for. The cash fares to BCN are not too bad. I've found a hotel, and chosen shore excursions.

 

With regards to the rule changes on ages on board - My kids are already in a multi-age environment. They know how to interact with kids much older or much younger and are used to doing things with different ages. I am not concerned with the ability of Disney to supervise things. It shouldn't be too hard. And I say this as a former teacher who taught multi-age classes. The counselors just need to be prepared to handle things. This will depend on the training and the individual counselor. Is it more challenging to do things with multi-ages, yes -- but it's completely possible. Disney should be able to pull it off.

 

So, there are my thoughts. I haven't come to a firm decision yet. My philosophy though is, even if I plan everything down to the last detail, the things that make life or a vacation interesting are the things I can't plan for. The serendipitous things in life. Who knows whether serendipity would be in my favor on Magic or Equinox. ;):cool:

[kitty9]

The Summit in March could have very few kids on board, as that's not when most schools are out for spring break. Another determining reason for less kids is the departure port of San Juan. I've been on Summit in March, and the number of kids on board was very, very low. If it's important to have a great kid's program with a lot of other kids on board, Disney would be your best choice.

[MaggieAtSea]

Thanks to all those who posted their thoughts. Here's what we decided today. We decided to switch our booking to the Summit from the Magic for several reasons:

 

1) My son is an only child... and relatively young for his age. Being the oldest in the 5-7 y.o. club on Disney was very inviting. With the age restrictions eliminated, the appeal of being with a good age cohort for him is much less now on Disney. In addition, reports have it that the M-class ships on Celebrity, especially the Summit, have a superior kids' club compared even to the S-class ships like Solstice. And regarding the lack of children on the sailing, as the Summit sailing involves days close to Easter Sunday, there are a fair number of schools off the weeks around Easter, so I think that will be good. You are quite right that San Juan has fewer children boarding than a FLA port, but, frankly, a bit more individual attention there in the kids' club is fine by us and if they blend ages, that's what they were doing on Disney anyway.

 

2) We have family that are loyal Celebrity sailors. Yes, if you look at my signature you would say, gee, you seem pretty loyal too... but, believe me, these other members of our family are exceedinly loyal to the brand. They will likely (though not certain as of this night, will be tomorrow) join us on this sailing.

 

3) The itinerary is just great. The Disney Sailing would make 3 stops... St. Thomas, St. Marten, and Castaway Cay. With 3 days at sea. Now, my husband and I love our sea days, but we were scratching our head wondering if our 7 y.o. boy would get a bit stir crazy with 3 sea days... 2 of which were back-to-back. The wonderful Caribbean Islands on the Summit docket will mean great shore excursions, and fantastic points of interest for us all... plus a day at sea plus another day where we may just stay on board and relaaaax.

 

4) Finally, it is price. The lowest level veranda cabin on the Disney Magic for this week was $7,955.05. A PHENOMENAL, huge, corner aft family ocean view veranda room on the Summit for the same week was just $3,455.00. My friends, the economy is tough and that is a very big difference. We know the shows and children's entertainment will be different... but we're talking over double the price for Disney for a smaller room/balcony... of all the deciders, that rang our bell the most loudly. Our relatives will be able to book a spacious "sweet 16" veranda room on this sailing for just $2,103.00. There's an awful lot of memorable shore excursions and laughs over drinks before dinner on a service-oriented line like Celebrity and we won't come close to the room price on Disney.

 

So that's where we landed. Thanks for letting us process with a bit of collective wisdom... we all know these cruise boards help build one's anticipation and, in this case, helped us process what really mattered and what made sound fiscal and good sense for our family.

 

Wherever the seas happen to take you, happy sailing!

[Cruisee Q]

I agree. We just got off the Disney Magic last week. My two boys are ages 8 and 10. (see my trip description under the Disney board). I actually did not know that Disney was changing to no age groups. That was part of the reason why my kids didn't love the Kids Club. They went to a magic show and were apalled that there were little 3,4&5 year olds running around and making noise, they couldn't even hear the magician. They would have enjoyed it much more if the magician had 2 show times, one for younger and one for older kids.

 

My husband and I cruised Carnival a couple of years ago on a ship that was 2 yrs old. We loved it. We also saw kids there having a good time. I think that kids have fun no matter what. You don't have to pay double for them to enjoy themselves. If I did make the choice to pay double, I would be sure it's on Disney's new ship, the Dream. The Magic and Wonder are older ships and they are really showing their age. I wouldn't have minded paying the extra money so much if everything was brand new, up to date and perfect. We work too hard for our money to spend that much and just get mediocre.