Disney Fantasy or Carnival Breeze

[KieransMom]

Would you pay $1,700 more for a family of 4 (2 adults/2 young children) for the Disney Fantasy?

[Marie51]

Absolutely not. I think Disney is highly overrated.

 

Have you been on a cruise before? My young grandchildren were terrified of the Disney characters. We were only on the ship 10 minutes when I realized what a mistake I had made.

 

JMO

[Friend100]

Without knowing the total $ my guess is NOT, but I will look at the total price of the Disney cruise if it is affordable to me, also look at options from other cruiselines.

[boogs]

Yes. Disney is tops at entertainment for children, with over 50 years of experience running their parks and making movies. Their ships benefit from that experience and carry on that tradition. Everything they do it top quality. My wife and I never had kids. We were in our 50s when we first cruised on the Disney Wonder with another couple. I was amazed with how well they did everything, from crowd control, to kids activities, to activities and areas for adults, evening entertainment, and quality service throughout. If your kids have ever been to Disneyland or Walt Disney World and aren't afraid of make believe characters, they will have a fantastic time on the Fantasy.

 

I've never been on a Carnival ship - have zero desire to (the way they promote their product makes it not a good fit for me) so can't say if it would compare favorably. But having visited Disney parks many times, I would find it hard to believe that Carnival, or any other cruise line, could top Disney's talent and experience for entertaining people.

[DanJ]

Yes. Disney is tops at entertainment for children, with over 50 years of experience running their parks and making movies. Their ships benefit from that experience and carry on that tradition. Everything they do it top quality. My wife and I never had kids. We were in our 50s when we first cruised on the Disney Wonder with another couple. I was amazed with how well they did everything, from crowd control, to kids activities, to activities and areas for adults, evening entertainment, and quality service throughout. If your kids have ever been to Disneyland or Walt Disney World and aren't afraid of make believe characters, they will have a fantastic time on the Fantasy.

 

I've never been on a Carnival ship - have zero desire to (the way they promote their product makes it not a good fit for me) so can't say if it would compare favorably. But having visited Disney parks many times, I would find it hard to believe that Carnival, or any other cruise line, could top Disney's talent and experience for entertaining people.

 

I'm on the other side. Our kids have been on Carnival and RCI and I can't imagine that Disney has so much more for them to justify the price. It's brand name you are paying for, in my opinion.

[mizLORInj]

Not worth $1,700 more to me. Can get a suite on a Carnival ship instead.

 

I'm sure the Disney CC board will have more opinions.

 

[jewopaho]

This debate has been raging on for years here. Our experience would place us in the "no" category. We wanted to see whether Disney would be worth the additional expense to treat our kids and theirs (2 adults and four children ... 12, 9, 6 and 3) to a surprise week away. While we're far from tightwads, to justify spending over $8000 (close to $11k including us) for a seven night cruise required a bit of thought. We ultimately decided against it, but did book a Carnival cruise ... what a magnificent time we had!

 

The Carnival Breeze is a newer ship, and Camp Carnival is very highly rated. The kids didn't miss the Mouse at all ... even the three-year-old was a bit sad when he had to return to his parents at dinnertime. Over two years later, they're still talkiing about it.

 

Nothing against Disney ... they get what the traffic will bear, and provide a quality product, I'm sure. But all that the kids (especially younger ones) will remember is that they had a great time, irrespective of who provided it. Another thought ... if the cruise costs that much more, imagine what the Disney "chachkes" they sell onboard would set you back. By the way, I don't know whether this would be an issue, but there are no casinos on Disney ships (probably another reason why the cruises cost so much).

 

I trust that the information you've received here helps you. Whatever your decision, have a terrific cruise!

 

Al

[Friend100]

Just to add to my previous post. We cruised DCL twice and we loved it, and are looking forward to our next one, albeit waiting for 18 more months :o. However, I won't suggest doing DCL at all cost. We put a value to it and depends on whether we can afford it, the price of the other options (RCI, HAL, X, NCL, etc), how flexible we are in terms of when we can take time off, we'll decide if we can cruise DCL or if there are other better options out there. For our first DCL cruise on the Disney Wonder, we took advantage of the kids-sail-free deal at that time and I thought I paid a reasonable price. For our planned cruise next summer, so far I am comfortable with the price I will be paying. Having said that, I can't afford some of the price DCL is demanding for a Caribbean/Bahamas cruise in June/July.