I liked Disney, but I'll stick with Royal Caribbean

[bus man]

After 4 cruises on Royal Caribbean with only adult companions, I took the family (myself, DW, DS-5, and DD-3) on a Disney cruise (the Magic, April 13th sailing to the Eastern Caribbean). Cruising with kids is different; it was fun, yes, but not especially relaxing. Nevertheless, we had a good time. But while there’s a lot to like about Disney, I’ve decided that RCI works better for me; so in the future, I’ll be going back to them.

 

But first, here are some things I liked better about Disney:

 

Cabin: our standard oceanview room was somewhat larger than a comparable RCI room, so much so that the 4 of us never really felt too cramped. The split bathroom is ingenious, and it was very, very nice to have the kids in a separate part of the cabin, closed off by a curtain, instead of being in bunk beds above the parents’ beds, as I believe would be the case in many standard RCI rooms.

 

Elevators/Stairways: the Magic has three sets of elevators and stairs: forward, midship, and aft. RCI’s ships have only two, omitting the aft set. Given that our cabin was pretty far back, having that third set made our life so much easier. And by spreading out the passengers over three sets, it made for much less crowding at each one, and much shorter wait times for the elevators.

 

Laundry Room: I don’t wish to debate the pros and cons of doing your own laundry versus having the staff do it for you; I simply wish to state that I prefer to do it myself. Disney gives you this option, and RCI does not.

 

Crew: just to be clear here, I am not finding fault with RCI on this one; I’ve always received excellent service from their crews. But the DCL folks really went above and beyond. They always seemed so happy, always had a greeting for you as you passed them in the halls. Our Assistant Server, Raquel Marques Carqueija, was particularly outstanding; she would cut the kids’ food, pour ketchup in the shape of Mickey’s ears, and one time even took DD for a short walk to calm her down when she was being fussy. (I made sure to praise her on the comment card, and increase her tip.)

 

Here are some things that had both pluses and minuses:

 

Kids Club: DS loved the Oceaneer’s Lab; we had to drag him out of there kicking and screaming (not literally). DD enjoyed the club, though not quite as much. However, check-in and check-out seemed kind of slow to me. It seemed like whenever I wanted to check them in, the counselors were busy checking other kids out; and when I wanted to check them out, they were busy checking others in. Most of the counselors tended to cluster around the entrance (not that it speeded up the process to any noticeable degree), rather than interact with the kids. I have no basis for comparison with RCI (as I said, I’ve not taken the kids on that line), so I have no way of knowing how things would go with Adventure Ocean.

 

Character Appearances: It was fun seeing the joy and wonder on the kids’ faces when they saw their favorite characters. DS was so taken with Pluto, and DD couldn’t get enough of the princesses. Oddly enough, she also fell for Jack Sparrow. And I have to admit, that time when I was just walking down the hallway, and felt my back being patted . . . and turned around to find Goofy giving me an impish smile – I really enjoyed that.

 

On the flip side, though, DD was scared of the animal characters, so it wasn’t any fun for her (or me, when I was with her) to be around them. The lines were long, and the areas around the meet-and-greets tended to be chaotic. You had to be right on time, or else you didn’t get to see them; when their time was up, that was it. The kids may have enjoyed it, but for the most part, I found it to be a bit stressful. Whether or not the characters (or lack thereof) would make or break the cruise from the kids’ perspective, I don’t know. I hope not.

 

And yes, I know that some RCI ships have the DreamWorks characters. But given that my opinion of them ranges from indifference to mild dislike (I’m looking at you, Shrek), this is hardly a draw for me.

 

Rotational Dining: I love the concept of having three different dining rooms, and having your serving team follow you through each one. But in practice, it didn’t quite work as well as I had hoped. It was really fun watching the change from black-and-white to color in Animator’s Palate – but this only happened once. The other times we ate there, they didn’t do the color change at all. And stripped of that, AP feels more like a childish playroom than a dining room. Parrot Cay made for a fun, Caribbean-themed place for lunch, but it seemed just too casual for dinner. Only Lumiere’s really felt like a suitable dining spot for the evening meal. And even there, I missed the grand feeling of RCI’s two-level MDR.

 

And here’s where I think RCI was better:

 

Buffet Layout: the individual serving stations in the Windjammer were much easier to navigate, and much less crowded, than the cafeteria-style serving lines in Topsiders.

 

Beds: the one I had on the Magic felt way too hard. I never once had a good night’s sleep.

 

Hallway Clutter: this might seem odd, but it really stuck out: the hallways on the Magic were always cluttered with service carts – all the time, day and night. RCI somehow manages to keep their carts in the closets, most of the time. The result is not only that it’s easier to walk the halls on RCI, without having to dodge the carts; it simply makes for a more classy appearance.

 

But this is, for me, the deciding factor: FOOD. Now of course, I fully understand that everyone’s tastes are different. But I’m a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, and Disney’s food proved to be far more “upscale” for my tastes. True, RCI has fancy food too. But you can always find something plain and basic too, especially in the buffet. On Disney, if you didn’t order off the kid’s menu, you were simply out of luck. Each night, I would scan the menu, and realize that I hadn’t even heard of many of the offerings. I could usually find one item, maybe two, that I thought might work for me. But it wasn’t the smorgasbord of appealing choices that I was used to on RCI.

 

I had hoped that the buffet would work better, but no such luck. Even at lunch time, there were times when I would find nothing – nothing – that I wanted, other than mac and cheese. I actually came away from this cruise losing weight, something I’ve not managed to do with RCI. (Silver lining, I suppose.) But this was the first cruise where I was actually still hungry after finishing a meal.

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

So in summary, while I liked Disney and am glad we went, I just don’t feel it was worth the extra charge for what I got – and, in some cases, what I didn’t get. The food was the real kicker. When I cruise, I want to eat my fill and enjoy it; I don’t want to have to go hungry because all the food is made for palates more sophisticated than mine.

 

Royal Caribbean, I’ll be back!

 

(FYI, I’m posting this on both the Royal Caribbean and Disney boards.)

[Gary from PA]

Try Disney Dream or Fantasy.

[alaska_planner]

my main problem with disney is the lack of adult activities, both during the day and late at night.

also the lack of round the clock food (other than room service).

 

I haven't been on RCCL yet, but i'm hoping to try the allure/oasis.

[indychristine]

Thanks for the review!! I especially loved your "goofy" encounter! Lol

 

Yes a cruise experience is very subjective! My family, my parents included who have cruised 25+ times, prefer DCL. We have all been on multiple other lines. We have all cruised RCL, actually it was my parents line of choice up until 2008 when they cruised DCL. For them they say the service is the deal sealer.

For me? I love it all but maybe the service is it for me too... I just know for me when I cruise other lines I feel something was missing.

I cruised RCL last July. It was not a good cruise, but it was on Monarch of The Seas and I think she is on her last RCL leg being rotated out next year.

Anyway.... I will always be open to cruise other lines if I find a good deal!

I love cruising!

Thanks for the review!! I love hearing other people's experiences.

Btw.... I don't know about the hallway clutter.... I can't recall having that problem and I've been on all of the DCL ships. I'm sorry you did... How annoying. :(. ** now I have had that problem at the resorts.

We are sailing the Fantasy in 19 days! I'm keeping my eye on those hallways!! :)

[ENYCMom]

Sorry but the lines for the RCI kids club (at least on the ship we were on) were much worse than anything we ever ran into with DCL! Because it is a set schedule everyone is dropping off and picking up at the same time and you have to wait while they find the correct sign in/out sheet and then you have to manually fill it in. The wait to sign in was often over a half an hour! My kids prefer the DCL clubs and they are always open so we liked that better as well. I do agree that the food was slightly better on RCI and My Time Dining was nice as well.

[pepsicruiser]

TY so much ... your review could not have come at a better time. I am a Royal fan and am D+ but, we have always sailed with adults. Now with grandchildren I started just yesterday investigating the Disney line. Your review helped alot. I think doing at least one DC for us will be great. I have decided to do a 3 and 4 night. Doing this (staying in same cabin of course helps) gives us 2 days at their beach which is supposed to be great and 2 days at Atlantis in Nassau. Taking kids to islands like St Thomas and St Marteen doesn't appeal to me so this will work for our family. If you have any other tips please let me know. Our GC are 7 and 10.

[alaska_planner]

TY so much ... your review could not have come at a better time. I am a Royal fan and am D+ but, we have always sailed with adults. Now with grandchildren I started just yesterday investigating the Disney line. Your review helped alot. I think doing at least one DC for us will be great. I have decided to do a 3 and 4 night. Doing this (staying in same cabin of course helps) gives us 2 days at their beach which is supposed to be great and 2 days at Atlantis in Nassau. Taking kids to islands like St Thomas and St Marteen doesn't appeal to me so this will work for our family. If you have any other tips please let me know. Our GC are 7 and 10.

 

i think that's a good plan.

i would have said stay on the ship, but given how crowded the pool deck seems to get, going to atlantis sounds like a good plan. The kids will love the pools/slides there.

[AF-1]

Thanks for the honest review. We are planning a Disney cruise on the Dream with my five grandkids. It is nice to hear the pros and cons, so we can factor this in to our cruise. We took the five grandkids on Freedom of the Seas in December. They had a great time. For Adventure Ocean our kids could check themselves in and out on their own, so we never saw a line. Have never cruised Disney, but know they will do their best to make us happy.

[Friend100]

TY so much ... your review could not have come at a better time. I am a Royal fan and am D+ but, we have always sailed with adults. Now with grandchildren I started just yesterday investigating the Disney line. Your review helped alot. I think doing at least one DC for us will be great. I have decided to do a 3 and 4 night. Doing this (staying in same cabin of course helps) gives us 2 days at their beach which is supposed to be great and 2 days at Atlantis in Nassau. Taking kids to islands like St Thomas and St Marteen doesn't appeal to me so this will work for our family. If you have any other tips please let me know. Our GC are 7 and 10.

 

We have done 2 DCL - both were short Bahamas cruise to Nassau and Casyaway Cay. One on Wonder (not our most favourite experience but still good) and one on Dream (the best experience we had, albeit still have things not 100% especially the pool deck but not deal-breaker for us, but food is much better than on Wonder).

 

I am planning for 2013, initially I really want to do Mediterranean and have the booking there but just re-consider the ship (Magic) again and again and not sure if my family prefer that, albeit a very good itinerary. I have also considered Fantasy but then, for a little bit more (which is basically the extra tax), I get to watch the shows twice (we loved them), watch firework twice and visit Castaway Cay twice. So Dream B2B is the latest plan now (3-day then 4-day, with the last day being a sea day which is what I more prefer instead of Castaway Cay being on the last day), unless I can convince DW to do the Zuiderdam this Christmas!

[Muushka]

Thank you for your fair and balanced report. I enjoyed your comparisons.

[SandraLee]

It really is so funny to read such different reviews. We've bee on the Magic 3 times, .CL Radiance, Independence and Celebrity Solstice. I'm heading back to Disney. We so love the elegance of the Disney ships.

 

I'm booked for the Fantasy in 2013. My kids will be 17 and 14 and no one is concerned about making a mistake about returning to Disney.

[mdvlprof]

We prefer DCL. For us, DCL isn't much more expensive, since we have to get the expensive HC rooms on other cruiselines to fit family, and can get inside HC on DCL. We don't really use veranda that often.

 

Went on RCCL last Dec. Found that we actually spent more on RCCL than on DCL. Don't get me wrong. It was a nice cruise, and ship was pretty. But even DH agreed that DCL is the way to go for us.

[Shmoo here]

But this is, for me, the deciding factor: FOOD. Now of course, I fully understand that everyone’s tastes are different. But I’m a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, and Disney’s food proved to be far more “upscale” for my tastes. True, RCI has fancy food too. But you can always find something plain and basic too, especially in the buffet. On Disney, if you didn’t order off the kid’s menu, you were simply out of luck. Each night, I would scan the menu, and realize that I hadn’t even heard of many of the offerings. I could usually find one item, maybe two, that I thought might work for me. But it wasn’t the smorgasbord of appealing choices that I was used to on RCI.

 

I had hoped that the buffet would work better, but no such luck. Even at lunch time, there were times when I would find nothing – nothing – that I wanted, other than mac and cheese.

 

All the menus in the MDRs have the lighter fare option. Usually baked chicken or fish and, occasionally, steak.

 

You can request pretty much anything you like. If you like the meat from one offering, but the veggies from another, you can ask your server to make it up that way. On one of our cruises, we had a gentleman at our table who never ate anything from the menu. He always ordered what he wanted, how he wanted it cooked. And he got exactly what he wanted.

 

Baked potato or steamed veggies are always an option. Also plain garden salad.

 

I loved your report, BTW, we've primarily done DCL, so it's nice to see a comparison.

 

:)

[dogsambam]

Thank you for your, finally, unbiased review. We are doing Fantasy next Spring with our then 4 year old and 7 year old. We are regular RCCL cruisers, so I a, happy to read your review. We just got off Allure, which was amazing, but we really want to try Disney.

[1ParticularHbr]

We cruise primarily RCI because we don't have kids but I did take my nephew on Disney Wonder 2 yrs ago and was won over by the magical service and the amazing shows. The extra room in a Disney cabin is nice as well. We'll be leaving in few days for a cruise on Disney Dream - 3 nighter...first DCL for DH to see if he'd like it for a longer trip. For those who've mentioned they going in first DCL with the kids, the thing they'll like best over RCI are the shows...they're kid-friendly but nice for adults too. The food on Disney is probably a notch above RCI as well...will be able to report better after our Dream trip :)

[Silent Penguin]

After wading through way too many thinly disguised rants on other cruise forums, your review was a pleasure to read. Thank you for painting a clear picture of your experiences.

 

As you can see from my signature line, we have only sailed once on a cruiseline other than DCL, and that was because my dad took us with him on a NCL cruise. We had a reasonably good time. I think I would take another Norwegian cruise. Sadly, budget concerns dictate that we try a less expensive cruiseline with a closer port than DCL, so if we want to continue cruising with a somewhat yearly frequency, we might want to try RCL. The Enchantment of the Seas's port is only an hour away.

 

As for the kids' programs. You said you didn't utilize them on your RCL cruises. I can't speak for RCL, but I can tell you NCL's kids' program can't hold a candle to DCL's. My teenagers had a good time, but my daughter, 10 at the time, was underwhelmed to say the least. I don't hold that against NCL, and I wouldn't hold it against RCL. To be fair, I expect that any cruiseline that doesn't specifically target families with kids as customers is not going to commit a huge amount of ship space and program money to kid programs.

 

Thanks for the useful information.

[bus man]

You can request pretty much anything you like. If you like the meat from one offering, but the veggies from another, you can ask your server to make it up that way. On one of our cruises, we had a gentleman at our table who never ate anything from the menu. He always ordered what he wanted, how he wanted it cooked. And he got exactly what he wanted.

 

Baked potato or steamed veggies are always an option. Also plain garden salad.

:)

 

Funny you should mention that. On my very last night, I saw a really nice looking garden salad at the next table. I was intrigued, as I had seen nothing of the sort on the menu, and it really looked appealing to me. I mentioned it to my server, and in no time, voila, there was a very tasty garden salad being placed before me. Now, if only I had known that one could get food not on the menu, sometime prior to my last night!

 

Thank you all for the kind words. I'm glad that so many of you have found my review to be helpful. I do want to emphasize that I enjoyed my Disney cruise, and I'm glad I went. Someone else mentioned the elegance of the ships, and I fully concur with that. (That's also something I like about RCI, by the way.) There's a lot to like about DCL, and I can easily see why so many people love them. I just think that, overall, RCI is a better fit for me.

 

Happy cruising, everyone! :)

[AF-1]

Bus Man. I very rarely order off the menu. I come up with what I feel like eating and the waiters put it together. Been doing this since 2007.

[GatorMomInNC]

Thanks for that great comparison review. I just wanted to say a couple things: If you do cruise DCL again and if you don't want to eat in the rotational dining, you can eat at Topsiders at night. It becomes a sit down restaurant and you can choose your own time. If you get a window seat you have a nice view of the ocean, and I believe they serve a porterhouse steak. I too was a little disappointed in DCL food but I thought there offerings around the pool were good and I hear they are even better on the Dream/Fantasy.

 

The other is, if you are planning to cruise again with your kids, don't be so sure you won't be back on Disney. I have cruised 3 times with my kids, the last and only times was on Disney, but they have made it quite clear they want to go back on Disney and no other line. We haven't sailed on the Fantasy or the Dream, where the kids clubs are apparently even more fantastic than on the Magic/Wonder, and they are begging me to go on a Dream or Fantasy cruise. I haven't told them, but I have a couple DCL cruises booked, I'm just trying to figure out which one will work best for us.

[sonogal]

Nice review comparing. I do have to say that on Freedom of the Seas last month our hallway was cluttered I would say 90% of the time. It was almost ridiculous that we had to squeeze past and step over housekeeping stuff. Our stateroom attendent was sub-par which was rather disappointing. We (parents and kids) also much prefer the DCL kids' clubs to RCL or Carnival.

 

I have to say I have never had a bad cruise on any line. The food has always been very good and plentiful. Our adults only cruise on Oasis last December was phenomonal. Would do Allure or Oasis again in a heartbeat.

 

But there is just something special about Disney that is such a draw. We are taking my mom next year for her first cruise ever on the Fantasy and super excited about it. I keep debating the costs too but in the long run, it's so worth it.

 

I would say each line has something to offer that will be individual to every guest. Don't be afraid to try them to find what works for you. Happy sailing!

[Donna_In_India]

Thanks for an excellent review. I've always enjoyed whatever cruise I've been on. Each cruise line/ship has pros and cons. Certain things are more important to some people than others whether it's food, activities, whatever. I haven't been quite so enthused about my upcoming Disney cruise (I'm still trying to get past the cost!). I am looking forward to it because it's to celebrate my daughter's birthday and I know she will love it. I probably would not sail DCL again in the near future - for one, I'd love a casino - but you never know.