Gift for our 6 and 9 year old=Disney Wonder

[Xina143]

The Disney forum doesn't seem to be as active as some of the others.

 

Anyways, we are taking a 5 day Cruise on the Wonder in early February 2014, as a Christmas gift for our two youngest. Yes, it's going to be a bit late, but it's a good time in regards to their school.

 

We have done Carnival, and our boys LOVED IT!

 

Anyone done both? Just wondering if you thought it was worth the 'upgrade?'

[moki'smommy]

I like this board better, and think it would be more busy if more people knew about it!

 

We have only cruised one other line recently, and it is unfair to compare a line from 15 years ago with DCL today.....but we like DCL best. That's WHY we haven't done other lines. In fact, after our Celebrity cruise last year, my daughter insisted on DCL or no cruise for this summer.

 

SO yes, I expect that you'll like DCL better, especially given the ages of the kids.

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Now sure which Carnival ship your referring to, they are all different.

We took grandkids on Disney 4 times and Carnival Glory once.

 

Kids told us that Disney was 1000 times better when we asked which they liked best.

 

Now I am NOT saying all Carnival ship will be like the Glory but in the evening they charge you for using the kids clubs and that's when the great adult stuff happens. When they had a special event for the kids if 12 kids or less showed up they would cancel and close the club which happened multiple times to my grandkids.

 

Then the kids had nothing to do hang around the pools which is fun but they like to do more than that, plus its super crowded when no kids can be in the clubs because they were closed.

They have an arcade if you want to spend the extra money. But we wanted to get them away from video games and show them there is more fun things to do.

 

Also the few times the kids were in the clubs, they said the counselors ignored them most of the time and just chatted with each other.

 

 

On DCL the clubs open in the morning and are open very late, no extra charge accept for the nursery. Counselors knew the kids by name and got right in and did things with them. Plus they had fun things on castaway Cay to do just for kids too.

 

That's the only Carnival ship I have been on. Newer ships may have better programs for kids I don't know because after everything else that was bad on that cruise we are in NO hurry to try Carnival again.

[Xina143]

Now sure which Carnival ship your referring to, they are all different.

We took grandkids on Disney 4 times and Carnival Glory once.

 

Kids told us that Disney was 1000 times better when we asked which they liked best.

 

Now I am NOT saying all Carnival ship will be like the Glory but in the evening they charge you for using the kids clubs and that's when the great adult stuff happens. When they had a special event for the kids if 12 kids or less showed up they would cancel and close the club which happened multiple times to my grandkids.

 

Then the kids had nothing to do hang around the pools which is fun but they like to do more than that, plus its super crowded when no kids can be in the clubs because they were closed.

They have an arcade if you want to spend the extra money. But we wanted to get them away from video games and show them there is more fun things to do.

 

Also the few times the kids were in the clubs, they said the counselors ignored them most of the time and just chatted with each other.

 

 

On DCL the clubs open in the morning and are open very late, no extra charge accept for the nursery. Counselors knew the kids by name and got right in and did things with them. Plus they had fun things on castaway Cay to do just for kids too.

 

That's the only Carnival ship I have been on. Newer ships may have better programs for kids I don't know because after everything else that was bad on that cruise we are in NO hurry to try Carnival again.

 

Ahh, see it's a bit different for us. We have five boys, and our oldest three are teenagers-19, 17 and 14. Our older boys would take turns watching the younger boys for us-they each took one night to hang out with their younger brothers. They watched movies on the big screen on the Lido deck, went out for pizza and ice cream, the family friendly comedy show, etc. Another night our younger boys did the Night Owl program-which was always packed-and then the other three nights they hung with Mom and Dad. So, even IF there had been an issue, we had older boys that were more than willing to help out.

 

In fact, we have actually had great experiences on Carnival, but we don't necessarily see any point in being loyal to them as their loyalty program doesn't really have any 'perks' as far as we are concerned. We love cruising, and will seek out new experiences and ports. IF that happens to be on Carnival, cool. If not, no big deal.

 

But out three older boys have done Disney twice when they were younger. Our younger boys have never been. We asked if they wanted to go to Disney World or on a cruise as a special gift-they said a Disney cruise! So, we thought we would give it a shot.

[mom x4,grandma x4]

I'm sure you will have a Magical cruise on Disney. You are lucky to have older kids to care for the younger ones. my grandkids were 11 and 8 when they were on Carnival. They went on Disney when they were younger and got spoiled I think. Then again as teens and they even loved the teens club.

 

I think I would choose a cruise over the parks too. Of course I live 10 miles from WDW and we go all the time, so a cruise is a nice change. No long lines, you can do as little or as much as you want to.

 

You have an awesome time!!!

[dswift008]

We love Disney. The kids club tween and teen clubs are all great. They have activities for the kids. My 11 year old son wants to go back on Disney. We did a 4 day over Presidents week. Pricewise it was about the same because it was on the KSF promotion. I was checking Disney and Carnival regularly for deals and when KSF showed up we stopped looking.

 

The rooms on the Wonder are bigger than carnivals for the most part. One balcony room I was looking at on a Carnival ship had the kids bunked over our bed. On Disney even in the cheapest cabins one child sleeps on the sofa bed and the other on a bunk over the sofa. almost all the rooms have split baths which is a plus for families.

 

The food is not as good on Disney and they do not have the comfort food options in the MDR. Most people seem to have good luck with the MDR servers but we have not. We have always had anytime dining on Carnival and our service was better by far than Disney.

 

There is not as much added costs on Disney, soda is included and adult drinks are cheaper.

 

Is it worth the additional cost? That is a personal question. To me it is worth a few hundred more but not several thousand.

[GatorMomInNC]

I also have two boys ages 6 and 9! Our first couple cruises with them were on Carnival and we enjoyed ourselves. I think the food is good and value for the money is good - and they have a lot of choices for itineraires.

 

Then we went on DCL and wow - they LOVED it!! We have been on the Magic, the Wonder and the Fantasy and we loved all three - although I think my kids liked the Fantasy the best because of the Aquaduck and some other things. But they still love the Wonder and the Magic (especially since we went on those first, so they didn't know what they were missing on the Fantasy).

 

As a parent, I love cruising with DCL. Because of my husband's job he has not been able to go with us. So when I cruise on DCL I know that the wait staff will go out of their way to make sure my kids are happy so I can relax. I know there is always something to do for the kids - and to see how excited my kids get is awesome. They don't let the parents in the kids clubs anymore except for certain "open house" times, but one of my fondest memories was sitting in the kids club watching my kids laugh so hard when the crazy scientist was there doing experiments with Stitch. Then afterwards running into Stitch by the elevators and he gave my younger son a big hug!!