Is this forum fun any more?

[davidmbfonz]

Thought I would address the negativity that has been creeping into this forum for awhile now.

 

For people who haven't sailed before, or who haven't sailed DCL before, this forum is a great way to get your questions answered and to preview some of what makes DCL special. I worry that people are getting turned off by the constant re-hash of the same question and answer over and over: is Disney worth it? The most sensible answer that is often given is that it is subjective and only YOU can determine that. To hear the same posters reiterate the same personal conclusion repeatedly might not serve the purpose they intend. I get the motivation - if you're no longer thrilled with something, then it feels good to have that be validated.

 

I find the negative skew comes in two varieties:

 

First, there's the folks who have cruised 5, 10, 20, even 30 times on DCL - these are obviously veteran cruisers, but I suspect they're reaching the peak of what further details/interest/magic they can squeeze out of Disney. With increasing prices, it only makes sense that these folks would be looking to have a cruise experience elsewhere. The overall sentiment is, Disney is very good, even great, but I can't justify the prices any more. That's fine - and it makes sense given your cruising history.

 

For many families looking for a Disney vacation, DCL's prices are easily in-line with what the park prices are like. So, this first group of complaints is like someone who has been to Disney World 30 times, perhaps even using an annual pass, and now has to pay full price... we have to forgive this person for coming on a Disney forum and say, repeatedly, "you know, Universal is almost the same thing... and come to think of it, Six Flags is a lot of fun, for half the price...!"

 

The second camp is folks who have agreed to pay Disney's premium price, but along with that price of admission, expect nothing less than perfection. This colors their entire experience on DCL - anything less than perfect, and it's no longer "worth it". This is unfortunate. In another thread, I urged newbies to try to look for the common denominator. Industry-standard-setting service is part and parcel to DCL - but of course, those are averages across tens of thousands of experiences - it doesn't guarantee that any ONE person's experience will always be flawless.

 

It's obvious to me that there is a tremendous amount of perception and psychology that goes into answering the common "worth it" question. Although I applaud the veteran posters (and cruisers) who have worked hard to build this community, I would also ask what their main purpose in repeatedly complaining about the prices is? Perhaps you've "graduated" from the DCL experience... don't be that guy who goes off to college, only to come back to visit his high school and complain how lame high school is.

 

Yes, DCL is expensive relative to other lines, but again, it's how you look at it. I'll reiterate: for me, I approach it as an extension of WDW with a nautical theme. Why pay all that money to go to Epcot and visit the Mexico pavilion, when you can have Disney take you to Mexico, for a similar (or less) cost!?

 

Happy Holidays to everyone, and cruise on!

[axelskater]

I liked your post. I have only cruised Disney 4 times, but I love it. I have seen posts which say things like "Convince me Disney is worth it"! There are so many, many people out there who don't need to be convinced.

If you are sincerely inquiring about the differences, or are asking what things may be included for the price, that is one thing. If you are saying you cannot believe the prices and you want someone else to justify them for you - well, maybe people are tired of doing that.

 

If you pay for a mass market line, I think you get mass market service. Pay a little more - and you get Disney service :D

Or formal British of course if you're on board my other fave!

 

When I was on board the Dream a few weeks ago I never wanted to be on any other ship! (unless there are 40 foot seas - then I want the QM2!) so either way - Disney is doing something right. They will make some mistakes like any other company, but overall - not much to complain about!

[Host Mick]

Cruise Critic doesn't take a position on any cruise line, negative or positive so members are allowed to freely discuss what they like and don't like about any cruise experience.

If you're looking for DCL cheerleaders, they're here as are the DCL objective critics and a few DCL haters for whatever reason. We're not going to moderate out criticisms.

The only thing that we require is that every post complies with the Guidelines linked at the top of every Community page. The relevant part to this discussion is that you're free to criticize lines, ships, crew, entertainers, ports, tours, etc., you MAY NOT attack another member.

Sail on.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Host Mick

[Sunkissed Mommy]

If you look in any cruise line's forum you'll find equally negative posts. It's the nature of people.

 

We're about to go on our 2nd (well DH and DS's 1st) Disney cruise. I am more excited than ever.

[tinybiny]

I don't think the negativity comes from this forum in particular. I joined Cruise Critic to check out other cruise lines. I've only been on DCL. I spent a lot of time studying the NCL forum and found that there were many unhappy long time customers posting there. Next, I thought I'd check out Celebrity and found nearly the same thing. There were many complaints from long time customers, but not as many as for NCL.

 

From what I've seen here in my limited time here, there are actually less long time DCL customer complaints than the others. Maybe the happy people don't post as often because they are too busy enjoying life.

[Ex techie]

I don't "get" the point of this thread?

It isn't a DCL fan club site, so you will find posts from disgruntled and disillusioned past Guest's posting. You will also find some DCL "cheerleaders" that post regularly that are enamoured with DCL, and few in-between.

 

I'm not sure what you thought it was supposed to be, but it does have Critic in the name, so you will find all sorts of variations in peoples opinions and reviews.

 

ex techie

[Loonbeam]

I agree. NCL to me is far far worse than here, its the only forum where I have actually needed to block posts from individuals...

 

I don't think the negativity comes from this forum in particular. I joined Cruise Critic to check out other cruise lines. I've only been on DCL. I spent a lot of time studying the NCL forum and found that there were many unhappy long time customers posting there. Next, I thought I'd check out Celebrity and found nearly the same thing. There were many complaints from long time customers, but not as many as for NCL.

 

From what I've seen here in my limited time here, there are actually less long time DCL customer complaints than the others. Maybe the happy people don't post as often because they are too busy enjoying life.

[jessi12tg]

I think the whole premise of this post was just to say that people who come here asking us to validate their spending "so much" on a vacation is getting frustrating. I don't think he was trying to say that the negativity here was better or worse than anywhere else... just that it's here and it's getting annoying because this is Disney and Disney is supposed to be magical and negativity-free. It's obviously more fun to read posts about a child's amazing Disney experience or how much fun Grandma had on ship rather than questioning why someone would spend a certain amount of money for a Disney cruise when Carnival offers one for a third of the price.

 

In my opinion/experience, the people who come here asking the question "is Disney worth it" really want to experience the magic but either don't want to pay for it or they're willing to pay for it only if they can be guaranteed everything will be perfect. They will need someone to blame if they end up going and it wasn't 100% magical. Every vacation (even a Disney one) is what you make of it. Most likely, if you go into it with extreme cost concerns or worries then you're going to have that the whole time and you'll miss a lot of what Disney is all about. I'm not saying to throw out your budget but if you truly can't afford Disney then there's your answer, don't go.

 

We can talk it up and explain the Disney experience in detail over and over again but it doesn't matter. We don't know how you'll feel or react to the Disney magic so how can we tell you if you'll enjoy this cruise $x more than a different cruise? You can't explain the feeling you get when you first step on the ship or when you see the look on a child's face who just met Mickey for the first time. You can't compare a Disney cruise to an NCL or a Carnival cruise just like you can't compare Disney World to Six Flags. It's just different and a person has to experience it for themselves in order to understand. It's an individual experience and only that person can decide how much they're willing to spend to get it.

[helenb]

For the record, Disney is the nicest cruise line we've ever sailed. If all cruises were priced equally and went to the same places, we'd be on DCL every time.

 

But that's not the way life works. DCL is 50%-100% more expensive, and their itineraries are limited. As a result, we mostly sail Princess and Celebrity. But we still love DCL, and we're booked on a Fantasy cruise next June, so clearly we enjoy Disney, even at the price they charge. So that being said, I'm happy to discuss the good or bad things about Disney. But yeah, the price is the number one 'bad thing' by far about DCL, so it makes sense that it's one of the main topics on this forum.

[gambit57]

I check other lines in addition to Disney. I've also been gone for large gaps of time.

 

Seems fine here to me. The only thing that I would say changed is that it seems a tiny bit less active than what I remember.

 

Doesn't seem any more negative or anything though. As others said, there are plenty of negative posters in the other lines' forums. Maybe it's not as focused on price, but they're there.

[e2011]

If I may answer your original question ; Is this forum fun any more?

 

No, its not. But it is informative.

[USNUZULOOSE]

I have never sailed Disney, would love to one day. But I do sit on a site that is Disney and believe me I hear this question all the time over there. And not just for Disney Cruise , but the parks and the DVC as well. So all these same kinds of questions are over there as well. Some day I hope to find it worth giving it shot and sail. I like how they have their sail away party's and the fireworks and anything else. I like the fact there is no casino.

[gambit57]

I have never sailed Disney, would love to one day. But I do sit on a site that is Disney and believe me I hear this question all the time over there. And not just for Disney Cruise , but the parks and the DVC as well. So all these same kinds of questions are over there as well. Some day I hope to find it worth giving it shot and sail. I like how they have their sail away party's and the fireworks and anything else. I like the fact there is no casino.

 

Hey, I'm in your neck of the woods! About 20 minutes north where the big mall is.

 

I do like the little stuff that Disney does differently. If you've done other cruises, it's neat to see the exterior design of the ship, the sailaway parties (I actually like watching the workers at the dock waving; they get pretty enthusiastic), fireworks, etc. I mean, Disney doesn't seem to change much, but they do have cool and unique differences that add that extra bit kind of like how their parks are in general just a cut above all other theme parks.

[N41EF]

The Disney board here is much quieter than most of the other cruise line's boards. Disney has 4 ships and they aren't cheap, Royal has 30 or so.

 

It does amaze me at how many people who've never sailed Disney post here, but I think that's more changing times not just cruises. I'm a car guy and many people post on a Mercedes forum saying they'd never pay $x for a car, and they've never owned a Mercedes. Or that "all" Mercedes Diesels leak oil, but they never owned one. There are a lot of people who have too much time to spend on the internet, and with the anonymous names to hide behind people say anything, there is no consequences and responsibilities. When I read someone's post I scroll down to see what ships they've done and when. If you were on Magic 10 years ago, it doesn't look anything like Fantasy today.

 

When the "is it worth it" comes up, I'm biased, I really like Disney. However, I do most of my cruises through "work" and other than paying a lot of taxes, they don't cost me anything. I have done three RCL cruises on my dime, but I check several sites looking for deals and really really need a Disney cruise soon.

 

As far a the person who's always negative and expecting perfection I don't know that there is anything any of us can say or do. There is a mentality that I am paying for this and I deserve perfection, and unfortunately there are people who will NEVER be happy. One of the RCL people complained about an interior promenade window looking dirty because of window failure. People ranged from make them clean it, to make them replace it, to make them give you another room. Two inches of foggy window on the right side of a window ON A CRUISE SHIP isn't going to ruin my vacation, EVER.

 

Some people need to "Let it Go".

 

Hope to see all of you onboard, I'll be in the hot tub in quiet cove if you need me.

[sm3ds]

When we first started cruising I asked the "worth it" question. I think i stopped needing validation after about the 5th cruise. The prices do keep going up, but you can still find some deals offseason. Im happy with DCL, but I have nothing to compare it to. At the present its the best cruieline for us.

[helenb]

The Disney board here is much quieter than most of the other cruise line's boards.

 

The roll calls for Disney are also much quieter. It is my impression that this is because there are many Disney-based forums out there which also have sections for the cruise line. So people who have only ever taken Disney cruises, or who are DIsney people and looking at their first cruise, aren't as inclined to come here when there are resources in the places they already frequent.

[KiwiFunCruiser]

Asking for validation requests is all over most forums on CC. Never understood why, as you really need to make up your own mind on where you will travel. It can be very handy though to use these forums for tips and suggestions. I tend to learn something new every time I log in.:D