Help! Royal Carribean or Disney?

[tchoney]

Hello All,

I am in the process of planning another cruise vacation. My family has cruised many times and only with Disney. There are several reasons why we like Disney, however there are several reasons why we are looking toward RC. We have a wide range of people in our group. Ranges are from 1 to 60 with approximately 20 people. This includes a special needs child (11). Our reasons in the past for loving Disney are listed below. I would love for you to convince me why we should do RC this vacation!

 

1. Clean, Hand Sanitizer stations throughout the ship

2. Rooms including inside are generous and stay very clean

3. Food is good, portions generous.

4. Servers love for us to try new things on menu and don't mind bringing other entrees if we don't

5. All poolside restaurants are free. Including Coke Products, Hamburgers and Ice Cream

6. Ship workers are courteous and helpful

7. Cash Free system

8. Free BBQ on private island

9. Rotating dining rooms

10. Small, private dining available

11. Deck parties are geared toward families

12. Most smokers are courteous and smoke only away from families and children. Smoke does not overtake hallways

13. Personal Celebration Cakes are free

14. We love the photos

15. Drinks of the day including 2 for 1 margaritas - Fun!

 

I look forward to your opinions!

 

Thanks,

Tina

[GMoney]

Hi Tina -

 

I love both RCI and Disney, and they provide a very similar experience. DCL is my favorite line (and I am not a fan of Disney), but I sail RCI more b/c they are less expensive, have more ships and better itineraries. The comparison will really depend on which RCI ship you plan on sailing. Here are the biggest differences between the 2 lines IMO:

 

+ Disney shows far surpass RCI, but RCI offers more entertainment variety shipwide.

 

+ Disney cabins are slightly larger and their design is superior with split bathrooms.

 

+ Disney sailaways and deck parties with fireworks surpass RCI.

 

+ Disney has a better sports bar and better sports programming.

 

+ Castaway Cay is better than both RCI private islands; however, both Labadee and CocoCay provide a great time.

 

+ RCI's Windjammer buffet is much easier to navigate than DCL's ,and IMO the food is better.

 

+ No rotational dining on RCI.

 

Specifically on your list, all of the items are fairly equal between the 2. You will pay for celebration cakes on RCI ($8, I think). On DCL, fountain drinks are included; on RCI, they are not included. Sanitizer stations will depend on the RCI ship you sail.

 

Have fun with whatever you choose.

[FR926]

The price difference is a big factor. depending on the type of cabin you get you can get two cruise on RCCL for the price you would pay for one on DCL.

I don't know if that overweighs the other benefits you have on DCL. It is a big reason why I cruise RCCL not DCL.

[hayesktrm]

We decided to cruise with RCI last time after 2 Disney cruises (price and we wanted more adult activities). I was worried about my 9 yo DD and 13 yo DS and whether they would like it after Disney. Both liked RCI better than Disney. I'm not sure why...it may have been that they both met some really nice kids on board.

 

Since the kids were happier on RCI, we would definitely cruise with them again. Although I preferred our inside cabin on Disney to our JS on Enchantment (condition of furniture, lay-out of the cabin). I also preferred the food on Disney. I loved the RCI shows. The kids went to all of them with us and really enjoyed them. My DS didn't go to any on the Disney. I also enjoyed the casino on RCI and Quest. I think Disney keeps their ship more ship-shape.

 

I think that it depends on the ship, but I would definitely try RCI (especially after looking at the current prices on Disney).

[FLASHINGLIGHTS83]

I think Disney keeps their ship more ship-shape.

 

while its not a huge difference, the enchantment of the seas debuted in 97, while the disney ships debuted in 98 and 99. like i said its not a huge difference, but that one year makes a difference in the furniture ect. in the cabins/ship.

 

i have never been on disney before, but know a few people who have been, and they said that comparing disney to RCCL is like comparing apples and oranges. just my thoughts

[Dafydd]

We were the biggest disney cruise line fans, but have discovered RCI and probably won't go back. We did 7 disney cruises, mostly on the magic which we loved. We do love the fact that sodas are now free all the time on disney and their movie theatre and first run movies can't be beat. Also, we enjoy the rotational dining and pretty much smoke free atmosphere. The service on disney was impeccable. But the price..... The least we ever paid on disney was $3,000 for a family of three which was pretty good for disney. This year, we have done 3 RCI cruises, two on mariner of the seas and one on the voyager. My husband and I went on a 7 day voyager cruise (big ship with ice rink, etc.) over thanksgiving and paid $350 each! Also, RCI continues to credit you money back as long as they keep dropping the price. We booked a corner aft balcony on our cruise two weeks ago and the price dropped several times during the year and RCI credited us the difference every time--- we just had to call and ask them to. We solved the soda problem by either taking sodas onboard in our carryon or having a service put them in our stateroom before the cruise -- it is less than soda cards, etc. They do have small movie theatres, but not first run films. We believe the food is better on RCI, definitely their Windjammer for lunch and breakfast and also their regular diningroom. Palo, the adult restaurant on disney I think is better than the two specialty restaurants on RCI. We love the promenade on the voyager class ships, rock climbing wall, ice rink and shows and actually enjoy their evening shows too. We got a little tired of the same shows on disney. We loved RCI islands, especially Labadee and thought the picnic buffet was better than castaway cay; certainly more locations of food. Although we thought we would never leave disney, we love these bigger voyager class ships and the multitude of things to see and do. Even though disney has a few things we like better, there are things like the buffet and food on RCI that we like better. By the way, there are many more choices of staterooms on RCI and we have had several types on both ships; my preference is an aft balcoy on RCI with a wrap around deck that is about 15 x 15 feet. But most important, is the cost. We save so much money with RCI and especially by watching for their price drops, that that is the deciding factor. We go to the same ports and have more options. There is more for older kids on RCI which I like.

[Sweetspot]

As a DCL addict who just got off the Explorer who has a special needs kid this is my opinion based on your preferences:

 

1. Clean, Hand Sanitizer stations throughout the ship

RCL required you to sanitize your hands before going into dine. They didn't require this going into kids clubs. DCL does.

 

2. Rooms including inside are generous and stay very clean

 

We were in a large room but were able to look into a balcony and inside room. They are smaller than DCL but then they are less expensive. DCL also has the split bath with many prefer.

 

3. Food is good, portions generous.

 

The food seemed comparable but I did like the availability of Windjammers where Topsiders or Beach Blanket Bingo on DCL have limited hours and much less as far as selection.

 

4. Servers love for us to try new things on menu and don't mind bringing other entrees if we don't

 

DCL servers are way different we found. Our RCL server never cracked a smile and wasn't very accomodating. I'm sure that happens on DCL too and depends on a persons personality but I found the staff on RCL efficient but not as friendly or as interested in making your experience "excellent" as DCL staff keep reminding you it should be.

 

5. All poolside restaurants are free. Including Coke Products, Hamburgers and Ice Cream

 

There is no poolside food but Windjammer is ther an does offer lunch and afternoon snacks. You can't go in in a bathing suit but you can bring food out. There is an ice cream machine near the pool area. No free soda, you must buy a soda card and no availability of ice tea, water or lemonade unless the windjammer is open and they haven't run out like they did on day 3 of our 9 day cruise.

 

6. Ship workers are courteous and helpful

 

I'm sure some on RCL are but on DCL everyone who works on the ship will stop and smile and help you with anything. I found the RCL staff didn't even want to make eye contact. It was strange to me after being on DCL so many times.

 

7. Cash Free system

 

RCL has the same system as DCL

 

8. Free BBQ on private island

 

We went to Labadee. It's pretty but it's no Castaway Cay and you have to tender to get there which took us an hour. The food on Labadee was better in my opinion than on Castaway Cay though.

 

9. Rotating dining rooms

 

You sit at the same table in a large dining room every night.

 

10. Small, private dining available

 

Depending on the ship there's Chop's or Portofino which are comparable to Palo.

 

11.Deck parties are geared toward families

 

RCL deck parties are not at all like DCL. No sailaway parties. I really missed the excitement and dancing everytime we sailed away.

 

12. Most smokers are courteous and smoke only away from families and children. Smoke does not overtake hallways

 

I didn't notice smoke anywhere on RCL.

 

13. Personal Celebration Cakes are free

 

We didn't celebrate anything so I don't know.

 

14. We love the photos

 

We always bought many pictures on DCL, we didn't buy one on RCL. I found the photographers to be really pushy trying to get you to take a picture and was turned off so didn't bother having any taken.

 

15. Drinks of the day including 2 for 1 margaritas - Fun!

 

I don't remember drink specials on RCL but they could have been there. I always had the drink of the day on DCL but never had one on RCL. Maybe I didn't see where they were listed.

 

The kids clubs are definately different. They close for lunch and after 10:00 they charge per hour for your child to be there. My 10 yr old like RCL as much as DCL but the teen area is way less supervised. The RCL staff was definately not as well trained to handle a special needs kid as the DCL staff were.

 

The shows on DCL were more geared towards family. The week we went was oldies week it seemed but I think RCL changes their shows more than DCL. DCL shows get old if you see the same one year after year. Also on DCL there were more shows to see at night. RCL had one main show where DCL has a early family show, main show and then adult show.

 

Both are great cruises but way different. RCL has many benefits including pricing. We had a very good time on RCL but kept finding ourselves saying this isn't Disney and really looking forward to our next DCL cruise. We will go on RCL again but won't stop going on our yearly DCL cruise.