Carnival Glory vs Disney Magic?

[Disney Debbie]

Hi all - as you can tell from my name I love Disney! BUT - I've never been on the Magic - just done the 3night and 4night Wonder. My parents have us scheduled to go on the Magic next March 28th for their 50th anniversary. It will be them, me, DH, our 22 DD, my brother, sil & 2 nieces - 13 & 11. Mom was thinking the Magic because of the younger girls and because we're all Disney freaks. But the cost is just outrageous! I really don't think my brother and his family will be able to swing the cost of the cruise, plus have money for excursions, souvies, pics etc. So I was looking into the Glory which is about 1/2 the price for the same time. My Dad went on a Carnival cruise out of Tampa years ago and said he'd never do Carnival again! I think it was a major party boat and they were unimpressed with the food. But I've seen some pretty good things about Carnival and that was a LONG time ago. So I'd love to hear from some folks about Carnival in general, the Glory in particular and if you've been on the Magic and can compare them that would be great.

 

Thanks so much for your insight!!!

[jeast]

I'm also very interested. I took a short cruise out of NO on the Sensation and found it to be a party boat. Since then, I've taken a 4 night with Disney and will be going on a 7 night with Disney this fall. I'm looking to book 2009 7 night and the Glory is MUCH cheaper. I would love to hear a comparison, too!

[bonnys]

When I was on the Glory 4 years ago we loved it! No one in our group of 40 people had any problems. There were 1st time cruisers up to 10th time cruisers and all had a blast. Ages ranged from my DD who was 4 to my husbands grandmother who was 72. For the price difference, give it a chance. Also, if it means the difference in your brother and his family being able to go and enjoy themselves without stressing out and pinching pennies, it is worth the "risk".

As for the kids, Camp Carnival is great. My DD still talks about her time spent there (4 yrs. ago) and can't wait for our October cruise so she can go again.

[kicia]

We've done the Glory 4 times and are booked on the 5th for September and we did a Disney Wonder 3 day in January. Both cruises have their good points but we're really Carnival people.

 

On Disney - we didn't like the split bathroom. We're not big people but found them very cramped.

We liked the sliding door to the balcony instead of the door opening into the balcony.

We liked the sailaway party.

We didn't like rotational dining. We were in the informal restaurant for formal night and we didn't even dress up and we usually go all out with a tux and formal gown.

The food was better on Carnival and they have more choices and the times for buffets were longer.

Didn't like the assigned time for breakfast on Disney.

Everyone we met was very friendly on both ships.

We love Disney too. In fact, we worked there last year for special events and are going back this fall.

The prices on Disney are extremely high. You can do a 7 night on the Glory for what a 3 day on Disney costs.

Although we are Disney crazy I doubt we'll do another Disney cruise

Castaway Cay is very nice but so is Half Moon Cay on Carnival.

We've been on 14 Carnival cruises and we are not party people. We don't stay up that late and don't get drunk although we do have a few drinks and we have never seen a rowdy crowd on any Carnival cruise. Maybe we've been lucky but we haven't been bothered by noisy kids or drunk adults. It's funny because on the Disney cruise our table mates were approached by a couple of swingers looking for a party. We thought that was very funny and it shows that odd things can happen anywhere.

 

Enjoy your cruise and you'll have a great time.

 

Linda

[wayne_trisha]

Never been on Disney and I doubt we ever will until there prices come down. Went on the Glory on its 8th cruise and really liked it. I'm really unsure why people pay so much more for Disnet when the cruises are the same. I'm no Disney fan as we can get into all the parks free through family but choose to pay for Universal or Busch Gardens because they are better. Disney vs other cruise lines is very much like Coke vs Pepsi. What does Disney offer that costs 2x as much? To me, nothing and I can't contribute at the casino.. Glory is a lovely cruise with great food. Carnival is not the "party boat" so many talk of.

[jfe724]

Our first cruise was on the Disney Magic on their 1st 7 day cruise in 2000. Since then we have cruised on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We love going out of Port Canaveral and all but the Celebrity went out of PC.

I would rank the Cruise lines as 1- Carnival, 2- Royal Caribbean, 3- Celebrity, and Disney 4th.

Our experience was that the Disney ship had more unruly children and partyers. We did not encounter either on Carnival Glory. I enoyed the characters on the Disney, and the sail away party.

I also didn't like the dining room rotation and the food quality was not as good as on Carnival. We also did not appreciate the the Disney need to herd people, even moving people in the theater, which started an uprising one evening with my husband the initial protester.

After all my ruminations. To each his own.

[libertybelle41]

I would rank the Cruise lines as 1- Carnival, 2- Royal Caribbean, 3- Celebrity, and Disney 4th.

 

"which started an uprising one evening with my husband the initial protester."

 

 

 

yep, you are definitely meant for :rolleyes: Carnival

[cruise_control]

I think it was a major party boat and they were unimpressed with the food.

 

Usually the smaller ships with short itineraries (3-4 days) attract alot of college kids who like to party. We've found that staying with 5+ day cruises avoids such crowds.

 

We just returned from the Glory two weeks ago and had a fantastic time. Lots of families, and great food. I've never been on a Disney cruise, but for the value, I don't know how you could pass up a 7-day Glory cruise.

[lucyddr]

We started our cruising "problem" on the Disney Magic Western Carribean itinerary and LOVED it! On our honeymoon, we had to sail on Sunday which meant switching to Carnival (Miracle). Despite being worried, we booked the cruise with open minds and LOVED it! We then booked a lower category cabin on our third cruise (Destiny) and LOVED it as well!

 

All 3 of our cruises have been wonderful. All have ups and downs, but the downs were few and far between. We still think highly of Disney, but not enough to justify the added cost.

 

To answer your question, if money is an issue book Carnival. If not or if you have babies in need of nursery care or other "specialized" services, consider Disney. You'll enjoy either brand!!!

[hopelea]

Disney is way too expensive if you travel during peak season. We were lucky enough to cruise on the Magic in October. The price was okay for that time of year. We have cruised on the Magic twice. Absolutely loved everything about it, not one complaint!!! Would do it again if I won the lottery! My oldest dd wants to take a Disney Cruise for her high school graduation in 2012!

With that said, we are going the Glory this November. We can not justify the cost of a Disney Cruise. We booked a balcony room on Glory, on the Magic we would only be able to afford an inside room, which are really nice.

My parents have sailed on both....they say Carnival's food is much better. They have never encountered a rowdy/drunk crowd either.

Funny thing is, when booking our cruise on the Glory, I told the travel agent that I wanted a room on the side of the ship that will not be facing the Magic while in port at PC!!! I didn't want to stand out on my balcony and see that ship. I am going with an open mind and I am sure we will have a wonderful time!

[belle907]

As you can tell from my signature we are big DCL fans. DD & I just went on the Victory last week and had a really good time. I also thought the food in the dining room for dinner was better than on Disney, but I did like Disney's breakfast buffet much better and the room service breakfast was better. We've never had a set breakfast time on Disney each day except for disembarkation day but you don't need to go to the dining room that day and we also had it for the character breakfast, but those 2 days you can understand why they do that. We did miss the rotational dining, I like the change of scenery each evening.

We missed the split bathroom on Disney, makes it so much easier for 2 of us to get ready at the same time.

Definately not having a sailaway party was disappointing, especially since the muster drill ended when we started leaving port.

DD is 14 and did not like Circle C on the Victory, she said they didn't really offer anything for the kids to do and was bored in there. She found some kids to hang out with and they stayed out of trouble on their own. On Disney we can't keep her out of the kids clubs.

If price were a factor in going on a cruise or staying home, I would take the lower priced cruise the entire family can go on and make the most of the time you have together. In the end it doesn't really matter where you celebrate their anniversary, but that you are all together and have a great time.

[pe4all]

Having sailed on Disney when the ships were "new", and CCL (but not the Glory - she is on my "to do" list) and seeing that the kids sailing are older, not younger, I would actually lean towards the Glory if there was a major price difference, which there seems to be. While Disney show productions were very good, Carnival isn't too far behind, imho. To us, food is food, though we enjoyed rotating to different dining rooms. Loved having the curtain in the cabin dividing us from our kids. Otherwise, cabin bathroom - Disney has the sinks on the outside, which unclogged the bathroom with 4 of us a bit - was pretty much the only difference. Loved the Dueling Piano Bar on Disney, but love the piano bar on Carnival. Ports are ports - HMC was great - liked it better than Castaway. Enjoy the casino on Carnival, which Disney doesn't have. As for the clubs - my kids refused to go to the Disney clubs - yet they loved the Carnival clubs. And yes, the kids do tend to form their own groups and hang "out of" the clubs - but as long as they followed our rules and curfew, and we knew where they were, all has been good on every cruise. They did some activities in club 02, some out on their own with their new friends. As long as they were happy, we were happy. Disney has a great rep - but truthfully, dollar to dollar, port to port, we would sail CCL, unless the price on Disney was in the same ballpark. Good luck, and happy anniversary to your parents!

[Disney Debbie]

Thanks so much for the input. I'm going to talk to the family about it. I really think it would be better for us to do the Glory. I think we'll be spending most of our time together anyway so I don't think it will matter which ship! We went on the Wonder when DD was 15 and she was very un-impressed with the teen club - they had all this stuff listed that they would do - but they'd never do it! I was just worried about the food and crowd type more then anything. I think it was a shorter cruise that they went on - I know New Orleans was a port - and I think it was Mardi Gras - so he really should have expected a party crowd!!:p