So, I just priced out a 7 day Disney cruise for my kids next year and...

I really like the itinerary of the 11-day Southern Caribbean in July, but when I priced it out on Monday and got a price of $9,000 for two adults in a category 5E, I balked. And that's why we like to cruise in the fall. I'll be curious what those prices will be like when the fall 2019 itineraries come out.

HA! Look at the price of a one bedroom concierge for three people. $36,742 !!! Absolutely nuts. But, there are only two of those rooms left. Some people don't seem to think that price is outrageous. I guess the market will bear such a high price.

It's $6,700 for the four of us and that's cruise only. We still have to fly out to Florida.

This cruise has Star Wars characters on it and my son loves Star Wars. So, my wife asked me to price out a cruise and see if's it's feasible. For $6,7000 and probably another $1,400 for flights...I think not...

You've got to remember, You are paying for a LOT more personalized attention on DCL then your typical CCL/RCCL 'walmart' cruise. While personally I've never taken a DCL cruise I have a dozen friends w/ young children WHO have filled me with countless hours about WHAT makes it all worthwhile. i.e.-- the attention, the cleanliness and food,the constant smiles from all staff members who all wish too PLEASE. You can't expect to get PRIME rib attention at ground beef prices. So, it all depends on what YOU expect and are willing too pay for.

Mac

Comparing Carnival to DCL is rather like comparing McDonald's to a nice' date=' sit down restaurant.....[/quote']

 

Outside of the Disney stuff (movies, shows, hidden mickey's), I don't find that there are that many differences that I would class the 2 lines so differently (mass market fast food versus a "nice" sit down restaurant").

 

Can you say what you've experienced on Carnival that would make it "McDonald's" versus Disney's "Nice, sit down restaurant"?

Comparing Carnival to DCL is rather like comparing McDonald's to a nice' date=' sit down restaurant.....but no, I can't justify 5 times more. We have often found DCL to be 3-4 times the cost of other mainstream, family oriented lines for the same itinerary. I can't justify that.[/quote']

That's an insult to Mcdonalds. Mcdonald's burgers are way better than the so called burgers they serve on a DCL ship.

You've got to remember, You are paying for a LOT more personalized attention on DCL then your typical CCL/RCCL 'walmart' cruise. While personally I've never taken a DCL cruise I have a dozen friends w/ young children WHO have filled me with countless hours about WHAT makes it all worthwhile. i.e.-- the attention, the cleanliness and food,the constant smiles from all staff members who all wish too PLEASE. You can't expect to get PRIME rib attention at ground beef prices. So, it all depends on what YOU expect and are willing too pay for.

 

Mac

I've cruised several lines and DCL has the worst food. People need to stop using food analogy's. DCL caters to kids. As and adult you'll get same attention on any cruise line.

I've cruised several lines and DCL has the worst food. People need to stop using food analogy's. DCL caters to kids. As and adult you'll get same attention on any cruise line.

These are areas of subjective determination. For example, we enjoy the food on DCL and, in our opinion, it is superior to what we experienced on Princess. (Although we do agree a few of the menus need refreshing). Some people like Palo (we do!), others think it is nothing special. We cruise as adults, and sometimes with our now adult children. Programming for adults has improved in recent years. Many things keep us coming back, probably the biggest being the crew and Disney’s approach to customer service. Rotational dining creates a nice opportunity to get to know your servers. And, Tiana’s Place was a fantastic addition on the Wonder - blending food with enjoyable entertainment. We look forward to seeing what DCL has done recently on the Magic. We also like the ships, staterooms and entertainment. We prefer the longer itineraries to more unique locations. This isn’t easy to do on DCL - hopefully new ships will allow DCL to expand itineraries. If we weren’t cruising DCL we would cruise Seabourn, Crystal or Regent and we would be paying more than we pay on DCL.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Outside of the Disney stuff (movies, shows, hidden mickey's), I don't find that there are that many differences that I would class the 2 lines so differently (mass market fast food versus a "nice" sit down restaurant").

 

Can you say what you've experienced on Carnival that would make it "McDonald's" versus Disney's "Nice, sit down restaurant"?

In my experience, Carnival is at the bottom of the mass market cruise lines. I do realize that they've been making a serious effort to be more family friendly and to upgrade their image and that this has been somewhat successful, at least on longer cruises. My experience with Carnival is that it roughly resembled a frat party--essentially a drunken brawl. They are well aware of their clientele seeking to beat the system; thus they require everyone on a cabin of eligible age to purchase an alcohol package if one person wants one--to make it easier to enforce the "no sharing policy." Their activities include such things as wet t-shirt contests, etc.

DCL is definitely a higher class than what I experienced on Carnival. Perhaps the food analogy is unfair to the restaurants.

I'm not one to post 'reviews' since my cruise experience is limited (3 Princess and 1 DCL over the past five years- all Eastern Caribbean) compared with others who have posted above. But I will offer my opinion about the 'Star Wars' value. We (me, my wife, our 5 year old son and my wife's parents) just returned from a 7 day DCL on the Fantasy with a Star Wars Day at Sea. I agree with the majority of what has been stated above- in my opinion Disney is a notch above (Princess at least) in almost every category from service, cleanliness, cabin size, food quality and variety, and live show entertainment. Not dramatically so, but noticeably better.

I'm 48 and I grew up on the original Star Wars movie trilogy. My son loves it too. In a few years' time, he will be old enough to know that the characters in costume on the Star Wars day are not real (the Disney characters too) but to watch him experience the Disney and Star Wars characters- dance with Stitch, talk to Stormtroopers and Darth Vader, get a hug from Chewbacca and pictures with many others- was absolutely thrilling. I expect that for those who do multiple Disney cruises, the character aspect of it provides diminishing returns. We travelled from the east coast of Canada so flights were $1,800 in addition to the cruise price which is about 20% higher given the currency exchange so we simply cannot afford to do a Disney Cruise every year. However, to respond directly to the original poster, if you and/or your kids are Star Wars fans, maybe treat the Disney cruise as a 'once in a lifetime' experience and I believe you will not be disappointed. The only downside for us was having to leave the ship on Saturday morning and that the bar has been set ridiculously high for our son since this was his first vacation.

I'm not one to post 'reviews' since my cruise experience is limited (3 Princess and 1 DCL over the past five years- all Eastern Caribbean) compared with others who have posted above. But I will offer my opinion about the 'Star Wars' value. We (me, my wife, our 5 year old son and my wife's parents) just returned from a 7 day DCL on the Fantasy with a Star Wars Day at Sea. I agree with the majority of what has been stated above- in my opinion Disney is a notch above (Princess at least) in almost every category from service, cleanliness, cabin size, food quality and variety, and live show entertainment. Not dramatically so, but noticeably better.

 

I'm 48 and I grew up on the original Star Wars movie trilogy. My son loves it too. In a few years' time, he will be old enough to know that the characters in costume on the Star Wars day are not real (the Disney characters too) but to watch him experience the Disney and Star Wars characters- dance with Stitch, talk to Stormtroopers and Darth Vader, get a hug from Chewbacca and pictures with many others- was absolutely thrilling. I expect that for those who do multiple Disney cruises, the character aspect of it provides diminishing returns. We travelled from the east coast of Canada so flights were $1,800 in addition to the cruise price which is about 20% higher given the currency exchange so we simply cannot afford to do a Disney Cruise every year. However, to respond directly to the original poster, if you and/or your kids are Star Wars fans, maybe treat the Disney cruise as a 'once in a lifetime' experience and I believe you will not be disappointed. The only downside for us was having to leave the ship on Saturday morning and that the bar has been set ridiculously high for our son since this was his first vacation.

This sounds similar to many years ago when we were at WDW over "Star Wars Weekend." We were walking down the street at Studios and suddenly there were movie sounds. The look when my child turned around and saw storm troopers on top of the entrance gates was priceless.