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Which other cruise line do you think is the most (relatively) similar to Disney?


molole
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We are "Platinum" on DCL and agree that the cruise line is in a class of its own. Have cruised also on RCCL, Azamara, Princess, HAL, Oceania, Celebrity, and Uniworld. However, the MDR food on DCL has declined to nearly sub-standard in our opinion over the years. Only Palo and Remy truly stand out as restaurants at sea IMHO.

 

i know lots of people complain about the food on DCL, saying it's gone down hill over the years..

so we were very pleasantly surprised in august to find that the food in the dining rooms as well as the quick service on deck was very good (if you want the greatest gluten free pizza you've EVER had - try the quick service pizza place...you have to special order it....wow!! i couldn't believe it....even better than the 'real' pizza i used to be able to eat)..

 

anyway, we were very impressed by the food in the regular rotation restaurants on the disney dream!

 

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The food will depend more on the exec chef aboard than anything..

 

I tell this story often.. We sailed on the Island and Coral Princesses fairly close together. They are exactly the same ship food service wise. Same menus, same ingredients, same equipment. The food on the Coral? Ok. Good even. Food on the Island? Incredible. The reason was clear as we met both ECs/Maitre D's etc. On the Coral, the guy ran his kitchen like a military camp, yelling like he had been trained by Gordon Ramsey. On the Island it was clearly a team approach with the EC working with his people. Same with the MDs. No idea who it was on the Coral, on the Island he was everywhere, helping out servers, seating people, getting drinks, whatever, making sure everything went smoothly.

 

Add in to that people's very subjective tastes, other than menu style (french versus indian influenced for example), food should be the last variable used to evaluate a cruise.

 

Another story, this time on RCCL - shared table, 8 people. 6 of us ordered the same entree. Two loved it, two thought it was ok, two hated it. See what I mean?

 

Referring above - when it comes to things like Carnival's reputation, if my experience has been more than 5 years back, I assume things have changed, it's just the nature of the industry, so always be willing to consider things with fresh eyes and look at more recent data. Heck, Disney is not the same now from when we first cruised with them in 2012.

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Yes, I understand that food an vary and people have different tastes. But after 30 DCL cruises since 1998, I've seen definite ups and downs in the food quality as well as changes in the menus. The menu changes don't really affect me--there's always something that I like...even though they did remove one of my favorites. On the other hand, in the last week I've read 2 posts from "frequent cruisers" saying that the food was better on their last sailing. This is encouraging because we've definitely seen some "slumps." I think that someone who has cruised DCL more than a couple of times begins to get a feel for the quality.

 

And when it drops, it can be obvious!

 

I agree that lines change over time, and certainly DCL has undergone many changes since our first cruise in 1998. But other than the marked changes in the first 12 months, it is still essentially the same. While I don't have the extensive experience on other lines (only a few cruises on each), I suspect it is the same--minor changes, but still the same basic character.

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We are still not loyalists to any one Cruiseline. Itineraries, dates, budget, etc. My signature is a testimony to that for sure. Even within a Cruiseline the individual ships can vary so much. Example: Galveston with RCCL Liberty of the Seas and Vision of the Seas.

 

The funny thing is our kids are now 11 and 7 (their first cruise was 6 years ago) with right at 150 nights of cruising under their belts now ... and another 42 booked next year and 30 in 2019. They are upfront and honest about kids club perceptions along with other aspects of a ship, but also know we use most of our cruises for educational experiences so will be using the Cruiseline that is in the area for when we need to go. They have been on Celebrity, HAL, Princess, RCCL, NCL, Fathom and DCL with us. Hubby and I did one Carnival cruise alone, so the kids haven't been on that (and we had a spa category cabin so utilized the spa daily). All that to say a Cruiseline can vary so much by ship, and even with kids club staff onboard that particular sailing.

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This' date=' exactly summed up our experience with Princess. We were interested in a long Princess cruise, but decided to book a one week cruise as a "try out" before making a long commitment. My daughter's comment was that she had gotten on "this ship" prepared to dislike it, and in her opinion, "There is nothing wrong with this ship."

 

There were things we liked better than DCL and things we didn't like as well, but it was an overall great experience. And we did book the 20 night Japan cruise.[/quote']

 

Same here. Cruised Disney and then Princess and DD loved Princess. More personalized attention/crafts/activities in Princess kid club.

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Let's introduce a few facts regarding the Norovirus Outbreaks:

 

2017 (so far)

DCL - 0 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 0 reported to the CDC

 

2016

DCL - 1 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 1 reported to the CDC

 

2015

DCL - 0 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 0 reported to the CDC

 

2014

DCL - 0 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 0 reported to the CDC

 

2013

DCL - 0 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 0 reported to the CDC

 

2012

DCL - 0 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 1 reported to the CDC

 

2011

DCL - 0 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 0 reported to the CDC

 

2010

DCL - 0 reported to the CDC

Carnival - 1 reported to the CDC

 

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm

 

Carnival doesn't have a worse record than DCL - Princess, HAL, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity all have multiple cases reported each year. Carnival - nope.

 

Norovirus can occur anywhere on any ship. Comparisons like this are not entirely helpful as DCL has four ships, Princess has 17, etc.

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DCL does an amazing job of always cleaning the ship and maintenance. They have no record Norovirus outbreaks as compared to the amount of recorded CDC outbreak on Carnival ships. Yes, Carnival has way more ships in their fleet but they definitely do not take cleaning as serious as DCL does.

 

Norovirus can occur anywhere on any ship. Comparisons like this are not entirely helpful as DCL has four ships, Princess has 17, etc.

 

I was responding to the poster who stated above about the comparison of DCL versus Carnival when it comes to CDC recorded outbreaks.

 

The age of the passengers is a leading reason why Princess and HAL (and even Celebrity) have higher outbreaks of Noro. Royal Caribbean though is a head scratcher - on the surface they seem like one of the lines that should have the lowest - you're regularly harassed by the washy-washy guy when entering the buffet and yet, it has probably one of the worst records.

 

And to DCL's 4 ships - Carnival currently has 25.

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First let me say, I am a HUGE Disney nut. Love everything they do, see all the movies, and we go to Disney World for a week every year. I loved my first DCL cruise in 2013 and said I'd definitely cruise them again. Service great, shows great, loved the ships decor, food great. It took awhile to return, mainly because even though I loved them, comparisons with other cruise lines prices made it more affordable for my family to go on one of those other lines. Finally returned to DCL last February. Same feelings as the first one, except this time the food was meh. Even in Palo. Fast forward to a few months ago when they opened the bookings for Thanksgiving 2018. I know, holidays are more expensive, but it's one of the few times during the school year my whole family can do a vacation together. Went online the day bookings opened and a 4 night inside cabin thanksgiving cruise for 2 was $4000??!! NO WAY. I knew I could do better. I now have a 5 night Celebrity cruise, Thanksgiving 2018, in a concierge balcony cabin with $300 OBC for $1000. I love Disney, but not NEARLY that much! If you can afford it, fine, go for it, but I personally would rather have 4 Celebrity cruises than 1 Disney, especially since my 12 y.o. son said he loves Celebrity because their service is great. Celebrity IMO is just as nice as DCL, the only thing missing is Disney characters roaming everywhere. And the food seems to be better than DCL as well. Walt must be rolling in his grave-yes he wanted to make money as much as any other businessman, but he also envisioned Disney vacations as something everyone should be able to afford and enjoy. The theme park ticket prices now are outrageous. We're also considering not going every year anymore because of this. Not that we can't afford it, I just don't see the value for the money at over $100/day. And I can't see enough of an extra kick in spending 4x as much on a DCL cruise as I would spend on a Celebrity cruise, and I'll even jump in and say I also LOVE Carnival, which is even less expensive. Maybe they're not as elegant, but it's not the booze cruise anymore. I see families, old people, young people all having a great time, and so do I. I used to be a snob about Carnival until I tried it just to see what all the fuss was, and the first thought I had on embarking on my first Carnival cruise (Sensation, so it wasn't even a new ship!) was, "Gee, there's nothing wrong with this. It's like Las Vegas got dumped into a cruise ship!"

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First let me say, I am a HUGE Disney nut. Love everything they do, see all the movies, and we go to Disney World for a week every year. I loved my first DCL cruise in 2013 and said I'd definitely cruise them again. Service great, shows great, loved the ships decor, food great. It took awhile to return, mainly because even though I loved them, comparisons with other cruise lines prices made it more affordable for my family to go on one of those other lines. Finally returned to DCL last February. Same feelings as the first one, except this time the food was meh. Even in Palo. Fast forward to a few months ago when they opened the bookings for Thanksgiving 2018. I know, holidays are more expensive, but it's one of the few times during the school year my whole family can do a vacation together. Went online the day bookings opened and a 4 night inside cabin thanksgiving cruise for 2 was $4000??!! NO WAY. I knew I could do better. I now have a 5 night Celebrity cruise, Thanksgiving 2018, in a concierge balcony cabin with $300 OBC for $1000. I love Disney, but not NEARLY that much! If you can afford it, fine, go for it, but I personally would rather have 4 Celebrity cruises than 1 Disney, especially since my 12 y.o. son said he loves Celebrity because their service is great. Celebrity IMO is just as nice as DCL, the only thing missing is Disney characters roaming everywhere. And the food seems to be better than DCL as well. Walt must be rolling in his grave-yes he wanted to make money as much as any other businessman, but he also envisioned Disney vacations as something everyone should be able to afford and enjoy. The theme park ticket prices now are outrageous. We're also considering not going every year anymore because of this. Not that we can't afford it, I just don't see the value for the money at over $100/day. And I can't see enough of an extra kick in spending 4x as much on a DCL cruise as I would spend on a Celebrity cruise, and I'll even jump in and say I also LOVE Carnival, which is even less expensive. Maybe they're not as elegant, but it's not the booze cruise anymore. I see families, old people, young people all having a great time, and so do I. I used to be a snob about Carnival until I tried it just to see what all the fuss was, and the first thought I had on embarking on my first Carnival cruise (Sensation, so it wasn't even a new ship!) was, "Gee, there's nothing wrong with this. It's like Las Vegas got dumped into a cruise ship!"

 

reason enough for me to avoid it - we hated every single minute we were in vegas...actually very single second...:o

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reason enough for me to avoid it - we hated every single minute we were in vegas...actually very single second...:o

Sorry you hated Las Vegas. I guess it's not for everyone. Word to the wise. If you don't like gambling and glitz, don't go to Las Vegas. I LOVE Las Vegas!! :hearteyes: However, as I said, Celebrity is an acceptable substitute to DCL and is only 1/4 the price. That was my point. It's ok that you missed that-I tend to forget everything I've read in a paragraph except for the last line, too.

Edited by Knighton
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Sorry you hated Las Vegas. I guess it's not for everyone. Word to the wise. If you don't like gambling and glitz, don't go to Las Vegas. I LOVE Las Vegas!! :hearteyes: However, as I said, Celebrity is an acceptable substitute to DCL and is only 1/4 the price. That was my point. It's ok that you missed that-I tend to forget everything I've read in a paragraph except for the last line, too.

 

 

sorry for going off topic, but it's not the gambling and glitz - it's the drinking and basic feeling that i'm in Sodom and Gomorrah (no offense :o )

 

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I get that but everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

 

Carnival as a whole has a very bad reputation and receives bad press for things that have happened on their ships and do happen on their ship.

 

I have been on 1 Carnival ship and I am definitely apart of the Never (again) Carnival especially after going on 12 Disney cruises, 1 Princess and 2 NCL which raised the bar higher. I am open to other cruise lines and not a straight up Disney loyalist and willing and open to new experiences. Heck we have a MSC cruise lined up for Christmas this year because it was half the cost of Disney.

 

DCL does an amazing job of always cleaning the ship and maintenance. They have no record Norovirus outbreaks as compared to the amount of recorded CDC outbreak on Carnival ships. Yes, Carnival has way more ships in their fleet but they definitely do not take cleaning as serious as DCL does.

 

I did not find the service, food, ship layout or cleaniness as nice as my experience with other cruise lines.

 

I have not been on a Carnival ship in 10 yrs so things may have change but once was enough to say hey I don't want to do that again.

 

In addition, the newer Carnival ships like the Vista are pretty dang pricey and really not a whole lot cheaper than DCL. I have price compared them on different routes as my husband wanted to give it another try on the Vista. Well it was slihgtly less than DCL for the weeks and routes we looked at and if I was going to drop that much I was going spend it on Disney. The only less expensive or half the cost of Disney ships/cruises are the older ships. Whereas you can get half the cost of Disney on Princess or NCL on their newest ships.

 

My view is that Carnival is like staying at a Holiday Inn whereas DCL is like staying at the Ritz and Princess is like a high end Marriott and NCL is like a resort styled Marriott. I have no reference point on RCCL so I have no opinion.

Actually I am pretty sure dcl has had norovirus. I think it was the wonder.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
After five cruises with Disney, we tried NCL for the first time this summer (on the Sun in Alaska). Our son is 19, so we were a party of 3 adults. We loved it, so much so that we bought 4 future cruise credits while on board. Comparing it to Disney, we found the following:

 

Service - equal in every way, NCL crew was just outstanding

Food - far, far better than Disney - not even close. We also loved the free style dining concept. No more being told when and where to dine for us!

Entertainment - Disney definitely wins this one, though we did enjoy the shows we saw on the Sun. It was also nice to take a break from Disney, Disney all the time if you know what I mean. The Sun is one of NCL's smaller and older ships, and the entertainment reflects that. I imagine one of the newer, mega ships would have some terrific entertainment - especially for adults

Overall impression of the ship itself - While the decor is obviously different, we enjoyed the look and feel of the Sun. Not as "elegant" maybe, but bright, cheerful and fun. Disney probably wins on cleanliness/maintenance, but had we not sailed on them prior to the Sun, I'd have thought NCL did a fine job keeping the ships clean and up to date.

 

Prior to this trip, both my husband and son were skeptical about jumping ship from Disney. Even they were won over in every way. My husband was actually the driving force in purchasing the future cruse credits!! Once our son aged out of Disney's youth programs, I was very excited to move on and try new cruise lines. I'm sure we will back on DCL at some point - we do love it, but it's fun to try new things as well.

 

Interesting. I just booked my first NCL and have been looking in their section of the boards a bit. From what I've gathered, and what one person told me, is that NCL is nothing like Disney and I'm going to be disappointed. Basically, the opposite of what you've described. My parents and friends who've been on NCL recently seem to agree.

 

Service is just ok, but bad if you prepay tips or have some sort of package that included gratuities.

Food - the free stuff is mediocre in the dining rooms, but the buffet drops to awful. You have to pay to get decent food.

Entertainment - clearly not Disney's level

Ship - different, but it's not going for elegant and classy. Not bad though in general, just different from Disney.

 

Basically, NCL is great if you drink like a fish and get one of their big promotional sailings where you pay little to cruise. I booked their newest ship, so the price was pretty high. After all the nickel and dimeing, I probably should have looked at a Disney sailing more.

 

In any case, to me, for a similar feel to Disney, I'd say it's Princess. It's based off British customs. So, traditional set dining times, with a show before/after the meal. Service is more formal. Holland and Celebrity would be kind of similar too, but Princess is cheaper and has way more options.

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Each ship can differ on any Cruiseline as well as each staff member. We are Platinum on NCL with Bliss booked in 2018 and NCL Sun for South America / Cape Horn in 2019. We do NOT drink like a fish and my husband rarely drinks anything but water. I enjoy red wine but would not in any way describe myself as drink like a fish.

 

 

After our first DCL cruise in 2011 we didn't even do an onboard booking --- were not pleased at all and think we had just bad luck of the draw in several departments (14 night transatlantic for our family of four). We eventually booked DCL again and had a much better experience - same ship. Now have 70+ nights on DCL so it goes to show experiences within the same ship can vary. NCL (and other cruise lines) may offer itineraries / Ports not available on DCL that meet our budget and calendar constraints for the four of us (our kids are now 11 and 7 so getting older). We even cancelled DCL Panama Canal 2016 to do it on Celebrity because of the ports Celebrity offered over DCL. Our kids loved Celebrity!

 

 

Check my signature and you can see we cruise a variety of Cruiseline - not just Disney. Heck - our first three cruises of 2018 are on Celebrity, P&O Australia then RCCL. Two others booked for 2018 as well we intend on taking. We are not loyal to any particular line but we refer to Disney Magic as our "homeship" now, even after that not so stellar first experience.

 

 

Pricing varies - we did HAL for northbound Alaska this past June as it was cheaper than Princess... and we ended up in a Neptune Suite.

 

 

Did Princess for Japan this past August. Much better experience than our first Princess cruise.

 

 

Sometimes you can read things on forums and they are legit concerns while others may be from "high maintenance people". Have to take it with a grain of salt.

 

Btw - most recent cruise was Disney Magic in November. Still love Disney :)

Edited by MandyGirl
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Sometimes you can read things on forums and they are legit concerns while others may be from "high maintenance people". Have to take it with a grain of salt.

 

Yeah, I'm trying to keep an open mind, but even the CC NCL section is much, much different than what I'm used to seeing out of the big lines. I lurk on RCL (and to a lesser degree, Celebrity and Holland) because I really want to try them, but it never seems to work out. I've done the most cruises on Princess because it matches what I like and the itineraries somehow work the best for me. I've done 3 Disney cruises now and even their CC section definitely skews towards Disney fan. I'm a fan, but not a die hard so I can see a non-Disney fanatic would be kind of shocked at the culture and extreme enthusiasm. I've done Carnival, and it's not for me, but I get that line and their CC section (the people, the company policies, etc) makes sense to me.

 

NCL is just very unique to me and I'm still having a hard time adjusting to their section of CC. Very hard to prepare for my upcoming cruise without already being annoyed.

 

Don't mean to take off topic. I love DCL. My favorite cruise line even though I haven't sailed the most on them. I just prefer the "traditional" cruise lines the best, and I lump Disney in with the "traditional" lines.

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DCL is in a category of its own. IMHO, bar none!

Perhaps so, if you consider only the mid-range, family sort of lines. DCL prices itself close to the premium lines, but offers a product much more in keeping with the mainstream lines. I do agree that in some regards, it is the best of the family level lines. But there is no way that it is the same level as the premium lines. However, these tend to focus on a clientele very different from the typical DCL clientele, with or without children.

 

I'll be interested to see what Virgin does on their new cruise line.

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Thanks for all the perspectives. As others have said, we have enjoyed our sailings on DCL, NCL, HAL and Celebrity. We will be trying MSC this year. We enjoy both the newer ships and some of the older classic ships. We can’t wait to try the Norwegian Bliss but remember the ole days with the SS Norway.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Thanks for all the perspectives. As others have said, we have enjoyed our sailings on DCL, NCL, HAL and Celebrity. We will be trying MSC this year. We enjoy both the newer ships and some of the older classic ships. We can’t wait to try the Norwegian Bliss but remember the ole days with the SS Norway.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

Our wedding cruise was S/S Norway less than three months before her boiler room explosion :( beautiful ship with a ton of true nautical history. Like you can't wait to try the Bliss next year :) I'll be interested to see how you think MSC fares up --- I have read both ways but the most positives have been from Yacht Club class cruisers on it

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  • 2 weeks later...

Every cruise line you go on you will have good and bad. I've had good and bad on them all including Disney, but I'm not going to stop cruising each line just because there was something I didn't like on a particular ship. I did not like the Wonder but that won't stop me from cruising on Disney or Royal or Carnival. Is Disney my favorite? No but it is a tie with the Oasis class ships in my opinion only, based on what I like. I am taking all of the kids and grandkids on my retirement cruise on Disney for 3 days, then may book the Harmony of the Seas again for later next year.

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