My review: Carnival vs. Disney

[williamson_ja]

A little background on our family. We have a large family (9 total- usually 7-8 that actually sail) that had only sailed on DCL before. Specifically we've sailed the Magic to the caribbean and the wonder to the mexican riviera. We're a mixed family. My kids and I are super Disney fanatics. Dh and his kids are not... but are tolerant. All of our Disney cruises have been outstanding. Even my not so loving of disney stepkids and dh absolutely love the DCL product.

 

So, why did we stray in the first place? If we love DCL and never had a complaint, why did we book with Carnival? Like I said, we have a very large family. Price had a lot to do with it. With Disney prices, we just couldn't sail very often at all. It is extremely expensive to book 8 people. We love the adventure of cruising, but not necessarily the price. So, while looking toward our next adventure, I found an outstanding deal on a cruise with Carnival Liberty. If you didn't know, this ship just went through a renovation a month ago and is the only Carnival ship with the new Fun 2.0 features that they are rolling out. If you are curious to how big of a price difference it was, we ended up doing a 7 night Western caribbean in 2 inside cabins at the price of $230 per person! That's a huge price difference.

 

This review is just comparative between the two lines and overall impressions. I'll break it into different categories to try to make it easier to read. I hope this is helpful to someone trying to make the decision on which line to sail with.

[williamson_ja]

Disney: Anyone that has sailed with DCL can tell you that their ships are beautiful! The attention to detail is astounding. I really felt like I was on a luxury liner when I sailed with Disney. One thing that stood out to me was the cleanliness of the ship. I always found someone cleaning, painting, improving, etc.

 

Carnival: The Liberty is also a very pretty ship. I missed some of the attention to detail, but overall I wasn't disappointed. The atrium lobby on the Liberty is 10 stories tall and has a chandelier with lights that change color. My youngest dd (6 yrs old) really liked the changing lights. It's a silly thing, but there were only 2 things that bothered me about Liberty's appearance. One was carpet. My dh said that he never would have noticed this, but the DCL carpets are very beautiful and plush. The Liberty was more like airport carpet. The other thing was that it just wasn't as clean. It was filthy by any means. It just wasn't meticulously clean like DCL was.

 

Conclusion: I'll give the slight nod to Disney on this one. It's just those little things that add up. The Liberty was really beautiful, though. The atrium lobby on Liberty was prettier than the ones on Magic and Wonder... they just missed out on the attention to little details.

[williamson_ja]

I'm going to split dining up even more. I'm going to differentiate between lunch time/any time venues and the MDR dinner experience.

First of all- lunch time/any time venues.

 

Disney- I liked Disney's options for this in general. I'm not a fan of their burgers however. My favorite thing on DCL is to get a panini and plate of fresh fruit for lunch. The buffet is also nice, but nothing outstanding.

 

Carnival- Like I said earlier, the Liberty just got outfitted with the Funship 2.0 upgrades. This included new dining venues. They have a burger bar with burgers by Guy Fieri (from food network.. the Diners, Drive ins, and Dives guy). They also put in a burrito bar with fresh tortillas that are custom made. The Liberty had tons of choices and most of them were outstanding. FREE lunch/anytime dining options included: Guy's burger bar, the burrito bar, Fish and Chips stand that had lots of fish options (my dh loved the civeche), a sandwich shop, mongolian barbecue, sushi bar, pizza stand, and a large buffet. Almost all of these were higher in quality to the Disney version.

 

Conclusion: Carnival definitely won this one. Just the varied options put it over in my book. It's not just more options, though. The quality was really great! Another quick comparison. We ate at Johnny Rockets the day before we boarded the ship. The Guy Fieri burgers were far superior. I know it's Royal Caribbean that has Johnny Rockets- but I had to throw that in there. They charge extra for their burgers and Carnival has a superior (IMO) product for free. Also, the fries were to die for!

[williamson_ja]

Disney- We loved everything about the MDR experience on DCL. We love the different dining rooms. My dd loves animators palat and the "show" that comes with that. The waiters were so good on our DCL cruises that we felt like crying at the end of the week when we realized we didn't get to see them every day any more. Disney costs a premium and they can afford to employ the best of the best. The food on all of our Disney cruises has been fantastic. No complaints at all. It's awesome. Also, we have eaten at Palo and loved the experience. It was only $15 per person to dine at Palo when we went (not sure if this has changed). Loved it! Quite an amazing experience.

 

Carnival- The dining room is pretty, but you stay in the same one every night. We were overall satisfied with the food and service, but not overly impressed. Our waitstaff did a good job. They just were not outstanding. As I looked around the room, I decided some of that was just luck of the draw. I saw other waitstaff that seemed much more personable and attentive than ours seemed. However, that was our experience. We also thought that, overall, Disney's food was better. Carnival did have some really great dishes, but it was probably a 60% good to 40% okay or not so good split. Disney was more like 90% good to 10% just okay. Food is very subjective and this was just our experience.

We did not go to the Liberty's pay for venue. Carnival charges $30 per person for this which seemed just a little too steep for our blood.

 

Conclusion- Disney wins this one hands down. Love the variety and quality of the food. We love that they don't charge a lot too eat at their specialty restaurant. The thing the put it completely over the top for us on this one is Disney service. The service we got on Disney was so superior to the Carnival experience that it wasn't even a competition.

[williamson_ja]

Disney- The first time we sailed with Disney, we sailed as a GTY room and ended up in a large oceanview room. This room was fantastic! The window is just enormous and I love the layout of the room. The split bathroom is so great when lots of people are trying to get ready. We also love that the couch area can be closed off with the curtain for privacy. The rooms on Disney are quite large (for staterooms anyway) and well appointed. We sailed in insides after that first room. We also quite enjoyed our inside rooms. Very nice.

 

Carnival- Everyone told me that Carnival has rooms similar in size to the DCL ones. If they are, they are not well laid out. Our stateroom was an inside so it was easy to compare inside to inside. On Carnival, there was no couch area at all. The beds were laid out as bunk beds right on top of each other. No other space at all. No curtain splitting the room. The room was so small that I'm not sure what they would split off anyway. The layout was really quite annoying. The stairs from the upper bed came right into the vanity area so that you couldn't even use it (the stairs went right where the chair would have gone). There was quite a bit of storage. In fact, the storage seemed to be layed out quite similar to Disney's. We really missed the split bathroom also. We had 4 teenagers in one room. There were several times when the girls would come to our room and try to use the bathroom because someone else was showering in there's. There were also two big dents in the wall and the shade on the lamp was all crumpled.

On the good side, Carnival's beds were much more comfortable than Disney's. We enjoyed that they used duvets instead of the polyester comforters that Disney uses.

 

Conclusion: I'm sure by my comments, you can see that Disney won this one by quite a bit. Carnival has some very nice beds, but Disney's layout it MUCH better!

[williamson_ja]

Disney- The Disney brand is known for outstanding entertainment. That is what Disney does best. This is somewhere that they really shine. Those that have sailed Disney can say that they carry on this legacy in the cruiseline business as well. Disney deck parties are fantastic. We loved pirate night and the fireworks at sea. How cool is it to have fireworks at sea. Most of us also loved the character interaction throughout the ship. The main shows at night also impressed us for the most part. No one was a fan of Toy Story. In fact, we left 1/2 way through the show because it was that bad. We really never do that. There were also a set of comedians that we got on two of the cruises that we didn't care for at all. Overall, Disney entertainment really is great. The showroom on Disney is beautiful and I always like when the little stars go across the curtain. It just makes me smile... more disney attention to detail.

 

Carnival- I had heard horror stories of scantily clad women performing inappropriate moves to bad music before we even went on the ship. To Carnival's credit, they actually really impressed me. They also had a couple of shows that I was not a fan of, but a couple of them were really great! One thing that I really liked on the Liberty was the Punchliner comedy club. 4 nights of the cruise, they had 3 comedy shows in the evening. The first show of the night is the family friendly comedy show. The next two of the night are R rated adult only shows. I can only comment on the family friendly shows. We went to every show and just loved it. My kids had a lot of fun and the shows were funny for everyone, not just kids. They also had a juggler one evening in the main show lounge that was outstanding and 3 large production shows. 2 of those shows were really great and 1 not so much.

 

Conclusion: I'm still going to give this one to Disney although Carnival really impressed me and it was a LOT closer than I thought it would have been. If I didn't still have a little girl in the house, I would probably have called it even between the two.

[Friend100]

Following. Nice review.

Just one comment. I cruised Disney Wonder and Disney Dream. I agreed the buffet on the Wonder wasn't that great, not bad either. But the buffet on the Dream was indeed very good.

[Bunkie103]

Interesting. I'm really curious to see what I think of DCL.

[williamson_ja]

I'll preface this by saying that I have kids in almost every age for the kids clubs. My youngest dd is 6 which puts her in the 2nd group up for this cruise, but she was in the younger group on the Disney ships. Then, we have other kids all the way up to 18.

 

Disney- If you've ever walked by the Disney kids clubs, you'll notice how fun they look. When you are a 5 or 6 year old little girl walking into that room, you are just full of anticipation of all the adventures you are going to have. The princesses came in for parties. Captain Hook came in for a pirate party. The counselors were fantastic. I can't say enough how awesome the kids club experience was for her. My older kids also enjoyed their clubs immensely. The thing that made the kids club experience for my older kids was actually the other kids in the club. There were just really great kids (really mostly teens)sailing with them. That might just be luck of the draw.. but there was a pattern of really good teens that sail on Disney.

 

Carnival- The clubs on Carnival are much smaller and are really just a room. Camp Carnival (the young kids group) had some great counselors and fun activities. They did face painting, made bracelets, decoupaged boxes, got camp carnival t-shirts to color, and had a couple of dance parties in the adults dance club. They also had a couple of visits from Funship Freddy who is the carnival mascot. My dd liked the activities, but was not begging to go to them every day like she was with Disney. It's really hard to beat a party with Disney princesses.

The older kids clubs on Carnival are called Circle C and Club O2. Cirlce C was for the 12-14 year old kids. My dd liked the club okay, but found the other kids in the club to be lacking of some civility. This bunch was the bagging pants wearing, rap music listening, swearing every other word sort of teen. She was not a fan and spent a lot of time with her family. :)

Club O2 is the club for 15-17 year olds. There were not a lot of teens in attendance of this club, but most of them were pretty good kids. There was a group from Australia that came up for their "summer" vacation that my older kids hung out with and had quite a fun time with. There just were not a lot of them. Then, there was one kid that just showed up drunk to every activity. Shouldn't the club leaders have sent him away? I thought this was completely inappropriate. My kids are smart and just stayed away from him.

 

Conclusion: My youngest dd really did have a good time in her Carnival club. There just isn't anything to compare to the Disney experience for a kid that age. I expected that. I just didn't expect the difference for the older kids. I actually thought that they would have a funner time on Carnival. It's an awful thing to say, but a certain caliber of people can afford a Disney cruise and it shows sometimes. Carnival is inexpensive enough for many varied groups of people to go. Disney really is better in the kids club department.

[Talisker92]

Thank you!! Your posts were intelligently divided, and the comparisons you made were very sensible. I believe your observations will be helpful to may cruisers with children,especially.

The bottom line is you get what you pay for.As you said, if you wanted to cruise DCL, you would be going on fewer cruises.

[williamson_ja]

This is just our overall impression of all the service you receive throughout the ship.

 

Disney- Here are just a few things that stood out to me. I loved that when you are leaving the ship for an excursion, they are there handing out towels, giving you a cold drink of ice water, wishing you well, etc. When you first board the ship, they welcome you aboard, "Welcome aboard May family" and everyone claps for you. The waitstaff calls you by name and knows which drinks you like, offer to get you more of any food you like, ask you about your family, and are just the most friendly people I've met. All service we've ever received on a Disney ship has been outstanding. They go above and beyond!

 

Carnival- Carnival is no slacker in the service department. Your needs will definitely be met, just probably not exceeded. Our room steward was really great. He was very friendly and did a very good job on our room. Dining staff was adequate but that's about all. Don't expect to be welcomed aboard by name or have people waiting to give you towels and water as you get off the ship. Carnival clogs up their exits with photographers trying to get you to take a million pictures. We skirted around it most of the time, but it was still somewhat annoying.

 

Conclusion: Disney wins again. You are not going to be neglected or mistreated on a Carnival cruise. They are very nice and definitely meet your needs. Disney just makes you feel like royalty.

[williamson_ja]

MONEY

 

Disney: We all know that Disney charges a lot for their product. They do promotions here and there which we have taken advantage of. Our last cruise was on a kids sail free promotion. Even with the kids sail free promo, our Carnival cruise cost about 1/2 of what the Disney one cost. You do have to consider what is included to be fair. Disney includes unlimited soda with their price. If your family drinks a lot of soda, that will make a bit of a difference. Carnival charges pretty close to $50 for an unlimited soda card for a 7 night cruise. Disney also has a movie theater onboard which shows first run movies (even 3-D ones) all included in your price. If your family was planning on seeing a 3-D movie on land and watched in onboard instead-that's also something to consider. Also, if you are sailing to the caribbean you'll probably go to Disney's private island. That means one day where you won't really HAVE to do any excursions and also won't have to pay for food. If you have a big family, that also adds up. The food served on Castaway Cay is really fantastic and is all included in your price.

 

Carnival: Carnival's prices are really fantastic! I just couldn't believe how much cheaper their initial prices were. If you are paying for a Disney cruise without any promos, it can be up to 1/4 of the cost. When you have 8 people cruising, this really is huge! I mentioned the things that Disney includes that Carnival doesn't above. So here, I'm just going to say what that meant for our family.

 

Soda- we are not big soda drinkers on land (maybe drink 1-2 in a month) but we do usually drink it on vacation. Carnival charges a lot for their soda program, but also allows you to bring up to 12 sodas per person on board with you. We went with this plan and just brought on whatever soda we wanted. They have fridges in the rooms and we just put our soda in the fridge to stay cold. So- soda didn't really affect us.

 

Movies-Carnival does not do first run movies, but they do show "movies under the stars" at night which we participated in several nights. We watched Iron Man 2 (superhero night), Shakespeare in Love (oscar winner night), and Gnomeo and Juliet (family films night). They give you free popcorn to eat while watching. It was still a lot of fun.

 

Private island- although Carnival does own a private island, we did not go there. We did go to Isla Roatan where Carnival owns a beach and spent some time there. It is not as nice as Castaway Cay by any means, but we still had a good time. They do not offer free lunch there, but the ship docks so close to the beach that it is super easy to pop back on the ship for lunch which is what we did.

 

Conclusion: Carnival wins this one. Carnival's prices are almost ridiculously cheaper than Disney. The things that Disney included that Carnival didn't just didn't make up for the extra cost.

[williamson_ja]

At the end of the cruise, I asked my 18 year old son if he could sail Disney or Carnival again, which one would he pick. This is my stepson that is NOT a Disney fan of any sort. He said that it wasn't even a contest for him. He would choose Disney every time. I was rather surprised and asked him why. He said that the service on Disney was so much better and he just felt like it was a much higher quality of product.

 

Unfortunately, he does not make the end decisions for where our family vacations. So, what did the breadwinners think? If we were super wealthy, we would probably sail Disney every time. We are not. We have a large family and not so large of funds. In the end, we had a great time on Carnival. We felt that the VALUE for what you get on a Carnival cruise was superior to DCL. The food was great. The entertainment was surprisingly good. The ship was beautiful. The bad things were not that bad and certainly didn't ruin our trip. We decided that our next cruise will be with Carnival! Does that mean we'll never sail Disney again? No. it's awesome. I can just cruise much more frequently with Carnival. We had a great time.

 

Last note. Something that Carnival does that we would like to see Disney do is the future cruise certificate. How it works is that you tell Carnival that you would like to sail with them some time in the future. You pay $100 down per room. No dates or anything are picked at this point. In exchange, you get $100 toward your down payment plus a $100 onboard credit for a 7 night cruise (it's $200 for a 14 night). I like not having to come up with enough money for a downpayment for 8 people and not having to pick my dates yet to get the onboard credit promo. When you decide when and where you'd like to sail, you just apply the certificate to your room. You do have to book your cruise within 2 years, but we're sure we can accommodate that. We bought two certificates for our next cruise since we always need two rooms.

 

 

Anyone have questions that I didn't cover here?

[bajathree]

Consider giving Royal a try;)

[eroller]

Nice comparison.

 

I'm with Steve. Try Royal!

 

A nice balance between Disney and Carnival is Royal Caribbean. It's more expensive than Carnival but still less than Disney. The Freedom Class and especially the Oasis Class are light years ahead of CARNIVAL LIBERTY and any other ships that Carnival sails.

 

The quality of the Royal Caribbean product, the innovativeness of the ships, the exceptional entertainment, the great kids facilities, and the amenities offered are more on par with Disney but at a better value. Frankly I don't think any ship tops the OASIS and ALLURE in the Caribbean (including Disney). They are simply awesome.

 

Good luck with your next cruise! I'm sailing on DISNEY DREAM in late January and can't wait.

 

Ernie

[Friend100]

Last note. Something that Carnival does that we would like to see Disney do is the future cruise certificate. How it works is that you tell Carnival that you would like to sail with them some time in the future. You pay $100 down per room. No dates or anything are picked at this point. In exchange, you get $100 toward your down payment plus a $100 onboard credit for a 7 night cruise (it's $200 for a 14 night). I like not having to come up with enough money for a downpayment for 8 people and not having to pick my dates yet to get the onboard credit promo. When you decide when and where you'd like to sail, you just apply the certificate to your room. You do have to book your cruise within 2 years, but we're sure we can accommodate that. We bought two certificates for our next cruise since we always need two rooms.

 

For DCL, you can choose a dummy date as far out as possible. Choose a 3-days cruise in early November 2013 category 11C, for instance. Deposit for 2 adults and 2 kids is $150. It locks in the 10% discount off cruise fare, $100 or $200 OBC, and 10% deposit. These "benefits" can be switched to other dates/ships subsequently. As far as I know, there is no expiry, and you can get the money back if you decided not to cruise with DCL again and wanted to cancel it.

[bajathree]

Nice comparison.

 

I'm with Steve. Try Royal!

 

A nice balance between Disney and Carnival is Royal Caribbean. It's more expensive than Carnival but still less than Disney. The Freedom Class and especially the Oasis Class are light years ahead of CARNIVAL LIBERTY and any other ships that Carnival sails.

 

The quality of the Royal Caribbean product, the innovativeness of the ships, the exceptional entertainment, the great kids facilities, and the amenities offered are more on par with Disney but at a better value. Frankly I don't think any ship tops the OASIS and ALLURE in the Caribbean (including Disney). They are simply awesome.

 

Good luck with your next cruise! I'm sailing on DISNEY DREAM in late January and can't wait.

Ernie

 

Right behind ya in Feb:)

[williamson_ja]

Nice comparison.

 

I'm with Steve. Try Royal!

 

A nice balance between Disney and Carnival is Royal Caribbean. It's more expensive than Carnival but still less than Disney. The Freedom Class and especially the Oasis Class are light years ahead of CARNIVAL LIBERTY and any other ships that Carnival sails.

 

The quality of the Royal Caribbean product, the innovativeness of the ships, the exceptional entertainment, the great kids facilities, and the amenities offered are more on par with Disney but at a better value. Frankly I don't think any ship tops the OASIS and ALLURE in the Caribbean (including Disney). They are simply awesome.

 

Good luck with your next cruise! I'm sailing on DISNEY DREAM in late January and can't wait.

 

Ernie

 

I would love to try Royal. I really looked into the Allure when we were booking this cruise. The reason we didn't was that it was REALLY close to Disney prices, but doesn't include all of what Disney includes.... so I thought if I was going to spend that much money that I would just book with Disney again. I could be wrong about Royal, but it seemed like a lot of nickel and diming that Disney doesn't do. However, I could be persuaded. The Allure looked like a GREAT ship! My dd loves the Dreamworks characters. The entertainment looks great and the overall ship looks fantastic. I just don't want to pay extra for a good burger or just little things like that.

[eroller]

I would love to try Royal. I really looked into the Allure when we were booking this cruise. The reason we didn't was that it was REALLY close to Disney prices, but doesn't include all of what Disney includes.... so I thought if I was going to spend that much money that I would just book with Disney again. I could be wrong about Royal, but it seemed like a lot of nickel and diming that Disney doesn't do. However, I could be persuaded. The Allure looked like a GREAT ship! My dd loves the Dreamworks characters. The entertainment looks great and the overall ship looks fantastic. I just don't want to pay extra for a good burger or just little things like that.

 

 

 

I agree ALLURE and OASIS are not cheap, but they are well worth the price! There are probably more free dining options on these ships than any other ships I know of. You certainly don't have to pay for a decent burger and fries. You can get them at the grill or Wipe Out Cafe or even room service (Carnival has no hot room service items). I loved the Park Cafe (another free option) which offered the best roast beef sandwich and hand tossed salad I've ever had! All the entertainment on ALLURE and OASIS is included and it's awesome, and there is far less nickel and diming compared to Carnival ... which is much more in your face with their attempts at revenue generation. You will barely hear an announcement on OASIS and ALLURE. The Dreamworks Experience is pretty awesome for kids, and again all those Dreamworks shows are included. That partnership is in direct response to Disney, which of course doesn't need any partners in that regard. Yes the gourmet burgers are free as part of Fun Ship 2.0 on CARNIVAL LIBERTY only (for now), but you pay for it in other ways! LOL At the end of the day I'm willing to pay more for Royal Caribbean because I find the overall experience is far superior to Carnival. The ship design alone is worth it ... it will knock your socks off and is up to Disney standards in the amount of detail and innovation. Even if you don't go for ALLURE or OASIS, try any of the Freedom Class ships which are lower in price but still light years ahead of Carnival in terms of design and amenities.

 

Ernie

[eroller]

Right behind ya in Feb:)

 

 

I'm sure I'll be writing a review and taking lots of pics, so stay tuned and watch this space!

 

I'm certain we will both have an awesome time. It's hard not to on Disney unless you just can't stand anything Disney (those people exist!).

 

Bon Voyage!

 

Ernie

[Dave_MaryJo]

Thanks for the tips! We will be sailing on Disney Dream and OASIS in the near future... :)

[Bunkie103]

To the OP....great job. You appear to be very fair and as far as I can tell hit Carnival on the head with your comments good and bad. We are sailing the Dream in January only because our 4yo grandson is going. Looking at prices we truly experienced "sticker shock" for a 3 day cruise. It will be very interesting to see exactly how "magical" it really is. Thanks for taking time to write such a detailed comparison.

[eroller]

Thanks for the tips! We will be sailing on Disney Dream and OASIS in the near future... :)

 

 

You have two amazing cruises in your future!

 

Bon Voyage!!

 

Ernie

[Host Mick]

Thanks for the tips! We will be sailing on Disney Dream and OASIS in the near future... :)

I just watched the Mighty Ships show on the Oasis. It's on the Smithsonian HD channel.

Most of he show was all about how big it is. Yes it is big, we get that, move on.

They made a big deal about the Central Park area but it looks like a mall to me. I can go to malls any time. I'd rather see more on the rest of the ship.

[eroller]

I just watched the Mighty Ships show on the Oasis. It's on the Smithsonian HD channel.

Most of he show was all about how big it is. Yes it is big, we get that, move on.

They made a big deal about the Central Park area but it looks like a mall to me. I can go to malls any time. I'd rather see more on the rest of the ship.

 

 

 

Central Park on the Oasis Class is like no mall I've ever been to. It's actually a beautiful space that is a real pleasure to spend time in. The plants are all real and at night it all really comes alive with great lighting and live music.

 

Now the Royal Promenade a few decks below is more like a mall atmosphere. It's typical of the Royal Promenade on other Royal Caribbean ships but wider and brighter as it has natural lighting that comes from Central Park above.

 

Love or hate these ships, there is no denying they are an engineering marvel.

 

Ernie