RCCL, Princess, Carnival or Disney?

[ssatterly]

I want to take my mom and 2 kids next Dec. and I don't know which to choose. My kids will be 6 and 9 when we go. My mom will be 50. They have never cruised before. i don't want to spend more that $3000 for us all. I can get Disney for $2900 for and inside and $2600 for a D1 (balcony) on Rccl, i have yet to price the other 2. Can someone please tell me some good and bad about each line?

[rcrj762]

When are you thinking in December? We just booked for Dec.24, 2005. The price you got is a good deal for Disney. We have done many cruises my kids loved the kids club on Disney. We just got of NCL in Sept. and my son would not go to the club because they mixed all the kids from 4 to 12 togeather.

[cruislovin]

I want to take my mom and 2 kids next Dec. and I don't know which to choose. My kids will be 6 and 9 when we go. My mom will be 50. They have never cruised before. i don't want to spend more that $3000 for us all. I can get Disney for $2900 for and inside and $2600 for a D1 (balcony) on Rccl, i have yet to price the other 2. Can someone please tell me some good and bad about each line?
In my opinion, you will get more for your $ on RCCL. Is this for a 7-day cruise? What ship are you looking at? Unless your kids are Disney FANATICS, go with RCCL, especially if it is a 7 day cruise. If you children don't like the kids club on Disney, there is little else for them to do. On RCCL there are many other options for the kids besides the kids' club.

The pools on Disney ships are VERY small and VERY crowded. There is a water slide but the line gets very long for it. That's about all there is for kids on DCL other than the club or watching movies...

[itdjbw]

My kids ages 6 and 10 love the DCL camp, I love the extended hours and find it more relaxing as I am not clock watching as they don't have to be picked up at a specific time, camp is open for meals which gives the kids and yourself more freedom. Yes you will get a better value on another line but I find no sooner have we relaxed at the pool after taking them to camp and we are rushing to pick them up. My kids have had a great time on Carnival too.

[momofmeg]

I have been on all four lines and all lines have their pluses and minuses. But even cruises within a line can be very different. My three favorite cruises have been number 1 Pacific Princess to Bermuda. Number 2 Disney Wonder to Nassau Number 3 Carnival Miracle to Freeport.

I personally like ships to be small and intimate but that is me. I have no young children and before we ever took a cruise my daughter was a teenager. She loved the teen clubs but now she is too old for them. Now she pretty much likes one line as good as another.

I felt Disney was super as far as keeping the adult only areas adult only. I have not been on any super liner (voyager class) but I felt the pools were good sized. The only small pool I saw was the adult pool. To me I thought it was great that Disney offered a water sport option for children who are not potty trained. None of the other lines did that. If the child was still in diapers then no pool for them-Disney offered a squirting area for these children.

The problem is Disney is SWARMING with kids at the pool area. So you get the feel that the kid's pool and the family pool is small-not so-they are as big as pools on other lines. The problem is HALF of the passengers are children so these areas are conjested.

Anyway I enjoyed Disney very much myself but I was not stuck at the over crowded family pool with my child as many here have complained. I absoulutely loved the adult pool and the adult lounges. The swarm of children were no problem at all for me-whereas on other lines this has been a problem and there were not even NEAR as many children.

Cruiselovin is a RCCL loyalist-specificially the voyager class ships. The activites she talks about that her kids enjoy (except for rock climbing) are only on the voyager class ships. I have a feeling if she took a cruise on Empress of the Seas or Sovereign of the Seas she would be very disapointed. When you price out the voyager class ships next to Disney you will find often the voyager class ships are more expensive so I am guessing (and I could be wrong) you are not talking about a voyager class ship.

What Princess had as a plus was a higher quality of food and the entertainers in the shows were much more talented. I also felt Princess was suberb at keeping you busy and enjoying yourself on sea days. In these areas I thought Princess was the best of the four lines. So that would be great for you and your Mom (I am 50 too-your Mom's age) but may not be so fun for your kids.

I have heard very good things about Carnival's kid's club but I have only HEARD as my daughter was 14 before she took her first cruise.

I suggest you ask this question at the questions asked forum of cruisecritic. You find on that board more people who cruise different lines and who can give you more information. Including those with children.

The only thing I can add about Carnival and this is from reading these boards. Most say the spirit class ships are much nicer then the conquest class ships. So if you are looking at Glory or Miracle-Miracle would be a better choice. Now this is just my opinion though-if you post this at questions asked-you will get alot more opinions and from those who have children who could tell you better.

[dkort]

Ahhh yes. The question that we are now facing: what cruise line. here's our dilema. We have cruised extensively. our next cruise is booked on dis magic out of fl. this will be our 10th and our 7 yr old's 8th cruise. recent sailings are royal voyager, explorer, navigator, soverign. carnival victory, elation, triumph. princess caribbean. never on disney. this past weekend, being from la, we went to dis hotel for the weekend, here in anaheim. disappointing. 3 star hotel for 5 star prices. after reading numerous reviews from former guests, it has occurred to us we would probably get the same on the cruise: 3 star cruising for 5-6 star pricing. a suite on rccl, carnival or princess is what disney charges for their balcony rooms. plus the hoardes of kids with no supervision. don't get me wrong. we love disneyland. we are annual passholders. we were there dec 26 with 80,000 other people. now that's crowded! but in any case, our daughter is disciplined. we noticed time and time again, even with only kids, that the kids were screaming, running, stomping, pushing, kicking, etc., and the parents were oblivious as they kept on chatting with their friends. also, very disappointing to read that disney groups kids in the 8-12 yr olds. carnival uses 6-8, as well as rccl and princess. i also definitely agree that on rccl there are tons of more things for kids to do besides the pool. depending on the winds, golf, roller skate, rock climb. these voyager class ships just have more to do besides standing in line at the kids area. i just think that based on what i've read, that we are probably going to reconsider and stay away from the unsupervised kids in wet bathing suits that run around on disney and stick with rccl or carnival. incidentally, princess was okay. the movie screen is neat, and the solarium pool is also nice, but we just thought the ship seemed a bit too quiet for us. we were very impressed with the way the stateroom was laid out. the most closet room of any ship ever. we just don't remember our princess experiences the way we have with royal.

[cruislovin]

My 12 year old daughter didn't even want to go to see the children's lab on Disney because of the age grouping they have. Putting 12 year olds with those much younger is very poor planning, IMO, for a family oriented cruiseline. There was really nothing for her to do on the ship, as a result.

We were glad it was only a 3-night cruise and we spent our 2 days in port for the most part. The children's pool areas were standing room only most of the time when we were at sea. Even the time that is least busy on RCCL wasn't available on DCL if you want to see the shows since the show for late seating dining is before dinner, not after.

If you have enjoyed RCCL I would recommend staying with it since the children's program is only ONE option there, not the ONLY option as it seems to be on DCL.

The other thing we noticed was even with a smaller ship and fewer passengers on DCL we spent much more time waiting in lines for everything on Disney!

[dkort]

dear cruislovin: thanks for your input. we're convinced. we're booking carnival or rccl today and canceling zippity do dah. everything you said is what we've read from a lot of other experienced cruisers regarding dis. once again, thanks for your HONEST input!

[rickdeni]

I have been on all four lines with and without children. DCL wins for children. Princess wins for adults only. I would not subject children to the pool games and drinking on Carnival and RCL.

Disney's adult area are for "adults only" and it is strictly enforced. Our grandchildren (14,9, 5 and 3) just love Disney. Never want to go back to RCL after a bad incident with a person who had had too much to drink on the climbing wall.

I think you have to make up your own mind. If you can only afford Carnival and RCL then go as any cruise is better than no cruise. You pay more for Disney and you get more. I think Princess is for adults.

[MHS]

I have done both the Grand Princess and the Disney Wonder. My children are now 10 and 11. We did the the Disney Wonder 2 years ago and the Grand Princess a couple of days ago. Disney is incredible with children. The amount of space on the Disney ships for children is wonderful. Princess groups too many varying ages together. Age limits are too far spread for all activities to appeal to all children. :( Also the space for 8 -12 year old is one big empty room compared to a whole lab full of many activities for children on Disney. On the first day in the children's program with Princess, my kids thanked me for picking them up after 2 hours there. They nicknamed the children's area, "jail". As adults we had fun on the Disney ship also. For the sake of the kids, I would do Disney again. ;)

[cruislovin]

dear cruislovin: thanks for your input. we're convinced. we're booking carnival or rccl today and canceling zippity do dah. everything you said is what we've read from a lot of other experienced cruisers regarding dis. once again, thanks for your HONEST input!
Your welcome! What did you decide to book on RCCL?

My daughter and I went alone on DCL because DH and son were not even interested in going! Daughter wanted to try Disney and I wanted to give her that opportunity before she was too old to want to go. We enjoyed our time together, but it was Disney, NOT Royal Caribbean. When we saw the Navigator of the Seas in Nassau, she was almost in tears when we had to go back on the Wonder and could not go on the Navigator!

[Maflingo]

I think you have to make up your own mind. If you can only afford Carnival and RCL then go as any cruise is better than no cruise. You pay more for Disney and you get more. I think Princess is for adults.


I've just returned from my 3rd Princess Cruise (waaahhhh!!!) We brought our children on all 3 and I have to respectfully disagree that Princess is for adults. I think that holds true for the "exotics" and it depends on which ship. I think on Caribbean itineraries, Princess is as child friendly as any other.

Our last trip was on Carribean Princess and there were many children on board. Princess seems to really be pursuing the family market (although they'd be well advised to add connecting cabins in the future if this is the case!!)

The new Carribean Princess has significantly expanded their children's programs. They had 4 separate rooms for children's clubs. They were decorated in funky color schemes. One room has porthole windows onto the curvy colorful hallway. There's an outdoor splash pool area and an enclosed deck with big wheels, hopscotch and basketball hoops. There was no end to games, crafts, paints and child appropriate Playstation games (Spongebob, Nascar, Lego) The brochure publishes an age breakdown of 3-7, 8-12 and 13+. On our trip due to it being school vacation week (MA & NY) they had broken it down further to 3-7, 8-10, 11-12 and 13+ (and they weren't flexible on the ages unfortunately for our son who turns 13 7 days off the ship!) There were at least 500 kids on this cruise and most seemed to be having a blast. My older children didn't attend the kids clubs but had a great time swimming, playing games in the gameroom and at port and Movies Under the Stars was a HUGE hit....they played a variety of family friendly films during the day on a Times Square type TV over one of the pools. At night they showed first run feature films.

This ship is very large and I felt a bit crowded at times but I'm betting it would be somewhat better on a less busy week. Price-wise, Princess seems to be more affordable than the rates I've seen on Disney. There's no free soda on Princess but stickers can be purchased for $22.50 each for the week. We got one for each of our 4 children and dh and I "shared" one. It was galling to pay $112+ for soda for a week but we got our money's worth with the kids and that's a lot less than the premium fare that Disney charges.

Also, the OP should keep in mind that the posted fares don't uusually include govt. fees, taxes, gratuities (plan on $10/person/day), certain beverages, personal items, airfare, transfers, excursions....

Even so, although it's more $$$ I'd still love to take my family on a DCL trip while the younger two are still at a good age to appreciate the "Magic" of Disney....and that water slide looks like a blast!

[cruisegirl25]

I have never been on a disney cruise, but my six ear old had a great time on princess. she had so much fun in their kids club. She wanted to stay there all day. We had fun doing the adults stuff when she was in the kids club. Hope this helps.

[Sammy*]

I have been on all four lines with and without children. DCL wins for children. Princess wins for adults only. I would not subject children to the pool games and drinking on Carnival and RCL. .

We just returned from RCL Mariner...our very first cruise ever! We had our 3 kids (15, 13, and 9) as well as traveling with friends who had a 15 y.o. I was pleasantly surprised that we had NO incidents with drunken passengers the entire week! The only pool games we were "subjected" to was a belly flop contest that the kids thought was hysterical.

I originally wanted to do DCL as I am a huge Disney fan, but the cost was going to be $1500 more than what we paid on RCL. I found the kids activities to be wonderful, although the kids pretty much stuck with us the whole week. They had the groups broken out by small age groups, ie: 15-17, 11-14, 9-11, 6-8, 5 and under. I was also impressed that the evening activities were not all geared to adults only. We were able to bring the kids to each of the 'headliner' shows in the main theater, the ice show, and the "Karaoke Idol" shows.

I think you have to make up your own mind. If you can only afford Carnival and RCL then go as any cruise is better than no cruise....

I absolutely agree about making up your own mind based on what works for you and your family. At this point, I don't think DCL will offer enough for my older kids and Carnival's "party" rep is not what we are looking for. I don't agree with the part about "if you can only afford Carnival and RCL...". After being on a ship as stunning as the Mariner, I don't look at booking RCL as an option "if that's all I can afford." We found the ship, the activities, the personnel, and the whole experience to be first-rate all the way and would book again in a heartbeat.