Disney??

[BUK]

Well nicely you talk here.

 

Let me correct it a little. Copletly different style of dinning compare to other companies. No big dining rooms.

 

Disney offers amazing rotational dining for all guest. EG. All guest are split in three groups and they rotating in between three super

DR which had diff. Designs and topics.

 

CHARACTER BREAEK FAST - yea but only on Clasic Ships DWonder and MAGIC

 

FANTASY AND DREAM - no more. They offer you over 10 CHARACTER appearance thru day as well as

Princes getthering and now new PRINCES TEA in ROyal Court

 

It's super.

 

server are Fantastic. Calling you by names. Playing with you kids. Very kwolegable.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MCC retired]

With only 4 ships , a downside of only cruising DCL is limited itineraries.

With the 2 newest ships doing the same year round itineraries it leaves few

choices for those wishing to new places on their cruise.

For me , an occasional DCL mixed in with all of the other C/L's is best, both in experience & $$$.

[moki'smommy]

after many DCL cruises, we were surprised at how much was "the same." Yes, there are differences, but...

 

On DCL

 

There are 3 huge dining rooms instead of one even larger dining room. There is large amount of space devoted to kid programming.

Service and entertainment was better on DCL.

Food was better on other line.

Cabins are bigger on DCL but other line had HUGE amount of built in storage space.

Split bath (in cabins cat 11B and better excluding HA) is a plus for families.

DCL has virtually no "nickle and diming" on board--other than adult dining and some optional activities (adult tastings, bingo), virtually everything is included. Nursery for children under 3 has a charge.

[Tonka's Skipper]

If you can afford it the DCL blows CCL out of the water on many things, not everything, but many. But therein lies the problem, the initial cost difference is HUGE and given the fares DCL charges they should go above and beyond.

 

As far as hidden costs, well yes that can add up on other lines but that initial investment is hard to deal with, certainly DCL is not a line most could do on a yearly basis.

 

Sorry, totally disagree here. We find the Disney Experience, the Disney magic to continue to impress us and we find sailing yearly not a problem at all, in fact we enjoy DCL more and more with each cruise.

 

Carnival does not hold a candle to DCL and the cheap prices Carnival charges reflect the quality of their cruises and the hard time carnival is having trying to get passengers.

 

 

AKK

[mdvlprof]

DCL is not a line most could do on a yearly basis.

 

As I've commented numerous times - priorities.....

 

We're barely middle-class. Older home, older make of car, don't eat out [once a month - maybe], don't buy stuff we don't actually need.

 

But - we take a cruise every year. DCL every other year because their itinerary leaves much to be desired. Longer cruise on years we're not doing DCL.

Edited July 15, 2014 by mdvlprof

[Shmoo here]

As I've commented numerous tines - priorities.....

 

We're barely middle-class. Older home, older make of car, don't eat out [once a month - maybe], don't buy stuff we don't actually need.

 

But - we take a cruise every year. DCL every other year because their itinerary leaves much to be desired. Longer cruise on years we're not doing DCL.

 

Exactly. We've only been cruising 6 years, but have 10 cruises (over half on DCL).

 

It's where you set your priorities. And DCL is high in ours.

[moki'smommy]

And if you "shop" carefully, there are less costly DCL cruises out there. (based on a cost per night rate).

[near the beach]

If you go to the large show theater or the movie theater you pay for popcorn and soda.

If you want to have a photo op with a Disney character you have to wait in line.

The aqua duck is fun lines don’t allow you to do it often.

We were not impressed with the food at all.

The service was the same as other cruise lines.

Dining room wait staff remember what you like and your name as with other cruise lines.

Having no porters at the terminal when we arrived was not a good thing.

Waiting in line in the parking garage before we could either the terminal was not a good thing either.

If you have early seating you are asked to leave the ship first.

It is a good thing there are adult areas because after days of listening to Disney music you need a break.

The photo system is the only thing I thought was very good. Easy to see your photos.

We don’t think that Disney provided enough more of anything to justify the very high cruise price.

[eroller]

Disney is awesome and IMO well worth the extra $$$. The attention to detail is second to none and everything is just to a higher standard. I can't even compare Disney to Carnival. Different league.

 

Of course everyone has a different value proposition and to some DCL is not worth the extra cost. That is fine. Let them cruise on Carnival. There are plenty of people that do feel Disney is worth every penny, and this is exactly why they can charge what they do. Unfortunately the same is not true of Carnival which is why you can sail on them for $299 for a 7-day cruise. Carnival has become a commodity, selling on price alone. If price is your driving factor then Disney is not for you.

[moki'smommy]

If you go to the large show theater or the movie theater you pay for popcorn and soda.

If you want to have a photo op with a Disney character you have to wait in line.

The aqua duck is fun lines don’t allow you to do it often.

We were not impressed with the food at all.

The service was the same as other cruise lines.

Dining room wait staff remember what you like and your name as with other cruise lines.

Having no porters at the terminal when we arrived was not a good thing.

Waiting in line in the parking garage before we could either the terminal was not a good thing either.

If you have early seating you are asked to leave the ship first.

It is a good thing there are adult areas because after days of listening to Disney music you need a break.

The photo system is the only thing I thought was very good. Easy to see your photos.

We don’t think that Disney provided enough more of anything to justify the very high cruise price.

 

A few comments on the above.

If you go to the movie or theater performance, you can CHOOSE to purchase a snack and/or beverage. You can also go to deck 9 and get what you want and bring it with you to the theatre OR you can go for an entire 60-90 minutes without placing anything in your mouth,

 

Most of the time, you do wait in line for character photo ops. There are exceptions--when you are in just the right place at the right time and a character appears.

 

Aquaduck--timing is everything. Sometimes there are long lines, other times none at all.

 

We found the food to be blah, but the service to be significantly better than the 2 other lines we have experienced.

 

There ARE porters at the terminal. Not sure how they missed you.

Line into garage--timing matters. It just depends on when you arrive.

 

What you didn't pay extra for--soda package, late night child programming, casino. Again, you don't NEED these things, and many don't pay for them. But they are a revenue center for other lines.

 

I'm not saying DCL is perfect (we experienced some things that were better on other lines). Whether the quality justifies the cost is a personal decision.

[delirious9876]

I'm not sure that's accurate, as there are a large number of people who do just that. Could "most" do an expensive Med sailing yearly on DCL? Probably not. But I do think that most families of four could sail in an inside cabin every year if they chose to do so.

I agree. We are not a particularly affluent family but we do 1 DCL cruise and 1 RCCL cruise at least per year :-)

[delirious9876]

DVC admits to having over 150,000 members, and I've heard that the number is over 200,000.

 

And "expensive" is a relative and subjective term. "gas ain't cheap" also depends on your perspective. My husband drives a Prius. Yup, gas is "cheap" when we're taking a trip in that car.

Gas in Europe is around $10 per gallon - lol

 

Try living here and budgeting for any cruise - ha ha ha !

 

(I still manage it somehow though to feed my cruise addiction)

[jlk806]

we are an average family of 3 (mom, dad, 5.5 year old) and we vacation often. we are not rich but don't spend money on much else as everyone else does. We are DVC members though don't own enough points to convert to a cruise, and we have been to WDW 3x in the past year we did a 3 day cruise on the Dream after our last WDW vaca which was 10days end of June. We are already booked week after Thanksgiving on the fantasy. We are not rich by any means but vacations are a priority, we only have one child, so airfare isn't outrageous for us, but we save a lot to make sure our vacations happen!