DCL vs RC

[Florida15]

Hi All

We are looking to book a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas next year whilst we are in Florida.

We have been on the Disney Cruise before and loved it.

I have been looking at Disney and Royal Caribbean and Disney are more than double the price of RC on every date.

Would be interested in hearing from anyone who has been on both and is the price difference worth it? We will be a group of 4 adults and 4 children (ages 15, 10, 10, 5)

Thanks

[Love*my*hols]

Originally Posted by Florida15

Hi All

We are looking to book a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas next year whilst we are in Florida.

We have been on the Disney Cruise before and loved it.

I have been looking at Disney and Royal Caribbean and Disney are more than double the price of RC on every date.

Would be interested in hearing from anyone who has been on both and is the price difference worth it? We will be a group of 4 adults and 4 children (ages 15, 10, 10, 5)

Thanks

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For the ages ,I would definitely say RC,and Coco cay is absolutely amazing .

[Melanie R]

I’ve never done DCL so can’t really compare, but I’ve cruised RCI and I can’t think there is anything a DCL cruise could offer which would make the price difference justified (just my opinion! )
Unless the Disney characters and shows were a big priority, I would (and have done ) go RCI!

[YorkshireT]

CocoCay is fabulous it really is.

Never been on a Disney Cruise, off Saturday so I’ll do a comparison in terms of the ship, food etc.

[Pootle]

I’ve done both - 4 x Disney and 3 x RC and agree with others, that unless you have very young children (or adults for that matter) who are Disney-besotted, I would find it difficult to pay the prices Disney are now charging.

The Disney ships are beautiful and the cast shows must surely be the best at sea, but the premium for the experience is now eye-watering IMHO. But it depends on the value you place on the unique experience they offer.

[amy56]

I’m in the minority and I can’t really put my finger on why, but I much prefer Disney - I think my only reasoning is…. Because it’s Disney!

Whilst we’ve been several times with children on DCL, we’ve actually done both cruise lines just as a couple and I still prefer Disney. I suspect it’s mainly because I’m more comfortable in the family type environment and less bothered about the adult stuff - big kids I suppose! 😂

[Gill H]

Only done DCL so far. I like to think that I would not compare, just take a different cruise line for who they are and what they do.

I think what I would miss, though, is the fact that on a Disney cruise everyone 'gets it'. Everyone is family. Complete strangers will stop and compliment you on your Mickey ears or discuss their Disneybounding outfit. Everyone you sit near at quizzes, or meals, or shows, treats you like a friend.

Then there's the social aspect beforehand - joining a Facebook group and taking part in a fish extender exchange, which was great fun. Also constantly bumping into people we knew from the group, and deciding to do a trivia quiz with them or go for a coffee.

That, and the rotational dining which means your servers are friends for life by the end of the cruise!

[Dendycat]

Done two RCL cruises and one Disney cruise. Both have their pros and cons.
Disney has the magic, the experience and the kids clubs for little ones are fantastic. I prefer the dcl pools too especially if you go on a ship with an aqua duck.
RCL has better food in the main dinning rooms, whilst the kids clubs aren’t as good they have other facilities for slightly older kids such as the ifly and bumper cars and we preferred the entertainment. On our recent cruise we saw ‘we will rock you’, whilst some of the Disney shows were excellent, some were poor with characters shoe horned in for the sake of it.
Have only done castaway so can’t compare vs coco cay.
We are booked on the wish next year (may not be allowed to board with out just turned 12 year old) and not sure we’ll get there but would happy go on either cruise line if our plans need to change.

[YorkshireT]

Just back from my first DCL. Caveated by the fact the ship was around 1000 below capacity. So whether that would impact anything in terms of service, not sure.

We found the food on DCL better than Royal Caribbean. We thought it was brilliant and a real highlight. This is both sit down restaurants and the buffet. Quality we thought was better. Kids would not appreciate that though, and offerings for kids on both ships seemed similar.

Biggest standout on DCL is customer service. It was stupendous, probably the best I’ve had. Little things- I took a charging block with 6 unruly leads plugged in and came back to find the steward had tidied all the leads up with little Velcro straps. Our evening servers spotting us at the buffet and coming and asking if they can go fetch us drinks in the buffet. They knew our names and remembered them, even knew we were DVC.

Encouraging us to have 2 main courses. Towel animals. It goes on, but the service significantly outdoes RCL in my view.

Next is the shows, DCL shows are again fabulous, particularly the Dreams one, one of the best I’ve seen. I saw some good things on RCL, including a drone / Ice skating show, and others but nothing on that level. But if you don’t like Disney the shows won’t do much for you.

I was surprised at how good Disney is for an adult only trip. Very nice large adults only section on deck, good pool etc. You can almost forget you are on a Disney cruise if you want.

So Disney Cruise is much more expensive, but you can compared to RCL see where the money goes to some extent. For adults (particularly if Disney fans) and families with younger children it is a great choice.

However, for those with teenage kids, who will not necessarily be as enthralled with watching a musical or seeing Mickey Mouse or a Princess (I know, this isn’t always the case, but a more likely scenario- this is my own experience, others may differ, my 17 year old daughter loves all this stuff still, my son wouldn’t have much interest at 14) then RCL could be a better choice for teenagers. They have more exciting things on board for that age group and it is just cooler for them with climbing walls, ice skating, surfing, mini golf etc. The RCI are pretty good for young kids too but maybe not as good as Disney.

Personally with your demographic and kids who will be by then approaching senior school, a teenager etc, then I would do the RCI, at half price. I haven’t been to the Disney island but have watched plenty of videos of it, and CocoCay is , as I say above, phenomenal, with a great water park on it but also the rest of it is brilliant as well. My son and I (he was then 12) had a great afternoon snorkelling there, and the beaches , restaurants and pools are all top notch.

[Florida15]

Thanks all for your responses. Really useful to hear everyone's opinions.

Will discuss with the rest of the group but think maybe this time we will give RCL a try, especially seeing as flight prices just to get there are eye watering at the moment!

Thanks again