For those who've done DCL & another cruise line

[Omega1]

Originally Posted by Floridag1rl

We keep booking with P&O, great ships, great food Englis £ on board ship and big staterooms compared to other cruise lines.

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We like P&O, but if you are looking for some different itineraries have a look at Princess. P&O and Princess have ships of the same design.
Our cruising decisions are mainly governed by itinerary and price - we are retired so flexible on dates.
In the next 15 months, we have five cruises lined up. 😱

[Imagineer2802]

We’ve sailed DCL and Royal Caribbean. We ventured into RC because we too think DCL is expensive. However, we hated RC. The ship just wasn’t up to our expectations, the entertainment was not up our street at all and it was poorly organised (e.g. most entertainment seemed to clash with our dinner seating) and It just didn’t have the “show” and excitement of DCL. Same restaurant every night? Boring. Watching ice skaters that keep falling over dance to random tunes? No thanks...
not in the same league in my opinion. Wouldn’t cruise with another line again. Should also add that we don’t really do the Disney characters now either.

[Imagineer2802]

SHould also add that the food was utter c**p on RC. All had the same taste - cheap Andy plasticky. Also didn’t like how everything seemed to cost extra...could only have water with meals unless we bought an expensive plan.

[SimonB]

Must admit although we love Cunard that we have an eye on Celebrity but the problem is that Cunard keep chucking excellent deals at us while in their onboard booking office.

Will try Celebrity though one day.

I think my aversion to kids now ours have grown up plus the cost makes DCL a no no for us.

[KeithOP]

See, and I know this sounds snobby, we would like a more formal settings, older people etc. Cunard is kinda sounding better and better.

RC gets really mixed reviews but of course as everyone has said, it's a personal decision so can't really tell until we try it.

Celebrity sounds promising though

[SimonB]

Originally Posted by KeithOP

See, and I know this sounds snobby, we would like a more formal settings, older people etc. Cunard is kinda sounding better and better.

RC gets really mixed reviews but of course as everyone has said, it's a personal decision so can't really tell until we try it.

Celebrity sounds promising though

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My advice is get yourself on a Hamburg to Southampton 2 nighter (usually it carries on to New York). If on the Queen Mary 2 you can pick up a sheltered balcony cabin for £200 to £300 each including flights out to Hamburg). That gives a taste and you usually have a formal night and a less formal night.

It also has the benefit of accessing the onboard booking office who will offer extra onboard spending on future cruise bookings. Our Hamburg to Southampton cruise paid for itself.

We shared a table with some RC diehards who were giving Cunard a try. They decided RC was more their cup of tea but we are all different and I could see their point of view.

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by Bozza

Because our 9-y-o and 16-y-o loved their respective areas so much we did have a bit of "adult only" time and spent a couple of hours in the various bars in The District one evening and the places were deserted. Maybe we were just unlucky and/or just earlier than the main crowds - second dining was going on, as was the late show - but it made the whole place lacking any real atmosphere, which was a shame.

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I found the District very lacking in buzz (or people at all) and was really disappointed with it. We tried at several different times and it was the same pretty much each time. Much preferred the options on the Magic.

So back to the OP, we’ve done DCL twice (two four nighters) and NCL once (seven nights).

We liked the freestyle approach of NCL and found the food choices wide and pretty good. Lovely staff.

DCL has such beautiful ships and wonderful surroundings and service. The food was, I thought, comparable to NCL (Palo and Remy being obvious exceptions to that!). There were a lot of children though. This could be positive or negative depending on your view.

The main difference is cost. I find DCL ridiculously overpriced and they did not make my short list even for next time. We have a price on NCL, including free drinks, and a couple of visits to speciality restaurants, for under £85 pppn. DCL was £210 pppn and no free drinks. DH and I will save a fortune as we like our cocktails

[KeithOP]

Originally Posted by SimonB

My advice is get yourself on a Hamburg to Southampton 2 nighter (usually it carries on to New York). If on the Queen Mary 2 you can pick up a sheltered balcony cabin for £200 to £300 each including flights out to Hamburg). That gives a taste and you usually have a formal night and a less formal night.

It also has the benefit of accessing the onboard booking office who will offer extra onboard spending on future cruise bookings. Our Hamburg to Southampton cruise paid for itself.
.

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brilliant tip, thanks Simon

[KeithOP]

Originally Posted by KarenG

The main difference is cost. I find DCL ridiculously overpriced and they did not make my short list even for next time. We have a price on NCL, including free drinks, and a couple of visits to speciality restaurants, for under £85 pppn. DCL was £210 pppn and no free drinks. DH and I will save a fortune as we like our cocktails

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yep,.. the 8 nighter DCL I'm looking at will be £4500 for the two of us so about £560 pppn :/

Last time on DCL we hardly had any alcohol which is not the norm for us, but somehow it just felt so expensive. A drinks package would make a huge difference for us.

Off to see what NCL has then!

[SimonB]

Originally Posted by KeithOP

brilliant tip, thanks Simon

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No worries, you do need to search for the deals though. Another thing to be aware of is that after 2 cruises you get gold status and 3 hours free internet each for each cruise after that. The free WiFi time increases as you go up the loyalty tiers. Only mentioned that as you talked about WiFi in your original post.