Disney cruises - what do you think?

[Anonymous]

I think the crowds at Disney World are MUCH worse than on the ship.

[Anonymous]

I'll let you know! Our first one is in January. Our girls are 5 and 8. BUT we also love the Disney parks. I'm just nervous about the ship aspect - tight quarters, motion sickness, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll let you know! Our first one is in January. Our girls are 5 and 8. BUT we also love the Disney parks. I'm just nervous about the ship aspect - tight quarters, motion sickness, etc.

We've done two Disney cruises. We were only in our cabins to shower and sleep. We are a family of 6, so we do two cabins. Plenty of room. And we ended up having 4 in one cabin and 2 in the other for our last cruise.

[Anonymous]

Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

We've never done it, but I can't imagine that it would be worth the extra money. Even the cheapest cabins are expensive, so concierge is outrageously priced IMHO.

What's the appeal of concierge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

We've never done it, but I can't imagine that it would be worth the extra money. Even the cheapest cabins are expensive, so concierge is outrageously priced IMHO.

What's the appeal of concierge?

I'm a PP and I agree. I mean, if you are just made of money I guess its worth it. I certainly wouldn't do it because it would eat too much into the rest of my vacation budget.

As it is, our verandah room (not the oversized "family" one) is costing $5100, booked more than 1 year in advance, going during one of the cheapest times of year, late January. Same room, same cruise itinerary during spring break or summer was $9k. These are all non-concierge prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

We've never done it, but I can't imagine that it would be worth the extra money. Even the cheapest cabins are expensive, so concierge is outrageously priced IMHO.

What's the appeal of concierge?

Lots of things. You don't have to choose a time to board the ship. You don't have to wait in lines to check in and your room is ready immediately when you board. Feee nightly happy hour, free snacks and beverages. Special character meet and greet. We got the best tables in the restaurants.

We certainly aren't made of money, but it was worth the extra cost IMO. We spent no other money on the ship except for the souvenirs we bought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

We've never done it, but I can't imagine that it would be worth the extra money. Even the cheapest cabins are expensive, so concierge is outrageously priced IMHO.

What's the appeal of concierge?

I'm a PP and I agree. I mean, if you are just made of money I guess its worth it. I certainly wouldn't do it because it would eat too much into the rest of my vacation budget.

As it is, our verandah room (not the oversized "family" one) is costing $5100, booked more than 1 year in advance, going during one of the cheapest times of year, late January. Same room, same cruise itinerary during spring break or summer was $9k. These are all non-concierge prices.

How long is your cruise? We are going MLK weekend in an oversized concierge room and we didn't pay that much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

We've never done it, but I can't imagine that it would be worth the extra money. Even the cheapest cabins are expensive, so concierge is outrageously priced IMHO.

What's the appeal of concierge?

I'm a PP and I agree. I mean, if you are just made of money I guess its worth it. I certainly wouldn't do it because it would eat too much into the rest of my vacation budget.

As it is, our verandah room (not the oversized "family" one) is costing $5100, booked more than 1 year in advance, going during one of the cheapest times of year, late January. Same room, same cruise itinerary during spring break or summer was $9k. These are all non-concierge prices.

We paid $3800 I think but got the military discount for a week/balcony.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will accommodate pretty much any requests for kids' foods. Because your waiter rotates with you to every restaurant, we usually tell them on the first night what our kids want to eat for the rest of the cruise, and it is ready when we arrive every night.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like crowds that much -- I suggest you avoid Disney cruises. Our rooms were great. Our staffperson was great. The rest of it was -- meh. Food at the evening restaurants -- not good. I'm not looking for 5 stars... I'm looking for freshly made and served (like you'd find at a casual restarant would be fine with me -- Unos, etc.). What we got was just not good. I think they plate about 300 servings and leave them under heat lamps for an hour or so... dried out, lacking sauce. Limited choices for kids (unless your kids eat steak and grilled salmon).

There is only one spot on the ship that makes chicken nuggets -- you would think this would be on every menu or buffet......since this is a kid-centric cruise. Take note... the only place with nuggets is the grill on the pool edge. Also, the only time milk is readily available is breakfast. If you want it for lunch or dinner, you will have to find a staff person and they will have to search high and low in the kitchen to find the milk. I find it really odd that there isn't a gigantic milk spigot in the lunch buffet area. It also was not on the menu at dinner, but they will get it for you.

The pools are T-I-N-Y in relation to the amount of people on the ship. Think about the size of your kitchen. maybe double it.... that is the size of the pool for about 2500 people. To me, it was kind of dangerous b/c there were too many people in the pool and more jumping in. The crowding in the kids club was dangerous in my opinion too. They never turn kids away apparently, so it was sheer madness in there. We decided it wasn't safe (my kids were about 7 and 9 at the time, so they weren't little, little.) No way would I have left smaller kids in there when it was so crowded.

Shows at night were good. The scavenger hunt on the ship was good. Movies were not as kid-friendly as I would have liked. Malificent was the big one when we went and I thought that it would be too scary for my kids at that time. That was mainly what was being played in the theater, so we never went to a movie. I would have expected more options that were not so scary.

They will accommodate pretty much any requests for kids' foods. Because your waiter rotates with you to every restaurant, we usually tell them on the first night what our kids want to eat for the rest of the cruise, and it is ready when we arrive every night.

We enjoyed biking around the island. Again -- CROWDS on the beach of the island. Hope you are ready to fight for some space.

For us, it was a lot of crowds. A lot of money. And it just wasn't worth it. We would have been a lot better off and enjoyed ourselves much more if we had just gone to a resort where we would have had more beach space, more pool space, fresher food, more options for restaurants, etc. It wasn't worth the hype at all.

We needed grilled cheese and were refused at many venues. Only one place by the pool would make it. The waiter was willing to find mac and cheese if it was not on the menu but that was it. They are not as helpful as they used to be. Same with the parks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much fun! How old are your kids? There really is something for everyone to do on board. We went when our kids were 3, 5 and 8. Everyone had a blast.

My kids are 14, 12, and 8. The youngest seems in the age range, but not sure about the others. Thoughts?

We just went and there were very few teens and preteens on the ship. Our child was 7, and there were some his age because of the week, but mainly 5-6 and younger. I would probably not do Disney at that age in less they are into the characters. We love going once for our first cruise with a child but I am not sure I'd do it again depending on cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

We've never done it, but I can't imagine that it would be worth the extra money. Even the cheapest cabins are expensive, so concierge is outrageously priced IMHO.

What's the appeal of concierge?

Lots of things. You don't have to choose a time to board the ship. You don't have to wait in lines to check in and your room is ready immediately when you board. Feee nightly happy hour, free snacks and beverages. Special character meet and greet. We got the best tables in the restaurants.

We certainly aren't made of money, but it was worth the extra cost IMO. We spent no other money on the ship except for the souvenirs we bought.

This, and you have areas for sunbathing, eating breakfast and happy hour that are concierge only and that are buffered from the rest of the ship by the adult only areas. They handle all of your bookings for excursions, plus getting the private hut on the private island and they drive you back to the ship past all the reboarding lines, etc. We basically had several people on the ship who were there just to cater to our needs, which was a real treat. If you weren't there with kids, you could spend the whole cruise without seeing many other people at all. And if you aren't a big eater to begin with, you could avoid all the restaurants if you wanted to (not that you'd want to).

[Anonymous]

We have been on 5 cruises, 3 with kids (1 was Disney). I would say with your age kids, pick Royal Caribbean over Disney. The markup for Disney is not worth the jacked up price. Pick a ship with the rock wall and surfing thing, and the kids will be happy enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the Concierge level worth it, if you've done both? It is crazy expensive.

We've never done it, but I can't imagine that it would be worth the extra money. Even the cheapest cabins are expensive, so concierge is outrageously priced IMHO.

What's the appeal of concierge?

Lots of things. You don't have to choose a time to board the ship. You don't have to wait in lines to check in and your room is ready immediately when you board. Feee nightly happy hour, free snacks and beverages. Special character meet and greet. We got the best tables in the restaurants.

We certainly aren't made of money, but it was worth the extra cost IMO. We spent no other money on the ship except for the souvenirs we bought.

We've cruised twice. Never concierge.

We had the first boarding time last time, and we were in the first group to board.

Drinks and snacks are already free on Disney, so I don't see the bonus there.

We usually grab lunch once on board, and then our room is ready. No waiting.

The regular meet and greets were good enough for us. We did get tix for the frozen meet and greet (free).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been on 5 cruises, 3 with kids (1 was Disney). I would say with your age kids, pick Royal Caribbean over Disney. The markup for Disney is not worth the jacked up price. Pick a ship with the rock wall and surfing thing, and the kids will be happy enough.

Question: are the evening shows kid friendly on RC? Our kids truly enjoyed the evening shows on our Disney cruises, while friends who have cruised RC and Carnival said the shows really weren't kid friendly...which makes me wonder how you would entertain kids in the evening?