Recommend a Cruise Line AFTER taking a Disney Cruise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say Royal Caribbean. I've cruised with them several times and they are family friendly so offer a good balance of everything.

Been on both and we chose RC first for the same reason (could go on a cruise twice as long) and I would not use RC again.

Which RC ship?

Which itinerary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We haven't done a Disney cruise so I don't have that point of comparison experience or cost-wise - but we just did the Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas for spring break and we all loved it. It's one of their new, huge ships and it's very geared for families.

We are going on icon later this year—would love any tips or suggestions!

Also if you are a Costco member recommend looking at them — you can typically get either a freebie like free specialty dining and/or just Costco cash back.

Another tip is that most cruise lines do sea days as their fancy dinner day. So if you want to book a specialty dinner, picking a different night gets you most marginal benefit. We’ve only booked one specialty for Icon — the sushi restaurant and only that because they had a really good price on it pre cruise.

DP

I haven’t been on Icon but I follow numerous CruiseTubers and travel groups, and Icon has had some issues—including a fire and major technical issue that impacted its sailing/itinerary. They also had the horrific break in its slide that severely injured someone.

FWIW, every crew member I’ve chatted with has consistently said they prefer smaller ships to the newer mega ships. They point to the inability to provide good service to such big crowds and cryptic comments on the “big and inexperienced staff.”

More details:

Recent issues for the Icon of the Seas include a passenger jumping overboard in May 2024, a minor fire in June 2024, and a significant technical issue in September 2024 that caused the ship to sail at reduced speed and led to a canceled cruise and maintenance in Freeport, Bahamas.
More recently, in July 2025, a crew member stabbed a fellow crew member before jumping overboard and dying, and in August 2025, a passenger was injured when an acrylic panel on the Frightening Bolt water slide broke.

Half those things have nothing to do with that specific ship and could happen on any of them.

Eh, it’s interesting that both the Icon and Beyond have experienced serious technical issues impacting sailings.

Having heard crew members’ negative comments about the mega ships, I’m avoiding them. Who wants an even bigger crowd?

[Anonymous]

Price and atmosphere/experience are usually closely related. You can't reasonably expect elevated cuisine and a quiet, uncrowded upscale atmosphere on a less expensive ship catering to families with kids, so setting expectations is important. Some cruise lines do cater to families on a budget who travel with kids, others don't. Use CruiseCritic to help sort through different lines and vessels. As a rule of thumb, the larger, newer mega-ships may be what you're looking for, with lots of kid-centric activities and diversions, but don't expect the atmosphere as you'd find on the 6-star lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say Royal Caribbean. I've cruised with them several times and they are family friendly so offer a good balance of everything.

Been on both and we chose RC first for the same reason (could go on a cruise twice as long) and I would not use RC again.

Which RC ship?

Which itinerary?

This was 12 years ago and I don't think the itinerary exists now - RT London/Greenwich (Malaga; Nice; Florence; Rome; Gibralter; Lisbon [sorry, not going to look up the port names]). My kids were 18; 15; 12; 9 at the time.

Since then, we've taken older kids on Viking River and Viking Ocean and then kids/grandkids on Disney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Price and atmosphere/experience are usually closely related. You can't reasonably expect elevated cuisine and a quiet, uncrowded upscale atmosphere on a less expensive ship catering to families with kids, so setting expectations is important. Some cruise lines do cater to families on a budget who travel with kids, others don't. Use CruiseCritic to help sort through different lines and vessels. As a rule of thumb, the larger, newer mega-ships may be what you're looking for, with lots of kid-centric activities and diversions, but don't expect the atmosphere as you'd find on the 6-star lines.

Yes and no.

We’ve found ridiculously good deals on some older, smaller ships on more upscale lines…and they are probably 1/4 the cost of Disney. More expensive isn’t always better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We haven't done a Disney cruise so I don't have that point of comparison experience or cost-wise - but we just did the Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas for spring break and we all loved it. It's one of their new, huge ships and it's very geared for families.

We are going on icon later this year—would love any tips or suggestions!

Also if you are a Costco member recommend looking at them — you can typically get either a freebie like free specialty dining and/or just Costco cash back.

Another tip is that most cruise lines do sea days as their fancy dinner day. So if you want to book a specialty dinner, picking a different night gets you most marginal benefit. We’ve only booked one specialty for Icon — the sushi restaurant and only that because they had a really good price on it pre cruise.

DP

I haven’t been on Icon but I follow numerous CruiseTubers and travel groups, and Icon has had some issues—including a fire and major technical issue that impacted its sailing/itinerary. They also had the horrific break in its slide that severely injured someone.

FWIW, every crew member I’ve chatted with has consistently said they prefer smaller ships to the newer mega ships. They point to the inability to provide good service to such big crowds and cryptic comments on the “big and inexperienced staff.”

More details:

Recent issues for the Icon of the Seas include a passenger jumping overboard in May 2024, a minor fire in June 2024, and a significant technical issue in September 2024 that caused the ship to sail at reduced speed and led to a canceled cruise and maintenance in Freeport, Bahamas.
More recently, in July 2025, a crew member stabbed a fellow crew member before jumping overboard and dying, and in August 2025, a passenger was injured when an acrylic panel on the Frightening Bolt water slide broke.

Well we’ve already booked it so there’s not much we can do. But thanks for terrorizing me I guess.

[Anonymous]

I think the food on celebrity SUCKS unless you eat in a specialty restaurant every night. Post-covid cruising is just not for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the food on celebrity SUCKS unless you eat in a specialty restaurant every night. Post-covid cruising is just not for me.

Which celebrity ship(s), PP?

Fwiw, I think the MDR food is better on smaller ships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We haven't done a Disney cruise so I don't have that point of comparison experience or cost-wise - but we just did the Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas for spring break and we all loved it. It's one of their new, huge ships and it's very geared for families.

We are going on icon later this year—would love any tips or suggestions!

Also if you are a Costco member recommend looking at them — you can typically get either a freebie like free specialty dining and/or just Costco cash back.

Another tip is that most cruise lines do sea days as their fancy dinner day. So if you want to book a specialty dinner, picking a different night gets you most marginal benefit. We’ve only booked one specialty for Icon — the sushi restaurant and only that because they had a really good price on it pre cruise.

DP

I haven’t been on Icon but I follow numerous CruiseTubers and travel groups, and Icon has had some issues—including a fire and major technical issue that impacted its sailing/itinerary. They also had the horrific break in its slide that severely injured someone.

FWIW, every crew member I’ve chatted with has consistently said they prefer smaller ships to the newer mega ships. They point to the inability to provide good service to such big crowds and cryptic comments on the “big and inexperienced staff.”

More details:

Recent issues for the Icon of the Seas include a passenger jumping overboard in May 2024, a minor fire in June 2024, and a significant technical issue in September 2024 that caused the ship to sail at reduced speed and led to a canceled cruise and maintenance in Freeport, Bahamas.
More recently, in July 2025, a crew member stabbed a fellow crew member before jumping overboard and dying, and in August 2025, a passenger was injured when an acrylic panel on the Frightening Bolt water slide broke.

Well we’ve already booked it so there’s not much we can do. But thanks for terrorizing me I guess.

I’m sure you’ll be fine.

But if you end up not enjoying your cruise on a mega ship because it’s too crowded or the service isn’t great, just realize your experience on a mega ship is different the smaller ships.

PS - You can float your reservation/payment to another ship/itinerary/date as long as you haven’t paid the final payment. BTDT.

[Anonymous]

We did Disney when my kids were small. When they out grew the Princesses and Disney characters we switched to Royal. Much better price point and my kids loved all the higher adventure stuff like rock wall, water slides, ice skating rinks etc. They're now young teens and they like Celebrity the best. Celebrity is more higher end than Royal and a bit more subdued. Adults (parents and grandparents) also like Celebrity the best. We typically sail on the newer ships, both Royal and Celebrity have some smaller older boats that wouldn't be as good of a fit for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did Disney when my kids were small. When they out grew the Princesses and Disney characters we switched to Royal. Much better price point and my kids loved all the higher adventure stuff like rock wall, water slides, ice skating rinks etc. They're now young teens and they like Celebrity the best. Celebrity is more higher end than Royal and a bit more subdued. Adults (parents and grandparents) also like Celebrity the best. We typically sail on the newer ships, both Royal and Celebrity have some smaller older boats that wouldn't be as good of a fit for us.

This interesting. What do your young teens do on Celebrity ships without all kid focused the activities? Or do you choose more port intensive cruises now where the ship matters less?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve done a lot of research and ultimately decided that I would be disappointed with other cruise lines, particularly the food. When we are older I would consider river cruising though.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know you said “not Disney” bur my suggestion is to stick with the Mouse but watch for deals. From a safety and health perspective there isn’t a comparable line (CDC rates them). I like the short cruises to their newer island, and prefer their smaller boats, but theres something for everyone from my cocktail snob sister to my 11 y/o niece who practically lived in the club she loved the counselors so much.

Always get the onboard placeholder— this year if you had a placeholder it was 35% off some sailings, even in the school holidays. Also watch costco, military discounts, etc.

+1. We did a Disney VGT cruise on the Dream for 25% off. They picked the room, and it was fine. Better than fine, actually because it was near the kids club but far enough away that we didn't have noise from it. The freedom my then 9yo had was hard to beat. My tween didn't like the tween club but ran around seeing movies and doing activities (e.g., origami) with a friend she made there. We all enjoyed the entertainment. Trying to figure out how to do it again and not break the bank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the food on celebrity SUCKS unless you eat in a specialty restaurant every night. Post-covid cruising is just not for me.

If you stay in the Retreat, then you can eat at the upgraded dining room.

It's pretty unfair to compare the food in the MDR for RC or Celebrity with Disney when the cruise is so much less expensive. You need to upgrade on the other lines to compare apples-to-apples.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know you said “not Disney” bur my suggestion is to stick with the Mouse but watch for deals. From a safety and health perspective there isn’t a comparable line (CDC rates them). I like the short cruises to their newer island, and prefer their smaller boats, but theres something for everyone from my cocktail snob sister to my 11 y/o niece who practically lived in the club she loved the counselors so much.

Always get the onboard placeholder— this year if you had a placeholder it was 35% off some sailings, even in the school holidays. Also watch costco, military discounts, etc.

+1. We did a Disney VGT cruise on the Dream for 25% off. They picked the room, and it was fine. Better than fine, actually because it was near the kids club but far enough away that we didn't have noise from it. The freedom my then 9yo had was hard to beat. My tween didn't like the tween club but ran around seeing movies and doing activities (e.g., origami) with a friend she made there. We all enjoyed the entertainment. Trying to figure out how to do it again and not break the bank.

OP here and I really appreciate all the feedback. What I'm taking from this is to try to do as much of an apples to apples comparison between cruise lines. The base cabin on DCL seems to be a clear upgrade. The food is more subjective but seems like it's generally better on DCL than other lines without an upgrade.

The on board activities are the biggest difference that may sway towards other lines but my kids don't like large crowds or too much kid noise so I don't think we'd do the largest ships on RC. They didn't even do the slides on the Disney Dream or spend much time in the pool. They preferred trivia, arts/crafts, the clubs, watching movies and the shows.

I think it'll be hard for another cruise line to win out because I worry we'll all compare every aspect of different lines and it seems other lines will disappoint for our family. I'm still giving it a try though