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.

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.

I've looked a few times but by the time I size up to a comparable state room to a Disney stateroom, and upgrade the dining and add a soda/juice package, it just really isn't saving me much, if anything. Especially on the newer ships from Royal or NCL.

It was some years ago, but we really liked the NCL Gem -- it had a lot of activities for my kids, but without feeling massively large. NCL has a lot of speciality dining and frequently throws it in as a freebie incentive. The steak place, the Brazilian place are both good. The Italian place can be skipped. There was a cuban alternative for lunches that I liked a lot -- I basically got it every day for lunch. This was about a decade ago, though.

For 9 and 11, I don't think I'd let them really wander a ship. GOing to kids club is fine. But if you're doing a real cruise with port stops, you'll be off the ship most days. Don't go on a cruise with more than 2 sea days.

OP here. Thanks for the responses so far.

The things we really liked about DCL were the cabin size, the kids club, the dinners (maybe not fine dining for luxury foodies, but definitely enjoyable for us and the kids; the buffets were more hit and miss but I've never viewed buffets as high quality), the shows and movies (as a family, we love Disney/Marvel movies), and the feel of there being a lot to do, but not overwhelmingly large. Not necessarily adventure type stuff, but fun activities. One of the biggest draws for us is that our 10 year old made friends and we were comfortable letting them hang out on the ship by themselves (in the club or not) without worrying because there were only so many places they could go. I'm not sure I'd have that same level of comfort on other ships.

I've started looking at Royal Caribbean, but the largest classes of ships look like too much and it's hard to figure out what would be the sweet spot for size. I don't have interest in Carnival. I need to learn more about NCL, Princess, Celebrity, etc.

We have done RCI, NCL, and Disney and we like all of them and I don't think any of them are heads and shoulder above the rest. I can never get why people rave about the food on Disney. Some of it is good but most of it is pretty meh. You can take some of the $$ you save not paying to the mouse and put it towards upgraded or specialty dining on the other lines. (You can also price out NCL Haven, the club level which has its own dining room, which is quite nice but probably more than you want to spend.)

Disney's strengths are the fireworks pirate dance party and some of the shows. NCL also has some great shows particularly for older teens (lots of live music and often a Broadway traveling show). NCL and RCI both have better slides, rock walls, etc., than Disney They all have pretty good teen or tween clubs, and fun things like family trivia, etc.

Those 3-4 day Disney cruises are nice for a long weekend but the ports are really pretty boring. With the longer cruises, you can get some really great port activities -- snorkeling in Cozumel or Belize is amazing, Mayan temples from Belize are amazing, zip lining in Roatan, Jamaica has cool places where you can jump into swimming holes off ropes etc. As you kids get older, they will enjoy that stuff a lot.

I don't know about customer service. I think they all pretty much feel the same unless you are in the club level (which we've done in both Disney and NCL, but have also done regular non-club). I never end up feeling like it's a big factor. You can book stuff in advance on the website or app, the room stewards are always good, and the waiters are generally pretty friendly and accommodating on any line. I don't generally need a lot of other customer service. I guess the Disney folks have a little extra sparkle, but it doesn't really impact the experience that much.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

PS - If you are considering a Mediterranean cruise, the ship doesn’t matter. You are rarely on the ship. For the Caribbean or anything with a lot of sea days, consider the ship.

This is true for Alaska as well, especially any features related to water as it's too cold.

We’ve done multiple cruises on Disney, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity with kids, and we know families who are loyal to NCL and Carnival (only the newer Carnival ships).

Celebrity isn’t geared towards kids. While I like it, even I can agree that Royal has better entertainment and activities.

I suggest Royal or NCL. Both are geared towards families.

Select based on your budget and the itinerary.

PS - If you are considering a Mediterranean cruise, the ship doesn’t matter. You are rarely on the ship. For the Caribbean or anything with a lot of sea days, consider the ship.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe Celebrity. Or Royal. But both probably have worse customer service than Disney. You aren't going to find similar levels of Customer service at a lower price point.

We took kids who were 8 and 10 yo on a Celebrity cruise and found the entertainment on the cruise quite geriatric. There's literally a show on the history of rock music that ends in 1989, like there hasn't been any new music since then. All the music and shows was aimed at people in their 80s. It wasn't bad per se, but we just weren't the target audience.

We had a better experience on Royal Caribbean. Get a suit-level room and then you can eat in the upgraded dining room. The food is much better, as is the service. Do some research on any on-ship activities you want to do to understand if you need to show up early to beat lines (or just skip the activity altogether). We didn't have issues with lines except with ice skating, but maybe we just got lucky.

We have been looking at alternative cruise options, such as Uncruise. It is more nature focused and less focused on bells and whistles.

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

Anonymous wrote:I mean, I haven't cruised since I was a kid but Celebrity is like known as the party cruise. I think Royal is def supposed to be closer to Disney than celebrity

This is me, RETRACT, I was thinking of Carnival. I don't know anything about Celebrity!

I mean, I haven't cruised since I was a kid but Celebrity is like known as the party cruise. I think Royal is def supposed to be closer to Disney than celebrity

Maybe Celebrity. Or Royal. But both probably have worse customer service than Disney. You aren't going to find similar levels of Customer service at a lower price point.

Prior to last year, I had never been on a cruise. I had no interest and definitely didn't think I'd be a cruise person. Last year we took our kids (8 and 10) on a cruise for the first time, chose Disney, and had a perfect time. We were on the Disney Magic and the experience was absolutely terrific. We had so much fun the kids want to go again and we aren't against it.

Two issues though: I dont typically like to repeat vacations. The world is such a big place, I've always thought it made sense to see new things. However, cruises obviously go to different places so they're still on the table.

The other issue is I think i would be interested in using a different cruise line primarily for budget reasons. We'd want to take a longer cruise and obviously Disney is more expensive than most other lines.

So my question(s): is there a cruise line that will have close to the same balance of activities, quality, and customer service that we won't be disappointed?

Or do I just bite the budget and spend more for the known experience of a longer Disney cruise? We can afford it but ideally we'd spend less.