DCL cruisers tried Royal...

[bobbiwoz]

Same with Miami, the port is not controlled by the cruise lines, and has their own employees. In crowded cities like Miami or the NYC ports, you get what you get.

I think the port of Bayonne only has RCCL ships. It’s their own terminal, with elevators not fully functional!

 

[auntlynne]

I enjoyed/ appreciated/ “could have written it myself“ reaction to your cruise.

I am one of the masses of people that compare new experiences to what I already know. Not that I go to something new intentionally look for comparisons. And not even expecting the new experience to be the same as my previous. I think people look for similarities to reduce anxiety, connect the new with happy feelings of the known.

You tried something new. And reported it on the Disney cruise forum. Not Cruise Critic. Not to the Royal Loyal.

I found it to be a clear reaction of you and your family‘s cruise. Many aspects remind me of my reaction to a week in Allure of the Sea over a decade ago. I still miss the roast beef sandwich in the Central Park cafe. Don’t miss the lack of a self-laundromat. Water show was a treat.

But that itinerary - you really were willing to give it a try with that line-up. That’s when I knew you went in open-minded. That and Freestyle Coke machines.

You may find other cruise experiences in future years that you enjoy. I have. And I go in to each cruise fully expecting a great trip. Some deliver, some not so much. Disney or other.

Thank you.

 

[KarenMom]

We had a similar experience as the OP, except that we didn't travel with children. I've done 25+ Disney cruises but we've also done 2 previous Royal Caribbean and several Celebrity and Norwegian cruises. I won't be doing Royal again. We sailed on Oasis of the Seas over Christmas a few months ago and it was just awful. The main disappointment was the food, especially in the main dining room. We ate there the first night but never went back because it was so awful. The crew weren't very friendly either. I chalked this up to it being a super busy cruise over Christmas and they all seemed too busy to even say hello. The ship was so big that I didn't feel like I was even on a ship. Even when I was on pool deck in the adults area, there was some much structures that you could hardly see the ocean.

The things we did enjoy were the Escape Room, Boardwalk Hot Dogs, the Aqua show (amazing!), and the Ice show. We also enjoyed the Coco Beach club on Coco Cay. We had a cabana and that was awesome. It rained hard the day we were there so we didn't get to enjoy the pool in the beach club much before it rained. But the cabana and cabana attendant were great. My 20 something adult sons enjoyed the escape room a lot.

Every one has different opinions so I'm sure other people will enjoy it. It just depends on what you're looking for. It's not for us, so we're going back to Disney and probably Celebrity in the future.

 

[DCLMP]

This is quite the damning report, and I appreciate you writing it. It is well written and to the point.
We never seriously considered sailing any other than DCL, but even if we did, Royal was a the bottom of our list, along with Carnival. Reading this, it's out of our list.

I didn't even go on that cruise but my blood started to boil reading some parts of your report.

Thanks for writing it and sharing it here

You are going to cross something off based on one persons perspective? LOL. Oasis is an older ship. Maybe search for some positive reviews. I'm sure you'll find many more positives than negatives.

 

[NephieRN]

You can get soda from any bar using your soda package. Not saying that would have made your trip better or changed your opinion of Royal but just know in the future there are more than just 5 access points to get soda.

 

[DCLMP]

I've really enjoyed my cruises on Royal, Disney and Carnival. They are different. You really have to do your research and know what to expect. It doesn't sound like OP did that.
There's lots of info on cruise critic.
You really can't do anything about food. It seems to vary on from cruise to cruise. Miami traffic is a beast, but there are ways around it.

 

[anjuan]

We tried a cruise on Allure a few years ago and had many of same thoughts as the OP. Not to say that we wouldn't go on RCL again, but DCL is our favorite cruise line. We went on NCL last year because of the iterary and saw some amazing sights, but my young adult daughter commented afterwards that she wanted our next cruise to be on DCL.

 

[ray3127]

If you disagree with me, please keep this in mind from my initial post:

"I know PLENTY of others enjoy Royal, and I'm not saying that any of you are wrong! I'm just saying that for my family, DCL is the only answer for the foreseeable future."

See below

100% yes, but it was how you were highlighting the difference as in tone, wordage, etc that made it seem more like if it wasn't the way DCL did it..etc. FWIW this happens a lot too when people who are very big Disney Parks fans and they try to go over to Universal. There's def. a way that Universal gets talked about compared to someone who is more even-keeled on their theme park interests.

I do appreciate your review, I've thought about Royal in the past and I enjoy hearing how people felt especially with those big ships!

In fairness I don't think people would use charging for pop, when it's standard to do so on most other cruise lines, as nickel and diming. That's part of the reason I mentioned what I did about your heart seemingly lying in DCL. You're going to be hard pressed to find non-luxury lines that don't charge for it. Some will offer packages including "free" deals but yeah DCL is abnormal in that they don't but it's only because of who their target audience is.

I don't know about you but Disney charges some absolutely crazy high pricing for some of their specialty dining, Enchante being $80 per person just for brunch! One could say that's nickel and diming but well specialty dining for a cost is now standard on cruise lines.

I'm glad you figured out what didn't work for you, you don't get to know unless you try it right?

We enjoy Universal quite a bit. But I don't think they have the 'Disney magic,' and I couldn't return there nearly as frequently as we return to WDW. So yeah, I talk about Universal differently, but IMO there's good reason behind it. I assure you, I'm even-keeled ... it sounds like we might just look for different things. For whatever reason, Disney has my number. Maybe we just have different ideas on that, and that's ok.

The sheer volume of things that Royal charges for dwarfs what DCL does. Yes, Enchante/Remy/Palo are expensive. But aside from the specialty dining, the activities and food are included on DCL.

On Royal, it felt like innumerable activities and food were extra fees. Escape room, $40 pp. Every night in the MDR, if you want filet it's an extra $20. They had stands trying to sell you specialty dining and/or other products throughout the cruise. The nickel-and-diming just doesn't compare.

You are going to cross something off based on one persons perspective? LOL. Oasis is an older ship. Maybe search for some positive reviews. I'm sure you'll find many more positives than negatives.

Oasis is just over 14 years old, with a $165M dry dock in 2019, if I'm not mistaken? That doesn't seem ancient.

This reminds me, the visible rust and overall condition of the ship simply did not compare. I can't believe I forgot to mention that. Yes, I realize it's a ship at sea and rust happens. But the maintenance/upkeep was obviously not as good on Royal.

You can get soda from any bar using your soda package. Not saying that would have made your trip better or changed your opinion of Royal but just know in the future there are more than just 5 access points to get soda.

A fair point--thank you for this. We actually did do this a few times, I had forgotten about it. Sometimes it was out of the fountain, which was great. Other times it was a 2-liter over ice, not so great. But still an option.

I've really enjoyed my cruises on Royal, Disney and Carnival. They are different. You really have to do your research and know what to expect. It doesn't sound like OP did that.
There's lots of info on cruise critic.
You really can't do anything about food. It seems to vary on from cruise to cruise. Miami traffic is a beast, but there are ways around it.

LOL .... the amount of travel research that I do is embarrassing. My experience was not for a lack of research. We talked extensively with my parents, who are experienced Royal cruisers, and I did plenty of research online ahead of time. We just have different ideas of what the ideal cruise is.

As I've said a couple times, I felt like everything on Royal was harder than it needed to be. And most all of the items I mentioned in my initial post aren't things that came up in research.

We have been on lots of cruises on multiple cruise lines. We always have fun and we always enjoy ourselves. That being said, we prefer Disney. Some small reasons why:

1. The food is genuinely better. No cruise food is great, unless you target the true foody cruises which we don't. Using RC as an example, I would rate their food (on all parts of the ships for our entire cruise history) as ranking between 3 and 7 on a scale of 1-10. Disney food would be 5 to 8. The night to night diversity is low on RC and much higher on Disney.

2. No casino, not much booze.

3. The rooms in general are nicer and a bit larger.

4. This is an odd one, but on RC, the sports court is always doing something different. Its seems great, until your boys want to go play basketball and they can't. Never occured to me that would be an issue, but it can be.

5. Disney ships are smaller. There are two benefits to this for us. Less people, and more space. When I say more space, I mean if you calculate the amount of open deck space per passenger, it is actually higher on some of the smaller ships. Ships that can carry 1.5 times the passengers as a Disney ship do not have 1.5 times the deck space open to the sun.

6. Since most passengers on Disney are more focused on being 'family oriented', they are genuinely a bit nicer. Same as in the parks.

I could go on and on, but like I said, we always have fun, but given the choice, we would pick Disney. They are just more relaxing for us.

The cost for us is not as huge a hurdle as it might seem. A cruise on RC that seems to cost 60% of what a Disney cruise costs, ends up being more like only 80 to 85% of the total cost once you add in air fair, hotel at both ends, transportation etc.

You summed up a lot of those intangibles that I felt throughout the week. I could go on and on, too, but I've probably said enough

 

[sadiecatie]

If you disagree with me, please keep this in mind from my initial post:

"I know PLENTY of others enjoy Royal, and I'm not saying that any of you are wrong! I'm just saying that for my family, DCL is the only answer for the foreseeable future."


We enjoy Universal quite a bit. But I don't think they have the 'Disney magic,' and I couldn't return there nearly as frequently as we return to WDW. So yeah, I talk about Universal differently, but IMO there's good reason behind it. I assure you, I'm even-keeled ... it sounds like we might just look for different things. For whatever reason, Disney has my number. Maybe we just have different ideas on that, and that's ok.

The sheer volume of things that Royal charges for dwarfs what DCL does. Yes, Enchante/Remy/Palo are expensive. But aside from the specialty dining, the activities and food are included on DCL.

On Royal, it felt like innumerable activities and food were extra fees. Escape room, $40 pp. Every night in the MDR, if you want filet it's an extra $20. They had stands trying to sell you specialty dining and/or other products throughout the cruise. The nickel-and-diming just doesn't compare.


Oasis is just over 14 years old, with a $165M dry dock in 2019, if I'm not mistaken? That doesn't seem ancient.

This reminds me, the visible rust and overall condition of the ship simply did not compare. I can't believe I forgot to mention that. Yes, I realize it's a ship at sea and rust happens. But the maintenance/upkeep was obviously not as good on Royal.


A fair point--thank you for this. We actually did do this a few times, I had forgotten about it. Sometimes it was out of the fountain, which was great. Other times it was a 2-liter over ice, not so great. But still an option.


LOL .... the amount of travel research that I do is embarrassing. My experience was not for a lack of research. We talked extensively with my parents, who are experienced Royal cruisers, and I did plenty of research online ahead of time. We just have different ideas of what the ideal cruise is.

As I've said a couple times, I felt like everything on Royal was harder than it needed to be. And most all of the items I mentioned in my initial post aren't things that came up in research.


You summed up a lot of those intangibles that I felt throughout the week. I could go on and on, too, but I've probably said enough

I think any time somebody posts an opinion on the internet, no matter how much they say "This is my opinion and totally subjective, it may not be yours and that's OK", someone who disagrees has to pipe up and tell them all the ways they are wrong

For what it's worth, I appreciated your review. I have no basis to share my perspectives because we've only sailed Disney, but we are pretty certain that we're Disney-exclusive cruisers. Just everything we've seen about other cruise lines doesn't personally appeal to us. That's the beauty of it - there are so many cruise lines and different cruise experiences that there's something to appeal to a lot of different people, and what works for one person doesn't have to work for another!

 

[tidefan]

@ray3127 , our thoughts were about the same as yours on the Oasis. I think I mentioned to you in another thread that we tried Carnival Mardi Gras a couple of months after we sailed on Oasis and all preferred it. IMHO, the 3 new Carnival ships can't be beat for included "comfort food". It still bothers me that RCCL charges for Johnny Rockets and refuses to put a hamburger grill out in the pool area...

We also love DCL. Looking forward to the Magic later this year. However, we do branch out from time to time. Heading out on Mardi Gras again next month and on Virgin later this year prior to the Disney Magic cruise. And last year we had one of our best cruises ever on Regal Princess around the British Isles.

Lastly, I hope that you didn't have to suffer through "CATS"...

 

[starvenger]

As I've said a couple times, I felt like everything on Royal was harder than it needed to be. And most all of the items I mentioned in my initial post aren't things that came up in research.

That may be true. But that makes me think that perhaps you researched in the wrong places. Because some of the things you complain about (like the Cruise Planner and soda packages) are probably covered several times in videos by Royal Caribbean Blog.

Overall, I found your assessment to be just fine. There is some bias towards DCL, but that's understandable, and not a big deal. And some of the things you point out are valid.

For example, upselling on board can be nutty on the first day, and I think experience allows you to avoid that on the second cruise - sort of like how you can avoid people trying to sell you stuff when you're in a port. But that first cruise... hoo boy it can overwhelm if you try to process all of it.

And also the casino smoke. Oasis and Allure have a staircase that goes from the casino to the promenade. And unfortunately you get that smoke wafting up from there.

I was a little confused about something though. You said that you boarded and ended up in a stairwell. It's been my experience that they board you so that you end up in the Promenade. Was that not the case for you?

Another question - what did you think of the app? I'm always curious to see how cruise lines embrace newer technologies like apps and destination elevators.

 

[unrequited23]

As I've said a couple times, I felt like everything on Royal was harder than it needed to be.

Just trying to compare and price out a cruise on RCCL is harder.

 

[plutolovr]

I tried to take care and say that we really gave Royal a fair shot. I guess I can't really convince anybody of that, but we really wanted to try one. Maybe a Freedom class ship would suit us better? I don't know.

At the same time, I think highlighting the differences between DCL and Royal is more than fair. Because if it's really just Disney charging more "because they can", then why on earth would we pay more for the same experience? That would be a total waste. So I tried to highlight how the experiences were different. While it may seem like my heart was with DCL, I really wanted to like Royal more! It would mean saving serious $$ in the future.

The procedures/charges/etc. that Royal does differently made my vacation more difficult/aggravating. Across the board. We kept trying to find something that we liked better, and we couldn't. I'm not locked into the DCL way; I just didn't think that Royal did much of anything better.

This led to our conclusion that the value per dollar paid on Royal was less than the value we've received on DCL. Obviously, DCL costs more (as you pointed out). But we felt like the total experience on DCL was worth the extra cost.

And I agree about soda; it's not a good drink for anybody (especially kids)! But the ease/convenience of soda on DCL is indisputable. The soda package on Royal is a PITA by comparison. And it costs extra, which is my definition of nickel-and-diming. The fact that other lines charge extra is irrelevant when I'm comparing Royal to DCL. That would be a mark against any of those other cruise lines in my book.

I actually rarely drink soda at home. Like, almost never. And when I do, it's usually with some Crown... but on vacation, I'll splurge (on the calories) a bit. This is why we got a couple of the soda packages, but they proved difficult to actually use. It's just one (of many) little conveniences that was made more difficult on Royal.

I know it reads like we had a miserable time. We didn't. We enjoyed ourselves, and built some solid family memories. We just learned that we prefer Disney cruising.

You do realize you can get soda from any bar on Royal if you have the soda package. You don't need to use the freestyle machines.

 

[MartyParty]

We are 3-time Disney cruisers (Dream ’17, Fantasy ’19 & ’23), who just returned from 7 nights on Oasis of the Seas on Sunday. Wife and I are mid-30’s, two kids are 9 & 6. We had been wanting to try a different cruise line for a while, and my parents are big Royal fans. So we decided to give this one a shot. Stops were Nassau, Coco Cay, Labadee, and Falmouth.

Obviously, the price was less. $4,500 including gratuities for an oceanview balcony room on deck 12 (12590). Even with an OBB, I don’t think I could get under $7,000 for a week on DCL since we’ve been cruising.

But despite the cost savings, we are “one and done” on Royal.

Before the Cruise
The problems started before the cruise began. Booking add-ons was a chore. Maddeningly, the pricing for things we had booked constantly changed. We initially bought a couple soda packages, but as I checked back in the weeks ahead I noticed that the price would change. I could rebook the package at the lower price, but every time I had a refund and a new charge. Same goes for specialty dining and shore excursions on Labadee. Was it worth the trouble to save a few bucks? I guess. But playing these sorts of pricing games is not something I’m interested in.

Also, having to pay for soda was the first sign of the constant nickel-and-diming at every turn.

Embarkation
Embarkation was brutal. Miami traffic turned a 1-hour trip into 2 hours. We should have arrive around 12:00, but it ended up being 1:00. Drop-off was a crawl. There were lines, lines, and then more lines. First to show passports, then to get through security. We had only cruised from Canaveral before, and never had the delays we had in Miami.

Physically getting on the ship was not exciting at all. You walk directly onto the jogging track, then down a third of the length of the ship, and into a stairwell. It’s not exactly the hero’s welcome you get walking aboard DCL.

Food / Soda package
By the time we finally got on, we were very hungry. So we headed to Windjammer, and proceeded to have the most flavorless meal I’ve ever had in my life. I also asked a couple employees about the soda package before discovering that I had to leave the restaurant to retrieve the soda package cups.

Using the soda package was infuriating at times. There were limited access points (deck 5 Sorrento's, deck 14 El Loco Fresh, deck 15 Solarium, deck 16 WJ) ... and the last two were not always open. So you have a soda package that you paid for on a giant ship, and often had only two locations to use it. Also, the cups did not always work. And then the Freestyle machines themselves didn’t work at times. Getting ice was a pain. And of course, we had to carry the stupid cups around! Lastly, we felt pressured to drink more soda, to “get our money’s worth”.

Back to the food: Much of the food was flavorless, and just not very good, for the first part of the cruise. Even in the MDR, the food was subpar. The mashed potatoes were billed as "creamy", but tasted like boxed potatoes. El Loco Fresh was tasteless.

There were some better dishes a bit later on. Night 6/7 dinner was very good. Park Cafe lunch was better. We enjoyed the boardwalk brats/hot dogs. The two specialty lunches we did were better—but not really outstanding, or worth the cost. And Windjammer never really improved.

Kid's Club
On the first night, my son said "I don't want to go back." We tried again, and it did get better as the cruise went on. But it just didn't compare, and both kids agreed that DCL’s kids club is more enjoyable.

Other annoyances:
- The drop-off/pick-up area was tiny, with only one family allowed at a time. This led to serious backups at time.
- The hours were limited. On sea days it closed from 12-2 and 5-7; Port days it closed 5-7. And they closed at 10 every night, unless you paid an extra $10 per kid/hour.
- On Coco Cay day, we went to drop the kids off during open hours, and there was a sign that they were at the buffet and would return later. What???

Rooms
The rooms were smaller, though admittedly we’ve only stayed in the larger DCL rooms (Family Balcony & Family OV). But still, watching reviews of standard DCL balcony rooms, this was TIGHT. Outlets and storage were subpar. Obviously we knew about the single bathroom and no curtain separating the spaces, but didn’t realize how much we’d miss those.

Smoke smell
On Deck 4 near the casino, you smelled the smoke. There was no way around it.

But worse than that, a large area of the pool deck was downwind of smoking area. We couldn’t really believe this. It rendered a couple of the pools useless for us.

Simple conveniences
Checking towels in/out is a stupid hassle, including bringing them off the ship with you at Coco Cay and Labadee.

Eating on the pool deck was not nearly as convenient as DCL. There is no easy grab & go. Had to leave to go to the buffet, or elsewhere.

Nickel and Diming
There are SO MANY ADD-ONS. It constantly felt like we were being upsold, everywhere. The soda package. So many of the food options. Activities. High-end stores. Even on Labadee, the vendors were a little aggressive. It was ridiculous.

Staff
Most of the staff was excellent. They did seem to ensure guests were satisfied at all times.

I'm very cognizant of my surroundings, especially on vacation, and try to be considerate of others. Meaning I don't like 'being in the way', stopping in doorways, cutting people off, etc. DCL's staff seems to be trained on this, because they ALWAYS defer to the guests, letting them pass first. But not Royal. Though the staff was almost always friendly, they also frequently cut in front of guests at times, putting themselves first. Maybe this is nitpicky, but it's a difference that I definitely noticed. Still, these staff members were friendly and attentive.

Was anything better?
Kind of.
- Coco Cay had some nice features. But also a lot of extra cost items. We had terrible windy weather that shut the island down at 1. Not RCCL's fault, but a bummer.
- Muster drill was much easier. But even then, I felt less prepared with their muster process than DCL.
- Laser tag was fun.
- Entertainment variety was great. The headliner, ice skating show, and aqua show were top notch. However, we enjoy the Disney entertainment just as much, so I'm not sure this was 'better.'
- We were looking forward to more pool space, the kids splash area, and slides. But we found that these were not as important as we thought. We were not able to relax on the pool deck like we could on Disney. With more people on board, it was difficult to find pool chairs. And the kids splash area was not operating at 100% capacity for most of the cruise (the water buckets were not operational). The last day, they were finally working. However, when we went to use them at 5PM, we were told the splash area was closed for the day! Of course.
- The different areas/neighborhoods of the ship are cool. It's a neat concept, and was fun to see. But I don't need to see it again. It's also just too big, with too many people.

I know this probably reads like we are negative and didn't give Royal a fair shot ... but we really, really did. We went in knowing it wouldn't be DCL. But you can't help but compare a new cruise line to the only one you've been on. And it was clear that while this cruise was cheaper, it was not a better value. I'd rather spend $7k on DCL than $4.5k on what we got last week. No question.

Bottom line: EVERYTHING on Royal was just a bigger hassle compared to DCL. Everything.

I often see questions on here asking for advice on trying a new cruise line, so I wanted to post this write-up as a reference. I know PLENTY of others enjoy Royal, and I'm not saying that any of you are wrong! I'm just saying that for my family, DCL is the only answer for the foreseeable future. So in a way, I'm glad we did this cruise--now we know.

359 days until the Treasure

Similar sentiments for us. We've found Carnival to be a good alternative when wanting to cruise without the premium Disney expense. We have older teens who love it but not sure how Carnival would be for the younger ones.

And like you point out, you can get a balcony on another cruise line other than Disney. In fact, we often get us adults the balcony and the kids an inside room close by and its still $1,000's less than Disney.

Thanks for posting.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

We are trying the Symphony of the Seas in May... and I'm nervous.

No nerves. Royal is awesome. Comparing Disney and Royal ships are apples to oranges.

You will have a great time.

Everything is subjective. For every negative review on one thing, there will be 10 positive. No stress

 

[ray3127]

@ray3127 , our thoughts were about the same as yours on the Oasis. I think I mentioned to you in another thread that we tried Carnival Mardi Gras a couple of months after we sailed on Oasis and all preferred it. IMHO, the 3 new Carnival ships can't be beat for included "comfort food". It still bothers me that RCCL charges for Johnny Rockets and refuses to put a hamburger grill out in the pool area...

We also love DCL. Looking forward to the Magic later this year. However, we do branch out from time to time. Heading out on Mardi Gras again next month and on Virgin later this year prior to the Disney Magic cruise. And last year we had one of our best cruises ever on Regal Princess around the British Isles.

Lastly, I hope that you didn't have to suffer through "CATS"...

Yes, Johnny Rockets is a great example of the upselling. Mediocre burger for $15 per person!

Thankfully, no CATS for us!!!

You do realize you can get soda from any bar on Royal if you have the soda package. You don't need to use the freestyle machines.

Yes, I mentioned this in a follow-up post. Still doesn't change the fact that the cup/Freestyle machines weren't easy to use.

Similar sentiments for us. We've found Carnival to be a good alternative when wanting to cruise without the premium Disney expense. We have older teens we love it but not sure who Carnival would be for the younger ones.

And like you point out, you can get a balcony on another cruise line other than Disney. In fact, we often get us adults the balcony and the kids an inside room close by and its still $1,000's less than Disney.

Thanks for posting.

As the kids get older, maybe we'll give one of those a shot.

Comparing Disney and Royal ships are apples to oranges.

This is basically what I learned last week!

You said that you boarded and ended up in a stairwell. It's been my experience that they board you so that you end up in the Promenade. Was that not the case for you?

Another question - what did you think of the app? I'm always curious to see how cruise lines embrace newer technologies like apps and destination elevators.

On the boarding, we came across on deck 5, then down the jogging track to the forward elevators/stairs. That leads directly to the Promenade.

The 3 previous Disney cruises we've been on all led us into the atrium where they announce your family's name. That was my basis for comparison. However, another poster pointed out that this may just be a DCL thing at Canaveral, so I understand that a bit more.

The app was "ok". We did not have an internet package (I'm anti-internet on cruises), so we used the ship's wi-fi. The chat feature sort of worked, but it didn't always notify us when a new message came in (though it did sometimes). So we had to keep checking it. The schedule of events was pretty good, though, and it did remind us items we had added to our calendar.

Which reminds me of a true highlight: the belly-flop competition was hilarious. We all enjoyed that immensely. The guy who won seems like it wasn't his first rodeo ... very entertaining!

See? We still had a good time

Just trying to compare and price out a cruise on RCCL is harder.

Exactly ... This was something I forgot to mention. Most cruise lines play silly pricing games that obfuscate the price, but Royal is especially difficult (NCL is up there, too). Disney includes everything (except gratuities, but nobody includes those) from the very beginning. And DCL is also fully refundable; you don't have to pay extra for a refundable deposit.

 

[starvenger]

On the boarding, we came across on deck 5, then down the jogging track to the forward elevators/stairs. That leads directly to the Promenade.

The 3 previous Disney cruises we've been on all led us into the atrium where they announce your family's name. That was my basis for comparison. However, another poster pointed out that this may just be a DCL thing at Canaveral, so I understand that a bit more.

OK, this makes sense now. If you've not been on another cruise line the non-announcing will be odd. Conversely as a non-Disney cruiser, when they did that on Fantasy I was amused, but really I would've rather we skipped it and just got on board so we could "officially" start our cruise.

The app was "ok". We did not have an internet package (I'm anti-internet on cruises), so we used the ship's wi-fi. The chat feature sort of worked, but it didn't always notify us when a new message came in (though it did sometimes). So we had to keep checking it. The schedule of events was pretty good, though, and it did remind us items we had added to our calendar.

OK good to know. If you read my (semi-)live report on Regal Princess you'll see that I hated their app, as it felt like a repository for good-but-only-partially-completed ideas. And I feel like the App is tech that the cruise lines should really be investing in, since we're in a connected world and this is an easy way to keep us connected with what's going on on board.

Which reminds me of a true highlight: the belly-flop competition was hilarious. We all enjoyed that immensely. The guy who won seems like it wasn't his first rodeo ... very entertaining!

I once saw a belly flop contest where the winner was maybe 150lbs, but he did a "frog splash" which really helped with his water displacement volume.

 

[mjkacmom]

I think the port of Bayonne only has RCCL ships. It’s their own terminal, with elevators not fully functional!

It’s owned and run by the NY/NJ port authority, are the elevators always out of service?

Yes, Johnny Rockets is a great example of the upselling. Mediocre burger for $15 per person!

Thankfully, no CATS for us!!!

Yes, I mentioned this in a follow-up post. Still doesn't change the fact that the cup/Freestyle machines weren't easy to use.

As the kids get older, maybe we'll give one of those a shot.

This is basically what I learned last week!

On the boarding, we came across on deck 5, then down the jogging track to the forward elevators/stairs. That leads directly to the Promenade.

The 3 previous Disney cruises we've been on all led us into the atrium where they announce your family's name. That was my basis for comparison. However, another poster pointed out that this may just be a DCL thing at Canaveral, so I understand that a bit more.

The app was "ok". We did not have an internet package (I'm anti-internet on cruises), so we used the ship's wi-fi. The chat feature sort of worked, but it didn't always notify us when a new message came in (though it did sometimes). So we had to keep checking it. The schedule of events was pretty good, though, and it did remind us items we had added to our calendar.

Which reminds me of a true highlight: the belly-flop competition was hilarious. We all enjoyed that immensely. The guy who won seems like it wasn't his first rodeo ... very entertaining!

See? We still had a good time

Exactly ... This was something I forgot to mention. Most cruise lines play silly pricing games that obfuscate the price, but Royal is especially difficult (NCL is up there, too). Disney includes everything (except gratuities, but nobody includes those) from the very beginning. And DCL is also fully refundable; you don't have to pay extra for a refundable deposit.

NCL deposits are refundable.

 

[DisneYE]

You are going to cross something off based on one persons perspective? LOL. Oasis is an older ship. Maybe search for some positive reviews. I'm sure you'll find many more positives than negatives.

When there are literally dozens and infinitely better options than Royal, especially DCL, yes.

 

[ray3127]

NCL deposits are refundable.

True, their deposits are refundable.

But the pricing games endure. "Pick 2 free", or "get all 4 free". But they aren't free, you have to add a bunch of taxes/gratuities/whatever to get the "free" drinks or dining package. And you can't get the package for just one person, it must be for all. I understand the cruise lines do that to avoid abuse, but it's still aggravating.