DCL cruisers tried Royal...

[starvenger]

Johnny Rockets kind of sucked on Royal. I think it sucks on land too. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

I've eaten there on land a couple of times. Fine for what it is. But certainly not something that I must eat at on land or at sea. Unless it's for breakfast on an Oasis class, since it's free and it's usually quiet on the Boardwalk at that time.

He has a million friends, but he loves to travel... even if he's stuck with his parents.

He's got that travel bug. I don't think it ever goes away.

 

[ilovebassets]

We've done Royal Caribbean Oasis class ships three times. Oasis of the Seas had particularly bad and flavorless food (worst cruise food I've ever had and I've probably been on about 15 across five different lines). We just sailed on the Allure over New Years--infinitely better food. Harmony was somewhere in between. You wouldn't think there would be so much difference between ships owned by the same company, especially within the same class, but there is.

 

[loislane]

I've heard so many complaints about the MDR and buffet food on Royal that it's taken it off the list for me. Even other lines like NCL or Princess seem to do it much better.

Disney is also far better about not pressuring people to buy extras than other cruiselines. Between marketing emails, pushy employees, and charging for certain on-board activities, other cruises feel like they are trying to extract every penny out of your wallet, while Disney really doesn't. DCL knows Palo and Remi will be full on their own merits, so there isn't a reason to push you towards them.

And before anyone says, "What's the big deal, just don't buy the extras", this type of upselling really bothers some people and does not make for a relaxing vacation. Disney has plenty of opportunities to spend money onboard, but they aren't actively marketing it the way other cruises do.

We just got off NCL and one of my biggest pet peeves with them was if you wanted a beach chair with an umbrella? Well, they are in a special section of the beach only and you have to rent your space there! I mean, I just paid all this money to sail on your ship and we don't have free chairs with umbrellas for everyone???

 

[DCLMP]

I've eaten there on land a couple of times. Fine for what it is. But certainly not something that I must eat at on land or at sea. Unless it's for breakfast on an Oasis class, since it's free and it's usually quiet on the Boardwalk at that time.


He's got that travel bug. I don't think it ever goes away.

He inherited it from me.

 

[Lorana]

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 personally disagree here. It IS nickel and diming, regardless of how many other mainstream cruise lines do it. One of the ways the other cruise lines get you in is offering a low price up front, and then charging you for everything extra: soda package, specialty restaurants, etc etc. It's like the Spirit Airlines model. Once you start pricing in all the etras, the delta in price between DCL and other mainstream cruiselines lessens. DCL is still more, mind you, but the other things around service, food quality, etc., then come into play.

I haven't recently sailed on RCCL (though we've been considering it), but we do swap back and forth between DCL and NCL, partly because of the price, and honestly we are a DCL-preferred family as well. It's just sometimes the DCL price is too high for us, or DCL doesn't have the itinerary we want, so we sail another cruise line, but we always miss the level of service, food, and lack of constant "pay extra for this" that occurs on the Disney Cruise Line.

 

[tidefan]

I personally disagree here. It IS nickel and diming, regardless of how many other mainstream cruise lines do it. One of the ways the other cruise lines get you in is offering a low price up front, and then charging you for everything extra: soda package, specialty restaurants, etc etc. It's like the Spirit Airlines model. Once you start pricing in all the etras, the delta in price between DCL and other mainstream cruiselines lessens. DCL is still more, mind you, but the other things around service, food quality, etc., then come into play.

I haven't recently sailed on RCCL (though we've been considering it), but we do swap back and forth between DCL and NCL, partly because of the price, and honestly we are a DCL-preferred family as well. It's just sometimes the DCL price is too high for us, or DCL doesn't have the itinerary we want, so we sail another cruise line, but we always miss the level of service, food, and lack of constant "pay extra for this" that occurs on the Disney Cruise Line.

So, based on your comments, I would say that if you are all 18+, I would definitely give Virgin Voyages a try. Everything sans alcohol (and for that they usually include some kind of "bar tab" in your booking) and excursions is included in your fare. Even cokes and gratuities. And not just the daily gratuities. If you buy a $10 drink, it's $10, not $11.80 after an "18% service charge".

All of the restaurants are "specialty dining" quality, but they are all included in your fare. It's more upfront, but once you are onboard, you are not paying much OOP...

 

[DCLMP]

All the "extras" are optional. Disney offers nothing in the way of extra activities except the sports simulator on the Fantasy and Dream which they do charge for. There's no laser tag, bumper cars which I believe are included, rock wall, zip line, wave rider etc.

I'm glad they keep the price low and charge for those things because I don't participate in any of them. I work out, read, eat, read, use the pool, drink alcohol and take excursions. All of those are included or cost about the same on any cruise line. I have no problem not drinking soda.

 

[DCLMP]

So, based on your comments, I would say that if you are all 18+, I would definitely give Virgin Voyages a try. Everything sans alcohol (and for that they usually include some kind of "bar tab" in your booking) and excursions is included in your fare. Even cokes and gratuities. And not just the daily gratuities. If you buy a $10 drink, it's $10, not $11.80 after an "18% service charge".

All of the restaurants are "specialty dining" quality, but they are all included in your fare. It's more upfront, but once you are onboard, you are not paying much OOP...

Sounds interesting. How does the price compare to Disney?

 

[tidefan]

Sounds interesting. How does the price compare to Disney?

It's generally less. Also, if you get a balcony, every one will have an amazing hammock out there. DW and I compete for time in it on every cruise!

 

[starvenger]

All the "extras" are optional. Disney offers nothing in the way of extra activities except the sports simulator on the Fantasy and Dream which they do charge for. There's no laser tag, bumper cars which I believe are included, rock wall, zip line, wave rider etc.

I'm glad they keep the price low and charge for those things because I don't participate in any of them. I work out, read, eat, read, use the pool, drink alcohol and take excursions. All of those are included or cost about the same on any cruise line. I have no problem not drinking soda.

Agree with you.

Going back to nickel and diming. For me, the impression I get in this forum is that it's not necessarily that there are upcharges for things on other cruise lines, but how those upcharges are presented to you.

Example, I've been on Royal enough to know how to spot and avoid people pushing drink packages and such. It's now background noise to me. But to someone going on Royal for the first time, this practice can be overwhelming and off-putting, giving you some bad first day impressions.

Am I wrong in thinking this? Would you like the cruise better if things were a bit more mellow on embarkation day?

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I'm curious what it is about Royal you think you wouldn't like. It seems like with your diverse cruise history it would be comparable to what you've done.

Sorry I see you answered that in another post. My kids never did the add-ons. Since the cruise was thousands less than Disney I really wouldn't have cared if they did. Since Disney doesn't have that stuff they were used to not doing it. They did do some of them for free like laser tag and wave rider because it was a teen club activity and they were not charged.

We always thought we would try Royal— try all the lines- but every time I go on their site and start to go through the booking process I am put off. We are kind of at the point where we just like other cruise lines and there is only so much time. We still want to try Cunard, HAL, and MSC. We are definitely interested in the activities Royal has on their ships, but it kind of seems like NCL from how they present themselves and from individual reviews. And we really did not like NCL. It is hard to explain I guess, maybe more of a vibe. The one thing that might get us on there is a specific itinerary. Dh will never go on a Western Caribbean cruise again, and we do primarily cruise in the Caribbean, so that limits us on all lines. I will continue to check them periodically, but they just are not a draw.

 

[starvenger]

And we really did not like NCL. It is hard to explain I guess, maybe more of a vibe.

I think I get you. It's not a quantifiable thing. Everything could be perfectly fine, but something just makes you not care for it.

 

[DCLMP]

It's generally less. Also, if you get a balcony, every one will have an amazing hammock out there. DW and I compete for time in it on every cruise!

I pretty much think every ship is less than Disney cruise. The good part about starting out with Disney is that prices will never shock you after that.

 

[DCLMP]

We always thought we would try Royal— try all the lines- but every time I go on their site and start to go through the booking process I am put off. We are kind of at the point where we just like other cruise lines and there is only so much time. We still want to try Cunard, HAL, and MSC. We are definitely interested in the activities Royal has on their ships, but it kind of seems like NCL from how they present themselves and from individual reviews. And we really did not like NCL. It is hard to explain I guess, maybe more of a vibe. The one thing that might get us on there is a specific itinerary. Dh will never go on a Western Caribbean cruise again, and we do primarily cruise in the Caribbean, so that limits us on all lines. I will continue to check them periodically, but they just are not a draw.

What puts me off is the non-refundable deposit to get a better price. I won't book anything with a non-refundable deposit. I have read on the Royal forum on cruise critic that you can book with a refundable deposit and then switch to non-refundable before the PIF date to get the lower price. I've never done it can't verify if that is true. It seems like a lot of cruise lines are doing this now. It will be interesting to see if DCL copies them.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

What puts me off is the non-refundable deposit to get a better price. I won't book anything with a non-refundable deposit. I have read on the Royal forum on cruise critic that you can book with a refundable deposit and then switch to non-refundable before the PIF date to get the lower price. I've never done it can't verify if that is true. It seems like a lot of cruise lines are doing this now. It will be interesting to see if DCL copies them.

Yes, I do hate this. What’s crazy is carnival does this too but you can almost always get $50 or $25 deposits, so if we have to cancel we won’t be to upset about losing the deposit. Still I am much more reluctant to pull the trigger on carnival than I am on Disney or Princess— carnival’s loss. We booked a Hal cruise once and had to cancel— their deposits are all refundable.

And along with the hard to describe meh Ncl vibe I get from Royal, I also REALLY hate how I can’t put a hold on a Royal booking. That’s how we book. I find the cruise, put a hold on it, then get feedback from dh and if he says it’s a go, we have to check our work schedules and all the kids’ schedules. I usually then get the cruise line in house travel agents to book the hold. So tell Royal to get rid of the no holds and non refundable deposits!

 

[tinkerone]

I personally disagree here. It IS nickel and diming, regardless of how many other mainstream cruise lines do it. One of the ways the other cruise lines get you in is offering a low price up front, and then charging you for everything extra: soda package, specialty restaurants, etc etc. It's like the Spirit Airlines model. Once you start pricing in all the etras, the delta in price between DCL and other mainstream cruiselines lessens. DCL is still more, mind you, but the other things around service, food quality, etc., then come into play.

I haven't recently sailed on RCCL (though we've been considering it), but we do swap back and forth between DCL and NCL, partly because of the price, and honestly we are a DCL-preferred family as well. It's just sometimes the DCL price is too high for us, or DCL doesn't have the itinerary we want, so we sail another cruise line, but we always miss the level of service, food, and lack of constant "pay extra for this" that occurs on the Disney Cruise Line.

By this theory, DCL is 'nickel and diming' you when you enter one of their 'bar' areas and order a soda. It is not included and you get charged for it. You could walk up to the dispensers and pour your own soda to take but I don't want to do that. With RCCL it is included in their drink package, I can walk into any bar or adult area and get a soda and not have to run around the ship to get my own.
What some like to call 'nickel and diming' I don't understand. They (not meaning you) make excuses of why others do this but DCL doesn't. You get free soda with DCL....unless you order at the shows. You have to pay for specialty dining on other cruise lines....but you also have to on DCL, there's just more options on other lines. You have to pay for the water park on their private island....not going to mention that DCL doesn't have one and if they did they would probably charge as well. Yes, RCCL does charge for room service other than breakfast but I don't really use it so I don't see that as a reason to say I'm being nickel and dimed. Some would but I'm not one.
I just don't see there are a lot of extras that you need to pay for. You can if you want but you don't have to. You can pay the booked price and not one cent more if that is your choice. This goes for any cruise line including DCL.

 

[sabrecmc]

We have only ever sailed DCL. A part of me feels like we should try something else (21 cruises and counting!), but then again, if we are all happy and enjoying it, why? My daughter just turned 18, and I asked her if she wanted to do a different cruise line and she looked at me like I'd grown a second head.

I've watched a lot of vlogs of Royal, NCL, and Virgin, and they just do not look appealing to me. The things they have that Disney doesn't are not really things I would do (e.g., bumper cars, Flowrider, etc.) or things that we can do at home pretty easily (e.g., ice skating---there are rinks right here, I'm not doing that on a vacation). We are Disney people though, so not surprising. The good thing is that there are so many options out there, there really is something for everyone. It's that magic that really makes it special for us.

 

[txdisneygrl]

My family tried Royal a couple years ago for the first time. There were some nice things, mainly that they sailed from Galveston which is super convenient for us. The entertainment was very good. We loved the skating show and the performers in the theatre shows were very talented. The price was also fantastic. The dealbreaker was the smoking. Maybe it was just the ship we were on but with the casino on deck 3, and an opening into the promenade on deck 4 it was everywhere. The entire promenade area reeked of smoke, and the lounges and bars where they offered activities like trivia that were on deck 3 were also unpleasant. There was a huge smoking area on the pool deck as well. It was a bigger ship than the Disney ships we'd been on and we still struggled to find a lounge chair on deck. Especially because their "adult" areas start at 16 and up. (Full disclosure it was over Easter and the ship was full)

Also of note, the itinerary we did with Royal as a 5 night, Disney does as 6. I can see why because the last day of the cruise had more motion than anything I've ever been on as they hauled butt across the Gulf at what had to be near top speed trying to get back from Cozumel in a day.

 

[starvenger]

I've watched a lot of vlogs of Royal, NCL, and Virgin, and they just do not look appealing to me. The things they have that Disney doesn't are not really things I would do (e.g., bumper cars, Flowrider, etc.) or things that we can do at home pretty easily (e.g., ice skating---there are rinks right here, I'm not doing that on a vacation). We are Disney people though, so not surprising. The good thing is that there are so many options out there, there really is something for everyone. It's that magic that really makes it special for us.

Here's a funny thing I've noticed wrt the ice rink:
If someone is positive about idea of the ice rink, they talk about the ice shows.
But if someone is down on the idea of the ice rink, they talk about not wanting to skate/being able to skate at home.

Both things are valid, by the way (although I have done the skating, just because). I just find the delineation to be fascinating.

The dealbreaker was the smoking. Maybe it was just the ship we were on but with the casino on deck 3, and an opening into the promenade on deck 4 it was everywhere. The entire promenade area reeked of smoke, and the lounges and bars where they offered activities like trivia that were on deck 3 were also unpleasant.

This is absolutely an issue. The Royal ship I've been on with the best casino ventilation is Harmony. And I'm assuming that the newer ships are better at stifling the smoke. But the fact of the matter is this: Royal tends to devote half the casino to smokers, so it doesn't matter how good the ventilation is - it's going to stink. And if you're on Allure or Oasis, and you're on the Promenade, you'll want to stay away from that staircase that heads down to the Casino.

Comparison: Regal Princess has a fairly sizeable casino, and there is a fairly large opening to another deck near their centrum. But they devoted maybe 25% of the floor to smokers, and I believe none of the tables, and the ventilation was quite good. Upshot of this was that I barely smelled like smoke after playing the tables for a couple of hours.

Honestly, if you're about spending the time in the casino, Princess is a better option. The rules are better for craps (3/4/5x odds) and blackjack (standard rules), but they have triple zero roulette. I'm not sure what roulette Royal has, but they only have single odds craps if you play the below a threshold, and many blackjack tables pay 6:5 on a natural.

 

[txdisneygrl]

We never stepped foot in the casino lol, we had zero interest. It was just that because of the location the smoke carried to other places and was extremely noticeable. Cool info on the casino though and the odds!