Disney fanatic but no desire to go on Disney Cruise?

[cruiser21]

I love the stress and planning. I plan our park vacations a year out and it’s almost as fun as the vacation itself for me!

Take a port intensive cruise in Europe. It doesn't have to be Disney. Those require a lot of planning. Seeing the real Europe is much better then walking the fake one in Epcot.

 

[mmmears]

There's a reason for the saying "to each his own." I enjoy going to the parks, but no, I'm not obsessed. And no, I'm not sad that I can't go every year. Same goes for cruises. We like to go to new places and see new things. Sometimes we can do that, with a little Disney touch, on a Disney cruise. And as far as casinos go? I can't stand them and love that Disney doesn't have them on the ships. No little kids here anymore either, and we don't feel out of place. As for planning, I've been planning our upcoming trip for almost a year now - and it's more involved and more interesting than planning another WDW trip (and I do enjoy planning those). Like I said, we are all different. Book the kind of vacation you want - it's your time and money.

 

[Belle2002]

Visiting the parks and taking a Disney Cruise are two totally different things. I happen to love both. However, when I am visit the parks, it is for the thrill of the rides, the park energy, the shops, parades etc. The cruise is a combo of wanting to see great destinations but knowing I will be taken care of by Disney. There will be exceptional service, all the characters, unbelievable entertainment and some Disney souvenirs. Oh, and we are a family of 4 adults that travel, no kids!

A couple of years ago my family opted to do a non Disney cruise. We chose Holland America strictly for the itinerary and the price. We wanted a Canada/New England cruise in the summer and HAL was the ONLY option. We thought, well, it can't be that bad! Well - it was!!! I was so used to the Disney standards and there were no standards on Holland America! The ship was not kept clean, no attention to cleanliness at all (i.e. personal hygiene like hand wipes or anti bacterial anything), pour customer service, old ship in desperate need of a refurb, a smoke filled casino that we were forced to walk through everyday, dreadful entertainment, few activities, and poor safety standards. One night something caught fire on the ship - the crew was FRANTIC and they failed to communicate anything to the guests as sirens were going off and crew were panicking in the halls. I sat in my state room wearing my life jacket for 2 hours!!

In short, Disney fanatic or not, I think that Disney is really a step ahead of the competition. My sister has cruised Princess a few times. She liked it, but said they were pretty boring just due to the lack of entertainment and activities on board. Disney always has something for everyone no matter what your age. Yes - they are more expensive, but the price makes sense once you have cruised with others.

 

[monica9]

Take a port intensive cruise in Europe. It doesn't have to be Disney. Those require a lot of planning. Seeing the real Europe is much better then walking the fake one in Epcot.

We want to go to the real Europe eventually but are waiting until my younger one can appreciate it since she’s only 2 and won’t remember

 

[monica9]

Visiting the parks and taking a Disney Cruise are two totally different things. I happen to love both. However, when I am visit the parks, it is for the thrill of the rides, the park energy, the shops, parades etc. The cruise is a combo of wanting to see great destinations but knowing I will be taken care of by Disney. There will be exceptional service, all the characters, unbelievable entertainment and some Disney souvenirs. Oh, and we are a family of 4 adults that travel, no kids!

A couple of years ago my family opted to do a non Disney cruise. We chose Holland America strictly for the itinerary and the price. We wanted a Canada/New England cruise in the summer and HAL was the ONLY option. We thought, well, it can't be that bad! Well - it was!!! I was so used to the Disney standards and there were no standards on Holland America! The ship was not kept clean, no attention to cleanliness at all (i.e. personal hygiene like hand wipes or anti bacterial anything), pour customer service, old ship in desperate need of a refurb, a smoke filled casino that we were forced to walk through everyday, dreadful entertainment, few activities, and poor safety standards. One night something caught fire on the ship - the crew was FRANTIC and they failed to communicate anything to the guests as sirens were going off and crew were panicking in the halls. I sat in my state room wearing my life jacket for 2 hours!!

In short, Disney fanatic or not, I think that Disney is really a step ahead of the competition. My sister has cruised Princess a few times. She liked it, but said they were pretty boring just due to the lack of entertainment and activities on board. Disney always has something for everyone no matter what your age. Yes - they are more expensive, but the price makes sense once you have cruised with others.

Yea the two cruise lines you mentioned aren’t the most entertaining. I’d try another if you are ever interested in another cruise.
Disney is definitely ahead with what they do!

 

[quandrea]

No desire to cruise Disney and I’m a Disney freak with close to 100 trips under my belt. Spend forty nights a year at WDW.

I don’t like the idea of all the kids and the crowds. The cruise lines we sail on have few children, so our kids get a very customised experience in the kids clubs. The food seems better on the lines we frequent.

Disney itineraries are lacking. For half the cost, I can sail to better ports. Their Alaska itinerary is poor, as is their Baltic compared to other lines.

Finally, cost. We sail on premium lines—HAL, Cunard, Celebrity, Crystal. All cheaper than Disney. We have an Alaskan Cruise coming up. Booked in two suites—club level amenities. About ten thousand cheaper than Disney in one regular stateroom.

Disney isn’t even a consideration.

 

[Hisgirl]

Not sure where to pot this but wondering if others feel the same way as I do. I’m obsessed with WDW. I mean OBSESSED like I’m sure most of you are and get upset if I have to wait longer than a year to return. But I ha e no desire to cruise Disney although I love to cruise and have been on 6 cruises with my last being just a couple weeks ago.
People are always surprised that I wouldn’t so that’s why I’m curious if anyone else feels the same?
There’s something about the rides, the resorts, monorails and the busses that have the music blasting based on where you are going. Can’t get any of that on the cruise. And who wants to cruise without a casino!?

Has anyone cruised Disney and thought the same?

I'm with on this one. To me...and this is just my opinion...just because you put characters in a location, that doesn't make it disney world. If I hired character looking people to come to a birthday party, played disney music and put up disney decor, it wouldn't feel like disney to me. It would just be characters appearing in a neutral location. Disney World will always be a park for me with the architecture, the smells, the music, the rides. But I do realize it can be a really nice complement to the parks. I've never had a desire to go.

 

[Tulip2796]

Haha, we are the opposite. We love cruising Disney but are not disney fanatics at all! Due to a move we have lived 2 hours from Disney for over 4 years and have not visited the parks at all, not even once! Prior to that when we lived much farther away we went twice.

 

[darnheather]

I thought I was a parks person. I thought my kids would be bored on a cruise and be sad we didn't go to the parks. I was SO wrong. I now have no desire to go back to the parks anytime soon. Maybe alone when my kids are out of the house because they are done with them. Cruising is the only thing they want to do now.

 

[YawningDodo]

On the casino front: I don't have anything against casinos. I enjoy a casino now and then. They just don't hold my interest for long periods of time (I don't like card games and slot machines aren't entertaining for long), plus if I want to go to a casino I have my pick of them in bars, restaurants...gas stations...laundromats...Montana has a lot of casinos. It's nothing special for me. I did play a lot of Bingo on my Disney cruise; it was as much about the bad jokes and general atmosphere as the game itself for me. And no skill? You've never watched me scramble to punch numbers when I've bought too many cards for one sitting.

On the adult with no kids front: I went as a solo adult on DCL and loved it. If I go again, it'll be either solo again or with one other adult. I honestly didn't even notice the kids on the ship most of the time, since apart from Marvel Day at Sea and the pirate party I didn't really spend time in the same areas/doing the same activities as the children. I kept pretty busy, too, apart from the day I just chilled out in the adults-only pool area. I met two other solo adults on the trip, and I'm sure there were plenty of adults-only families/groups I didn't personally meet. I was never made to feel out of place.

On the Disney feel front: I used to think it wouldn't feel particularly Disney, too. That it'd just be a bunch of characters in a neutral location and the Disney aspects would feel out of place rather than central to the cruise. Then I went on the cruise and that wasn't how I felt about it at all while I was there. It's not Disney in the sense that it's a Disney park, but it's very Disney in the sense that it feels like a WDW resort hotel. The decor, the demeanor of the CMs, the little things like the announcement tone being a line from a Disney song...it felt like I was at a Disney resort.

My verdict: I enjoyed the heck out of my Disney cruise...but I'm honestly pretty torn on whether my next trip will be DCL or WDW. As a solo traveler I actually found it easier to keep my mind "in the moment" on the cruise than I often do when I'm alone in the parks. I don't know if that's just because it was more novel for me than the parks are at this point in my life, because I made the choice not to get a data package and didn't have the internet to distract me, or if it's because of the nature of the travel style and the activities offered. I definitely found it much easier to make connections with the people I met; the CMs who ran the types of activities I attended quickly learned my name, I met several other solo travelers I regularly sat with whenever we went to the same activities, and I'd run into the same people multiple times and have things to talk about with them while in line for characters, etc. because we'd actually met before. At WDW I can strike up a conversation here and there, but it's so big that you're never going to see the same person twice. There are advantages to that, of course (sometimes I do like to just be left alone), but it makes for a different vacation feel.

On the other hand, I adore the attractions at WDW, and I like having a wider range of places to go and things to do on any given day. I like the wide array of restaurants (and because I'm a solo traveler it's not as hard for me to get in at the last minute, so I don't have the disadvantage of having to plan so extensively). Though I liked the social connections on my cruise, I do also sometimes like not to feel like I need to make conversation, and being solo in WDW is a constant free pass to opt out of that by just not striking up conversations with anyone. And did I mention the attractions? I've always loved rides in general and I'm fascinated by animatronics.

So I don't know. I plan to do one or the other following the 2020 WDW Marathon, and I'm still drawing up all kinds of itineraries and options and comparisons to try to convince myself one way or the other. Both appeal in some ways, both fail to appeal in some ways. Both are expensive. Both would be fine ways to recover from a marathon, and both would be fun ways to get some me-time away from home and work. The problem isn't that one is better than the other; the problem is that they're similarly priced vacations with completely different approaches and feels to them and I'm stuck comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Lilsia]

Well I'm obsessed with it all! WDW/DL, DCL, Aulani. I don't care where I am going just as long as I CAN go. My girls and I really do love the cruise. I asked my oldest where she wanted to go next year as a graduation trip and she picked a Disney cruise. And this was out of anywhere in the world.

 

[dvcdisney]

We want to go to the real Europe eventually but are waiting until my younger one can appreciate it since she’s only 2 and won’t remember

For us, going on a Disney Cruise to Europe is our way of visiting Europe without being overwhelmed. We have already decided that since we can't do all the things we wanted on our upcoming Norwegian/Iceland Cruise, we would go back and try to do a land tour with Copenhagen, Norway and Sweden.

When we did the 12night British Isle cruise last year, we felt that we travelled so much and saw so many things. There are a few places we'd like to go back to, but it was so port intensive that we thought we really experience a lot of UK and what is has to offer. I'm sure there are far more places that we saw, but it was amazing and felt we had a wonderful vacation.

 

[cruiser21]

Well I'm obsessed with it all! WDW/DL, DCL, Aulani. I don't care where I am going just as long as I CAN go. My girls and I really do love the cruise. I asked my oldest where she wanted to go next year as a graduation trip and she picked a Disney cruise. And this was out of anywhere in the world.

Consider yourself lucky. My son wants to go to China when he graduates. The thought of a 20 hour flight makes me cringe.

 

[mmmears]

Well I'm obsessed with it all! WDW/DL, DCL, Aulani. I don't care where I am going just as long as I CAN go. My girls and I really do love the cruise. I asked my oldest where she wanted to go next year as a graduation trip and she picked a Disney cruise. And this was out of anywhere in the world.

Mine just said that she would prefer to go somewhere new, and see places she's never seen before. Luckily (for me) I was able to find a way to combine that with a Disney Cruise.

 

[darnheather]

Off topic. With casinos coming to many states near you soon, I wonder if the onboard casino trend will continue to be so popular and if future ships will be built without them. Of course then other lines would have to increase the cost of the fare to make up for it.

 

[Lilsia]

Consider yourself lucky. My son wants to go to China when he graduates. The thought of a 20 hour flight makes me cringe.

I thought for sure that she was going to say Japan since she is taking Japanese. But I think she is letting the flight sway her choice. But if in a few years when she matures and changes her mind, we might go then.

 

[Lilsia]

Off topic. With casinos coming to many states near you soon, I wonder if the onboard casino trend will continue to be so popular and if future ships will be built without them. Of course then other lines would have to increase the cost of the fare to make up for it.

I don't get the draw of casinos on a ship. It is just one different thing to do. If having a casino on a ship is make or break for someone, then maybe cruising is not for them. If I was that into gambling I would go to Vegas instead.

 

[dvcdisney]

Off topic. With casinos coming to many states near you soon, I wonder if the onboard casino trend will continue to be so popular and if future ships will be built without them. Of course then other lines would have to increase the cost of the fare to make up for it.

I wouldn't assume it would change. I think casinos are a major draw for these cruise ships. I believe my family and I (and some others in this thread) are in the minority in this case, we love the fact that DCL doesn't have a casino.

Even though I don't like casinos and I didn't appreciate it on my one NCL Escape cruise, I think it's here to stay for quite a while. However, I wish these cruise line would keep in a certain area where for those of us who don't want to participate don't have to walk through it to get to where we want to go. This was our issue with NCL Escape. I think RCL Allure was better at placing it somewhere where it was much less obtrusive.

 

[cruiser21]

I thought for sure that she was going to say Japan since she is taking Japanese. But I think she is letting the flight sway her choice. But if in a few years when she matures and changes her mind, we might go then.

I'm pretty mature and it still sways my choices. I feel like time stands still when you're on a plane.

 

[longboard55]

I did not like cruises until I went on a Disney cruise. All you can eat seems to be the big selling point, who cares.