We have taken 9 Disney cruises........so that should let you know HOW much we love sailing with The Mouse! However, If we were going to take a Disney cruise this summer......it was going to cost us $6700, w/o plane fare if we were going to do a 7 day. So, with a VERY heavy heart, I booked a 7 day on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas. I was expecting this to NOT be as good as a Disney cruise.........after all....who KNOWS customer service like Disney? There are positives to both cruise lines. RCCL could learn a few things from Disney, as could Disney from RCCL.
Embarkation: Both cruise lines do a great job of quickly getting you on the ship. We were eating lunch by 11:30.
Topsiders/Windjammers: Personally, I liked Windjammers better. Better food, and the "flow" of people was better. Their breakfast before disembarking was 100% better than a Topsiders breakfast.
Wait staff: I have been on Disney cruises where I had top notch service.....and I've had cruises where it was so-so. For this cruise on RCCL, I had better than any service that I've had on Disney. That is not to say I could cruise next week, and get so-so service on RCCL. I think it is a gamble on both.
Food: I think RCCL has the upper hand on this one. We never even tried their specialty dining, since the food in the regular dining room was SO good. One night they had a warm chocolate dessert, that I LOVED. (GASP!.....Dare I say it was better than chocolate souffle???) Our waiter noticed that I ate two of them, and raved about them. He made a mental note of this, then talked to his supervisor, the head waiter. Two nights later, when there was nothing "chocolate" on the dessert menu, our waiter brought out 6 of these for us! What agreat surprise......HOWEVER.....on Disney, I've also eaten a Palo souffle in the dining room too as a nice surprise!
Cruise Directors hands down to RCCL here! Allen was EVERYWHERE....in regular clothes, not a stiff officer's uniform. He was on deck, actually participating in the games. He also has a GREAT sense of humor, and makes some pretty funny comments along the way! I can't say enough GOOD things about the RCCL cruise director! Brent and Rachel (Disney) are good.......I just liked Allen better!
Private Island: Hands down......DISNEY! We went to Labadee, Haiti. While they try and make it very nice. Disney CREATED their island. RCCL, just rents this. The bar-b-que isn't nearly as good as Cookies. Also, getting all those people back on the ship was a nightmare! However, the water is just as pretty.
Rooms: Disney has bigger rooms, for sure. However, with the lower price we were able to have 2 adjoining rooms, and that worked out nice. The rooms on The Liberty had enough storage/cubbie holes, that we never needed the over the door shoe holder that I brought. The closets also had lots of shelf room. While we were not in our rooms much, the flat screen tv was nice....and it is easy to check you onboard spending through your tv.
Hallways: Disney does a better job of keeping the halls clear. Room service trays and vacuums are a common sight in the halls, but that didn't impact the trip enough for me to discount RCCL again.
Staying in Touch: RCCL has these "dec" phones. They are like cell phones that you rent from them $25.00 a week for each one. You can call rooms or each other with them. No interferance from others, like walkies! Good Job, RCCL!
Activites: My children are teenagers.....so having the flowrider and rock wall and ice rink were big pluses for us. While they LOVE a Disney cruise, they are not into the characters anymore. The H2O zone and the pools are, in my opinion, better on The Liberty. The adult pool is VERY nice, and Disney should maybe take note of how elegant it is for their next ship. Little kids seemed to never tire of playing in that H2O zone. The family pool was also very nice, and very large.....but then again, it is a larger ship. Until now, we were very satisfied with The Magic.
Adult areas: RCCL should take a lesson from Disney on this one. Disney is VERY good at keeping the adult areas off limits to kids. I think RCCL is too afraid to make someone mad. While it was never bad.....I think they should patrol it more.
Entertainment: Disney has GREAT shows, and so did The Liberty. I saw a wonderful cirque de solie (sp?) show that was fantastic! It was nice to see different comedians than on Disney. (I think if I had to see that talking tennis ball again, I would scream!) Adult shows DO mean adult. There were "f bombs" flying at the 12:15am comedy show. So really, I think both lines have good things to offer here. You just have to decide what is better for you and your family. If you have little ones....you probably wouldn't be at a 12:00 show anyways. By the way.......this ship is jumping 24 hours a day! When my husband and I went to bed at 2:30 the party was just starting!
Coffee: DH and I LOVE our coffee. And, I think Disney has the worst! RCCL offers Seattle's Best, and it is free.
Snack Food: Food on the Grand Promanade is outstanding! Pizza, sandwiches, pasta, salads...WONDERFUL! (Personally...the pizza in Serrentos way beats out Pluto's pizza!) The bakery in Cafe Promanade has some of the best cookies, cakes, brownies that I've ever had. All free! The snacks available all day in Windjammers also was very good. Nachos, fruit, lemonade, tea.......very good.
Childrens Clubs: I'm sorry I can't give you more on this. They do have clubs for different ages....and my kids enjoyed the teen clubs at night. I saw clubs for younger kids. However, I don't THINK they have anything for kids under 3 to do. They have a parent/tot class that you can take young babies to, but parents stay with them. I never saw anything for hourly babysitting....but that was because maybe I wasn't in need of it.
Disembarking: Getting off the ship was a mess.......but that was not RCCL's fault, I think. Customs was VERY busy in Miami. I wonder if it will be easier on The Freedom of The Seas next summer when we take her out of Port Canaveral.
All in all...........both are GREAT cruise lines. If my children were very young....Disney would be the better choice, if I could afford it. However, if your kids are older, and at least 52 inches (to do flowrider).....you will find your money well spent on The Liberty of the Seas. I still love Disney, and look forward to seeing what is on their new ships. However,we rebooked a 7 day western caribbean cruise on RCCL for next June. We got 2 adjoining cabins for 4 people for $5100. I came home and priced the same cruise on The Magic. I tried a cat 10 for 4 people (1 room) and they quoted me $7,061.00. As much as I love Disney, I can't justify the price.
No flames please........I was so sad not to be able to take the Magic this summer. I SO wanted someone's HONEST opinion of The Liberty before I booked. I hope this helps.
UPDATE: Since my original post, RCCL has dropped the price of my cruise several times. I now have 2 interior, adjoining rooms(2 people per room).....deck 7.... each room with a $100.00 onboard credit.....each room was $2,021.00. (7 day/western caribbean with trip insurance) We sail 6/21/09! On 6/7/09....I checked the DCL website. I could get a 7 day western cruise on the Magic, departing 6/27/09, for 4 people, in a cat 10. (one room) for $6,631.60....with trip insurance.
NEW UPDATE: We rebooked while on our 6/09 Freedom cruise. Origianlly, we booked The Oasis. But.....after thinking it over......we decided that we needed to wait for those prices to come down. We switched to The Freedom (coming out of drydock 4/10). We got 2 connecting interior rooms.....each room with $100.00 OBC.....total price for the 4 of us for 7 days.....$4,125.00. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Embarkation: Both cruise lines do a great job of quickly getting you on the ship. We were eating lunch by 11:30.
Topsiders/Windjammers: Personally, I liked Windjammers better. Better food, and the "flow" of people was better. Their breakfast before disembarking was 100% better than a Topsiders breakfast.
Wait staff: I have been on Disney cruises where I had top notch service.....and I've had cruises where it was so-so. For this cruise on RCCL, I had better than any service that I've had on Disney. That is not to say I could cruise next week, and get so-so service on RCCL. I think it is a gamble on both.
Food: I think RCCL has the upper hand on this one. We never even tried their specialty dining, since the food in the regular dining room was SO good. One night they had a warm chocolate dessert, that I LOVED. (GASP!.....Dare I say it was better than chocolate souffle???) Our waiter noticed that I ate two of them, and raved about them. He made a mental note of this, then talked to his supervisor, the head waiter. Two nights later, when there was nothing "chocolate" on the dessert menu, our waiter brought out 6 of these for us! What agreat surprise......HOWEVER.....on Disney, I've also eaten a Palo souffle in the dining room too as a nice surprise!
Cruise Directors hands down to RCCL here! Allen was EVERYWHERE....in regular clothes, not a stiff officer's uniform. He was on deck, actually participating in the games. He also has a GREAT sense of humor, and makes some pretty funny comments along the way! I can't say enough GOOD things about the RCCL cruise director! Brent and Rachel (Disney) are good.......I just liked Allen better!
Private Island: Hands down......DISNEY! We went to Labadee, Haiti. While they try and make it very nice. Disney CREATED their island. RCCL, just rents this. The bar-b-que isn't nearly as good as Cookies. Also, getting all those people back on the ship was a nightmare! However, the water is just as pretty.
Rooms: Disney has bigger rooms, for sure. However, with the lower price we were able to have 2 adjoining rooms, and that worked out nice. The rooms on The Liberty had enough storage/cubbie holes, that we never needed the over the door shoe holder that I brought. The closets also had lots of shelf room. While we were not in our rooms much, the flat screen tv was nice....and it is easy to check you onboard spending through your tv.
Hallways: Disney does a better job of keeping the halls clear. Room service trays and vacuums are a common sight in the halls, but that didn't impact the trip enough for me to discount RCCL again.
Staying in Touch: RCCL has these "dec" phones. They are like cell phones that you rent from them $25.00 a week for each one. You can call rooms or each other with them. No interferance from others, like walkies! Good Job, RCCL!
Activites: My children are teenagers.....so having the flowrider and rock wall and ice rink were big pluses for us. While they LOVE a Disney cruise, they are not into the characters anymore. The H2O zone and the pools are, in my opinion, better on The Liberty. The adult pool is VERY nice, and Disney should maybe take note of how elegant it is for their next ship. Little kids seemed to never tire of playing in that H2O zone. The family pool was also very nice, and very large.....but then again, it is a larger ship. Until now, we were very satisfied with The Magic.
Adult areas: RCCL should take a lesson from Disney on this one. Disney is VERY good at keeping the adult areas off limits to kids. I think RCCL is too afraid to make someone mad. While it was never bad.....I think they should patrol it more.
Entertainment: Disney has GREAT shows, and so did The Liberty. I saw a wonderful cirque de solie (sp?) show that was fantastic! It was nice to see different comedians than on Disney. (I think if I had to see that talking tennis ball again, I would scream!) Adult shows DO mean adult. There were "f bombs" flying at the 12:15am comedy show. So really, I think both lines have good things to offer here. You just have to decide what is better for you and your family. If you have little ones....you probably wouldn't be at a 12:00 show anyways. By the way.......this ship is jumping 24 hours a day! When my husband and I went to bed at 2:30 the party was just starting!
Coffee: DH and I LOVE our coffee. And, I think Disney has the worst! RCCL offers Seattle's Best, and it is free.
Snack Food: Food on the Grand Promanade is outstanding! Pizza, sandwiches, pasta, salads...WONDERFUL! (Personally...the pizza in Serrentos way beats out Pluto's pizza!) The bakery in Cafe Promanade has some of the best cookies, cakes, brownies that I've ever had. All free! The snacks available all day in Windjammers also was very good. Nachos, fruit, lemonade, tea.......very good.
Childrens Clubs: I'm sorry I can't give you more on this. They do have clubs for different ages....and my kids enjoyed the teen clubs at night. I saw clubs for younger kids. However, I don't THINK they have anything for kids under 3 to do. They have a parent/tot class that you can take young babies to, but parents stay with them. I never saw anything for hourly babysitting....but that was because maybe I wasn't in need of it.
Disembarking: Getting off the ship was a mess.......but that was not RCCL's fault, I think. Customs was VERY busy in Miami. I wonder if it will be easier on The Freedom of The Seas next summer when we take her out of Port Canaveral.
All in all...........both are GREAT cruise lines. If my children were very young....Disney would be the better choice, if I could afford it. However, if your kids are older, and at least 52 inches (to do flowrider).....you will find your money well spent on The Liberty of the Seas. I still love Disney, and look forward to seeing what is on their new ships. However,we rebooked a 7 day western caribbean cruise on RCCL for next June. We got 2 adjoining cabins for 4 people for $5100. I came home and priced the same cruise on The Magic. I tried a cat 10 for 4 people (1 room) and they quoted me $7,061.00. As much as I love Disney, I can't justify the price.
No flames please........I was so sad not to be able to take the Magic this summer. I SO wanted someone's HONEST opinion of The Liberty before I booked. I hope this helps.
UPDATE: Since my original post, RCCL has dropped the price of my cruise several times. I now have 2 interior, adjoining rooms(2 people per room).....deck 7.... each room with a $100.00 onboard credit.....each room was $2,021.00. (7 day/western caribbean with trip insurance) We sail 6/21/09! On 6/7/09....I checked the DCL website. I could get a 7 day western cruise on the Magic, departing 6/27/09, for 4 people, in a cat 10. (one room) for $6,631.60....with trip insurance.
NEW UPDATE: We rebooked while on our 6/09 Freedom cruise. Origianlly, we booked The Oasis. But.....after thinking it over......we decided that we needed to wait for those prices to come down. We switched to The Freedom (coming out of drydock 4/10). We got 2 connecting interior rooms.....each room with $100.00 OBC.....total price for the 4 of us for 7 days.....$4,125.00. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They're looking at January 09.
) ...both of which are of importance to a Adult Only couple with NO children...........and we like dressing up. Don't get me wrong.we love the Mouse. Always.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! 
.........but on ours there was only early and late seating. I heard someone speculate about RCCL going to that......but I don't know any facts. We had the late seating and prefer that. Since our kids are older, it isn't hard to start dinner at 8:30. It makes the most of your afternoons at sea!
