Question for Castaway Club Members

[JARNJ3]

What has been your favorite itinerary?
Which one do you think is the best value for the money?
Or forget money - which one brings you most joy?

 

[Geomom]

We've done 2 cruises so far, both for the itinerary and loved both cruises for different reasons. We set sail on August 8th/August 9th for both...doable with our kids' school schedules and slightly cheaper than July/early August.

First cruise was Alaska on the Wonder--loved all the nature and native culture aspects of that cruise and Vancouver was a great place to explore pre-cruise.

Our second cruise was the Northern European (Baltic Sea) one. It was our first trip to Europe for all but our oldest DD. It was a great way to sample 5 countries and we loved it! Our cruise started in Copenhagen--again a great starting port with tons of things to do! We went to Tallinn, Estonia; St Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden.

 

[DisneyConvert]

Europe . . . or any new, interesting itinerary where I've never been to before.
More please!?

 

[clten]

Our favorite itinerary has been the round trip Hawaii but DCL hasn't offered that in years. The one way Hawaii was good but not quite up to the same level. Our favorite itinerary that DCL still offers is a close call between Alaska and Norwegian Fjords. The scenery on either of these were spectacular. The Alaska cruise was one of the only ones where I was tempted to go to the onboard booking desk to see if we could book the next week and just stay onboard!

Now if you get into value, that's a different answer. For us that is usually a Transatlantic cruise. We very much enjoy sea days and those are full of them but so much fun we usually still don't get to doing everything we plan on - especially once you are onboard and find out all the special activities they have added. But since these usually involve one long international flight, the key to keeping the value is finding great airfare. We've been lucky on our TA cruises and helps that we can easily fly out of any of the NYC area airports.

 

[Marc D]

We’ve done Alaska, multiple Bahamas/Caribbean and a few European cruises. By far, our favourites have been the European cruises because we are more history and culture buffs than beach goers. They are, however, the most expensive cruises DCL offers. The best one so far has been the British Isles cruise, closely followed by the Norwegian Fjords. We would love to do a Panama crossing but both cruises fall in months where we can’t take time off.

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

Our favorite cruise was our second cruise in Dec 2013 on the Dream. 5 day but only 1 CC stop. We had 2 floating at sea days and it was the most relaxing cruise we have had.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

Anything including Castaway Cay is my favorite. We also enjoyed Alaska a lot.

 

[diznymom]

We have only been to the Bahamas, Caribbean and Alaska. Alaska is my favorite so far. We are heading to Hawaii next year and we are talking about a cruise in the Mediterranean.

 

[o&smom]

Every one of our cruises has offered something different for our family. My personal favorite will always be our very first which was a 10 day Med. Love the warm weather on our Caribbean cruises. The Alaska cruise was beautiful and felt the most relaxing. Our “most fun” cruise was the one over New Years. Europe is all about the history that is so beyond that of our country and the different cultures. 14 day Panama Canal Cruise is all about the sea days and all the time on Mickey’s boat! Plus the canal was really cool!

As far as value, it would be transatlantic. It used to also be Panama Canal and repositioning cruises which are still a little better value, but have quickly risen over the last three years.

 

[dclpluto]

Panama Canal , transatlantic, Hawaii, med, Alaska, Quebec. Been on way too many of the same old same old dcl cruises Caribbean and Bahamas I’m done with them until the new ships come out.

All of my One way cruises have been pretty good. Been on seven one way cruises.

 

[AquaDame]

The Southern Caribbeans have been my favorite so far. We'll be on our 4th one this January (it helps that my birthday is in that month). We also really enjoyed Alaska but the itinerary on other lines really IS better - seeing Denali added quite a bit to the vacation overall even though that wasn't part of the cruise per se. For reference we have done the Bahamas 2x, a Halloween Eastern, a Very Merrytime Western, Alaska, Mexican Riviera, Norwegian and three Southerns on DCL.

The best value for money is likely the repo cruises (maybe not the Panama Canal cruises) or basic caribbean itineraries - they sail them year round so off season can be affordable comparatively.

The one that pulls my heartstrings is our Very Merry Christmastime cruise. I loved everything they do for the season and really want to go on another one (though not over actual Christmas this time - it was SO expensive!).

 

[DCLDVC1]

Most enjoyable: Very Merrytime Eastern
Least enjoyable: Mexican Riviera

 

[SamFaniam]

They’ve all been wonderful, except for one anomaly on the Dream. They were just a variety of things that went wrong on that cruise. I have several favorites, which I know doesn’t really answer the question. Took a multi generational trip to Alaska back several years ago, that was really wonderful because of having the big family group. Loved the southern Caribbean itinerary, especially getting to visit Bonaire, such a beautiful place. Our first Disney cruise was on the Magic, this was in 1999, and she is still my favorite ship. The eight night cruise out of New York City a couple years ago was really terrific, four sea days, MDAS, and a stop at Disney World. Just excellent!

 

[JaimeInParker]

we are upto our '10' cruise Nov 2020 and it will be the Eastbound Panama Canal - having said that we have two favorite itineraries based on what you want to do - sitting on the deck and relaxing had to be Hawaii (from the islands to Vancouver) - lots of port excursion had to be Barcelona to Italy then France and back to Barcelona

 

[ScooterScott44]

My “next cruise” will always be my most favorite.

Alaska was nice, Norwegian Fjords/Iceland better which is one of our top trips. Bahamas are ok for a getaway. The E. Caribbean is better for us than the W. Caribbean. WBTA was ok but the EBPC better for a longer itinerary and that one is probably one of our favorites.

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

What has been your favorite itinerary?
Which one do you think is the best value for the money?
Or forget money - which one brings you most joy?

EBTA hands down.

 

[Bonnie1222]

We have done 10 Western Caribbean and 1 Eastern so far, 4 on the Magic and the rest on the Fantasy. We have 2 more Eastern booked. We would love to try other cruises with DCL, but Port Canaveral is a short drive from our house so it is an easy week long vacation for us. We also like the Westerns because it has so many stops.

The Halloween cruises were a lot of fun. We got to see everyone dressed up in costume and there have been some pretty amazing costume on the ship.

We did our first Very Merry last year and the ship is absolutely gorgeous. It is magical, and Christmas is our favorite time of year and we just soak it in. We will be doing the Very Merry again.

Our favorite cruise was one in May a few years back. and I can honestly say it was because we had zero expectations for that trip except to have an escape from reality. We needed a break from the daily grind and that trip was the answer. No special itinerary, no special theme to the cruise, just a plain old Disney Cruise. We didn't have list of things we had to do, no excursions, no fretting over finding a reservation for Palo or getting into tastings. We just went with the flow and did what we felt like at the moment. That ended up being the best cruise.

 

[Madame]

Our Med/Western Europe b2b was hands down our favourite. Loved the mix of fast paced, history heavy ports and relaxing sea days. We prefer Eastern over Western, but unfortunately have only had 1 vs 3. The Eastern doesn’t line up with our dates or a hurricane changes the itinerary to a Western

 

[ivanp91]

Just saying, it's "Castaway Club", not "Castaway Cay Club". I get that there's confusion due to the similar names between the club and the island, but just FYI

 

[Vicki106]

We've done the Caribbean and Bahamas on the Dream and the Fantasy and those were great, but our favorite was the Magic out of New York last year over Thanksgiving Week 2018. We sailed out of Manhattan and stopped in Castaway Cay and then Port Canaveral. On the PC day, everyone received park hopper tickets to WDW. We boarded buses as soon as we cleared Customs and they took us to whatever park we chose. Buses were available to return to the Magic throughout the day. We boarded one of last buses to leave the Magic Kindgom as the fireworks were happening. We got back to the Magic, grabbed a late snack from Cabanas and fell into our beds. It was a great day! The cruise was a Merrytime Cruise, so decorations and holiday activities were everywhere, 4 at sea days, a beautiful sail away past the NYC Skyline and the Statue of Liberty, a stop at Castaway Cay and a day at WDW. For us this was the perfect cruise. We were so disappointed when we found out that this itinerary isn't planned for Thanksgiving week in 2020 and 2021. We totally would have booked this cruise for those years. Fingers crossed for this one reappearing on the schedule for Thanksgiving 2021.