Trip Report: Mariner of the Seas (with some Cocoa Beach, the Space Center and a finish at WDW)

[John VN]

No, I've never had that one. Is it made in-house? I make it a habit to try in-house veggie burgers when I can. The one I had at Nona Blue on the way out of Orlando was pretty good. Though it was a little dry. I had to ask for extra sauce.

I searched for, D-Luxe Veggie Burger photos, and it might very well be a Beyond Burger???? rather than fresh/hand made.

 

[Denise W]

Really loving your trip report! I am a bit worried about being nickeled and dimed to death. DH and I are soda drinkers, but 12 per day seems crazy to me. Only DH will probably get the package.

One very important question. Is there eggs benedict at windjammer? I have this daily on DCL and it is seriously something I look forward to on every cruise.

Do you recall if there are any waterslides that you don't have to purchase a pass for on coco cay? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy the pass for the day.

What are you asking about the sodas - 12 per day? The soda package os about $9 per day, which is about 3 sodas. You aren’t nickled and dimed any more than DCL. I have been on 9 DCL cruises and 9 RCCL cruises.
Denise

 

[John VN]

What are you asking about the sodas - 12 per day? The soda package os about $9 per day, which is about 3 sodas. You aren’t nickled and dimed any more than DCL. I have been on 9 DCL cruises and 9 RCCL cruises.
Denise

With the $$$$ saved when cruising RCCL vs DCL, is it not true that plenty of soda packages can be had and still spend less??? Just don't get the "Nickle & Dime to Death" feelings.

 

[anricat]

Depends on how old your kids are...theres no age limit, they're just mini:

View attachment 413104

View attachment 413105

There was definitely one area that we headed towards and it did have an upper age limit and/or height limit. That might have been the area, actually. I don't recall.

 

[bbel]

There was definitely one area that we headed towards and it did have an upper age limit and/or height limit. That might have been the area, actually. I don't recall.

This is Splash Away Bay.
I know the ones on the ship have a lower height limit (42in) and an upper weight (300lbs) limit, but I dont know about this one on Coco Cay. I didnt get close enough/ or see any obvious signs.

 

[anricat]

According to this, the Splashaway Bay slides have a MAX height of 42 inches, which is in line with what I remember that area being: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/...es-experiences-height-and-weight-requirements

 

[bbel]

According to this, the Splashaway Bay slides have a MAX height of 42 inches, which is in line with what I remember that area being: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/...es-experiences-height-and-weight-requirements

Definitely saw adults on it and have read reports where parents say they have gone down with their kids.

 

[anricat]

Definitely saw adults on it and have read reports where parents say they have gone down with their kids.

View attachment 413691

Well, maybe some parts of it are open for over 42 inches? I mean, definitely parents can monitor their children, but my daughter looked at it with interest and we saw the sign and walked away because it was for under 42 inches. Or maybe they are just defying the rules? Dunno. We saw the sign, we didn't go in.

 

[anricat]

For the sake of completeness, here's the WDW portion of our trip. If you don't need (yet another) WDW trip report, feel free to skip.

This was our fourth time visiting WDW, with our first being four days in April 2013, then we went again for a few days in June 2014, combined with our first ever cruise on the Disney Dream. Our most recent trip in October 2017 was a full week. So for this trip, we were mostly focused on trying a few new things and hitting our favorites. I’m still a planner, though and I had some detailed plans, but I also had some days that were less planned (*gasp*). As I mentioned in the last entry, we split up, with DH returning home. He’s not as big on the parks (definitely prefers cruising) so he wasn’t super sad to miss out.

Since we now know how things work, at this point we can get away with having fewer plans (new folks - don’t try this - I recommend PLANS) and when things don’t go your way, like torrential rain and lightning storms shutting down half the rides for much of the afternoon, throwing everything out of whack, we could roll with it and not worry about it.

I had that aforementioned shiny new Annual Pass burning a hole in my pocket and I knew for sure we would be coming back in February and was hopeful for a trip at the end of the year (I’ve since booked that trip so we’ll be going back November 2019 and February 2020). The Monday that we disembarked and said goodbye to DH, we hit both Epcot and Hollywood Studios, caught the March of the First Order at Hollywood Studios, rode some rides in Future World at Epcot, got caught in a huge drenching downpour, ate at Sci-Fi Dine In Restaurant, and watched the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

Tuesday morning we had tickets for Early Morning Magic in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom and we were able to enter the park at 7:45 with a small group of fellow ticket holders to ride the rides with a reduced wait. We rode Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and finished up by riding Seven Dwarfs Mine Train three times in a row. We could have ridden more, but we decided three in a row was the limit of our tummies. We had fun making wacky faces for the on-ride photos. We then hit Space Mountain at rope drop with approximately 8 million other people (plus or minus a million) and then enjoyed the included breakfast with our tickets (which was actually really pretty tasty). I never want to rope drop Space Mountain again. It was actually sort of a terrifying crush of people.

We spent the rest of Tuesday riding various rides at the Magic Kingdom with our pre-reserved Fast Passes and then whatever else we could get Fast Passes for after those were used up. We also played some Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, which is officially one of DD's most favorite things that we discovered on our last trip and a great activity for when lines get long in the afternoon. After we enjoyed what I have decided is probably one of the best parades on the planet with the most amazing costumes and the awesomely over the top Maleficent steampunk dragon, we went back to our lovely hotel to relax and chill out. I absolutely fell in love with Wilderness Lodge and DD enjoyed a bit of late afternoon swimming before it was time for our dinner reservation at Artist Point with Snow White, Grumpy, Dopey, and the Evil Queen who is one of my top character interactions (Stitch and Chip and Dale are high up as well). The food was absolutely amazing and we finished off the evening with some s’mores by the campfire at the hotel before getting to bed early.

Wednesday morning found us at another ticketed Early Morning Magic event, this time at Hollywood Studios. I decided that this was really going to be the best way for us to get to ride the new Slinky Dog Dash rollercoaster. We rode it three time and also had fun with the ride photos. It’s a fantastic coaster and while the breakfast wasn’t as good at this event, I’m super glad we did it and didn’t have to stress about Fast Passes (or rope drop) for it and Toy Story Midway Mania. I also liked the other new ride: Alien Swirling Saucers much more than I anticipated that I would.

After a quick meet with Buzz Lightyear, we left the park just as the rope drop line for Slinky Dog Dash was coming all the way out of Toy Story Land and into the rest of the park and growing longer by the minute. Yikes. We took the bus to Animal Kingdom and arrived mid-morning with all the people who probably should have been rope dropping. It was fine though, we had plans and Fast Passes and a lunch reservation at one of my favorite WDW buffets: Tusker House. We had a strange truncated and unscripted bird show because they were having technical difficulties and I got a little emotional at “Festival of the Lion King” (I always get a little teary during “Circle of Life,” I’m sorry, but that is one of the best songs Elton John has ever written). We also got caught in another insane downpour and had to wait it out for awhile. We killed time by attending “It’s Tough To Be a Bug” which is awful and nobody should ever go see it, except that it affords a pretty great view up close to the Tree of Life when entering and exiting. But seriously, Disney, fix that show. We had always skipped it before because it had less than stellar reviews, but we didn’t know what else to do. Pretty much anything else would have been better.

We traveled back to our hotel and enjoyed the other table service restaurant at Wilderness Lodge, Whispering Canyon. We did, in fact, order the ketchup because DD legit wanted it for her chicken. When you order ketchup at Whispering Canyon, they bring EVERY SINGLE BOTTLE in the entire restaurant to the table. When someone else needs ketchup, you and others around are responsible for rounding up the ketchup and delivering it there. We set out after dinner to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the best fireworks in the world (yes, the world, no, I’m not exaggerating). Then we enjoyed a fairly empty and low key boat ride back to our hotel. It beats the pants off that stupid bus area at the Magic Kingdom. Did I mention I loved Wilderness Lodge?

Thursday was our final day at WDW and we had to check out of Wilderness Lodge (*CRY*) and move to All Star Music for one night. I had rented someone else’s timeshare points way in advance and then when it was time to book flights, it ended up being hundreds of dollars cheaper for us to fly home the next day so I got a cheap room for that extra night. We gave our luggage to bell services for them to move to the new hotel for us and we went to the Magic Kingdom for the morning. We had a few Fast Passes and I think we used a couple, rearranged one and then made a couple more, but ultimately, we mostly ended up playing a lot of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and another game in Adventureland that was also a sort of scavenger hunt game that is Pirates of the Caribbean themed. We also waited out yet another insane torrential downpour. I’m telling you, June in Orlando is crazy! The same things happened to us a couple of years ago at Universal. Every day brought INSANE downpours. I might be done with June in Orlando, ya’ll.

We left and went to check into our new accommodations, which were fine, but not as nice as our previous ones. We pressed some pennies in the machines and relaxed our poor aching feet before making our way back over to Hollywood Studios to eat dinner at 50’s Prime Time Cafe, which DD loves, not so much for the food, but because she likes the tiny TVs showing old 50’s sitcoms and the waitstaff who chide you if you put your elbows on the table or use your “walkie talkie” during dinner. I think we rode Star Tours again because there was hardly any wait, did a little shopping, pressed some pennies and then found a spot to watch the new “Wonderful World of Animation” show as well as the “Galactic Spectacular” fireworks, which are super awesome (and have been updated since we saw them to include footage from the most recent Star Wars movies). It was a good last day: a few rides, a good meal, some fireworks and some laid back fun. It was nice to go without a concrete plan and see where the day took us.

In my next entry, I’ll take a moment to recap my final thoughts about Royal Caribbean (which DH is pretty much in agreement with).

 

[anricat]

And now we revisit the big question, are we cruise people or are we Disney cruise people? Well, I will say, I think that my heart does, in fact, belong to Disney. That said, we did have a good time on Royal. There were some ups and downs and it was a lot of fun to have some new experiences. I’ve seen other break down their thoughts category by category and I think that’s helpful, so I’m going to take a stab at it.

Ship Feel/Aesthetics/Cleanliness
I will say that from the outside, the look of Disney’s fleet are hand-down, the most beautiful cruise ships on the sea. Period. Inside, in the public spaces I thought that the Mariner was quite nice, having just been overhauled and updated. The public areas all seemed really sleek and nice and definitely felt on par with DCL in terms of decor. That said, everything was always LOUD in the public areas. I prefer the bright cheery atrium on DCL with it’s big portholes and quiet music. Promenade was lit up nicely, but it was always bustling with people heading to and from the bars there.

Speaking of bars, there are 13 of them on Mariner of the Seas. WHO NEEDS THAT MANY BARS?! There was alcohol everywhere. They even had a makeshift bar table set up outside of Windjammer at all hours. Everyone could get started early with the drinking at 7 AM with their mimosas and bloody marys. I’m not saying there isn’t drinking on DCL or even that there isn’t drinking pretty much everywhere, and maybe it was just because this was a 3-day weekend cruise, but there were a look of boozin’ and cruisin’ folks on board. Even if it weren’t a 3-night, 13 bars? Really? You can’t take just one of those venues and have a space for additional included quick service food or maybe a place for family activities?

My final ship interior gripe were the smoking areas. There were lots more of them than on DCL and one of them took up half a pool deck. I kept accidentally walking down that side of the pool deck. I mean, it basically rendered an entire chunk of the pool deck unusable to me. Very disappointing.

Stateroom
While the public areas were all completely redone during Mariner’s recent dry dock, the staterooms did not get a refresh on the Mariner and it really showed. The drawers (what limited numbers of them we had) were all small and hard to open and make horrible squeaking and grinding noises. There were shelves in the closet, but they were way in to the side and hard to access. I prefer the layout of the drawers and closet on DCL. We barely fit three days worth of stuff in there. I can’t imagine going for a week or longer and fitting it all in! I did like the bed and pillows and found them as comfortable as DCL and others traveling with other family configs would probably like the ability to split the bed into two twins. Emmaline’s bed was an upper berth above ours (DCL’s is usually above the couch when they have the upper berth, otherwise, Emmaline sleeps on the sofa bed, which she finds comfortable). The problem was that the stateroom host left it down all the time and even though it was over the bed, it felt in the way. Roger clocked himself in the head multiple times. In terms of cleanliness, I felt like the ship was kept clean and seemed in good repair (other than the aforementioned drawers).

Food
The food on Royal in the buffet and main dining room was on par with the taste quality of DCL, with the exception of the desserts. I feel like I enjoyed the Royal desserts more. Disney just can’t do desserts. I’ve always felt that way with the exception of a few specific items I like, everything is just so sweet. I know, duh, it’s dessert, it’s supposed to be sweet, but I just don’t like cloyingly sweet stuff. There’s a certain refinement and presentation that is lacking on Royal, however. I feel that the dishes on DCL are more creative overall and that the presentation is nicer. DCL also has the edge in terms of restaurant theming and selection and I feel that the vegetarian options are more plentiful and creative on DCL.

My main food complaint on Mariner was the lack of mid-afternoon snack options. The buffet closed generally at 3 PM and opened again for dinner at 6 PM. I know, I know, a whole THREE HOURS without access to food. But, honestly, I often get a mid-afternoon hankering for a little snack and there was nothing to be found. You could wait in a freakishly long long for pizza or sandwiches at Cafe Promenade or have a hot dog or potato salad (!?!) up on the pool deck. Or you could pay for Johnny Rockets or Starbucks. On DCL, you can have pizza, various grill items (hamburgers, etc.) fries, fruit, salad, sandwiches, wraps, cookies, schwarma, and more up on the pool deck or little treats in Cove Cafe like mini cupcakes, or other little pastries. Even when Cabanas is open on DCL, you can enjoy these items for lunch right on the pool deck. I had an amazing panini by the pool deck from Daisy’s for lunch on our last DCL cruise without having to deal with the bustle of the buffet.

Activities
Royal didn’t have any family activities to speak of. That was a disappointment for us. We missed all the various things we like to do on DCL. No baby racing, vegetable car building, hula hoop contests, character dance parties, and much more we’ve come to enjoy on DCL. That said, we did like some other new dry activities like Sky Pad and rock climbing wall, which DCL doesn’t have. DCL does have mini golf on their big ships (and I would say Mariner is akin to those ships).

Kids Club
Emmaline preferred the club on Royal. Yes, it was smaller and perhaps less fancy and more low-tech, but she really enjoyed the activities a lot more and because the kids are broken up into smaller age groups (she was with 9-11 year olds instead of being with 3-12 year olds) there are a smaller number of children and activities could be tailored more for specific age groups. It’s hard to find activities that appeal to both 3 year olds AND 12 year olds. I think if DCL had smaller, less overwhelming spaces and smaller age groups, she would be happier. On our next cruise, she’ll be able to also visit the 11-14 year old club. We’ll see how she feels about that. She’s visited before during open house and felt like the kids were much older, but that was when she was 10. She’ll be 11 on our next cruise and nearly 12 on the cruise after that so her perceptions may change. One thing we didn’t like about the kids club was the hours. They seemed odd and limited at times. DCL has pretty extensive hours between its two main kids clubs.

App/Technology/Communication
Royal doesn’t have a chat feature in its app and while DCL’s is far far from perfect, it’s something. If we didn’t have an Internet package as part of The Key, it would have been nearly impossible to keep in touch with one another when separated. Otherwise, I did like that Royal loaded some activities into the app prior to sailing. However, I was disappointed when things changed once on board, so it was sort of a “why bother?” situation.

Private Island
I have to say, CocoCay was really nice. I liked that it had a combination of the waterpark for those that want a little more (and not just beach) as well as lots of different beach areas. One feature I really liked was the towel exchange where you could swap out your wet towels for fresh ones. Maybe Castaway Cay has this and I never noticed? I also really liked the food on CocoCay. There were so many options and they all were really tasty and fresh. I was extremely impressed in that regard. The negatives for CocoCay were the smoking areas (there were I think 11 of them in total) and all the behind the scenes stuff being…well, not behind the scenes. I’m not sure how DCL does it, but Castaway Cay just has such a beautiful look and feel and you see nothing happening behind the scenes. Both islands are beautiful, but we really enjoyed having the waterpark to play in and I felt like it was worth the upcharge.

Cost
There were three main reasons we decided to try another line. One reason was to try something different, obviously, and another was to test the waters to potentially open up different/longer/more unique itineraries, but there was a third reason and that is cost. DCL has four ships in high demand and it’s also a premium product. They charge more. Period. Even if you factor in drink packages or extras, most times, it’s cheaper to sail a comparable itinerary on another line. For this cruise, the three of us were able to sail for a couple thousand dollars less than a comparable itinerary with comparable room than on the Dream. That’s a pretty big difference. The one thing I didn’t like that was money-related was the feeling that I was being asked to pay extra for a bunch of stuff. It’s one thing to offer extras for an upcharge, but I felt like it was constantly in my face. In the weeks leading up to the cruise, my inbox was stuffed to the gills every day asking me to buy all kinds of drink packages and extra dining. When we got onboard we were bombarded with it and every time we walked into a restaurant, we were asked if we had a dining package or reservations at the upcharge restaurants. It felt tacky and cheap.

Conclusion
Okay, so after all this, what do we think? What do we book next? Well, here’s the deal, we’ve currently got two cruises booked: a Southern Caribbean and a Greek Isles cruise and both are with DCL. We didn’t even consider another line for the Southern and we did consider Royal for the Greek cruise and ultimately decided to stick with DCL even though it was more expensive.

I would consider Royal (or another line) again in the future to try a different ship or maybe for a unique itinerary. I would also consider it for a very port intensive cruise where we basically know we are going to be off the ship every single day and just need a hot meal and a bed at the end of the day. (Though, I would hope whatever ship we would sail on would have better storage.) One could argue that the Greek cruise could potentially fit that bill, but the Royal cruise we considered had a couple of sea days and a less compelling itinerary. Plus, we have a bunch of friends that we’ve made on DCL cruises over the last 5 years that we look forward to sailing with who have also booked the DCL Greek Isles cruise.

So there we have it, I think Disney has my heart. We had a great time and I don’t regret going, but I found that I had a preference overall for DCL. We’ll probably sail Royal or maybe Norwegian in the future, but when we can afford to sail DCL, that’s what we’ll likely choose.

 

[John VN]

And now we revisit the big question, are we cruise people or are we Disney cruise people? Well, I will say, I think that my heart does, in fact, belong to Disney. That said, we did have a good time on Royal. There were some ups and downs and it was a lot of fun to have some new experiences. I’ve seen other break down their thoughts category by category and I think that’s helpful, so I’m going to take a stab at it.

Ship Feel/Aesthetics/Cleanliness
I will say that from the outside, the look of Disney’s fleet are hand-down, the most beautiful cruise ships on the sea. Period. Inside, in the public spaces I thought that the Mariner was quite nice, having just been overhauled and updated. The public areas all seemed really sleek and nice and definitely felt on par with DCL in terms of decor. That said, everything was always LOUD in the public areas. I prefer the bright cheery atrium on DCL with it’s big portholes and quiet music. Promenade was lit up nicely, but it was always bustling with people heading to and from the bars there.

Speaking of bars, there are 13 of them on Mariner of the Seas. WHO NEEDS THAT MANY BARS?! There was alcohol everywhere. They even had a makeshift bar table set up outside of Windjammer at all hours. Everyone could get started early with the drinking at 7 AM with their mimosas and bloody marys. I’m not saying there isn’t drinking on DCL or even that there isn’t drinking pretty much everywhere, and maybe it was just because this was a 3-day weekend cruise, but there were a look of boozin’ and cruisin’ folks on board. Even if it weren’t a 3-night, 13 bars? Really? You can’t take just one of those venues and have a space for additional included quick service food or maybe a place for family activities?

My final ship interior gripe were the smoking areas. There were lots more of them than on DCL and one of them took up half a pool deck. I kept accidentally walking down that side of the pool deck. I mean, it basically rendered an entire chunk of the pool deck unusable to me. Very disappointing.

Stateroom
While the public areas were all completely redone during Mariner’s recent dry dock, the staterooms did not get a refresh on the Mariner and it really showed. The drawers (what limited numbers of them we had) were all small and hard to open and make horrible squeaking and grinding noises. There were shelves in the closet, but they were way in to the side and hard to access. I prefer the layout of the drawers and closet on DCL. We barely fit three days worth of stuff in there. I can’t imagine going for a week or longer and fitting it all in! I did like the bed and pillows and found them as comfortable as DCL and others traveling with other family configs would probably like the ability to split the bed into two twins. Emmaline’s bed was an upper berth above ours (DCL’s is usually above the couch when they have the upper berth, otherwise, Emmaline sleeps on the sofa bed, which she finds comfortable). The problem was that the stateroom host left it down all the time and even though it was over the bed, it felt in the way. Roger clocked himself in the head multiple times. In terms of cleanliness, I felt like the ship was kept clean and seemed in good repair (other than the aforementioned drawers).

Food
The food on Royal in the buffet and main dining room was on par with the taste quality of DCL, with the exception of the desserts. I feel like I enjoyed the Royal desserts more. Disney just can’t do desserts. I’ve always felt that way with the exception of a few specific items I like, everything is just so sweet. I know, duh, it’s dessert, it’s supposed to be sweet, but I just don’t like cloyingly sweet stuff. There’s a certain refinement and presentation that is lacking on Royal, however. I feel that the dishes on DCL are more creative overall and that the presentation is nicer. DCL also has the edge in terms of restaurant theming and selection and I feel that the vegetarian options are more plentiful and creative on DCL.

My main food complaint on Mariner was the lack of mid-afternoon snack options. The buffet closed generally at 3 PM and opened again for dinner at 6 PM. I know, I know, a whole THREE HOURS without access to food. But, honestly, I often get a mid-afternoon hankering for a little snack and there was nothing to be found. You could wait in a freakishly long long for pizza or sandwiches at Cafe Promenade or have a hot dog or potato salad (!?!) up on the pool deck. Or you could pay for Johnny Rockets or Starbucks. On DCL, you can have pizza, various grill items (hamburgers, etc.) fries, fruit, salad, sandwiches, wraps, cookies, schwarma, and more up on the pool deck or little treats in Cove Cafe like mini cupcakes, or other little pastries. Even when Cabanas is open on DCL, you can enjoy these items for lunch right on the pool deck. I had an amazing panini by the pool deck from Daisy’s for lunch on our last DCL cruise without having to deal with the bustle of the buffet.

Activities
Royal didn’t have any family activities to speak of. That was a disappointment for us. We missed all the various things we like to do on DCL. No baby racing, vegetable car building, hula hoop contests, character dance parties, and much more we’ve come to enjoy on DCL. That said, we did like some other new dry activities like Sky Pad and rock climbing wall, which DCL doesn’t have. DCL does have mini golf on their big ships (and I would say Mariner is akin to those ships).

Kids Club
Emmaline preferred the club on Royal. Yes, it was smaller and perhaps less fancy and more low-tech, but she really enjoyed the activities a lot more and because the kids are broken up into smaller age groups (she was with 9-11 year olds instead of being with 3-12 year olds) there are a smaller number of children and activities could be tailored more for specific age groups. It’s hard to find activities that appeal to both 3 year olds AND 12 year olds. I think if DCL had smaller, less overwhelming spaces and smaller age groups, she would be happier. On our next cruise, she’ll be able to also visit the 11-14 year old club. We’ll see how she feels about that. She’s visited before during open house and felt like the kids were much older, but that was when she was 10. She’ll be 11 on our next cruise and nearly 12 on the cruise after that so her perceptions may change. One thing we didn’t like about the kids club was the hours. They seemed odd and limited at times. DCL has pretty extensive hours between its two main kids clubs.

App/Technology/Communication
Royal doesn’t have a chat feature in its app and while DCL’s is far far from perfect, it’s something. If we didn’t have an Internet package as part of The Key, it would have been nearly impossible to keep in touch with one another when separated. Otherwise, I did like that Royal loaded some activities into the app prior to sailing. However, I was disappointed when things changed once on board, so it was sort of a “why bother?” situation.

Private Island
I have to say, CocoCay was really nice. I liked that it had a combination of the waterpark for those that want a little more (and not just beach) as well as lots of different beach areas. One feature I really liked was the towel exchange where you could swap out your wet towels for fresh ones. Maybe Castaway Cay has this and I never noticed? I also really liked the food on CocoCay. There were so many options and they all were really tasty and fresh. I was extremely impressed in that regard. The negatives for CocoCay were the smoking areas (there were I think 11 of them in total) and all the behind the scenes stuff being…well, not behind the scenes. I’m not sure how DCL does it, but Castaway Cay just has such a beautiful look and feel and you see nothing happening behind the scenes. Both islands are beautiful, but we really enjoyed having the waterpark to play in and I felt like it was worth the upcharge.

Cost
There were three main reasons we decided to try another line. One reason was to try something different, obviously, and another was to test the waters to potentially open up different/longer/more unique itineraries, but there was a third reason and that is cost. DCL has four ships in high demand and it’s also a premium product. They charge more. Period. Even if you factor in drink packages or extras, most times, it’s cheaper to sail a comparable itinerary on another line. For this cruise, the three of us were able to sail for a couple thousand dollars less than a comparable itinerary with comparable room than on the Dream. That’s a pretty big difference. The one thing I didn’t like that was money-related was the feeling that I was being asked to pay extra for a bunch of stuff. It’s one thing to offer extras for an upcharge, but I felt like it was constantly in my face. In the weeks leading up to the cruise, my inbox was stuffed to the gills every day asking me to buy all kinds of drink packages and extra dining. When we got onboard we were bombarded with it and every time we walked into a restaurant, we were asked if we had a dining package or reservations at the upcharge restaurants. It felt tacky and cheap.

Conclusion
Okay, so after all this, what do we think? What do we book next? Well, here’s the deal, we’ve currently got two cruises booked: a Southern Caribbean and a Greek Isles cruise and both are with DCL. We didn’t even consider another line for the Southern and we did consider Royal for the Greek cruise and ultimately decided to stick with DCL even though it was more expensive.

I would consider Royal (or another line) again in the future to try a different ship or maybe for a unique itinerary. I would also consider it for a very port intensive cruise where we basically know we are going to be off the ship every single day and just need a hot meal and a bed at the end of the day. (Though, I would hope whatever ship we would sail on would have better storage.) One could argue that the Greek cruise could potentially fit that bill, but the Royal cruise we considered had a couple of sea days and a less compelling itinerary. Plus, we have a bunch of friends that we’ve made on DCL cruises over the last 5 years that we look forward to sailing with who have also booked the DCL Greek Isles cruise.

So there we have it, I think Disney has my heart. We had a great time and I don’t regret going, but I found that I had a preference overall for DCL. We’ll probably sail Royal or maybe Norwegian in the future, but when we can afford to sail DCL, that’s what we’ll likely choose.

Thanks much for the "Whole Report"

Our upcoming Mariner is a 4 Day in a stern 2 bedroom suite so we have a few Concierge Perks that should be nice plus at a much lower cost than DCL.

 

[tz2989]

Speaking of bars, there are 13 of them on Mariner of the Seas. WHO NEEDS THAT MANY BARS?! There was alcohol everywhere. They even had a makeshift bar table set up outside of Windjammer at all hours. Everyone could get started early with the drinking at 7 AM with their mimosas and bloody marys. I’m not saying there isn’t drinking on DCL or even that there isn’t drinking pretty much everywhere, and maybe it was just because this was a 3-day weekend cruise, but there were a look of boozin’ and cruisin’ folks on board. Even if it weren’t a 3-night, 13 bars? Really? You can’t take just one of those venues and have a space for additional included quick service food or maybe a place for family activities?

Off of memory, I can count at least 13 "bars" on the Dream, probably more since I am probably missing a few.

 

[anricat]

Hm, I can't quite make it to 13 on the Dream. I counted 10, but I get your point that there are still a fair number. Though, to be fair, two those I counted are coffee shops that will booze up your coffee. I don't think Starbucks has alcohol, so we can't count that on Mariner, but does Promenade booze up the coffee drinks? If so, I didn't count that. I also didn't count the casino on Mariner, if they sell drinks there. So if we add those two in, that's up to 15. I also didn't count the tacky little table they had set up outside of Windjammer. So 16?

The ones I counted on the Dream:
Currents
Skyline
Cove (does that count? I think they do serve alcohol)
District Lounge
Pink
D Lounge (they serve drinks, right?)
Evolution
Vista Cafe (they serve alcohol, right?)
Bon Voyage
Pub 687

 

[John VN]

Hm, I can't quite make it to 13 on the Dream. I counted 10, but I get your point that there are still a fair number. Though, to be fair, two those I counted are coffee shops that will booze up your coffee. I don't think Starbucks has alcohol, so we can't count that on Mariner, but does Promenade booze up the coffee drinks? If so, I didn't count that. I also didn't count the casino on Mariner, if they sell drinks there. So if we add those two in, that's up to 15. I also didn't count the tacky little table they had set up outside of Windjammer. So 16?

The ones I counted on the Dream:
Currents
Skyline
Cove (does that count? I think they do serve alcohol)
District Lounge
Pink
D Lounge (they serve drinks, right?)
Evolution
Vista Cafe (they serve alcohol, right?)
Bon Voyage
Pub 687

MY take on why many people cruise is food and booze. Food is included in the price with booze being THE MONEY MAKER. Watched an "About RCCL" special on TV some years ago and part of the program was about how important it is for the $$$$$ to be generated from booze.

 

[dmanwi]

Thanks for the review. We are going to be on Mariner for the same itinerary later in July. This helps to set my expectations.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Thanks for your report. Interesting that your daughter preferred Royal’s kids club. We have not sailed Royal yet but have found that our kids prefer Carnival’s over dcl as well. We were pretty surprised.

 

[anricat]

Thanks for your report. Interesting that your daughter preferred Royal’s kids club. We have not sailed Royal yet but have found that our kids prefer Carnival’s over dcl as well. We were pretty surprised.

I was a little surprised, too, but upon thinking more about it, it sort of makes sense. She can be a bit prone to anxiety and is easily overwhelmed. She also has some slight sensory issues. (We work with a counselor on all these issues.) I think the smaller size, simpler setup and more laid-back feel was really helpful for her. Sometimes she just gets really overwhelmed by the sheer number of kids in the DCL clubs. She also said she just really liked the counselors a lot on Royal and the activities she felt were more interesting to her. I think probably because they don't have to try to come up with activities that are good for 3-12 year olds.

But she's never been one of those kids you have to pry out of the clubs. She spends little time there unless she's made a friend and they want to play together. Even then, she's more apt to just want to go get ice cream and hang out than go to the club with a friend.

 

[dmanwi]

What was your experience with the availability of water? We are not purchasing a drink package and have heard conflicting advice. Sometimes water is hard to find, the cups are too small, they make accessing the water difficult at the buffet. A lot of people have suggested bringing bottles of water as well (I think it is 12 bottle limit per stateroom).

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Can you take soda on rccl? On Carnival each passenger is allowed to bring on one 12 pack of soda.

 

[anricat]

What was your experience with the availability of water? We are not purchasing a drink package and have heard conflicting advice. Sometimes water is hard to find, the cups are too small, they make accessing the water difficult at the buffet. A lot of people have suggested bringing bottles of water as well (I think it is 12 bottle limit per stateroom).

Glad you brought this up and it's something I forgot to put in my trip report. ZOMG YES! Sooooo annoying to find water. What the heck Royal? The only two sources of water we found were in the very back of Promenade Cafe and in Windjammer. I never bring water onboard on DCL, but I would consider it for Royal next time.