We seriously wanted to try DCL and now we want to even more!!! Kids loved hearing about the ability to get Mickey Bars on demand, lol.
You can also get them for dessert at dinner.
We've sailed with our kids on three lines: Royal, Carnival, and DCL. Did they have more fun on DCL? Yes. Did they have TWICE AS MUCH fun? NO. In our opinion, it is not worth the extra cost. When we sailed, it was with a Kids' Sail Free Deal, so while it was a bit more than a comparable cruise on another line, it was still decently priced. If they offer KSF again, we might look into it. For now, we (and the kids) are happy sailing Royal and Carnival.
If you decide to go with another line, you just need to pick the right ship. On Royal, anything from Voyager class or up will have plenty for your kiddos to do (and some of the ships offer the DreamWorks characters, too). With Carnival, look for a newer ship (Dream, Magic, Breeze) or a ship with a recent refurb that includes 2.0 upgrades like the Water Park. My kids had a BLAST at the water park on the Magic in February. They also loved the ropes course. We paid $1,400 for a 7 day cruise for our family of four. We will be sailing the Allure of the Seas (I'd like to see anyone's kids TRY to get bored on that ship) over Thanksgiving. Thanks to Royal's kids' sail free deal, we paid just under $2,200 for the four of us for a 7 day on a holiday week.
I hope you look into other lines. Often times, you can take two cruises for the price of one cruise on Disney.
Everyone has their own perception of value and I don't want to turn this into a DCL vs. others thread. We did 3 Carnival cruises before trying DCL and 2 RCCL cruises after (1 w/o kids). Then looking back, all we did on Carnival was take the kids to the arcade after dinner (besides enjoying the ports). Most shows were not family friendly and the overall décor of the ship looked like a brothel. Ds17 was then 9, and the kids club was offering a "Coke-tail" party.
He still remembers how they told him he
had to dance. Anyone with a 9 yr old boy knows that's probably the last thing they'd want to do.
After several Disney cruises we took the kids on RCCL's Explorer of the Seas from Bayonne, NJ to Bermuda with a group of our friends. The ship itself was fine but ds17 was then 12 which qualified him for the teen area.
It was just a big room with sofas around the perimeter. They had computers but only if you were willing to pay for internet which, at sea is very expensive on any line. There were some organized activities but a lot of "hanging in the club" time which he didn't care for. 12-17 is a wide range of age/taste in activities, imo.
At dinner, the kids said, "This is IT for dinner? We just come sit here every night?" with no entertainment like on DCL.
They were so looking forward to the rock climbing wall but it was closed with no explanation every day except our last day. By then the line was 100 people long.
They finally got to do it but only once and after waiting so long in line.
Then there's the towel situation. RCCL and Carnival make you show your room key to sign out a specific number of pool towels. After being used to DCL's "take all you want from the cabinet" set up, my kids were not used to having to pay close attention to their towels. I felt like I was constantly nagging them about where they left their towels since we get charged $20 per towel if you don't return it. With DCL, there's just a dirty towel cabinet to toss it into and also a larger one at the dock when returning from a port. No need to go back to the pool deck to sign them back in. Lots of little things like this.
Also DCL attracts a different clientele. It's mostly families & extended families enjoying time together. No hairy chest contests, no sexy leg contests, much fewer smokers, and I don't have to walk halfway around the ship to avoid walking my kids through a smoky casino. DCL just fits our taste perfectly.
I don't even compare prices anymore; I know other lines are cheaper. If I'm going to take time off work, I want to enjoy it. To me, other cruise lines compared to DCL is like other theme parks compared to WDW. Sure, we pay more for WDW than Six Flags but we always come back from WDW
so glad we went. I can't say the same for other theme parks or cruise lines.
Others are cruise lines with entertainment, DCL is an entertainment company with a cruise line.
jmho
good to know there are a few ways to save. Do you do interior/balcony or suites?? How do you find the rooms? TIA!!
I'll second booking your cruise as soon as the date(s) you are interested in open. With that being said, I booked our upcoming cruise the first day possible and the cruise price has not increased at all. I'd also recommend cruising at a non-peak time if that is possible for your family. We had originally booked a cruise on the Fantasy for next summer but the price was crazy expensive. I ended up moving that cruise to the week after Thanksgiving next year and now we are able to travel to WDW next summer in addition to our cruise later in the year for about the same amount of money as the summer cruise would have cost us. 
