First and probably last Disney cruise.

[gisele2]

I was considering Virgin but the vibe seems like a 24 hour night club to meet. Am I wrong? I do like how there is no upcharge to dine at their specialty restaurants and that it's some of the best food in the industry

No, it is relax in the day except around the pool. The AFT is my favorite place to hang out. Great drinks and food and quiet. If you do not want to party , you don't . There is always a quiet spot.

 

[gisele2]

Did you do the 'art of the theme show tour' (tour of design elements on the ship) or the 'anyone can cook' classes (observe a recipe being made and try a sample)? Those are some of our favorite adult only things. We do like the family activities as well, so we had fun with the midship detective agency, mini golf, character drawing classes, napkin folding, character meets, etc. We didn't get to the adult entertainment offerings last cruise, but enjoyed them on other cruises, like a magic show and a music group in an adult only club in the evenings.

If you prefer Virgin, it may be that you've found 'your' happy place. Everyone has different preferences. It does sound like you enjoyed your Disney cruise, just not as much as your previous cruises. It's good to try other ships, you learn what aspects of cruising are important to you.

Yes I did the tour and it was great. I think I need to have a busy schedule onboard to relax from work, silly but it make sense to me. Picture of my wonderful craft.

 

[soniam]

Never been on Celebrity. Post your comments when you return please.

We did a 7 night Southern Caribbean from San Juan on Summit, an older ship, in 2018. It was great! We did have a suite, which helps. The service was great; food was great, especially at the Suite restaurant. It was an older crowd though. Not completely geriatric, but definitely more retirees or close to it. I don’t think a teeny year old would enjoy it. However, apparently the newer ships in the summer, especially in Europe, are full of teens and college age. Probably not as many kids as DCL though. We will see, since we are doing a Europe cruise on one of the newest ships this month.

 

[shh]

Never been on Celebrity. Post your comments when you return please.

celebrity is wonderful - sailed with them 4 times

 

[Geomom]

Yes I did the tour and it was great. I think I need to have a busy schedule onboard to relax from work, silly but it make sense to me. Picture of my wonderful craft. View attachment 773371

Disney is definitely over dependent on 3D paper crafts...and they do not travel well. But we did get to do some other crafts last cruise (Fantasy June 2022). Color moon/star wood/plastic wind chimes (like an Oriental Trading Company cheap craft kit), and my adult kids used fabric markers(or Sharpies?) to decorate white cinch bags--it was actually a nice souvenir with the designs my kids drew. So many crafts were not what was listed on the app though...DD23 kept trying to do Memory Orbs and it was never that craft.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Never been on Celebrity. Post your comments when you return please.

I'm going on a Western Caribbean cruise on Celebrity this winter. I've never cruised on them before but I'm looking forward to it. The vibe from what I've seen is more my preference in comparison to DCL.

 

[starvenger]

celebrity is wonderful - sailed with them 4 times

"Meet Captain Kate" is something I'd like to do with my girls at some point.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

The thing about Disney is the cruise fare is high and andults are subsidizing extravagant kids clubs. If you don’t have kids— why you would subsidize the kids clubs is beyond me. But we’re not there yet. Maybe once our kids are completely out of clubs we will still want dcl. But I doubt it. As it is, we liked dcl more when our kids were littles. It’s not that we don’t like dcl. We do. It’s that we have better things to do with money than spend 50% more on dcl than other lines. And frankly the service and food is better on some other lines. Way better.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

The thing about Disney is the cruise fare is high and andults are subsidizing extravagant kids clubs. If you don’t have kids— why you would subsidize the kids clubs is beyond me. But we’re not there yet. Maybe once our kids are completely out of clubs we will still want dcl. But I doubt it. As it is, we liked dcl more when our kids were littles. It’s not that we don’t like dcl. We do. It’s that we have better things to do with money than spend 50% more on dcl than other lines. And frankly the service and food is better on some other lines. Way better.

I love character meets and get joy seeing kids meet characters. I have no issues if my money goes to contributing the kids clubs. I do need to branch out to other cruises but i want something that's similar to DCL in energy & formality (if that makes any sense) and none of the lines give me the impression they line up with my preferences so far.

 

[nancipants]

The thing about Disney is the cruise fare is high and andults are subsidizing extravagant kids clubs. If you don’t have kids— why you would subsidize the kids clubs is beyond me.

We are WDW passholders (locals) and love the Disney atmosphere. Even before we had a kid, we never considered cruising another line.

 

[gatordoc]

celebrity is wonderful - sailed with them 4 times

Everyone has their opinion. Glad you’ve found a cruise line you enjoy, but we tried Celebrity once and didn’t really much like it. Longish review if anyone’s interested.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/platinum-disney-cruisers-try-celebrity-long.3704753/

 

[soniam]

Everyone has their opinion. Glad you’ve found a cruise line you enjoy, but we tried Celebrity once and didn’t really much like it. Longish review if anyone’s interested.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/platinum-disney-cruisers-try-celebrity-long.3704753/

I didn’t see which ship you were on. Since it was 2018, it was probably one of the now older ships. I would agree with some of your issues. I think some of these, particularly QS and shows, were remedied on the newer ships. I do miss the DCL movie theaters; they are great! I think the activities are probably still about the same though. We did a suite when we cruised with them in 2018, so some things were different for us. I really think each to his own though and am happy when people do find a cruise line they like.

 

[DCLMP]

here are not a lot of outdoor space with unobstructed view of the sea either. We felt like adult were only there to relax without their kids.

That pretty much sums up why we cruised Disney for years. Our kids are adults now.

 

[DCLMP]

I love character meets and get joy seeing kids meet characters. I have no issues if my money goes to contributing the kids clubs. I do need to branch out to other cruises but i want something that's similar to DCL in energy & formality (if that makes any sense) and none of the lines give me the impression they line up with my preferences so far.

I think we have found that in Royal. Although I would say it's similar to DCL in terms of energy and Lack of formality. I'm not sure what you mean by formality. DCL is pretty laid-back regarding just about everything.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

I think we have found that in Royal. Although I would say it's similar to DCL in terms of energy and Lack of formality. I'm not sure what you mean by formality. DCL is pretty laid-back regarding just about everything.

I'm looking to avoid things like *required* formal nights. I don't like the idea of having to dress up for a dining experience that's ordinarily casual and included in the original cost of the ship. I'm looking for something that lines up with my casual nature & won't exclude me from included dining just because I'm not the type to dress up outside of specialty dining .

 

[anricat]

The gym is tiny, the spinning class were without music, so less enjoyable even if the CM did all they could to motivate us.

Wait, you went to one of the upcharge (didn't used to be upcharge but now it is) indoor cycling classes and the instructor didn't teach with music? Like...HUH? I'm confused. Most of us instructors (I'm a certified indoor cycling instructor with two different certifications in that class type) are certified in some type of cycling class that uses music. I mean, I'm not aware of any indoor cycling certification that doesn't use music and we learn to team-teach with the music. It's part of the class. This includes the "Spinning" (TM) format. (I can't remember if it's Spinning they have onboard or another type of Indoor Cycling.) Was it broken or do they just not teach with music any more? Sorry to ramble on but I can't parse that in my brain. As an instructor I would DIE. I mean, I would try to play something off my phone or ANYTHING other than nothing.

 

[soniam]

I'm looking to avoid things like *required* formal nights. I don't like the idea of having to dress up for a dining experience that's ordinarily casual and included in the original cost of the ship. I'm looking for something that lines up with my casual nature & won't exclude me from included dining just because I'm not the type to dress up outside of specialty dining .

I don’t think many of the cruise lines require formal wear anymore. Now some don’t allow shorts, so it depends upon your definition of “dress up”. DCL, Royal, and Carnival allow almost anything in the MDR. Celebrity does not allow t-shirts or shorts in the MDR. Not sure about Virgin, Princess, or NCL, probably not highly formal though. HAL might be more formal but not sure. Other high end lines, ie Qunard, Oceania, and Regent, are probably more formal.

 

[gisele2]

Wait, you went to one of the upcharge (didn't used to be upcharge but now it is) indoor cycling classes and the instructor didn't teach with music? Like...HUH? I'm confused. Most of us instructors (I'm a certified indoor cycling instructor with two different certifications in that class type) are certified in some type of cycling class that uses music. I mean, I'm not aware of any indoor cycling certification that doesn't use music and we learn to team-teach with the music. It's part of the class. This includes the "Spinning" (TM) format. (I can't remember if it's Spinning they have onboard or another type of Indoor Cycling.) Was it broken or do they just not teach with music any more? Sorry to ramble on but I can't parse that in my brain. As an instructor I would DIE. I mean, I would try to play something off my phone or ANYTHING other than nothing.

The spinning class is in the gym on the Fantasy. So we had the music of the gym at a level we could not ear and the instructor did not use it.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

I don’t think many of the cruise lines require formal wear anymore. Now some don’t allow shorts, so it depends upon your definition of “dress up”. DCL, Royal, and Carnival allow almost anything in the MDR. Celebrity does not allow t-shirts or shorts in the MDR. Not sure about Virgin, Princess, or NCL, probably not highly formal though. HAL might be more formal but not sure. Other high end lines, ie Qunard, Oceania, and Regent, are probably more formal.

Maybe I'm just being overly cautious then because every site is saying the formal night in those MDRs in Royal & Carnival still require formal dress and I just don't like arbitrary limits outside of the already established dress code.

 

[soniam]

Maybe I'm just being overly cautious then because every site is saying the formal night in those MDRs in Royal & Carnival still require formal dress and I just don't like arbitrary limits outside of the already established dress code.

Where do you see that? I would be absolutely shocked if Carnival requires formal wear. Even Celebrity, who has a sort of formal policy regarding evening chic night, allows slacks and nice jeans. I looked up Virgin, and they don’t have a dress code, but no kids.

EDIT: My suggestion is to actually talk to people who cruise with those lines, here or other forums. Some of the cruise lines make it seem like they require it, but in practice, they really don’t.