Had to finally book with NCL because Disney wanted me to sell my house... lol

[Debbie]

We've recently returned from 7 nights Western Caribbean on the NCL Getaway. It was a wonderful experience and I am going to bring my whole blog info over here to a Cruise Report thread.
I asked my kids the other day if they'd like to do a DCL 4 night or a NCL 7 night for our next cruise and it was a unanimous 7 night NCL.

Thanks! This is good to know. We're on the western Caribbean cruise in 226 days.

 

[momof2n2]

Thanks! This is good to know. We're on the western Caribbean cruise in 226 days.

let me know if you have questions

 

[mom4fun]

Which cruise line besides Disney, has the most family friendly evening shows?

 

[momof2n2]

Which cruise line besides Disney, has the most family friendly evening shows?

IMO not NCL. We watched no shows any evenings save the magic show, which I would not personally recommend.

We liked dining around 6:30 or so. Dinner would take ~ 2 hours. Then we'd just stroll around as a family and then put the little ones to bed. We are very much go to bed "early" (9/10) people and be up early and off the ship ASAP.
Evening entertainment is one area DCL has a MAJOR leg up.
I felt like (for us) NCL had more daytime offerings.

 

[Debbie]

IMO not NCL. We watched no shows any evenings save the magic show, which I would not personally recommend.

We liked dining around 6:30 or so. Dinner would take ~ 2 hours. Then we'd just stroll around as a family and then put the little ones to bed. We are very much go to bed "early" (9/10) people and be up early and off the ship ASAP.
Evening entertainment is one area DCL has a MAJOR leg up.
I felt like (for us) NCL had more daytime offerings.

From all my research, I think that you are probably correct in that Disney has the most 'family friendly' shows in that the shows are Disney-based. That said, with the limited itineraries, I, personally, think that it would behoove Disney to change up the shows. I've been on the Fantasy twice. I like the shows, but if I were to go again, I would likely skip the regular ones. I'd love to see the other ships' shows, but the itinerary on the Dream holds no interest to me at all. I've done Alaska (non-Disney-went for the itinerary, not the characters). I'd like to do the Magic [southern Caribbean], but with cost as a HUGE factor, I'm not sure that that is going to happen anytime soon.

 

[Hundredacre]

Thank you so much for writing about your experience. We are going on ncl next year- same getaway western.

 

[BigredNole]

We will take a first ever cruise with DCL when we do take one. Disney is a known commodity. You know what you are going to get and the level of service. We battled that with our Summer vacation this year. We could not afford Disney this Summer. We chose to go to Williamsburg VA. Passes for late March - early September was $210 for 3 of us. A 1-br condo at a resort was $400 for the week. $610 for a week vs almost $2,000 for apples-to-apples comparison. Yes, they are not the same. However, we will enjoy it just as much as Disney and come home with all limbs.

 

[jdb in AZ]

We will take a first ever cruise with DCL when we do take one. Disney is a known commodity. You know what you are going to get and the level of service. We battled that with our Summer vacation this year. We could not afford Disney this Summer. We chose to go to Williamsburg VA. Passes for late March - early September was $210 for 3 of us. A 1-br condo at a resort was $400 for the week. $610 for a week vs almost $2,000 for apples-to-apples comparison. Yes, they are not the same. However, we will enjoy it just as much as Disney and come home with all limbs.

Does your $610 per week include any food?

 

[momof2n2]

From all my research, I think that you are probably correct in that Disney has the most 'family friendly' shows in that the shows are Disney-based. That said, with the limited itineraries, I, personally, think that it would behoove Disney to change up the shows. I've been on the Fantasy twice. I like the shows, but if I were to go again, I would likely skip the regular ones. I'd love to see the other ships' shows, but the itinerary on the Dream holds no interest to me at all. I've done Alaska (non-Disney-went for the itinerary, not the characters). I'd like to do the Magic [southern Caribbean], but with cost as a HUGE factor, I'm not sure that that is going to happen anytime soon.

I'm watching reviews of Carnival Vista. It has southern Caribbean itineraries and is a ship similar in activities to NCL Getaway.

I'd love to do DCL again, but not at these prices. I'm so glad we had SO much fun on Getaway. There was just so much to do. It was like WDW! You feel like you can't do everything.

 

[momof2n2]

Does your $610 per week include any food?

I thought she was comparing it to WDW, not DCL. I may be wrong.

 

[BigredNole]

Does your $610 per week include any food?

It was not a comparison to DCL. DCL is almost $6,000 for a week we can go. The $610 was a comparison to WDW without food for $2000.

 

[lizzyb]

We just went on an NCL cruise after 2 DCL and they do not compare. I found myself comparing everything to DCL and NCL just did not measure up. However, I got an amazing deal on NCL and currently will not pay the ridiculous DCL prices.

 

[momof2n2]

We just went on an NCL cruise after 2 DCL and they do not compare. I found myself comparing everything to DCL and NCL just did not measure up. However, I got an amazing deal on NCL and currently will not pay the ridiculous DCL prices.

Wow.can you elaborate and where you found NCL lacking? I've been sharing (IRL) how pleased we were with NCL & I appreciate understanding both sides.
Which ship?

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

I'm watching reviews of Carnival Vista. It has southern Caribbean itineraries and is a ship similar in activities to NCL Getaway.

I'd love to do DCL again, but not at these prices. I'm so glad we had SO much fun on Getaway. There was just so much to do. It was like WDW! You feel like you can't do everything.

I just disembarked the Vista this morning in Barcelona after an amazing 8 night Mediterranean cruise. I'll be writing a full comparison to our Disney cruises in the next few days. But in a nut shell.......... was it Disney? No. Did we have a great time for less than half? Heck yeah. Are we doing the Vista again next summer for the 8 night Southern Caribbean? Absolutely!!!!!

I never thought I could love a ship more than the Fantasy, but Vista knocked it out of the park, great ship, great crew-not over the top catering to everyone's special requests but very nice and efficient.

Didn't see any drunks like the rumors here will tell you. This is my observation from someone who does not drink at all.

My teens don't go in the clubs on any cruise so I can't comment on those.

The evening shows were family friendly in the sense they were clean and no vulgarity, I don't think younger kids would be that entertained though. One night was a Cuban themed dancing and singing, also a magician, a tribute to various rock bands and an amazing show called "Flick" which was a singing and dancing show beyond belief set to various movie scores. It was the only one of the shows that topped DCL shows and it was amazing!

We had an absolutely fantastic time and there is a reason why Carnival calls themselves the FUN ships. I'll be posting more soon!

 

[lizzyb]

Wow.can you elaborate and where you found NCL lacking? I've been sharing (IRL) how pleased we were with NCL & I appreciate understanding both sides.
Which ship?

Service- I had a billing issue that I had to go to Guest services twice and the restaurant and in the end it still wasn't corrected when I was assured it would be. Sent an email when I returned... still waiting

Kids club- My kids did not care for the club at all... very limited programming and if they are in different groups they can't be together aside from the designated times.

Main dining- Crappy service.. the meal took 2hrs with minimal interaction

Entertainment- On DCL I found there was always something to do... NCL not too much...after the first few nights we were bored. Didn't care for the shows.

We sailed on the Escape.

 

[TestingH2O]

We sailed on the Escape

The reviews I'm reading of the Escape are not very family friendly at all. The kid pool in particular seems impractical.

I'm interested in some other ships though.

 

[lizzyb]

The reviews I'm reading of the Escape are not very family friendly at all. The kid pool in particular seems impractical.

I'm interested in some other ships though.

Yes, the shallow end of the family pool was 5 feet I believe.

 

[FLVacationGirl]

Just posted this on the RC disboards forum but it's worth mentioning in this thread. I was tasked with booking a cruise for 24 people and keeping it under $50k. I priced out a 7 night on the Fantasy and it was $58k CDN. Eeek! Quickly decided there was no way that was happening and I priced out other cruise lines. We ended up booking 25 of us (added on my dad) on the Royal Caribbean Oasis for over $30,000 CDN less than DCL. I can't believe the difference. We also considered the Princess Regal for a similar price as Royal but Royal won out as we will have the Dreamworks experience for the kids.

We will definitely report back with how the Oasis compares to the Magic. We loved our DCL cruise but can't justify the prices.

 

[mom2rtk]

Just posted this on the RC disboards forum but it's worth mentioning in this thread. I was tasked with booking a cruise for 24 people and keeping it under $50k. I priced out a 7 night on the Fantasy and it was $58k CDN. Eeek! Quickly decided there was no way that was happening and I priced out other cruise lines. We ended up booking 25 of us (added on my dad) on the Royal Caribbean Oasis for over $30,000 CDN less than DCL. I can't believe the difference. We also considered the Princess Regal for a similar price as Royal but Royal won out as we will have the Dreamworks experience for the kids.

We will definitely report back with how the Oasis compares to the Magic. We loved our DCL cruise but can't justify the prices.

That really is a jaw dropping difference in price.

 

[FLVacationGirl]

That really is a jaw dropping difference in price.

Definitely. I had to recheck the numbers a few times to believe it. To be fair, I was comparing Star Wars at Seas cruises with a Kids Sail Free promos on Royal. Still, a huge difference. I'm really happy with the price we got. We don't have many kids either that qualified for the free promo either, so I should add that the KSF difference wasn't that big. About $4k CDN.