Please convince me...

[Wiltony]

Greetings all, I'm wondering if I could get some input on a decision I need to make, as it's quite tough for me. In short, I'm trying to decide between a 7 night Alaskan cruise on Royal Caribbean (Quantum) for 7 people for $10,000, or a DCL one (Wonder) for more than $20,000.

I'm a fairly avid Disney fan, and my wife is even more so. We own DVC, have APs, and the SW companion pass, so the two of us get down to WDW 3-4 times a year, but we've never taken a DCL cruise. We're not avid cruisers, but have done a couple.

We've always wanted to take a DCL cruise, but with the dramatic difference in cost, we just haven't been able to justify it yet. We're certainly willing to pay a premium for Disney quality, but $10,000 just seems like too much money. Besides my wife and I, there will be our 5 adolescent kids, aged 13-18. They like Disney too, but we took a RC cruise a few years ago and they said they had a really good time, though that ship was old and boring in my opinion. The Quantum seems like it will have a lot more space and activities, like bumper cars, flo-rider, ifly, north star, and more. In looking through the attractions on the Wonder, it feels less feature-rich?

Besides the presumably better service, theming, and Disney "magic" that I'm sure they'll pull off, what kind of offsetting value to the DCL am I missing in my evaluation of these two options and whether I can justify the additional 10k+?

Based on what I've disclosed, what route would you recommend?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Greetings all, I'm wondering if I could get some input on a decision I need to make, as it's quite tough for me. In short, I'm trying to decide between a 7 night Alaskan cruise on Royal Caribbean (Quantum) for 7 people for $10,000, or a DCL one (Wonder) for more than $20,000.

I'm a fairly avid Disney fan, and my wife is even more so. We own DVC, have APs, and the SW companion pass, so the two of us get down to WDW 3-4 times a year, but we've never taken a DCL cruise. We're not avid cruisers, but have done a couple.

We've always wanted to take a DCL cruise, but with the dramatic difference in cost, we just haven't been able to justify it yet. We're certainly willing to pay a premium for Disney quality, but $10,000 just seems like too much money. Besides my wife and I, there will be our 5 adolescent kids, aged 13-18. They like Disney too, but we took a RC cruise a few years ago and they said they had a really good time, though that ship was old and boring in my opinion. The Quantum seems like it will have a lot more space and activities, like bumper cars, flo-rider, ifly, north star, and more. In looking through the attractions on the Wonder, it feels less feature-rich?

Besides the presumably better service, theming, and Disney "magic" that I'm sure they'll pull off, what kind of offsetting value to the DCL am I missing in my evaluation of these two options and whether I can justify the additional 10k+?

Based on what I've disclosed, what route would you recommend?

The question is - do you want an Alaskan cruise to experience Alaska? Or a Disney cruise with Alaska on the side.

 

[Kingkonig]

Honestly if I was to do Alaska on a non-Disney ship, I would suggest Norwegian (or Princess). But yeah that difference in price is....difficult to stomach. I would suggest you go with the cheaper option first, then try a cheaper Disney cruise in the Caribbean to see if that is even the cruise experience you enjoy

 

[jwalk03]

Personally I wouldn’t pay that much to do Disney in Alaska. If you are paying the Disney Cruise premium pick a cruise that visits Castaway Cay which is one the best parts of a Disney Cruise.

 

[MinnieInVA]

I did an Alaska cruise on Quantum 2 years ago, and I'm getting ready to do one on the Wonder next summer - I chose RCL primarily because Alaska is a port heavy(ish) itinerary, and figured I didn't need the Disney bells and whistles. I was able to get a Junior Suite for my then 12 year old daughter and me for significantly less than a veranda stateroom on DCL (no surprise there). Overall, the ship was fine. All the amenities you mentioned, we didn't really take advantage of. Bumper cars doesn't happen very often (it's a multi use space). Northstar was a 30 minute experience, not worth doing more than once. We didn't try iFly, though I was a little interested, and Flowrider didn't seem appealing with the cooler Alaska weather. My daughter had zero interest in the "kids club" activities after she went once - all of the tweens/teens were lumped together in a single area, and at the age of 12 she did not care for that at all. She did enjoy her time at Edge on our DCL cruise last summer, so it's not that she doesn't enjoy the kids clubs...RCL just didn't work for her. I didn't really enjoy the shopping mall feel of the central area of Quantum - not magical at all. And I avoided the casino like the plague. The location of the smoking areas near the pool decks on Quantum was really off-putting as well - they were generally on the quickest path for us, so we'd either have to detour or hold our breath. And I guess I'm a kid at heart, because I missed having the DCL activities like trivia, towel folding, and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, we didn't hate our RCL cruise, we did enjoy it, but mostly for the Alaska stuff. The ship stuff was just meh for us. That being said, would I do RCL again for Alaska? Maybe, knowing what I do now. But I'm looking forward to trying Alaska DCL style!

But honestly, doing Quantum for a busy port itinerary can be a good choice. Save DCL for one of the less port intensive cruises, so you can really enjoy the ship (and you won't have to pay the premium Alaska $$ they charge).

 

[Wiltony]

AWESOME thank you so much for the input! That makes total sense and so I think we will do a non DCL cruise for Alaska and plan to do a DCL cruise in the Caribbean down the road.

 

[auntlynne]

$10K? You could do AK on another cruise line AND a DCL in the Caribbean.

And jinx!

 

[auntlynne]

I have cruised DCL, then Princess x3, then NCL to AK. Notice it was DCL first and not again.

 

[CanucksRock]

RCCL

 

[Anna131517]

How much does itinerary matter? If you want to go to Glacier Bay you need to go with Holland America, Princess, or Norwegian. We cruised Alaska with NCL. Hated the ship, loved the itinerary. If we do it again we’ll do DCL because we’ve already done all the classic Alaska stuff and we just love DCL.