Royal Caribbean versus DCL?

Disney Cruise Line
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Navigator of the Seas was last August and Liberty of the Seas was Oct 2019. Both ships had a section of the boat when you walked down the hall it reeked very very strongly of mildew/mold. Navigator of the Seas this last trip the toilets reaked of mildew even in my Aunt’s Owners Suite. The pool areas were packed, in fact everywhere I walked was packed on Navigator with people partying like Spring Break in college. Loud loud dance music and lots of drunk people. We bought my daughter and son the drink package which they refused to honor (multiple staff). There was literally no high-end Scotch Whiskey (which my hubby loves to do a flight in the nice bars on Disney like The Rose). The up-charge food was serviceable (Sushi and Italian we did) but the main dining room food was seriously lacking in my opinion and the day we did Italian because it’s right off the main dining room where they were playing loud dance music, it was not conducive to a nice date night fancy restaurant. At dinner in the main restaurant, they also played loud dance music at dinner. The pool grossed me out so much by how many people were in it. I was just not happy the whole time on the boat minus the sushi dinner really and being with family. We did play a game of mini golf that was nice too. I did like our port adventure/stop in Mexico but the boat and people on it, both passengers and staff, were not for me. To each their own, some people want a frat party, I just want more upscale adult environments. And also it might depend on boat and itinerary that party atmosphere. This one was out of LA and only three nights, whereas as Liberty was out of Galveston and 7 nights and was more families and I don’t remember thinking it was frat party vibe; I didn’t hate that one, just didn’t like it was much as Disney. After that Navigator cruise I said I will never ever again go on RCCL. My hubby said he will only do Disney. We really enjoy the adult only areas on the Disney ships and twice we did Concierge so had lovely spaces there. The only one we didn’t do Concierge was Magic and it just never felt packed to me on that one. Love playing bingo on Disney ships, and trivia games and going to the movies and seeing the Disney shows but I am also a huge Disney fan sooooooo. I will say the Ice-skating show and the stage show on RCCL Liberty were both very nice.

We did Disney Dream and Liberty of the Seas pretty close to each other with a tween both times and she loved both the kid areas and was constantly in them. So from the perspective of the tween she enjoyed them both.

We had one-bedroom suites on Dream and Wish but regular balcony rooms on Magic and they were much much bigger and laid out than Navigator (where our sheets were staind). It was so hard to get out on the balcony cuz the bed was right up on it. Liberty it was backwards with the couch by the balcony door so that was fine.

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i don’t remember any whiskey tastings on my first RC cruises but my son and DIL did one last year and I noticed they have a scotch whiskey one too this year. (I was just looking in the cruise planner for my upcoming trip).

I believe the very high end bourbons have been on the Oasis ships.

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We have a chocolate and liquor tasting scheduled on DCL Fantasy in 3 weeks, which will be interesting since DD doesn’t like liquor, but she’s certainly a big chocolate fan! More for me, I guess!

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Thanks for the correction. We hung out in the adult pool, which was super cold, but we must have missed the hot tub! (ETA: oh yes on the side, we walked by it but I had completely forgotten about it!)

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Ugh. How awful. I’ve been on a Carnival ship with a smelly section, but not Royal. That’s unfortunate. I’m glad Disney fits you better.

I can’t speak to the high-end alcohols.

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Yes, To be fair, I’ve only experienced two of the older boats which is shame cuz those brand new ones look impressive but I’m so turned off by that last experience that I am not willing to pay money to give that a go. But then to give it to Disney I did the Magic in 2023 and it’s a pretty old boat and it was a lovely experience…

I will add tho that I feel like DCL has gotten so much more expensive recently that when I looked at checking the Wonder (before it gets decommisioned) with doing an Alaskan cruise, the cost was so high I could do like three weeks in Europe for our family of four for that price. And I’d honestly rather do that (especially given that while it was an amazing experience, I have cruised Alaska before). If I have the choice b/w a land vacay and a cruise, most of the time I’m gonna choose land cuz you don’t really get to experience the places you visit on a cruise. But if I just want some time on the ocean and to explore the boat and maybe visit a few beaches, I would choose a cruise. Generally, I’m looking for more adventure and cultural experiences tho.

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That’s understandable. No vacation is cheap and the newer Royal ships can approach Disney for price, depending on the category.

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I am on the Oasis in October (7 nights!) for less than I paid simply to FLY to Disney in April!

ETA: 4 people in a balcony

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Are you leaving from Cape Liberty?

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Yes! Honestly can’t wait.

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Sounds like an amazing cruise.

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I totally agree with you on this. DH and I sailed on the Voyager of the Seas in February 2025 for my 50th birthday. We booked RC’s transportation from MCO to the ship. We arrived about 30 minutes before we were scheduled to leave. We were told the departure time was TBA when we got there (seriously??? Disney transportation leaves ON TIME). We didn’t leave until about 90 minutes past the scheduled time so we missed our earlier PAT that I got up early to secure. We waited in line outside to embark unlike waiting inside in the air-conditioning on a Disney cruise.

The ship did not meet Disney level of cleanliness both outside and inside. DH pointed this out immediately when we entered the dining room to eat after boarding. Dirty dishes everywhere, tables not being wiped, crowded. Bathrooms in public spaces were not as clean. No fresh flowers in the bathrooms. On Disney cruises we go to the main dining rooms to eat and not the buffet when we get on the the ship to avoid the buffet chaos. This wasn’t an option. DH made comments about the ship cleanliness throughout the cruise. One day at lunch a drunk girl vomited near the buffet. By the time I looked around the buffet and found something I wanted to eat, the vomit was still there almost 15 minutes later. There was a rope around it now, but no one was cleaning it up.

Main dining room dinners were ok. We didn’t like that the appetizers and desserts were the same every night and that choices were limited. Main courses were meh. I didn’t like that you’d have to pay for the other dining room meals. We also didn’t like that room service was not included as we like to have a cheese/fruit tray as a snack before dinner with a glass of wine on the veranda. We’ve paid to eat a Remy on Disney cruises but overall enjoy the all inclusive food and soft drinks on Disney.

I found the included food availability limited and twice closed when I wanted something to eat. I wanted a snack one afternoon and there was one place open. I’ve never been hungry on a Disney cruise and felt that food/snacks were hard to come by on this cruise. This is when we really missed room service. I can’t remember what I asked for (some type of sandwich/wrap maybe) but was given something different. The worker had difficulty communicating with me. The language barrier with the waitstaff at dinner and at the quick service type location was a difficulty we encountered. Staff did not seem to have the English proficiency that staff do on Disney cruises (at least in my experience).

Service at dinner was lacking. The first night at dinner, the wait staff spilled my tea on the table and on me. I had to clean it up myself and ask multiple times for another drink. They did not change the table cloth so I had to continue to sit at a wet spot. The dining room was incredibly hot. Each night I felt like I was begging for drink refills for my water and tea.

Pools were incredibly overcrowded and loud. Finding two chairs together was difficult and the chairs were so close together, we were touching the people next to use. The main pool area seemed like a frat party–it was a loud party atmosphere. The sexiest man competitions, the cannon ball competition. Just way too much going on. The adult section of the pool was way too much for us. We like to have drinks and have fun but it was over the top. It reminded me of college spring break–and I was in a sorority. We definitely enjoy the quieter Disney pools in the adult and family sections. I’ve never had trouble finding chairs on a Disney cruise.

The room was spacious with lots of storage but the couch had holes in it and just seemed worn out. I didn’t like that the bed was two twin mattresses pushed together and not an actual queen mattress. The bathroom was terrible. The shower was way smaller than the one in my parent’s camper. If I had stood in the center and put my elbows out with my fists to my chest, my elbows would have banged the shower. I’ve been in larger port o pottys. The shower door had to be open so I could bend over to shave my legs. I’m 5 ft 7 and DH is 6 ft 3. There was one all in one-shampoo/conditioner/body wash in the shower. I didn’t bring toiletries because I’m used to having them on Disney cruises. I have long thick hair so this was not good for me. I need separate conditioner. There was one small bar of soap near the sink. No lotion.

We did enjoy the live music on RC better than Disney. There seemed to be more adult activities as far as bar/nightclub type of things to do vs Disney.

My husband is not a Disney fanatic at all but he made multiple comments throughout the cruise pointing out how “Disney did it better”. He said he’d only cruise Disney again.

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Im gonna finish reading this but this reminded me. My aunt broke her arm/wrist in 7 places and so we were ordering her room service. She wanted pasta or pizza I cannot remember which. We asked for parmesan cheese and they told us they would not deliver that via room service and that we would have to walk to mall area with the quick service pizza place to get it. My cousin did that for my aunt but they didn’t have packets so she had to pour some onto a plate. I mean really, you can’t get cheese with your pizza delivery? Weird AF? Lots of little Customer Service issues like that we encountered Also, didn’t like that they didn’t have backup room attendant when one is sleeping. I know those guys work long hard hours for months straight but if you need something from them like towels or something (I can’t remember what it was but it was because of her injury) we woke the guy up cuz he’s on call 24/7. That made me feel so bad.

Also, agree only the buffet was open upon checkin and it was packed and they rushed you out. I’ve never been asked to leave on Disney and yes multiple lunch options upon checkin including sit down/table service

He said he’d only cruise Disney again.

Our husband’s must be related!

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Thank you all so much for this candid discussion! It sounds like we may want to TRY one of the behemoth Royal Caribbean ships, but I suspect that once DD tries our Disney Fantasy cruise (16 days) she won’t want to return to another cruise line with boring long dinners and none of her BFF characters to visit daily. I’ve also booked DCL Wish to Norway for July 2027, and I may sneak in a bounceback to the Caribbean/Bahamas in January or February 2027.

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You may be surprised. My girls loved DCL but they prefer our carnival cruises for longer trips bc more activities. Which is good. Because I can afford to take the whole family on a 7-n carnival in balconies for the same price as half the family on DCL for 4-n interior.

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Just to add, one of my favorite things about the Icon class, are the many complimentary (free) food places scattered around the ship - that are not closed during the supper hour. Beyond the usual pizza, there is a wide variety of eateries. We were glad to have a 7-night cruise to have time to try most of them.

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This was something that surprised us on Disney…that they really don’t want you to eat anywhere BUT the assigned dining room for dinner. But on RCCL, you can get food pretty much anywhere, anytime a day, including skipping the main dining room entirely.

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Also, I am not going to the main dining room on my upcoming cruise, but Royal has made adjustments so that dinner is usually closer to an hour.

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BFF characters are hard to beat if that’s the main draw.

Haunted Mansion Parlor was by far our favorite part of our Disney cruise for the sheer Disney-ness of it. There are elements that feel different from other cruise lines.

I’m sure your family will have a great time.

(I agree with the other though that boring long dinners are easy to avoid on the bigger Royal ships, although we did have long meals at Chops and 150 Central Park.)

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We’ve only been on two cruises: the Wish & a transatlantic w/ NCL. By far our favorite was NCL. I didn’t feel the size difference, even though there was, but it as how it was organized. And the cost was different. We did 3 days on Wish and 15 days on NCL. We had balcony rooms w/ both.

Disney WISH: We didn’t like the assigned dinning on DCL, having to sit w/ the same ppl, lots of screaming/running kids.

NCL PEARL: dinning was whenever, you could pay extra for fancier places, hardly any kids (replaced w/ rowdy adults) and even though we hated the assigned dinning w/ the same ppl on DCL we ended up having the same morning coffee group the whole trip. We made lifelong friends that we’ve met up w/ since too. Canadians :wink: They had a special event for veterans, lots of US Navy onboard :astonished_face: anyway, my 2cents

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