can you tell me if a disney cruise is worth the extra $$ over a standard cruise line?

[truck1]

Now this. I answered someone's riddle regarding RCCLs pricing policy recently. I am guessing almost no one pays what you are showing as the original price. They use the sales as a marketing tool to get people to book. What we have found is that the price differs in the tens of dollars with each sale. RCCL lets our TA rebook the same room at the new lower price if that occurs, but it only did once for us with the difference being under 100 bucks. What I see in the prices you show is the RCCL cruise is about 60 bucks per person per night cheaper. I pay the sale price not the original price.

Also wanted to add that at least on RCCL, we never felt we needed to specialty dining or pay extra to get any food upgrades or do any pay activities. To be fair the most we ever did on DCL was Palo brunch. On the 4 night cruise the soda package for two should be under 100 bucks. The only extras we would buy is alcoholic drinks and we had to pay for those on both. Maybe we are unique in how we spend money onboard, but we have yet to feel the need to spend extra on a cruise when we can get another option for free.

From what I'm seeing, RCCL almost never uses a full fare for a cabin. Its like you said. A booking tool. Everyone today is looking for a deal. The former owner of Arabian Nights in Kissimmee probably put it the best. Every one wants a $100 a plate dinner show. But they only want to pay $50 for it. Im not knocking RCCL, Carnival, or any of the other lines out there that run sales and specials. On the surface its a level field, and they all have some sort of discount. We've been lucky enough to rate a Florida residents discount once or twice. Most of the time it seems to miss us for some reason.

We're with you on the specialty dining. When we finally make it over to Royal, were not planning on doing the specialty dining. Soda package at most. We have a cruise planned for Carnival in the near future to see what's changed since we've been on them last.

We've done Palos a few times, really don t have a desire to do Remy. Last time on the Dream we passed on Palo since we didn't have a sea day.

 

[truck1]

RCCL *always* has a sale so you really can't compare their "rack rate" with DCL. The other thing you did in your comparison is that you chose an OBSTRUCTED VIEW verandah for your Disney cruise to make it cheaper. An unobstructed verandah on that cruise is actually $2910.48 today and the RCCL balcony is $1744. A ginormous $1,166 dollar difference over 4 days .

True, RCCL does run a near constant sale, but I didn't choose that cabin on the Magic because of price. I chose it because of size. Even with the obstruction, it's 30 some odd square feet larger then EOS. The standard veranda on the Magic would have been way to big for a somewhat even comparison. When I do a comparison like that I try and get as close as possible to matching to keep things fair. Which is why i dont include any discount a given line offers, or comparing a Dream interior cabin with an interior cabin on the Carnival Fantasy class which doesn't have a virtual porthole. Discounts change over time. And from line ro line. This month it's buy 1 get 1 50%. Next one may be buy 1 get 1. Or kids sail free. Which would change the price. Sometimes dramatically. To be completely fair, I look at the price before any discount. Which for the most part, most lines are fairly close.

 

[cruiser21]

If RCCl always has a promotion going then that's the price. Why would you look at a non-discounted price and compare it to DCL when they never sell rooms without some kind of promotion. A couple of years ago I was looking at a med Harmony cruise. Through all the promotions the price never changed if anything it went up a little. I wouldn't pay several thousand more for a couple extra feet in the room. If I want more room I could get a suite on another cruiseline for the price of an inside on DCL. If I choose DCL its for Disney nothing else.

 

[cadien]

I really don't understand focusing on the base price when that's not what anyone ends up paying. The important thing is how much you've spent at the end, and you spend significantly more on Disney. Especially considering how many lines are now throwing in unlimited drink packages for no additional cost. And why is specialty dining a factor at all?

 

[cruiser21]

I really don't understand focusing on the base price when that's not what anyone ends up paying. The important thing is how much you've spent at the end, and you spend significantly more on Disney. Especially considering how many lines are now throwing in unlimited drink packages for no additional cost. And why is specialty dining a factor at all?

I don't know, but next time I book a Disney cruise I'll tell myself I'm really not paying double over Royal because Royal is just having a sale. Maybe that will make me feel less guilty about what I'm spending. LOL

 

[robinb]

True, RCCL does run a near constant sale, but I didn't choose that cabin on the Magic because of price. I chose it because of size. Even with the obstruction, it's 30 some odd square feet larger then EOS. The standard veranda on the Magic would have been way to big for a somewhat even comparison. When I do a comparison like that I try and get as close as possible to matching to keep things fair. Which is why i dont include any discount a given line offers, or comparing a Dream interior cabin with an interior cabin on the Carnival Fantasy class which doesn't have a virtual porthole. Discounts change over time. And from line ro line. This month it's buy 1 get 1 50%. Next one may be buy 1 get 1. Or kids sail free. Which would change the price. Sometimes dramatically. To be completely fair, I look at the price before any discount. Which for the most part, most lines are fairly close.

The $2910 cabin I selected on the Magic was a category 5C which is 291 square feet, the same size as much cheaper the obstructed view you selected instead. TO BE FAIR, you should compare relative size and view. When you do that, you find that DCL is 2/3rds more than RCCL for those particular 4-day cruises.

 

[Miumiu4me]

We've never traveled with small children, and DCL is our line of choice.

Of course, some other cruise lines have better (more) itineraries, so we sail them, also.

It's a personal preference. I like Disney (obviously), but my husband and I used to prefer partying on cruises. Disney isn't really a party line.