If not DCL, then who would you cruise with?

Marcelyry

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
I am looking at cruises for next year and find we are getting priced out of DCL for our family of 5. I was wondering what other cruise lines you have had good experiences with for family-friendly cruising. My kids are ages 9-14, and we have only ever been on Carnival a long time ago. Any tips on who to look at, and who to avoid would be really appreciated. We would either depart from Galveston or Port Canaveral. Thanks!
 
My kids are much younger so we aren’t interested in moving to more affordable cruise lines.

The cruise lines I plan to look at when my kids are yours ages: Royal Carribean, Norwegian, Celebrity.
 
My kids are much younger so we aren’t interested in moving to more affordable cruise lines.

The cruise lines I plan to look at when my kids are yours ages: Royal Carribean, Norwegian, Celebrity.

That's kind of how I felt when they were younger. You can't beat Disney for the little ones. Mine are pretty much over their princess phases though, lol.
 
Don’t be afraid to try other lines. They are more similar than not. Half the fun of cruises are trying new ships and their activities. Especially the ages of your kids. That said, I’m too scared to try carnival after their ship was floating at sea without power.

We really enjoy the Freedom class shops on Royal. Oasis class is fun too but I did miss seeing the ocean as easily as I can on freedom class. And just took our first NCL trip last year. The ropes course was super fun. Stay away from smaller boats with kids as imo there aren’t enough activities.

We can almost take 2 cruises for the price of one Disney. So for us price is a real factor.
 




In the "other" forum people have commented often that their kids in the tweens and teens have said they preferred Carnival over Disney. And that the food is actually better. I have never been on Carnival, nor ever cruised.. Our first is DCL this year and we booked Oasis for 2019. Depending on lenght of cruise and also ports this can make a difference on the Carnival clientele I've read. I actually had Carnival first booked as we needed 2 staterooms, now we only need one and changed to DCL.. I believe it was either the Magic or Vista.. Kids loved the slides and rope climbing course. They settled for only the Aquaduck now lol!!

My son age 12 though is dying to go on the Harmony of the Seas after watching youtube videos... doesnt sail our itinerary so he gets the Oasis without the new slides.
 
I am looking at cruises for next year and find we are getting priced out of DCL for our family of 5. I was wondering what other cruise lines you have had good experiences with for family-friendly cruising. My kids are ages 9-14, and we have only ever been on Carnival a long time ago. Any tips on who to look at, and who to avoid would be really appreciated. We would either depart from Galveston or Port Canaveral. Thanks!
I would absolutely do the Carnival Vista out of Galveston, she’s in Miami right now but is moving to Galveston later this year. I didn’t think I could ever like a ship more than the Disney Fantasy but I absolutely prefer the Vista now. Here’s a link to a trip report with pictures I did on our first sailing on her in 2016. We’ve been on her 2 more times since then and are bookednon her sister Horizon next year. Fantastic and fun ship, great service and awesome food choices.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/thoughts-on-the-new-carnival-vista.3521334/
 
Next month we are sailing Princess Cruise line’s Caribbean Princess on a Panama Canal Cruise. Our last 6 cruises have been on DCL. Two adults, no kids and we are hopeful that we will like Princess as much as DCL.
 
We are a family of 7.....Me, DH and 5 kids. Currently our kids are DS 20, DD 19, DD 18, twin DD's 10. We have been sailing with our kids since our 3rd child was 3 and our twins took their first cruise with us when they were 8 months old. So we have sailed with kids ranging from 8 months old to 20 years old..and pretty much every age in between. We are all platinum Disney cruisers. We've also sailed a few times on Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean. Disney is still by far our favorite (even for my adult kids and for me/DH). After that, I think I'd rank Carnival next. Royal Caribbean's bigger ships have some great features that we enjoy (specifically the Royal Promenade and the Flowrider), but as a whole I think the nod goes to Carnival because of better food and because my youngest 2 like the kid's programming better on Carnival than on Royal Caribbean. We also enjoyed the 2 pool deck bars on Carnival and the variety of comedians/piano bar/trivia. We had a great family cruise on the Norwegian Epic (great entertainment options back when we cruised on her). Our other NCL cruise was the Sky (we were invited on for a post wedding celebration) and that was a total booze cruise with people that had way too much to drink everywhere (but that is to be expected on a cheap weekend cruise out of Miami).

Like I said above, Disney is still our favorite, but when we have ventured away for Disney (for a cheaper trip or a different itinerary or for a cruise that fit our schedule) we have never really been unhappy. We just go in realizing that we can't expect Disney and enjoy the vacation for what it is...and it's always a good time.

Jess
 
We’ve done Royal and really enjoy it. In many ways it’s the same and in some ways it’s better.

We’ll do Celebrity soon. It has a casino (bonus for DH) and there’s no smoking in it (good for me and good for DH since he can’t gamble on Royal if he wants to come back to the stateroom
because I am just that sensitive to smoke).
 
We have been on 5 Disney cruises, first one DS was 5. Last year we went on Royals Anthem. DS loves WDW and that is fav vacation, but cruise-wise he preferred Royal. Also begging to go on the Harmony now.
We plan to, and also wouldn't shy away from the newest ships from Carnival (Vista) or Norwegian (Escape, Bliss).
If your 9-14 group is active and adventurous though I would probably gravitate towards Quantum or Oasis class with Royal.

We plan to go back on Disney when DS turns 11 summer 2019 (he is 9 now) because I feel like we want to cruise Alaska with Disney. DS would love it as he'd be able to try the Edge (is that the 11-14 club)?
While he still loved DCL couple of weeks back, and happily went to the kids clubs - at 9 he found it less entertaining than he did at 5.
 
I would absolutely do the Carnival Vista out of Galveston, she’s in Miami right now but is moving to Galveston later this year. I didn’t think I could ever like a ship more than the Disney Fantasy but I absolutely prefer the Vista now. Here’s a link to a trip report with pictures I did on our first sailing on her in 2016. We’ve been on her 2 more times since then and are bookednon her sister Horizon next year. Fantastic and fun ship, great service and awesome food choices.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/thoughts-on-the-new-carnival-vista.3521334/


What did your teems think of vista? Would they prefer it to DCL also?
 
We are a family of 7.....Me, DH and 5 kids. Currently our kids are DS 20, DD 19, DD 18, twin DD's 10. We have been sailing with our kids since our 3rd child was 3 and our twins took their first cruise with us when they were 8 months old. So we have sailed with kids ranging from 8 months old to 20 years old..and pretty much every age in between. We are all platinum Disney cruisers. We've also sailed a few times on Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean. Disney is still by far our favorite (even for my adult kids and for me/DH). After that, I think I'd rank Carnival next. Royal Caribbean's bigger ships have some great features that we enjoy (specifically the Royal Promenade and the Flowrider), but as a whole I think the nod goes to Carnival because of better food and because my youngest 2 like the kid's programming better on Carnival than on Royal Caribbean. We also enjoyed the 2 pool deck bars on Carnival and the variety of comedians/piano bar/trivia. We had a great family cruise on the Norwegian Epic (great entertainment options back when we cruised on her). Our other NCL cruise was the Sky (we were invited on for a post wedding celebration) and that was a total booze cruise with people that had way too much to drink everywhere (but that is to be expected on a cheap weekend cruise out of Miami).

Like I said above, Disney is still our favorite, but when we have ventured away for Disney (for a cheaper trip or a different itinerary or for a cruise that fit our schedule) we have never really been unhappy. We just go in realizing that we can't expect Disney and enjoy the vacation for what it is...and it's always a good time.

Jess

Which Carnival ship did you like the best?
 
Which Carnival ship did you like the best?


Let's see... We have cruised Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Glory, Carnival Magic, Carnival Imagination, and Carnival Sunshine (Sunshine was without kids). I have to say that I'd be confused as to which ship was which without going back and looking. If I were looking to book a Carnival Cruise, I'd look at itinerary first and then I'd check out which ships go to the places that I want to go. Here are some of the tings that I would look for when picking a specific ship (just personal things we have enjoyed on Carnival)... I really like the 2 pool bars across from each other (and we are not huge drinkers but it is a cool set up to enjoy a drink)....the rum bar and the tequila bar. I like the Mongolian Grill. I like when the ship has a sushi place. I'd also look for a Carnival ship that has one of the nicer pool areas with cool waterslides. We liked the ropes course on the Magic.
 
It's hard for me to get past Carnival's rep of being a booze cruise. I wonder if that is for shorter cruises.
 
It's hard for me to get past Carnival's rep of being a booze cruise. I wonder if that is for shorter cruises.


Norwegian Sky was a total booze cruise (alcohol was included and I promise you that they were very loose about ID)... My little 2 had just experiences being able to sign them out of the clubs on Disney (with a lot of personal rules) and they wanted to know why I wouldn't let them on this cruise. First of all, the entrance to the kids club was right by the pool bar and, as I told them, "Are you kidding me?! No way! There are drunk people everywhere!"


I think that any inexpensive short/weekend cruise has the potential to be a booze cruise. We took the whole family on the Carnival Magic this past December and it was not a booze cruise. We didn't experience any obnoxious drunk behavior. I'm sure there was some but we didn't run into it. We all had a great time...me, DH, our 5 kids, my parents and our 28 yr old niece.

Jess
 

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