Wow! I missed quite a debate yesterday! LOL! I'll go ahead and warn you, this is gonna be pretty long because I feel I have a good bit of perspective to lend to the OP. My apologies ahead of time.
I was a first time
ever cruiser just this September. I can honestly say that before reading TRs from the Dream's initial sailings earlier this year I had absolutely NO interest whatsoever in going on
any cruise be it Disney or any other cruise line. I do not care for the beach or hot weather. All you ever hear any cruiser talk about is the fooooood. As a woman who is constantly battling with her weight the last thing I would ever have dreamed of doing on my vacation was sitting on a boat with nothing to do but try to resist the giganto spreads of amazing food that is laid out every 2 steps. It just didn't seem like something I'd ever be able to enjoy unless I threw my weight to the wind and wanted to go on a week long buffet o'dreams.
Seeing the pictures and hearing the experiences of Disney's Dream ship really got my attention. It was such a beautiful ship! Disney magic and pixie dust just oozed off my Mac's screen whenever I'd pour over the details. Then I found scans of the personal Navigator (the daily activity schedule) and saw in black & white that there's soooooo much to do all the time I'd never have a chance to sit around with nothing to do but gorge myself. I soooo wanted to see those beautiful surroundings with my own eyes, wanted to take in the details, smell the smells, be there in the flesh feeling the electricity in the air. Oh yes. I wanted it bad!
I'll be fair here. I never really read trip reports from other cruise lines. One other member here at WDWMagic had some cruise reports she wrote and they are all very well-written reports just as her WDW reports are. However, I never read them and had the thought that I wanted to be there to experience those other cruises. Nope. It took Disney get my attention and tempt me.
Yes, Disney cruises are expensive! I agree. I didn't consider any other cruise line so I was looking at the cost of Disney cruises and thinking, "Holy crap!" The longer cruises were pretty much out of the question. We had never cruised before and didn't want to make that big a commitment with our time or money. What if we got onboard and found it wasn't for us? We didn't want to be stuck there having spent our entire vacation budget on something we didn't like. We opted for a less-expensive, shorter itinerary to test the waters and see what we thought. We booked just a 3-day cruise on the Dream in conjunction with a WDW vacation. That way we were sure to come out smiling from at least 1 part of our vacation adventure.
The result. Wow. It's hard to put it into words. The 3 days on Disney's Dream were a whirlwind. They seemed to zip by so fast....too fast....and it broke our hearts to have it end. Again, I am not a beachy girl. Laying on the beach sweating with all that dirt and the sticky water that makes your hair crusty and the sand stick to you more is pretty much my idea of hell. We didn't get off the ship at all at Nassau (read too many negative experiences and not enough positive ones). We did get off the ship at Castaway Cay and I can honestly say I would again. There's so much I didn't do that I wanted to and still have plans to get to on subsequent cruises. Being on the ship was like a dream...no pun intended. It was pure magic. It was akin to my first WDW trips with my own little family when we'd leave crying and vowing to come back. Amazing.
It wouldn't be fair to not mention that we seem to have evolved in our vacationing in the past couple years. It seems WDW and it's offerings are doing less for us but we still seek that Disney magic. Fellow Disney fans will know what that means. There's something special about what Disney does that I've not found at other parks, resorts, etc. It sounds brutal on some level but the clearest way to explain what we feel is that we're pretty much "over" the parks at WDW at this time. Not a lot of desire to go back. Yes, WDW beats home/work/etc. but when there's other options out there, other
Disney options, there's a stronger desire to seek new adventures for us that include our treasured Disney magic. There's a lot of Disney out there still so we feel there's plenty of magic to be experiencing.
That said, the Disney cruise was the perfect fit for us. It was new to us. It was fresh. It was exciting. It was amaaaaaaazing! And it was Disney at it's finest. We've been staying at deluxe resorts most often at WDW for the past 5 years including concierge level twice. We've eaten in some of WDW's "signature" restaurants. We've done some of the recreation outside of the parks. The level of detail and service we experienced on the cruise in our accomodations, dining, and recreation smoked anything we've ever had at WDW by quite a big margin. It reminded me of the old days, way back when I was a kid, when the WDW resort was perfection, what other resorts would strive to be vs. what it is today. The cruise was simply incredible. When I consider what we spent on the 3-day cruise along with what we received I feel we got an excellent value for our vacation dollar. It was worth every nickel and then some.
Would I do it again? Well, let's just say that while we were on our little ol' 3-day cruise we didn't book just
one more cruise for the future. We didn't book just
two more cruises. No, we booked THREE! Do we have any plans to go back to WDW at this time? Nope. At least not until 2013. My brother mentioned the other day he was itching to go back to WDW asap. We laughed and said we'd wave to him as we drove past on our way to Port Canaveral. :lol:
Now, we realize cruising isn't so much about going to the beach and all that jazz. I don't like the beach. (Have I made that clear yet? LOL!) We've opened our eyes to other cruise lines as well and have spent many hours pouring over other lines and what they offer, itineraries, cost, etc. Would I sail with any of the others mentioned in this thread? Sure. However, I'm NOT willing to spend as much for them as I would for Disney. Do I think other lines are good and offer awesome stuff? Well, yeah! RC has 2 ships that have zip lines and flow riders. I mean, hellooooo! Who wouldn't want to do that?! I've been doing a lot of pricing work with other cruise lines. Based on what I've got booked with Disney (2 out of 3 of my bookings are at the initial release prices which as others have mentioned are almost always the lowest with DCL ~~plus~~ 10% off because I used my onboard bookings that I made on my cruise), when I look at comparable staterooms in terms of space, category, and amentities the other cruise lines aren't that different in cost. In RC's case, they're consistently higher. If anyone wants to see the exact numbers I'd be happy to provide that for you. Carnival is really tricky to compare. If you want mid-ship there's an upcharge for that. If you want a deck higher, there's an upcharge for that. There's all these little upcharges just in the cabin selection process. It frustrates me, really. The biggest thing that drives me nuts is that I can't seem to find the sleeping accomodations I need on Carnival or RC as easily. Disney is easier. I want a single stateroom with a verandah that sleeps 4 people in 3 seperate beds. Disney's room layouts are geared towards families and virtually always have the queen bed, a single convertible to a twin, and a pull-down twin. When choosing a stateroom with Disney that's simple. With the others you're staring at deck plans with numerous sleeping configurations within the same stateroom category trying to find the right number of beds in the right location. My teenage sons will be beating the crap out of each other before the first night is over if they are stuck on a pull-out sofa bed together. It's soooo frustrating!
Also, if you want to reduce cost with DCL you can take off the travel insurance and buy it from an outside company for less money. I've read that the coverage is often better for less $$. Thus far, we've opted to reject the insurance. I am, however, intending to seek outside coverage prior to sailing next fall.
The OP asked if snorkels, etc. were included or an additional fee on Castaway Cay. They're additional. You can rent the snorkel & mask for a nominal fee and enjoy it for the day. You are also welcome to bring your own from home. Everyone is required to wear the little inflatable life preserver thing. If you bring your own gear from home you can get the vest things for no charge. Again, it's nice to have that free option if you want it.
We stopped at a liquor store on our way to the port and carried on a fifth of Crown for the hubby and a fifth of Parrot Cay for me. I mailed a box to us prior to leaving on vacation and it was on our bed in our stateroom when we got there. We pulled our insulated tumblers w/straws out, poured in a quantity of booze, hit the drink station for some ice and mixer soda, and we were set! Very nice to have drinky-drinks without the bar tab to go with it. If you can carry it on, you can bring your own alcohol. Others mentioned the wine packages. I'm not a wine girl but I've read that those are a nice plus. Also, there's a beer mug deal if you have a beer drinker. I love me some beer but if I drink it frequently I bloat up really bad. Plus, on a short cruise I'm not sure how much value I could've gotten for it. But, if neither of those things were an issue I'd be all over the beer mug. That does seem to be a good thing.
Again, I've not cruised with other cruise lines and have no bookings with any others yet. It's not that I'm opposed to what other cruise lines do, it's just that the price hasn't been right and/or the logisitics aren't acceptable. I would absolutely cancel a Disney cruise to go on another line if I felt it was worth it. So far that's not been the thing to do.
All my pouring over DCL doesn't mean I wouldn't cancel a Disney cruise to go do something else either. Our vacation 'goals' for 2012 include a 7-night Eastern on the Fantasy (booked for September) and a 6-night stay at Disneyland in California in November. If it comes down to only 1 of those 2 trips happening we've already decided 100% that the cruise will be cancelled. DL is higher on our list of travel wishes right now.
I think which cruise to choose for your first and on which cruise line is a really personal decision that you should weigh carefully according to what your family enjoys. For us, being the hardcore Disney freaks that we are, there was no other cruise line for our first but Disney. We needed the pixie dust sprinkled in. We needed to know that we were receiving Disney quality service and accomodations. It couldn't be any other way
for us.
In the end, on the day of debarkation after we were checked into our Regatta Club room at the Yacht Club standing out on our lagoon view balcony enjoying the sights the hubby put his arm around me and said softly, "I wish we were back on the ship. I'd gladly spend the rest of our vacation there and not here." My reply? "Yeah. Me, too. This just doesn't get it anymore." That's the cold truth to it and, really, I think that says a lot. :wave:
