Disney Cruise vs Carnival Cruise

[tinker bubbles]

Was wondering if I would be better off taking a Disney cruise or a Carnival cruise? I love everything Disney, make sure we visit every other year. My husband likes Disney, but not the way I do. We have never been on a cruise of any kind and are considering taking a cruise Feb 2013, but can't agree on a cruise line. Also, we've never been away without the children so they won't be tagging along on this trip. Would love some input on the best cruise line for us, ship, and destination. Really think I want to go to the Eastern Carribean though. Please Help!!

 

[Crush Dude!]

Was wondering if I would be better off taking a Disney cruise or a Carnival cruise? I love everything Disney, make sure we visit every other year. My husband likes Disney, but not the way I do. We have never been on a cruise of any kind and are considering taking a cruise Feb 2013, but can't agree on a cruise line. Also, we've never been away without the children so they won't be tagging along on this trip. Would love some input on the best cruise line for us, ship, and destination. Really think I want to go to the Eastern Carribean though. Please Help!!

Eastern Carribbean??

Two Words - Castaway Cay!!!

DCL all the way!
With or without kids I have no intention of cruising with anyone else :wave:

 

[tinker bubbles]

Eastern Carribbean??

Two Words - Castaway Cay!!!

DCL all the way!
With or without kids I have no intention of cruising with anyone else :wave:

St Maarten and St Thomas

 

[Crush Dude!]

St Maarten and St Thomas

Yes they are the other 2 stops, will be on this cruise in August :sohappy:

 

[MaryJaneP]

I have done Holland America and Disney cruises. I would vote Disney. I don't know if they have casinos on Carnival, but there is no casino on Disney. If Carnival has casino, and you want to spend some cruise time in one, then you can't choose Disney. No judgement here, I think you would enjoy either, I am just partial to Disney.

 

[Master Yoda]

My wife has done both a Disney Cruise and a Carnival cruise. Her opinion was that the Carnival is to Disney as a cold half eaten McDonald's cheese burger found in the trash is to a steak from Peter Luger's. She simply did not enjoy anything from the food to the activities on her Carnival cruise. I am sure opinions will vary but she will not even consider getting on another Carnival ship regardless of the price.

 

[DisneyJoe]

My wife has done both a Disney Cruise and a Carnival cruise. Her opinion was that the Carnival is to Disney as a cold half eaten McDonald's cheese burger found in the trash is to a steak from Peter Luger's. She simply did not enjoy anything from the food to the activities on her Carnival cruise. I am sure opinions will vary but she will not even consider getting on another Carnival ship regardless of the price.

This.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

My wife has done both a Disney Cruise and a Carnival cruise. Her opinion was that the Carnival is to Disney as a cold half eaten McDonald's cheese burger found in the trash is to a steak from Peter Luger's. She simply did not enjoy anything from the food to the activities on her Carnival cruise. I am sure opinions will vary but she will not even consider getting on another Carnival ship regardless of the price.

:lol:

 

[bradandsarabr]

We're going in Feb 2013. I think the East Carib is going to St. Thomas & Puerto Rico.

 

[GatorGuy]

I have been on over 15 cruises.
I have never cruised on Disney but the ships look great aswell as the quality of food and service, however the price is extremely high, as expected from Disney.
Carnival, IMO, is great for weekend getaways, they are cheaper and less formal, but lately they have been lacking in very important areas such as cleanliness of the ships, service and food.

I always tend to cruise with RCCL, I feel they are the best in the industry.For the price you will spend on a 4 day cruise on the Dream, you can go on the one of RCCL's week long cruise to the Caribbean on the Oasis/Allure of the Seas.
These ships are amazing and the service and food on RCCL is top notch.
Regardless which line you choose, cruises are great to have fun and relax.
Bon Voyage!

 

[Master Yoda]

I have been on over 15 cruises.
I have never cruised on Disney but the ships look great aswell as the quality of food and service, however the price is extremely high, as expected from Disney.
Carnival, IMO, is great for weekend getaways, they are cheaper and less formal, but lately they have been lacking in very important areas such as cleanliness of the ships, service and food.

I always tend to cruise with RCCL, I feel they are the best in the industry.For the price you will spend on a 4 day cruise on the Dream, you can go on the one of RCCL's week long cruise to the Caribbean on the Oasis/Allure of the Seas.
These ships are amazing and the service and food on RCCL is top notch.
Regardless which line you choose, cruises are great to have fun and relax.
Bon Voyage!

This was the area where my wife really ran into an issue with Carnival. While my wife and I do enjoy high end dining, we are far from picky, foodie eaters. If it gives you any idea, we actually enjoy a trip to Steak n Shake. She found the dinners there to be nearly inedible. Pasta was way under cooked, sea food was either bland or on the edge of spoiled and she commented that she was pretty sure the steak might at one time been wearing horse shoes. By the third night she opted out of dinner and went to the quick service burger station they had.

The level of service she got in the dining rooms would have been bad at a truck stop, let alone a cruise ship. This in comparison to the incredible service we had received previously on the Disney cruise (I often make the remarked that I think our servers would have chewed are food for us if we had asked)

Lastly was the cleanliness. She said that it felt like an old hotel that was about a year over due for a refurb. Carpets were worn and faded and the whole place just felt like it needed a really good scrub down.

 

[devoy1701]

I worked for Holland American Line (and Carnival) for 5 years. While I worked primarily for HAL, I worked very closely with the Tampa Carnival ships (at the time the Miracle and the Inspiration) and the shoreside staff who coordinated the arrival and departure of the guests. The one thing that I will say about the guests who travel Carnival is that they generally fall into 2 catagories: They are either simply looking to party, or they are looking for a very cheap cruise and to them this is like a "dream vacation".

I know it sounds kind of rude, and there really are all walks of life on those Carnival ships, it was just my observation that the cruises tend to cater to those of the lower income levels/those who just want to get drunk. :lookaroun

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Not that I've cruised with Carnival but they seem to be making at least a little effort at bringing in the families with their new ship, the Dream. I don't think I would compare it to Disney's Dream, tho. I would imagine that another defining factor in their clientele is length of cruise. If young folks with limited means can hop a weekend party cruise for a couple hundred bucks then that's what you'll find. When it's longer cruises that command more investment of time & money you'll find something entirely different. Ya know?

 

[devoy1701]

Not that I've cruised with Carnival but they seem to be making at least a little effort at bringing in the families with their new ship, the Dream. I don't think I would compare it to Disney's Dream, tho. I would imagine that another defining factor in their clientele is length of cruise. If young folks with limited means can hop a weekend party cruise for a couple hundred bucks then that's what you'll find. When it's longer cruises that command more investment of time & money you'll find something entirely different. Ya know?

very VERY true....it would be a COMPLETELY different set of passengers sailing on the 7-day Miracle in Tampa then on the 4-day Inspiration Cruises...like COMPLETELY different...

 

[sweetpee_1993]

very VERY true....it would be a COMPLETELY different set of passengers sailing on the 7-day Miracle in Tampa then on the 4-day Inspiration Cruises...like COMPLETELY different...

I would imagine. All the cruises out of Galveston are 7 days so I'm guessing it's not as much a party thing. I was actually quite surprised at how popular the Disney sailings have been out of Galveston. Hubby knows a lot of people at work who have booked, some with multiple cruises. The girl who does my hair has been on the fence because of her son's age but she says half her neighborhood have booked a sailing together. The prices out of Galveston are high on a lot of those sailings. Really surprises me. So many people around this area are super tight with $$ and all.

 

[ParentsOf4]

After much investigation, we selected DCL to be our first ever cruise. We looked into several cruise lines, including Carnival. There were pros and cons to selecting Disney.

Pros:

- Disney. We love all things Disney!
- Family. We are sailing with 4 children. We've read that DCL is excellent for families.
- Cabin. Having never been on a cruise, we think we are going to find the cabins shockingly small. DCL has the largest cabins. Most Disney cabins are the size of "junior suites" on other cruise lines. DCL cabins offer split bathrooms, which should speed things up when we are getting ready to leave the room.
- Castaway Cay. Disney's private island looks really cool!
- Food. We've read that DCL has great food choices. Unlike other cruise lines, soft drinks are included.
- Quality. We appreciate the little touches that Disney gets right at the theme parks. We assume the ship will be the same.
- Service. We've read that DCL's service is among the best.
- No casino. We value that a large portion of the ship is devoted to family activities, not gambling.
- Special needs. We have a special needs child who is also gluten-free. Disney seems to handle these better than others.

Cons:

- Money, money, money! Disney is by far the most expensive of the cruises that we considered. For the price of a 4-day DCL cruise, we could have booked a 7-day cruise on most other cruise lines.
- First-time cruise. Having never been on a cruise, we assume that once we've been on a Disney cruise, we'll never want to do another cruise line, limiting our future options. Being Disneyphiles, we feel that if we do another cruise line first, we won't know what we're missing. However, once we sail on DCL, we suspect that we'll never want to try another cruise line.
- Departure port. For us, there are two ports that are closer than Port Canaveral.

In the end, we selected DCL over Carnival because we felt that DCL was a "safer" choice for us. We are very familiar with the Disney brand name and were confident that we'd get our money's worth. We were less sure about Carnival. If Disney wasn't so much more expensive than all other cruise lines, I doubt we would have seriously considered anyone else.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Oh! I also meant to share a little story from a fellow-cruiser on our September Dream cruise. My hubby struck up a conversation with a man who was sailing with his wife & toddler. They had just gotten off the their 1st cruise ever on the Carnival Sensation the day they were boarding the Dream for their 2nd cruise ever. They had a cab bring them from terminal to terminal. The cab driver laughed when he realized that the couple had booked these vastly different cruises back to back. He told the man, "It's a good thing you booked these cruises in this order!". The man asked why. "Because if you had done them the other way around you'd likely have jumped overboard and swam back to the Dream before you even sailed away!". :lol: The man told my hubby that's probably true. They are a night & day difference.

 

[pggaido]

I would imagine. All the cruises out of Galveston are 7 days so I'm guessing it's not as much a party thing. I was actually quite surprised at how popular the Disney sailings have been out of Galveston. Hubby knows a lot of people at work who have booked, some with multiple cruises. The girl who does my hair has been on the fence because of her son's age but she says half her neighborhood have booked a sailing together. The prices out of Galveston are high on a lot of those sailings. Really surprises me. So many people around this area are super tight with $$ and all.

Disney has already started sailing out of Galveston!? I thought they weren't scheduled until September of this year. That's what we're telling our guest at our hotel. I'm confused now.

 

[PrincessMandi]

Disney has already started sailing out of Galveston!? I thought they weren't scheduled until September of this year. That's what we're telling our guest at our hotel. I'm confused now.

The Disney cruises do start in September. I was just in Galveston this weekend and was saddened to not see Disney Bilboards or posters. I am looking forward to the first cruise going out of Galveston and I want to be there to Wave at everyone leaving. I will be sailing on the Fantasy in October for my Disneymoon! that will be our first cruise.:sohappy:

 

[Master Yoda]

Disney has already started sailing out of Galveston!? I thought they weren't scheduled until September of this year. That's what we're telling our guest at our hotel. I'm confused now.

No. The first Disney Cruise to leave out of Galveston will be on September 22nd 2012, but they have been booking them for quite some time.