Len Testa - “Disney positions itself as the all-American vacation. The irony is that most Americans can’t afford it.”

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I havent done any of the specialty dining on Royal as of yet, but have on Celebrity. Finer Cut Steakhouse was absolutely incredible!!! 5 out of 5 stars for sure. I would do it again without any hesitation. I also enjoyed Le Petit Chef. Super entertaining and good food to match!!! I'd love to hear your experiences when you get back!! Marie

Ocean Liners on Celebrity was the best meal not on land I’ve ever had…I think it’s called something else now?

And food is always the highlight of my trips…99% of the time

 

[Miss Bella]

I havent done any of the specialty dining on Royal as of yet, but have on Celebrity. Finer Cut Steakhouse was absolutely incredible!!! 5 out of 5 stars for sure. I would do it again without any hesitation. I also enjoyed Le Petit Chef. Super entertaining and good food to match!!! I'd love to hear your experiences when you get back!! Marie

I will let you know. It's a ways off not until January. Of course this is the time of year that goes by in a blink of an eye. Tomorrow it will be Christmas.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I always concerns when people say DCL food is better than other cruise lines because I think DCL food is mediocre, and there are very few options. There's the dining room or Palo. I thought the main dining room on Royal was about the same as Disney.

I'm doing the speciality restaurants on Royal this time. I'm looking forward to the variety and because I paid so much less for the cruise I can actually do that. I have watched a lot of videos and people seem to enjoy the different dining venues on Royal and NCL.

I found the main dining room/included option better on DCL (especially when factoring in the theming, but even the food on its own - not that Royal is bad by any means) but when you factor in the Specialty Dining (and, like you said, you can add in the specialty dining and still be cheaper than Disney) the food on Royal was way better than Disney and a lot more variety.

Definitely comes down to what do you prioritize - there definitely are elements that DCL does better than the others and if those are super important to you, it is likely worth the extra cost, but there are other things that RCL, etc do better (I found them to have a lot more variety in everything - food, entertainment, etc) and if you value those elements and can deal with the "lesser" experience in what DCL does better it can be a much better value

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Where does your Viking cruise go?

British isles, can’t wait.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

We did a Viking river cruise last Summer and thought it was worth it. We were also the youngest on the ship by about 15-20 years.

My brother and SIL are huge Viking fans and their raving about how much they love it convinced us to give it a shot, they are in their early 60s and said they are usually the “kids” on the ship, I’ll be 52 so I might be the ships toddler.

I was surprised by the age range on our Princess cruise, we intentionally went in the shoulder season to have fewer kids but I think we saw maybe 4 kids the whole trip, I’d guess the average age was over 60, it was a bit of a shock after only doing DCL, Viking is 18+ so no worries on that one.

 

[Charlie The Chatbox Ghost]

A good portion of the story is centered on Ms. Cressel's scooter breaking down, which has nothing to do with Disney. She seems very satisfied with her trip at the end of the story.

I read this article last week and didn't see the angle or the purpose. It felt like a failed attempt at an incendiary poor vs. rich story. Both guests were happy with their trip, but probably a lot was invested in the story already so they had to publish.

A lot of folks over on reddit raged against Disney because a $10k vacation can take you very far elsewhere (all the haters used that same $10k number) but we go very frequently (no annual pass) and have never paid nearly that much. Some of the hotels are very expensive but you could always stay at an All Star. Yeah, you have to pay up for nicer things. What a concept!

The only time I've heard of people spending that much is a friend of mine's family, who spend a ton of money (I wanna say at least a thousand) on alcohol, on top of staying at the Polynesian for like two weeks. So, not a normal price at all.

That said- I went down for two park days in June- one day for the closure of MuppetVision and one day at Magic Kingdom. I was there for 5 days total. Including transportation, food, flights, etc., but not including the ticket for the MuppetVision event I was there for (which I got heavily discounted for being an employee), it cost me roughly $1250. When I went for a 7 park days (9 days total) in 2018, with 2 days at MK, 1 at each of the other WDW parks, and then 2 park-hopper days at Universal, that cost me $1400. The only thing we did on the trip was the parks and we stayed within the Disney bubble (except for Ubering to Universal). It's worth noting for both of those trips, I didn't have to pay for lodging, as I stayed at a family friend's DVC property in 2018 and then a Hilton in June that my father is a member of, so the gap in price for the trip would've been larger if I had to pay for that. Still, looking at just the ticket prices- the two days at WDW in 2025 cost $315.16, where in 2018 we got 5 days at WDW for $480. On their website right now the price for 5 days ranges from $678-790. It's crazy how much more money you have to spend now, even if it doesn't seem like it on paper.

 

[SamusAranX]

Because they get value out of one and not the other. People have money to spend, but they’re not going to just throw their money away at things that don’t offer value.

And if you can’t use a game ticket, you can resell it to recoup some of your money. Not so with Disney

 

[SamusAranX]

Maybe you cracked the code on child rearing but I haven't figured out how to fall asleep on a beach with a 7- and 2-year-old present.

I heard Benadryl or chloroform work wonders

 

[Andrew C]

British isles, can’t wait.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I’ll be 52 so I might be the ships toddler.

…I can’t wait
Until you bring the tablets down off the mountain, Mo…

 

[TalkingHead]

My experience is that the food on DCL is better than many other lines, particularly when comparing main dining rooms. I love Royal, but their main dining room food is always underwhelming, and sometimes boarding on trash. And it irks me because I know they can do better...you just have to pay for it. This is why I have mixed feelings about the continuous push to specialty dining. Essentially they are saying, "If you want good food, you have to pay extra on top of what you have already paid for the cruise."

Personally have found the Indian dishes in the Royal main dining rooms to be consistently good.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

My experience is that the food on DCL is better than many other lines, particularly when comparing main dining rooms. I love Royal, but their main dining room food is always underwhelming, and sometimes boarding on trash. And it irks me because I know they can do better...you just have to pay for it. This is why I have mixed feelings about the continuous push to specialty dining. Essentially they are saying, "If you want good food, you have to pay extra on top of what you have already paid for the cruise."

The buffet and main on Royal is passable…but I would say just that

My perspective is different though because we got hooked on the specialties about 6 trips ago

 

[Miss Bella]

I found the main dining room/included option better on DCL (especially when factoring in the theming, but even the food on its own - not that Royal is bad by any means) but when you factor in the Specialty Dining (and, like you said, you can add in the specialty dining and still be cheaper than Disney) the food on Royal was way better than Disney and a lot more variety.

Definitely comes down to what do you prioritize - there definitely are elements that DCL does better than the others and if those are super important to you, it is likely worth the extra cost, but there are other things that RCL, etc do better (I found them to have a lot more variety in everything - food, entertainment, etc) and if you value those elements and can deal with the "lesser" experience in what DCL does better it can be a much better value

I've sailed on Royal twice Allure and Odyssey. Odyssey was a 12 day med cruise. We ate in the main dining room every night. I found the food to be fine. The service great. Dining room was a lot quieter since passengers were dispersed across the ship with the variety of dining options. We did a 10 night cruise on the Carnival Vista out of Athens in 2016 that was also great. There is something about long European cruises it's a totally different vibe even on Carnival. The food always seems to be better to.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I've sailed on Royal twice Allure and Odyssey. Odyssey was a 12 day med cruise. We ate in the main dining room every night. I found the food to be fine. The service great. Dining room was a lot quieter since passengers were dispersed across the ship with the variety of dining options. We did a 10 night cruise on the Carnival Vista out of Athens in 2016 that was also great. There is something about long European cruises it's a totally different vibe even on Carnival. The food always seems to be better to.

I’ve always heard the med cruises have better overall quality…

But to your point. The Royal ships seem to distribute the people very well…even on full sailings I never felt like i was really in a crowd including at meal times

Those are the larger ships with more options…however

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

lol. I wish. Too many activities in the fall with the kids.

Darn those kids!! lol

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Ocean Liners on Celebrity was the best meal not on land I’ve ever had…I think it’s called something else now?

And food is always the highlight of my trips…99% of the time

My husband and I love Celebrity. It's our favorite cruise line

Pam

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

The uber ships just feel so different now

Our first RCCL was on explorer when that was “top of the line”…it was incredible compared to the 80’s and 90’s ships

Fast forward after allure, symphony and ovation and anthem…and we went on Liberty a couple of years ago in the covid after math…considering it was “voyager plus” class…the size differences was very noticeable.

We went on allure about 2 years after the Dream. And it felt like it could eat the Disney ship for breakfast and leave it in its entrails. Then we docked next to it in Cozumel and it literally could

Just a whole new ballgame. And it’s not just size…prior to Dream we were on the celebrity Connie…same size and just a completely different class of ship…for half the price

My first on Royal was Adventure, but I did Symphony (we had 27 staterooms on that sailing), Wonder of the Seas (30 staterooms for our group cruise) a couple of times and I was just on Star of the Seas for the pre-inaugural. I know there's more but my brain is tired after the day I had lol
I am a huge fan of the big ships though. I have been on all of the Disney ships multiple times. I am not a fan of the Wish, at all. I did love the Treasure though and I will be on the Destiny in Nov, which I am really looking forward to.
Also, I love the Edge Class ships on Celebrity!!

Pam

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

My experience is that the food on DCL is better than many other lines, particularly when comparing main dining rooms. I love Royal, but their main dining room food is always underwhelming, and sometimes boarding on trash. And it irks me because I know they can do better...you just have to pay for it. This is why I have mixed feelings about the continuous push to specialty dining. Essentially they are saying, "If you want good food, you have to pay extra on top of what you have already paid for the cruise."

The BEST food by far of all the cruise lines that I have been on is Virgin. Hands down the best. everything is made fresh, including in their "buffet". You actually order what you want at either a station or from a menu and it's made fresh.

Pam

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Like I said in my above post we are doing the speciality restaurants on Royal and I'm really looking forward to that. We will try some on NCL too.
Since DCL is going to be in San Diego we may do a weekend cruise once in a while if the price is right. I don't see us sailing on them like we did before. We are cruising out of Istanbul next Summer and I want to do some different itineraries that Disney just doesn't offer and if they did I probably couldn't afford it.

The specialty restaurants on royal are really good! I already have Chops Grill & Giovannis booked for our cruise next year. I just had clients that did Venice, an 11 night cruise on Celebrity and ended with a 5 night stay in Istanbul.

Pam

 

[willtravel]

British isles, can’t wait.

Are you doing a river cruise or ocean cruise?