Pens Fan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2014
After five DCL cruises, we recently jumped ship to the NCL Sun for our latest Alaskan adventure. I have really enjoyed the various threads on here that compare other cruise lines to DCL, so I thought I’d offer my thoughts on our NCL experience. I find it helpful to get the perspective of someone who has sailed a lot on Disney and then goes elsewhere and can offer the plusses and minuses. So I’m paying it forward, and hope this will be helpful to someone else. The Sun is one of NCL’s oldest and smallest ships - even smaller than the Magic/Wonder. I’m sure our impressions are quite different from those sailing on NCL’s mega ships, but I can only speak to our first hand experience. For those of you who have sailed on any of the other NCL ships (or even the Sun) please feel free to chime in with your own impressions and how they compare to DCL.
First, a little background: We are a family of three, DH and I are in our 50’s and our son is 19. We love Disney (our son’s dream is to be an imagineer). However, while we have enjoyed many WDW and DCL vacations we certainly aren’t joined at the hip with the Mouse when it comes to travel. We have taken a lot more non Disney vacations than Disney ones over the years and enjoyed them all. When it comes to cruising, though, with the exception of our honeymoon cruise on Carnival (which we loved!!) back in 1985, our cruising experience has only been on DCL.
We have been to Alaska twice before. Many years ago, before our son was born, DH and I took a mostly land based 2 week vacation. One misadventure due to temperamental Alaskan weather and small planes not being able to fly necessitated an afternoon on the Alaskan State Ferry, but other than that we were driving through Alaska and the Yukon. Years later, when our son was 14 we sailed on the Wonder for a roundtrip cruise out of Seattle. Each of these vacations were amazing and we have been plotting a return to Alaska for some time now. This time our priorities were two-fold. We wanted a land/sea vacation, so the cruise portion needed to be a one way between Vancouver and either Seward or Whittier. We also desperately wanted to see Glacier Bay. We had planned on flying to Glacier Bay on our first land based trip, but the previously mentioned weather / plane issues prevented that from happening. Both of these priorities eliminated DCL from our options.
We had been kicking around the idea of an NCL cruise, being intrigued by their laid-back, “Freestyle” cruising model. This seemed a great time to check them out as the NCL Sun had the perfect itinerary for our needs. It sailed one way from Vancouver to Seward, and included both Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier, as well as the typical stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. We were sold! The only decision we needed to make was to decide what category of stateroom to book. On Disney we have always sailed in a balcony cabin - mostly 5A or 5B, and once in a 4A. Looking at NCL, their balcony cabins seemed small, so initially I was thinking of booking a mini suite, as that seemed more comparable to what we were used to on Disney. However my husband really wanted to try out an actual suite as we had never done that on DCL, so we decided to go for it.
First, a little background: We are a family of three, DH and I are in our 50’s and our son is 19. We love Disney (our son’s dream is to be an imagineer). However, while we have enjoyed many WDW and DCL vacations we certainly aren’t joined at the hip with the Mouse when it comes to travel. We have taken a lot more non Disney vacations than Disney ones over the years and enjoyed them all. When it comes to cruising, though, with the exception of our honeymoon cruise on Carnival (which we loved!!) back in 1985, our cruising experience has only been on DCL.
We have been to Alaska twice before. Many years ago, before our son was born, DH and I took a mostly land based 2 week vacation. One misadventure due to temperamental Alaskan weather and small planes not being able to fly necessitated an afternoon on the Alaskan State Ferry, but other than that we were driving through Alaska and the Yukon. Years later, when our son was 14 we sailed on the Wonder for a roundtrip cruise out of Seattle. Each of these vacations were amazing and we have been plotting a return to Alaska for some time now. This time our priorities were two-fold. We wanted a land/sea vacation, so the cruise portion needed to be a one way between Vancouver and either Seward or Whittier. We also desperately wanted to see Glacier Bay. We had planned on flying to Glacier Bay on our first land based trip, but the previously mentioned weather / plane issues prevented that from happening. Both of these priorities eliminated DCL from our options.
We had been kicking around the idea of an NCL cruise, being intrigued by their laid-back, “Freestyle” cruising model. This seemed a great time to check them out as the NCL Sun had the perfect itinerary for our needs. It sailed one way from Vancouver to Seward, and included both Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier, as well as the typical stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. We were sold! The only decision we needed to make was to decide what category of stateroom to book. On Disney we have always sailed in a balcony cabin - mostly 5A or 5B, and once in a 4A. Looking at NCL, their balcony cabins seemed small, so initially I was thinking of booking a mini suite, as that seemed more comparable to what we were used to on Disney. However my husband really wanted to try out an actual suite as we had never done that on DCL, so we decided to go for it.