Closest DCL Competitors

[AKVFamily]

We love DCL but are curious which other cruise lines come closest to providing a similar level of family experience?

 

[drb116]

I think Royal Caribbean comes closest, especially the Oasis class boats with things like the ice shows and the aqua theater. They also have family friendly activities such as a carousel, water slides, etc.

Norwegian also has a lot to offer, but I feel like they have more activities geared towards adults or children, but not as many family activities as RC.

 

[bbel]

It’s not necessarily down to the cruise line.
The actual ships can vary a lot within cruise lines.
Many ships out there do a better job and have a bigger variety of family activities and experiences than Disney.

 

[randumb0]

Some of Royal's ships would be the best comparison

 

[tvguy]

It’s not necessarily down to the cruise line.
The actual ships can vary a lot within cruise lines.
Many ships out there do a better job and have a bigger variety of family activities and experiences than Disney.

I agree. We took our kids on two HAL cruises, one before our Disney cruise and one after. HAL is thought of as a older crowd, but our summer cruises to Alaska were packed with kids and family activities. But that may be unique to Alaska and to those ships, the Amsterdam and Westerdam.

 

[holula]

It’s not necessarily down to the cruise line.
The actual ships can vary a lot within cruise lines.
Many ships out there do a better job and have a bigger variety of family activities and experiences than Disney.

Agree. I love Royal’s newer ships and think they’d be a good choice but I would not recommend say, Enchantment.

 

[Chica1581]

I think it depends on your kid's ages. We would consider a Royal Oasis class cruise with our 10-year-old. However, we also have a 4-year-old, and found that he would not be old enough, heavy enough, or tall enough for many activities on the Royal Oasis ships. We nearly booked an Oasys class cruise in Alaska, but when I started checking on age/height requirements for activities such as ice skating, flow rider, zip line, water slides, bumper cars, etc., our four-year-old would not be able to participate in most activities. So, we decided to stick with DCL until he is older. We considered the Norwegian Bliss because of the go karts, but he was too young for those too.
We did do a Celebrity Cruise when our daughter was 4. Although it was a Caribbean cruise over New Years, she was only one of two kids in the Kid Club. They only had coloring books and movies. The hours were really limited, and we had to pay extra if we left her during a mealtime or in the evening. She didn't really look forward to going to the kid's club because it was boring.

 

[happycamper47]

We feel that PRINCESS is a close second as far as service.

 

[tvguy]

I would add, it also it depends on how you define "family experience".
Do you mean lots of kids clubs where you spend time AWAY from your kids?
Or do you mean lots of activities where you can spend time WITH your kids?
With our kids crazy school/sports schedules, cruising to us has always been a time to spend 24/7 with our kids. We hang the "mom and dad" hats at the gangway and become just their friends for a week.

 

[AKVFamily]

I would add, it also it depends on how you define "family experience".
Do you mean lots of kids clubs where you spend time AWAY from your kids?
Or do you mean lots of activities where you can spend time WITH your kids?
With our kids crazy school/sports schedules, cruising to us has always been a time to spend 24/7 with our kids. We hang the "mom and dad" hats at the gangway and become just their friends for a week.

Good point. We have older teens and like to do the meals, movies, shows, and quiz challenges together on DCL. However, there are times when my wife and I want to relax in an adult area and they are now at an age where more action-oriented activities are going to appeal to them.

I also don’t want to get nickel and dimed for every snack and activity onboard and we like that most of DCL stuff is baked into the price.

 

[tvguy]

Good point. We have older teens and like to do the meals, movies, shows, and quiz challenges together on DCL. However, there are times when my wife and I want to relax in an adult area and they are now at an age where more action-oriented activities are going to appeal to them.

I also don’t want to get nickel and dimed for every snack and activity onboard and we like that most of DCL stuff is baked into the price.

I realize we may be in the minority, but when our kids were small, all our vacations .....not just cruises........were to spent time together. During the school year, we might only see them a couple of hours a day.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Good point. We have older teens and like to do the meals, movies, shows, and quiz challenges together on DCL. However, there are times when my wife and I want to relax in an adult area and they are now at an age where more action-oriented activities are going to appeal to them.

I also don’t want to get nickel and dimed for every snack and activity onboard and we like that most of DCL stuff is baked into the price.

Honestly, I've done one Norwegian Cruise and have a hard time going back. Everything was an upcharge on the Norwegian ship. When we are on DCL, a drink here and there is nice but honestly not necessary to enjoy yourself and have a good time. I don't like finding a ridiculous bill waiting for me on debark day.

 

[lklgoodman]

I think it depends on your kid's ages. We would consider a Royal Oasis class cruise with our 10-year-old. However, we also have a 4-year-old, and found that he would not be old enough, heavy enough, or tall enough for many activities on the Royal Oasis ships. We nearly booked an Oasys class cruise in Alaska, but when I started checking on age/height requirements for activities such as ice skating, flow rider, zip line, water slides, bumper cars, etc., our four-year-old would not be able to participate in most activities. So, we decided to stick with DCL until he is older. We considered the Norwegian Bliss because of the go karts, but he was too young for those too.
We did do a Celebrity Cruise when our daughter was 4. Although it was a Caribbean cruise over New Years, she was only one of two kids in the Kid Club. They only had coloring books and movies. The hours were really limited, and we had to pay extra if we left her during a mealtime or in the evening. She didn't really look forward to going to the kid's club because it was boring.

We did Alaska cruise on DCL when my dd was 6 yrs old. She loved it. We've done 7 more DCL cruised since then, mostly on the Fantasy. We're doing another Alaska in 2023 on Norwegian's Encore. My dd will be 15 yrs old, so wanted to try s ship with more activities. It will be our first non DCL cruise. I'm excited for it, but it will feel odd to not see all the Disney characters and decor.

 

[sadiwest]

We love DCL but are curious which other cruise lines come closest to providing a similar level of family experience?

Depends on what experience you mean. RCCL has great new ships with lots of kid/tween/teen friendly activities like iFly, bumper cars, etc.
Princess has some amazing service and ships. NCL is ok all around but our daughter enjoyed more activities when she was in the single-digit ages.

This is our first DCL trip....coming up. Not sure yet.

 

[heathernm6]

Good point. We have older teens and like to do the meals, movies, shows, and quiz challenges together on DCL. However, there are times when my wife and I want to relax in an adult area and they are now at an age where more action-oriented activities are going to appeal to them.

I also don’t want to get nickel and dimed for every snack and activity onboard and we like that most of DCL stuff is baked into the price.

For what it's worth, we went on a RCL Oasis class for the first time last year and I was pleasantly surprised with how many activities were included in the fare. I was thinking things like the flow rider, ice skating, zip line, etc. would all be extra but they weren't! The only really noticeable difference for us was the upselling of specialty dining the first few days. We still like DCL better, but I could definitely see older kids - teens having a great time on those Oasis ships!

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

We feel that PRINCESS is a close second as far as service.

This is good to hear! We've chosen Princess for an upcoming Alaska cruise because we want a one-way itinerary and a visit to Glacier Bay National Park. We are very used to DCL, though, and I'm hoping Princess will show up in the service department. And the food allergy accommodation department. (Thought I'm not expecting anything like we get at Disney.)

 

[tidefan]

This is good to hear! We've chosen Princess for an upcoming Alaska cruise because we want a one-way itinerary and a visit to Glacier Bay National Park. We are very used to DCL, though, and I'm hoping Princess will show up in the service department. And the food allergy accommodation department. (Thought I'm not expecting anything like we get at Disney.)

Princess is great. It’s our favorite line outside DCL and Virgin. Which ship are you on? We’ll be on Crown Princess late May/early June.

On another note, I’ll throw a curveball in here. We did Oasis back in January and we were frankly, bored. However, we are not flowrider/rockwall/ice skating people. We then did Carnival Mardi Gras (the new Carnival Mega-ship) and all liked it better. Way more included food (and the ice cream didn’t shut down at 5:30pm like it did on Oasis, it was 24/7) and had ropes course, water park, etc. I think the only extra charge outside of the steakhouse or sushi/teppanyaki was that the roller coaster was $15. Their Shaq’s Big Chicken is one of my absolute cruise ship food favorites, just behind Alfredo’s on Princess…

 

[tvguy]

The only really noticeable difference for us was the upselling of specialty dining the first few days.

Yeah, it seems Disney sells out specialty dining before the cruise. But other lines seem to have a hard time getting people to pay extra for that dining experience. We experienced a huge hard sell on extra cost dining on Celebrity in October 2019. I would have walked up to any of the extra cost dining options without a reservation and gotten immediate seating.
And previously on HAL, our servers said demand for extra cost dining was way overestimated, and demand for included dining underestimated.

 

[disneylandlocal]

I’m really curious to try Royal’s private island. My 10 year old was bored at castaway and would love the big water slides. Sad to think he may age out of Disney cruises soon.

 

[tidefan]

I’m really curious to try Royal’s private island. My 10 year old was bored at castaway and would love the big water slides. Sad to think he may age out of Disney cruises soon.

Do be aware that the water park on Coco Cay is not included and is an extra charge (like up to $99 extra pp, depending on what you want to do). That said, there is a lot of included stuff to do there if you aren’t tied to the slides…