The other wild card for us is that with a food allergy kid, we have some loyalty to Disney because they do allergies well (particularly at WDW)... but I have heard decent things about a couple other cruise lines as well... so we shall see!
We sat next to an allergy family on Freedom, and every night the servers gave the parents next night’s menu and order forms so they found pre-order exactly what they needed. I wouldn’t worry at all about Royal.
I’m of basically equal status on Disney and Royal. But since their systems are different, that means I’ve spent more days on Royal.
All Disney cruises were in Dream.
On Royal I’ve been on Radiance, Freedom twice, Vision, and adventure.
My heart is with Royal.
Service is equal on both, but on Disney it skews towards cloying, which I canNOT stand. One time it hit that level on Royal and it made us very uncomfortable. It was during dining, and I’m sure they thought they were providing excellent service, but it was just too much for us.
Food is about equal. We’re vegetarian with ingredient issues, and the care for us is equal. I’ve had to resort to Mac and cheese on Disney and spaghetti with marinara on Royal more than once, because that night’s vegetarian meals were just too gross to deal with again.
Shopping on both is like a mall. Once is fancy Bellevue square (up east of Seattle) and one is meh Tacoma mall (in Tacoma), but they are still just malls.
On radiance I didn’t know better AND was brand newly pregnant and could smell the casino smoke everywhere. On Vision we hit awful weather and the smokers couldn’t go outside so they went to the casino, and by the end of the second day of not being able to go outside it was starting to get desperate.
BUT on Dream a smoking section is right along the jogging track, so...
Belly flop contest, eh. I’ve literally come across it once time. And it’s because my husband at the time took part in it. He had a terrific time. And he lost even though he should have won (not a small fellow) and everyone was sad for him.
I’m NOT a Disney show person. Again, cloying. My family refuses to let me see golden Mickey a second time because of my near violent reaction to it. Seriously the show makes nooooo sense. It’s ridiculous. Ugh. So I do not miss the shows when on Royal.
I do like a comedian or a magician and will see them. They’ve been equal on both.
I’ve gotten interesting rooms on Royal, and I’ve done two category Vs, one inside, and one big porthole room (#6666, which was awesome) on Dream. I don’t generally go for plain rooms lol.
I’ll try celebrity next, because it seems interesting.
Those are my disjointed thoughts.