Other Cruise Lines... not as cheap as I was expecting?

[Plaid Princess]

So, maybe I'm missing something... but everyone is always going on and on about how Disney is so much more expensive than other Cruise Lines. So I'm looking for a quick weekend trip for DH's birthday, and I figured we'd take a gamble and try another line.

Started researching cruises available for the dates we want, and to get anything remotely near a Disney sized cabin the price is nearly the same?

Am I doing something wrong? I'm even booking with an interline discount. I'm searching in the high season, but still... I expected more of a difference. I don't want to spend the weekend in a closet!

 

[MSPeeler]

What cruise line are you comparing with DCL and what destination?

 

[cmph]

I kinda thought the same thing when I was researching options for a 7 night over New Year's Eve. It appeared that other lines jacked their prices up more than DCL, percentage-wise, to cruise over NYE. If you're talking high season as in summer (when kids are out of school) but a non-holiday, that surprises me a little. It seemed like it was more the holiday inclusion itself that jacked other lines' prices up.

You might want to add in some details about what cruiseline, to where, dates, etc, and the folks who know far more about DCL vs other lines can offer more helpful info.

 

[Shanti]

So, maybe I'm missing something... but everyone is always going on and on about how Disney is so much more expensive than other Cruise Lines. So I'm looking for a quick weekend trip for DH's birthday, and I figured we'd take a gamble and try another line.

Started researching cruises available for the dates we want, and to get anything remotely near a Disney sized cabin the price is nearly the same?

Am I doing something wrong? I'm even booking with an interline discount. I'm searching in the high season, but still... I expected more of a difference. I don't want to spend the weekend in a closet!

Are you only booking for two people? That might be part of the issue. A lot of other lines give steeper discounts for 3rd & 4th passenger and/or kids, unlike DCL, so families of 3 or more often see a bigger price differential between DCL & other lines than do parties of 2.

 

[mousefan73]

Try comparing a family! Especially 4 or 5. I noticed a lot of couples finding DCL "reasonable". Others offer senior specials too. I'm finding Disney only discountd FL residents or military

 

[Shanti]

Another thing to consider is cabin type. Some of the people on these boards who moan about being "priced out" of DCL are people who used to cruise DCL concierge. So they compare DCL concierge with concierge-type levels from other lines, and are blown away by the price difference, because DCL's concierge has skyrocketed in price over the past few years, many times faster than the non-concierge cabin categories.

So if you were looking at a regular cabin on both lines, that will show less of a price difference than comparing concierge between both lines.

 

[Westcoastwild]

I think concierge issue is a big one, as shanti mentioned. And the family size- that's a huge one. As a solo, there isn't much difference in price- I looked into it.

But also consider how people see price vs value. A lot of the moaning and groaning I've seen doesn't compare apples to apples. It compares apples to, I don't know, olives. They aren't always complaining that Disney is more expensive. Sometimes it's just that they see Disney as charging the same amount of money for fewer things.

 

[cmph]

Another thing to consider is cabin type. Some of the people on these boards who moan about being "priced out" of DCL are people who used to cruise DCL concierge. So they compare DCL concierge with concierge-type levels from other lines, and are blown away by the price difference, because DCL's concierge has skyrocketed in price over the past few years, many times faster than the non-concierge cabin categories.

So if you were looking at a regular cabin on both lines, that will show less of a price difference than comparing concierge between both lines.

I have noticed this, too. A good while back, I popped into a thread that was talking about NCL's new ship to Alaska to ask about non-concierge level comparisons on stateroom size/layout, b/c it seemed like only the Haven suites were being discussed. I got nothing back, and I don't think people were at all being rude - I think they just only ever book at the high end.

OP - FWIW, in the 90's and early 2000's when ships were smaller, I only ever sailed in the cheapest inside staterooms. Most were as a teenager or 20ish in college, with my parents and my sister, who is two years younger than me. And yes, that was something, 4 of us in a tiny cabin (3 women/teenage girls!), esp b/c formal/semi-formal was taken more seriously then so we had more luggage and outfits. The first cruise I took with just DH, pre-kids, that tiny cabin seemed immense, LOL! It may not be DCL sized, but if it's just two of you - it'll be ok, esp for a short cruise.

 

[bumbershoot]

Last minute booking is a factor. Getting same SIZE cabin is a huge factor. You're comparing the wrong apples and oranges by going with size of room.

 

[KashasMom]

It sometimes depends on when you're cruising - during the summer and most holidays you will find DCL is more expensive. As others mentioned traveling with 3+ people also makes a difference. DCL doesn't discount the "general public" EVER. Our Ultimate Scandinavia/Russia cruise last summer on RCI had a longer and better itinerary than a similar DCL and it was ONE THIRD the price. In my book, that is a HUGE savings. (It was our best cruise EVER - amazing itinerary.)

Comparing an RCI on the Allure (great ship!) to the Fantasy in August - similar room, etc... RCI is $4,140 and DCL is $6,424. To many of us that would be considered a HUGE savings! And BTW, we were just on the Allure in Feb and there was so much space and storage in our room that we didn't even use it all - so no closet there.

 

[hanscarlet]

This has been my experience too... we'd only try if we get a suite and their suite/concierge prices are only about $2k less which isn't a huge savings when you think about the difference in concierge experiences.... I also compared RCCL to DCL on trips out of NYC vs PC (figured I would save on airfare) and again I found the savings was only about $1500 which again with airfare that's about $2500 but $2k won't entice me away when we don't get that much time off.... however now that I'm a TA, I can get TA rates and I'm going to see if I can try and snag a really cheap 3 day weekend in Q1.

 

[undertheradar]

We have also found that prices are not the huge difference that others claim. Now, we are looking at suites and we are used to having multiple bathrooms within the suite, something many other lines do not have available.

 

[Hongyi Zhang]

When we decided earlier this year to take my kids on DCL before my older son starts school. We did quite a bit of comparison, we looked at all North America sailings and found the Panama Canal sailings to be the closest price to other lines so we booked it for Oct 2018, In fact had we chosen to go with Carnival instead, the savings would be only been $500 total for the 4 of us ($8100 vs $7600), both were 14 days for Oceanview. The biggest difference in price were Alaska and your typical Carribean sailings out of Florida. Especially with RCL offering kids sail free. Disney was between 60% to 120% higher which for us would be $2k to $3k difference. For example, we booked Allure of the Seas for this coming Oct a few weeks ago and it was only $2400 for the 4 of us in a Boardwalk Balcony, we also couldve booked Oceanview Balcony for $2800. But it wouldve costed us $5500 on the Disney Fantasy for Verandah during the same week. So I think it depends on lots of factors including time of sailing, where it's going, and whether or not the other cruise line is running some kind of specials or not.

 

[KayKayJS]

It all depends on the dates, itinerary, ship, sales, etc.

We found our Alaskan cruise on the Wonder to be no more than going with another line. But we had OBB, sailed in an OV, on the very first sailing.

Sailing out of Florida in the Summer/Fall on a 7night I am having a harder time swallowing the difference

 

[Prose]

I think the cabin size is much of the issue here. Disney's cabins are outsized compared to much of the industry, so to get a similar size cabin on another line, you will have to move up a category or two, which eliminates much of the savings. When you cost compare, you need to compare by category, not square footage.

We sailed the Allure of the Seas last year. Although the balcony cabin was definitely smaller than on DCL, and we missed the split bath, it nowhere near felt like a closet. Storage space was similar - the main issue we saw was that the sofa bed pulled out into a full size rather than a twin and so blocked the route to the balcony, which wouldn't affect you with only two people.

 

[darnheather]

Are you only booking for two people? That might be part of the issue. A lot of other lines give steeper discounts for 3rd & 4th passenger and/or kids, unlike DCL, so families of 3 or more often see a bigger price differential between DCL & other lines than do parties of 2.

I found the opposite to be true. For the three of us unless I catch a 3rd person free on one of the other lines then DCL is a better deal for the 3rd person.

 

[sambycat]

Yes I was expecting a huge difference in the podcast cruise last December on RCL. the difference for us (2 adults) was really not enough to entice us to cruise more regularly on RCL, which I had hoped it would.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I have not found a cruise on RCL that has not saved me thousands of dollars when compared to a DCL cruise the same week, for the same duration on a similar itinerary, for the same amount of people in the same room type.

 

[SteveMP]

Whenever I have compared apples to apples, RCI is $1k-2k cheaper for same room type/dates/itinerary-ish.

 

[MickeyD]

I will agree with others that booking for 2 people, there is no significant difference in DCL vs other lines, unless you are booking a higher level category. Other lines will run specials that include things like drink packages etc, that Disney doesn't offer. I will say though, I was surprised when I booked our last Fantasy sailing for the three of us, the cost of a Family Veranda stateroom, was only $200 more than the regular veranda stateroom I had booked for us almost 10 years ago. So their prices haven't gone up too much in my book, if I was able to upgrade a cabin for the three of us and only pay $200 more. Edited to add: this was for the same month: May, but on the Fantasy vs the Magic.