Struggling

[Weedy]

A few more:

Servers: Tie we’ve always had good service on both cruise lines. All the servers work very hard and want you to be happy.

Room Steward: Disney maybe. On our cruise from NJ to Canada on the Adventure of the Seas we had a bad room steward. He didn’t bring our luggage the first night. We had to search for it down the hall. No turn down service the first night and the room wasn’t as clean as it should have been. To Royal’s credit we complained that night to Guest Services and they sent 3 people plus the head of housekeeping to our cabin to clean and do the turn down service and we got a 15% off a future cruise.

Shows: Disney of course
The Oasis had 3 large shows.
Cats a Broadway show. It was terrible. Not the acting. The show itself. I have no idea why they chose this show to be on the ship.
Aqua Theater Diving Show was great. Not anything like the Disney shows so hard to compare but I give it 5 stars.
The Ice Skating Show hokey but cute. The ice skating show was also on the Adventure
The shows on the Majesty and Enchantment for the 3 and 4 night cruises was not great. Just cruise entertainment doing singing and dancing on stage.
They both have the guest jugglers and comedian. No reservations required for these shows.

Reservations for the shows: it’s a tie again. On the Oasis you have to make advance reservations for the shows.
The good is the shows play more than one night. The bad is it can be a little confusing making reservations. I made a grid of what shows played on each night. It was a little hard a first but it was Ok. It’s nice to have a choice of more than one night to see the show. So if you really want to eat dinner at 6:30 most nights but the Aqua show is at 6 and 8 you can eat dinner early just the night of the show.

Ships: Disney wins . A lot of the Royal ships are older and don’t look as nice from the outside but they were clean and nothing was broken.

Pools: Royal wins. Bigger pools. More (on some ships) more for older kids with the Flow Rider and the Zip lines.

Disembarking: Disney wins!!!!
Royal gives boarding numbers and you have to go to a bar/theater area to wait for your number to be called. Once in the terminal if you use the porter you get to skip the long customs line and go to a shorter one Best $20 I ever spent.

 

[starvenger]

I was very happy to see congee for breakfast on Harmony. Didn’t expect to see that at all

 

[mevelandry]

A few more:

Servers: Tie we’ve always had good service on both cruise lines. All the servers work very hard and want you to be happy.

Room Steward: Disney maybe. On our cruise from NJ to Canada on the Adventure of the Seas we had a bad room steward. He didn’t bring our luggage the first night. We had to search for it down the hall. No turn down service the first night and the room wasn’t as clean as it should have been. To Royal’s credit we complained that night to Guest Services and they sent 3 people plus the head of housekeeping to our cabin to clean and do the turn down service and we got a 15% off a future cruise.

Shows: Disney of course
The Oasis had 3 large shows.
Cats a Broadway show. It was terrible. Not the acting. The show itself. I have no idea why they chose this show to be on the ship.
Aqua Theater Diving Show was great. Not anything like the Disney shows so hard to compare but I give it 5 stars.
The Ice Skating Show hokey but cute. The ice skating show was also on the Adventure
The shows on the Majesty and Enchantment for the 3 and 4 night cruises was not great. Just cruise entertainment doing singing and dancing on stage.
They both have the guest jugglers and comedian. No reservations required for these shows.

Reservations for the shows: it’s a tie again. On the Oasis you have to make advance reservations for the shows.
The good is the shows play more than one night. The bad is it can be a little confusing making reservations. I made a grid of what shows played on each night. It was a little hard a first but it was Ok. It’s nice to have a choice of more than one night to see the show. So if you really want to eat dinner at 6:30 most nights but the Aqua show is at 6 and 8 you can eat dinner early just the night of the show.

Ships: Disney wins . A lot of the Royal ships are older and don’t look as nice from the outside but they were clean and nothing was broken.

Pools: Royal wins. Bigger pools. More (on some ships) more for older kids with the Flow Rider and the Zip lines.

Disembarking: Disney wins!!!!
Royal gives boarding numbers and you have to go to a bar/theater area to wait for your number to be called. Once in the terminal if you use the porter you get to skip the long customs line and go to a shorter one Best $20 I ever spent.

The part about shows made me giggle because I LOOOOVE Cats and watched it on video many times and also saw it "live"... I'd take Cats over any Disney shows (even Frozen, which was great).

 

[Weedy]

The part about shows made me giggle because I LOOOOVE Cats and watched it on video many times and also saw it "live"... I'd take Cats over any Disney shows (even Frozen, which was great).

Ha ha I guess that’s why it’s so hard to please everyone.

 

[Princessclab]

IMHO, they are two totally different products.
Go and enjoy RCCL for all it is, try not to compare.
I believe that either online systems for reservations aren't cutting edge technology.
Again, IMO the customer service on Royal is no where near how Disney does customer service.
Have fun!!!!

 

[skwak]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions!!!

 

[Tasmen]

This was a good read and helpful. We are also typically Disney cruisers and have a RCCL cruise planned with extended family in July 2020. The planning has been leaving me a bit 'meh' but I also keep comparing it to Disney.

Probably also isn't helping that I went to another site to ask questions about RCCL and got my hand slapped for asking a question.

 

[starvenger]

Guessing the site has a name that rhymes with "bruise britic?"

 

[Tasmen]

Guessing the site has a name that rhymes with "bruise britic?"

Maaaaaaaaaybe.

 

[bumbershoot]

From navigating the RCL website to the few times that we have spoken with RCL live, we are struggling to feel much magic if any with RCL.

I've never spoken with RCL before a cruise. What were your questions?

Anyway, if you'd seen the conversations when Royal switched to their current (presumably HTML5) design. you'll understand that the website is miles better than it was about 18 months ago. The old site was still better, but I think it used too much Flash and so I guess they decided to revamp it. And then relaunch without doing a whole lot of testing. Many bad words were used to describe this, especially if you were trying to access the Cruise Planner.

Are you SURE you're not talking about the Disney sites in general here?

I know it’s hard to believe that a website can be worse than Disney’s but it is.

I was JUST on Royal and Disney at the same time (deciding if I wanted to wade in further on the bumped-up post on the DCL board), and they were both atrocious in very very equal ways. IMO.

Luggage Tags: you have to print your own tags.

Unless something has changed, you can have the porters make up your tags at the port.

Check in: Royal for the win. You do everything online. You can even send in your picture before hand. You check in with the app. Some people may not like this part but your key cards are waiting in your cabin. You use the app to board

I think that's ship-specific.

Probably also isn't helping that I went to another site to ask questions about RCCL and got my hand slapped for asking a question.

What question?

 

[Tasmen]

What question?

Someone else asked something similar so I figured I'd ask my question.

We are traveling in a 2 bedroom suite and my aunt is in the room next to ours (not suite class). On DCL, usually they allow her to board with us. Traveling alone and what not. We've never asked and were ready to board with her. DCL offered.

So I asked if RCCL does that. Got an unkind response stating we should just wait with her.

I'm sure we are going to have a blast we will be with family and, duh, cruising.

 

[starvenger]

Are you SURE you're not talking about the Disney sites in general here?

My comment could probably have been applied to any number of websites.

But it wasn't about Disney... this time.

 

[bumbershoot]

Someone else asked something similar so I figured I'd ask my question.

We are traveling in a 2 bedroom suite and my aunt is in the room next to ours (not suite class). On DCL, usually they allow her to board with us. Traveling alone and what not. We've never asked and were ready to board with her. DCL offered.

So I asked if RCCL does that. Got an unkind response stating we should just wait with her.

I'm sure we are going to have a blast we will be with family and, duh, cruising.

I wish I knew the answer to that.

But even on Disney my response to myself (and our first Disney cruise, we were in concierge and my aunts family was not so it could have been relevant) would be to just all board with her.

Though as my first trip turned out, it was moot, as family drove in from Daytona and boarded the ship as early as possible, and they texted us about that while we were just getting on the bus from POR. Sigh.

 

[GlamMistress]

We will do our first RCCL cruise in August - a Med.

So I did our checkin last night. This morning I thought I'd look around the app just for the heck of it. Only half of my excursions and dinner reservations are showing up. I went back to the desktop site and all my purchased excursions are showing in "My Calendar."

Also, when I booked I got a special - the pop package and a dinner at Johnny Rockets. That does not show up ANYWHERE in my purchase history.

Should I just call in about these items?

 

[starvenger]

We will do our first RCCL cruise in August - a Med.

So I did our checkin last night. This morning I thought I'd look around the app just for the heck of it. Only half of my excursions and dinner reservations are showing up. I went back to the desktop site and all my purchased excursions are showing in "My Calendar."

Also, when I booked I got a special - the pop package and a dinner at Johnny Rockets. That does not show up ANYWHERE in my purchase history.

Should I just call in about these items?

So judging from your booking special you got a Boardwalk Balcony?

When I was on Allure I had a CP Balcony which came with a bottle of wine and a lunch at Giovanni's. When we went into our stateroom the wine was there and we had instructions wrt the lunch. So I'd expect it to be similar for your booking special. Wouldn't hurt to email guest relations and confirm this though.

 

[Tasmen]

I wish I knew the answer to that.

But even on Disney my response to myself (and our first Disney cruise, we were in concierge and my aunts family was not so it could have been relevant) would be to just all board with her.

Though as my first trip turned out, it was moot, as family drove in from Daytona and boarded the ship as early as possible, and they texted us about that while we were just getting on the bus from POR. Sigh.

Traveling can cause a bit of anxiety in me. More specifically the waiting to do a 'thing' causes it. That's part of why I like sailing suite class/concierge/etc. One less thing to stress me out. We'll deal either way. I'll put on my big girl pants and just medicate with a drink once onboard or something

 

[GlamMistress]

So judging from your booking special you got a Boardwalk Balcony?

When I was on Allure I had a CP Balcony which came with a bottle of wine and a lunch at Giovanni's. When we went into our stateroom the wine was there and we had instructions wrt the lunch. So I'd expect it to be similar for your booking special. Wouldn't hurt to email guest relations and confirm this though.

Thanks for your response. Yes, a Boardwalk Balcony. I will go ahead and reach out.

 

[msjprincess]

I don't think the soda/Johnny Rockets promotion ever shows up under the reservation. The promotion has been going on for a few years. We purchased a deluxe package before our Allure cruise. When we got to our room we had 4 cups. Two from the free promotion and 2 for the drink package. My kids had cups in their room but there was no Coca Cola logo on their seapass. They were able to get a sticker at Guest Services.

I've never booked a DCL cruise but I find RCCL's site a dream compared to the DVC member site. LOL

 

[DizneyNutz]

Hello:

We are long-time DCL cruisers but have an RCL cruise lined up for late June. It is our 1st RCL cruise. We are struggling more than I thought we would regarding planning. I knew there would be differences but honestly I did not know they would be so stark. From navigating the RCL website to the few times that we have spoken with RCL live, we are struggling to feel much magic if any with RCL. I know RCL is considerably less expensive but it is not like we are not spending several thousands of dollars on the cruise. It is still a lot of money and it is our vacation, it should feel magical.

Any words of wisdom?

Thanks!

Our suggestion would be to use Dreams Unlimited to book any future DCL or RCL cruises. It is no cost to you and hassle free. You do not have to speak with anyone from DCL or RCL ever. We have used them for years (Specifically Beth Fejer) and she is AWESOME!!! Saved us over $900 on last cruise by watching for price drops! Hope you enjoy RCL as much as we do. Have a great cruise.

 

[ScooterScott44]

Someone else asked something similar so I figured I'd ask my question.

We are traveling in a 2 bedroom suite and my aunt is in the room next to ours (not suite class). On DCL, usually they allow her to board with us. Traveling alone and what not. We've never asked and were ready to board with her. DCL offered.

So I asked if RCCL does that. Got an unkind response stating we should just wait with her.

I'm sure we are going to have a blast we will be with family and, duh, cruising.

There are a few things that you will have access/privilege to do that the none suite guest will not be able to utilize and vice versa. For example, if you want the concierge to make some dinner plans at one of the specialty restaurants for the whole party, no problem but the non suite guest will have to pay unless they have the ultimate dining package. You will probably find that they will try and include the non suite guest as much as possible.

As for boarding, since Royal is a little more organized with boarding than DCL it will probably be necessary to drop back to your Aunt’s boarding group. Depending on the ship, my guess is it is very like you will be holding in a different area. The easiest process would be to arrive a little later so that all can board after check-in. DCL policy is that the group would be split up but with the thousands of bodies that stand at the beginning of the queue, it is easier to bring an extra person in on one boarding card.

Have a great cruise.