Should you’ve been a frequent reader right here, you realize that I’m an avid cruiser on the Disney Cruise Line. I like their stunning ships and implausible service and have been joyful on each single crusing I’ve completed. We have reviewed all of their ships right here and we have at all times had a optimistic expertise.
Nonetheless, this previous winter break, my household sailed on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and likewise actually liked it. Many individuals have requested for a Royal Caribbean vs. Disney Cruise comparability to allow them to select the most suitable choice for his or her household.
We now have liked our expertise on each cruise strains, and I plan to journey on each sooner or later. However there are some discrete variations which might be good to know, and you’re prone to have a special expertise on every line. Each are nice for a household trip, and each are nice cruise strains for younger adults and youths.
Disclosure: I have been on cruises on each strains at no/discounted value, and have additionally paid my very own approach on each. All opinions are my very own. This submit accommodates affiliate hyperlinks and a purchase order/click on by means of one in all these hyperlinks might lead to a fee paid to us at no further value to you.
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Royal Caribbean vs. Disney Cruise: The Most Main Variations
Variety of Ships on Royal Caribbean Vs. Disney Cruise.
There are at present six Disney Cruise ships in service, with a further ship, the Disney Treasure, which started its inaugural season in 2024. These six cruise ships are in three completely different classes- with the Disney Magic and Disney Surprise being the 2 smaller ships and the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy being the bigger two ships.
The Disney Want and Treasure is a brand new class – the Triton class. Further ships have been ordered for the longer term, together with the Disney Future and the Disney Journey
Royal Caribbean has twenty-eight ships in service, with extra introduced (together with extra within the new Icon class). There are a number of completely different courses – together with the Oasis, Freedom, Quantum, Radiance, Voyager, and Imaginative and prescient Lessons.
Due to the bigger variety of Royal Caribbean ships, you’re prone to discover an itinerary with ports of name that work on your busy schedule. Royal Caribbean sails in lots of locations that Disney Cruise Line would not, together with ports in Asia.
With the smaller variety of ships and courses on the Disney Cruise Line, there’s a sense of familiarity when crusing. Each time I step onto a DCL ship, I really feel comfy, nearly like going dwelling.
However, Royal Caribbean ships, with their massive fleet, fluctuate by class and have thrilling, lively entrances. I do not really feel the sentimentality however do get excited to discover the ship. There are some similarities among the many ships, but in addition many variations.
Costs
For a lot of households, that is essentially the most essential issue. Cruises may be costly. Typically, I’ve discovered that the bottom price on the Disney Cruise Line tends to be larger than a similar-length cruise on Royal Caribbean.
Nonetheless, you will need to take a look at the inclusions. Some issues are included within the Disney Cruise Line that are not included in Royal Caribbean. These embody tender drinks and room service charges (for supply of every part apart from continental breakfast).
Drink Packages
Each cruise strains provide complimentary fundamental drinks, together with faucet water, espresso and tea (excluding premium espresso), and commonplace juices. Different drinks can be found a la carte, and every cruise line has completely different beverage buy choices.
On Royal Caribbean, there are a number of beverage packages accessible for buy prematurely or as soon as you’re on board (you possibly can normally lower your expenses by buying prematurely). The choices embody the Deluxe Beverage Package deal, the Refreshment Package deal, and the Soda Package deal. Drinks on the Starbucks areas on the ships (for these with a Starbucks) aren’t included in any packages.
Disney Cruise Line would not have a package deal that features all alcoholic drinks. They do, nevertheless, provide commonplace and premium wine packages.
Beer packages are additionally provided. In addition they have an alcoholic and nonalcoholic drink of the day, which is offered at a cheaper price.
Keep in mind that tender drinks are included in a Disney Cruise, so you will not need to pay individually for these. Premium coffees are additionally provided on Disney Cruise Line for a further payment.
Actions
Each cruise strains have loads of actions to maintain you busy at sea. The actions that you’re going to expertise on these strains fluctuate, nevertheless.
As you’d anticipate, the Disney Cruise Line ships have numerous Disney magic. You may see Disney characters, Disney leisure, and Disney motion pictures.
There are additionally enjoyable deck actions, together with swimming pools, a splash space for younger youngsters, a play space, water slides, sizzling tubs, a sports activities deck (with a basketball courtroom), and out of doors motion pictures.
If you’re crusing on Disney Magic, you will get a possibility to trip the AquaDunk, whereas the Disney Dream and Fantasy provide the AquaDuck. The Disney Want presents a brand new attraction referred to as the AquaMouse.
Royal Caribbean ships are crammed with enjoyable actions, however these fluctuate by ship. As an illustration, on the Royal Caribbean Odyssey of the Seas, completely different experiences embody an iFly, a climbing wall, a FlowRider, a North Star remark capsule, and bumper vehicles.
On the Surprise of the Seas, you will see a FlowRider, two rock partitions, a carousel, Final Abyss slides, mini golf, zip lining, ice skating, and a sports activities deck. Make sure to verify the precise actions on the ship you’re reserving as a result of they do fluctuate.
If you’re interested by gaming, each cruise strains provide bingo. Nonetheless, the Disney Cruise Line ships don’t provide casinos, whereas the Royal Caribbean ships do.
Leisure
All the cruise ship leisure that I’ve seen on each cruise strains has at all times been top-notch. Disney Cruise Line presents Broadway-style musicals within the Walt Disney Theater. On longer sailings, different entertainers, like magicians and ventriloquists, typically carry out there.
You may also see first-run motion pictures from Disney-owned studios within the onboard theater. Singers and different musicians carry out at varied venues throughout the ships, all through the day.
Different leisure choices on Disney Cruise Line ships embody animation courses, trivia, sport exhibits, and extra. The schedule for these may be discovered within the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app.
Royal Caribbean additionally boasts implausible onboard leisure. Their exhibits showcase fantastic expertise however aren’t particularly family-friendly.
In addition they have some very distinctive venues, together with an ice-skating rink, an aqua theater, and smaller theaters like Two70. Understand that these venues do fluctuate by ship. Like on DCL, performers may be seen in bars and different venues all through the day.
In addition they provide karaoke, sport exhibits, trivia, laser tag, and different programming every day. There isn’t any lack of leisure. I’ve discovered that the exhibits on Royal Caribbean are particularly distinctive, revolutionary, and pleasurable, and sometimes have nice particular results.
Eating places
Disney Cruise Line presents rotational eating. Every night time, you will go to a special restaurant of the three choices, and your serving group travels with you.
I’ve at all times liked this since you by no means get bored with the restaurant, and it is nice to have the identical group touring with you, particularly you probably have dietary restrictions. The eating places are closely themed, typically with leisure and typical Disney magic. For longer cruises, you will revisit the identical eating places in the identical rotation.
There are two premium restaurant choices on the Disney ships. Remy and Palo are adult-only eating places which might be accessible on the Disney Fantasy and the Disney Dream, whereas the Disney Magic and the Disney Surprise solely provide Palo. The Disney Want has Palo and a brand new restaurant referred to as Enchante. These are provided for a further payment.
Along with the eating rooms and eating places, there are many quick-service choices accessible all through the ships. Complimentary room service can also be accessible.
Royal Caribbean sometimes presents one essential eating room, though some ships have two. There are two seatings, in addition to “My Time Eating”. All through the cruise, you will have the identical servers in the primary eating room.
Not like DCL, Royal Caribbean ships provide many specialty eating places not included in your cruise fare. These specialty eating places embody different choices equivalent to Johnny Rockets, Izumi Sushi and Tepanyaki, Chops Grille, and Hooked Seafood (they fluctuate by ship) and they could be a nice add-on to your cruise.
Themed Cruises
Not like Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Line presents themed cruises all year long. With particular occasions, decor, and characters, these could make your cruise expertise much more thrilling. A few of these included:
- Halloween on the Excessive Seas
- Marvel Day at Sea
- Pixar Day at Sea
- Very Merrytime Cruise
In case your cruise is one in all these special-themed cruises, it is going to be clearly labeled if you ebook.
Laundry Services
I typically do not like doing chores on my household holidays, however typically I’ve to clean garments. Disney Cruise Line has a number of self-service laundry amenities onboard.
There may be a further payment for utilizing them, however they’re very simple to make use of and you will get an alert in your app when the machine stops.
Royal Caribbean would not have any self-service amenities. Nonetheless, there’s a full-service laundry possibility in case you want garments to be cleaned throughout your journey. Generally, there’s a promotion the place you will obtain a bag in your stateroom, and every part that matches within the bag is washed for one flat payment.
Non-public Islands
A personal island or island resort may be the most effective cruise ship excursions. Each Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Line provide these experiences.
Disney Cruise Line’s Caribbean and Bahamian itineraries sometimes cease as soon as at Disney’s Castaway Cay, a personal island within the Bahamas. Castaway Cay is stunningly stunning, with excursions, character interactions, seashores, a youngsters’ membership space, and rather more.
It is normally my favourite cease on the Disney Cruise Line. Just lately, Disney Cruise Line added a further non-public vacation spot – Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Level. This vacation spot, situated on the island of Eleuthera, presents stunning seashores, enjoyable excursions, and rather more. It is an excellent addition to the Disney Cruise Line vacation spot line up.
Royal Caribbean has two non-public island/resort areas, and extra are on the best way. Excellent Day at CocoCay is a newly renovated Bahamian Island providing a water park, sizzling air balloon, non-public seashore membership, excursions, and extra. It has one thing for everybody, and after a number of journeys, there are nonetheless so many issues I have not explored there.
Along with Excellent Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean additionally has a personal resort space in Labadee, Haiti. Labadee presents an inflatable water park, an alpine mountain coaster, an overwater zip line, and exquisite seashores. These non-public properties are provided on choose, however not all sailings within the Caribbean.
Children’ Golf equipment
If you’re touring with kids, youngsters’ golf equipment could also be an enormous a part of your cruise ship expertise. Each cruise strains provide youngsters’ golf equipment with nice programming.
On Royal Caribbean, ships provide the Journey Ocean Membership – which is cut up into infants, juniors, and youngsters. The Journey Ocean Membership is free and presents “edutainment” programming for youthful youngsters, together with expertise exhibits, artwork programming, science tasks, and rather more. There’s additionally an space devoted particularly to teenagers.
The Disney Cruise Line presents the Oceaneer Membership and Lab. These revolutionary youngsters’ golf equipment have implausible theming and actions, together with areas themed to Star Wars and Toy Story.
Children have so many various areas to play in. Disney Cruise Line additionally presents devoted teen and tween golf equipment together with their youth golf equipment.
Extras
Each Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Line provide paid WiFi entry. Royal Caribbean has two ranges of web access- a normal and one that enables streaming and is paid by the day.
Disney’s web entry has modified from a data-based payment to a flat payment. There are a number of tiers of Disney Cruise Line WiFi provided.
Each cruise strains provide apps which might be free to make use of whereas on the ships. Disney’s app permits free of charge messaging to others on the ship, whereas Royal Caribbean fees a nominal payment for that service (though they’ve lately been waiving that payment). Disney Cruise Line additionally presents complimentary iMessage entry for all ship friends.
Have you ever been on a Disney Cruise and/or a Royal Caribbean cruise? Which do you like, and why?
Contemplating a household cruise? Take a look at our information to household cruising, with posts about fashionable cruise terminals, cruise ships, and cruise strains, in addition to suggestions for cruising.
