Childless DCL cruisers unite

[dragynally]

My DH and I don't have kids and love DCL. I know there are bunches of others without kids who love Disney and DCL. So my question is if you don't have kids what keeps you coming back to DCL?


Edit: childless can also mean you have kids but sail without them.

 

[ImDMous]

Disney shows, character meets, great service, good food, beautiful ships, that horn!

DH and I are going on number 5 in September, can't wait.

We've never been on another line and I'm sure we will eventually and it will be fun too. For now, we're sticking with DCL. We don't get to cruise often enough that we are sick of itineraries, plenty of places we haven't been yet with them.

 

[kendall]

We've done two with the kids, and two without now that they are grown. We really enjoy the adult areas of the ship, the theming, the entertainment, the service.

 

[DreamRunner1]

DH and I are getting ready to go on our second DCL in May. With the level of service (we do concierge) and the amount of Adult Only areas, DCL can't be beat. I've had several people question my sanity for going on a Disney cruise because they just imagine a cruise ship filled with kids running around and causing issues. Where this does happen some times, there's plenty of areas we can go to get away from the families. And there's plenty of areas that a kid-only, too.

Truthfully there is no real difference between going on DCL without kids and going to Disney parks without kids. And besides, if the kids annoy me, I'll just go grab a beer and chill out on our veranda

 

[lorimay]

We have also only cruised DCL, we started in 2002 with kids 14 & 10, they are now 29 & 24.
They love DCL we love DCL. We have done 5 cruises with them through the years and 8 by ourselves, with numbers 14 & 15 in April/May this year
and 16 booked for 2018.
I love the ships, the cleanliness, the service and so much more.
I call DCL my floating hotel, it takes us to great ports and we just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[Dug720]

Solo adult - one cat, but he doesn't travel. I have always loved Disney, and that has carried over into adulthood.

I have cruised HAL, RCCL, and fathom - the latter two were fine (fathom is really in a category by itself because of its mission). But because of the service, the entertainment, the cruise director and all of the crew, the food, the standard of cleanliness and repair, and the overall vibe DCL will always be my brand of choice.

 

[csgarner2015]

We've only been on one cruise, and it was the Disney Dream a couple years ago for our honeymoon. Still no kids, but we've booked a second cruise on the Fantasy next year. We can't wait! We chose Disney because we love WDW and knew that we could trust DCL to be safe, clean, and fun for our first cruise (we were a little nervous about cruising). We were right! We loved every minute of our cruise and knew immediately that we wanted to go on a longer cruise with DCL. Maybe we're just kids at heart, but we love the Disney theme and are able to enjoy it all even as adults. Plus, we know that one day when we do have kids, we'll feel comfortable taking them on DCL.

 

[ThatCOprep]

Adult now sailed once with my parents when I was 9. Now the three of sail DCL as adults. The service, ships, Characters, and Disney touches everywhere are why we only sail DCL. Concierge is also Lovely and as I love disney and it has played a big part of my life we haven't really looked at any other cruise lines.

 

[Donathius]

My wife and I left our 18 month old son with grandma the first time we did a disney cruise - loved it for the inclusiveness (felt like others were nickel and diming on everything), level of service and what I would describe as the elegance of the cruise experience.

We've only gone on one other cruise on the Carnival Imagination out of Long Beach and it left us really wanting to go on Disney again. The must succinct way I could put it is that on Disney you feel like an honored guest even in the cheapest stateroom - on Carnival I felt like an imposition at every turn from meals, to waterslides even down to getting pool towels (they took my name and stateroom number and were going to charge me $20/towel if I didn't "check" them back in - ridiculous).

 

[Henlady]

Sorry - double post

 

[wilkeliza]

We are a childless couple.

The number 1 reason is the level of service. We went on a Norweigan cruise and everything felt like an upcharge, it felt a little worn down, and the servers all acted like they wanted to be anywhere but where they were. We had fun but it wasn't what you get on Disney.

The second reason is that they do cater to adults through the adult programing and adults only areas. Yes there are some issues with design on the Dream class but still for the most part it stays adults only. Again Norweigan may dictate something as adults only but it is smack in the middle of everything else so they don't police it at all. We didn't get in the hot tub once on that cruise because it was all full with kids even with multiple adults only signs.

 

[jrabbit]

at this point with 20 DCL cruises (by year end) we keep coming back because (in no particular order)
1) They keep updating itineraries (kinda sorta) so we go to new places
2) Crew: we love interacting with them, the appear to enjoy interacting with us. On another cruise line most CM's would avert their eyes and NOT want to interact
3) Crew part Two: where else will you run across the "Scrape, Paint and Varnish" guys whistling Disney Tunes!!
4) Shows - Enjoy them. And most of the other entertainers they bring on board - and don't have to worry about random (continuous) F bombs
5) Staterooms are larger than what we experienced on a similar sized ship on a different CL
6) We love Disney Stuff. It's there, but it's also not Mickey ALL of the Time either.
7) Sorry @Dug720 but I also enjoy Star Wars and Marvel (but I'm not going out of my way to do the "days at sea" either
8) Adult only areas
9) and on the other hand, there's a W-I-D-E age range on the ships that keeps it interesting. Unlike some other lines, there's not a majority of 20 somethings partying all of the time and worse yet, the ship is not 85% 70+ year olds. Been on that cruise when I was 52 and I felt that DW and I brought the average age down a LOT!
10) Very Important: Service!! Get It a LOT from our Serving Team and Room Stewards. Remember "Freestyle" means that You ARE INVISIBLE to the Crew - no one is "responsible" to take care of you and they don't really want to. They are getting their tips regardless because it was almost impossible to get them changed.
11) The DCL Fleet is CLASSY!! Not floating milk cartons
12) If you can afford to take a DCL cruise, You Don't need to take my stuff. Granted, I don't leave valuables laying around, but I don't worry about my stuff when I'm at the pool.
13) Smoke Free Interiors plus could care less about Casinos. And on the other ship we sailed - it seemed like you had to go through the casino to get anywhere - kinda like Atlanta and the South!
14) But --- We are getting to the point where the premium to sail DCL might be getting to be much too high. Will probably start exploring other cruise lines. RCCL might be a good option - wide range of ships, diversity in age of cruises, new itineraries.

 

[Henlady]

DH and I will be on our 11th DCL in April. We love how guests are treated and taken care of. The staff members will do whatever they can to accommodate you. I have had some wonderful conversations with crew members. We enjoy the adult areas, the shows and the food (especially Palo). The staterooms are well laid out and not cramped. DH loves Castaway Cay and would spend the entire cruise there if possible. We have turned our adult children and grandson into DCL addicts. DH was not to thrilled to go on our first cruise - on the Wonder - after about 3 hours on the cruise he was sold.
We've done 32 trips to Disney World, but prefer the cruises.

 

[Dug720]

It's ok @jrabbit - I know I am weird in not liking them.

 

[AquaDame]

Mostly because DCL made it approachable and we had a great time. Up until I sailed with them I assumed cruise ships were for older people who like to eat, gamble, smoke and were too lazy to drive themselves to places (sorry, obviously I was a big jerk but I'm being honest). Disney ships were advertised as catering to families, did not have casinos, and I reaaaaaaally wanted to go to CC some day since I had heard about it so we took a short cruise and I discovered I was wrong about cruising in general. I have always been a Disney girl, so the desire to try their ships more than cruising in general was a driving factor too.

We keep coming back because I love Disney and the service, maintenance, itineraries and theming make us happy. I like that they don't just put things on the ship and assume thats enough - the staff actively tries to interact and entertain as well. Its also - apparently - important to me that the cruise is family friendly even though we're just a married couple. I don't mind a few raunchy jokes that go over the kids heads (ok ok, I laugh hard at them usually) but sometimes adult humor makes fun of other people, sexes, etc and it just ruins the fun for me. I don't find drinking in various bars for a week to be entertaining - I like all the little activities that DCL does constantly through the day and I like almost all their IP to boot so seeing their movies on board and listening to Disney music on deck even is really enjoyable. The days fly by onboard.

 

[Pooh2]

We were not interested in a party boat or a floating nursing home so we chose the kids boat for our first cruise last year! DCL service was incredible so we just booked a 3 day for this spring and would love to try all 4 boats in the next few years!

 

[dragynally]

But --- We are getting to the point where the premium to sail DCL might be getting to be much too high. Will probably start exploring other cruise lines. RCCL might be a good option - wide range of ships, diversity in age of cruises, new itineraries.

I totally understand. A lot of disboards people feel priced out. General opinion is that there are some ships that are just as good as DCL.

 

[MickeyD]

We started traveling DCL as 2 adults with no kids when our son graduated high school in 2007. Believe me, he would jump at the opportunity to cruise DCL even now at 27. Everyone has already listed all the reasons we keep coming back to Disney: love of Disney, no smoking, great service, family atmosphere, wide range of ages cruising, not being nickled and dimed. But when I really break it down, it comes down to; I feel comfortable on DCL, like I am coming home each time. I do not feel that way on the other lines we have tried.

 

[dragynally]

We started traveling DCL as 2 adults with no kids when our son graduated high school in 2007. Believe me, he would jump at the opportunity to cruise DCL even now at 27. Everyone has already listed all the reasons we keep coming back to Disney: love of Disney, no smoking, great service, family atmosphere, wide range of ages cruising, not being nickled and dimed. But when I really break it down, it comes down to; I feel comfortable on DCL, like I am coming home each time. I do not feel that way on the other lines we have tried.

That's how my DH feels and he's only been on one cruise so far.

 

[mandylovesdisney]

Solo adult - one cat, but he doesn't travel. I have always loved Disney, and that has carried over into adulthood.

I have cruised HAL, RCCL, and fathom - the latter two were fine (fathom is really in a category by itself because of its mission). But because of the service, the entertainment, the cruise director and all of the crew, the food, the standard of cleanliness and repair, and the overall vibe DCL will always be my brand of choice.

LOL My husband and I joke about bringing our two rotten kitties on our DCL cruises.