Richard Brooks
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
We just did 2 back to back 3-day Bahamas cruises. The first was also a 3 day Bahamas cruise, on the Disney Dream. The second was on RCL Enchantment of the Seas. While my expectations for the RCL cruise were lower (it is an older ship, and the 3 day cruise for the 3 of us was $1000 cheaper), RCL still managed to disappoint.
Disney Dream was a CAT-OOV (Deluxe Family Stateroom with Verandah … about 300 sqft) … RCL was a Junior Suite (also about 300 sqft). Both were concierge level categories, although I found out after arriving on the Enchantment, Junior Suites don’t have access to the concierge lounge.
First let me compare price.
The Dream was a total of $2634 (for 2 adults) … additional $717 for our daughter. After taxes & fees it came to a total of $3599.81.
RCL Enchantment of the Seas was $2250 (for 2 adults) … additional $500 for our daughter. After taxes & fees it came to a total of $3221.85. But wait!!! Soda, bottled water and premium coffee was extra on RCL … a 3 day Soda Only drink package was $8.95 per person per day … the “Royal Replenish”, which added bottled water & coffee to the soda, was $22.95 per person per day. So adding the Soda for my daughter cost $26.85 ($8.95 x 3 days) & the coffee/water for me and my wife cost $137.70 ($22.95x x 3 days x 2 people), I’m not one to knit-pick … but that’s $165 more just for drinks. I won’t even go into the $4.95 1/4 can of Pringles in the RCL stateroom minibar while the Dream stateroom was full of FREE snacks & the fridge loaded with MickeyBars!
So from my point of view … benefits aside … the comparable price of the RCL cruise to $3386.40 … about $200 less than the Dream…. or $22.22 per day per person.
Keep in mind that what I talk about below is for Concierge level service … not all of these benefits will be available in lower category rooms. I’ve found from previous cruises that Concierge service on the Dream is the same if you’re in the smallest/cheapest stateroom (CAT OOV) or the most expensive Royal Stateroom (CAT OOR) … now the rooms are bigger, the Royal is (about) 1700 sqft, OOT is 600 sqft and OOV is 300 sqft … but the concierge staff treats them all the same. (I think you might get a free Palo dinner in the Royal … but that’s about it).
Pre-Cruise
Engagement! Disney has it right when it comes to getting their customers excited about the cruise. RCL process was pretty much schedule your cruise, pay, and wait. They did have shore excursions you could look at & book prior to the cruise, but little in the way of getting/keeping you engaged while you wait.
Disney sends out a nice welcome package … booklet on your cruise, your stateroom, and your ports of call. You can schedule a free character call to get your kids excited (although it’s simply a pre-recorded message). The shore-side concierge staff can take care of booking excursions, shopping for gifts to be in your room (we got the Romance for Two … nice DCL robes, box of chocolates & bottle of champagne). They can take care of special requests, like making sure Mickey Bars are in the fridge!
Disney also encourages guests to get excited pre-cruise by planning Door Decorations and Fish Extender (FE) gifts. FE planning can really get kids into the cruise beforehand by making (or planning) craft gifts for other FE guests. Several message boards have FE cruise lists where you can see who’s going to be on the cruise with you … make friends beforehand, then on the cruise, find your way throughout the ship to deliver your FE gifts.
Check-in / Embarking
Both Disney and RCL Concierge (Suite level) check-in was easy … little or no lines and a nice waiting area (like a sky lounge in the airport) to await embarking. Disney’s terminal is a bit nicer in that it’s filled with entertainment … get your picture taken with Mickey, scale mockup of the ship, etc. And the Concierge waiting area has a verandah overlooking the ship, complete with binoculars, although the ship is like 50 feet away, you can’t miss it.
Embarking the Enchantment is pretty nonchalant … you cross through a terminal, they scan your card and you’re on the ship, after navigating what seemed like an endless tunnel maze … seemed like it went on forever. That’s about it!
Disney, on the other hand, has 30 or so staff members, ships officers, etc. lined up to greet you. Your family is announced, like you’re attending a Royal Ball … “Welcome the Brooks Family!” … everyone claps and cheers … photographer takes your family picture … really a production.
Concierge guests on the Dream are greeted by a member of the concierge staff … they immediately wisk you away from the crowds to the elevator and up to the private concierge lounge. Finger sandwiches, complementarity drinks (mimosas for us), excellent coffee (espresso, Americano, latte, etc.) … while a concierge staff member introduces the staff, explains the layout, coordinates tickets or prebooking certain events (princess gathering, private meet & greets, shore excursions, etc.).
On the Enchantment, we were pretty much on our own … no welcome, no direction, just left to explore. This may not be bad, especially if you’re good at exploring, or have been on the ship before, but definitely doesn’t make you feel special in any way.
Ship
Comparing the RCL Enchantment to the Disney Dream (ship to ship) may not be a far comparison … Enchantment is older, and obviously more weathered … much of the ship maintenance issues (spit & polish) could be overlooked … but it does make a sharp contrast between the two. Years of paint coatings, salt-frosted or scratched glass, weathered deckboard (a few were broken), and minor rust …. again, OK, not bad, but definitely not impressive.
Yes the Dream has just come out of dry dock where much work had been done … but I also sailed the Dream before her dry-dock and she looked just as pretty. You won’t find any rust or weathered boards, no scratched or chipped paint, and no pitted or salt-frosted glass. Many of the Enchantments pool deck windows could not open due to paint/corrosion … you’d never see that on a Disney ship.
Muster Drill
There’s a mandatory muster drill on all cruise ships … like to safety instruction on an airplane. Frist to let people know where to muster in case of emergency, and second to show them how to use the life jacket.
RCL definitely needs re-think their Muster Drill process … it was abysmal. They gather all guests on deck … right under the lifeboats … in the hot sun (luckily, being December, it was only mid 70s). All guests are checked for attendance by staff with a clipboard … YES, a clipboard with all passengers that the staff member looked up and checked off! All guests in each muster section must be accounted for prior to the safety presentation beginning. What would have been called in my Navy Days, a “Cluster F#@K”! As chaotic as this was for the drill, an actual emergency would have been a disaster!
Disney gathers guests in the theaters … sitting in your assigned section in a nice comfy seat! Guest’s cards are swiped as they enter, so the process runs rather smooth with only a couple guest missing and needing to be called for. The safety presentation is done & the cruise director takes the opportunity to give everyone some highlights of events.
In the case of an actual emergency, everyone would meet at their assigned area in the theater and staff trained to instruct passengers would escort them to their appropriate lifeboat stations in groups. I would think this would make for much more orderly coordination in the event of an emergency. Not to mention the ability to keep the passengers calm.
Room Amenities – Service – Maintenance
While the two rooms were (according to specs) the same size … the Dream seemed much bigger. RCL had the sofa bed butted up against the bed with only a small nightstand separating them … not much passage space. Both made great use of space for storage … lots of drawers, shelves, cubby holes to store your stuff.
The Dream was an immaculate room … you could not find a scratch, tear, paint overspray, or spot of rust anywhere. The windows were crystal clear … event the glass on the verandah was clear.
The Enchantment showed her age … some tears in wallpaper, scratched and cracked tile. Areas that were painted showed numerous layers of paint … like an old Navy ship where the same area is painted every 3 months without every removing the old paint. Cracked or chipped paint showed rust … while not structurally significant, it looked bad against the white paint!
Where the furniture on the Dream looked like if came out of a Dream Homes magazine … the Enchantment looked like it came out of the Motel 6 … 70s style sofa bed, dated furniture and fixtures … just not “Suite”-like.
While we didn’t use room service on either ship, RCL had a limited room service menu … the Dream lets you order from your normal dining rotation or just about anything else … just like going to the Enchanted Garden (or other), but without the show!
Comparatively, the only area that came close to meeting the service level of the Dream was the housekeeping staff on RCL. Kudos to Ida and his team on RCL & Tornio & his team on the Dream, very professional & pleasant.
Dining
Eating vs dining vs dinner theater!
To be fair … the dining options on both ships were great … Cabanas on the Dream, and Windjammer on the Enchantment both had very good selections of food in buffet style environment. The food itself at both were equal … I do give a slight edge to Disney for more seating … and better views.
As for the sit-down dining, both ships had excellent food in a nice environment. But while Enchantment was Dining, Disney was Dinner Theater! The décor on the dream is over the top … and technology is used everywhere to maximize the experience. Pictures on the walls will color themselves … lighting subtly changes throughout the evening … In Animators Pallet, big screen TVs put you in the middle of a fishbowl, while outside the fish swim around and look at the people. Crush will swim from screen to screen, interacting with the guests … not just some pre-recorded skit, actually asking and answering questions and talking, individually with kids and adults!
The dining on Disney is a bit different … you rotate through the restaurants. Royal Palace or Enchanted Garden one night, Animators Pallet the next, etc. … but your wait staff moves with you. The result is that you get to know your servers and them, you. The servers are, themselves, a show of their own … magic trick, jokes, juggling, all while providing top notch service.
Bottom line, if you're only into the food … hit the buffet, they are both great, it’s a wash. But if you like a little more entertainment and a more personal touch, Disney has RCL beat!
Shipboard Activities
What can you possibly say ... loads to do on the Dream ... even apart from the pools. My daughter love Vibe, my granddaughter lived at the Oceaneers Club ... and did the Mid-Ship Detective Agency mystery. I lounged in the Concierge lounge, satellite falls, or just on the verandah.
RCL had nice pools, a bit crowded, and lots of drinking, but OK. Their teen club was a joke ... a little 16x16 room with a couple chairs and a TV ... I think there was 2 teens in there. They had an arcade, but that room was even smaller, with maybe 6 or 8 video games in there. If your only requirements are food-pool-drinks, no problem ... other than that, not so much
Evening Entertainment
The show (nightly entertainment) was definitely sub-par on RCL compared to the “off-Broadway” style shows of the dream. This cruise had one-man shows (magician, juggler, comedian, etc.) of minimal entertainment value. OK, I guess … but more what you’d expect in a nightclub or piano bar.
Disney shows were theatrical productions … we’d seen them all before, but still loved them. They do update some of the jokes to stay modern, but the show is effectively the same if you’ve been on the Dream in the past 3 years.
Bottom line, RCL was OK …. Most everything was “OK” … acceptable, but nothing impressive.
RCL could definitely up their game. Improvements in the staff interaction (personalized service) and implementing better technology would definitely help. i.e. our JS had a single 27″ TV with a handful of channels … comparable stateroom on the dream had a TV in front of the sofa bed, one in front of the Queen bed, and a small one in the mirror in the bathroom. In addition to the handful of channels here, was ESPN, dedicated Disney movies, as well as channels that ran the days off-Broadway shows (in case you missed the live performance). This type of technology implementation is not very expensive, but impresses the customers.
Just my thoughts … but after these two, I’m forever hooked on Disney Cruises.
We go on a 7 day Fantasy Western Caribbean cruise next year …. Hope she’s as nice as the Dream.
Disney Dream was a CAT-OOV (Deluxe Family Stateroom with Verandah … about 300 sqft) … RCL was a Junior Suite (also about 300 sqft). Both were concierge level categories, although I found out after arriving on the Enchantment, Junior Suites don’t have access to the concierge lounge.
First let me compare price.
The Dream was a total of $2634 (for 2 adults) … additional $717 for our daughter. After taxes & fees it came to a total of $3599.81.
RCL Enchantment of the Seas was $2250 (for 2 adults) … additional $500 for our daughter. After taxes & fees it came to a total of $3221.85. But wait!!! Soda, bottled water and premium coffee was extra on RCL … a 3 day Soda Only drink package was $8.95 per person per day … the “Royal Replenish”, which added bottled water & coffee to the soda, was $22.95 per person per day. So adding the Soda for my daughter cost $26.85 ($8.95 x 3 days) & the coffee/water for me and my wife cost $137.70 ($22.95x x 3 days x 2 people), I’m not one to knit-pick … but that’s $165 more just for drinks. I won’t even go into the $4.95 1/4 can of Pringles in the RCL stateroom minibar while the Dream stateroom was full of FREE snacks & the fridge loaded with MickeyBars!
So from my point of view … benefits aside … the comparable price of the RCL cruise to $3386.40 … about $200 less than the Dream…. or $22.22 per day per person.
Keep in mind that what I talk about below is for Concierge level service … not all of these benefits will be available in lower category rooms. I’ve found from previous cruises that Concierge service on the Dream is the same if you’re in the smallest/cheapest stateroom (CAT OOV) or the most expensive Royal Stateroom (CAT OOR) … now the rooms are bigger, the Royal is (about) 1700 sqft, OOT is 600 sqft and OOV is 300 sqft … but the concierge staff treats them all the same. (I think you might get a free Palo dinner in the Royal … but that’s about it).
Pre-Cruise
Engagement! Disney has it right when it comes to getting their customers excited about the cruise. RCL process was pretty much schedule your cruise, pay, and wait. They did have shore excursions you could look at & book prior to the cruise, but little in the way of getting/keeping you engaged while you wait.
Disney sends out a nice welcome package … booklet on your cruise, your stateroom, and your ports of call. You can schedule a free character call to get your kids excited (although it’s simply a pre-recorded message). The shore-side concierge staff can take care of booking excursions, shopping for gifts to be in your room (we got the Romance for Two … nice DCL robes, box of chocolates & bottle of champagne). They can take care of special requests, like making sure Mickey Bars are in the fridge!
Disney also encourages guests to get excited pre-cruise by planning Door Decorations and Fish Extender (FE) gifts. FE planning can really get kids into the cruise beforehand by making (or planning) craft gifts for other FE guests. Several message boards have FE cruise lists where you can see who’s going to be on the cruise with you … make friends beforehand, then on the cruise, find your way throughout the ship to deliver your FE gifts.
Check-in / Embarking
Both Disney and RCL Concierge (Suite level) check-in was easy … little or no lines and a nice waiting area (like a sky lounge in the airport) to await embarking. Disney’s terminal is a bit nicer in that it’s filled with entertainment … get your picture taken with Mickey, scale mockup of the ship, etc. And the Concierge waiting area has a verandah overlooking the ship, complete with binoculars, although the ship is like 50 feet away, you can’t miss it.
Embarking the Enchantment is pretty nonchalant … you cross through a terminal, they scan your card and you’re on the ship, after navigating what seemed like an endless tunnel maze … seemed like it went on forever. That’s about it!
Disney, on the other hand, has 30 or so staff members, ships officers, etc. lined up to greet you. Your family is announced, like you’re attending a Royal Ball … “Welcome the Brooks Family!” … everyone claps and cheers … photographer takes your family picture … really a production.
Concierge guests on the Dream are greeted by a member of the concierge staff … they immediately wisk you away from the crowds to the elevator and up to the private concierge lounge. Finger sandwiches, complementarity drinks (mimosas for us), excellent coffee (espresso, Americano, latte, etc.) … while a concierge staff member introduces the staff, explains the layout, coordinates tickets or prebooking certain events (princess gathering, private meet & greets, shore excursions, etc.).
On the Enchantment, we were pretty much on our own … no welcome, no direction, just left to explore. This may not be bad, especially if you’re good at exploring, or have been on the ship before, but definitely doesn’t make you feel special in any way.
Ship
Comparing the RCL Enchantment to the Disney Dream (ship to ship) may not be a far comparison … Enchantment is older, and obviously more weathered … much of the ship maintenance issues (spit & polish) could be overlooked … but it does make a sharp contrast between the two. Years of paint coatings, salt-frosted or scratched glass, weathered deckboard (a few were broken), and minor rust …. again, OK, not bad, but definitely not impressive.
Yes the Dream has just come out of dry dock where much work had been done … but I also sailed the Dream before her dry-dock and she looked just as pretty. You won’t find any rust or weathered boards, no scratched or chipped paint, and no pitted or salt-frosted glass. Many of the Enchantments pool deck windows could not open due to paint/corrosion … you’d never see that on a Disney ship.
Muster Drill
There’s a mandatory muster drill on all cruise ships … like to safety instruction on an airplane. Frist to let people know where to muster in case of emergency, and second to show them how to use the life jacket.
RCL definitely needs re-think their Muster Drill process … it was abysmal. They gather all guests on deck … right under the lifeboats … in the hot sun (luckily, being December, it was only mid 70s). All guests are checked for attendance by staff with a clipboard … YES, a clipboard with all passengers that the staff member looked up and checked off! All guests in each muster section must be accounted for prior to the safety presentation beginning. What would have been called in my Navy Days, a “Cluster F#@K”! As chaotic as this was for the drill, an actual emergency would have been a disaster!
Disney gathers guests in the theaters … sitting in your assigned section in a nice comfy seat! Guest’s cards are swiped as they enter, so the process runs rather smooth with only a couple guest missing and needing to be called for. The safety presentation is done & the cruise director takes the opportunity to give everyone some highlights of events.
In the case of an actual emergency, everyone would meet at their assigned area in the theater and staff trained to instruct passengers would escort them to their appropriate lifeboat stations in groups. I would think this would make for much more orderly coordination in the event of an emergency. Not to mention the ability to keep the passengers calm.
Room Amenities – Service – Maintenance
While the two rooms were (according to specs) the same size … the Dream seemed much bigger. RCL had the sofa bed butted up against the bed with only a small nightstand separating them … not much passage space. Both made great use of space for storage … lots of drawers, shelves, cubby holes to store your stuff.
The Dream was an immaculate room … you could not find a scratch, tear, paint overspray, or spot of rust anywhere. The windows were crystal clear … event the glass on the verandah was clear.
The Enchantment showed her age … some tears in wallpaper, scratched and cracked tile. Areas that were painted showed numerous layers of paint … like an old Navy ship where the same area is painted every 3 months without every removing the old paint. Cracked or chipped paint showed rust … while not structurally significant, it looked bad against the white paint!
Where the furniture on the Dream looked like if came out of a Dream Homes magazine … the Enchantment looked like it came out of the Motel 6 … 70s style sofa bed, dated furniture and fixtures … just not “Suite”-like.
While we didn’t use room service on either ship, RCL had a limited room service menu … the Dream lets you order from your normal dining rotation or just about anything else … just like going to the Enchanted Garden (or other), but without the show!
Comparatively, the only area that came close to meeting the service level of the Dream was the housekeeping staff on RCL. Kudos to Ida and his team on RCL & Tornio & his team on the Dream, very professional & pleasant.
Dining
Eating vs dining vs dinner theater!
To be fair … the dining options on both ships were great … Cabanas on the Dream, and Windjammer on the Enchantment both had very good selections of food in buffet style environment. The food itself at both were equal … I do give a slight edge to Disney for more seating … and better views.
As for the sit-down dining, both ships had excellent food in a nice environment. But while Enchantment was Dining, Disney was Dinner Theater! The décor on the dream is over the top … and technology is used everywhere to maximize the experience. Pictures on the walls will color themselves … lighting subtly changes throughout the evening … In Animators Pallet, big screen TVs put you in the middle of a fishbowl, while outside the fish swim around and look at the people. Crush will swim from screen to screen, interacting with the guests … not just some pre-recorded skit, actually asking and answering questions and talking, individually with kids and adults!
The dining on Disney is a bit different … you rotate through the restaurants. Royal Palace or Enchanted Garden one night, Animators Pallet the next, etc. … but your wait staff moves with you. The result is that you get to know your servers and them, you. The servers are, themselves, a show of their own … magic trick, jokes, juggling, all while providing top notch service.
Bottom line, if you're only into the food … hit the buffet, they are both great, it’s a wash. But if you like a little more entertainment and a more personal touch, Disney has RCL beat!
Shipboard Activities
What can you possibly say ... loads to do on the Dream ... even apart from the pools. My daughter love Vibe, my granddaughter lived at the Oceaneers Club ... and did the Mid-Ship Detective Agency mystery. I lounged in the Concierge lounge, satellite falls, or just on the verandah.
RCL had nice pools, a bit crowded, and lots of drinking, but OK. Their teen club was a joke ... a little 16x16 room with a couple chairs and a TV ... I think there was 2 teens in there. They had an arcade, but that room was even smaller, with maybe 6 or 8 video games in there. If your only requirements are food-pool-drinks, no problem ... other than that, not so much
Evening Entertainment
The show (nightly entertainment) was definitely sub-par on RCL compared to the “off-Broadway” style shows of the dream. This cruise had one-man shows (magician, juggler, comedian, etc.) of minimal entertainment value. OK, I guess … but more what you’d expect in a nightclub or piano bar.
Disney shows were theatrical productions … we’d seen them all before, but still loved them. They do update some of the jokes to stay modern, but the show is effectively the same if you’ve been on the Dream in the past 3 years.
Bottom line, RCL was OK …. Most everything was “OK” … acceptable, but nothing impressive.
RCL could definitely up their game. Improvements in the staff interaction (personalized service) and implementing better technology would definitely help. i.e. our JS had a single 27″ TV with a handful of channels … comparable stateroom on the dream had a TV in front of the sofa bed, one in front of the Queen bed, and a small one in the mirror in the bathroom. In addition to the handful of channels here, was ESPN, dedicated Disney movies, as well as channels that ran the days off-Broadway shows (in case you missed the live performance). This type of technology implementation is not very expensive, but impresses the customers.
Just my thoughts … but after these two, I’m forever hooked on Disney Cruises.
We go on a 7 day Fantasy Western Caribbean cruise next year …. Hope she’s as nice as the Dream.
