DCL to RCCL - huge difference in clientele?

[mlayton14]

Hello there, strongly considering RCCL. Have done one Disney Cruise and like it, 2 adults, 2 young girls 8 and 6 yo, and 2 grandparents.

One thing loved about Disney is that most of the offering were appropriate for the whole family above. Considering Freedom of the Seas, however seeing things on YouTube like Hairy Chest/ Belly Flop contest in the main pool, alot of bars/nightclubs, casino etc really kind make me hesitant ... seemed like WAYYY too much of a "spring break" type crowd, and/or Las Vegas mentality/vibe for my liking

For those that have sailed Freedom, do you find it be family friendly similar to Disney .. or more younger adult oriented? We can save a few bucks with Freedom over DCL, but I dont want to feel like Im in the middle of some College Spring Break.

Would love to hear your thoughts ..

 

[msjprincess]

I'm in my late 40's. We've sailed on Freedom and are sailing on Independence this year. I think it's great for families and adults. I didn't find the atmosphere to be Spring Break-like at all.

 

[ldo]

I have taken my kids on RCCL since they were 4 years old. 95% of RCCL is family friendly. It is not a crazy party atmosphere and we have been on several at spring break time. We were on one with 40+ high school kids on spring break and except for a few loud times in the hallway (not late at night), they were even fine. We had 4 girls across from us, with a chaperone with 3 other girls next door. No issues at all.
My one complaint (and I definitely put it on my comment card) was that before the main show, they played a graphic Madonna video--that was for the 8pm show--not the late show. I had kids ages 5-8 with me. I thought that was highly inappropriate. What's weird is that we have been on 3 RCCL cruises since then and never had anything else like that. All the other cruises were very family friendly. We did the Liberty, sister ship to Freedom, and it was great for kids. My kids loved the pizza parlor. They also had a 3D free movie one day and had Dreamworks characters. I would not hesitate to go on RCCL with kids your ages. And, my kids at that age actually strongly preferred RCCL kids clubs to DCL. They should be together in the same group, I think. They do lots of simple crafts, board games, etc. The have a great kids club on Coco Cay, the private island. Our RCCL cruises were 1/2 the price of DCL--some sometimes the bank account says RCCL and not DCL.

 

[sam_gordon]

We took our kids (16, 10, 8) on Freedom last year. Never had a problem. We never saw the hairy chest or the belly flop (although I don't get how that is "adult" oriented) contest. Took them to a couple of shows (never saw a video as part of the pre show), which they enjoyed.

Were there drunks? Yes. There was one guy dropping F-bombs at a pool bar during the World Cup, but that was about it. NOTE: I only had the kids at the pool bar because DD had cut her head in the pool and we were waiting on medical to arrive.

 

[bumbershoot]

In our case, the clientele is EXACTLY the same.

DS doesn't go to the shows on Royal. Actually, neither do we. We like a magician or a comedian, but on Royal DS doesn't go to those. And on Disney DS and DH go to Villains and that's it, unless there's a comedian/magician in which case we all will go in the future.

seeing things on YouTube like Hairy Chest/ Belly Flop contest in the main pool

I don't see what's so objectionable about those. You'll see hairy and non-hairy chests around ANY pool. And the belly flop contests are just silly and fun. And DH shoulda won, people nearly cried that he didn't, but he went off the edge wrong. Sigh. But there's nothing bad or adult about them. (though I didn't see a hairy chest contest on our Royal cruises)

 

[Frozen2014]

RCL has added Dreamworks experience to some of their ships including the Freedom (parades, meet and greets, character, ice shows, character meals, aqua shows on Oasis class ships). Thus, they are trying to attract families. They also haev a great kids club and tons to do for kids. We personally chose it over DCL. Our kids will be 6.5 and 10.5 when we cruise. I know you're just giving a couple examples, but I can see our kids enjoying the belly flop shows and we'll just avoid the casino with them. Personally, I think you have nothing to worry about.

 

[holula]

I'm in my late 40's. We've sailed on Freedom and are sailing on Independence this year. I think it's great for families and adults. I didn't find the atmosphere to be Spring Break-like at all.

I'm in my late 20s but I agree with this. There are a few more adult type things like you mentioned but they are easily avoided. There is so much to do on Freedom!

 

[SevenWonkas]

Royal does have the "sexy legs" contest. There is also the "Quest" near the end of the cruise. This is an 18 and up event, that does get bit raunchy at times. But that's the point of the event. I've been on nine cruises with Royal, and only went to these events in my first few cruises. You don't have to attend these events - there are certainly plenty of other things to do around the ship where you wouldn't need to even see these going on.

 

[ldo]

I agree with above post. We have been on 4 RCCL with kids and never even knew about Quest until I started reading cruisecritic.com. Again, I would not hesitate to take kids of any ages, and esp. younger ones. For teens, my kids did not really like to teens clubs and they tend to only be staffed after dinner. At least on the older ships, there is no staffed "hang out" place like DCL. They do have activities during the day for teens, but they seem to all be geared towards sports. So, my teens find RCCL sort of boring on sea days, as they don't want to do the sports things. Other teens who like that sort of thing, like my son's friend, really like RCCL. For our next RCCL cruise with teens, we will just plan more family time on sea days, putt-putt, shuffle board, board games, etc.
But, for under 12, the kids clubs are really good, IMHO.

 

[bumbershoot]

The teens we met on freedom went to their club the first day or two, made friends there, then did their own thing. It was neat to watch. But you definitely want those first couple days in order to meet people, or they will feel left out.

 

[E ticket rider]

Hello there, strongly considering RCCL. Have done one Disney Cruise and like it, 2 adults, 2 young girls 8 and 6 yo, and 2 grandparents.

One thing loved about Disney is that most of the offering were appropriate for the whole family above. Considering Freedom of the Seas, however seeing things on YouTube like Hairy Chest/ Belly Flop contest in the main pool, alot of bars/nightclubs, casino etc really kind make me hesitant ... seemed like WAYYY too much of a "spring break" type crowd, and/or Las Vegas mentality/vibe for my liking

For those that have sailed Freedom, do you find it be family friendly similar to Disney .. or more younger adult oriented? We can save a few bucks with Freedom over DCL, but I dont want to feel like Im in the middle of some College Spring Break.

Would love to hear your thoughts ..

Freedom offers a much wider range of activities for ALL ages. Some of DCL's focus on kids and families lead to the biggest shortcomings on the Dream & Fantasy. DCL almost completely missed the boat on the pool deck. There is nowhere near enough pool space on the Dream-class ships. Fantasy added a few other water features (Satellite Falls, AquaLab etc...) that aren't on the Dream, but no new pools.

Freedom offers 3 plunge pools (not counting the adult area pools) to 1 on the Dream-class. The H2O Zone on Freedom offers a splash area and plunge pool as well as 2 hot tubs, a circular current pool and an area for the wee ones. The main pool deck offers 2 plunge pools and 3 hot tubs. And don't forget the FlowRider (Surf Simulator).

DCL's Dream-class ships offers 1 plunge pool (Donald pool), 1 shallow pool (Mickey pool), 2 small hot tubs, 1 small slide and the AquaDuck. The AquaDuck is great, but it can build longer waits. Same goes for the FlowRider. It is fun, but it too is a slow turn feature.

Yes, Freedom does do the "adult" games on the main pool deck, but they last 10-15 minutes once a day and are done. If the casino is an issue for you, don't go there. Freedom has the Royal Promenade that runs right down the center of the ship and can get you anywhere you need to go without ever setting foot in the casino. As for the crowd, maybe a 3-day cruise draws a more regular "spring break" type crowd, but I've found that to be less prevalent on 7-day cruises. There is plenty of space on the Freedom that you don't need to be near any activities that you might find questionable. If the belly flop contest worries you, take your kids ice skating (Freedom has an ice rink on board). Believe it or not, but DCL has plenty of drunk folks on every cruise too.

I've sailed on Freedom and both Dream-class ships and don't get me wrong, I love DCL, but I also love RCCL. My next cruise is on the Dream in 3 months. My wife and I have also been discussing another cruise on Freedom or possibly Anthem when she arrives in the US.

Some of the things you read here will be written by folks blinded by pixie dust... The DIS is very Disney-centric and many posters on here will find fault with little issues on other ships that they will give DCL ships a pass on. But there are plenty of people who will give you fair feedback on other ships as well. Either way, you'll have a great vacation...

 

[Patience]

We just returned from a 5 night cruise to Jamaica and Labadee (Royal Caribbean's private beach) on Liberty of the Seas which is Freedom of the Seas sister ship. We traveled with our 20 year old daughter and our 7 year old daughter. We had a fabulous time! And, for what it's worth, I hate Vegas with a passion and never felt like I was in a Vegas type environment.

Even though it WAS college spring break (that's why our 20 year old college student was with us), we never encountered anything that made us uncomfortable. We avoided the main pool however. When our 7 year old was with us, we stuck to the kids pool area. My daughter loved the round, lazy river pool and the fountains. When our 7 year old was in the kids camp, we used the serenity (adults only) pool and it was quiet and lovely, at least in the mornings which is when we used it while our daughter was at kids camp. They did have a belly flop contest one day at the main pool but no hairy chest contest that I'm aware of. I actually would have liked to see the belly flop contest but we missed it. Our daughter went to the kids camp on our sea days from 9 am until noon and then we all went to lunch together. After lunch, we either went to the kids pool area until it was time to start getting ready for dinner (we had early seating at 6:00) or we played putt putt, walked around the beautiful promenade and met Dreamworks characters, or watched the people doing flow rider and rock wall climbing. We could have gone ice skating but we are not very good ice skaters so we gave that a pass. The ice skating show, however, was really good and not to be missed. We attended the ice show at 3:00 on one of our sea days. My daughter met other children in the kids camp on the two days she attended and this was nice because she would see those kids at the pool in the afternoons after lunch and had other children to play with. There is also an arcade on board and my daughter enjoyed playing air hockey with her daddy.

There is a casino on the 4th deck of the ship which is one deck below the promenade. We simply avoided it, although my 20 year old and my husband went there to play slots on a couple of evenings while I stayed in the cabin with our youngest. We enjoyed the Dreamworks parade on the promenade deck and it was really well done. We didn't realize that they had cupcake decorating classes at the cupcake shop on the promenade and I would have signed my daughter up for it if I had known about it beforehand. We attended every show after dinner except for the vocalist. They were all perfectly fine for my 7 year old. The comedian was clean and never used a single word of profanity nor did he use adult themes. My 7 year old didn't really like the comedian because she didn't get the humor but it was family friendly. We all enjoyed the aerialist show and the magician. As I mentioned, the ice show was the really good. On one night, they had a family "welcome aboard" party and my 7 year old was able to dance with two Dreamworks characters and enjoyed herself immensely.

We ate in the main dining room every night because we're cheap like that (lol) but I heard that the specialty restaurants were very good. We ate lunch at the Windjammer buffet once but then discovered that we liked the lunch in the main dining room better (get the salad!). We ate breakfast in the Windjammer and it was fine but we liked the omelette station the best. We were going to eat lunch at Johnny Rockets one day because it looked fun but never got around to it. The sandwich shop on the promenade was good, the pizza place was just okay. We liked getting coffee at the sandwich place and people watching while we drank it or waited for the parade. We didn't try the Ben & Jerry's or the cupcake shop but they were popular.

I would do a Royal Caribbean family cruise again in a heartbeat. It cost us less than half the price of a DCL cruise (we booked during a 3rd and 4th passengers cruise free promotion) and we thoroughly enjoyed it and felt it was a good value.

 

[LemonNeko]

I just booked on the Freedom as it was $2400 vs $5800 on DLC (part of the difference is Royal offers a slight break on the exchange rate to Canadian customers). I was so sad at first as I really wanted to go on DLC again but we can do two cruises for the price of one. My mom (she's 60) hasn't been on DLC but she has gone on Royal and NCL and she says Royal is nicer and NCL there is an up charge for a lot. She's been on a 4-day Royal and didn't find it a drinking fest. It sounds like it's easy to stick to the main restaurants on the Freedom and not have to pay extra. We're lucky that we normally drink ice tea and it sounds like it's included. Starbucks is likely were I'm going to be blowing my extra money.

 

[Patience]

LemonNeko, iced tea, lemonade, fruit infused water, coffee, tea, water, and juice in the mornings are no charge. I brought the water flavoring drops just to have something different for our water bottles and we also took two bottles of wine aboard. We purchased a grand total of three cokes during our cruise for $2.50 each and never felt deprived. As you can see, we mainly stuck to the free stuff! You don't have to pay unless you want to. We preferred spending our extra money on an excursion.

 

[bumbershoot]

It sounds like it's easy to stick to the main restaurants on the Freedom and not have to pay extra. We're lucky that we normally drink ice tea and it sounds like it's included. Starbucks is likely were I'm going to be blowing my extra money.

It is easy to not spend extra.

On Freedom, to be annoyingly specific, there is no branded, named "Starbucks". There is an espresso stand at Cafe Promenade. When we were on Freedom they had obvious Starbucks cups and straws, and we assumed it was Starbucks beans, but who knows? (the free drip coffee, by the way, was Seattle's Best on our sailing)

Normal iced tea is free. If you want something fancy, that's extra.

Depending on how many espresso-based drinks (or chai lattes) you might want, consider the Replenish package. I'm talking about $20/day range here, that's a lot of mochas, but hey, it's possible you'll hit that level. And if you are going to reach that daily amount with an espresso place, getting Replenish ALSO gets you bottled water, sparkling water, fresh squeezed OJ in the mornings, and soda.

But if you won't hit that level and don't want the other things, there's no need to do anything but pay out of pocket (with your seapass card) for the drinks from the espresso stand.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I sailed with my sister for a girls weekend a couple of years ago.

Yes there are bars. Yes there is the belly flop contest. (It's actually pretty funny.)

My sister and I enjoyed ourselves and I kept thinking how my children would have had fun on the ship.

They have also sailed Carnival and enjoyed it. But we liked DCL better. I think RCCL is a great alternative to DCL and I would not hesitate to take my kids on it.

ETA: The shows are more broadway like and not Vegas showgirl.

 

[LemonNeko]

While I could drink $20 a day worth of fancy coffees I don't think I should I'd be up all night and gain 20 lbs. I'm good with one Starbucks a day.

 

[bumbershoot]

You never know. . They do have decaf, though.

 

[RKKUNK]

My family and I (DH,DS12,and myself) did a cruise on the Allure last spring. There were many families and lots of fun things to do. We did chose to stay away from most of the "contests". We accidentally caught the end of the Belly Flop contest one day when we went to the Boardwalk, but that was not bad and my 12-year-old, of course, thought it was funny. We also did the shows except for Chicago, and thought they were ok. Not Disney like shows, but they were ok. The only thing we noticed that was really different about the clientele was that they were more international passengers, especially Brazilians. Oh, and The Replenish package also includes bottled water, frozen non-alcoholic drinks,smoothies,and sodas along with the coffee drinks!

 

[Amw1064]

We have been on 22 Disney cruises over the last 11 years. (3 day, 4 day, 5 day & 7 day) Obviously we love them. We tried the Freedom of the Seas this past November. It was a huge adjustment on some things. First of all the customer service is just not there. Disney does whatever they can do to make you happy and I did not feel this way with RC. Had just a few very minor issues. Check in was ridiculous and the food was not nearly comparable but we had a great time. I honestly have to say I loved the pool area BETTER on the Freedom than on the Disney boats. Yes, we love the Aquaduck on the Dream & the Fantasy and if they were equally priced I would always pick Disney. However they are NOT!

My daughter is 12 and she loved the rock climbing wall and did the flowrider a few times. We found a kareoke booth and let me tell you how many hours she made me go in there with her. She loved the promenade deck and the shops. It was a nice change. We did enjoy the shows but I do have to say that I think they pushed it right to the brink of a few things being appropriate or not. We also saw the ice skating show and that was awesome and she went ice skating a few times as well. It is not Disney but again, we had a great time. She would like to go back.

One other thing that I did NOT like was the week we were there, they said that the 12 year olds would be with the 15-17 year olds. I have a big issue with that as my daughter had just turned 12 a few weeks before and I wouldn't have wanted her in with 12-14 let alone 12-17. I think that is just asking for trouble so we she never went in the "kids" club. I am pretty picky on my room being clean and again spotless and comparable with Disney. I did not like the casino in the middle of the ship due to all the smoke so we were always trying to go around it but sometimes it was unavoidable.