Disney Cruise Line v. Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas comparison

Are u booked with msc? We booked with them for next year on the Seaside (dropped a dcl cruise when we did it). We are a bit apprehensive but the price was insanely low. Actually, I think part of why we are apprehensive is because the price is so low. Just does not seem real.

Sorry I just realized I quoted the wrong person! Meant to quote ClubDisneyChandler
No, we're not yet, but are strongly considering it. Someone who used to post here quite often sailed them last year in the Mediterranean and loved them. She's booked on Seaside too. Please let us know what you think. We're still trying to figure out who we're going to cruise with on 2019 for my 50th.
 
I totally agree about Windjammers. On our cruise the Captain came on over the microphone requesting anyone not eating to remove themselves from the area to make room for others. The food options were often empty like you stated. Only saw shrimp the last night on the cruise and never ever saw fresh berries. Two70 was a much better option. They list a shrimp option salad on the menu board. You have to ask for it and the server has to go underneath the counter to retrieve it. Each time we requested we only got 4. We did not like having up charges listed on the menu in the main dining rooms for certain items. That nickel and diming effect.
I like having an option for premium dinners in the MDR, Carnival does that as well. Sometimes, I want a good steak for dinner and the basic steaks in the MDR's are like shoe leather, it's nice to have that option. If I can't find something that interests me, then I go to that section of the menu, most of the time I never even look there.
 
Oh yeah, and does RCL provide life jackets? DD is swimming now but I felt much better that she had a jacket on our first trip.

Both RCL ships I've been on provide life jackets, I believe they all do. I really liked that, my kiddo can swim but not super well and he likes to wear one so he can float :)
 
Are u booked with msc? We booked with them for next year on the Seaside (dropped a dcl cruise when we did it). We are a bit apprehensive but the price was insanely low. Actually, I think part of why we are apprehensive is because the price is so low. Just does not seem real.

Sorry I just realized I quoted the wrong person! Meant to quote ClubDisneyChandler

A side not on why MSC is so inexpensive. They are a completely family owned company with no stockholders. They can keep their pricing model low for this reason. I've only been a Carnival cruiser but we are booked on a 14 night Caribbean cruise on Seaside next year and a 7 night Mediterranean cruise on Bellissima in 2019. Insanely good prices that we couldn't pass up to give them a try.
 
ROYAL CARIBBEAN'S CHILDRENS PROGAMMING

This will be probably long again as the kids clubs on DCL are the core of the company, so how does Royal compare?

We cruised with DS8 who is generally a very social and active kid. He loved Oceaners Club and Lab on DCL. He never once asked to be picked up early, and while the first 3 Disney cruises we couldn't get him out, on our last one (Fantasy last Fall) he was usually ready to do leave at pick-up. He still said he loved it though.

We didn't know what to expect on Royal Caribbean. Their kids program is called Adventure Ocean (AO)

Unlike DCL, there was no option to register your children in the kids programming prior to sailing.
During the boarding process DS was given a band which included our Muster Station information. We were told in case of emergency, youth staff will bring the children to our muster location.
We were also told that we can go and register DS at the Adventure Ocean upon embarkation, but they didn't open for care until 8 pm.
DCL also has an open house on the first day and you can check your kids into care at 6pm I believe.
On Anthem of the Seas Adventure Ocean is on deck 11 and 12 forward.
I made a comment to DH that unless you were looking for it, it wasn't a prominent, centrally located area like on DCL.
Registration was kind of old-school... When we got to Adventure Ocean we were given a registration form/waivers to complete. It was a bit more of a process compared to DCL, but all in all not painful.

Adventure Ocean is divided into these age groups:

Aquanauts 3-5 (Have to be toilet-trained same as DCL)
Explorers 6-8
Voyagers 9-11

Each age group has their own room equipped with various equipment, toys, crafts, balls, several Xboxes. Each room was much smaller than you have on DCL, with no real theme to it.
The area was clean and colourful though.
Most equipment and games etc is put away in cupboards. It's a very neat space.
There is also a Royal Babies and Tots Nursery for under 36 months, just like on DCL, I believe they charge $8/hr.

During our sailing they combined the Explorers (6-8) and Voyagers (9-11) due to low number of kids onboard.
During peak season there are a lot more kids we were told.

Every evening our stateroom attendant left a copy of the Adventure Ocean's Daily Planner during the nightly turn-down service. You can also find a copy by Guest Services.
Normally some of the activities differ between the 2 age groups, but because they combined the kids into one group, the activities listed were the same for both.

Hours:
There are some differences here from DCL, but we still found Adventure Ocean was open more often then not.
On both sea and port days, the morning session was from 9 am-Noon.
On a sea day, AO closed for lunch from Noon-2 pm.
If the ship was in port they actually didn't close at all. If your child remained in care at Noon, they were fed lunch.
Afternoon session was from 2-5 pm and at 5 pm they had "Adventure Dining".
If your child was in AO at 5 pm, they were taken to dinner at the Windjammer around 5:40. Following dinner the kids returned to AO for the evening. DS participated in Adventure Dining a couple of times and said they ate in a separate room off the Windjammer. Note, if your child was not in care prior to 5pm, but you wanted them to eat dinner with the kids club, you could just bring them to AO at 5.
The Evening Session in AO took place from 7-10 pm.
Therefore AO was basically open from 9 am to 10 pm each day, unless it was a sea day and they closed for lunch.
DCL has their kids clubs open from 8 am to midnight.
While Royals complimentary hours end at 10 pm, there is an option for the kids to participate in their Late Night Party Zone from 10 pm to 2 am at $7 per hour. They made this time extra fun for the kids, and if they wanted to sleep they could.

Activities - There was a very large variety and each session was themed. For example: Fairytale Morning, Chef School, and Dino Adventures for the 3-5 age group.
Medieval Times, Beat the Buzzer, Desert Island, for the older kids. PJ Movie night for both.
Each session had a craft and science component too. There was both free and structured play.
Example of a craft - Colour-in Adventure Ocean pillowcases. These were actually nice quality standard size pillowcases. Each day DS left the kids club with a "souvenir". For example, medal for wining/ participating in a competition of Gaga ball, a special bandana, the pillow case etc. It was all Royal Caribbean branded. I remember on one of our DCL sailings DS got a hat for winning something too, but there was more of this on Royal.

I never thought I would say this, but DS actually preferred Adventure Ocean to DCL's kids clubs.
He wanted to go all the time.
I kept asking DS why he loved it so much? From what he was able to explain, the staff got the kids involved and it was a lot of fun, organized activities. They went around the ship for scavenger hunts.
During our first day in Bermuda, DS begged us to let him stay in Adventure Ocean.
We had to alter our plans anyway because of the weather (moved our beach day to day 2) so we let him stay. As we disembarked the ship they asked us where DS was, we said in Adventure Ocean, and they made a note of that.
I said before that DS loved DCL's clubs as well, but again to our surprise he said he prefers Royal Caribbean's. He said not by that much, but we could tell he absolutely loved it.
The clubs on DCL are beautiful in theming. They make ME want to go play in them. They have lots of activities too, but often times when I asked DS (on DCL) if he did some activity that was listed in the Navigator, he said no. I believe on DCL the kids are encouraged to participate, but not really encouraged if you know what I mean. On DCL we often found him playing video games because the staff would let the kids be. Which is fine and I suppose if your child doesn't like organized and staff-led activities, then they may not like AO on Royal. I want to be clear Royal does have a lot of free play too but overall we found it a lot more structured than DCL.
The other parents we talked to on Anthem also said their kids loved it though. The kids often saw each other outside of the kids club, and they would make plans to meet later in AO. I think because there are less kids, it's easier for them to make friends.
If I was to look at DCL's theming in their youth clubs, they win for sure.
Ultimately though it's not only about the looks. Of course Royal's youth counsellors have a lot less kids to deal with, and so it's easier for them to get to know each child on more of an individual level and give more personal attention. All the staff members were super nice and "cool".
Personally I think DCL is still superior in kids areas, but they have way more kids under their care. It's very chaotic on DCL compared to Royal.
Our DS is pretty easy going, so I knew he's going to like Adventure Ocean, but I was NOT expecting him to like it more than Disney's Oceaners Lab & Club. Dare I say I was a little disappointed at first? I love Disney! Come on kid! :sad2:
DH has an opinion that Disney's clubs appeal more to kids under 7, and kids over 7 may prefer Royal's kids programming. Maybe, I don't know how the 3-5 age group felt as they were separated. On that note, I think it's a good idea to have 3 year olds and 11 year olds in separate areas.
On the other hand, having kids in one big 3-11 group like on DCL means sibblings don't get separated. I know that's important to some.
Ultimately I believe that whether or not your child likes DCL or Royal better, will depend on their personality.
Most kids should like both like my DS.
There is more of the "let them roam" attitude on DCL. Kids on Royal don't have nearly the same amount of space to explore as on DCL.

I will post pics of one day's kids daily planner's below. These are not scanned in, just took photos of the pages.
If you are interesting in me scanning them in, I can do that on Monday.

Few random notes about Adventure Ocean:

- At drop-off and pick-up, you gave your room #, they scanned your SeaPass and just like on DCL everyone's photos were pulled up.
- When you filled out the registration forms you could authorize others to pick-up hour child.
- There are no passwords like on DCL, and kids don't wear magic-type bands that track where your child is located within the club. Trust me though, you will be able to see your kid. Parents don't come in to retrieve the child, the youth counsellor calls them up as you wait
- Kids wash their hands upon entering and take off their shoes. Unless they leave the club to go for a walk or to eat, the shoes stay off.
- No wave phones like DCL.. supposedly there are beepers but we never got one.
- If it's something minor they will call your room. Yes I know what if you are not in it...In case of a real emergency they use ship's PA system. (Never happened). You can also call AO yourself to check on your child.
- They supposedly have beepers, but we never got them. Didn't need them, but maybe parents of younger ones get them?
- All the youth staff give themselves funny names that are easy for kids to remember
- All youth staff must have university degrees in education or recreation and several years experience working with children. I believe this is similar on DCL.
- There are times throughout the day the whole family can participate in an activity, usually in the science lab.
- They have special "autism-friendly" programming offering appropriate movies, activities, and autism-friendly toy lending bags.
- My time family dining is available but only during the early dinner. Adventure Ocean staff collect kids outside dining room at 6:40pm. DCL has this too, but it's for families with late dining.
- There are screens outside Adventure Ocean telling you what is currently going on inside
- There is a play area open all day if you want to come play with your kids

Please ask if you have any specific questions, or there is something I forgot.

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I don't have teenagers, but Royal has a teen club called The Livingroom.
They normally split the kids into 11-13 and 14-17, but combined them on this sailing due to lower numbers of teens onboard. We talked to people who had teens in the club, and they said the teens liked it a lot.
The teens often had the bumper cars to themselves as the Seaplex was closed just for teens. Same with roller skating.
I can't really compare the Teen clubs on Royal to DCL but thought I would add this.
I took pics of the Teen Activity Schedule if anyone is interested in me scanning it in I can do that.
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While this is an informative review, I'm not sure the title is accurate as you cannot compare all of DCL with Anthem of the Seas, being that it's just one ship. We have just got off the Independence of the Seas and while we had a great time there were many factors we were missing that we enjoyed on our Disney cruises. Anthem of the Seas is far newer than the Disney Fantasy so of course there will be more technology and new ideas. Who knows what the two new Disney ships may offer!

We agree about the towels though. We sailed to the Canaries and had more use for blankets than towels as it was freezing at night. The only place to watch a movie is by the pool (unless you want to pay $12 for the privilege of watching the same movie in your stateroom) and one night they ran out of blankets!
 
While this is an informative review, I'm not sure the title is accurate as you cannot compare all of DCL with Anthem of the Seas, being that it's just one ship. We have just got off the Independence of the Seas and while we had a great time there were many factors we were missing that we enjoyed on our Disney cruises. Anthem of the Seas is far newer than the Disney Fantasy so of course there will be more technology and new ideas. Who knows what the two new Disney ships may offer!

We agree about the towels though. We sailed to the Canaries and had more use for blankets than towels as it was freezing at night. The only place to watch a movie is by the pool (unless you want to pay $12 for the privilege of watching the same movie in your stateroom) and one night they ran out of blankets!

I didn't say I was comparing all of Royal's ships, many times I mention that something may be Anthem specific.

Also, I'm comparing MY experience to the existing Disney ships, as I've been on both dream and classic class and feel DCL is consistent across their fleet.
You are right who knows what the new Disney ships will have. This isn't about the new ships.
Lastly, nowhere did I say that I didn't miss certain Disney touches, but I wanted to save my final thoughts until the end.
I am not saying one line is better than the other at all. Hope it didn't come across this way.
 
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I didn't say I was comparing all of Royal's ships, many times I mention that something may be Anthem specific.

Also, I'm comparing MY experience to the existing Disney ships, as I've been on both dream and classic class and feel DCL is consistent across their fleet.
You are right who knows what the new Disney ships will have. This isn't about the new ships.
Lastly, nowhere did I say that I didn't miss certain Disney touches, but I wanted to save my final thoughts until the end.
I am not saying one line is better than the other at all. Hope it didn't come across this way.


I loved reading your review and no it didn't come across that one was better than the other. I just think there are people out there who would read your review and think all RC ships were the same and as we have just done our first RC cruise we did like it (probably slightly different as we were sailing from Southampton in the UK) but we also realise what DCL mean by the Disney Experience. Would we go on one again? That would be a yes but probably from a different port. I would love to go on Anthem of the Seas one day :)
 
I loved reading your review and no it didn't come across that one was better than the other. I just think there are people out there who would read your review and think all RC ships were the same and as we have just done our first RC cruise we did like it (probably slightly different as we were sailing from Southampton in the UK) but we also realise what DCL mean by the Disney Experience. Would we go on one again? That would be a yes but probably from a different port. I would love to go on Anthem of the Seas one day :)
You're right, the title wasn't right and I corrected it :)
I totally get the DCL Experience and might have even missed it ;)
 
Anthem of the Seas is far newer than the Disney Fantasy so of course there will be more technology and new ideas. Who knows what the two new Disney ships may offer!

QUOTE]
You are correct that the Anthem is newer than the Fantasy however I believe that the Oasis is a few years older than the Fantasy and she has many of the things that the Anthem has such as the interactive boards at the elevators and dinning rooms. To me DCL messed up with their adult only area, bad design, where some of Royals are amazing. That's not only an Anthem thing either. DCL had a chance to catch up in the past but didn't. I'm sure their new ships will have lots of interesting new things however I'm wondering if they may just be behind the times even before building starts. As innovative as Disney is it may not be enough. It will be interesting as there is so much new out there and everyone is trying to get your $$'s. I don't think just having Captain Mickey will be enough. I'm waiting patiently to see what they come up with as I hope to sail with them again however, for now, I will stay with the ships that have newer, more interesting things that keep my attention. I love reading about them.
Lets all hope for more.
 
Amazing all of the praise for Royal , on cruise critic 89% of reviewers "Loved" the Disney fantasy , while a whopping 54% "Loved" Anthem of the Seas. Hundreds of reviews. This from a non-Disney website no less. The tone of the review smells a little suspicious
 
Amazing all of the praise for Royal , on cruise critic 89% of reviewers "Loved" the Disney fantasy , while a whopping 54% "Loved" Anthem of the Seas. Hundreds of reviews. This from a non-Disney website no less. The tone of the review smells a little suspicious
First of all, you may want to check your nose if you think this smells suspicious. Second, maybe the fan base for DCL on cruise critic was people who have small children or even people who have had no experience with other cruise lines. I know that before I sailed Oasis last October there was no other cruise line. It just could not measure up. Now that I have had other experiences I come to find that there is life outside of the bubble. I 'Loved' the Fantasy however I 'Loved' Oasis as well, maybe (shock) even more.
Cruising is not one size fits all. I'm very glad for threads like these.

ETA-Since the Fantasy has been sailing many more years than the Anthem I would assume that they would have more reviews which could also screw up the percents. Just a thought......
 
Amazing all of the praise for Royal , on cruise critic 89% of reviewers "Loved" the Disney fantasy , while a whopping 54% "Loved" Anthem of the Seas. Hundreds of reviews. This from a non-Disney website no less. The tone of the review smells a little suspicious
What exactly is suspicious about someone taking a Royal Caribbean cruise (or a cruise on any other line for that matter) and having fun???? Thousands of people do it every week and have a wonderful time.

I am thoroughly loving this detailed and honest review. I'm sure many other open minded Dis'ers are as well.

Thanks OP!
 
Amazing all of the praise for Royal , on cruise critic 89% of reviewers "Loved" the Disney fantasy , while a whopping 54% "Loved" Anthem of the Seas. Hundreds of reviews. This from a non-Disney website no less. The tone of the review smells a little suspicious
Don't want to get into a debate for sure, but what "tone" are you referring to exactly? I am not saying Anthem is better. I wanted to simply compare the 2 from a point of view of someone that has only cruised on DCL AND loves everything Disney. If you read it, you will notice that I address things I didn't like on Anthem such as food in the main dining rooms. DS loved Adventure Ocean more than DCL's clubs, but what is suspicious about that? I also said he loved Disney too.
And again... I am not finished and so you don't actually know what I prefer at this point.
As for the cruise critic reviews... yes I was worried about Anthem's prior to sailing. But if you read them a lot have to do with the fact that Anthem is a different ship than what a lot of Royal Caribbean veterans are used to. They don't like Anthem's reservation system for things like North Star or iFly or certain shows. I guess it's not what happens on the older Royal ships. A lot of the negative reviews are from an older demographic too that say they prefer the classic, smaller Royal ships. Also, Anthem was initially trying new concepts like Dynamic Dining which didn't go over too well.
I also read a lot of Disney Fantasy reviews and a good chunk is from first time cruisers.
I can tell you that you can find something to complain about if you are looking really hard.
 
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Enjoying your review. We did the Serenade of the Seas a couple of years ago out of New Orleans and I think it was our worst cruise we've had. I think with RCI the ship makes much more of a difference than on DCL.

Outside of DCL, we prefer Princess and actually, we did a cruise on Carnival Sunshine a couple of years ago and preferred it to RCI, in fact, for comfort food, it may have been the best. (and Carnival is way cheaper than RCI).
 
We sailed on an older Royal Caribbean ship out of Baltimore a few years ago. It did not even compare to Disney. However, my daughter much preferred the kids room on the Royal Caribbean cruise. She had a much easier time making friends because the counselors organized activities and everybody really did participate. The check in process was awful and the lines were super long. If you were a little bit late, you got fined by the minute. On that boat, the kids room was closed a lot more than it sounds like it was recently.

I really enjoyed your review to see how things were different between the two lines. I was so turned off by that other royal Caribbean cruise that I have been unwilling to take a cruise on anything but Disney since then. Reading your review, I think I may give Royal Caribbean another try on one of the newer larger ships.
 

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