No kids why do you stay with Disney?

[mevelandry]

Speaking for myself (and only for myself!), I've caught myself experiencing the urge to defend DCL's honor whenever someone says that they find better value elsewhere, think other cruise lines are better, etc. because I've realized that I have a little niggling fear in the back of my mind asking, "But what if I'm just wasting my money after all?"

Which, hey, I might be. I've only ever cruised once and it was DCL, and the next cruise for which my housemate and I have vague plans will also be DCL. I'm one of those people who has no context, who can't actually say whether or not I'd like Carnival just as well, or Royal, or Norwegian. So there's some fearful little part of me that wants to shut down any kind of possibility that my choice to spend the extra money on Disney might be a foolish one.

The thing is, though, as long as your answer to two particular questions is "yes," there's nothing wrong with going with a more expensive option. Those two things are:
1. Can you afford it?
2. Is it what you want?

So I just try to remind myself of that, and remember that even if I'm wasting my money...well, I'd technically be "wasting" it no matter where I cruised, because a cruise is a frivolous thing to buy regardless. Right now I want to cruise with DCL, and I can afford to do it about as often as I want to cruise at all. I'll re-examine the issue when one of those two things is no longer true. And when I catch myself worrying about it, I stop myself and I don't take it out on the people who are at a point in their lives where their answer to one or both questions is "no."

In our case, we had similar fear before we decided to try another cruise line. The argument who convinced us to jump was: "We're going to try it and if we don't like it, at least it won't be an expensive mistake".

Now, I don't see my past DCL cruises as a mistake because they brought us a lot of joy and introduced us to one of our greatest passion... But we can definitely appreciate having more money in our TFSAs (which may have not be possible if we were still sailing on DCL twice a year).

 

[mevelandry]

But Amber Cove isn't Carnival's Private Island - their Carnival Corp Private islands are either Princess Cays or Half Moon Cay.

On Half Moon Cay, for $50 less than a cabana on DCL (and including 2 extra people - it's 8 not 6), you can get a private villa. The tour description on those is:

How do you want to spend your day on Half Moon Cay? Carnival and Holland America offer five two-story beach villas that can make your time on the island an unforgettable experience.

Each of the five private villas are outfitted with air-conditioning, a 5-person capacity hot tub, refrigerator, ceiling fan, air conditioner, dining area with table and chairs, a misting shower and private sun deck.

On the second floor you'll find chaise lounges and a dining room table and chairs. In addition, both floors feature a high top table and 2 chairs. There are unobstructed views from all locations. Villas D and E are wheelchair accessible throughout the first floor and restroom area.

Villa guests will be provided with fresh fruit, vegetables and dip and chips and salsa to snack on throughout the day. Each villa is stocked with an assortment of soft drinks and bottled water to slake your thirst.

For your recreational pleasure, floating mats and snorkel gear are also included in the price for your use throughout your stay.


Oh, and the private island includes a bbq just like Castaway Cay. The only downside to Half Moon Cay is that it's a tender port.

Places like Amber Cove, Grand Turk, even Costa Maya are cruise line created port areas - not at all comparable to the Private Islands.

I love tendering...

Yeah, I was shocked when I saw the two story villas available for HMC. I won't book one because it's just going to be my DH and I there but if we were sailing with MIL and FIL, I would have tried to book one for sure.

I think NCL have Harvest Cay and Great Stirrup Cay? (one of my best friend loved GSC).

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Speaking for myself (and only for myself!), I've caught myself experiencing the urge to defend DCL's honor whenever someone says that they find better value elsewhere, think other cruise lines are better, etc. because I've realized that I have a little niggling fear in the back of my mind asking, "But what if I'm just wasting my money after all?"

Which, hey, I might be. I've only ever cruised once and it was DCL, and the next cruise for which my housemate and I have vague plans will also be DCL. I'm one of those people who has no context, who can't actually say whether or not I'd like Carnival just as well, or Royal, or Norwegian. So there's some fearful little part of me that wants to shut down any kind of possibility that my choice to spend the extra money on Disney might be a foolish one.

The thing is, though, as long as your answer to two particular questions is "yes," there's nothing wrong with going with a more expensive option. Those two things are:
1. Can you afford it?
2. Is it what you want?

So I just try to remind myself of that, and remember that even if I'm wasting my money...well, I'd technically be "wasting" it no matter where I cruised, because a cruise is a frivolous thing to buy regardless. Right now I want to cruise with DCL, and I can afford to do it about as often as I want to cruise at all. I'll re-examine the issue when one of those two things is no longer true. And when I catch myself worrying about it, I stop myself and I don't take it out on the people who are at a point in their lives where their answer to one or both questions is "no."

I think cruising another line for cost reasons alone could be a bad thing. This is my opinion and for sure this is my perspective for me. I can’t speak for other people and I’d never presume to be someone else’s voice of reason (other than my husband who BETTER be listening up! LOL! J/K!). For me, just, you know, it’s like jeans or a handbag. I can buy 15 less expensive options that are similar but it never changes or replaces my desire for what I really wanted to begin with. So if there’s waste to be made, it was in spending more compromising than I would have if I’d just bought what I really wanted to begin with. Ya know?

I never would’ve tried cruising hadn’t it not been Disney...and a dear friend who previewed the Dream and posted pics of some of the most amazing things I’d ever seen! Being a diehard Disney-phile I felt like I needed to see that Disney with my own eyes. We fell madly in love. My husband’s brother & parents were already into cruising but not Disney. They’re just not the Disney-philes my family is. LOL! They had been trying to get us to do a big family cruise for a while but I was always very much against it. After our first cruise we were open to it. They weren’t going to do Disney. I knew that. But then I was curious about other lines and wanted to do the vacation with the family so we went for it. That’s how I landed on my first non-Disney cruise. I really did enjoy it, too. It wasn’t Disney but it was still a great time. We didn’t sail another line for another couple years. When we stepped away from Disney again it was 100% because I was burned-out on Disney. I was tired of the same menus, activities, options, ports, etc. I wanted to cruise but I wanted to cruise differently. It wasn’t about compromising. If anything, if I’d done Disney at that point, I would’ve been compromising. And I’ve not had a bad non-Disney cruise. I’ve enjoyed them all. I definitely attribute that success to what I wanted out of those trips which #1 was something different from Disney.

I still cruise every September with Disney with a group of friends. I don’t get all giddy for the cruise itself as much as I do to see my friends. And I love seeing their excitement! My husband doesn’t get that annual auto-shot of Disney cruising like I do. He says he misses it whereas I never say or think that. This September (before my annual friends getaway) we are celebrating our 25th anniversary with 2+ weeks in Ireland (which amazingly enough costs about what a week Fantasy cruise would). I just booked us on the Fantasy for our 26th anniversary in 2019 because I know it’s something he really wants to do. I’m sure we might sneak a quick 3-night with Disney in somewhere between now & then. But again, the Disney cruises to me are what I do for who I am cruising with. I’m there for the time with those I love. I don’t really get all into them like I used to. It’s the people and the time with them that I crave nowadays. Lots of perspective changes since I lost my brother (also a Disney fan!) 2 years ago. People and time. The rest for me now is details.

Whatever you feel, follow your heart and live without regret. If saving to sail Disney is where your heart is now then that’s the thing to do. 100%! Down the road if/when you desire something a little different you can go there at that time. Not a thing wrong with that and you shouldn’t feel bad about it at all.

I think my only bit of pet-peeve in all this is those who would bash other lines or make statements about how Disney is superior to other cruises without having ever tried anything else...how do they actually know? How can a person make informed decisions and make statements like that unless they had actually gone on different cruises? Ya know?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I love tendering...

Yeah, I was shocked when I saw the two story villas available for HMC. I won't book one because it's just going to be my DH and I there but if we were sailing with MIL and FIL, I would have tried to book one for sure.

I think NCL have Harvest Cay and Great Stirrup Cay? (one of my best friend loved GSC).

I used to really like tendering...until I was on a cruise ship desperately wanting to be on a tender headed towards land but stuck in a long wait on the ship. Color me “over” tendering. Photo ops of the ship from a tender are amaze-balls! I’ll never deny that! First coup,e times I tendered gazing back at the ship...it was mesmerizing!

 

[mevelandry]

I used to really like tendering...until I was on a cruise ship desperately wanting to be on a tender headed towards land but stuck in a long wait on the ship. Color me “over” tendering. Photo ops of the ship from a tender are amaze-balls! I’ll never deny that! First coup,e times I tendered gazing back at the ship...it was mesmerizing!

I have to admit that my experience of tendering has been stellar so far... My opinion might change if I have a bad experience.

 

[cruiser21]

I agree it's better to buy what you really want as long as its not going to drown you financially. Paying 17k for a Baltic cruise on DCL vs 5k on NCL doesn't make sense for us. I personally don't think cruising another line for cost reasons is wrong. I think sometimes it's very smart.

 

[JoieNsk]

Our daughter is 19 now. We still take her with us once in a while, and we go to Disney with her. But more and more we start to travel by ourselves, just me and my husband.

I am Disney fan - of course, otherwise I would not be on this board.

But half of the cruises we've done were not with Disney. And I can tell you - they were really good experiences. I missed Disney music in the hallways - sure But other than that we had great experiences on Celebrity, Royal and Holland America. Though we always book suites on other cruise lines. But now we started to choose concierge rooms on Disney too - got spoiled

My take on this that we go for the itinerary.

Of course we are concerned with money too. But sometimes I am ready to pay more just because it is Disney.

Though sometimes for my perspective I can not justify choosing Disney over other cruise lines. I just booked 13-day itinerary with Royal - it has 3 days in St Peterburg, 2 days both in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Disney has nothing close to that - actually nobody does except for Royal. So here we are.

And I looked today on the pricing for Disney European cruises for the summer of 2019. I have pretty nice owners suite booked for 13-days on Royal for the price equal or maybe even less than Disney balcony cabin on 7-day cruise.

So for me - great itinerary and better price = nobrainer, Royal it is this time. I know already that in the really nice room on Royal we would be more than happy.

 

[mevelandry]

I agree it's better to buy what you really want as long as its not going to drown you financially. Paying 17k for a Baltic cruise on DCL vs 5k on NCL doesn't make sense for us. I personally don't think cruising another line for cost reasons is wrong. I think sometimes it's very smart.

I agree. I see nothing wrong with it as long as it looks like a good value and our needs/priorities are met.

We chose to try Carnival because from the exterior, we did not think it looked "that bad" for the price tag (it actually tickled our curiosity)... and the more info I got, the more I started thinking that we might actually enjoy it. Turns out our experience was lovely and we have no regrets.

 

[Pens Fan]

You sound like us. Our son will be twenty in a couple of weeks and while we cherish the times he can actual travel with us, it's happening less and less. We love cruising, but it definitely has to be an itinerary we are interested in - the ship itself isn't enough. I just find more interesting itineraries on other lines. We have been looking at Med cruises for awhile now and finally settled on one - 14 days (13 of them port days) on NCL, that goes to Italy, the Greek Isles, Croatia and Montenegro. I haven't seen anything close to that on Disney in quite some time, though they have done some of those ports in the past. We really wanted Eastern Med - and Venice (our cruise overnights there), so for us there wasn't even really a choice. When you factor in that we sail in suites on NCL for less $$ than a balcony on Disney and often for longer cruises, it really became a no brainer for us.

We loved our all of our Disney cruises. I have some incredibly special memories of the time our family spent on their ships and don't regret one penny we spent on them. But for two (sometimes three!) adults sailing together our priorities have changed. The Disney aspect doesn't overcome what we can get by looking elsewhere. Others feel differently. Good for them and happy cruising!

Edited to add: Am I the only one that is having trouble with the quote function working lately? I was trying to reply to @JoieNsk but it didn't show up for some reason. Probably user error!

 

[YawningDodo]

In our case, we had similar fear before we decided to try another cruise line. The argument who convinced us to jump was: "We're going to try it and if we don't like it, at least it won't be an expensive mistake".

Now, I don't see my past DCL cruises as a mistake because they brought us a lot of joy and introduced us to one of our greatest passion... But we can definitely appreciate having more money in our TFSAs (which may have not be possible if we were still sailing on DCL twice a year).

I still cruise every September with Disney with a group of friends. I don’t get all giddy for the cruise itself as much as I do to see my friends. And I love seeing their excitement! My husband doesn’t get that annual auto-shot of Disney cruising like I do. He says he misses it whereas I never say or think that. This September (before my annual friends getaway) we are celebrating our 25th anniversary with 2+ weeks in Ireland (which amazingly enough costs about what a week Fantasy cruise would). I just booked us on the Fantasy for our 26th anniversary in 2019 because I know it’s something he really wants to do. I’m sure we might sneak a quick 3-night with Disney in somewhere between now & then. But again, the Disney cruises to me are what I do for who I am cruising with. I’m there for the time with those I love. I don’t really get all into them like I used to. It’s the people and the time with them that I crave nowadays. Lots of perspective changes since I lost my brother (also a Disney fan!) 2 years ago. People and time. The rest for me now is details.

Whatever you feel, follow your heart and live without regret. If saving to sail Disney is where your heart is now then that’s the thing to do. 100%! Down the road if/when you desire something a little different you can go there at that time. Not a thing wrong with that and you shouldn’t feel bad about it at all.

I absolutely expect to get tired of sailing with DCL at some point. Maybe we'll do our cruise in late 2019/early 2020 and I'll decide that's it, I'm ready to try another line (or even go back to a total focus on land-based trips instead of alternating land and sea by year). Maybe I'll keep going until I've sailed on all of DCL's ships, maybe longer than that. Right now I'm still at a point where it's fresh enough for me that I'm strongly considering a repeat on the same ship (the Magic appears to be likely to best match our itinerary needs, plus my housemate would love all the Tangled stuff), when normally I try not to repeat experiences too much from one trip to the next.

The way you feel about DCL sounds a lot like the way I feel about WDW anymore. I certainly enjoy being there, and I'm very excited about showing the 'World to my housemate for her first time in a couple of years, but I've done it so many times that I'm no longer very excited about going just for my own sake. So I branch out, and I do other things on my solo trips, and I save WDW for when there's someone going with me who makes me feel fired up about sharing the trip. Eventually DCL will be the same for me if I keep cruising with them long enough. And that's okay; I'm just going to enjoy this stage of things for as long as it lasts and move on to something else wonderful when this stage is over.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

The way you feel about DCL sounds a lot like the way I feel about WDW anymore. I certainly enjoy being there, and I'm very excited about showing the 'World to my housemate for her first time in a couple of years, but I've done it so many times that I'm no longer very excited about going just for my own sake. So I branch out, and I do other things on my solo trips, and I save WDW for when there's someone going with me who makes me feel fired up about sharing the trip. Eventually DCL will be the same for me if I keep cruising with them long enough. And that's okay; I'm just going to enjoy this stage of things for as long as it lasts and move on to something else wonderful when this stage is over.

Same here when it comes to WDW. Last year we went a couple times because we had APs for the first time since we started cruising. Only reason I bought the APs was because we were supposed to go with my parents within the calendar year. My parents will never cruise. Lots of sentimental value from when I was a kid. Getting my mom especially to go since my brother died was huge. My brother desperately wanted me to go back with my parents so that trip was more about my folks than anything. Buuuuut, it never happened. The Harvey flood kinda derailed all that on my end. That’s also why no spring travel this year. Maybe in the future. But if it was just me and WDW? Pass. Too many you other things on my bucket list.

 

[RedSox68]

I used to really like tendering...until I was on a cruise ship desperately wanting to be on a tender headed towards land but stuck in a long wait on the ship. Color me “over” tendering. Photo ops of the ship from a tender are amaze-balls! I’ll never deny that! First coup,e times I tendered gazing back at the ship...it was mesmerizing!

I neither liked or disliked tendering -- I just found it to be an annoyance on the bigger ships to have to get a number or wait in long lines. However, after our experience in Guernsey, I am so over tendering. It was a stormy day and the waters were not too bad in the morning going in for our excursion, but when we tried to tender back to the ship at 2 p.m., the waters were like being out in the open sea during a storm! I've never seen anything like it, but the tender slammed against the ship and they couldn't keep it steady for people to jump over to the ship! It was unnerving and not a great way to end the day

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I neither liked or disliked tendering -- I just found it to be an annoyance on the bigger ships to have to get a number or wait in long lines. However, after our experience in Guernsey, I am so over tendering. It was a stormy day and the waters were not too bad in the morning going in for our excursion, but when we tried to tender back to the ship at 2 p.m., the waters were like being out in the open sea during a storm! I've never seen anything like it, but the tender slammed against the ship and they couldn't keep it steady for people to jump over to the ship! It was unnerving and not a great way to end the day

That’s scary! My dad had his foot crushed between a tender & a Navy ship back in the 80s. He was supposed to be off ship in a cast for 6-8 weeks. 3 weeks after his injury they had him out of the cast & back onboard his ship. To this day he has horrible problems with his foot. I’m always so mindful when I hop that threshold thinking of poor old Dad.

 

[RedSox68]

That’s scary! My dad had his foot crushed between a tender & a Navy ship back in the 80s. He was supposed to be off ship in a cast for 6-8 weeks. 3 weeks after his injury they had him out of the cast & back onboard his ship. To this day he has horrible problems with his foot. I’m always so mindful when I hop that threshold thinking of poor old Dad.

Oh, that's awful! They were trying to encourage people to jump the gap -- but no one would do it until they roped in the tender closer. It hit the ship so hard a couple of times that people fell off the benches inside! I was alone because my DH and DD had stayed in town to take pictures (it was just pouring), so I worried the whole time about them getting back to the ship!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Oh, that's awful! They were trying to encourage people to jump the gap -- but no one would do it until they roped in the tender closer. It hit the ship so hard a couple of times that people fell off the benches inside! I was alone because my DH and DD had stayed in town to take pictures (it was just pouring), so I worried the whole time about them getting back to the ship!

Oh I’d be worried, too. Wow! Glad you were okay (and I’ll assume so was your DH & DD.

 

[skittlesfirehawk]

Thanks. O/T, but adoption isn't an option for us in Australia because there are only around 5 local, unknown adoptions in our State each year and none of the countries which Australia has entered into an intercountry adoption program with permit same-sex couples to adopt.

You Could always adopt a furry 4 legged child instead

 

[skittlesfirehawk]

I’m reading everything and am super happy my post has gotten lots of different discussions going.Disney koolaide runs in my blood.

 

[85glht]

I am one who likes to unplug at sea, so I don't pay attention to that. I'm weird that way.

I also like to unplug on vacation... you are not alone

 

[andeesings]

So I’ve never cruised with any like EXCEPT Disney, but I have to say. My friends and I found that because there were so many “family” things to do on the ship the adult areas were practically deserted!!! We felt like we were alone on the ship!

 

[cyclenut]

Just out of curiosity, what specifically were the differences? I think Castaway Cay is a true paradise and can't imagine another cruise line topping it. I am curious as to how the whole "you get what you pay for" adage rings true for this example specifically.

We do like Castaway Cay, but we also really liked Labadee. That is the Royal Caribbean private beach in Haiti. It isn't an island, but really feels like it. You dock there and all you see is the Royal Caribbean beach. They have quite a few cabanas and ours was literally over the water (our request) and the prices are much more reasonable. They are not fully enclosed, but enclosed on three sides, with a ceiling fan and a fully exposed deck for sunning. We had a ladder down to the water and they had wait staff right there to bring you whatever you wanted.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ports/group/home.do?portCode=LAB