Disney Cruise Line vs Royal Caribbean Cruise Line

I know it seems like ages, but I'm finally back with the last and final portion of my Royal Caribbean Alaskan Cruise recaps (with a little twist)! When we decided to travel with Royal Caribbean on our previous cruise, I had several questions (from my Disney friends) about my thoughts on the differences between the two cruise lines.  After much time and thought, I compiled a list of differences noticed between Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and Disney Cruise Line and put them together here for anyone who's on the fence about either option.

Every single time I sail Disney, I get the same exact questions -
"Wow, that's so expensive!" 
"We can cruise other lines for much cheaper!" 
"What makes Disney so worth the price tag?"

Let me preface this by saying that we immensely enjoyed our time with Royal Caribbean in Alaska and I would do it all again in a heart beat. We were also on an older ship - the Radiance of the Seas. I've never traveled with RCCL otherwise, so I'm not sure how their newer ships match up. To be fair, I'm comparing and contrasting our time on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas (2000) with our time on Disney's oldest ship (the Disney Magic - 1998) for a better comparison idea. Also to be fair, I need to disclose that we (obviously) love Disney, Disney Cruise Line, are Disney Vacation Club Members, and Gold Castaway Club Members. This was our very first experience with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.

Throughout the cruise though, I noticed those "little extras" added by Disney and jotted them down to remember for later. Some of the differences I noticed are silly and might make some of you roll your eyes, but it's those little differences that make me appreciate Disney Cruise Line so much more!

Room Size

I know you hear this on every cruise line compare and contrast site out there, but I can honestly say it's true. We've been on two non-Disney Cruise Line cruises (the first was Norwegian to Alaska) and yes, it's 100% true - the rooms are definitely bigger on Disney Cruise Line. To compare, we've had the smallest verandah available on DCL and still had a full size pull out couch and large bed in our room. In our verandah on RCCL, we had a large bed but a half-size pull out couch with not much room to walk between any of it once it was all made out for the kid.

Split Bathrooms/Shower-Tub Combo

Having a split bathroom is not common on other cruise lines but not having it on our RCCL cruise really made me miss it! Some staterooms (all except inside staterooms, I believe - someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this) on Disney Cruise Line offer a split bathroom idea - where you have the shower/tub/sink in one side and a potty/sink in the other side. 

The shower on this RCCL ship made me seriously want to cover my eyes with my hands like the little monkey emoji on my phone. There was no tub option - it was basically a very small half-circle in shape with a small lip at the bottom and a shower curtain. Needless to say, it was impossible not to splash water and a hot mess was made every time one of us took a shower. (Insert monkey emoji here.)

Another huge difference in the bathroom area was the shampoo/conditioner/body wash options - you receive all three plus bar soap and lotion on Disney Cruise Line. This variety of options did not exist on RCCL - we had one pump option with a body wash/shampoo combo inside, plus a bar of soap at the sink. I know it's dumb, but I missed my conditioner. Thankfully, I did bring extra!

Music in the Hallways

Ok, I can see you rolling your eyes now. Hear me out though. Walking to and from staterooms down incredibly LONG hallways can get rather boring at times. I absolutely love how Disney Cruise Line pipes themed music into their hallways, whether it's Disney music on a regular sailing or Halloween/Christmas music on a themed sailing - it always makes me walk a little lighter and brings a smile on my face!  You can roll your eyes at me now if you want to. I know this one was silly but it honestly made a noticeable difference to me.

On Demand TV

While sailing on Disney Cruise Line, I realize that you don't spend much time in your rooms, but we love to get ready for the day or unwind at night while playing a variety of Disney movies on our stateroom TV (ones we might not own or haven't seen since we were kids). Cool Runnings for the win! To be fair, I do realize that Disney owns pretty much everything in the entertainment world, but we had literally nothing to watch from our TV in our stateroom on RCCL with the except of one night - we were able to catch an Astros game.

Dining

Honestly, I felt as if dining was a high point for RCCL. The servers were just as amazing as you'd expect with Disney and the food was just as great! Although a rotational dining option was not offered, we didn't really miss it and had no problem eating in the same dining room every night of our cruise.  

Stateroom Host

We also loved our stateroom host. He was just as great as hosts we'd had on other Disney cruises and really made sure we had all we needed for our room to be comfortable during our cruise. He also took a liking to our son and loved doing the Baymax fist bump with him (which the stateroom host initiated). It was so cute and a I loved the little touch of Disney!

Pool Towel "Borrow"

Ok, honestly - what in the world is this?! Towel "borrowing" at the pool - y'all, this one seriously threw me for a loop. With this being an Alaskan Cruise, we had the opportunity to swim in the "solarium" pool which meant it was indoors and also nice and warm - a much appreciated opportunity by us all. However, in order to get back to our stateroom, we had to walk outside across the open (and very chilly) deck. On the regular, I would usually just wrap my child in a pool towel and walk him across the deck so his wet swimsuit against the cold Alaskan air wouldn't cause him to freeze. Did I do that?

No.

Why? Because you had to "borrow" pool towels from the pool deck. They would basically swipe your card for each towel you "borrowed" and if you didn't return the towel, they would charge your room $25. Twenty five bucks. For a towel. Yes, I realize this is lazy, but I was on vacation and didn't want to have to traipse from the warm solarium pool out across the cold deck, down the elevator to my room, then back up to the cold pool deck to return a pool towel. Instead, we would "borrow" a towel to dry my kid off, then return it immediately before leaving the pool area. So he didn't freeze while walking across the outdoor pool deck, we would stick him in one of my sweatshirts to stay warm on our journey back to our room. On Disney Cruise Line, I feel as if they hand out pool towels like candy. Because they do. (Insert another eye-covered-monkey emoji here.)

Kids Clubs

Having never experienced the kids clubs on DCL, I can't compare the two, but I do know that my child enjoyed his time at the kids clubs on RCCL. He even came back with his face painted one night which completely floored me that he allowed them to do so!! Please know that the physical rooms of the kids clubs on RCCL (on our ship) do not in any way compare to the decor of the rooms of the kids clubs on DCL (the Magic).  To compare to DCL, the kids clubs rooms on our RCCL ship reminded me of a Mother's Day Out or something similar. Honestly though, it was the counselors and the activities that made the RCCL kids clubs so enjoyable for our son. The use of the kids clubs are also included in the cost of your cruise on both DCL and RCCL, but I do know from reading up on it that the hours of the kids clubs on DCL are more readily available over RCCL. Also, the counselors names on our RCCL ship were those of fairy tale characters. Our son's favorite counselor was named Moana. We seriously thought that was her real name until we saw another one named Rapunzel! :)

Shore Excursions

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore was a legit statement I leaned over and told Jason while trying to find our tour group in Juneau.

For every excursion you book (on both DCL and RCCL), you are given a ticket in your stateroom with your excursion information - where to meet, what time, etc. Once you arrive at your designated location on the ship, you are given a sticker to wear and this is where the differences begin. On Disney Cruise Line, you are usually ushered to a waiting area with a group of people. You have a crew member as a group leader who carries a paddle with the same logo as the sticker you are wearing on your shirt. You are walked out to your meeting area in whatever port you're docked in and basically taken straight to your excursion tour guide. On RCCL, we arrived at our meeting location were each given a sticker, then told to basically "go meet your group at the pier". This meant walking down to the first or second deck by ourselves, exiting the ship on our own, walking down the pier and off to wherever we saw a group of people congregating. At those groups, they usually had a few tour guides holding signs that were supposed to match the sticker you were wearing. Well, on our "Toto" occasion, there was no such match. After asking, the tour guide said "oh yeah, you're with me..."

For someone who has no clue where in the world they are at (which applies to most of us on cruises we've never taken before), telling someone to "meet at the pier" can be incredibly confusing and frustrating. Being on vacation also means that I like to take the frustration out of my trip to simply relax and enjoy. By seriously walking through every step with you, I feel as if DCL definitely takes that unknown out of the equation here and leaves travelers with less opportunities for frustration.

Room Service/Soda

On RCCL, room service is available at no extra charge for continental breakfast only. On DCL, you can order room service pretty much 24 hours a day and almost anything you'd like to eat. This didn't make a huge difference for us as breakfast is typically the only meal we order room service for anyway, but it is a difference nonetheless. Also, sodas (aka "cokes" as we call them here in the south) are included on Disney Cruise Line - they are not on RCCL (although tea, lemonade, and coffee are included in your initial cruise package). Drink package options are available for purchase on RCCL for sodas, specialty coffee, alcohol, etc.

Grand Entrance

Here's my final "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" moment. When you arrive at then entrance of your ship on Disney Cruise Line, I feel as if everyone is excited to see you - there's excitement in the air and genuine smiles on the faces of the crew members welcoming you onto the ship. Also, you are greeted with a "grand" entrance that I won't spoil for you if you've never sailed DCL.

Walking onto our RCCL ship was a totally different experience and it seriously made me giggle. No, I didn't expect pomp and circumstance or any kind of crazy welcome, but I wasn't prepared for this one. We were basically ushered onto the ship and into a tight hallway where solicitors were lined on each side, attempting to sell drink packages, spa packages, dining packages, water packages, the list goes on. Welcome to the ship, indeed! (Where's that monkey emoji?)

I will mention again that we enjoyed our time with Royal Caribbean and loved sharing this entire experience with our family.

Did any of these things mentioned above make me miss Disney Cruise Line?
Yes, some of it did.

Did it take away from our cruise?
No. We still had a blast!

Would I sail Royal Caribbean again in the future?
If the circumstance and situation was applicable, yes I would.

Would I choose RCCL over DCL in the future if given an option?
 No. I would definitely choose Disney Cruise Line if it's a feasible option.

Do I think Disney is worth the extra cost?
In most situations, yes. For Alaska and the cost between the two cruise options (several thousands of dollars)? Not for us. For some, yes...but not for us and this cruise.

I had a friend give a bit of good advice to me before we cruised - when you're cruising with a new line that you aren't used to, don't set your expectations to high. Go in with an open mind and see what you think!  (This advice was honestly the best advice we could have been given.)

For recaps from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on board the Radiance of the Seas, check out these links below:
Alaskan Cruise: Travel Day & Boarding the Ship [Part 1] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Icy Straight Point [Part 3] & VLOG (Icy Straight Point & Juneau)
Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]
Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7] & VLOG

I hope this has helped any of you who are on the fence about deciding between cruise lines! :) Send an email my way or feel free to message me if you have any questions!

Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7]

I hope this week finds you doing well! Welcome back to another recap from our most recent cruise to Alaska! We last left off on our final day on board the ship and a stop by the Hubbard Glacier. On today's recap, we disembark the ship in Seward where we spend a few hours exploring the town, then we take a bus to Anchorage and visit the Alaska Zoo!

When we arrived in Seward that morning, the fog was so thick, you could barely make out the boats in the photo below. It was super interesting to watch the fog thin out!

Since there is not a large airport in Seward, cruisers usually elect to take a bus to Anchorage and fly out from there. We weren't sure how the timing of everything would work, so we extended our trip by a day and had a little fun exploring both Seward and Anchorage.

Airport bus times included 8:30 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. (or somewhere around there). Since we were on the 2:30 p.m. bus, the burning question revolved around what to do with our luggage while we explored the town.

After a little searching on my family's part, they found the Alaskan Bag Lady!  She seriously met us at the port terminal, held on to our bags for the morning, then had them waiting for us when we returned! I was seriously impressed - super sweet people, too!

The town of Seward also includes a small bus loop of its own where you can ride to various points of the city without a charge. Our first stop was Starbucks followed by a local city park!

For real though - how about those park views? It was absolutely breathtaking! 

A bald eagle flew over our heads while we were at the park and landed in this tree. It sat there forever, just looking around. So incredibly cool!

After the kids had their park fix, we walked over to a local cafe for a little grub!

I had the seafood chowder and it was really tasty.

Seward was just so picturesque! 

 While waiting for the next bus, I couldn't help but snag this picture. :)

The bus ride to Anchorage was painless and lasted about 2 hours. Our driver also acted as a tour guide and gave interesting facts along the way. Some of us might have napped, myself included.

The bus dropped us off at the Anchorage airport where we then snagged a hotel shuttle to our hotel. We had to laugh - they didn't have AC! It might sound silly, but it was a bit warm in Anchorage while we visited. One of our drivers told us that they'd already had 14 days of temps in the 70's this summer and that's incredibly unusual for them. About 2 weeks after we left, Anchorage hit their record high temperature of 84 degrees. It sounds wonderful when coming from the 100 degree south, but a little AC would have been nice. Not complaining - just sharing my experience!

Since our flight wasn't leaving until 6 p.m. on Saturday night, we decided to spend our Saturday morning at the Alaska Zoo! What intrigued me about the Zoo was the fact that most of their animals came to them from conservation efforts. I also loved that we could see animals you wouldn't see at your typical Zoo here in the south!

They had a ton of cute little setups like the one below. We had so much fun!!

I was super excited to see the Peregrine Falcon at the zoo - it's a fun story so stay with me here....

So, I once met a man who worked with the Walt Disney Company in film.  He worked mostly on the conservation and film documentary side and was sent to Alaska to study the habits of the peregrine falcon. This was back in the 1960's or 70's when these falcons were on the endangered species list. After studying their day in and day out, they discovered that if you took an egg from the momma falcon, she would lay another one. It sounds harsh but when you're trying to help the species thrive, it's not. After 8 months there, they completed their project and moved on with their lives.

Fast forward to 1999, he received a phone call that he was being invited to a banquet. He had no idea what the banquet was about, but he went. Much to his surprise, it was a ceremony where the peregrine falcon was officially removed from the endangered species list and he was one of the honorees that helped contribute to this success!  What a life accomplishment, huh? He told me that if he never did anything else worthy of accomplishment in his life, he was ok with that because this was such a huge one for him...and all because of his work with the Walt Disney Company! Pretty nifty!

Seeing one of these falcons in person was truly touching, especially knowing his backstory!

At this zoo, we saw wolves, cariboo, brown bears, black bears, bald eagles, and the list goes on!

Speaking of the brown bear - can y'all see those claws? I definitely don't want to run into him in the wild!

A petting zoo was also a part of this zoo where kids could pet goats, bunnies, and chickens.

You see my husband's grip on that kid "leash"? Yeah well, that's cause my child would have been the one rolling around on the ground, trying to lay on the goats. He LOVES animals of all kinds!

About 3/4 of the way through the zoo, we spotted a restroom and snack stop. Jason and I split a pretzel while Brayden had some Cheetos!

 

In all, we spent about 3 hours at the zoo and truly had a chance to see everything!

There was even a little park at the end which Brayden loved immensely!

The Alaska Zoo was seriously the perfect end to our trip! If you have a chance to visit, you should! 

...and just like that, our week in Alaska had come to an end. We took a red eye back home and boy was that exhausting. We had so much fun overall and wouldn't trade a moment of it!

I had several of you ask, so stay tuned for a couple more recaps - a ship tour, a comparison between DCL and RCCL, and my thoughts on the kids club on RCCL!

Have a wonderful day! 

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For recaps from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on board the Radiance of the Seas, check out these links below:
Alaskan Cruise: Travel Day & Boarding the Ship [Part 1] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Icy Straight Point [Part 3] & VLOG (Icy Straight Point & Juneau)
Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]
Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7] & VLOG

Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6]

Our final day on the Radiance of the Seas included a stop at the Hubbard Glacier.

We woke up that morning and had breakfast with several family members, then we waited for our approach to the glacier. On our last Alaskan Cruise (where we visited Glacier Bay), I remember being very close to the glacier on the cruise ship itself, so we didn't feel the need to book an extra excursion that would take us closer to this glacier (because I assumed we would be just as close this time around).

As we approached the Hubbard Glacier - I am going to be completely honest here - I was very disappointed, especially considering how close we were able to get to the glacier last time. Don't get me wrong - it was gorgeous and all, but we were quite far from it and unable to see/hear the ice cracking like we did over in Glacier Bay. Despite that, it still made for a fun morning with our family all together in one stateroom and we still had some amazing views!

A naturalist was on board and oddly enough, he was the Canadian Mountie we listened to on our first day! From our stateroom, we were able to hear him on one of the channels on the TV, so we hung out on the balcony with the volume up on our TV and enjoyed the view!

My brother in law said it best when describing our cruise - he said it felt like we were floating in a post card! That's 100% accurate.

One benefit to this glacier day vs our previous cruise was the weather. The sun was shining and it really was a perfect day weather-wise!

At lunch, a cake was out on display for dessert (and it was yummy, too). I still never figured out how they made those mountains!

An Elvis impersonator was also present at lunch for entertainment! :)

While scanning over the daily schedule, we saw Disney trivia listed at 1 p.m. I already knew I wanted to play, but I wasn't sure I could rope anyone else into playing with me. To my surprise, I asked the question out loud and almost our entire group was in! Yay!

We arrived at the Schooner Lounge to play and the room was PACKED. We were instructed to break into teams of 6 and the guy running the trivia even had to have more copies run because there were so many groups!

I wasn't sure what to expect, but this was by far the easiest trivia I've ever done. They handed us a sheet of paper (face down of course) and told us when to begin. Our trivia basically consisted of partial views of different characters faces (about 20 of them) and we had to write who they were. My team was done in seriously 0.2 seconds and were among the first to turn in our form. Three teams finished all right at the same time and after a little deliberation, he decided that our team was the winner because we were the only team out of the three to have all of the characters names spelled correctly!

Winner winner chicken dinner! We were so excited! What did we win? Royal Caribbean key chains! Yay!

We expected to be in trivia about 45 minutes and when I asked Jason the time, he said it was only 1:08 p.m. Trivia seriously lasted about 5 minutes! Hah!

Our dinner that evening was delicious as always and we had a great time with our wait staff on our final evening of the cruise.

The final show and goodbye was great as well!

Even though the cruise itself was over, we still had two days of fun remaining - stay tuned for more from Alaska!  

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For recaps from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on board the Radiance of the Seas, check out these links below:
Alaskan Cruise: Travel Day & Boarding the Ship [Part 1] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Icy Straight Point [Part 3] & VLOG (Icy Straight Point & Juneau)
Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]
Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7] & VLOG

Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5]

I last left off of our Alaskan cruise recap at the end of our Juneau day where we whale watched and shopped around town. Our final port stop was in Skagway and quickly became my favorite day of our entire cruise! Here, we took Brayden to a Musher's Camp and he was seriously in heaven!

Before leaving for our excursion though, I had to get in a quick 2 mile run around the ship for National Running Day!

The views were gorgeous and I absolutely loved running in the COLD!

After a shower and breakfast, we met up with our group for our excursion to the Musher's Camp. Again, our instructions were to meet up with our group "at the end of the pier", but when we got out there, we only saw a few people walking around and several tour buses parked in the lot (ie: no "group"). I stopped to ask directions from the person who happened to be our bus driver, so he pointed me in the right direction (thankfully)! Basically, everyone was being directed to board the bus and wait, so that's what we did!

Before long, we were off! All along the way, our hilarious bus driver told stories and tales of life the Alaskan way. It truly was an entertaining ride!

Once we made it to the Musher's camp, we were told that we were taking the "orange monster" to the running trails. Riding in that thing up a mountain was seriously an interesting experience!

Thankfully we made it one piece!

The basis of this excursion included a 1 mile ride in a sled pulled by the dogs, followed by interaction with these pups as well as a bit of time spent with the smaller puppies back at the camp.

Brayden LOVED being pulled in the sled and still talks about his fun times with the "dogs running" in Alaska! It was seriously a really cool experience.

Our guide was amazing, too! He offered to take pictures of us in the sled as well as a few pictures from the front of the sled!

 

After the mile run, we had time to pet and interact with our sled dogs. 

Again, my child was in HEAVEN! He loves dogs so much!

He definitely had his fill of puppy hugs and kisses that day!

All too soon, our time was up and we had to head back down the mountain to the Musher's Camp.

Once there, we were given a brief talk about the origins of the sled dog teams as well as a bit of history on the Iditarod race itself. It was super interesting to hear how things used to be and have changed over time!

After the talk, we were given a little time to pet the puppies!

This seriously was one of the coolest excursions I've ever taken on any cruise I've ever done!

I spy Disney Cruise Line!

Once the excursion was complete, we had our bus driver drop us off in town so we could shop around a bit and take a few pictures! Downtown Skagway truly reminds me of the old-timey gold rush town you would see in the movies. It's super cute!

Our dinner that evening included lobster and baked Alaska! Yum!

We were excited to see another towel animal too, as we didn't have one each and every night.  Brayden loved these guys!

The show that evening was an entertainer/singer who did a great job! At one point, he had me in tears because he sang that stupid Butterfly Kisses song which gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME (if you haven't heard it, look it up). Just don't say I didn't warn you...

Despite a few tears, he mostly kept us laughing and we truly enjoyed a great show!

Sadly, we went to sleep that night knowing we only had one full day left on the ship before disembarking. Our final day included a stop at the Hubbard Glacier (which was new to me), so I was excited to see it! Stay tuned for the final recap from our Alaskan cruise! :) 

Thanks for following along! 

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For recaps from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on board the Radiance of the Seas, check out these links below:
Alaskan Cruise: Travel Day & Boarding the Ship [Part 1] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Icy Straight Point [Part 3] & VLOG (Icy Straight Point & Juneau)
Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]
Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7] & VLOG