We have done many cruises, on many lines. The Disney cruise is amazing. We did the New Years cruise, and it was like twice as much as the other ones at the same time. We had 10, 8, 7, and 5.
As with most things Disney... it is expensive, but worth it.

On Day 2 of the cruise my oldest puked in the kids club, and was too sick to go back all week. (We only did the 4 day cruise.) That being said, when we left, he said "that was the best cruise ever" and I think it was his 9th or 10th.

Honestly, the kid club is ridiculous... it is huge, there are rooms for different things... Life size Andy's room from Toy Story, a Fairy room with a tree and stuff, you can drive the Millennium Falcon, they had cooking classes, and the characters come down and do story time and it is pretty awesome. The shows on the boat were great. The food was very good as well.

Honestly, I would love to do it again. However, I don't think I would spend the money during the peak of cold and flu season. My family goes on a New Years Cruise annually... and about 40-50% of the times we have been sick... to the point where you can't enjoy more than a day... so, to spend as much as you will spend on a Disney cruise... I think it is worth waiting until closer to spring.. in the hopes that cold/flu season is over. But that is just a take from a mom of 4 who has spent many days in her cabins because of sick kids.

But Disney is awesome!

We hadn't been on a cruise before and didn't have much desire to go on one. We kept hearing good things and thought we'd give it a shot. We didn't envision a Disney Cruise with the higher percentage of kids and the constant presence of characters to be very relaxing. We were very wrong. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was amazed at how clean everything was and the level of service. There are always characters for the little ones to meet, but they manage to do it in a way that doesn't interfere with the experience of everyone else on board the ship. The shows were entertaining, the food was better than expected. My wife and I had reservations for Remy and it was one of the best meals we've had.

There are also adult's only areas of the ship that are truly quiet, and if you are willing to pony up the extra cash for concierge-level rooms, you can get away from most of the ship crowds for a good 80% of the time.

Wife and I have discussed this a lot. Disney's cost premium for concierge as compared to what you actually get is insane. You're paying $3-5,000+ extra for what amounts to be a dedicated lounge, free drinks, and priority embarkation/disembarkation. Given the high service levels available to all guests, that's really difficult to justify value.


This is an area where other lines (especially MSC and Celebrity) have overtaken Disney with dedicated suite/concierge restaurants, significantly improved amenities, etc.

We're expecting Disney will announce a concierge/suite restaurant in their new Triton ships, or else they'll fall further behind.

It's certainly not even close to being worth the additional cost; we only did it because we wanted the 1 bedroom suite and a cabana on Castaway Cay was a must. Yet it was certainly nice to have the additional amenities and personalized service, but that was effectively a throw-in.

We have an Alaskan cruise booked with a handful of other families and we decided against concierge simply because we figured we would be barely making use of the concierge amenities since none of the other families will be sailing concierge. And at the additional cost? Forget it.

What's interesting is that the way the concierge rooms are clustered around the lounge and sundeck on the Dream class ships is perfect. But the lounge is small and the sundeck has no views. The lounge and sundeck on the Wonder look waaaaaaay nicer, but they aren't as convenient to the concierge rooms.

Figuring out a best of both worlds approach for this configuration on the Triton ships is a must. And a concierge restaurant would absolutely help. More than three concierge hosts would make sense, too.

Because you’re a cruiser.

Sorry, I can be of no help on this. My only cruise experience was many years ago with Carnival. The best I can say about that one was that nobody died of ptomaine or was tossed overboard — at least nobody that we know of. Nuff said.

We did four Disney cruises from when my son was age 4 - 11. We loved them. Now we’ve moved back to Royal Caribbean as he’s often older.

Thoughts - don’t let the price premium scare you. There are things on Disney that you have to pay for on others that add up. Cabins are larger for the same category as well. I think our Disney balcony cabin was equivalent to a junior suite on RCL. We preferred the entertainment on Disney, and the kids will by a mile.

What others said about kids club is true, as my son used to hang there until almost midnight by the time he was 11. They do quick dinners for the kids - 45 minutes and then the staff will take them to the club while parents can enjoy a nice dinner. The rotational dining is awesome as you get to know your waitstaff who comes with you to each dining room.

We never missed the casino - or the smoke that comes with it.

And, having been to multiple “private islands” - Castaway Cay is the best of the bunch.

Full Disclosure: my wife is a travel agent who specializes in Disney.

Disney is very well-suited for families with children and Disney fans. Rather than a casino, Disney dedicates half a deck to kids clubs focused on the 4-12 age set. Our kids loved the clubs so much they would beg not to leave for dinner and shows with us.

Disney also has kids' clubs for the 12-14 and 15-17 age brackets that are generally well-attended.

For dining, Disney focuses heavily on the "main" dining rooms. Each dining room has its own theme and your servers rotate with you throughout the cruise. Unlike other lines, Disney does not do much specialty dining, aside from 2 18+ restaurants (Palo (Italian) and Remy (French) that are excellent. I put Remy up there with land-based 4* fine dining restaurants.

Part of your premium is Disney's focus on service. We've found the customer service, cleanliness, and onboard ship quality to be significantly better than other lines, despite every cruise being upwards of 40-50% kids.

What itinerary are you looking at and cabin type? $6,500 for a family of 4 for a 6 day cruise is a good price for a Disney cruise, which is probably due to the January timing.

For older families or those who are not Disney fans, I agree it becomes more difficult to justify Disney's premium vs. Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. I do not consider Carnival to be in the same demographic, although they're trying to be with their new ships.

Since we live in TX, we can drive to the port.

Goes to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, then back to Galveston.

Cabin has a walk out "balcony"

Thanks for your reply.

Disney has been able to charge a premium (over a typical Disney premium) for the Galveston cruises because:

A. The Wonder (your ship) is one of the older, smaller ships, and it fills up quickly. Verandah rooms command a higher premium on those ships due to their limited number

B. The Galveston cruises are in high-demand due to the novelty factor and driveability for many (like yourself).


If you're interested, my wife can help with alternative dates/itineraries/etc if you wish to find something cheaper (my email attached)

while I've only been on one Disney Cruise and generally agree with your comments (see my post below, other than our pool cleanliness), we have been on many, many Royal Caribbean cruises and I'd say for Voyager, Freedom and Oasis classes of ships, the cleanliness and onboard ship quality have been very, very good.

I was on one of the initial two Disney ships (materially smaller than any of the RCCL classes of ship I mentioned) and the Royal Promenade blows away anything on those Disney ships.

The bottom line is if you have kids the "right" age and your family enjoys Disney, that trumps all else and people should take the Disney cruise. If your kids are, say 15 or older, probably better off on RCCL or comparable.

Disney's Dream class (Fantasy and Dream) have significantly more adult amenities and public spaces than the classic ships.

It's hard to compare the Royal Promenade to Disney as Disney chose not to focus on the specialty dining you find on other cruise lines.

I predict Disney's new Triton class ships will directly address those shortfalls as they are larger than Dream but keeping the same passenger count. They also need to address the "bored teenager" risk, which RCL has been very successful at competing against Disney.

we really enjoyed the Disney Cruise. At the time (10 years ago or so) our kids were 11, 9 and 3, all girls.

Pluses (vs. other cruises): all the Disney stuff, including characters, were excellent. Loved the rotating dining rooms (by that I mean I think they had three different rooms, so you went basically to each one twice, even though you had the same wait staff).

Only minus: the pools were small (Disney Magic/Wonder ships, not the bigger one) and water was pretty disgusting. Meaning band-aids and stuff floating around in them a lot.

If you are a Disney Family I would recommend. It's sort of a "you only go around once" sort of thing, when the kids are a certain age.

Had a suite for half the price of the Disney cruise. I wish we had done the Disney in hindsight. Carnival was ok, but from what I understand, Disney is just better.

Have you been to Universal? Perfect for your kids from an age perspective as we just did it.

Liked it more than the cruise.