{"id":11515,"date":"2019-04-24T17:30:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T00:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/?p=11515"},"modified":"2019-04-25T04:06:26","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T11:06:26","slug":"cruise-line-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/cruise-line-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruise Line Showdown: Comparing Carnival, Disney and Royal Caribbean for Families"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Gene Sloan<\/cite><\/a><\/em>, The Points Guy<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mickey
Meet your favorite characters aboard a Disney Cruise Line voyage.<\/span> Photo courtesy of Disney Cruise Line<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might assume Disney is the Hercules of family cruising \u2014 the all-powerful competitor with no rival. But in the cruise world Disney is still somewhat of a niche player. With just four ships compared to the 52 operated by family cruise giants Carnival and Royal Caribbean, Disney is like the cruising equivalent of Olaf from \u201cFrozen\u201d \u2014 a bit secondary to the plot, if still much beloved. In terms of passenger capacity, Disney is barely a tenth the size of Royal Caribbean alone, and it doesn\u2019t offer nearly as diverse an array of home ports and itineraries.<\/p>\n

What Disney does offer is Disney. From Disney tunes piped into cabin hallways and Disney-shaped food items on menus to Disney-themed evening shows and the promise of meeting your favorite Disney princess, Disney ships are mouse bait for the diehard Mickey lover. If Disney is your thing, nothing in cruising quite compares. Just be prepared to pay up big time for the privilege of sailing with Captain Mickey or Minnie (more on that in a moment).<\/p>\n

Carnival long has claimed to be the biggest cruise line for families, with more than 800,000 children a year traveling on its 26 ships (out of 5.2 million total passengers). Known for its affordability as well as its lively, unpretentious, fun-focused vibe, this is the most budget option of the three lines we are comparing. You\u2019re likely to pay considerably less to sail with Carnival than Royal Caribbean or Disney.<\/p>\n

For families craving the mega-resort experience, there\u2019s nothing quite like a Royal Caribbean vessel. The biggest of the line\u2019s 26 ships are more than 70% bigger than the biggest Disney and Carnival ships afloat and feature a lot more \u201cstuff\u201d that will get your kids\u2019 hearts racing \u2014 everything from rock-climbing walls and surfing pools to skydiving simulators and ice-skating rinks. Royal Caribbean also will offer you a lot more choices when it comes to itineraries. The line will have eight ships in Europe this summer, for instance, compared to one for Disney and none for Carnival. (Carnival, it should be noted, is a line that primarily focuses on cruises out of US ports that are easy for its budget-conscious customers to reach by car or with a short, inexpensive flight.)<\/p>\n

Comparing Prices: A Specific Example<\/h2>\n

In general, on very similar itineraries, you\u2019ll a pay a premium \u2014 sometimes a huge premium \u2014 to take your teens and toddlers on a Disney ship instead of a Royal Caribbean ship, and both of those lines will cost you more than Carnival. Just how much more? We priced similar summer sailings to the Caribbean on the three lines and found a hypothetical family of four would pay about 71% more to get aboard a Royal Caribbean ship than a Carnival ship and 163% more to sail with Disney.<\/p>\n

\"Carnival
Carnival Breeze Seaside Theatre, a lido deck poolside 270-square-foot LED screen offering nightly \u201cDive In Movies,\u201d along with concerts, sporting events and more throughout the day.<\/span> Photo by Andy Newman \/ Carnival Cruise Line<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the comparison, we looked at specific seven-night Eastern Caribbean sailings offered by each line out of Port Canaveral, Florida, for the week of Aug. 10. We chose this routing because it allowed for one of the most apples-to-apples matchups you can make between the brands. All three of the companies have positioned one of their newest, snazziest vessels in Port Canaveral for seven-night Caribbean sailings.<\/p>\n

In Carnival\u2019s case, it\u2019s Carnival Breeze, which debuted in 2012 and is one of the line\u2019s newer Vista-class vessels. For Royal Caribbean, it\u2019s Harmony of the Seas, which began sailing in 2016 and is part of the line\u2019s popular Oasis class. Disney\u2019s contender in the market is Disney Fantasy, the line\u2019s newest ship. It debuted in 2012, just two months before Carnival Breeze.<\/p>\n

When pricing, we assumed we were booking a family with two adults and two children ages 8 and 12 who would share a single cabin. We found:<\/p>\n