Disney Cruise Or Something Different?

My first Disney cruise was back in 2008.  I was a travel agent and we got a deal on a

Mexican Riviera cruise on the Magic.  I think I paid something like $400 for a 7 night cruise.  I shared the room with 2 other friends of mine.   My first cruise ever was way back in 1995 when Doug and I did a 2 night Princess cruise.  That is what got us hooked on cruising.

A Disney cruise is so different than other cruise when it comes to experiences.  The basic parts of the cruise is the same though.  Food is included, along with entertainment and your room of course.   What is different with a Disney cruise you ask? 

Well...the characters is one...you get to have your pictures taken with various characters.  You don't have to pay for pictures, you can just hand your camera to the Cast Member and they will take your picture with your own camera. 

Another difference is how they do their dining.  You have 3 restaurants that you rotate through and your servers come with you.  Each restaurant is themed and you will get your rotate schedule in your cabin when you first get on the ship.

Third difference is the pirate night deck party (except for Alaska cruises)...and that includes fireworks.  To me this is my highlight

for a Disney cruise.  I love the fireworks show.  I have seen it when it worked smoothly and I have seen it when Mickey Mouse get's stuck up in the zip line that he uses. 

One other difference is that soda is included in your cruise fair, but for the crazy amount of money they charge for the cruise, they better have something like that included.

Doug and i have been on about 35 cruises, but only 6 have been on Disney.  Why such a difference and not more Disney cruises?  Because Disney cruises are about double the price as regular cruises, at least the ones we do.   We do Mexican, Pacific Coastals and Alaska cruises the most and Disney has them, but they are expensive.  When we did our first Coastal cruise on Disney, we paid about $700US for a 6 night cruise, and then we did a few 4 night Disney coastal cruises...first one was about $500US, second one about $650

and now for the 2020 one...it is $900US for a 4 night cruise.  I can do a coastal cruise on Princess for about $400CDN.    Just in case you don't know...I have to add about 35% to any US pricing to convert into Canadian...so as you can see, Disney has priced us out of their cruises. 

We do a lot of Princess and Celebrity cruises.   We just love cruising so very much and I would rather do a couple of cruises on a non Disney cruise to one Disney cruise.   We might do a Disney cruise again, but right now, even their cheaper cruises are way too expensive and just isn't worth it to us as other than those three big differences, the other lines do cruising just as well.

We are DVC members and so we still get our Disney fix in when we do Disney World,

Disneyland and Aulani.  So it isn't as if we don't get our Disney fix in, and honestly, even on a non Disney cruise, we are over the top Disney.

What I love about doing a non Disney cruise is that we stand out as the Disney freaks.  I love the questions we get about our love of Disney and people always smile at us when they see our freaky Disney side.  When you do a Disney Cruise, you are just one of the crowd and don't stand out at all LOL.  All our clothes are Disney, and even my dressy clothes has Disney on it, so on dress up nights, we are still

representing Disney.  I make Disney magnets and put them on our door (and inside the cabin).  Mickey Mouse comes along too and he has a full wardrobe along.  So even if it isn't a Disney Cruise, we are showing our Disney side.

The food is fantastic on the lines I have done.  Sure there are hit and misses for items, but that is just personal taste.  You can eat so much and never go hungry on a cruise.  I think Celebrity Cruises has some of the best food.  I think Carnival is right up there too and personally I think both those lines have better food than Disney.  But honestly, if I don't have to cook or clean, I don't care what I get served.    Many of the Celebrity promo's right now include a drink package (including Alcohol) so that makes it even more affordable than Disney :) 

Cabins...well that varies from ship to ship.  We usually get inside or oceanview and so as you can tell, we don't spend a lot of time in our cabin.  It is a place to sleep.  When we do get a balcony, then we do enjoy it a little more and I just spend a bit of time researching which cabins might have bigger balconies.  Some are non advertised bigger balconies so you do have to do your research on that.  I think Celebrity and Carnival have some of the bigger cabins.  Disney does have decent sized cabins, and with their category 10 and up, they have that split bathroom which is nice, but again...for the crazy amount they charge, they better have something a little better.  But what i don't like about Disney is that their

main bed in the cabins don't split, and so if you are travelling with friends, you are kind hooped.    Our next Princess cruise to Alaska (4 nights) is in an inside cabin.  Our 15 day Trans Pacific cruise on Celebrity is in an oceanview cabin.  With 9 days at sea, we wanted to at least be able to see outside a little when we are in our cabin.  I found some oceanview cabins with bigger than normal windows so that will be nice.

Entertainment is the best on Disney, but considering they have the Disney name to back them up, it better be.  They do that so well.  When I do other lines, I just put aside my Disney entertainment expectations and enjoy the fact that I am getting a show that doesn't cost me anything.  I like Celebrity entertainment.  Carnival is very flashy but a little more iffy when it comes to outfits.  Princess is really good.  I have not been a fan of Holland American entertainment, but NCL was decent the two times I cruised with them. 

We love to just relax and enjoy the ship.  Even on port days, we tend to spend a few hours

off the ship and then come back on and enjoy the quiet of the ship.  Usually we like to choose a ship with a covered pool area so that if the weather sucks, we can still be sitting outside (sort of).  We like to have adults only areas, but that doesn't really matter too much unless it is on Disney...then it matters.  We love to sit in lounges with views to the outside.  We like to just sit and enjoy watching the world go by.  It is one of the reasons we actually love sea days.   For us, the ship is important for a cruise as we spend a lot of time on it.  We read, people watch and do a few of the activities offered, but it doesn't matter to us that much as we really do a lot of relaxing.

I am all about getting deals.  I watch pricing for whatever cruise we are booked on.  Even after final payment, I will watch the price.  If the price goes down, I will see if I can get an upgrade to something.  Cruiselines won't refund you money after final payment, but they generally don't mind upgrading you if you find a decent deal.  I used to be a TA and I always tried to get either a refund (before final payment) or an upgrade (after final

payment) for my clients.  I won't do non refundable deposits though.  I keep a very close eye on that when booking my cruises.   Our 15 day Transpacific cruise has 3 perks attached to it...free gratuities, free wifi and a free drink package.   The one thing good about other lines is that they offer promo's, where as Disney cruise lines sell so well, that they very rarely will offer any promo.  Picture is from one of our cruises where they had a glass blowing section on the top of the ship.  That was awesome. 

Everyone vacations differently.  If you are the type that only does a vacation every couple years, then I bet you would love to do the Disney Cruise.  But we love to go on vacations as often as we can, and so we would rather do the less expensive cruises and get our Disney fixes in when we either do the parks or Aulani.  I won't say our way is better because it isn't for everyone.  It is better for us.    Sure we could afford a Disney cruise if we only did it once every 3 or 4 years, but that would kill me only doing a cruise that little.  We didn't do a cruise last year and that was tough.  I won't complain as we did Disneyland and Disney World, but I noticed that we didn't do a cruise. 

Aulani as a DVC member

Aulani is awesome.  We bought into DVC back in 2011 and have used our points at Aulani 2 times already.  We just booked again for February.  The weather in Ko Olina is fairly mild.  It is the less rainy side of the island.  So even if it says it will rain, it will probably only last a few minutes and then away you go.   We have always gone in the Janaury/February time frame because it uses the least amount of points and it is a nice break from our winter to be able to head to Hawaii.  We have stayed in a studio and a 2 bedroom (dedicated).  Always done an Island/Garden view.  There are a number of those in that category and so you have a lot of options for what you get for view.  We have done high floor in the Ewa tower with

view of the Luau.  That way we can watch the movies and the Luau from our balcony.  We have also gotten a bit of a view of the ocean in that category too, but it is never guaranteed.  That view will change once the Atlantis resort is built next door.  You will not see the ocean once it is built, and it will be noisy with construction once it gets started.  

We always rent a car from the airport, so that we can do our own exploring during our stay and we have transportation to/from the airport.  Parking is free (self parking) at Aulani

if you are using your DVC points.   We do our shopping at Costco, Foodland and Down To Earth.  I create a menu plan and grocery list ahead of time.   We geocache so we find places to explore that way without having to spend money on excursions.  I do recommend doing the Polynesian Cultural Center once if you have the time.  It is an all day thing, but lots of fun for the family.

We tend to make most of our food in our villa.  The kitchen does have a rice cooker which we use all the time.  We plan our meals around a lot of rice things.  You can also request a

blender and make your own drinks then.  There is also a BBQ on the property that anyone can use.  We have never done it, but I see people using it.   The gift shop does have a few basic groceries if you forget something and don’t feel like driving anywhere.  But…I suggest just walking across the street to the ABC store that has some groceries for a much more reasonable price.   There is also a coffee shop there and a few other shops.    The main grocery stores like Target, Walmart, Foodland, Costco, etc are about a 10 minute drive.  There are also a number of restaurants there too. 

The resort is very quiet after about 8pm.  People do not

come to Aulani for the night life.  There is none.  We love to sit on the Lanai near the lobby which has a few couch type lounges and listen to the live music that gets played in the Bar area.    We will spend a few hours there every evening just listening to the music and playing on our ipads/phones.  Yes there is wifi at the resort…just not very fast wifi.   You can go to the bar area and order drinks and enjoy the music there too, but we like to spend as little as possible so we find things that we can do that don’t cost money.  We go during winter, so the hours of the pool and hot tubs are not late.  We like to sit in the

adults only Infinity Hot tub OFTEN!!!  It is a 2 level hot tub and it is adults only.  Yes this is enforced (at least I make sure it is when I am there).  If it is open until 8pm, then we are there a number of times too. 

We don’t spend a lot of time in the main pool or the main hot tubs as we don’t have kids and don’t need to be there.  If we want to swim, then we head on over to the ocean.  The lagoon is very calm and is a great place to swim.  You can even see fish near the part of the lagoon that is open to the ocean.  We go out earlier in the morning and do snorkeling and find the best viewing then as the water hasn’t churned up from all the people in the lagoon yet.   My husband loves

the Rainbow Reef for swimming with the fish, and this is in the resort area and is a cost.  But the price is fairly reasonable if you buy the length of stay pass, which also includes snorkeling equipment for the day.  There is a discount for this for DVC members.  If you like to snorkel though, head on over to the Paradise Cove lagoon and there you can see turtles and fish.  All beaches are free to use for everyone.  Even the beach in front of Aulani is free to anyone to use, but the beach chairs and Umbrella’s are only for Aulani guests. 

Every day you will get a new coloured wrist band so that it

proves that you are an Aulani guest.  You have to show your room key to get this wrist band.  The DVC wrist bands and sparkly.  You also show your wrist band to get towels.  There is a separate line for DVC members to get towels first thing in the morning, but I have found sometimes it was longer than the other line.  You can use either one.

There are a number of DVC member things…a weekly gathering, a Mixology, cooking class and a resort tour.  These change though, so make sure to check the DVC members website to see what is current.   You can also get a 10% discount on merchandise.  Head over to the store every

day as they have a little section off to the side that always has some great sale items.  The DVC pin is behind the counter so you have to ask for it.  The discount does not apply to food or the unlimited refill mug…and yes, they have that for about $20 and it is totally worth it.  It is not a chipped mug like at WDW. 

There are daily activities listed in paper you can get at the front desk or Concierge.   Also you have a dedicated phone number to phone to find out what characters are out that day.  They do not list them all in the paper, so make sure to phone.  The character breakfast was awesome.  I would only do it the 1 time as it is expensive, but we did enjoy it.  Just like any other Disney resort/park, you can give the cast members your camera and have your pictures taken.  Yes there is a photo pass that you can buy, but I found that the pictures on my camera where just as nice.  You can even do this for sunset pictures.  We have a lot of great pictures that the Cast Members have taken with our camera.

There is pin trading at the resort.  Not as much as at the

parks, but we have gotten a good number of great pins.  There are a lot of people from the Asian parks, so you do get a variety of pins you don’t see at WDW or Disneyland.  The DVC people have pins too. 

 

I read reports a lot about chair hogs.  We go during a slower time, so we tend to not have issues, but we also don’t need chairs right at the pool.  There are many areas around the resort with great places to sit and enjoy the Hawaiian air.  The area around the adults pool is usually quiet, but I prefer an oceanview when relaxing, so we either head to the beach

or find some of the chairs off to the side of the resort where people don’t always wander too first.  There are no lockers to store your stuff, so this is one of the reasons for the chair hogging.  Anyone can access the resort pool area from the beach, so make sure you don’t leave your stuff unattended.  Non resort guest can

not use the pool or the hot tubs, but they can wander around.  You don’t need to be a resort guest to go shopping or eat at the restaurants.   There are a couple of restaurants on property.  I don’t find them any more expensive than ones at the parks.  We don’t tend to eat at the restaurants as we like to save our money and eat in our room.  We will buy the occasional Dole Whip or fries.

We have gone 3 times all together and all of them have been for 8 or 9 nights at Aulani.  Now we spend a few days in

Waikiki first to get the more touristy stuff out of the way (and I love the city) and then spend the rest of the time at Aulani and just explore from there.  Aulani is for relaxing (in my opinion), but I love that it is on Oahu so I can take a car and go do things.  My parents like to spend the whole time sitting at the beach, whereas I like to get out and do stuff a little more, so having your home base at Aulani is the best.   The Hawaiian attitude is very noticeable at the resort and you get that relaxed

atmosphere.  The lobby is amazing and when you first arrive, you will get a quick tour of it.  Take some of the various tours of the resort that is offered.  There is so many small details around that only Disney does so well.