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Going From Disney Cruise Line To Royal Caribbean Cruise Line What You Need To Know
947 Plays5 months ago
Are you a Disney Cruiser that wants to check out Royal Caribbean cruises, we have you covered as we help you transition from going from DCL to RCCL with Matt from Royal Caribbean Blog. There is no one out there that knows more about Royal Caribbean, and he has also been on the Disney Cruise Line so we ask him all sorts of questions.
With your kids getting older, does Royal offer more things for them to do? How is dining both the same and different? How do the shows work? Both Disney and Royal Caribbean have their own islands, how are they similar and different? You see a theme here. As Matt says, Disney and Royal Caribbean are more alike than people think, so take a listen.
Golden Button Detours Episode 11
You can find Matt at https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/
The episode is sponsored by https://www.bsckids.com/
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome to a special episode of Welcome Home Podcast, Golden Button, Detroit, not accessible on me. We have probably our best guest. at and And Matt, I'm going to say that's even saying that we had Jim Cummings on to talk about Winnie the Pooh. I'm still going to say you're our best guest. So let me introduce Matt from RoyalCaribbeanBlog dot.com. He's all over the place in terms of social media. You can find him everywhere. Matt, kind of give us a little bit of an introduction. Wow, I'm um I've made it past Winnie the Pooh that is say I know I'm tell my kids about this afterwards. There you
Matt's Blogging Journey
00:00:33
Speaker
go. um Hi, my name is Matt. I run Royal Caribbean blog dot com. I've been following and tracking and reporting on real Caribbean for well over a decade now started it as kind of I was going on a cruise and was excited and ah since then it's taken a life of its own and.
00:00:48
Speaker
Yeah, I professionally go on Royal Caribbean Cruises. I love that. I love that. I wish I can grow up and do that at some point. so So let me explain how I actually came to find out about that. So we had gone on our Disney cruise, which went to look out Kia Lighthouse Point, yeah the Bahama port to call. And we were coming back. I had actually driven down and with two of my kids and my wife and my other son had flown down. They were lucky enough to have some vouchers from A D1 visit, I guess. Are we allowed to say that? I don't know. I don't know if the NCAA is going to come after us. But anyway, on a canceled trip. So I was listening. I said, you know what? We went on this Disney cruise, but my kids are getting older. You know, I'm thinking about maybe Royal Caribbean. Let me start looking and see who has some stuff. And gosh, Matt, you you got me 12 hours home. I mean, that was great. Like, I mean, listening to you was absolutely wonderful. So that's kind of how we found out about Matt. And then we were we asked and, you know, Matt was nice enough to join us. So.
00:01:45
Speaker
Sweet. Yeah.
Disney vs. Royal Caribbean: Overview
00:01:46
Speaker
you The goal here is to kind of talk a little bit about the difference between Disney Cruises and Royal Caribbean and kind of get an understanding of, you know, what's better, what's worse, you know, things like that. Matt has told me that he has been on a Disney cruise before, so that's actually good to know. um And i I guess we'll just kind of get started. Actually, I did want to give Matt the opportunity to plug his sponsor, though, because we may end up using them for our Royal Caribbean cruise as well.
00:02:15
Speaker
Right? MEI Travel, can can you plug them? Yeah, absolutely. I've been using MEI Travel for a long time. um I've been using them ever even before they were sponsored. They just offered some great service. In fact, I started using them when we were planning Disney World trips. I mean, that's how long ago you know we really went back with them. And they just provide really the kind of customer service that i look for and i'll just say this way when my family my parents need to book a cruise or something i refer them to me i mean it really is more not just because the check clear because i really do believe in what they offer and that's why i've been partnering with them for.
00:02:48
Speaker
It's well over a decade. and We've been spending a lot of time working together and they are some fantastic people. They can save you,
Community and Coordination
00:02:55
Speaker
they could save you time. They will save you time. They could save you money and they're just going to make everything so much easier for you. I love it, I love it. And that's always what we're looking for is is ease. So we're just gonna jump into questions. We got a bunch of questions that we had as we were driving home. We have some questions from our group members, some writing questions. So here's, here's we're just gonna start and just kind of get through some of them. So the first thing is for Disney Cruise is, and I'm always gonna kind of preface this by saying, I'm gonna start with, hey, this is how Disney Cruise works. And and that's where Matt's gonna come in and tell us if things are the same or different. There's usually a Facebook group that's created for a Disney Cruise.
00:03:27
Speaker
And those Facebook groups can be used for things like fish extenders and just kind of meeting up with the people that you're going to be cruising with. Does Royal Caribbean do something similar? Do those people do something similar? Oh, yeah, absolutely. There are Facebook groups for pretty much every sailing. I mean, if you're doing a domestic sailing sailing out of the US, I would be shocked if there wasn't a group. I mean, maybe if you do an exotic sailing, it might be a little more difficult. But this day and age, if you just go to Facebook and you type in your ship name, a waste of the seas and the date, Odds are there's almost certainly a group. The only exception, obviously, is if you do this well in advance. I mean, you know, I was talking about the increases super early, but, um you know, within, gosh, six months of the cruise, there should definitely be a group there. Sometimes there's competing groups. I'm sure you see that phenomenon, mostly with Disney. But yeah, I know they do exist. Some groups, and just like Disney, some groups are far more active than others. Sometimes it's just a bunch of people who are going in there to, you know, say hello and share some photos. And other times, I mean, people put together events and
00:04:24
Speaker
um you know, cabin crawls and things of that nature. So it really depends on who's the leader. But ah yeah, absolutely. that It's definitely a thing. So things on
Cabin and Dining Comparisons
00:04:33
Speaker
Disney, right? We have fish extenders, which is, you know, they give a little presence out and things like that. And then I guess the other thing that happens a lot on Disney Cruise is kind of decorating the the doors to the cabin. So those two things, something similar or not really, is that more of a Disney thing? Cabin decorations are absolutely a thing. You'll see plenty of cabin decorations, same rules as Disney. know Make sure you don't bring any adhesives, you just bring magnets to put it up there. Fish extenders aren't a thing because you don't have a fish to extend, thus you don't have an extender. But the cabin decorations can get very ornate, so yeah, definitely plan on that. Wonderful. This is probably our biggest one that we get asked most often is, you know for Disney, outside of Palo, all the dining's really included, right? So you're going every night and you're switching to
00:05:17
Speaker
you know the different location that you have planned you know yeah after the show. you know This is such a large open-ended question, but how is Royal Caribbean similar and not similar in terms of dining? Because that's really the biggest thing that that we get asked a lot. Yeah, I mean, bottom line is, no matter what we're talking about here, Royal Caribbean and Disney are far more alike than they're not. um Disney, despite its marketing, has not done tremendously more in terms of being a mass market cruise line that appeals to families. um There are going to be restaurants that are included and restaurants that are not included. so
00:05:48
Speaker
You know polo is a great example let's called especially restaurant on real good enough to be probably cause a magical experience with your money flies away from your pocket. like us But it's the same thing there are restaurants that cost extra um and the restaurants that are included just like disney you can go on a real crib and chip. And never spend another dime on food and have plenty of food to go from there's me dining room there's a buffet and by the way the buffet is open for dinner. on Royal Caribbean ships. I know on Disney, that's not really a thing. Yeah, there's food by the pool deck. um Which we're talking about, by the way, this might make it a little bit easier to also so I mean, we're just generally talking so unfortunately, I'm going to kind of hold you to a generalization.
00:06:27
Speaker
Okay, that's fine. I would say the the primary difference in terms of food is that Disney does include soda at just above at the pool deck, right? That's only like one location you can get at it. like Yeah, I mean, there is that spot, and yeah, you can get it at dinner, but you're right. It's it's just at those kind of locations. Yeah.
Drinks and Dining Details
00:06:45
Speaker
All right. So that's not included. Um, soft drinks would cost extra. It's for you. I would venture to say that the price difference between an average Disney cruise and a real Caribbean cruise, no matter how much so do you drink, you're going to come out ahead in the, in this math. I'm just telling you this right off the bat, keeping in mind, by the way, that real Caribbean offers drink packages. There are three tiers of drink packages. You get unlimited soda on board the ship. Um, and that said, any venue on board, the main dining room, especially restaurants, perfect date at Coco key, uh, laba D.
00:07:14
Speaker
um anywhere out Anywhere there is a soda dispenser, it's it would be included with your soda package. Then there's the Royal refreshment package, which includes all the non-alcoholic drinks on board, specialty coffees, teas, um sodas, of course, bottled water, that's included. And then on top of that, you have the deluxe beverage package, which includes pretty much everything. alcohol, beer, wine, spirits, cocktails, anything under $15 is included with that. Now, obviously, depending on how much you care to drink, this may or may not be a great deal for you in terms of soda for kids. I mean, if you drink five or six sodas a day, you're going to break even on that soda package. It's a great thing for kids ah in a lot of cases.
00:07:54
Speaker
It sounds sounds a lot like ah me per se. My kids and are good for them, but they drink water. I'm i'm usually the only one that drinks soda, which is, I don't know. I don't know. I raised them right, didn't raise myself. right I mean, I'm not saying anything bad about my parents though. So I mean, I don't know. We'll leave that one alone. um So in terms of kind of how many different dining options there are that are kind of an up-cost. What is that percentage kind of like? like That's where like we we worry it and we've often been like, okay, so we're going to go on this Royal Caribbean boat and it's going to be like 50%, 50%, or is you know kind of those up-charge dining packages not as much as that? You mean like how many venues are there? Yes. that are yeah you I don't want to have to like i guess for me. right It's like, am I walking by 10 venues that like i go, oh, that looks good, that looks good, that looks good, but they're all up-charges.
00:08:39
Speaker
Fair enough. Yeah. No, obviously this depends on the ship. If you're going to enchantment of the season, example, there is, there are two specialty restaurants, chops, chefs table. So that's not really an issue. If you're going to icon of the seas, there's going to be significantly more choices for you. The bottom line is that, yeah, there'll be a handful. I'm going to say on an average ship, you're talking about, uh, somewhere between three and six. And also depends on your definition of. of restaurants that cost extra, right? Like in some cases, um there's there's like chef's table. Chef's table is like an ornate sit down. It's be kind of like Victoria and Albert to some extent. in floridian But um it's not really a common restaurant. I don't think most people go there. It's ah it's a like a one off kind of experience. But i'm sorry there will be a few of them.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yeah yeah if that's where a special event you're doing on board or something like that yeah um i think i think you're gonna find that number one it's pretty easy to figure out quite quickly which restaurants are included which are not in the in the cruise compass that you get. um This is the daily i forget on you called the navigator gas yell it list the hours or restaurants and it makes it quite clear what's included what's not included. in the app which is really helpful. Royal Caribbean's app is, and I haven't used Disney's app, but from everyone I've been talking to, Royal Caribbean's app is far superior to Disney's app. And Disney's app is not great. Yeah, absolutely. um So their app also lists exactly which restaurants are included, what's open, if is it is it included or not.
00:09:58
Speaker
um I don't think you'll have much from basically if you extrapolate the Disney model which is you have polo that costs extra um and I did not sure on the newer Disney ships which restaurants cost extra but the bottom line is it's just there are just more of them but it's the same basic concept but as I said earlier you're gonna find plenty of food included in your cruise fare if you're not looking to spend extra. So as your first kind of crossover cruise, if you were to say you're going from Disney to Royal Caribbean, do you do that, you think, as your first one? Or do you just kind of, as your first cruise, kind of go out there and kind of see what the options, the non-pay options are to start with? Like, what's kind of your take on that? I think, honestly, if I were you, I would do what I would recommend to first-time cruisers. I would run i would rely heavily on the included fare. And then I would sprinkle in one or two specialty restaurants just to see what it's like. So if you're on a seven-night cruise, yeah I would eat at one or two specialty restaurants. so And when it comes to specialty dining,
00:10:46
Speaker
um You should definitely pre-book it before the cruise. You'll save money. Don't wait to book it on board the ship. Gotcha. And and how
Entertainment Options
00:10:53
Speaker
do shows work? So again, you know for the Disney model, you have this show that's either before or after dinner. you know You have that one show at night. And I'm not talking about um the other events. Just necessarily, like is there a play that like kind of like Disney does and and does it compare, let's say? Yeah, great questions. Obviously, ah this also depends on the ship. But in, generally speaking, their evening entertainment, there's going to be, Royal Caribbean has a couple different venues also, whereas Disney, I believe, only has its theater. um You can have shows in a theater. You can have shows in the Aqua Theater, which is an outdoor or an icon. It's actually indoor.
00:11:25
Speaker
ah amphitheater that features ah divers and acrobatics. There's also an ice skating rink theater, um which is an ice show. So but it depends on what ship we're talking about. But let's just make generalizations here. There is evening entertainment. Oftentimes, there's more than one show going on during on any given evening. So the idea is they're dispersing crowds. so But the good news is it's not just shown once a day, or once a cruise, rather. there There's multiple opportunities to see it. In some cases, especially on sea days, there could be also shows in the afternoon, like a matinee. And on Royal Caribbean's bigger, newer ships, there are Broadway shows, like the actual Broadway show, Mamma Mia, Cats, Hairspray, Grease. On Icon of the Seas, there is The Wizard of Oz. um And these are full length, not cut down shows. You know, they're 90 minutes or longer. um Some of them do have an intermission, like Mamma Mia does have an intermission with it.
00:12:15
Speaker
But, uh, and these are all included with your cruise fare as well. and Um, if you are on a ship and an oasis, a quantum or an icon clash, if those are the bigger ones, you can and should pre-book entertainment beforehand. It's free to do so. You just need to go and into the cruise planner, log in. Make a within thirty days you'll have the opportunity to excuse me forty five days you'll have the opportunity to um reserve a show and you don't like a show a day a time how many people boom that's it and basically that just assures you of admission in there you don't get one don't worry because you can simply go in the standby line.
00:12:51
Speaker
And you'll be able to get in, no problem. People make reservations all the time. Then, you know, of course they're up, they're on the cruise, they're hanging by the pool and they're like, we ain't going to no show. We're going to hang out. We're going to stay over here. So there's a lot of no shows. If you're on other ships, if you're on older, smaller ships than those three, I mentioned, there's no reservations needed because none are offered. So you just simply show up to the show beforehand. All right, so that leads us to a great question. What ship would you suggest if you've only been on Disney Cruise? So what Royal Caribbean ship as a first cruise? And let's just let's just call it somewhere leaving out of Florida to make our life easy, right? Yeah, what I mean, by far by far there's two ships you should definitely be eyeing. One is Icon of the Seas, which goes out of Miami. And the other one's the brand new Utopia of the Seas, which is going to be sailing out of Port Canaveral probably by the time this episode airs. So so um those are the two newest Lays and Grays. They have all the features. In fact, that was funny. i was talking to ah
00:13:38
Speaker
ah a friend um when I was on ICON last week, and and she remarked, she's like, actually, ICON is a great ship for like a Disney cruiser um because it's just it it offers the most for families. and A lot of people who come from Disney have this trepidation about taking their family on a non-Disney ship, and to Disney's credit, that's in my life. With marketing it, trust me, you're going to have a great time with families, and ICON was designed with young families in mind. A lot of times you hear about, People go to Royal Caribbean when their kids get older, like above the age of nine. That's kind of us. Yeah. Yeah. And those ships are great. Listen, in Utopia, the Seas. Fantastic. Wonder of the Seas. Lovely. I mean, those are great ships for that. But if you have younger kids, not that older kids won't enjoy ICON by any means. If you have the six and under set, and ICON would have more for you to do and really, I think, open your eyes to how much there is for younger families on board.
00:14:31
Speaker
Gotcha. All right. did This is this is a big question. I know. But so we we just went to yeah we've been to both islands at Disney. I would say, you
Island Excursions and Policies
00:14:39
Speaker
know, when you can go to either the podcast I did about it or I wrote a piece for our website, BSC Kids about Lookout Key. There wasn't a lot to do, right? And when I look at what Royal Caribbean has and and I listened to your episode, again, everyone, if you have any follow up questions, Matt's probably already talked about this. Go find the episode. So this is a ah short take on some of this. You know, how is that island different than Disney? I mean, I know there's just a lot more to do, but I mean, you know, for that whole Disney crowd, like what should they expect in, you know, going to that island and there's a cost associated with some things on that island as well, correct?
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah. Perfect day. Coca key is the name of the private island. The Bahamas actually really close to castaway key. So it's not very far away. Um, but this is basically castaway key is the old style private island experience where you have a couple of beaches, you go there and you kind of chill out, right? Royal Army does offer that here, but there's a lot more to it. in The variety is what's really key here. I always think, Damon, that variety is the spice of life. That, to me, is is the most important thing. so They have chill and they have thrill. and The majority of the island experience is included in your cruise fare. You simply walk off the ship, pick a beach, and go hang out there. No problem at all. um the The chairs, the umbrellas, the Food is included. Your wifi package works there. If you purchase it on board the ship, your drink package works there. If you had one on the ship, um that's all good. um The food is fantastic. That's a big difference. Like traditionally, island food is pretty bad. It's like hot dogs, burgers, and like a salad. Yeah. Look at, look how Key did a little bit better than Castaway. That's for sure. The food was definitely better there, but I totally understand where you're coming from.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yep, and here in the included food, you're gonna have, you still have hot dogs and burgers, don't get me wrong, but you're also gonna have a lot more. There's ah there's ah there's a salsa bar, ah there are tacos you can have, there are Cuban sandwiches, there's vegetarian options, there's a lot more variety of food, there's chicken sandwiches, which are absolutely fantastic, mozzarella sticks, oh, it's so good. And on top of that, there are extra cost options if you would like. There's the Cocoa Beach Club, which is more of like, if you prefer an elevated quieter experience, not not ki not kids only, just, a lot more of an elevated experience. There's that option. There's Thrill Water Park, which costs extra and is a full water park with a dozen or so slides, a wave pool. um It's really, really fun. You have the new Hideaway Beach, which is an adults-only ah beach area. um So this is basically, again, an enclave for adults that are located there. And then you have your traditional um private island excursions, just like Castaway has, you know, jet skis and parasailing and things of that nature.
00:17:14
Speaker
Okay. And so when you're going to do an excursion outside of this island, per se, how, how do you know, how's the Royal, you know, excursion experience? I mean, I know you do some things on your own. You've probably done things through Royal. Like how is that experience getting off the boat and doing something with Royal? Pretty easy. I mean, I suspect if memory serves me correctly, it's pretty much the same experience. You're going to get a cart or a ticket rather in your cabin, and it'll tell you report at this place at this time. You're either going to report, almost certainly you're going to report to the main theater at a certain time to meet up with your group. Occasionally, they'll direct you to meet up with an appear. It's pretty um not common, but they couldn't. But anyway, your report took place in time. They have a you know bunch of crew members there with signs, and it has your tour name on. And if you can't find it, no worries. Someone directs you to wherever you need to go.
00:17:59
Speaker
And then that you're off to the races and they take you to where you need to go. Um, the experience in my opinion is pretty much exactly the same because remember Disney, Royal Caribbean carnival, they all use third parties for their shorts and they bet them, but it's ah it's the same people organizing the excursion, no matter which line you're on. Wonderful. All right. We're about halfway through, everybody, just so you know, Matt's been wonderful. So here's the questions that actually came from our group members. So there's a small thing that, you know, this is what they said. They're they're asking about smoking on the boat. I know that there is a casino, which, by the way, I just love casinos. When we were up north, I was a Foxwoods person. Absolutely loved going. Yeah, super excited to do a casino. But I've, you know, listening to some of your things, I heard that there's
00:18:41
Speaker
some now smokeless casinos and non-smokeless, but in general for somebody, is the smoking section more prominent on RCL versus Disney? First of all, Mohegan's son is superior to Foxwood, so I'm just going to put that out there. I've been to both, but ah um yeah. I feel like I have one more at Foxwood that kind of puts me in that mindset. that's Absolutely. Sure, absolutely. um So again, depends on the ship, right? When I was on Icon of the Seas, it's the best smoking experience. And I'm not a smoker. um i think it's I hope that they get rid of smoking on cruise ships, because the problem with the casino, especially on older ships,
00:19:17
Speaker
is that this the the casino becomes the smoking indoor smoking lounge, which is not meant to be. That's not Royal Caribbean's rules. It's just de facto becomes that. um And it definitely impedes it. Technically, there's a non-smoking and a smoking side of all the casinos, but just a non-smoking section on an airplane, like you know it's not going to really going to work. You're going to smell smoke. If you're very sensitive to it, it's not great. If you're okay with a little bit of it, I've certainly enjoyed my time in the casino on any of these ships. And I find that if I stick to, ah you know, the non-smoking side and don't go too far into the smoking side, it's not too, too bad. um There is on the Oasis class ships, they converted to different venues via jazz club. And now it's an indoor smoking, non-smoking venue, excuse me. And there um it's a much smaller space, but they have the basics or slot machines, obviously. there ah There's one blackjack table, a roulette table,
00:20:12
Speaker
and I think a poker table. um It's a smaller footprint. They don't have all the machines they have in the main casino. But if you really do want to go on a cruise without smoking in the casino, that's definitely the best option for you. And how is smoking outside of the casino? There's only ah two places people can smoke outside of the casino. One is on one side of the pool deck. Um, ah usually I believe it's the port side and found a little area. And then on the promenade deck, the deck that goes around the ship on the outside, um, on one side, again, they're smoking loud over there. I'm not sure how similar that is to Disney or not, but, uh, And how do you feel the people adhere to that? Like, pretty good? Like, too many issues? Okay. Yeah. The biggest issue is just people who vape and think that the rules don't apply to them or they can sneak one in. That's true. Yeah. I think that happens everywhere. Yeah. but ah But that's really, really few and far between, but I do notice it because I just notice these things. Yeah, of course. So
Concierge and Class Benefits
00:21:02
Speaker
here's another question. So ah have we have a concierge cruiser, right? And they've heard that RCL offers much more in that class than Disney. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Tell us a little belly about that. Yeah. Well, there's actual services provided. It's not just a name. It's just like a little bit of extra free food. and Yeah, no, the concierge is huge. So again, this depends on, and again, depending on how far into this you want to go. like let's Let's use the newer ships as an example, but Royal Caribbean enhanced its suite program a number of years ago with the Oasis Quantum and Icon class ships. So they have three different tiers. They have sea class, sky class, and star class. If you do star class,
00:21:42
Speaker
Everything's included. Drinks, especially dining, your gratuities. You get a royal genie who is not quite a butler, um but is somebody who you have, who basically, you don't have to wait for anything. You don't have to do any, like there's no reservations required. They just bring you there. You want to see a show? Bam. We got seats for you. You might go to the restaurant bam we're gonna get you in there you wanna book the short version bam well some people do that for you. um They will deliver drinks to your cabin they will do pretty much everything it's really impressive but that's on the higher end i think what we're talking about sky class primarily.
00:22:15
Speaker
which is when you have access to, first of all, the suite concierge, who is your own little, well, not your own, but everybody who's in the SkyClass suite. They're ah their little ah guest services person who's there to make their life easier, make reservations. um They can help you with with any problems you may have. You have access to the suite lounge. Okay, on those bigger ships, you have actually access to an entire restaurant just for sweet guests. Nice coastal kitchen, which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. um There is of course included. ah There's a little snack station in there. There's a coffee machine in there that's included as well. And there's a reserved seating for you on the pool deck for sweet guests, priority embarkation in the terminal. So when you get in, you get to bypass the line and go on to a special line just for you. It's pretty darn impressive. um And they do a really good job with it.
00:22:59
Speaker
Oh, nice. Okay, so this this is kind of an interesting question. I'm sure this is wide open, but we know they're asking, what is the one thing you wish you knew before you cruised RCL? ah Coming from Disney, let's say. Let's kind of add to that question. Yeah, I mean, that's ah that's a tough one to answer. um I would say this, and I said this earlier, but I think it's really important. They're more similar than they're not. A lot of people think when you go from Disney to Royal Caribbean, or pretty much any other cruise line, that it's going to be a seismic difference in experience, that only Disney can do it really, really well. And I hope you don't take that as a condescending comment. No, no, I understand.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah, like there i've I have lots of friends who came from Disney to Royal Caribbean. I call them Disney refugees. they they if They've escaped the ah the pricing of Disney and they want to come over. And they really think that there's no way the experience can can come close to it. But they realize there's a lot more that it's similar than not. And it really stands out with that. So you're going to find that if you cruise with Disney before, you're going to find so many more similarities with Royal Caribbean. I mean, Royal Caribbean shows Disney films on board. you know I remember yeah I was on a ship and they showed in Kanto. It's not like they don't do Disney stuff on there. There's Disney trivia on board. They call it mouse House of Mouse trivia. But okay it is Disney trivia on board. It's not to say you have to give up everything Disney that you love with there. um It's just not obviously over the top Disney while on a Royal Caribbean ship. Yeah. So that that lends it to the kind of the next
Family and Teen Amenities
00:24:27
Speaker
question. so with And again, Matt, I forget how old are your kids, if you don't mind.
00:24:31
Speaker
Uh, they're nine and 13. Okay. And so as everyone knows, I have 14, 18, 20, I don't even know if I can call the 18, 20 year old kids anymore, but they're my kids. So they'll always be my kids. So, all right. So here's the question. So pre-teen and early teen children, you know, at Disney, super comfortable letting them run around unsupervised, right? Because there's, you know, the gambling and, and all that, do you feel, do you still feel comfortable, right? its What do they have in place to kind of make you feel comfortable letting your kids just kind of run free? Oh yeah. I mean, if you're worried about the gambling, I mean, first of all, uh, most kids steer, steer clear of the casino. But second of all, I mean, there's security and people are going to like, they're not going to gamble. There's no way you're going to be able to gamble. They can't gamble because their seat pass card doesn't work as a minor. Um, I mean, they would be spotted in about half a second before they could even do anything in there. So you really don't have to worry about that one bit. Um, I've, you know, my kids, as they've gotten older, we've started giving them more leeway and she was able to walk around the ship and, um,
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah um it's fantastic and on top of that of course you have the the programming for the teens. um It's really impressive that not only they have a teen club but they have dedicated areas of the ship just for teenagers, especially on the newer ships. They have lounges, outdoor and indoor lounges. I mean Wonder of the Seas has its own hot tub for teenagers, which is really impressive. that's kind of cool because I think sometimes there's outdoor activities. People are, you know, the teenagers are more apt to go by themselves too, rather than indoor stuff. We have to walk through a door and everyone look at them come in, so. Absolutely. I think that that makes great sense. OK, so let's see. This is this is another one that this is more of a me question, but I was happy that multiple people asked me this as well. We're a five person family out of Disney. I feel like it's super easy. I can go on and book. I can book five people. I don't have to call up and all that fun stuff.
00:26:17
Speaker
How does Royal do it, right? Because I know you can't necessarily book five people in one room online. You have to call, which is fine. But once they are available, like I said, for us, five people in a room, no problem. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different options for, there are certain, some cabins that are available or traditionally called like spacious ocean view or spacious interior rooms. And they, they have like little bunk beds that really, you know, they, they have separation there. There's not that many of those cabins truly. What I would say for you is don't book one cabin. That's actually a mistake book to connecting cabins. And because you're on real Caribbean, the price is not insane. yeah You can actually, you're going to find it. very affordable. We've been doing this for years when we started having kids, because putting everybody in one cabin stinks. You don't want to share a room with that many people. It's the bathroom, I think. The bathroom. Yeah, exactly. It's the bathroom. So book two connecting rooms. This works out so well on Royal Company's website. There is a connecting cabin option. It's really easy. If you do so, your travel age, you can help you with that, but that's really the way to go about it. um Just book two connecting rooms. i will i'm not I can't guarantee you, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how much more affordable this option is. The other option, of course, suites tend to obviously ah offer that, but that's going to cost you a lot more money. You can easily do in a very affordable cruise into cabins and have the extra bathroom separation, which is really important. you know Not everyone has to go to bed at the same time. like
00:27:34
Speaker
uh i can't say enough about that option with the um with icon of the seas though one more thing i just want to mention rural community emphasized though the five passenger model so you're gonna find a lot more cabins on icon that can support families and those suites that they have i mean the two rooms versus the suites you're still you're still a two-room guy
Booking and Destinations
00:27:54
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it really depends on the cruise. We just did icon of the season. We were in a suite, but when we go on utopia, the seas, we're doing, you know, a, we're doing balconies and we go back and forth. It really depends on the, how the price, quite frankly, you know, if there's good price on a suite, we'll go for it. If not, we did two rooms, but we've done many, many, many, many, many, many times. Okay. Gotcha.
00:28:14
Speaker
Matt, I think that's it. I mean, we made it through, again, one of the kind of sticking points that we try to do for these shorter episodes is keep them to under 39 minutes. That's always my goal. So I think we'd adhere to that. But I do want to give you the opportunity to just anything else that I may have missed that you kind of want to talk about from Royal Caribbean that you feel might be beneficial to you know kind of the Disney people and the other people cruising. Yeah, there's two things I think that we should probably mention. One, ah no matter what real credit cruise you do, pre-book everything before the cruise because it will be cheaper. Drink packages, especially restaurant, uh, shore excursions, real credit run sales all the time. So pre-book it. You can cancel and rebook. There's no penalty. That's number one.
00:28:56
Speaker
Number two, a big difference also between Royal Caribbean and Disney are the variation variations on itineraries because Royal Caribbean has 28 ships now. I'm losing track of how many ships there are now in the fleet. So you don't have to be limited to a handful of ships. You can go to not only the Caribbean, but also Alaska, various places within Europe, Australia, China. um There are a ton of places they go. So if you're looking to get beyond Cozumel and Nassau and San Juan, that is, that's a huge difference maker right there. to take advantage of that, especially as an opportunity to double dip, you know, get Royal Caribbean, save money, and go somewhere really cool. Okay, so so this brings up a question that just kind of popped into my mind.
Royal Caribbean vs. Norwegian
00:29:34
Speaker
So for the people that are like, hey, okay, so I'm not going to do Disney, why am I doing Royal Caribbean over Norwegian?
00:29:42
Speaker
Not to disparage Norwegian. i found and That's not what we're looking for here. Yes. I think Royal Caribbean is more family friendly, number one. And also I think Norwegian has more of a Spirit Airlines approach to cruising, in my opinion, than Royal Caribbean does. They both obviously have up charges, but um they Norwegian tends to do a little more they tend to lean a little more heavy into that. But I think really it's really the family aspect. Norwegian is family friendly. Don't get me wrong. i'm It's not Virgin Voyage. But they, there's more to do for families on Royal Caribbean and the entertainment is superior on Royal Caribbean. Favorite free event on any of the cruise ships that you've done. I'm going to make it easy for you in the past year on Royal
Favorite Free Activities and Closing
00:30:19
Speaker
Caribbean. Oh my God. It's always the about the entertainment. I mean, geez, we could, you know, I saw Wizard of Oz on ICON. That was fantastic. My favorite place to go every night is the pub. They have a musician in there that performs totally free. I'm an episode of the drinks cause lecture, but the other free to sit down, enjoy the music. I love the live music on Royal Caribbean. It is eyeopening.
00:30:36
Speaker
how much attention they have to that in terms of the live music jazz bands in central park the pub singer piano player doing piano i mean there's so many cool opportunity see live music guitarist pull band. You're gonna really i think that will really stand out especially. Yeah, I think my my kids are going to be very interested in this. Like I said, next year we're doing a Royal Caribbean and we're doing a Disney. So I think for us, the Royal Caribbean is going to be more timeline based. Like I said, with the kids, two kids in college, it becomes a little bit more difficult to find the time. So we're probably be doing something in July, but um I think that will be fun.
00:31:09
Speaker
Everybody listen, I always want to say Matt had a lot to go through to get here. I want to totally thank him for making this happen. I think this is going to be great for the audience and hopefully in the future we'll be able to have him on again. I'd love to have you on and hey, maybe before then, but if not after we go on our Royal Caribbean cruise and kind of chat about it again. Fantastic. Thank you for having me on here. Appreciate it. Of course. And honestly, if anyone has any questions, I mean, you can go check out Matt's website. You can go check out the podcast. I think he's probably answered everything, you know, that he's done the full episodes on. And I'll tell you, it's been ah ah wonderful to to listen to your episodes. And I never thought that I'd be so intrigued by a one person podcast. But Matt, you make it happen. You really do.
00:31:54
Speaker
I love it. I love it. Thank you. Very good at talking to myself. yeah All right. Thank you, everyone. See you next episode. Just a reminder that Golden Button Detours is for entertainment purposes only. If you have a question about the Disney Cruise Line, please reach out to a Disney cast member. And if you have any questions about the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, please reach out to Royal Caribbean directly. Thank you.