Why I’ll Never Take a Disney Cruise

Recently, a friend of mine emailed to see how she could pay for a Disney cruise with rewards. After running some numbers, we figured that she could pay for three or more separate off-brand cruises for the same price as a single Disney affair.

“Bring a few Disney movies and mouse ears,” I told her. Pretend it’s a Disney cruise and your kids will never know the difference. The kids in question are ages 2 and 3, after all.

I’m not really a cruise person and I am definitely not a Disney fan, so take everything I am about to say with a grain of salt.

I will never, ever go on a Disney cruise unless it’s free. And I doubt they will invite me any time soon.

My strong opinion on this has a lot to do with cost, but also opportunity cost. Here’s why I think Disney Cruises are overrated:

Why I’ll Never Cruise Disney

First off, Disney cruises are too expensive. My friend wanted to take a Disney Cruise out of Port Canaveral any time in June. Ideally, she wanted to do a week-long cruise, but she said she might settle on a five-night cruise. There are four in their family – two adults and the two little kids.

The cheapest options we found were:

• A 5-night Bahamas cruise starting at $5,780 for an inside cabin
• A 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise starting at $7,698 for an inside cabin

Here’s what Disney says is included in their cruises:

• Onboard accommodations
• Broadway-caliber live shows
• Themed deck parties
• Fun-filled youth clubs
• Adult-exclusive nightclubs and lounges
• Wide variety of gourmet and casual dining
• Disney Character experiences
• And so much more!

Here’s what’s not included:

• Airfare to Orlando
• Transfer to cruise port
• Lodging before/after cruise
• Food before/after cruise
• Shore excursions
• Alcohol

It’s easy to see how you could bump up the cost of this cruise to $10,000 if you flew to Florida, stayed in a hotel on either side of your cruise, had dinner a few times, or did some shore excursions.

Spending $10,000 on a cruise is insane.

Want to know why? If you book a cruise with MSC cruises out of Miami, you could book an ocean view cabin on a seven-night Caribbean cruise for a little over $2,100. That’s partially due to special promotions, but also because kids cruise free on certain MSC itineraries.

The bottom line: You could literally cruise with MSC 3 or more times for the price of a single Disney cruise.

The second reason I’ll never cruise with Disney is the fact that the opportunity cost is too great. While it would be fairly easy to rack up enough miles with the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard to get a free or almost-free cruise with MSC Cruises, it would take forever to do the same with Disney.

And if you’re paying with cash, you’re obviously spending money on a cruise that could be used elsewhere for other trips. I mean, Good lord, you could take a whirlwind trip to Europe for the price of a Disney cruise. Or heck, you could fly to Bora Bora and spend a few nights in an overwater bungalow!

The Bottom Line

Some things are overrated and I’m of the belief that Disney Cruises are one of those things. Of course, it’s easy for me to say that because I’ve never been on one.

And before someone says something like, “don’t knock it until you try it” or “you don’t know how great it is because you’ve never been on one,” keep in mind that I’m not willing to spend nearly $8,000 plus other travel costs to find out if you’re right.

Here’s my opinion: A cruise is a cruise is a cruise. By not buying into the hype, you can stretch your travel budget further and see the world at prices you can afford.

Do you think Disney cruises are worth it? Why or why not?

Why I’ll Never Take a Disney Cruise posted first on http://elsanobanano.com/