Disney spending more on theme parks than Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm

I'm excited for all the new stuff in the parks, but I'm a big Disney Cruise nerd and I look forward to seeing the new ships. They're already completely absurd.

What do local Disney fans do when park visits become commonplace?
They cruise! :)

In all of our travels, we have neither one of us ever set foot on a cruise ship, and for some reason we’ve never had the desire. But I will say the idea of a Disney cruise seems inviting, and even more so after reading Jeff’s descriptions and recommendations. Maybe someday.

I have a close friend who’s found Viking river cruises to be just the thing. They’ve traveled through Europe and have a trip through China booked. Small, luxurious boats, exciting destinations, and drop dead gorgeous scenery. And occasionally they find themselves near a theme park. Disney Shanghai is on tap while they’re in Asia.

On topic, that seems like an obscene amount of money. I guess they’ve figured out exactly what works in competing for tourist’s dollars. I’m excited for it all, and I truly have to wonder what’s down the pipe after all that is up and running.

I tell people all of the time, if you don't have kids, I suspect the Disney cruises would be the best. The exclusivity of the adult areas, especially after hours when so many people retire with their families, is amazing. A friend who cruises a lot on various lines put it this way: That piano bar on a non-Disney ship has nowhere to sit and not enough bartenders, whereas on the Disney ship, you've got your run of the place and more than enough servers.

Sort of lost in all of the news from the weekend is the replacement of Photo Pass photographers with automated cameras at some select character greeting locations. There's a few super fans out there losing their minds over it.

bigboy said:

There's a few super fans out there losing their minds over it.

This is the complete summary of Disneyphilia.

Jeff said:

A friend who cruises a lot on various lines put it this way: That piano bar on a non-Disney ship has nowhere to sit and not enough bartenders

I know that this is just an example, but as an overall rule I find this to be untrue, even on the huge 4000+ passenger ships. Sounds like your friend cruises Carnival!

I think he was using Royal Caribbean for that example, but YMMV.

A friend of mine cruised RCCL about a year ago. Had a similar experience to yours, but from the opposite angle. Said it was a total geriatric cruise. Few families, everyone was retired, and after dinner everyone went to bed and they had the ship to themselves.

I'm sure it all depends on what time of year you're sailing as well.

Maybe. With the insane year-over-year growth, it might be changing. Even on the Disney ships, the number of adults in the adult pool during the day has visibly increased over the last five years.