DCL Raises Prices

[waltdisney427]

Okay, so a few days ago I priced a Disney Cruise for August 2012 on the Dream. (5 Nights) And when I priced it then it was about $6,600 for a family of 5 in a family oceaview room with verandah, and just now when I checked, it jumped up to $7,500? Does anyone know if this is just temporary for a few weeks so DCL can make a few extra bucks? Or is that there new final price?

Thanks

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Okay, so a few days ago I priced a Disney Cruise for August 2012 on the Dream. (5 Nights) And when I priced it then it was about $6,600 for a family of 5 in a family oceaview room with verandah, and just now when I checked, it jumped up to $7,500? Does anyone know if this is just temporary for a few weeks so DCL can make a few extra bucks? Or is that there new final price?

Thanks

It usually means that the cruise is selling well, and the prices go up if it is.

Generally, prices are lower the further out you book.

Sometimes, prices will be lower real close to sailing date, but only if you willing to take whatever room DCL wants to assign you to.

 

[waltdisney427]

Alright- that makes sense, but is there still a chance for them to drop their prices?

 

[TiaMaria]

It's doubtful that it will drop.

Look at it like airline prices, the further out you book, the lower the price. The closer in, the higher the price.

The lowest price is almost always the first day the dates are released.

If prices are going up now, that usually means that date is selling well.

Once every great while, they may throw in an incentive such as "Kids Sail Free", but you can't count on that.

This is why you will see people booking years in advance, even if it is just a "dummy date".

 

[woody73]

. . . a few days ago I priced a Disney Cruise for August 2012 on the Dream.

August is a very popular month for cruises. I'm not surprised bookings that month for the Dream are so strong.

Woody

 

[tvguy]

Alright- that makes sense, but is there still a chance for them to drop their prices?

Almost zero chance. As others have noted, as the date of the cruise approaches, and the number of cabins available drops, prices go up on Disney.

 

[mmouse37]

Don't expect any discounts on the Dream or Fantasy next year....they are selling well above DCL's projected estimates and there is no need to discount to get people buying....they are buying at these high prices.

The way DCL pricing works is on a tier system.....when a particular percentage or amount of cabins are sold in a pricing tier the price jumps up to the next higher tier. Obviously there was a teir price jump between last week and this week. We were onboard in January and wanted to add friend to our Fantasy cruise for next June and in just a few hours while they made their decision the price jumped over $300.00.

The last minute discount that was discussed is fairly new (since January) and is only offered on cruises they are not selling as well as DCL likes. There are many restrictions and rules.

You can read about the last minute discounts in this thread.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2629213

MJ

 

[extechie rbd/wdt]

Supply and Demand.

You have X to sell and only a few Y's want it. You sell them, a few at a time at a really good rate until they are all sold out..

The Y's have bought up all the X's you sold them and sold on to the W's.
So you sell them some more.
The Y's sell all the X's quickly, so you increase the price of X's because the Y's want them to sell on.
Then the Z's find out how many people want the X's and they want some X's to sell!
The price of an X is now 3 times what it was when the Y's first tried to sell them.

Capitalism...... Gotta love it!

Ex Techie

 

[darkwing818]

Supply and Demand.

You have X to sell and only a few Y's want it. You sell them, a few at a time at a really good rate until they are all sold out..

The Y's have bought up all the X's you sold them and sold on to the W's.
So you sell them some more.
The Y's sell all the X's quickly, so you increase the price of X's because the Y's want them to sell on.
Then the Z's find out how many people want the X's and they want some X's to sell!
The price of an X is now 3 times what it was when the Y's first tried to sell them.



As we learned the Hard Way after our first 3 cruises..."Book Early & Book Often"

 

[tinkerone]

i can tell you we have been looking at a cruise for oct of this year and last week it was 200 less than it was this morning and right now it is 200 plus LESS than it was this morning. seems to be moving around a lot.

 

[Fjobe]

We were looking at cruising in March 2012. I was gonna book one morning before work (I had noticed the prices creeping up daily), but ran short on time. By the time got home, the price had jumped like $1500! I have checked the prices since then, and they have only gone up even higher. So, we decided to wait until the March 2013 cruises come out and we will book immediately!

 

[HsvTeacher]

When we were debating about whether or not to go ahead and book our March 2012 cruise, I kept checking prices to see which one we wanted to take. We finally decided on the date, and the price went up by over $300 from one day until the next.

The price still hasn't dropped any, but it also hasn't gone up, either.

 

[maria-fan-22]

Don't expect any DCL price to drop. Lately they have introduced a new category that opens up very late in the booking time that offers cheaper prices, but this is only for a few staterooms that they really want to book. My suggestion, book asap and if you decide you can't go at that time, move your cruise around. But the point is that the prices rarely drop.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Don't expect any DCL price to drop. Lately they have introduced a new category that opens up very late in the booking time that offers cheaper prices, but this is only for a few staterooms that they really want to book. My suggestion, book asap and if you decide you can't go at that time, move your cruise around. But the point is that the prices rarely drop.

So far, I've only seen them on the Magic & KSF on the Wonder.
I don't recall any specials for the Dream or Fantasy.

Our late Sept 3-nt cruise which typically is very low peak cruising time (during school year and hurricane season) has had the price go up about $700 for 2 guests and over $1000 for 4.

We almost always book as soon as dates are released, usually 2 yrs out.

 

[HELPDESKGUY]

It's doubtful that it will drop.

Look at it like airline prices, the further out you book, the lower the price. The closer in, the higher the price.

The lowest price is almost always the first day the dates are released.

If prices are going up now, that usually means that date is selling well.

Once every great while, they may throw in an incentive such as "Kids Sail Free", but you can't count on that.

This is why you will see people booking years in advance, even if it is just a "dummy date".

Airlines are opposite this fact...the further out you book usually more expensive. There is no rhyme or reason to their pricing computations. DCL I have noticed does not go up or down in price at least not for us and I've been checking the same cruise everyday since January.

 

[Tinknalli]

Different airlines have different pricing structures. In some cities Jet Blue's best pricing is the first day they release the fare and it continues to climb from there. This is their pricing structure. That is not to say that there are exceptions to this rule and certian cities do have have fare sales through Jet Blue. My city has never had a fare sale with them since we began fling with them. We book day 1. Legacy airlines seem to have more up and down fluctuation but I still usually see the best price within a week of the fare being released.

Disney Cruise line seems to work the same during popular times. Cheapest at day 1 and up from there. We booked a category 9 Deluxe family oceanview stateroom for April 14 2012 on the Fantasy 7 day Western in October 2010. We are a family of 4. Our fare including taxes fees etc is $4099. You can't get inside or oceanview on the cruise any more the only cabins left are verandah and they are close to $7000 for a family of 4. I don't expect there will be any drops on this sailing no matter how close you get to the sail date. Granted this is spring break and the 3rd sailing of a new ship. But if we had waited to book we would have quickly been forced to make decisions about if we wanted to spend that much money.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Airlines are opposite this fact...the further out you book usually more expensive. There is no rhyme or reason to their pricing computations. DCL I have noticed does not go up or down in price at least not for us and I've been checking the same cruise everyday since January.

Not in my experience. I usually book as soon as prices/dates are released (or as soon as we know we're going.) and often by the end of the 1st day, prices have already gone up.
I've bought airfare for 4 trips in my sig & 7 out of 8 legs of flying have gone up since I bought, only 1 has gone down and that's an Easter Sunday arrival. It dropped $12. The price increases have been between $50 to almost $280.
I'll stick with my booking early method.

 

[DaniB]

I priced out a cruise this morning, between 7:30-8am.

It's now 12:50pm and the price has gone up $50.

How often do the prices increase? Daily, weekly?

 

[Angelic Jennifer]

As rooms sell, prices increase. I checked on day in February, and got a quote of $3200 for my family of 5 in a cat 4A. The next day it was $3500, and the next day it was $3783, which we ended up booking at. It took two more months for the price to increase again.

 

[woody73]

I priced out a cruise this morning, between 7:30-8am.

It's now 12:50pm and the price has gone up $50.

How often do the prices increase? Daily, weekly?

Prices increase in real time as inventory decreases.

For very popular Disney cruises, I've seen the price go up while I was "placed on hold" ready to book.

Woody