Done with DCL

DCLDVC1 said:
Rinse and repeat every time the new schedules are released.
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I'm sorry. Don't mean to be "that guy". I truley love DCL and have for the past 4 years. I am just bummed that while a 10% increase to you may not be that much, to me it was just a breaking point. My wife is a teacher and can only travel spring break...so i have dealt with the higher price for that time. I get it. Trust me. But i'm just venting to people who understand. My work and family friends are like why do you always do Disney..do something else. So they don't really understand or care why it is so hard to move on.
 
Rogillio said:
There are so many factors to consider when choosing how to spend our vacation dollars. The only thing I will caution against is missing the Disney cruise experience when your children are young. There is no going back. They won't be in 5 to 12 year old range for very long and suddenly one day, before you even realize what happened, you will wake up and realize they are grown up. They are going off to college or getting engaged to me married or starting a new job. Every age of a child is special....but there is something especially special in that 5 to 12 age period. Doesn't last long and you slowly realize they no longer want to hold your hand anymore. Or they don't grab your arm for security because, while Mickey is very cool, he is also a little bit scary. So many good memories on our Disney cruises.......
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But the key is to hold on to the memories and not inexorably link them to the company. It happens that we have amazing memories of our DCL last summer. We also have incredible memories of other thing. I am just not understanding the emotional connection some have to the company itself or the need for Disney to somehow reciprocate the feeling.
 
emilymad said:
We sail in January and while prices have gone up they are not that different from other cruise lines. We are doing the Fantasy again this year. RCL is only a few hundred dollar cheaper when you factor having to travel to Ft Lauderdale or Miami. That is way more expensive for us. We are looking forward to RCL bringing more ships to Port Canaveral.

We did Celebrity once and never again. We are in our mid 30s and we were the youngest people on the ship for President's Week. The main dining room wasn't great. Food was so so and service was really slow. The servers seemed to cater to the older crowd. Celebrity was also the only ship that we had to get security involved to deal with unruly kids who were placing people's safety in jeopardy.

We would like to try NCL but traveling to Miami just makes is so much more expensive for us.
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I don't know. I priced out some January 2017 cruises today.

Disney Fantasy balcony cabin 5E (lowest we can get for an accessible balcony) = $4027 for 3 adults
Carnival Sunshine (8 day cruise so 1 extra day) Aft Balcony (also accessible) = $2657 for 3 adults - even if I add a soda package to that for each of us - that's another $156 for a total of $2813.

That's a difference of $1214 and we get an extra day on Carnival and a better itinerary (Aruba, Curacao, Grand Turk).
 
Pens Fan said:
This is very true. I would have liked to explore other lines for a while now, but stayed the DCL course mainly for my son who still loves them at 17. But he will be 18 in a few months, so no more youth programs - Vibe is the main reason he's hung onto DCL for this long - and soon off to college. It's time for us to branch out and explore new adventures. Not to mention, save some $$$ for those tuition bills!
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I remember seeing Toy Story III on as a new relesae in the Walt Disney theater on one of our cruises.....when my son was a senior in HS. I sat there in the dark with tears steaming down my face as Andy gave his toys away and drove off to college.....just as my son was about to be doing. It was then end of a era....a wonderful era!
 


sweetpee_1993 said:
That sounds about right for us now. Maybe. I dunno. I'm still struggling to wrap my brain around assigned dinner times/restaurants again. I am not kidding when I say I'm madly in love with Freestyle dining. Eat what you want when you feel like. And oodles of choices. <3
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I agree - love freestyle dining and the 24 hour venue. And NCL's entertainment blows DCL away.

As far as the price comparison someone posted... we are sailing for $799 each in a balcony on a brand new ship with the drink package in January. The cheapest we ever got on the Magic (4 or more years ago) in January was $650pp... and that was for the lowest category inside.

On celebrity we are paying $999pp for a southern for a week in a concierge class balcony with free drinks, gratuities paid, and a $300+ credit. We did a southern on DCL last year (in October as well) and paid more than that for an oceanview cabin. On the magic, so not even the newer ship.
 
Rogillio said:
I remember seeing Toy Story III on as a new relesae in the Walt Disney theater on one of our cruises.....when my son was a senior in HS. I sat there in the dark with tears steaming down my face as Andy gave his toys away and drove off to college.....just as my son was about to be doing. It was then end of a era....a wonderful era!
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I hated that ending so much but I definitely am having all the momma feels reading this. My oldest will likely be off to a big school next year and I'm trying to figure out how I'll hide nearby so I can keep watch over him. ;)
 
TifffanyD said:
I agree - love freestyle dining and the 24 hour venue. And NCL's entertainment blows DCL away.
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The thing I hated most about our NCL cruise was Freestyle Dining! We waited one time 45 minutes to be seated for dinner. We came to dinner and gave us a pager and told us to wait (or wander around the ship) untill a table was available. OMG, are you kidding me? We are starving! This is like Outback on a Saturday night! Mrs Rogillio is not a happy camper if she is not fed at dinner time.....even unhappier than two hungry kids. Never again on NCL.

Caveat: This was NCL in Hawaii and I'm told the that ship is not representative to the rest of of the cruise line. Maybe....but I'm not taking any chances.
 


Rogillio said:
The thing I hated most about our NCL cruise was Freestyle Dining! We waited one time 45 minutes to be seated for dinner. We came to dinner and gave us a pager and told us to wait (or wander around the ship) untill a table was available. OMG, are you kidding me? We are starving! This is like Outback on a Saturday night! Mrs Rogillio is not a happy camper if she is not fed at dinner time.....even unhappier than two hungry kids. Never again on NCL.

Caveat: This was NCL in Hawaii and I'm told the that ship is not representative to the rest of of the cruise line. Maybe....but I'm not taking any chances.
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If that happens to me I would get a snack and then go to the bar - no biggie. I find that with scheduled dining I can end up waiting around hungry as well... and have like a half hour to kill before dinner with nothing to do.

We did the NCL Hawaii cruise. It is a bit different than the others but not completely.
 
Rogillio said:
I remember seeing Toy Story III on as a new relesae in the Walt Disney theater on one of our cruises.....when my son was a senior in HS. I sat there in the dark with tears steaming down my face as Andy gave his toys away and drove off to college.....just as my son was about to be doing. It was then end of a era....a wonderful era!
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You're killing me!! There will be a lot of tears this year, I'm sure! Hopefully, though, there will be as many happy tears as sad ones. It's a very bittersweet time in our lives, for sure!

Boy, did this thread get off track !:P:P
 
I hope DCL reads these boards. There is only so many times I can coerce my husband to do the same tired itineraries. When my kids are older, I may "Jump Ship". We tried a Nick cruise and they hated it.

I honestly don't mind paying for a superior product, but we did Alaska in '13 - 2A 3C Cat 4B for $6800!!! It is now almost double that! We are sailing this Thanksgiving on the Magic, next 4th of July on the Fantasy, and I just tentatively booked Feb '17 on the Magic, but I am capitulating..... This may be the beginning of the end for us. Not only price... but repeating the same itineraries is getting old!
 
G.Tyler said:
What I find kind of funny is that some people truly think that they are doing someone a favor by changing cruise lines, and what is truly amazing is the awards that DCL is receiving for value, service, food, staff, etc. from the top cruise critics in the country.
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But look who won for "Best For Families". http://www.cruisecritic.com/editors-picks/

Yes, it is only one list. But it is a well-respected source. And this is not to say that DCL sails rusting hulks. Quite simply, DCL may not be the best in its field to many people, and even if it is perceived to be the best in its field, the gap is narrowing, all the while the price gap is growing. When the lines stop intersecting, then people are going to leave. And they are.
 
JW9DVC said:
And... I really don't understand why people go on here telling us they are jumping ship. If it's during holidays and spring break. Of course the price will go up. Others will pay the difference. Just because you won't. Are you looking for us to tell you, no please stay?

JW
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Hi JW,
Well.... the forum IS the place to vent!!! All kidding aside, if DCL reads this, perhaps it will impact in a positive way. People are also comparing cruises and cruise lines, and I for one, appreciate them sharing experiences.
 
Whenever I look at other cruise lines (and I do all the time because I choke at DCL prices), I find myself drawn to the suite or whatever and since we are booking interior rooms with DCL the price difference generally goes away. But the interior rooms on other lines are so so tight, that I think it would make us miss DCL so much that it would not be worth it. Not sure if anyone else has run into this. Or if anyone has booked on the interior rooms of other lines. I also like hearing what people have to say about DCL prices and switching lines.
 
emilymad said:
We did Celebrity once and never again. We are in our mid 30s and we were the youngest people on the ship for President's Week. The main dining room wasn't great. Food was so so and service was really slow. The servers seemed to cater to the older crowd. Celebrity was also the only ship that we had to get security involved to deal with unruly kids who were placing people's safety in jeopardy.
.
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We loved our celebrity cruise! We did a spring break cruise and got a great experience and a great rate. We had 4 kids - 2 16 year olds, 17 year old and 10 year old. They all had a blast. However, your comment did remind me of something. I laughed when we were waiting to go into the dining room as on Disney, it's all strollers parked outside the dining room and on Celebrity it was all scooters for the elderly/disabled! I laughed really hard at that one! I thought they did a great job of catering to all the ages, our servers were very attentive to DD (10) and enjoyed the experience a lot. We wouldn't hesitate to book Celebrity again!

texas disney mom said:
Whenever I look at other cruise lines (and I do all the time because I choke at DCL prices), I find myself drawn to the suite or whatever and since we are booking interior rooms with DCL the price difference generally goes away. But the interior rooms on other lines are so so tight, that I think it would make us miss DCL so much that it would not be worth it. Not sure if anyone else has run into this. Or if anyone has booked on the interior rooms of other lines. I also like hearing what people have to say about DCL prices and switching lines.
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I loved that I had more options on the other line. My budget dictated the room on Disney, but I had options at, above and below on Celebrity. I could decide to go up or down without the huge jumps I see on Disney. The interiors rooms that my sailing partners had was pretty small, but we really didn't spend much time in our rooms. It didn't hurt that I ended up booked an extended aft balcony room that was more than adequate space wise!
 
Ofinn said:
Yes I agree on the better prices, and if you have kids DCL is the only cruise line that will have kids onboard those long cruises. The other lines have better itinerary's on their TA's but what from what I've read on CC kids are non existent. I have a TA booked in September, but not sure I want to eat up all my vacation time in one chunk or leave my dog in a kennel that long. I prefer the to do two or three one week cruises a year, but it's getting hard to find deals on DCL.
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My kids are all adults now, and we didn't go on cruises when they were young. I have been on Transatlantic cruises on 4 cruise lines, and you're right that kids are practically non-existent on non-Disney ships. I prefer it that way. Although my DCL TAs have been my favorite, it's in spite of the kids and not because of them.
 
Rogillio said:
I have found that when sailing off-peak times DCL are very reasonable.....almost even competitive. Evidently the demand for the cruises during periods when kids are out of school remains high or maybe is even growing.

It would be interesting to compare cruise prices for say a June DCL cruise with other cruise lines and then compare a Sept DCL cruise with other cruise lines. My experience is you won't see anywhere near the disparity in prices for the Sept cruise like you see for June
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Okay...I checked DCL vs. RCCL.

June 2016 - weekend of June 18/19, for 2A,2C in a balcony stateroom (all 7-nt Caribbean cruises)

DCL Fantasy $9,000 :scared:

RCCL Allure of the Seas $5,300

RCCL Freedom of the Seas $4,900


September 2016 - weekend of September 24/25, for 2A,2C in a balcony stateroom (all 7-nt Caribbean cruises)

DCL Fantasy $5,400

RCCL Oasis of the Seas $3,800

RCCL Freedom of the Seas $2,800


Both months DCL Fantasy is pretty much double (100% higher than) the Freedom, and 45% (Sept) to 70% (June) higher than Oasis/Allure. At no point is it ever "competitive". Anyone who wants to pay a 45%, 70%, or 100% premium to sail DCL...I don't begrudge you. I think we'd have no problem paying a 10% to possibly 20% premium for DCL. However, anything above that...it gets real hard, impossible really, for us to justify it.
 
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I'm sorry to hear that the 2017 prices are so high from 2016 (I haven't even looked yet) that people are leaving DCL. After looking I hope I'm not shocked or decided to leave. I will be sailing with RCI for the first time in March 2016 but that was because my friends planned a trip on the cruise line and I wanted to join them on this new RCI ship. I will admit that when I compared this 12 day RCI cruise was less expensive than a 7 day DCL cruise. I sail next month with Disney and I was hoping to book a 2017 placeholder cruise.
 
mcd2745 said:
Okay...I checked DCL vs. RCCL.

June 2016 - weekend of June 18/19, for 2A,2C in a balcony stateroom (all 7-nt Caribbean cruises)

DCL Fantasy $9,000 :scared:

RCCL Allure of the Seas $5,300

RCCL Freedom of the Seas $4,900


September 2016 - weekend of September 24/25, for 2A2C in a balcony stateroom (all 7-nt Caribbean cruises)

DCL Fantasy $5,400

RCCL Oasis of the Seas $3,800

RCCL Freedom of the Seas $2,800


Both months DCL Fantasy is pretty much double (100% higher than) the Freedom, and 45% (Sept) to 70% (June) higher than Oasis/Allure. At no point is it ever "competitive". Anyone who wants to pay a 45%, 70%, or 100% premium to sail DCL...God bless ya. I think we'd have no problem paying a 10% to possibly 20% premium for DCL. Above that...it gets real hard, impossible really, for us to justify it.
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This is for how many people?
 
mevelandry said:
Same for us. We can't wait for our next DCL cruise in November but after that, we are trying another cruise line (Carnival - *gasp!*) because we are outpriced (p.s.: I sail during low season)...

We are talking about an Alaska Cruise for 2017 if we can afford it then (because you never know...) If we don't like Carnival that much, we'll try something else... Probably Celebrity or NCL.
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We just finished our 4th DCL cruise, 1st time on the Wonder, and I was pretty let down by the overall service compared to our previous cruises on Fantasy and Dream. We did book a placeholder just in case but after seeing the latest prices I don't know if we'll be doing that or not.

We are trying the new CCL Vista next June for an 8 night Mediterranean cruise, 4 people in 2 connecting insides for a total of $4400.00 including pre-paid gratuities and insurance. I priced out a 4 night on the Dream for the last week of May 2017 and we could do 1 interior for all 4 of us for $4000.00 after using our OBB discount. I'm so nervous trying CCL but after reading countless trip reports on CC, I'm getting a little more comfortable with it, only time will tell. I'll definitely be coming back here after the CCL cruise to give a comparison. I'm going into it with the attitude that it probably won't live up to our previous DCL trips but one never knows. If we don't like it, we'll chalk it up to experience and give RCCL or NCL our money next. One thing is for sure, we love cruising more than any land vacations so we're sure to find someone we like!
 
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