2015 sail dates?

[lorimay]

Good Morning

I was on The Fantasy last week and I was told at the future cruise desk that the rest of 2015 will be realized in the next 6-8 weeks.

We booked the farthest out dummy available. Hoping and praying that I will be changing it to a Hawaiian cruise in the near future.

 

[HookedOnDCL1]

Ugggh! My initial excitement to book our next cruise is waning - as is my bank account (for the deposit)!!

 

[tajz90]

Well I'm ready. I'll book the Baltics regardless of price & new ports. Son said he's not interested in sailing other lines at this point. So come on Disney.... Take my money!!!!

 

[Tink1987]

I'm thinking the upper limit for the next set of dates will be April. Are we to the point where WDW can be booked farther out than DCL? So weird.

That's a really interesting point because they let you book a WDW stay with a DCL tagged on........

 

[Holly Quinlan]

does anyone have any info on price increase from year to year? I thought I saw that opening day for November 1st 2014 was around $300 cheaper than what it is now Is this typical? Does anyone know what the opening day prices for 2013 were? trying to figure out the typical increase. TIA

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Good Morning I was on The Fantasy last week and I was told at the future cruise desk that the rest of 2015 will be realized in the next 6-8 weeks. We booked the farthest out dummy available. Hoping and praying that I will be changing it to a Hawaiian cruise in the near future.

oh shucks. Have to wait a little longer then! Thanks for info

 

[jaimeadk]

My patience is starting to wane. We are planning on booking Alaska 2015. We have a $7000 price point in our head for our family of 5. If we can book for less, we'd like to do a nice vacation this summer as well but we can't plan anything until we see those numbers. I know everyone else on here are anxiously awaiting too. Come on DCL.

 

[Marypoppins14]

If they don't release by the middle of March, then I'm out for DCL in 2015. I'll go with another cruise line for Alaska. I've already started to check the prices. This delayed release is sheer nonsense.

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

If they don't release by the middle of March, then I'm out for DCL in 2015. I'll go with another cruise line for Alaska. I've already started to check the prices. This delayed release is sheer nonsense.

Yes, I agree with you! I am willing to wait to a point, but I need to plan other things like pre and post hotels and tours. These things book up and/or raise in price. I think if DCL doesn't release thier dates by the Ides of March, we are just going to do a land trip next summer. But, I would rather do the Baltics if possible!

 

[JAM9842]

Good Morning

I was on The Fantasy last week and I was told at the future cruise desk that the rest of 2015 will be realized in the next 6-8 weeks.

We booked the farthest out dummy available. Hoping and praying that I will be changing it to a Hawaiian cruise in the near future.

We are hoping for Hawaii also!

 

[Anal Annie]

DCL released summer 2008 in early March of 2007. I know 'cuz we cruised that summer and we booked when they released the itineraries. At this point I fully expect they will release in March again this year too. I think folks on the DISboards are probably an odd bunch in wanting to book 15+ months out. There are many, many people out there who don't plan their annual vacations more than 12 months out. They may say "Oh next year we'll do a cruise" but they don't want to spend the money that far out for things like deposits so they wait to book. There are even a lot of DVC people who don't want to plan at their 11 month window. We usually wait for our 7 month booking window to open. DCL's are the exception to our planning (and actually BOOKING) 15-18 months out. Meanwhile I am waiting for them to release these dates as well so I can move our dummy date from this summer but I am afraid we'll be priced out yet again…we keep waiting for an itinerary we like at a price we can afford...

 

[dsnydaddy]

I don't think their is a normal for Disney anymore. Each of the last few years has been different, including what was released already this year.

I would bet it will not be released based on two things. First, Disney said you can only book the 10% discount 18 months in advanced, so I doubt they will have cruises that can be booked, further than 18 months in advance.

Second, one of their top competitors (Royal Caribbean) is starting to release more of 2015, but it is just the summer and early fall (no holidays yet). I suspect Disney will do something similar since they are starting to follow a pattern more similar to RCCL.

This is an interesting theory. I've been thinking about this as well. If Disney releases all of 2015 (except the holidays) on lets say March 4th then any dates after Aug 2015 would not be able to be booked onboard due to the 18 month restriction. I can see how that could really make a lot of unhappy customers. Could we be seeing a new trend toward a release of sail dates every 4 months.

In other words: In early Nov 2013 they released dates for Jan 2015-Apr 2015 and Apr 2015 was 18 months out from Nov 2013. So, could we be seeing that Early March 2014 will have dates released out to August 2015 which will be 18 months out. Then in July 2014 we'll see the remainder of 2015 released?

If so, I'll bet those waiting for Hawaii will be waiting a bit longer.

 

[ranidayz]

DCL released summer 2008 in early March of 2007. I know 'cuz we cruised that summer and we booked when they released the itineraries. At this point I fully expect they will release in March again this year too. I think folks on the DISboards are probably an odd bunch in wanting to book 15+ months out. There are many, many people out there who don't plan their annual vacations more than 12 months out. They may say "Oh next year we'll do a cruise" but they don't want to spend the money that far out for things like deposits so they wait to book. There are even a lot of DVC people who don't want to plan at their 11 month window. We usually wait for our 7 month booking window to open. DCL's are the exception to our planning (and actually BOOKING) 15-18 months out. Meanwhile I am waiting for them to release these dates as well so I can move our dummy date from this summer but I am afraid we'll be priced out yet again…we keep waiting for an itinerary we like at a price we can afford...

So - crazy thought - if DCL doesn't release until March or April for summer cruises, hypothetically = the prices should stay the same until the middle to end of summer. If that is the case, then folks who travel in the summer could rebook onboard for the next summer and get the discount and the OBC (provided the reservation cruise is not affected by black-outs.) Maybe there is a method to the madness?

 

[ckelly14]

I'm also waiting for Alaska. Planning to book immediately with Disney but keep my eye out for deals on other lines. I'm also looking at Princess, Royal and Celebrity, all of which have had recent price drops for Alaska 2014 trips. Disney is the only line I have seen where there is any advantage in booking early from a price standpoint.

 

[Douvres Family]

Good Morning

I was on The Fantasy last week and I was told at the future cruise desk that the rest of 2015 will be realized in the next 6-8 weeks.

We booked the farthest out dummy available. Hoping and praying that I will be changing it to a Hawaiian cruise in the near future.

I'm hoping for Hawaii too...this would be my son's HS Graduation family celebration wish

 

[emilyann415]

So I'm wondering if the opening day dates will be more expensive than last year as they are waiting longer to release them. I have been waiting for NYE cruise info to be released and when I look at the Magic NYE 2014 opening rates they were the same as the Fantasy pretty much and I chalked it up to the fact that they changed that sailing and released it for sail in June I think.

Does that make sense???? The longer I wait to book this trip, the more I think it will really go to whichever cruise line releases their travel dates first!!!!

 

[dsnydaddy]

So I'm wondering if the opening day dates will be more expensive than last year as they are waiting longer to release them. I have been waiting for NYE cruise info to be released and when I look at the Magic NYE 2014 opening rates they were the same as the Fantasy pretty much and I chalked it up to the fact that they changed that sailing and released it for sail in June I think.

Does that make sense???? The longer I wait to book this trip, the more I think it will really go to whichever cruise line releases their travel dates first!!!!

I'm with you on this. 2015 was supposed to be a family reunion trip with multiple families. But that requires coordination. Time is a big factor in coordinating a large number of people. The earlier you can nail down a date the easier it is to get everyone onboard.

Started looking at alternatives to this cruise. Just in case we need to change things up. Perhaps Aulani. Or WDW. Even played around with some completely different non-Disney ideas as well.

 

[Ptwolfman]

I'm in the camp with those looking at other cruise lines. First, we were told that the dates could be released in December. Then January. Then February. Then March or April. I'm trying to plan for a Med cruise & if I can find the 2015 prices on a different line before DCL finally releases their dates, I will probably go with a different line. This waiting is nonsense!

 

[AquaDame]

Agreed. I am hearing more and more mutterings that in the next round of releases DCL will not include the NYE cruises... We will go with another line if that is the case as we do not want their rates to go up while we wait on DCLs to see if we can afford them.

 

[Ptwolfman]

One flaw in the 18 month theory. If I were cruising today, I couldn't book 18 months out. So DCL would need to release the 18th month every month to make that work. Right now, people can only book 14 months out