2017 pricing made me do it! RCL i'm coming your way!

[Rogillio]

well that's it. I've seen the price go up and up. This years Cat 7a is more than i paid for Concierge on a 2014 cruise. Looking at Easter 2017 it was over $8000 for Cat 7a and i can't do it..i just can't.

so i booked RCL today on the new ship Harmony of the Seas. $5000 for a balcony room overlooking the ocean for 2A,2C. plus they did a half off deposit today, so i only had to put $500 down and received 2 of 5 free stateroom gifts..i took bottle of white wine and cheese/fruit tray.

I'm struggling a bit after 5 DCL cruises...but these prices....$3000 just doesn't make any sense to pay more.

As some who has cruise concierge you bring a different perspective to the DCL cost/value debate. Often times when someone complains about the prices they are struggling to afford the cruise. Clearly you can afford the higher costs but chose not to. We've sailed 10 times on DCL and money is not really an issue....but we have never sailed concierge. In fact, we have never even dined at Palo or Remy......we just don't see the value in it. I guess we all have different value systems. We fly first class and many people think that is as waste of money but, unlike most people flying in coach, we look forward to our flights as a very pleasent few hours of comforable chairs, free coctails and great personal service.

You won't be disappointed with RCCL. IMO they come in a close second behind Disney...but only after sailing on DCL a few times. I would not reccomend RCL over DCL for first time family cruisers.....especially if they are any sort of Disney fan.

 

[Rogillio]

DCL needs new itineraries. Yawn on the Caribbean and Bahamas. We sail RCI for the awesome experiences in different ports. Cruised Japan in March and will be in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand this Xmas/NY. The price is right and I can't keep doing Europe/TA, West Coast, and Panama Canal. Plus the timing is all off. During school breaks, DCL is always in the same places.

We started off cruising with DCL to the Bahamas....then to the Carribean....the Bahamas....we were getting tired of the same itineraries and had pretty much decidedw were done cruising. Then Disney announed their maiden Med cruise and we booked immediately. After that we again figured we were done with DCL.....then they announced a Baltic cruise and we signed up for the maiden Baltic cruise.

My hope is that Disney will add another couple of ship and position them in the far east. I would love to sail with them to China, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Austrailia......

OTOH, our kids are grown now so I don't know if we would be inclined to pay the 'Disney premium' now. When our kids were younger, it was a no-brainer, we were sailing with Disney or we weren't sailing.

 

[DVC-Don]

I hear you about Disney prices. Just yesterday we priced a cruise out of Port Canaveral on Disney, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean and Disney was way more $. I have my 5th Disney cruise coming up, but it may be my last.

 

[AquaDame]

Often times when someone complains about the prices they are struggling to afford the cruise.

I'm not so sure... it feels to me that the loudest complainers are people who have been on many cruises over the years, many WDW vacations and have large vacation budgets in general who want to keep going but don't want to open their wallets quite that wide for it. Our last few flights have also been first class but I haven't had better service except on internatonal flights... whom do you fly with? I might need to try other airlines...

 

[tinkerone]

Often times when someone complains about the prices they are struggling to afford the cruise.

i'm not sure thats true at all. from what i'm reading most can afford it, they just don't see the (i'm repeating myself here, sorry) value. I'm sure there are some in your category but i doubt its as many as you may think. jmo and i could be wrong.

 

[cdoc29]

I just ignore sycophants like that. Most, if not all, of us are here because we love DCL. If some of us feel that the pricing has got so out of hand that we super-fans are looking at other lines, that's a perfectly valid point of discussion.

This is a "discussion" board, right? Not a "cheerleading" board?

I think the problem is there are sycophants on both sides of this debate. In the end people need to do their own research and decide whats best for them. For some it will be DCL for others it will be another line. There is no right or wrong answer either way.

 

[WIcruizer]

i'm not sure thats true at all. from what i'm reading most can afford it, they just don't see the (i'm repeating myself here, sorry) value. I'm sure there are some in your category but i doubt its as many as you may think. jmo and i could be wrong.

I agree. We're in that category, and we hear it a lot from friends as well. Not a matter of being able to "afford" the price difference, it's about value. We just refuse to pay thousands more, especially for the same itinerary over and over. But it's supply and demand, DCL can charge more, and that's fine.

We really do think DCL is better than RCCL. We like that the ships are more classic, not floating cities. The service on DCL is still far more personal in my opinion. But yes, we will still have plenty of fun for far less money on RCCL, until things change.

 

[The Sasquatch]

i checked my April 2015 vs. April 2016 and our 1 bed conci has more than doubled.

We will more than likely stay on DCL, it just means once a year vs. twice. Definitely sucks

 

[cdoc29]

i checked my April 2015 vs. April 2016 and our 1 bed conci has more than doubled.

We will more than likely stay on DCL, it just means once a year vs. twice. Definitely sucks

Not to knock those in concierge (or start a debate about concierge vs regular cabins), if you can afford it, you are certainly entitled and more power to you. But you could always sail two to three times a year in regular cabins for the same price.

I admit I have trouble feeling sorry for those who can no longer afford several cruises a year in concierge vs. those who can longer afford to sail DCL at all due to price increases.

 

[laceltris3]

To me, the issue is value, rather than cost. We love Disney and DCL, but my kids put a premium on new destinations. I cannot see paying these prices for another EC itinerary. We might have done Norway in 2016, and may go in 2017, depending on the price with OBB, but didn't because we did Alaska this year and it seemed the scenery was much of the same. But I think we are near the end of the road. That said, we are taking our first trip with Tauck Bridges for spring break next year instead, and Disney lost us on their customer unfriendly policies and uncompetitive costs for the ABD product. We might consider Disney in the future, but only for an itinerary not offered elsewhere (come on Tauck Bridges and offer Central Europe). The all inclusive guided tours are more expensive than DCL, but that's where the value is for us. So DCL is pushing us towards less cruising and less Disney.

 

[WIcruizer]

I admit I have trouble feeling sorry for those who can no longer afford several cruises a year in concierge vs. those who can longer afford to sail DCL at all due to price increases.

How about the people who can't afford any cruise? I get what you're saying, but it's not a matter of feeling sorry for anyone, nor do I think anyone was asking for sympathy. People have just been stating their reasons why they are not choosing DCL. We all make our own choices. For some, they feel concierge is very important and would rather sail less often in order to have it.

 

[cdoc29]

We all make our own choices. For some, they feel concierge is very important and would rather sail less often in order to have it.

I agree that we make our own choices, but if your sailing concierge price probably isn’t as big a factor as it for for others. If your thought is I really want to sail twice a year but the concierge price has gone up too much and we can only afford to sail once per year in concierge you don’t have the same problems as others who have posted on this thread.

I feel bad that Disney has priced themselves out of lot of people’s budget and they turn to other lines for the sole reason they can sail for less money. Other reasons such as the itineraries are getting stale or we have been on the disney ship x number of times are just other issues. I am talking about those that the price is the only factor driving them to another line.

 

[squirk]

To be fair, no matter where DCL moves the prices, up or down, there is still going to be a segment of people who can't afford it. I mean, there are a LOT of people who can't afford NCL or RCCL fares, either.

 

[RRB]

We all get it! Go to the other cruise lines! Why is there this need to trash DCL prices over and over again? If you don't think it is a good value then move on and go with another line.

 

[cgolf]

i'm not sure thats true at all. from what i'm reading most can afford it, they just don't see the (i'm repeating myself here, sorry) value. I'm sure there are some in your category but i doubt its as many as you may think. jmo and i could be wrong.

Exactly the value is just not there for us anymore. Over paying for the same itineraries we have done multiple times is just not valuable to us. If DCL had some unique itineraries we may see the value again.

 

[cgolf]

We all get it! Go to the other cruise lines! Why is there this need to trash DCL prices over and over again? If you don't think it is a good value then move on and go with another line.

Because it has been an interesting discussion, and at least on another thread has been a very civil lively discussion. For years we have always researched our cruises, and until this year we have seen DCL as a good value.

I will say after doing concierge on the Fantasy in 2013 and 2014 we didn't rebook the room in 2015 because the prices jumped by over 3000 for the same cat V room, itinerary, and time of year. The value just wasn't there for what we wanted out of a cruise.

I will agree with @Rogillio that if you can afford it, going on a DCL cruise is a must for big Disney fans. Just not convinced DCL is the line of choice for frequent cruisers.

 

[Ofinn]

I'm not so sure... it feels to me that the loudest complainers are people who have been on many cruises over the years, many WDW vacations and have large vacation budgets in general who want to keep going but don't want to open their wallets quite that wide for it. Our last few flights have also been first class but I haven't had better service except on internatonal flights... whom do you fly with? I might need to try other airlines...

I agree with you. It seems the biggest complainers are the ones that cruise a lot and have big vacation budgets. It's hard to pay to keep paying more and more for the same thing. We are about to do our 11th DCL cruise in four years. I consider myself blessed to have a pretty decent vacation budget, but I like to vacation three or four times a year; therefore I'm very picky about what I pay for things.

 

[lolainkent]

We're on our 3rd in February (Fantasy Eastern) and want to do the Med in '17 but prices are going to be a major factor. It's frustrating to us because our kids are at that "magical" age and obviously we all know DCL caters to that. But we also have to fly from the UK to the US to do a Caribbean/Bahama's cruise so seeing £5000 for an Oceanview and then adding 2-3k in flights hurts.

But here's a question I've been wondering (and tell me if I should make it it's own thread) - are other cruise lines not upping their prices? Are there loyal RCCLers that are being priced out and finding better deals with NCL or Carnival? NCLers being priced out? I ask because I haven't cruised any other line, nor have I looked into booking one on any line other than a girlfriends WBPC with Celebrity for '17 (booking for 1 adult is so cheap compared to 2A/3K!).

 

[Ofinn]

We're on our 3rd in February (Fantasy Eastern) and want to do the Med in '17 but prices are going to be a major factor. It's frustrating to us because our kids are at that "magical" age and obviously we all know DCL caters to that. But we also have to fly from the UK to the US to do a Caribbean/Bahama's cruise so seeing £5000 for an Oceanview and then adding 2-3k in flights hurts.

But here's a question I've been wondering (and tell me if I should make it it's own thread) - are other cruise lines not upping their prices? Are there loyal RCCLers that are being priced out and finding better deals with NCL or Carnival? NCLers being priced out? I ask because I haven't cruised any other line, nor have I looked into booking one on any line other than a girlfriends WBPC with Celebrity for '17 (booking for 1 adult is so cheap compared to 2A/3K!).

I can't say if their prices have gone up over the years, but Royal is having a really nice sail. 30% off every cruise. I've been looking at some cruises on them. They have always been a lot lower than DCL, but this drops them way below DCL prices.

 

[cgolf]

We're on our 3rd in February (Fantasy Eastern) and want to do the Med in '17 but prices are going to be a major factor. It's frustrating to us because our kids are at that "magical" age and obviously we all know DCL caters to that. But we also have to fly from the UK to the US to do a Caribbean/Bahama's cruise so seeing £5000 for an Oceanview and then adding 2-3k in flights hurts.

But here's a question I've been wondering (and tell me if I should make it it's own thread) - are other cruise lines not upping their prices? Are there loyal RCCLers that are being priced out and finding better deals with NCL or Carnival? NCLers being priced out? I ask because I haven't cruised any other line, nor have I looked into booking one on any line other than a girlfriends WBPC with Celebrity for '17 (booking for 1 adult is so cheap compared to 2A/3K!).

I also can't say how much other lines have increased over the years, but when we have done our research in the past we have found DCL to be comparable to other lines. In 2017 looking in January/February we found that a Fantasy Caribbean cruise ran generally 50-100% more than other lines. The itineraries looked at were as similar as possible, with the other lines hitting some different islands in the same general area. When looking at the other lines, many were on their fleets newest ships, so we weren't getting cheap deals on aging ships. As a joke I had my wife look up crystal cruises and they had a 2 for 1 deal going on and we could have sailed on that line for not much more then the Fantasy. I will say all of our research was on an inside stateroom, and while the size does vary between lines, it is workable for how we use it. Having sailed almost everything from concierge to an inside, skipping an oceanview room we have just found we don't need the veranda.

That is kind of a long winded answer to say this is the first year we had noticed a large difference in DCL prices compared to all other lines, previously we could justify the value in any differences we saw and DCL was actually cheaper sometimes too. What this means for other lines I guess is that if they are increasing prices, it is at a lower % than DCL does.