2022 EBTA

[ct7878]

Just booked the EBTA for May 2022- just curious how popular these cruises have been recently and how the pricing has been? We were DCL fanatics when kids were younger and love these long itineraries. However, since they have been older we have not sailed DCL in close to 10 years! Well, we now a new surprise baby- so we are back with DCL (and very excited about it).

I know in the past we had gotten some really good last minute deals on both EBTA and WBTA sailings due to a lot of availability. Does this still tend to happen with these cruises or has interest picked up? I am trying to determine if we should be waiting closer to booking for potential Florida Resident rates or if I should be locking this in now (its on hold now)- this would be my myself, my DH and our baby will be 18 months at the time. Would welcome any insight you all may have!

 

[mmouse37]

TA cruises are pretty popular but far, far less children onboard than a regular cruise. We love them and have done them a few times. If you are bringing kids along the kids club/nursery will almost be like a private day care LOL. I think on our last TA there was 100 kids compared to the normal 800 or so.

Pricing per night, I think, comes out less than a normal cruise as there are fewer ports and a longer itinerary. I would book now and you could always be on the look out for better pricing though last minute deals (*IGT, OGT, VGT) would require you to cancel and rebook potentially losing early dining.

We are doing DCL to Hawaii next year or would have booked the TA as too.

MJ

 

[braysmommy]

Since we did our first EBTA I think interest has picked up and there isn't always good deals closer to sail date (Not sure about FL rates in the past). We will be booking it tomorrow when Gold opens.

 

[DL1957]

We booked EBTA and are booked on WBTA this fall from Dover. The WBTA has one stop in Bermuda and is 11 nights the new EBTA is 13 nights with I believe 5 stops in Portugal and Spain. we are in 5c and the EBTA is $300 more than our WBTA. I have noticed these cruises selling out quicker than years past. For at least 5 years pre Covid there have been little if any DCL cruises.

 

[ct7878]

TA cruises are pretty popular but far, far less children onboard than a regular cruise. We love them and have done them a few times. If you are bringing kids along the kids club/nursery will almost be like a private day care LOL. I think on our last TA there was 100 kids compared to the normal 800 or so.

Pricing per night, I think, comes out less than a normal cruise as there are fewer ports and a longer itinerary. I would book now and you could always be on the look out for better pricing though last minute deals (*IGT, OGT, VGT) would require you to cancel and rebook potentially losing early dining.

We are doing DCL to Hawaii next year or would have booked the TA as too.

MJ

Thanks- you will love Hawaii! I went on the original DCL Hawaii trip which was roundtrip out of LA in 2012. I ended up actually traveling with Dad since my husband had a work conflict come up. We had an amazing trip together- he passed away in 2018 and I am always so happy that we took that trip together! You will have a great time....

 

[ct7878]

TA cruises are pretty popular but far, far less children onboard than a regular cruise. We love them and have done them a few times. If you are bringing kids along the kids club/nursery will almost be like a private day care LOL. I think on our last TA there was 100 kids compared to the normal 800 or so.

Pricing per night, I think, comes out less than a normal cruise as there are fewer ports and a longer itinerary. I would book now and you could always be on the look out for better pricing though last minute deals (*IGT, OGT, VGT) would require you to cancel and rebook potentially losing early dining.

We are doing DCL to Hawaii next year or would have booked the TA as too.

MJ

Thanks- you will love Hawaii! I went on the original DCL Hawaii trip which was roundtrip out of LA in 2012. I ended up actually traveling with Dad since my husband had a work conflict come up. We had an amazing trip together- he passed away in 2018 and I am always so happy that we took that trip together! You will have a great time....

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

Just booked the EBTA for May 2022- just curious how popular these cruises have been recently and how the pricing has been? We were DCL fanatics when kids were younger and love these long itineraries. However, since they have been older we have not sailed DCL in close to 10 years! Well, we now a new surprise baby- so we are back with DCL (and very excited about it).

I know in the past we had gotten some really good last minute deals on both EBTA and WBTA sailings due to a lot of availability. Does this still tend to happen with these cruises or has interest picked up? I am trying to determine if we should be waiting closer to booking for potential Florida Resident rates or if I should be locking this in now (its on hold now)- this would be my myself, my DH and our baby will be 18 months at the time. Would welcome any insight you all may have!

We did the EBTA in 2019 and were able to get a Florida resident rate on it. so while I think it is popular, I don’t think it’s completely full. You can always book it now and watch for the Florida resident rate. They will adjust your rate at that time as long as it isn’t passed final payment date.

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

I would love to take a EBTA, but the cost getting direct flights back home is what always stops me from booking that cruise.

Psy

 

[Ralph&Pam]

The TA cruises have certainly become more popular since we did our first one in 2015. We’ve been consistent in choosing a category 5B stateroom, and have sailed in both directions. Comparing the cost per night for the 2022 EBTA offering to the 2015 cruise, prices are now more than double, going from about $250/night to about $530/night for the exact same stateroom for two adults. I assume about the same rate of increase for other stateroom categories. We keep sailing them in any case, although we plan our next one to be the WBTA in 2022. We moved the 2021 EBTA to the 2021 WBTA, and then moved that to a Caribbean cruise in January 2022.

 

[Canadian Girl]

They tend to sell out which drives prices up, and then many drop them closer to the PIF date. It can be very frustrating

 

[braysmommy]

I would love to take a EBTA, but the cost getting direct flights back home is what always stops me from booking that cruise.

Psy

Not sure where you live but we fly back into Boston and both TAP and Norwegian typically have great prices. We have also flown home on Iceland Air and stopped over in Iceland for 4 nights.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We booked EBTA for 2022. It will be our third EBTA.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

I would love to take a EBTA, but the cost getting direct flights back home is what always stops me from booking that cruise.

Psy

We have done well flying Aer Lingus for the transatlantic cruises. We’ve flown Chicago to Barcelona via Dublin to take WBTAs and Barcelona to Chicago via Dublin after EBTAs. For the WBTA that we have since cancelled, we were planning to fly London to Chicago via Dublin with Aer Lingus. Their one-way fares have been consistently lower than the other carriers. Some of the others seem to charge only a small premium for round-trip fares compared to one-way flights, so their one-ways are much higher.

 

[ct7878]

Thanks all! I appreciate the information. Seems like we are best to confirm so that we do potentially miss out. I don't I realized how much I missed DCL until I booked today and now I am so excited!

 

[CM Dad]

Not sure where you live but we fly back into Boston and both TAP and Norwegian typically have great prices. We have also flown home on Iceland Air and stopped over in Iceland for 4 nights.

My wife and I have flown Iceland Air a couple of times from Dulles airport near Washington DC. 1st was for the inaugural Copenhagen - Dover cruise. Was also used them when we took a round trip Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona. The main problem with Iceland Air between Barcelona and Dulles is that there was only one flight and it didn't leave until I think 10PM, so we spent a lot of time in the airport waiting for their ticket counter to open. The flights all went thru Reykjavik with a layover. We booked their Saga class, so were able to spend the layover time in their lounge

 

[moet7]

is one side of the ship better for the eastbound transatlantic?
Thanks

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

Not sure where you live but we fly back into Boston and both TAP and Norwegian typically have great prices. We have also flown home on Iceland Air and stopped over in Iceland for 4 nights.

We have done well flying Aer Lingus for the transatlantic cruises. We’ve flown Chicago to Barcelona via Dublin to take WBTAs and Barcelona to Chicago via Dublin after EBTAs. For the WBTA that we have since cancelled, we were planning to fly London to Chicago via Dublin with Aer Lingus. Their one-way fares have been consistently lower than the other carriers. Some of the others seem to charge only a small premium for round-trip fares compared to one-way flights, so their one-ways are much higher.

We live in the Carolina's so flying out of Charlotte is the issue. Most of the connecting flights that I have looked at in the past end up turning a 10 to 12 hour flight, into a 26+ hour experience. For example when we did our Med Cruise in 2018, if we went with flights that had a connection, we would have had to fly into JFK or LaGuardia and then onto to Barcelona. All these flights would leave Charlotte between 6 and 8am and then arrive in Barcelona between 11am and 12pm Barcelona time the next day. The connecting flight leaving NYC between 9 and 10pm that night. So being stuck in an airport for 12 hours doesn't sit well with me. Especially since I start going stir crazy, ever since I was almost stranded in an airport due to a mechanical issue on the connecting flight and they wouldn't let us leave the boarding area for almost 8 hours before they found another flight to put us on.

I've been taking non stop flights since.

But I would still like to do this cruise one day.

Psy

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We live in the Carolina's so flying out of Charlotte is the issue. Most of the connecting flights that I have looked at in the past end up turning a 10 to 12 hour flight, into a 26+ hour experience. For example when we did our Med Cruise in 2018, if we went with flights that had a connection, we would have had to fly into JFK or LaGuardia and then onto to Barcelona. All these flights would leave Charlotte between 6 and 8am and then arrive in Barcelona between 11am and 12pm Barcelona time the next day. The connecting flight leaving NYC between 9 and 10pm that night. So being stuck in an airport for 12 hours doesn't sit well with me. Especially since I start going stir crazy, ever since I was almost stranded in an airport due to a mechanical issue on the connecting flight and they wouldn't let us leave the boarding area for almost 8 hours before they found another flight to put us on.

I've been taking non stop flights since.

But I would still like to do this cruise one day.

Psy

Barcelona is problematic in terms of nonstop flights, even from Chicago. During the summer months, there are one or two per day. Because they serve the greater demand of the summer travel season, they are not available until after the EBTA and end before the WBTA. Even when we flew round trip for a late season Med cruise that started and ended in Barcelona, we only had options for flights with a connection, either on the east coast of the US or in Europe. When we were looking for one-way flights for the TA cruises, we found the best deal in terms of the connection times on Aer Lingus, typically between 90 minutes and two hours. Of course, we can easily get to Chicago O’Hare, so we don’t have to deal with the flight to or from our US gateway city like you do.

 

[ldo]

How rough/bumpy is crossing in the spring? I know it varies by weather. But compared to crossing the Florida straits to Bahamas during a bit of of bumpy ride?

 

[braysmommy]

How rough/bumpy is crossing in the spring? I know it varies by weather. But compared to crossing the Florida straits to Bahamas during a bit of of bumpy ride?

We have done EBTA 3 times with Disney and always had great weather and calm seas.