2027 Disney Summer Cruises

[Kwami]

I think your failing to understand macroeconomics.

Yeah. I'm sure the restaurants in Athens are going to lower their prices any day now because the US Dollar is the reserve currency.

 

[deanimal]

My trips have all been cruises. People from the US travel to the Med to see the historical sites, museums, and enjoy the culture not lay on the beach.

I personally find it hilarious that anyone would say they want to see history and culture in Europe right after they say that they only go on cruises. If you think that you've experienced Europe by going on an excursion or wandering around a cruise port then returning to the ship for dinner and evening entertainment.......well there is a reason why the rest of the world thinks Americans are uncultured.

We go on cruises to cruise and on land trips to experience culture and history. A cruise stop can offer a quick taste, especially if you get off the boat and explore independently, or it can give a chance to check off a bucket list sight that is hard to get to otherwise but it is not experiencing a country or a culture.

And I can totally see Europeans and Brits viewing Med cruises very differently than North Americans do. When your local pub is 200 years old and you drive by a church built a thousand years ago or ancient Roman ruins every day on the way to work I imagine seeing more ancient ruins on vacation isn't a high priority. My friends in the UK view the Med in much the same way that Canadians view the Caribbean; as a source of sun, sand and relaxation.

Here's hoping the new summer releases offer something for everyone.

 

[DCLMP]

I personally find it hilarious that anyone would say they want to see history and culture in Europe right after they say that they only go on cruises. If you think that you've experienced Europe by going on an excursion or wandering around a cruise port then returning to the ship for dinner and evening entertainment.......well there is a reason why the rest of the world thinks Americans are uncultured.

We go on cruises to cruise and on land trips to experience culture and history. A cruise stop can offer a quick taste, especially if you get off the boat and explore independently, or it can give a chance to check off a bucket list sight that is hard to get to otherwise but it is not experiencing a country or a culture.

And I can totally see Europeans and Brits viewing Med cruises very differently than North Americans do. When your local pub is 200 years old and you drive by a church built a thousand years ago or ancient Roman ruins every day on the way to work I imagine seeing more ancient ruins on vacation isn't a high priority. My friends in the UK view the Med in much the same way that Canadians view the Caribbean; as a source of sun, sand and relaxation.

Here's hoping the new summer releases offer something for everyone.

I never said I don’t do land trips. I’ve time on land in London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Zurich, Munich, Barcelona and this Summer I’ll be spending time in Istanbul and Frankfurt. I just spent 2 weeks in Japan. You can apologise for your uncultured comment.
Yes I do know that people in colder climates in Europe vacation in Greece for the warm weather, but the topic was med cruising and weather in terms of heat. Yes the med is very for touring in the Summer.

 

[DCLMP]

Yeah. I'm sure the restaurants in Athens are going to lower their prices any day now because the US Dollar is the reserve currency.

You made a statement about Disney raising prices because the dollar is weaker against the Euro. It doesn’t work that way. If we lose our reserve currency status then you can hit the apocalypse button.

 

[DCLMP]

I’m with you. I go to the Med to enjoy cute towns, enjoy the food, and escape from British weather. I can only last like three hours on Castaway and then I’m done.

If you only want to make a tick list of “most historic places in Europe” then I agree a cruise is probably not the best way to see that but if you want to see some history and just enjoy being somewhere different the Med is great.

Agree, but this is a cruise forum and people like the ease of seeing multiple places without having to unpack.

 

[deanimal]

My trips have all been cruises.

I'm sorry you said something and I believed you. That was truly terrible of me. And I stand by my statement that only going to Europe on cruises and on the way to and from cruises is not actually experiencing European culture.

 

[DCLMP]

I'm sorry you said something and I believed you. That was truly terrible of me. And I stand by my statement that only going to Europe on cruises and on the way to and from cruises is not actually experiencing European culture.

Still not an excuse to be insulting. I think I would preface your statement by saying in your opinion land is better. I think many cruisers feel they are getting something out of it.

 

[deanimal]

I don't know if I'd make a blanket statement that land trips are better than cruises in Europe. Now that I've been to every country in Europe (except Moldova, Albania, Malta and Andorra) I would say that I'm wanting to spend more time in my favourite places and less time moving around. We rarely spend less than a week at a time in each place these days.

That being said, I still love cruising and I have found it to be ideal for checking out places that I may want to come back to for a longer trip at another time. I guess you could say I'm pickier about the European destinations on a cruise compared to Caribbean itineraries. And of course it's an ideal option for people who may only get 2 or 3 weeks of vacation every year. It's much nicer to unpack once and see multiple places than dealing with trains and suitcases.

I keep checking back to see if DCL will offer something with ports that are new to me on the dates that I can travel. I'd love to see Tunisia (excursions to the original Star Wars filming sites perhaps?) or maybe some of the islands I haven't seen in Greece. It will be interesting to see what's on offer next year.

 

[disney2you]

I go on cruises really just for the ship experience (why I love Disney cruise line), the ports are just extra fun added in. Also I don't have to plan as much and when I do land trips I tend to overplan to the max so cruises are also a slower more relaxing way for me to travel. Have not cruised in Europe/Med yet, but hoping the Wish goes in 27 and then I'll have to go. Fantasy was my least favorite ship so far and I hesitate to go on Dream for that much money so far away and for 7+ nights.

 

[Mommb]

That being said, I still love cruising and I have found it to be ideal for checking out places that I may want to come back to for a longer trip at another time. I guess you could say I'm pickier about the European destinations on a cruise compared to Caribbean itineraries. And of course it's an ideal option for people who may only get 2 or 3 weeks of vacation every year. It's much nicer to unpack once and see multiple places than dealing with trains and suitcases.

I keep checking back to see if DCL will offer something with ports that are new to me on the dates that I can travel. I'd love to see Tunisia (excursions to the original Star Wars filming sites perhaps?) or maybe some of the islands I haven't seen in Greece. It will be interesting to see what's on offer next year.

Exactly. Many people would agree it would be "better" to spend a lot of time in each city to fully absorb the culture. That's why my family typically spends time in the embarkation and/or debarkation city when we cruise in Europe. But that doesn't mean there is no value in visiting countries for just a short time.

On our first Med cruise, over the course of 7 days my 10 year old and 14 year old kids went to a Marc Chagall museum (with dozens of his works), the ruins at Herculaneum, a Galileo museum (with equipment from his time), the Uffizi Gallery, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Pantheon, and the Coliseum. Did that give them a strong understanding of life in France and Italy? Of course not. Did that help them understand the context when things they saw were mentioned in later science, history, and art classes? Of course it did. Yes, we could have flown to Rome, stayed a few days, taken the train to Florence, stayed a few days, then gone on to see Naples and Nice on our own. But given the limited options for finding rooms with 3 beds in Barcelona, I didn't want to do that in 4 other cities too, and I didn't want to drag our luggage on trains, planes, and cars every few days. My husband and I also didn’t want to take off more than 2 weeks of work.

Disney Cruise did have a cruise scheduled to stop in Tunisia in June 2011, but the stop was changed to Sicily around February. That same cruise stopped in Corsica and Malta. I think there was a cruise stop scheduled for Turkey a few years that was changed several months in advance. I am not sure if Disney has plans to try again for the southern Mediterranean, but Malta, Sicily, Corsica, and Croatia have been showing up once or twice a year.

 

[MomOTwins]

I personally find it hilarious that anyone would say they want to see history and culture in Europe right after they say that they only go on cruises. If you think that you've experienced Europe by going on an excursion or wandering around a cruise port then returning to the ship for dinner and evening entertainment.......well there is a reason why the rest of the world thinks Americans are uncultured.

We go on cruises to cruise and on land trips to experience culture and history. A cruise stop can offer a quick taste, especially if you get off the boat and explore independently, or it can give a chance to check off a bucket list sight that is hard to get to otherwise but it is not experiencing a country or a culture.

And I can totally see Europeans and Brits viewing Med cruises very differently than North Americans do. When your local pub is 200 years old and you drive by a church built a thousand years ago or ancient Roman ruins every day on the way to work I imagine seeing more ancient ruins on vacation isn't a high priority. My friends in the UK view the Med in much the same way that Canadians view the Caribbean; as a source of sun, sand and relaxation.

Here's hoping the new summer releases offer something for everyone.

I think you might be failing to take into consideration family dynamics that make cruises a very good option (and in some ways, the only practical option) for many Americans to see Europe and learn about its history.

I have a family of 5. It is incredibly hard to tour Europe on land with this situation. Even our brief pre-stay before the cruise has been very challenging to plan. Very few hotels offer rooms for 5, or guaranteed connecting rooms for 3+2, and those that do are very expensive. Airbnbs are rife with scams and misrepresentations and can be challenging to evaluate if you aren't local (e.g., with "bad" neighborhoods a block away from "good" ones).

One of my kids is special needs. He has a very restricted diet, which Disney cruises accommodates without issues but restaurants on land are less easy to find things he can eat. Families with severe allergies are in a similar boat.

Americans also typically have very limited vacation. The longest I have been able to take off work was 10 days and I still had to work remotely for at least some portion of the day every day of the trip. Even if we went on land, it's not like we have a 4 week holiday to "live like a local". And having a cruise with reliable day care for the kids is helpful if I need an hour to answer emails.

Cruises also allow us to visit more than one place easily over the short period of time we have for vacation. Airfare is simply too expensive coming from the center of the U.S. with no direct international flights (our airfare is more than the cruise cost) for us to make multiple land trips to different destinations in a year--one trip at most is what we get. I can go on a cruise that lets us visit several places in a week. If we tried to do that on land it's a lot of extra wprl--land transportation, accommodations etc.--plus we'd have to pack up every couple days to move somewhere new, and if you've ever packed up a hotel room for 3 kids you'll know that's exhausting.

So when we go on a European cruise, we are not going to go sit on a beach, especially since we could spend far less money to go and sit on a beach in the bahamas or caribbean that's a 2 hr flight away. We explore towns, historical sights like ruins, castles or battlegrounds, go on hikes somewhere beautiful in nature, eat food (other than my special needs kid, who we feed on the boat), and generally try to learn about the places we visit.

 

[Kwami]

You made a statement about Disney raising prices because the dollar is weaker against the Euro. It doesn’t work that way. If we lose our reserve currency status then you can hit the apocalypse button.

You're missing context there.

Disney has to pay port fees, food, repairs, and other costs in Euros when they sail to Europe. Therefore, Disney's costs will be higher when the Euro is higher. They might pass those increased costs on to customers.

 

[deanimal]

I go on cruises really just for the ship experience (why I love Disney cruise line), the ports are just extra fun added in.

This is probably the reason why we haven't done a Disney Cruise in Europe since the kids were little. My two favourite things are Disney and Europe and I'd hate to have to pick just one! Nassau? Cozumel? Sure, hop off the boat for a couple hours to stretch your legs, but the focus is on pool parties, theatre shows and fun dining. But to have to choose between evening entertainment on the boat or a 3 hour dinner in Europe at a bistro on the harbour overlooking the sea with incredible local food and wine? That's just too hard!

And yes, I do agree that we are incredibly lucky to live somewhere where 4+ weeks of yearly vacation is the norm and we pay almost nothing for travel health insurance, and that no one in our family has mobility issues or other challenges. For the price of a 7 day Disney cruise we can easily spend a month in Europe, doing four one week apartment rentals and hiring a car. On the other hand cruises are definitely the way to go for people with limited time, small children and other challenges.

 

[DCLMP]

You're missing context there.

Disney has to pay port fees, food, repairs, and other costs in Euros when they sail to Europe. Therefore, Disney's costs will be higher when the Euro is higher. They might pass those increased costs on to customers.

If your theory held water cruises would have been cheaper in 23 and 24 when our dollar was stronger against the Euro, but they weren’t. Commodities are priced in dollars, 90% of trade is in dollars. I’ve been to Europe with weak dollar and a strong one neither has affected my trip. What’s currently happening in Japan is putting pressure on the dollar and this certainly isn’t the first time in history an administration has wanted a lower dollar to stabilise trade. We’re still the number one economy when that changes I’ll start worrying. I’ve been hearing about the death of the dollar my whole life. I’ll believe it when it happens.

 

[Kwami]

If your theory held water cruises would have been cheaper in 23 and 24 when our dollar was stronger against the Euro, but they weren’t.

Why would that be so? Because benevolent Disney wants to pass on its savings instead of increasing its profits? I think not.

Commodities are priced in dollars, 90% of trade is in dollars.

Neat. As I wrote previously, I'm sure that the local restaurants in Athens will be lowering their prices any day now since their Euros buy more peppers than before.

I’ve been to Europe with weak dollar and a strong one neither has affected my trip.

Irrelevant.

What’s currently happening in Japan is putting pressure on the dollar and this certainly isn’t the first time in history an administration has wanted a lower dollar to stabilise trade. We’re still the number one economy when that changes I’ll start worrying. I’ve been hearing about the death of the dollar my whole life. I’ll believe it when it happens.

Also largely irrelevant.

 

[DCLMP]

Neat. As I wrote previously, I'm sure that the local restaurants in Athens will be lowering their prices any day now since their Euros buy more

What exactly is the point you’re trying to make? I don’t think anyone is concerned about the price of anything in Athens. It’s always been one of the more affordable destinations.
Are you concerned about a trip to Europe this Summer?

 

[Kwami]

What exactly is the point you’re trying to make? I don’t think anyone is concerned about the price of anything in Athens. It’s always been one of the more affordable destinations.
Are you concerned about a trip to Europe this Summer?

The entire point is that the cost of everything in Europe will be higher because the Euro is currently strong against the dollar. That includes restaurants, hotels, shops, excursions, admission to tourist sites, souvenirs, etc. So, even if Disney eats the extra costs and doesn't increase cruise fares this year, everything else about a European cruise will cost more.

I'm not going to reiterate that point a third time, so I consider this discussion to have run its course.

 

[asgur5]

I never said I don’t do land trips. I’ve time on land in London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Zurich, Munich, Barcelona and this Summer I’ll be spending time in Istanbul and Frankfurt. I just spent 2 weeks in Japan. You can apologise for your uncultured comment.
Yes I do know that people in colder climates in Europe vacation in Greece for the warm weather, but the topic was med cruising and weather in terms of heat. Yes the med is very for touring in the Summer.

Its not just people from cold climates. Im from a very warm climate with great sandy tropical beaches. And i go to the med for beach holidays.

 

[asgur5]

You're missing context there.

Disney has to pay port fees, food, repairs, and other costs in Euros when they sail to Europe. Therefore, Disney's costs will be higher when the Euro is higher. They might pass those increased costs on to customers.

The prices disney or any service provider offer have nothing to do with costs. Its soley to do with demand. Costs only put a break on whether the service is offered at all. But once they do decide to sail then its solely demand that matters for prices. Not costs.

 

[asgur5]

Our beaches are charming in their own right. They may not always be Hawaii but they’re still fun to go into.

Im sure they for those who live nearby. But they dont attract foriegn visitors. Ive never heard anyone say they are going to mainland USA for a beach holiday. Europe on the other hand is world class. Even if the sand is not.