As I said before, this ship is sailing completely full and
DCL is certainly not running a boarderline profit for this voyage. A token attempt to "ease the burden" would go far in customer satisfaction.
I suspect that very few will cancel their cruises over this increase, but it will leave a sour taste with many of us - and I suspect that many will have their onboard spending effected since they have a total budget for the trip and it will just have to be rearranged to handle this extra cost.
Pamela (pdarrah)
Pamela, I couldn't agree more on this comment.
I still have a bad taste in my mouth from my 2006 10-Day HC when I found out that many of my fellow cruisers (including one family that re-booked onboard during the 2004 10 Day HC, same as I had) were given the 10% discount for on board re-booking of said cruise. We were told that the discounts do not apply to ANY specialty cruises. We all now know that rule no longer applies. Unfortunately, I was not informed of this by DCL or my TA, so I never knew to fight for it beforehand. Once I got home I tryed to argue my point in the matter to no availe. In fact, the woman was quite curt (bordering rude) with me. There were definately two sides to the argument so I didn't see her need to be nasty, but I sincerely felt as a loyal WDW/DCL customer they could have given me the discount that was given to others under the same circumstances (re-booking while onboard). I let it go, but since it was over $1000 it is something that has left me with a "less than magical" impression of how I am veiwed as a loyal customer by DCL.
Jump ahead to the infamous 1/31 booking frenzy of the repo/MR cruises. IMO, the way that entire booking procedure leading up to and including the first day of booking was such an in-your-face, we are not intersersted in any level of Customer Service to our MOST loyal customers on these sailings, it almost leaves you speechless. Again, JMO, but I think that it was a calculated effort to drive up the tier pricing within hours, if not minutes of the opening booking bell. Again, leaving me to ask myself, do they value me at all as a loyal customer???
Now this....I feel fortunate that this is only adding $300 to our cruise. There are some with families of 4,5,6 or more and that is a huge nut to crack for an already expensive vacation. I think someone, ANYONE in the CS Dept should at least be able to explain how DCL arrived at this figure. But no, they are just gonna throw it out there, knowing I will pay it because the ship is sold out and for me it is a TOAL.
I don't mean to sound like I think I am *entitled* to special treatment and each of these things in and of themselves could be overlooked. But, I am starting to think DCL sees me as a customer that they can treat however they see fit and I will take it becuase I am addicted to what they offer. It is starting to take on some of the qualities of an unhealthy relationship. Sorry, don't mean to sound so dramatic

, but I think you know what I mean.
What DCL is forgetting is there are some great cruise ships out there right now that are getting better feedback (including the kids clubs) than DCL. Unlike WDW/DL we do have choices that are compareable.
OK, jumping off the soapbox.....for now
