Any chance summer prices will drop?

[ToyStory3]

We've done several cruises - only two previous DCL cruises though. We badly want to go Eastern on DCL. In the past we've gone in the fall when prices aren't as steep. Now the kids don't feel they can miss a week of school. My daughter is in high school and finds it harder and harder to get caught back up with her amount of homework. But, I'm having a really hard time swallowing the $10,000 price tag for the 4 of us. If the ship isn't filled as it gets closer to their sail dates - do they ever drop the prices? Or is that unrealistic?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We've done several cruises - only two previous DCL cruises though. We badly want to go Eastern on DCL. In the past we've gone in the fall when prices aren't as steep. Now the kids don't feel they can miss a week of school. My daughter is in high school and finds it harder and harder to get caught back up with her amount of homework. But, I'm having a really hard time swallowing the $10,000 price tag for the 4 of us. If the ship isn't filled as it gets closer to their sail dates - do they ever drop the prices? Or is that unrealistic?

In the summer? Not very likely. But possible. If a given cruise isn't selling well, DCL may (or may not) offer last minute restricted fares. These come out, usually, after the Paid in Full date, and have a lot of restrictions, including must pay in full, and there are no refunds. You also don't get to select your room.

For the most part, even with the restricted fares, while they are lower cost than the prevailing rate at the time, they usually are higher than the same fare would have cost had you booked it on opening day.

 

[3 Hobbits 2 Disney]

Best chance is to watch for a sale through one of the specialty web sites that tracks GVT, AP, Florida, and other affinity group discounts. DCL will sometimes post sales for specific cruises as well using similar affinity groups. However, I’ve never seen DCL reduce prices outside of those circumstances.

 

[SamFaniam]

Since summer is peak season for families, there don’t tend to be discounts then. Depending on your kids school schedules if you can travel in May or September, sometimes you can find some good rates in those months. This thread has a running count of when discounts have been offered, so it will give you a sense of what has been available in the past.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/current-gt-mto-flr-discounts.3244232/

 

[Disneyland_emily]

The fantasy typically has GT rates for atleast June (we went VGT for mid June last year) I wasn’t stalking Dream to see if it went GT

 

[aggiedog]

I feel your pain. Once the kids get to a certain age, you're tied to specific time frames and DCL knows it. We did a Baltic cruise, and chose for the kids to miss the last few days of their sophomore year rather than wait and pay 50% more for 10 days later.

Another option is to look at different lines.

 

[lorimay]

Keep watching the DCL website for specials, there are new ones posted every Monday.
There are some listed as far out as April right now.
We have the May TA scheduled, our payoff is January 11th, so May offerings could be out by the end of January.

Good Luck!