Baltic Prices

[Rogillio]

To say that there are people who won't pay that much to cruise DCL Baltics is like saying some people won't pay $400 a night to stay at the Grand Floridian at WDW....me for example.

Evidently there are enough people who WILL pay DCL prices as the ship seems to be pretty full. Contrast this to NCL with nearly all of the suites still available. Go figure.

~Mike

 

[xangav]

We are currently booked on the maiden Baltic cruise and I read this thread with total unbelief! I couldn't believe that other cruise lines were actually THAT much cheaper.

So I did my own comparison with NCL and compared for our family of 4 in the Cat 4 room we have booked on DCL with a Penthouse Suite on NCL. Same cruise length and almost the same ports. The difference is NCL is $5,500 cheaper and we'd get an additional 224 sqft on NCL.

We have said 5 times on DCL and one time on NCL so we know something of the two cruise lines albeit more about DCL.

CONCLUSION

I've studied the numbers and I've compared NCL and DCL prices and rooms and, while it doesn't seem to make sense, we are gonna stay with DCL!! Call it gut instinct or call it 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!'. We sailed on NCL and we did not like NCL. We've enjoyed every one of our DCL cruises!

Why are we gonna stay with DCL? Let me try to explain:

1. I like the Disney experience and love the Disney quality. Everything on DCL is top shelf.

2. NCL's Fee-style dinning. I really hated the hodge-podge dinning and never getting to know our servers on NCL. I like getting to know our servers on DCL and our servers getting to know us. There was none of this on NCL as we had different servers every night - and this is a 12 night cruise. I also didn't like having to wait 45 minutes + just to get seated for dinner! And I did not like having to pay extra to eat at 1/2 of the restaurants on NCL.

3. I like the family atmosphere on DCL and I like the demographics of the cruisers. i.e. families

4. To me it comes down to about $5k difference and a little bit smaller room. I can tolerate the smaller room because I like the rest of the ship.

5. The DCL does a much better job of ship maintenance. Everything is clean and looks new. We did NOT see this on NCL.

6. We've cruised DCL enough now that coming back to the ship feels like 'coming home'.

7. We felt 'nickled and dimed' to death on NCL. We had to pay for every Coke! Even had to pay for spin class at the gym. The tips were automatically added to our bills on NCL and you didn't know who you were tipping since you never had the same sever.

8. Disney's Magic is just a very cool looking ship!

I read a quote once, "I'd rather regret something I did than something I didn't do." I can see us on our first sea day on NCL thinking "Dang, I wish we had stayed with Disney!" But I just can't see us sailing with Disney and thinking "Gee, this room is too small, I wish we'd of sailed with NCL."

I couldn't have said it better because that is exactly what we did when we sailed with RCL this past summer. We went to Alaska which was stunning and we did as much as we could. We had a grand suite for less than what a DCL cat 4 cost sailing from LA. We have stayed in CAT 4's a couple of times and paid more than what the Baltic will cost. The only good thing about the RCL cruise was the cabin. I have a whole list of things on RCL that were sub par that I won't go over but we have no delusions about the "intangible magic", and we still prefer DCL.

 

[NancyIL]

Evidently there are enough people who WILL pay DCL prices as the ship seems to be pretty full. Contrast this to NCL with nearly all of the suites still available. Go figure.

DCL's 2010 Europe itineraries have been available to book since October. I think NCL's just opened this month. NCL is the only other mass market cruise line that has their 2010 Europe itineraries available for booking. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity will release their 2010 Europe itineraries in mid-March, and Princess, Holland America, etc. should be about the same time or shortly thereafter.

If it's true that DCL's Baltic cruises are pretty full - I predict that situation won't stay the same once other cruise lines release their 2010 Europe itineraries. For those that stick with the MOUSE, there will always be some who just can't swing the final payment when it comes due. It's one thing to put down a $1200 deposit for 4 people now. Coming up with another $9366.88 (Cat. 11 on June 12 Baltic cruise) at the time of final payment is a lot harder - and that's for the least expensive cabin.

I have no doubt that those of you who go on DCL's Europe cruises in 2010 will have a wonderful time. But please don't assume that those of us who choose other cruise lines for Europe are having any less fun.

 

[DVCconvert]

posted by sbell111:

You've posted the very same thing something like fifteen times in the last week or so. I'm pretty sure that we all understand your poition by now. DCL ios bad, NCL is good. There is no need for you to keep telling us that you've sailed on DCL once and forever more will go a cheaper route.

Perhaps this forum would be a better fit for you.

Time to switch to DeCaf ??

 

[slg]

My accomodations are the least important thing about my cruise. We have sailed cat. 11 twice, cat, 8 once and have booked a cat. 4 for the baltic.

Everyone has different priorities when they travel and those priorities can change depending on finances, economy etc. Having been to Europe many times in the past, I know its expensive. No matter what cruise line, it'll cost more than the caribbean.

The economy is making everyone rethink their choices. We were in Hawaii in December and all the 5 star hotels were suffering but the budget ones weren't. Those who travel, will, some may downgrade.

DCL is a premium line. The Wonder is #1 in Conde Nast Traveler. It will cost more, just like the Disneyland Hotel costs more than Hojo. Its unlikely that the cost will ever be the same as the cheaper cruise lines unless it decides to have a budget-minded cruise ship.

Yes DCL is expensive, yes I would love it to cost less. Especially as I'm a Canadian the exchange is killing us right now! But unless I'm willing to put up with a budget cruise, I expect that the prices will be higher than the other lines.

Will I travel the other lines? Perhaps when the kids are older. We went on an NCL cruise on our honeymoon and didn't know better so liked it. But after traveling DCL it'll be hard to go back. Especially for my kids who love it.

Rather than reducing the prices, DCL could do shipboard credits, which work out the same for the consumer, but DCL gets to keep more of the profit. Its a win/win for DCL I think as they can keep their base prices high so folks stay used to them but offer the OBC as incentives to book.

Couldn't hurt. Certainly as a matter of good faith, removing all oil surcharges immediately for those of us who have booked previously would go a long way to restoring good will.

 

[sbell111]

Get used to it, Steve, because I'm not going away! ...

It's perfectly fine if you believe that DCL is too costly and that you'd rather sail on another. It's even fine if you post this. I simply don't understand why you feel the need to post it over and over and over again.

You've made your point. People will read it. You need not keep posting it over and over and over again.

 

[Rogillio]

DCL's 2010 Europe itineraries have been available to book since October. I think NCL's just opened this month. NCL is the only other mass market cruise line that has their 2010 Europe itineraries available for booking. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity will release their 2010 Europe itineraries in mid-March, and Princess, Holland America, etc. should be about the same time or shortly thereafter.

If it's true that DCL's Baltic cruises are pretty full - I predict that situation won't stay the same once other cruise lines release their 2010 Europe itineraries. For those that stick with the MOUSE, there will always be some who just can't swing the final payment when it comes due. It's one thing to put down a $1200 deposit for 4 people now. Coming up with another $9366.88 (Cat. 11 on June 12 Baltic cruise) at the time of final payment is a lot harder - and that's for the least expensive cabin.

I have no doubt that those of you who go on DCL's Europe cruises in 2010 will have a wonderful time. But please don't assume that those of us who choose other cruise lines for Europe are having any less fun.

I called DCL the first week the cruise opened and all the suites were booked! I got a Cat 4 GTY and wait-listed for Cat 3. And they have STILL booked and I'm told there are over 100 people on the waiting list for the Cat 3s.

DCL did not fill up so fast becuase there were people sitting around waiting for someone to cruise in the Baltic Sea. There have always been cruise ships that sailed the Baltics. DCL filled up becuase people wanted to sail DCL in the Baltics. The same is true for the Med cruise. There have always been Med cruises but it never even crossed our minds to take a Med cruise until DCL sailed the Med.

Just becuase Best Western has rooms for $34 a night in Kissimmee does not mean people are not gonna pay $400 a night to stay at a Disney hotel. It's not all about the coin.

~Mike

 

[NancyIL]

I called DCL the first week the cruise opened and all the suites were booked! I got a Cat 4 GTY and wait-listed for Cat 3. And they have STILL booked and I'm told there are over 100 people on the waiting list for the Cat 3s.

DCL did not fill up so fast becuase there were people sitting around waiting for someone to cruise in the Baltic Sea. There have always been cruise ships that sailed the Baltics. DCL filled up becuase people wanted to sail DCL in the Baltics. The same is true for the Med cruise. There have always been Med cruises but it never even crossed our minds to take a Med cruise until DCL sailed the Med.

I'm not surprised that the suites are sold-out, as there are only 22 of them. There are 855 cabins in categories 4-12. Disney is offering a 20% discount and $400 onboard credit for several of the Med and Barcelona-Dover cruises (cat. 4-11) when booked onboard.

 

[jilljill]

I'm not surprised that the suites are sold-out, as there are only 22 of them. There are 855 cabins in categories 4-12. Disney is offering a 20% discount and $400 onboard credit for several of the Med and Barcelona-Dover cruises (cat. 4-11) when booked onboard.

I noticed you didn't say anything about the Baltics cruises having a larger onboard booking discount. I am on the 7/18 sailing and there are very few cabins that are left to book. Cats. 1-4 are sold out, cats. 5 & 6 are gty only, and the rest are extremely limited on this sailing.
The Baltics cruises are selling better since it's the first time DCL has sailed there and they are only offering 4 sailings, 2 on each itinerary.

 

[NancyIL]

I noticed you didn't say anything about the Baltics cruises having a larger onboard booking discount. I am on the 7/18 sailing and there are very few cabins that are left to book. Cats. 1-4 are sold out, cats. 5 & 6 are gty only, and the rest are extremely limited on this sailing.
The Baltics cruises are selling better since it's the first time DCL has sailed there and they are only offering 4 sailings, 2 on each itinerary.

I didn't say anything because there are no DCL promotions for those cruises. Time will tell if people stay with DCL or decide they can't afford the cruise when it comes time to make the final payment.

 

[lbgraves]

I noticed you didn't say anything about the Baltics cruises having a larger onboard booking discount. I am on the 7/18 sailing and there are very few cabins that are left to book. Cats. 1-4 are sold out, cats. 5 & 6 are gty only, and the rest are extremely limited on this sailing.
The Baltics cruises are selling better since it's the first time DCL has sailed there and they are only offering 4 sailings, 2 on each itinerary.

That is because the Baltic cruises are not included in the onboard booking offer.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2091533

 

[Rogillio]

I'm not surprised that the suites are sold-out, as there are only 22 of them. There are 855 cabins in categories 4-12. Disney is offering a 20% discount and $400 onboard credit for several of the Med and Barcelona-Dover cruises (cat. 4-11) when booked onboard.

I didn't know there were that many rooms on the ship.

Just having a little fun:

877 rooms x say and average of 3 persons per room = 2631 people x an average of about $4000 pp = $10,000,000.

Wow! 10 million bucks!



~Mike

 

[NancyIL]

I didn't know there were that many rooms on the ship.

Just having a little fun:

877 rooms x say and average of 3 persons per room = 2631 people x an average of about $4000 pp = $10,000,000.

Wow! 10 million bucks!



~Mike

Good thing I'm a Disney stockholder!

 

[sbell111]

That's a shocking bit of info.

 

[NancyIL]

That's a shocking bit of info.

Yessiree - I have to remember to cash my 35 cent dividend check one of these days! I used to work for the MOUSE, too - at The Disney Store - until ours closed 3 years ago.

 

[slg]

I don't know if the average is $4,000 pp. We're a family of 5 staying in cat.4 and we're only paying $15,335 for all 5 of us.

Also, with 900 crew members, port fees, gas prices, food, advertising, maintenance, I wonder what their overhead is.

Considering my ABD for 7 days is almost the cost of my 12 night cruise, I didn't think the prices were out of line for what we expect.

 

[Rogillio]

I don't know if the average is $4,000 pp. We're a family of 5 staying in cat.4 and we're only paying $15,335 for all 5 of us.

Also, with 900 crew members, port fees, gas prices, food, advertising, maintenance, I wonder what their overhead is.

Considering my ABD for 7 days is almost the cost of my 12 night cruise, I didn't think the prices were out of line for what we expect.

Can I asked what cruise this is on and how/where you booked? We are booked on the fist Baltic saling in a Cat 4 and it is costing us $15,500 and there are only 4 of us.

~Mike

 

[slg]

We booked on the first day the sailings went on sale. We had an OBD of 10% that we transferred from another cruise. DU did the booking for us.

We are sailing on July 6.

I think the difference in price would be the 10% off.

Also, did you book with DU? I have a $600 OBC from them, as well as a $200 OBC from DCL.

 

[Rogillio]

We booked on the first day the sailings went on sale. We had an OBD of 10% that we transferred from another cruise. DU did the booking for us.

We are sailing on July 6.

I think the difference in price would be the 10% off.

Also, did you book with DU? I have a $600 OBC from them, as well as a $200 OBC from DCL.

Took me a moment to figure out DU. I was thinking "Oh, her darling uncle must be a travel agent" When you asked if my uncled book our trip, it occured to DU was something else. Diseny Unlimited. No, I have no imagination....I just went went to disneycruise.com and booked. $600 OBC is sweet! That would more than cover my wife's bingo losses!

~Mike

 

[slg]

I think you can transfer your booking to DU and get the $600 OBC still. You should check it out.