Capt. John's Comments About Re-location of Magic and Wonder

[Anal Annie]

According to our TA the DCL med cruises are not selling as they had hoped they would. Plenty of room if one has the money. The public may wish for exotic ports but they do come at a high price and a lot of people can afford the Caribbean but not Europe. I would guess the same for any exotic port cruise. Alaska cruises are always high priced. What our TA says about Alaska, the market is saturated and the season is short. So who knows, if there is the demand from DCL fans they just might try it. I would skip that one, I get enough of cold living here in the Midwest that when it is warm in the summer I am not going somewhere where the temps could be only in the 50 to 60 range. My sister has and loved it, to each his own.

What makes the most sense: keep the two new ships in the Caribbean year round. They could also add a southern route starting from San Juan to add interest. Move one of the original ships to the west coast and link it to Disneyland. Use the other ship to try other cruises, Med., Asian, etc... or keep it in the Caribbean.

We would have done a 7 day Caribbean cruise this summer on the Magic if she was here but she isn't. We opted for the parks. I know from reading the boards a lot of people wished the Magic was still here for the 7 day because this was when their schedules allowed time for a 7 day cruise. A back to back Wonder is not the same experience. Close, but not the same. People also aren't that thrilled she will be gone again next year so there is a demand for 7 day Caribbean cruises year round. Who knows what DCL will choose to do. We all have to sit and what.

I really hope they DO keep one of the new ships in the Caribbean 12 months a year! I wanted desperately to go on the Med cruises & I priced it out like 3 different times, including thru Costco - but by the time the airfare was added I just couldn't see affording it. I think that a lot of people booked them early on thinking they could come up with the money by the time the bal. was due, then couldn't do it. Then DCL had to start dropping their prices - well, guess what? Too late for those of us who made other plans thinking we couldn't afford to go! If they'd been priced reasonable from the start they'd have been full (IMO).

Anyway, so we decided to plan for NEXT summer in the Caribbean - then they announced they were doing the West Coast again. Been there, done that for us (rotten weather - no desire to go again in the summer). SO-O we booked the Wonder on back-to-backs. I hope it works out OK - I'd have much rather done a Western or Southern Caribbean tho. I think they NEED a ship to run 7-10 n year round out of PC.

We always vacation in the summer when school's out - so it's expensive and not knowing where the new ships will be placed, we have already started our 2012 cruise fund - I want to be prepared next time - so if it's the Med or Asia & it's a LOT of money - then we won't be taken by surprise & we're ready to cough up the dough!