DCL Europe Summer 2022 approaching - what are you doing?

[Budzooka]

We are on the July 6 sailing and moving forward. Booking window opens soon and planning excursions. This is a high school graduation present for DD that pushed a year and we can’t wait!

 

[brentm77]

We are on the July 6 sailing and moving forward. Booking window opens soon and planning excursions. This is a high school graduation present for DD that pushed a year and we can’t wait!

That's good to hear! Ours is also a high school graduation celebration, pushed from two years ago! My daughter is halfway through college now. Crossing our fingers this is the year in finally happens. I am getting more and more optimistic that Disney will sail Europe this summer, particularly after having a short exchange with one of the prominent DCL bloggers, who thinks Disney will sail Europe too.

 

[DCLMP]

That's good to hear! Ours is also a high school graduation celebration, pushed from two years ago! My daughter is halfway through college now. Crossing our fingers this is the year in finally happens. I am getting more and more optimistic that Disney will sail Europe this summer, particularly after having a short exchange with one of the prominent DCL bloggers, who thinks Disney will sail Europe too.

If they are not they better hurry up and tell people. The TA is only 6 weeks away. I'm guessing they haven't put out protocols for Europe yet. If the protocols are such they people don't want to participate how the heck are they going to get through to cancel with the phone line situation.

 

[Joshonfinal]

If they are not they better hurry up and tell people. The TA is only 6 weeks away. I'm guessing they haven't put out protocols for Europe yet. If the protocols are such they people don't want to participate how the heck are they going to get through to cancel with the phone line situation.

No protocols so far or, at least, we have not received any. I think that is the part that really is frustrating me, DCL waiting until the very last second. We are supposed to receive news of the replacement port for St. Petersburg and it’s right up against their own deadlines plus the platinum booking window opens in 2 days yet no info. Just really frustrating and hard to firm up plans. It not like passengers trying to adjust for a cruise out of FL, things take a bit more work.

 

[holula]

If they are not they better hurry up and tell people. The TA is only 6 weeks away. I'm guessing they haven't put out protocols for Europe yet. If the protocols are such they people don't want to participate how the heck are they going to get through to cancel with the phone line situation.

They’ve just released a load of *GT rates on the early Europe cruises so I can’t see them not sailing Europe this year.

 

[mab2012]

We are also booked on the July 6 sailing and right now we intend to sail, but it will depend somewhat on the protocols and any restrictions still in place. Even with the 40% WBPC credit, I still think it's too much money to drop on a reduced experience.

I do feel badly for those who are on the earlier sailings with this void of information. We at least have time on our side, with final payment pushed to early May.

 

[Denise69]

I’m on the August 10th Northern European out of Copenhagen that was supposed to have one day at St Petersburg. As long as they replace it with another port, we plan to go. If they make it a day at sea, we will pass. This cruise is way too much money for two days at sea.

We are on your cruise. The whole reason booking this cruise was St. Petersburg. And this was after Disney canceled our Northern Europe Cruise in 2021. So frustrating, but at the same time I understand world events are unpredictable. I hope they find a REALLY good replacement port. I do not want another day at sea.

 

[Denise69]

No protocols so far or, at least, we have not received any. I think that is the part that really is frustrating me, DCL waiting until the very last second. We are supposed to receive news of the replacement port for St. Petersburg and it’s right up against their own deadlines plus the platinum booking window opens in 2 days yet no info. Just really frustrating and hard to firm up plans. It not like passengers trying to adjust for a cruise out of FL, things take a bit more work.

We already booked flights and hotels before and after the cruise. It is super frustrating after we had to cancel everything last year. I’m hoping today or tomorrow we get the news we need.

 

[Joshonfinal]

We already booked flights and hotels before and after the cruise. It is super frustrating after we had to cancel everything last year. I’m hoping today or tomorrow we get the news we need.

I’m with you, our flights and hotels are booked also. Just crossing our fingers at this point. I really don’t want to have to make changes if I can avoid it.

 

[newfamilyman]

We finally pulled the plug yesterday on our 11-night cruise which included the St. Petersburg overnight. It was inexcusably cheap for Disney to provide no discount on the cruise without this port. It's like they replaced an entree with side dishes but are still charging for the entree.

 

[DCSWO]

Are you all referring to onboard / testing protocols for the actual ship? The entry requirements for European port countries are all published so it's really just down to what testing (if any) DCL wants to do. Given that the embarkations will all be outside of the U.S., I would guess DCL will provide whatever testing they require on site. They are probably trying to wait as long as they can, so they can base their protocols on the latest information. It wouldn't surprise me if there was no testing requirement by the time we sail in September.

 

[Joshonfinal]

We finally pulled the plug yesterday on our 11-night cruise which included the St. Petersburg overnight. It was inexcusably cheap for Disney to provide no discount on the cruise without this port. It's like they replaced an entree with side dishes but are still charging for the entree.

I might be misunderstanding but I’m on the same sailing, have you heard what the St. Petersburg replacement will be or just that any replacement warrants a discount (I agree by the way). While we are still going at this point I’m not impressed with two additional sea days. Those better be replaced with additional ports.

 

[newfamilyman]

I might be misunderstanding but I’m on the same sailing, have you heard what the St. Petersburg replacement will be or just that any replacement warrants a discount (I agree by the way). While we are still going at this point I’m not impressed with two additional sea days. Those better be replaced with additional ports.

I wrote three e-mails to the president of DCL to voice my complaints, which went unanswered but were passed on to someone from DCL leadership who called me. This person, Joey, explained that they were considering three possible outcomes: repeating a port, increasing the sea days, or replacing with a different port. What he assured me was not under discussion was any kind of refund or lowering of the cost of the cruise. He assured me that the itinerary would be updated before the date that I could start choosing activities. The more I thought about it, though, the more frustrated I was with their position to charge the same amount for a cruise that barely justified its cost with St. Petersburg. I'm hoping that the low occupancy of this cruise, which seems to be getting lower with every day, sends Disney a message that there are limits to what they can charge and still fill a ship.

 

[Denise69]

I might be misunderstanding but I’m on the same sailing, have you heard what the St. Petersburg replacement will be or just that any replacement warrants a discount (I agree by the way). While we are still going at this point I’m not impressed with two additional sea days. Those better be replaced with additional ports.

We are on the 8/10 Northern Europe cruise. I hadn’t even thought of how DCL could or would discount missing that port. I really don’t want to give up after waiting two years and having booked everything before and after.

 

[DCSWO]

Unfortunately for the Baltic, there just aren't a ton of great options to add in place of St. Petersburg. Warnemünde (Berlin), Riga, Oslo (might be a distance issue). We took the northern Europe cruise in 2018. If they had dropped St. Petersburg, I would have changed cruises. Per the cruise line contract, which you have to sign in order to sail, they don't offer refunds or discounts for missing a scheduled port and they don't have to replace it with another port. This isn't just Disney, it's all cruise lines.

 

[Denise69]

I wrote three e-mails to the president of DCL to voice my complaints, which went unanswered but were passed on to someone from DCL leadership who called me. This person, Joey, explained that they were considering three possible outcomes: repeating a port, increasing the sea days, or replacing with a different port. What he assured me was not under discussion was any kind of refund or lowering of the cost of the cruise. He assured me that the itinerary would be updated before the date that I could start choosing activities. The more I thought about it, though, the more frustrated I was with their position to charge the same amount for a cruise that barely justified its cost with St. Petersburg. I'm hoping that the low occupancy of this cruise, which seems to be getting lower with every day, sends Disney a message that there are limits to what they can charge and still fill a ship.

Repeating a port would make me so mad! An extra sea day is barely acceptable since they do not have enough activities to do on sea days. On our EBTA we had two extra sea days due to bad weather. Everything was crowded with no where to sit. I’m getting angry thinking this might be the same.

 

[newfamilyman]

Unfortunately for the Baltic, there just aren't a ton of great options to add in place of St. Petersburg. Warnemünde (Berlin), Riga, Oslo (might be a distance issue). We took the northern Europe cruise in 2018. If they had dropped St. Petersburg, I would have changed cruises. Per the cruise line contract, which you have to sign in order to sail, they don't offer refunds or discounts for missing a scheduled port and they don't have to replace it with another port. This isn't just Disney, it's all cruise lines.

I think you have to distinguish between the letter of the law and what a cruise operator can do to encourage customers to still sail with them. I understand that DCL is under no financial obligation to lower the price. However, I doubt that I'm the only one who booked this cruise because of its headliner (St. Petersburg) and is unwilling to pay the same price for the warm-up act alone. Sorry about the multiple metaphors. While Disney is under no contractual obligation, they could have handled it a lot better than they did, which is the message that I expressed to them.

 

[newfamilyman]

Repeating a port would make me so mad! An extra sea day is barely acceptable since they do not have enough activities to do on sea days. On our EBTA we had two extra sea days due to bad weather. Everything was crowded with no where to sit. I’m getting angry thinking this might be the same.

Yes, and I sat with a similar anger for some time before deciding to cancel the reservation. When you book on points, it's still a pain to have to cancel reservations, but at least you don't actually lose anything. I might have felt differently if I had non-refundable transportation.

 

[DCLMP]

They’ve just released a load of *GT rates on the early Europe cruises so I can’t see them not sailing Europe this year.

I noticed that too, but in order to book one of those rates, I think you would want to know what the protocols are. They are non-refundable.

 

[DCLMP]

We are on the 8/10 Northern Europe cruise. I hadn’t even thought of how DCL could or would discount missing that port. I really don’t want to give up after waiting two years and having booked everything before and after.

They won't discount missing a port for those already booked, but they may offer some great GT rates to get people to book. You may end up paying more for your cruise than people that haven't booked yet.