DCL Europe Summer 2022 approaching - what are you doing?

[Geomom]

We're on the 7 day Northern European out of Copenhagen. It's an entirely different cruise now. I do like all of the new ports, but I'm a little disappointed by the 2 days at sea. This cruise is so expensive, I'm not sure how I feel about 2 full days at sea.

Didn't you have 2 full days at sea before the change as well, days 2 and 7 coming/going from Copenhagen? It just changed days, could be a good break after 2 port days.

 

[Joshonfinal]

It was amazing. We did Stavanger on the 2015 EBTA and did the fjord excursion. It was probably the most scenic trip we have done with DCL. The pictures below don't really do it justice.
View attachment 663831View attachment 663832View attachment 663830

Awesome, any tips or excursion suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[Geomom]

Just curious...did those on the changed itineraries get emails about it? Did DCL offer you any discounts/OBC or anything for such big changes? I know it's far enough out to change without penalty right now, but they should really offer you something... I'm not on either cruise, so doesn't matter to me either way.

 

[mab2012]

Awesome, any tips or excursion suggestions are much appreciated.

Preikestolen.

https://preikestolen365.com/

It's a little tricky to get there (we took public transit), but so worth it.

 

[CarolynU]

We are on the 28th August out and back to Dover or rather we were. This was pushed from a ten night Baltic in 2020 to a 7 night Baltic in 2021 to this 2022.
However, in the UK we’ve only just begun our 5 year plus vaccination and last month my granddaughter caught covid.
Once having caught the virus over here she cannot now receive her first vaccine for twelve weeks and her second 12 weeks later and DCL (CDC) require an additional 14 days so having pushed it from 2020 to 2021 to 2022 we are now excluded from this too.
We haven’t told her as she will be devastated. Plus I believe that our cancelled cruise credit expires at the end of September so that will presumably just be lost!

 

[insureman]

The cruise is still going to Sweden. You really think your safe anywhere if a nuclear war starts. It’s kind of a mute point.

No I do not. I am of the generation that hid under our desks in grammar school during the Cuban Missile crisis.

 

[K8T]

Just curious...did those on the changed itineraries get emails about it? Did DCL offer you any discounts/OBC or anything for such big changes? I know it's far enough out to change without penalty right now, but they should really offer you something... I'm not on either cruise, so doesn't matter to me either way.

No to all!

We had an email in March saying that St Petersburg would be cancelled and they would be looking at a new port of call, on the app it became a sea day.

We had an email today to inform us of the new itinerary. No explanation, no OBC, or incentive to stay with it, despite in my opinion a ‘reduced’ cruise in terms of Ports.

We’re quite shocked to be honest, of course we knew St Petersburg would be out, but to change the whole thing!

 

[brentm77]

No to all!

We had an email in March saying that St Petersburg would be cancelled and they would be looking at a new port of call, on the app it became a sea day.

We had an email today to inform us of the new itinerary. No explanation, no OBC, or incentive to stay with it, despite in my opinion a ‘reduced’ cruise in terms of Ports.

We’re quite shocked to be honest, of course we knew St Petersburg would be out, but to change the whole thing!

I don't have a horse in the race, but I am surprised Disney isn't offering something. I know their contract allows them to make the changes. I know a freaking war lead to the changes. I know it was logistically a huge deal to rework the cruise. But, other lines were able to respond more nimbly, and those who stuck with Disney are getting a very different product then what they signed up for. I think a gesture of goodwill is in order under the circumstances. Something small even. Little things like that help protect future revenue by creating customer loyalty.

 

[tidefan]

I don't have a horse in the race, but I am surprised Disney isn't offering something. I know their contract allows them to make the changes. I know a freaking war lead to the changes. I know it was logistically a huge deal to rework the cruise. But, other lines were able to respond more nimbly, and those who stuck with Disney are getting a very different product then what they signed up for. I think a gesture of goodwill is in order under the circumstances. Something small even. Little things like that help protect future revenue by creating customer loyalty.

Is it final payment date yet? I know our Greek Isles is only 30 days in advance.

 

[DCLMP]

No to all!

We had an email in March saying that St Petersburg would be cancelled and they would be looking at a new port of call, on the app it became a sea day.

We had an email today to inform us of the new itinerary. No explanation, no OBC, or incentive to stay with it, despite in my opinion a ‘reduced’ cruise in terms of Ports.

We’re quite shocked to be honest, of course we knew St Petersburg would be out, but to change the whole thing!

It’s not a horrible itinerary. Its just that if you’ve already done a Norway, Iceland or Northern Europe cruise you’ve done those ports It’s certainly not the same as seeing the Baltic cities. Norway is very pretty just not the same thing. If I had kept this cruise I would be disappointed. It’s way overpriced to begin with. If they offer some GT rates that are 40% off it might be worth it.

 

[DCLMP]

My Royal cruise is Visby, Stockholm, Helsinki, Riga, Gdańsk, and Tallin. I thought DCL would do something along those lines. At least I have no desire to switch anymore. I’ll use the savings for a b2b on the Wish in Sept and I’ll still come out a couple thousand a head. I originally booked the 7/30 cruise for itinerary, but when they cancelled Russia spending that much money on one cruise just made no sense. It’s the most expensive cruise I ever considered sailing.

 

[mmmears]

Awesome, any tips or excursion suggestions are much appreciated.

We really enjoyed our time in Norway, so I'll share some of the highlights.

Stavanger - if you are a good hiker, you can hike up to Pulpit Rock and see the fjord from above. If you want to travel down the fjord, you can book a small ship tour through rodne . no (IIRC). Their boats were docked right in front of the Magic, so it's easy to just walk over there. You can also book either of these through DCL if you prefer to pay more for an organized excursion. There's also a cool Petroleum Museum in town (walking distance to the ship) and it's one that is hands-on and interactive.

Alesund - We wanted to go to the city overlook and also the Sunmore Open Air Museum (neat to see actual log cabins and homes from the past) so we took a DCL excursion that included both places since we had a short port day in Alesund. It's a very pretty city. The sail-in in the morning was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.

Oslo - there are few little museums all in Bygsdoy (sp?) and the Viking Ship Museum and the Flam Museum were definitely our favorites. You can get there on public transportation (ferry or bus). Oslo is the capitol, but it's not huge and it's an easy city to tour on your on walking or using their very reliable and safe metro (T-bane). There's a ski museum and great views if you go to the Holmenkollen ski jump, you can see the original "Scream" by Munch, and if you walk down the main street there (Karl Johan's Gate) there's nice shopping and cafes and it will lead you to their royal palace. Oh, and the original Akershus Castle is there and open for touring.

 

[mab2012]

It’s not a horrible itinerary. Its just that if you’ve already done a Norway, Iceland or Northern Europe cruise you’ve done those ports It’s certainly not the same as seeing the Baltic cities. Norway is very pretty just not the same thing. If I had kept this cruise I would be disappointed. It’s way overpriced to begin with. If they offer some GT rates that are 40% off it might be worth it.

Yeah, I agree with this. I would actually love the new itinerary (on the 11-day, anyway), but at that price...?

We looked at both the 11-day Baltics and the 12-day Med. The only reason we even considered either of those was because the 2020 WBPC discount and OBB combined brought the price down to something we could at least contemplate. Even then, I still think it's expensive. We settled on the Med itinerary in the end, so these changes don't impact us, but if we'd chosen the Baltics and ended up with this itinerary, I think I would have struggled (even more) to justify the price. Especially since we've already been to several of the ports.

We did a Northern European with DCL a few years ago, and it was great, but it was at the very end of August when most American kids are back in school, and even families that go back after Labour Day tend to avoid travel, so the price was far more reasonable.

 

[DCLMP]

Yeah, I agree with this. I would actually love the new itinerary (on the 11-day, anyway), but at that price...?

We looked at both the 11-day Baltics and the 12-day Med. The only reason we even considered either of those was because the 2020 WBPC discount and OBB combined brought the price down to something we could at least contemplate. Even then, I still think it's expensive. We settled on the Med itinerary in the end, so these changes don't impact us, but if we'd chosen the Baltics and ended up with this itinerary, I think I would have struggled (even more) to justify the price. Especially since we've already been to several of the ports.

We did a Northern European with DCL a few years ago, and it was great, but it was at the very end of August when most American kids are back in school, and even families that go back after Labour Day tend to avoid travel, so the price was far more reasonable.

Other cruise lines have better itineraries at 1/5 the cost. I love DCL, but I have to slap myself back into reality sometimes. I'm looking forward to the Wish though, not cheap, but at least it's a unique new ship.

 

[otten]

Yeah, I agree with this. I would actually love the new itinerary (on the 11-day, anyway), but at that price...?

We looked at both the 11-day Baltics and the 12-day Med. The only reason we even considered either of those was because the 2020 WBPC discount and OBB combined brought the price down to something we could at least contemplate. Even then, I still think it's expensive. We settled on the Med itinerary in the end, so these changes don't impact us, but if we'd chosen the Baltics and ended up with this itinerary, I think I would have struggled (even more) to justify the price. Especially since we've already been to several of the ports.

We did a Northern European with DCL a few years ago, and it was great, but it was at the very end of August when most American kids are back in school, and even families that go back after Labour Day tend to avoid travel, so the price was far more reasonable.

The thing is the timing for this cruise is a big reason for the price, not just the original itinerary with StP. We originally booked the 2021 Baltic with our discount which was supposed to sail mid August. When that cruise was cancelled and the 2022 dates released the 2022 version was substantially more expensive because it was sailing beginning of August not mid. We ended up choosing the Norway Iceland Scotland instead which was priced closer to the 2021 Baltic. So I imagine DCL is justifying the lack of price change with that. I don’t think that’s fair since people BOOKED for the ports but that’s probably what DCL is thinking.

 

[K8T]

I don't have a horse in the race, but I am surprised Disney isn't offering something. I know their contract allows them to make the changes. I know a freaking war lead to the changes. I know it was logistically a huge deal to rework the cruise. But, other lines were able to respond more nimbly, and those who stuck with Disney are getting a very different product then what they signed up for. I think a gesture of goodwill is in order under the circumstances. Something small even. Little things like that help protect future revenue by creating customer loyalty.

Exactly. We have done all the ports before out of Copenhagen, Oslo several times. We had done St Petersburg too to be fair, but it is one of those places … also our daughter was a lot younger so would appreciate it more.

I was particularly looking forward to Tallin and did wonder if they would swap StP for Gdańsk which would have been a good option.

Even a hundred or so OBC for each person would have been a sweetener. It’s the first time I’ve feel let down by DCL and we’re well into Platinum

.

 

[giantwiant]

Does anyone think the new itineraries will make the ships less full? I know Disney will sell as many staterooms as they can, but I'm current reservations will be canceled. I noticed that there is now a concierge stateroom available for the August 10th cruise that wasn't available before.

 

[Marthasor]

Does anyone think the new itineraries will make the ships less full? I know Disney will sell as many staterooms as they can, but I'm current reservations will be canceled. I noticed that there is now a concierge stateroom available for the August 10th cruise that wasn't available before.

Interestingly, the new August 10th itinerary looks more interesting to me and we have a discount from our Wish cruise cancellation, so we are going to consider this one. I would imagine many people who booked with the original ports will be disappointed, however.

 

[diablodancer]

Out of interest for anyone on either of these cruises and in groups for them - what’s been the general reaction? Are there a lot of cancellations?

 

[DCLMP]

Does anyone think the new itineraries will make the ships less full? I know Disney will sell as many staterooms as they can, but I'm current reservations will be canceled. I noticed that there is now a concierge stateroom available for the August 10th cruise that wasn't available before.

The sailings were empty before this change. There has been a lot of availability for months. My guess is they'll be dropping some GT, MTO, CM, and TA rates in an effort to fill up the sailings. I still would not expect the sailings to be very full. Other cruise lines are struggling to sell their Europeans cruises too. I think what would increase bookings would be the US dropping the testing requirement to return home.