DCL - Hope You're Paying Attention!!

[Pea-n-Me]

What the heck happened???

Your prices skyrocketed for 2006!!

People are looking at other cruise lines.

We love DCL and want to be loyal - but how much more can we take???

 

[talicskai]

I agree that the rates are quite high and am unable to go myself because I cannot justify it when I have already been on three others. However, someone has to pay for all the freebies DCL gave out during the last four weeks. I am still shocked that they are giving huge discounts out to passengers that knowingly booked during hurricane season. It is great for those passengers with their 50% off voucher but not so great for the rest of us....

 

[lookingforward]

I don't think that DCL gave any "freebies" away. They ran shortened cruises thus providing less services. We were on the 9/26 Wonder that left on 9/27. We incurred extra transportation expenses, an extra night in a hotel, etc. We were offered a 40% discount on cruise fare only. That amounts to about $700 for a $2500 fare. While I feel this is a fair deal it was by no means a freebie in my book. I think we should remember that while DCL customers do choose to book during hurricane season..DCL also chooses to sail. We both are taking a chance. Other cruises affected by the hurricane had other incentives due to the major changes that occured. Our ship lost approximately 600 passangers out of 2500. I doubt it was a total loss for DCL and it certainly would not cause such major price increases for 2006. The new prices seem very, very high. In my opinion.

 

[talicskai]

Lookingforward:
I am sorry if I offended you I was actually referring to the 50% discount offer for future cruises that allows them to travel any time of year.

 

[MBFergie]

2006 rates are insane. Add me to the list of families who will be looking at other cruise lines.

I agree about all the future cruise discounts. Disney needs to become consistent with the policy. Great for everybody who got them but what about those of us on the August 7 cruise who received nothing when we arrived late after Charley went thru the area. Alot of flights were missed causing alot of people to find hotels for up to 2 days. Alot of people were renting cars since they missed their flights to get to other airports.

So DCL if you are reading this, pick a policy and stick to it! If I book during hurricane season, I should have trip insurance to cover the additional expenses if a hurricane disrupts my trip.

Okay, did I ramble to much here....sorry.

 

[pogopossum]

for a lot of reasons those rebook discounts whether 25% or 50% will not cause much economic distress on DCL. many passengers for many different reasons will choose not to use them, and even if all the passengers got together and booked the same cruise(s)
you would only be talking about maybe 1/30th of the cruises for the whole year.

also as my fil the retired cm told me when they thought about doing away with unlimited escorted gate entrances to the parks, they figured out that even cm's families and friends spend money when in the parks, (maybe more than they would have otherwise), so conventional wisdom would say get these people back on board as soon as possible and they will spend enough there to make up for most of the discounts, and man will not get out and see what life on another line is like.

 

[lookingforward]

Oh, no, you did not offend. I definately agree that DCL should be consistent with the incentives they offer for the shortened cruises. Quite honestly, on our recent four night cruise that was turned into three nights, I don't think we were treated as fairly as the Magic cruise during the same period. They got much more because disney stated that they lost two nights instead of our one night. But really, with people still boarding well after 9 p.m. on the Wonder they too, in fact, lost that second night as well.

I think that they come up with things as they go and it has not been consistent. But I truly don't think that the recent events have affected DCL enough to hike up their prices so much for 2006. It is getting truly difficult for the average family of four or five to pay well over 5,000 for a week's vacation. Now I am not saying its not worth it, but really, it is out of the reach for many. So even though RCCL or Princess are not the same as DCL I think many people will choose to pay 3,000 instead of 5,000 for a week at sea. But DCL is booking it's ships so maybe I am wrong! We'll see.

 

[ericamanda01]

Now I may be wrong but I have read on other threads that the future discounts that were given out can not be used during peak or holiday seasons. I agree that the prices have gone up, but so has the amount of passengers cruising with Disney. We have spead the word and people are listening! I have cruised during hurrican season and actually just returned from the 9-19 cruise. One of the few that wasn't affected and made all the stops. But I choose to go in the off season because it is the only time of year that we can afford. I never expect to get any compensation if something were to change my cruise, but I don't think it's fair to blame the price increase on those that were given future discounts. Please don't flame me.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by talicskai
However, someone has to pay for all the freebies DCL gave out during the last four weeks. I am still shocked that they are giving huge discounts out to passengers that knowingly booked during hurricane season.

Are you KIDDING me??? Surely you can't be serious as you've just really offended a large population of DISrs including myself.

Have a magical day, talicskai!

edited to add after reading all posts again...
I have to agree wholeheartedly that it IS a risk when traveling during hurricane season. And I also totally agree that the policy should be the same for all.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by pogopossum
also as my fil the retired cm told me when they thought about doing away with unlimited escorted gate entrances to the parks, they figured out that even cm's families and friends spend money when in the parks, (maybe more than they would have otherwise), so conventional wisdom would say get these people back on board as soon as possible and they will spend enough there to make up for most of the discounts, and man will not get out and see what life on another line is like.

Yes....very true.
And although we tried our darndest to get on that cruise last month, we just couldn't. In fact, we won't be able to take advantage of our 25% off voucher before OCT of next year. BUT we're booked at FULL PRICE for October 2006.

 

[talicskai]

Originally posted by CRSNDSNY
Are you KIDDING me??? Surely you can't be serious as you've just really offended a large population of DISrs including myself.

Have a magical day, talicskai!

edited to add after reading all posts again...
I have to agree wholeheartedly that it IS a risk when traveling during hurricane season. And I also totally agree that the policy should be the same for all.

As I'm sure you saw on the other post ~ I most certainly did not intend to offend anyone ~ however, the OP's question was "what the heck happened?" so IMHO I think the last four weeks have cost DCL millions. Correct me if I am wrong but I have been in the travel business for 15 years and Never has an Act of God been given compensation. That is what cancellation insurance is for. DCL has been extremely generous in giving these future travel credits and while I agree those people will spend lots onboard, the other expenses will not be recouped. This is a discussion board and I was giving my opinion ~ it does not have to the same opinion as yours. Nor does yours have to be the same as mine.

This is the last of my posts regarding this ~ I'm sorry I even replied.

 

[endkaos]

DCL was not forthcoming with information. Decisions were not made timely and people were inconvinienced because of it.

Other cruise lines effectively used email, websites and travel agents to dissiminate information about port, itinerary and other changes so guests could make informed decisions. DCL did not and ended up having to reasonable compensate guests for this lack of communication.

Also, all these compensations will be written off as a 4th quarter loss along with losses at WDW revenues. It's not like DCL is absorbing this all dollar for dollar.

 

[dzneprincess]

Have they really skyrocketed that much? Pardon my ignorance as we normally sail in the off season, last year we paid a little over $4000 for 2 connecting cat 10s for 2 adults and 3 kids in Oct. In 06, we are paying $5100 for 2 adults and 4 kids in May. I always htought it was way more of a price difference to sail in the summer. So, is that a lot more than 04 or 05?

 

[maminnie]

Prices are high especially for peak times. A 7 night Eastern at Easter (4/15/06) was quoted at approx. $8200 (2 adults, 2 kids 3-12). This included insurance without air and transfers in a cat. 5. This was also the first morning of booking before it hit the internet.

Back at the two year mark (4/06), I could have booked a RCCL Voyager ship western for approx. $5100. Quite a difference!! It also was a great itinerary too.

 

[tvguy]

Simple law of supply and demand. The demand exceeds the capacity of the ships, so you raise prices. If demand drops, prices will drop, but so far it hasn't. And since we're talking 2006, DCL has 1 to 2 years to make adjustments.

I can not speak for the people who had to live through all the hassles with the hurricanes and changes. That must have been stressful, but I do not understand how they could NOT know about the changes. I'm 4000 miles away on the West Coast and thanks to my computer knew everything that Disney was doing well in advance.
I was amused at some of the folks who got off the Magic in Galveston and were upset Disney didn't do more for them. Wow, I think DCL did an amazing time shuttling people around at a port they had never been to before, on a few hours notice, 1000 miles from any of their operations.

As for discounts....well unless it's 100% off the next cruise, it's still going to cost me money I probably wasn't planning to spend. My cruise cost nearly $10k, a 25 % discount saves me $2500, but I have to spend $7500 to get the discount.
I have no problems with on board credits, that's more helpful.
No doubt the longer DCL operates, the smarter they are going to get about what incentives they give, so yes, future travelers may be different, and maybe better compensation.
As a Disney stockholder, I am concerned about costs. But I bet even with the incentives giving, all the cruises that went out with passengers made money. Maybe not a lot, but they made money.
As talicskai mentioned this was weather related, and the travel industry no longer compensates for problems because of that.
That's why travel insurance is so hot now. I'm not sure it's been 15 years since that changed. My daughter is 13 and on a couple of family trips we had weather delays, and until recently the airlines always offered food vouchers, and other compensation even for that. Never got a hotel room, but did get food vouchers several times for weather delays going through DFW.

 

[SchultzFamily]

I just went to the DCL site and got a price quote for a 7 night Western the beginning of August 2006 and a Land/Sea the beginning of August 2006 and compared those prices to the Land/Sea we went on the beginning of August 2004 and the 7 night West Coast we have booked of the beginning of August 2005. I found the August 2006 prices to be lower. August 2006 7 night was $400 less than what we are paying for 2005 West Coast and August 2006 Land/Sea was $80 less. Category 6 for all and same amount of people, same hotel for Land/Sea.
Vickie

 

[pogopossum]

the other thing about the 25% discount is that it is only 15% more than we would have gotten had we rebooked on board, and now that we are home and it has been more than three days since cruise we will not get the $200 on board credit if we use dvc points. so these discounts don't cost disney as much as you would think.

 

[lookingforward]

TVGUY makes some great points. However, speaking as a south Florida resident who recently cruised immediately after Hurricane Jeanne, it was virtually impossible to keep up with information as Tvguy did from California. Why? Because we had no electricity and then we were in a hotel with very limited internet. Numerous calls to DCL to find out what was going on met with great frustration for two reasons. One was that I often could not get through and held on the phone for a long time (my cell phone that was racking up minutes!) and then number two, when I did get through I heard a different story every time. I totally understand that the confusion was not meant to be and that DCL was dealing with a huge issue, but being in the middle of a hurricane limits your access to information.

I would like to address those who state that those who travel during hurricanes should know the risks. I don't think we can compare the compensation for a hurricane shortened cruise to a delayed flight. If Delta delays my flight from Thursday to Friday they are still giving me exactly what I paid for, albeit a day later. Weather delays when flying aircraft are unavoidable and for passangers safety. Delaying a cruise due to hurricane is also for the passangers and ship crew safety, definately. But if DCL delays sailing from Thursday to Friday they are not providing me with exactly what I paid for. It is one less day's lodging, one less day's food, one less day's entertainment. Now, if they added a day on to the end of the cruise then we would be even!

 

[kshabare]

This is the time I am happy we've already booked for February 2005. I just went into Disney.com and the quote for a Cat 9 Deluxe Oceanview is $3881.20. We're in cabin 2620, Category 9 Outside cabin for $3624.20. That's without air but with transfers and no insurance. We're castaway club members as well as receiving early booking discounts. We've also already booked our air so that price is locked in as well.

Play it smart - if you want to go - book now. I beleive you can cancel 60 days prior to sailing. At least you'd lock in your price. If the price goes down we would be entitled to a credit on our stateroom!

Kim

 

[smahoney6]

My travel agent said no more group discount rates in 2006 gave me a higher quote- for thanksgiving 2006 vs thanksgiving 2005 - about $1500 higher. We loved our cruise this year but that's a lot of money for a family of 7. Don't know if we can do it again.....