DCL Summer 2017 Megathread - Itineraries are out!

[Bree]

Why does DCL have to be so darn secretive? RCCL posts a schedule on their website telling you the release date for certain sailings.

 

[Hundredacre]

I am actually kind of thinking they are falling apart a bit. They did randomly "let go" a large portion of their IT department about a year and a half ago and replace them with people on H1B visas with 0 experience. With the amount they spend on marketing their brand you would think at least one executive would have realized the relatively small amount of savings they got from that would not be worth the cost of having their name dragged through the mud. They have been doing a lot of stupid, stupid things lately. It does not make any sense to not release their sailings for the following summer, etc., unless... they just are so not on top of it, they cannot release them yet. From my vantage point, all the other cruise lines look a whole lot more organized and professional. Just an anecdotal aside: I spoke to someone from Norwegian cruise lines for the first time yesterday. Their customer service was so far superior to dcl it was shocking.

 

[RedSox68]

I am actually kind of thinking they are falling apart a bit. They did randomly "let go" a large portion of their IT department about a year and a half ago and replace them with people on H1B visas with 0 experience. With the amount they spend on marketing their brand you would think at least one executive would have realized the relatively small amount of savings they got from that would not be worth the cost of having their name dragged through the mud. They have been doing a lot of stupid, stupid things lately. It does not make any sense to not release their sailings for the following summer, etc., unless... they just are so not on top of it, they cannot release them yet. From my vantage point, all the other cruise lines look a whole lot more organized and professional. Just an anecdotal aside: I spoke to someone from Norwegian cruise lines for the first time yesterday. Their customer service was so far superior to dcl it was shocking.

I agree. They seem to be going backwards with customer service -- and most definitely with the speed of their website for both check in, bookings and just researching a cruise. It is so unbelievably slow and constantly breaking down. Every other cruise we have taken, when it comes time to log in to book excursions, dinners, check in, etc., we never have to wait and the whole thing takes maybe 5 minutes. And these are cruise lines with triple plus the number of ships Disney has -- and they can handle it.

It is beyond me how they think adding two more ships is the way to go right now when they can't get their services upgraded or have enough reps to take calls. Half the time you call, the person you are speaking with doesn't have the answers -- or if you call back you get a completely different answer. It never used to be this way!

If they think they are stalling to keep people from switching their 2016 cruises to 2017, what they should realize is that by stalling they are driving people to look elsewhere! And once their "loyal" passengers start seeing better pricing, it's going to have a domino affect on Disney.

 

[Bree]

I already have a March 2018 cruise booked on RCCL!!!

 

[Hundredacre]

I already have a March 2018 cruise booked on RCCL!!!

We booked a Dec 2017 on ncl last night.

 

[SilenceDoGood]

The wait has made me go looking elsewhere. I have been researching summer 2017 itineraries for RCCL, NCL, Celebrity, Princess and even Holland America. I cannot believe the LARGE difference in pricing. It's truly shocking at times, particularly for European itineraries that tend to be port intensive. I mean we love Mickey, but c'mon! DCL fares can be $1000-$2000 over the quoted prices of other cruise lines. When you are spending your entire day on dry land and only getting back to basically eat and sleep, it makes no sense to book DCL. We could use the savings for our land excursions. My wife is making me wait (not so patiently) until DCL releases the summer itineraries for next year. However, if the pricing isn't within a reasonable range (say no more than $400-$700 over other cruise fares), then we'll very likely be jumping ship.

 

[tinydancr06]

The wait has made me go looking elsewhere. I have been researching summer 2017 itineraries for RCCL, NCL, Celebrity, Princess and even Holland America. I cannot believe the LARGE difference in pricing. It's truly shocking at times, particularly for European itineraries that tend to be port intensive. I mean we love Mickey, but c'mon! DCL fares can be $1000-$2000 over the quoted prices of other cruise lines. When you are spending your entire day on dry land and only getting back to basically eat and sleep, it makes no sense to book DCL. We could use the savings for our land excursions. My wife is making me wait (not so patiently) until DCL releases the summer itineraries for next year. However, if the pricing isn't within a reasonable range (say no more than $400-$700 over other cruise fares), then we'll very likely be jumping ship.

I have recently compared other cruise lines' pricing for Europe with Disney's too and you're totally right. As much as I love Disney, the difference is shocking! I saw great pricing for NCL Epic which I have toured and sailed on her sister ship the Getaway. It's an amazing ship! Looking to do Europe sometime in the next few years and that's probably how we would go if we were booking now.

I'm still looking forward to seeing DCL's Fall 2017 Caribbean sailings, though!

 

[tink1970]

Due to my husband's schedule I have to plan way out. Fortunately I was able to reschedule a 7 night eastern to a 3 day Bahamas (we'd originally booked Concierge so didn't want to lose my deposit) and this will be it. Other companies are calling...and not playing this waiting game.

 

[KayKayJS]

I can't believe they're not out yet.... The wait is torture.... We're trying to figure out honeymoon/wedding timing around this...

 

[Ofinn]

The wait has made me go looking elsewhere. I have been researching summer 2017 itineraries for RCCL, NCL, Celebrity, Princess and even Holland America. I cannot believe the LARGE difference in pricing. It's truly shocking at times, particularly for European itineraries that tend to be port intensive. I mean we love Mickey, but c'mon! DCL fares can be $1000-$2000 over the quoted prices of other cruise lines. When you are spending your entire day on dry land and only getting back to basically eat and sleep, it makes no sense to book DCL. We could use the savings for our land excursions. My wife is making me wait (not so patiently) until DCL releases the summer itineraries for next year. However, if the pricing isn't within a reasonable range (say no more than $400-$700 over other cruise fares), then we'll very likely be jumping ship.

1 to 2k? I found it to be more like 10k on the longer cruises in Europe.

 

[RedSox68]

1 to 2k? I found it to be more like 10k on the longer cruises in Europe.

I agree. The difference between the price we got on Princess for the 12-night British Isles to the one Disney was quoting amounted to about an $8,000 difference! That's another cruise -- or two!

 

[RedSox68]

Well, as the last day of March comes to an end -- and tomorrow being Friday -- I guess we're looking (and hoping) for next week?!?

 

[Hundredacre]

The wait has made me go looking elsewhere. I have been researching summer 2017 itineraries for RCCL, NCL, Celebrity, Princess and even Holland America. I cannot believe the LARGE difference in pricing. It's truly shocking at times, particularly for European itineraries that tend to be port intensive. I mean we love Mickey, but c'mon! DCL fares can be $1000-$2000 over the quoted prices of other cruise lines. When you are spending your entire day on dry land and only getting back to basically eat and sleep, it makes no sense to book DCL. We could use the savings for our land excursions. My wife is making me wait (not so patiently) until DCL releases the summer itineraries for next year. However, if the pricing isn't within a reasonable range (say no more than $400-$700 over other cruise fares), then we'll very likely be jumping ship.

1 to 2k? I found it to be more like 10k on the longer cruises in Europe.

We have 3 future bookings with other cruise lines (want to try them all!). We have not done Europe (used to live there and over it). We are sun people and have found the price on the carribean ones we have booked to be double if not more than double. We need two rooms and are saving in the $4,500-7k range on each cruise. And we are only booking on new ships on these other lines. It is really mind boggling. On dcl we always do inside rooms. Not so on other lines. Two of these bookings we actually originally booked with dcl and rebooked exact same week, etc., so our rate comparisons are very real and not hypothetical.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I keep waiting too... but I have a feeling DCL will be grossly overpriced anyway and will either have to wait til last minute rates (which are a gamble, may or may not happen) or see about cruising with another line. We are very tempted by the newer ships with Royal and also Norwegian. Priced out a Norwegian 7 night Eastern Caribbean from Miami on their newest Escape - WITH specialty dining and unlimited drinks package... for $2500 - verandah category. This is for 2 adults, 1 child. It's their free at sea promo, plus extra guests sail free, December 10, 2016. Similar cruise on the Disney Magic is $3700 for an inside room, Dec 11th. No alcohol included obviously. On Disney Fantasy it's almost $4500 for an inside stateroom. I know this is for Dec 2016, but still.
Did price out some 2017 with Royal but waiting to compare with Disney!

 

[tink too]

I've been checking this thread 2-3 times a day for the last month. If the itinerary's and pricing guide aren't released next week, we'll be booking either a non-cruise type vacation or with another line. While we've been waiting for the release dates from DCL, we've had a look around and are now considering Hawaii for next year. If we choose this route, we may combine that with an NCL cruise as it's the only line that can visit the islands without a "foreign" port of call.

 

[meryll83]

We did that NCL Hawaii cruise and loved it!

 

[KalamityJane]

I promised my kids a Disney cruise... But the way this is going, we may be one and done.

 

[AquaDame]

Interest has pent up, for a couple of reasons and been misguided.

One website brought attention to when the 10% discounted deposit offer ended, ( last weekend) and another poster here on many 2017 threads has been going around saying prolifically it would be March, well March ends today!

So this has aroused interest in a misguided way, a release that causes considerable work for telephone operators at DCL for Platinum and Gold cruisers booking, was never ever going to be on a week of Easter holidays when many employees like time off.

I see from FB two main DCL TAs have been on vacation this week, would they go away if they thought there would be a release this week?

Anyway, my TA did open up their waitlist yesterday, as for the itinerary rumors they have all been rather vague this year, haven't they. The plan was and will always be to get the summer 2016 cruises through PIF before release.

I was one of the people who guessed it would be this week. I said it was just a guess, based on when the last promotion ended, as well as when the release was the previous year. I can't imagine they will wait until all the summer itineraries are through their PIF days if that means waiting until June, but hey, maybe they will.

Disney hasn't seemed to mind causing a bit of a ruckus for releases. They frequently announce things ahead of time - sometimes even down to the day and hour such as when BoG reservations came online as well as when the runDisney stuff goes live - even if it causes their sites to time out on many of us.

FWIW - Easter oddly isn't a big deal to much of the US. We do not get any extra days off as our Canadian and UK friends do for it. Many people take time off for Spring Break, which varies depending on where you are. If Disney had to work around our vacations they wouldn't get much done, and if TAs stopped making plans because Disney *might* make an announcement they would miss out on the week with their kids.

 

[LeslieG]

I'm platinum on DCL, but we're doing Carnival Vista Med in June and have NCL booked for Europe next summer. DCL just isn't worth the price to me any more. I'll still sail DCL if I can get a reasonable price, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll see what they have to offer when they release the next set of dates.

 

[SilenceDoGood]

1 to 2k? I found it to be more like 10k on the longer cruises in Europe.

I guess it depends on stateroom category (I tried to keep as close to the same square footage as possible), length or cruise and the month/date. Granted, I didn't check every single category out there, just what I would book for my family.