Did DCL mess up? Got an unbelievable deal on 2013 Fantasy Cruise

[makaylee]

I got the deal too

Logged onto dcl website early Tuesday morning and even posted on DIS asking if anyone knew why the 3/23/13 fares were so much cheaper. Then I quickly went back and held one as soon as I could. Later put the deposit down after talking with a CM on the phone. She told me it was a glitch and that I was one of the lucky ones! Feel like I hit the lottery.

2 adults, 3 kids (10, 7, 4), cat 4d (deluxe with verandah)
$4200

I held one for some friends and they gave me the same deal
2 adults, 1 kid (4), (ocean view with navigators verandah)
$2499

Thank you Disney!!!

That's great for those of you that got these great deals, but hopefully now some IT people will loose their jobs and the sometimes horrible site will be better.

 

[Kirbo]

Good post to FabFivePA!

I am in the same boat, so to speak. We've done a KSF cruise and have another KSF coming up. I only know that everything I've read on here indicates that opening day is significantly cheaper than other days and I had no idea it was a glitch. Anyway, yeah, I took offense at that comment. I don't feel that I took advantage of Disney at all. I booked a cruise. Then the price jumped. But they honored the price.

They're still going to make a boat-load of money on this cruise. Literally.

 

[itutorfortravel]

I am so jealous that so many of you already know when your spring break will be in 2013. Our school system bounces around from the week before Easter to the week after Easter so until they post the school calendar for 2012-13 I have no idea which week they'll pick. They won't publish the calendar until next spring. I have looked at past years but Easter flip flops around so much I can't pin point a pattern. Looks like if Easter is the 3rd week of March they have break the week after. And if it's in April then it's the week before. But I can't figure out which side of the fence March 31 falls on. I just looked and the Cat 7A's are still less than the August 7A's. My luck I would guess at the wrong week tho. I know the semester ends near the end of March (this year it's the 29th) and they have state MSA testing in March too so I'm sure they probably try to avoid messing with that stuff.

Our school district does the same thing with spring break! I had also thought about booking spring break 2013, and for us I would take a chance that it would be the week after Easter. I used my logic on booking spring break 2012 and was lucky to guess right! Our school system normally does the week after, so with Easter being at the end of March I do think they will go the week following Easter...just can't decide if I want to do spring break again in 2013...right now I am leaning towards Thanksgiving.

 

[FabFivePA]

Good post to FabFivePA!

I am in the same boat, so to speak. We've done a KSF cruise and have another KSF coming up. I only know that everything I've read on here indicates that opening day is significantly cheaper than other days and I had no idea it was a glitch. Anyway, yeah, I took offense at that comment. I don't feel that I took advantage of Disney at all. I booked a cruise. Then the price jumped. But they honored the price.

They're still going to make a boat-load of money on this cruise. Literally.

LOL I told my husband that's the down side of this... definitely a FULL boat. LOL

 

[RedSox68]

That's great for those of you that got these great deals, but hopefully now some IT people will loose their jobs and the sometimes horrible site will be better.

Wow, this is an unnecessary comment. Actually hoping that people lose their jobs is so uncalled for. And the earlier comment about people taking advantage is also offline.

Obviously from previous comments, Disney was well aware of the "glitch" and chose to keep letting people buy instead of correcting the situation. Saying people took advantage of these great prices is like saying people shouldn't shop at early bird special sales then. And to say you hope people lose their jobs is sad since I'm in an area where I have watched co-workers and state employees lose their jobs on a weekly basis!

For those who were able to be online or on the phone at the right time, YAY FOR YOU and I hope you have a wonderful time knowing you didn't break the bank to go. I think it would be awesome if Disney could take this "error" and realize this type of pricing will go a long way for customer relations

 

[robin19871]

I am so jealous that so many of you already know when your spring break will be in 2013. Our school system bounces around from the week before Easter to the week after Easter so until they post the school calendar for 2012-13 I have no idea which week they'll pick. They won't publish the calendar until next spring. I have looked at past years but Easter flip flops around so much I can't pin point a pattern. Looks like if Easter is the 3rd week of March they have break the week after. And if it's in April then it's the week before. But I can't figure out which side of the fence March 31 falls on. I just looked and the Cat 7A's are still less than the August 7A's. My luck I would guess at the wrong week tho. I know the semester ends near the end of March (this year it's the 29th) and they have state MSA testing in March too so I'm sure they probably try to avoid messing with that stuff.

I agree about others knowing early about when their Spring Breaks are..Our district does not publish them untill Spring Break a year before..HOWEVER, I called the district office for our school district and they will be making them in the next month..She said to call back in a month and hopefully they will be done. So it might be worth it for you to call the district office. Good Luck.

 

[lmhall2000]

Oh my goodness, sour grapes abound!!!

I can guarantee you that if any of those passing sour grapes had fallen into the OP's situation, they, too would have bought it and not asked questions.

This is not a 'steal' of a deal. Yes, it is a deal...but as I predicted and continue to harp on that Disney will have to have MANY deals to fill all of these boats...maybe not in the summer months, but for all others, yes.

Two years ago, we took a 10 night med cruise...for 8 people it was only $4,000 and DISNEY gave us $800 of on board credit, our travel agent gave us $500 of OBC and we had originally booked online so we received an additional $100 of OBC. essentially that cruise was $2600 for 8 people! That is amazing!! Disney gives it out when they have to. The prices these folks received in my mind was reasonable...not a steal.

The economy is just so poor right now, and I see no major improvements for the next 10 years....all travel industries will suffer...as much as we all love Disney, they are cutting deals..even now, so the trickle of folks who scored a valid deal (no one erased 0's off a price tag) will not hurt Disney...and I am sure no IT heads will roll....the bottom line is filling the ships. Now, if someone had scored a room for $10...then yes, I probably would have made a call...but we're talking thousands of dollars folks...no problem...enjoy the cruise and knock it up to pixie dust (which by the way, on that Med cruise we paid for cat 12 and received cat 9...another couple of thousand knocked off by Disney...it happens!)

 

[jetskigrl]

I am so jealous that so many of you already know when your spring break will be in 2013. Our school system bounces around from the week before Easter to the week after Easter so until they post the school calendar for 2012-13 I have no idea which week they'll pick. They won't publish the calendar until next spring. I have looked at past years but Easter flip flops around so much I can't pin point a pattern. Looks like if Easter is the 3rd week of March they have break the week after. And if it's in April then it's the week before. But I can't figure out which side of the fence March 31 falls on. I just looked and the Cat 7A's are still less than the August 7A's. My luck I would guess at the wrong week tho. I know the semester ends near the end of March (this year it's the 29th) and they have state MSA testing in March too so I'm sure they probably try to avoid messing with that stuff.

It sounds like your district is just like ours. For our MR cruise next year, I booked the same week that our Spring Break has been on the past few years even though the calendar had not been released. When it finally was, I had the wrong week and had to move the cruise (which now was costing us $1000 more). So I knew when picking our 2013 date, I wasn't going to take a chance on Spring Break week again and had to go with a summer date.

 

[robin19871]

It sounds like your district is just like ours. For our MR cruise next year, I booked the same week that our Spring Break has been on the past few years even though the calendar had not been released. When it finally was, I had the wrong week and had to move the cruise (which now was costing us $1000 more). So I knew when picking our 2013 date, I wasn't going to take a chance on Spring Break week again and had to go with a summer date.

I booked a summer date too just to be safe..However, as I told Annie above, Give your school district office a call as mine does the schedule about 5 months before they post it.(I just found this out 2 days ago) and hopefully if the prices do not go up too much more for Spring Break I might reschedule my summer cruise..Good Luck..

 

[vek239]

We were the recipients of a glitch a few years ago when we booked a transatlantic when the schedule first opened up. We thought wow, what a great deal and booked it. Several weeks later we got a call from a CM who told us it was a glitch and they would honor it as long as we didn't make any changes to the reservation. Disney got the last laugh on us though; we bought into DVC on this cruise- something we thought we'd NEVER do- but so far we're loving it!!

 

[NancyIL]

Oh my goodness, sour grapes abound!!!

I can guarantee you that if any of those passing sour grapes had fallen into the OP's situation, they, too would have bought it and not asked questions.

This is not a 'steal' of a deal. Yes, it is a deal...but as I predicted and continue to harp on that Disney will have to have MANY deals to fill all of these boats...maybe not in the summer months, but for all others, yes.

Two years ago, we took a 10 night med cruise...for 8 people it was only $4,000 and DISNEY gave us $800 of on board credit, our travel agent gave us $500 of OBC and we had originally booked online so we received an additional $100 of OBC. essentially that cruise was $2600 for 8 people! That is amazing!! Disney gives it out when they have to. The prices these folks received in my mind was reasonable...not a steal.

The economy is just so poor right now, and I see no major improvements for the next 10 years....all travel industries will suffer...as much as we all love Disney, they are cutting deals..even now, so the trickle of folks who scored a valid deal (no one erased 0's off a price tag) will not hurt Disney...and I am sure no IT heads will roll....the bottom line is filling the ships. Now, if someone had scored a room for $10...then yes, I probably would have made a call...but we're talking thousands of dollars folks...no problem...enjoy the cruise and knock it up to pixie dust (which by the way, on that Med cruise we paid for cat 12 and received cat 9...another couple of thousand knocked off by Disney...it happens!)

I agree with you that the economy is crappy right now, and there will be deals - but I don't think they'll be on the Dream or Fantasy in 2012 or 2013. I think the big deals will be on the Wonder and Magic.

I put the Nov. 23, 2013 Thanksgiving Fantasy cruise on a 5-day hold, and I was pretty sure the price for a 7a was in error. It was a great price for a balcony cabin on a Disney ship during a holiday week, but it's still more than I want to pay to cruise in the Caribbean. I'm going to let that reservation expire, so whoever books my cabin will be paying what DCL ought to have posted as the price in the first place!

You got a fabulous deal on your Med cruise last year, but your cruise was early in the season. The Baltic cruises the same summer were outrageously priced (in my opinion), and only came down in price on guarantee cabins on the first one or two cruises - after the penalty date had passed.

 

[jetskigrl]

I booked a summer date too just to be safe..However, as I told Annie above, Give your school district office a call as mine does the schedule about 5 months before they post it.(I just found this out 2 days ago) and hopefully if the prices do not go up too much more for Spring Break I might reschedule my summer cruise..Good Luck..

Oh, great minds think alike I tried that this year but they wouldn't give me a date because it had not been approved by the school board. I got the dates from a family member about a month before it was released (she works for the district) but I didn't move the cruise based on that because it hadn't been approved. One of my DH's friends is on the school board and he gave us the date it would be voted on and that they almost always follow the calendar recommended by the teacher's association, but I still wasn't comfortable actually moving the cruise until it was voted on and approved. It would be just my luck that it would be one year they don't follow the norm

 

[ldo]

ours has been the week prior to Easter for 10+ years--so I just guessed. Watch 2013 be the year they change it!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I was in the process of booking one of tose great deals and before i could check out, the price went up $1200 per person!

me too!

 

[DMMarla07860]

Oh my goodness, sour grapes abound!!!

I can guarantee you that if any of those passing sour grapes had fallen into the OP's situation, they, too would have bought it and not asked questions.

This is not a 'steal' of a deal. Yes, it is a deal...but as I predicted and continue to harp on that Disney will have to have MANY deals to fill all of these boats...maybe not in the summer months, but for all others, yes.

Two years ago, we took a 10 night med cruise...for 8 people it was only $4,000 and DISNEY gave us $800 of on board credit, our travel agent gave us $500 of OBC and we had originally booked online so we received an additional $100 of OBC. essentially that cruise was $2600 for 8 people! That is amazing!! Disney gives it out when they have to. The prices these folks received in my mind was reasonable...not a steal.

The economy is just so poor right now, and I see no major improvements for the next 10 years....all travel industries will suffer...as much as we all love Disney, they are cutting deals..even now, so the trickle of folks who scored a valid deal (no one erased 0's off a price tag) will not hurt Disney...and I am sure no IT heads will roll....the bottom line is filling the ships. Now, if someone had scored a room for $10...then yes, I probably would have made a call...but we're talking thousands of dollars folks...no problem...enjoy the cruise and knock it up to pixie dust (which by the way, on that Med cruise we paid for cat 12 and received cat 9...another couple of thousand knocked off by Disney...it happens!)

I agree I think we will see deals, I think more so as cruises get closer. Of course it won't be for summer, but I other times of the year like you say.

 

[Silverfox97]

I got the deal too
I held one for some friends and they gave me the same deal
2 adults, 1 kid (4), (ocean view with navigators verandah)
$2499

WOW I would've taken DD out of school for that price!!! Our Spring Break 2013 is the week of March 11th (which is when we booked). That is $1000 savings..........

I think the big deals will be on the Wonder and Magic.

I hope so Nancy!!!

 

[lbgraves]

How about you call the cruise 'Goofys Glitchers Glorious Getaway'?

I like it!!!

 

[Mtinkerbell5189]

My DU agent is awesome! I originally booked a 3/23 cruise, without knowing they were cheaper. That was just my preferred week. The rate was higher then I expected, but I guess just normal. After seeing all these things about a "glitch" and that cruise, I emailed her and asked if it possibly lowered mine at all. She called DCL this morning, and my cruise is now almost 1,500 dollars cheaper in a 4E for 2 adults. I am so happy

I dunno how it happened, but I'm just going with it since it is now confirmed and the deposit is paid, she said they cannot change it back. I guess it was because she booked it the first 30 min and I thought it was booked later in the morning (thats just when I got the email- silly me). That is a huge savings, and at almost $4,000+ for 2 adults I was starting to have doubts if we could afford it. With the new price, I am definitely going. I have been dreaming of this cruise since we stepped off the dream in March. (And I didnt book a dummy day- dumb me)

 

[ruley3]

Monday when the paper was posted with the dates and cruises I knew that I wanted to book an eastern and I knew that after Alaska this past summer, I didn't want to take the kids out of school so that left 6/15 & 6/29 for the 5 week summer break [year round school] or 3/9 & 3/23, with 3/23 being the best since their 3 week spring break ends the Tuesday after Easter and that is the 31st in 2013. The 9th would be the day after they get out of school. I looked at 6/29 first because that is when our friends could go and that was $6300 for a cat 9A. I couldn't transfer the reservation online so I called at 8 am and waited 2 minutes. While waiting I looked up the 3/23 cruise and was shocked at the price. I know that holiday weeks have always had higher prices because more kids are out of school. I asked the rep what price he had for the 3/23. When it was the same I told him that it has to be a mistake and if they discovered it was would my cruise be cancelled because that is the week that I had wanted to book. We talked about what an amazing deal it was with the price being half of the June cruise. I first booked one of the big rooms with the divider to book it and lock in the price -- the rep's suggestion and I wasn't going to tell him not to book it. After he got the confirmation locked in, he looked up the veranda rooms and transferred the reservation to that.

There were so many rooms available when I talked to the agent. At 11 when I looked again categories were disappearing and the prices were up. The fact that it is a spring break week, with the week after also being considered spring break, could explain why the date filled up and prices increased so quickly.

Congrads Lisa... I am SUPER Jealous!!! but you are an avid DISER and so deserve it!