Did you send a letter to DCL regarding the new carry-on beverage policy?

[eskimoinparadise]

This is actually a much more enlightened approach. While I prefer Princess' similar approach and its $15 corkage fee, the "bring all you want and pay corkage for any amount over one per person" is the best system on the seas. The customer gets to bring the wines that they enjoy drinking and the ship gets revenue. Everybody wins. There is no reason why this cannot be applied to beer and spirits as well. Bring along that rare bottle of Cognac. But pay to drink it. That puts the decision making in the hands of the customer. If that bottle is so important to you, then pay a fair price to drink it. Again, the goal here for the customer is (or should be) to secure choice. Not to deny the cruise line of a fair profit. When I sail on Princess, my wife and I bring 10 bottles on board for a week. We get two on for free and pay for the rest. We pay $120 (8 x $15) for the privilege of drinking our wine. We get our wine. PCL gets some money. This is indeed a very, very enlightened approach.

So enlightened means finding a new way to extract revenue out a captive audience by allowing them to do exactly what they did before, but charging them for the privilege. That could also (IMO) be the dictionary definition of "to nickel & dime" someone

 

[Grumpy_74]

No we will just buy our drinks on board. If the point were to save money we wouldn't be cruising and certainly not with Disney.

I don't consider alcohol an absolute necessity so if cost were an issue we'd just drink something else

Personally I don't get all the fuss

You'll be the perfect consumer when they start charging for the soda, ice cream, and entertainment on board. You're not about saving money, so you can just pay all the nickel and dime fees on top of the already outrageous cruise fare, but that's ok because it's "Disney".

That's exactly what the bigger issue is that some people don't seem to be getting - it's not the alcohol policy - it's the premise of that and what's to come. They are raising fares and chipping away at all of the perks, while sitting back and gleefully telling people that even though the perks are disappearing, the price is justifiable because they have the Disney name backing them.

I'm just glad there are people like you willing to just spend money to spend it. I care far too much about my money to willingly hand it over without at least trying to make my voice heard.

#dclprohibitiongate2015

 

[Grumpy_74]

While the top guys aren't likely to be the ones reading the mail/emails, it would be remiss of that hourly CM to not bring the trend he/she is seeing in those emails/mail to the attention of the higher ups. There's probably a little tick sheet they turn in that says "we received XXX emails/letters" opposing this policy change" that they keep in a file. Then, when the next quarter earnings come out, they can look back at things that may or may not have affected the numbers.

Incidentally, I did send a letter (not an email, because I, too, feel that there is some added weight when someone takes the time to type it up, print it out and toss a stamp on it). My letter voiced my disappointment in the inability to carry on our beverage of choice (not the quantity) and the poor customer service surrounding the change with regards to timing and PIF dates. I indicated that while we don't always carry on beverages, it was nice to have the option to enjoy our preferred drinks at our leisure in our stateroom, and, frankly, at a cost-savings to us. I mentioned that we also purchase some drinks on deck.

Besides the letters and emails, stuff like the petition where people are so nicely compiling their opinions and comments in a single location is also beneficial, even if the end result isn't what we all want, at least we made the effort.

#dclprohibitiongate2015

 

[Grumpy_74]

o
Simple math. Since its inception , DCL has carried ~10 Million passengers. Every Disney cruise we've been on, the statistics presented at the Castaway party ran roughly 1/3 of the passengers were returning. So that means that roughly 6.7 million of those 10 million have only sailed Disney once. The Cruise forum represents only~7% of the total number of discussions on the DIS boards. The total number of users across all the DIS forums is ~475,000. 7% 0f 475,000 =33,250. 33,250 = ~1% of the 3.3 million repeat cruisers on DCL, Now if you factor in that a significant number of those users cross post in other forums, the number drops well below 1%. Fanatics all, but not a massive influence when compared to the millions who have no clue or opinion.

I agree with you that the numbers voicing their angst here are minimal in the entire DCL scheme of things. That's the ironic thing to me though - I've read over and over from those 'happy' about the new policy it's because of all the drunks on the cruises that belong on the redneck yacht since they don't care about their kids and have a train of suitcases with their liquor they are bringing on board to sit in their rooms and get trashed.

Since only 10% or so (insert whatever minuscule number you want to use) knew about the policy, and then only a small percentage of those actually took advantage of it, how many loud rowdy drunks were there that carried on their own?!? Based on the numbers this means that one or two people are the ones that ruined it for me so that I now need to buy the bra to sneak my spiced rum in for pirate night.

Or - is the probability good that the so called drunks were already drinking on Disney's dime, so it's truly all Disney's fault that I can't have my rum in my room?!?

#dclprohibitiongate2015

 

[eskimoinparadise]

I agree with you that the numbers voicing their angst here are minimal in the entire DCL scheme of things. That's the ironic thing to me though - I've read over and over from those 'happy' about the new policy it's because of all the drunks on the cruises that belong on the redneck yacht since they don't care about their kids and have a train of suitcases with their liquor they are bringing on board to sit in their rooms and get trashed.

Since only 10% or so (insert whatever minuscule number you want to use) knew about the policy, and then only a small percentage of those actually took advantage of it, how many loud rowdy drunks were there that carried on their own?!? Based on the numbers this means that one or two people are the ones that ruined it for me so that I now need to buy the bra to sneak my spiced rum in for pirate night.

Or - is the probability good that the so called drunks were already drinking on Disney's dime, so it's truly all Disney's fault that I can't have my rum in my room?!?

#dclprohibitiongate2015

For starters, I don't think anyone ruined anything. IMO, this is nothing more than a straight up revenue play from disney. With the disintegration of their ESPN cable franchise, coupled with the ever increasing costs of maintaining a 70 year old infrastructure and the enormous costs associated with both the Disneyland expansion, the China DL opening, the redesign (reimagining) of major portions of WDW, two new "lands" that the local press says are already being delayed for several years, several theatrical bombs in a row, and commitments to build two river cruise ships, Disney needs to milk whatever cash cows it owns, and DCL is a four cash cow herd. I tend to agree with the thoughts that this is just the first shoe to drop, and as long as they have pixie dust left to sprinkle on those first timers and long term addicts, prepare to have the milking continue

In a word, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

 

[JimmyV]

o
Simple math. Since its inception , DCL has carried ~10 Million passengers. Every Disney cruise we've been on, the statistics presented at the Castaway party ran roughly 1/3 of the passengers were returning. So that means that roughly 6.7 million of those 10 million have only sailed Disney once. The Cruise forum represents only~7% of the total number of discussions on the DIS boards. The total number of users across all the DIS forums is ~475,000. 7% 0f 475,000 =33,250. 33,250 = ~1% of the 3.3 million repeat cruisers on DCL, Now if you factor in that a significant number of those users cross post in other forums, the number drops well below 1%. Fanatics all, but not a massive influence when compared to the millions who have no clue or opinion.

I hope you don't teach math. There are so many things wrong with your calculations that I don't know where to start. The only number that matters is the number of Dis'ers on a cruise. It could be anywhere between 1 and 475,000 assuming that the latter number accurately reflects the total of current and past registered users. Those cruisers could be first time or repeat customers. You assume that Dis'ers are always repeaters because they must be drawn from the 33,250. Dis'ers can be any one of the 10 million. And the 7% calculation is fiction. There is no way to know how many Dis'ers are on a ship at any given time based on the relative activity of this subsection of the Board as compared to the Restaurant Board. The simple math is that at any given time there are roughly 12,000 people on board DCL ships. And there are (according to you) 475,000 past and present users of Dis Boards. Your guess is that at any one time, 120 Dis'ers are on the 4 ships, or 30 per ship. The Meet and Greet and Roll Call activity and Fish Extended participation levels suggest that you are aiming way too low. If you assume an average family size of 4 people per family, that is fewer than 8 families per ship. Every person who participates in the Fish Extended fun and every person who goes
to Meet and Greets knows about these Boards. That is how such activities get planned. And that is more than 8 families per cruise.

 

[gismo1554]

Just to add - most other cruiselines that have these strict alcohol policies also do alcohol packages that include liquor packages. DCL has not announced this but I would be surprised if they don't. They already do wine and beer options so it would be a natural progression. If this was really about getting drunks off the ship then they would stop these and stop serving alcohol at all onboard. As people have said its not a nessesity so why not? Whether this policy effects you or not I think it is very naive to believe that this isn't about increasing profits in their bars. The only time I have seen "drunks" on DCL is when bar tenders have continued to serve people who should have been cut off long ago. DCL has allowed alcohol onboard for years. If they had a "drunk" problem why wasn't this implemented sooner in that case? I just find it amazing how many people don't seem to think this is about money. I don't agree its all about money but there is a clear fact here - by stopping people bringing liquour onboard they are trying to get people to spend more in the bars. I have yet to hear an arguement that makes me believe otherwise!

 

[eskimoinparadise]

I hope you don't teach math. There are so many things wrong with your calculations that I don't know where to start. The only number that matters is the number of Dis'ers on a cruise. It could be anywhere between 1 and 475,000 assuming that the latter number accurately reflects the total of current and past registered users. Those cruisers could be first time or repeat customers. You assume that Dis'ers are always repeaters because they must be drawn from the 33,250. Dis'ers can be any one of the 10 million. And the 7% calculation is fiction. There is no way to know how many Dis'ers are on a ship at any given time based on the relative activity of this subsection of the Board as compared to the Restaurant Board. The simple math is that at any given time there are roughly 12,000 people on board DCL ships. And there are (according to you) 475,000 past and present users of Dis Boards. Your guess is that at any one time, 120 Dis'ers are on the 4 ships, or 30 per ship. The Meet and Greet and Roll Call activity and Fish Extended participation levels suggest that you are aiming way too low. If you assume an average family size of 4 people per family, that is fewer than 8 families per ship. Every person who participates in the Fish Extended fun and every person who goes
to Meet and Greets knows about these Boards. That is how such activities get planned. And that is more than 8 families per cruise.

I get it...you're a zealot...and resistance is futile, so enjoy your enlightened reality.

 

[steves100]

No.

People complained about the change in smoking policy a year or do back...still there.

This one there going to ride it out.

These 2 completely seperate issues. The smoking is a health issue. Smoking is banned in most of America now. For someone to be allowed to smoke on their veranda could defiantly affect their neighbor.
Except for someone being a sloppy drunk, I dont see how the alcohol policy compares, besides, you could still be a sloppy drunk using Disney

 

[KLB9]

The only "Letter" or "Petition" that will get DCL's attention is when ships start sailing with empty cabins, or they are forced to lower prices and/or offer deep discounts.

Anything else you are wasting your time.

 

[jlynch924]

The only "Letter" or "Petition" that will get DCL's attention is when ships start sailing with empty cabins.

Anything else you are wasting your time.

EXCEPT, like with elections, if you don't vote, you really don't have the right to complain. Thus, if you don't voice your opinion to the company, you really shouldn't complain either.

 

[JimmyV]

The only "Letter" or "Petition" that will get DCL's attention is when ships start sailing with empty cabins.

This is a common misconception. Ships never sail with empty cabins. Every ship from every major cruise line sails at over 95% occupancy. And most often, they are at absolute 100% occupancy. http://www.f-cca.com/downloads/2013-cruise-industry-overview.pdf (See Page 6, bullet point #10). Now, they may have to "flash sale" some cabins, or dole them out to the highest producing agents to re-sell to their best customers for a song. Or blast email their most loyal guests within driving distance of the departure port. But they do not leave port with empty beds. Given DCL's pricing structure, they have a lot of leeway (pardon the nautical pun) to play around with pricing to make sure that every cabin is full. If they can't fill the cabin at $1,600 per person, they will lower the price until they do. You may never see these lower prices as they may not be offered to the general public. But no cruise line is going to turn down the on board expenditures generated by a cabin, even if they have to get people on the ship for $1 per person.

 

[godde8ss]

This is a common misconception. Ships never sail with empty cabins. Every ship from every major cruise line sails at over 95% occupancy. And most often, they are at absolute 100% occupancy. http://www.f-cca.com/downloads/2013-cruise-industry-overview.pdf (See Page 6, bullet point #10). Now, they may have to "flash sale" some cabins, or dole them out to the highest producing agents to re-sell to their best customers for a song. Or blast email their most loyal guests within driving distance of the departure port. But they do not leave port with empty beds. Given DCL's pricing structure, they have a lot of leeway (pardon the nautical pun) to play around with pricing to make sure that every cabin is full. If they can't fill the cabin at $1,600 per person, they will lower the price until they do. You may never see these lower prices as they may not be offered to the general public. But no cruise line is going to turn down the on board expenditures generated by a cabin, even if they have to get people on the ship for $1 per person.

Having close friends with family that are crew, I can attest to this. They lived within 30 minutes of the port could put their names on "stand by" at any time. They also added us several times, and we cruised for a song...

 

[MissMet]

I had written an email. I had made it not just about the alcohol change but also the hot tub closing time & how DCL is becoming less adult friendly with these new rules. I did not mention my upcoming cruise in October in any way, but gave my contact information. Well, my mom is the one who booked our rooms for our upcoming family reunion cruise in October, so I guess they felt she was the one that they needed to clear the air with, because, just yesterday my mom got a call on her cell. It was a man from DCL. He called to assure her that she would be able to bring alcohol on board, but listed the new allotments, and then continued on to say that the adult only pool area only closes at 10pm on certain nights & that the overall closing time is still 11pm.

Basically, they were pacifying us, but at least I got a call back, or should I say, my mom. lol

 

[RebelHawk]

We have filed official complaints with ShoreSide Concierge for each of our upcoming concierge sailings. We also put our money where our mouth is and canceled a place holder cruise that we had booked. We cited recent policy changes, removal of perks and general costs that are not inline with DCL competitors as our reasons for canceling our sailings. We explained that we are DVC members, AP holders and ABD travelers and have been on multiple cruises in the past. While we don't feel that there are any serious competitors in the WDW/ABD vacations we do have like options for DCL. We will plan our next cruises with some of DCL's competitors and see how it works out for us.

 

[wcw57]

years ago....many many....i worked for a company that installed and serviced old clickity clack computers in schools.....they were all dependent on phone lines for communication. Some higher-up decided that the company was paying Ma Bell (back then) too much. So he stopped paying.

The big giant company said, okey dokey and shut off all the lines. many many lines. MANY. because they could and, business protocol demands, they should.

Cancel your cruises if it makes you feel better but be advised that, in the giant scope of disney $$$, it is less than a flea bite to them. I agree that voicing your outrage is great, but don't delude yourselves that you can change a money making policy with less than a march on birmingham or mass media support....and, by the way, disney IS the mass media.....

corporate/consumer loyalty may exist, but I don't know where

 

[JimmyV]

While we don't feel that there are any serious competitors in the WDW/ABD vacations we do have like options for DCL. We will plan our next cruises with some of DCL's competitors and see how it works out for us.

This. So, so, so much THIS!!!

 

[jenny105]

Everyone go to amazon and look up rum runners. Problem solved.

 

[dittymau]

Had sent several emails and had a phone call from them, but they just don't care, if customers walk, small percentage considered collateral damage...

 

[Grumpy_74]

Everyone go to amazon and look up rum runners. Problem solved.

I'm assuming I can just carry them through in my pockets without alerting anyone?