Disney Cruise Prices

[DCLMP]

You said "you", not "I", in your previous post. So I pointed out that it isn't true for everyone.

Have fun cruising Europe. I prefer taking land trips there so I can spend more time at each place I visit. But to each his own.

Nothing is ever true for everyone, but I do believe a lot of people like to see new ports. There's always a lot of excitement when a DCL comes out with a new itinerary.

 

[Cheburashka]

Nothing is ever true for everyone, but I do believe a lot of people like to see new ports. There's always a lot of excitement when a DCL comes out with a new itinerary.

Yes, I'll be excited when they bring St. Petersburg back, and will book that one. I've always wanted to go there. I just hope that I'm not too old to cruise by that time.

 

[gscott8075]

I haven't found that to be true. I've sailed on DCL within the past year and found both to be the same as our first cruise seven years ago.

So, this will be our 12th Disney cruise this week. First time in 7 years. I remember vividly the second time we ate at Palo (the first time we didn't know what was going on!) We were with lifelong friends and the four of us had the dinner of our lives. It was endless - the servers brought out more than we ordered. It was a spectacular meal. From start to finish and I think it was $15. You could have anything on the menu? I remember we could not decide on several items so the incredible waitstaff brought out extra of everything for the table. That was 2002 and we still talk about that meal -

Over the years, we really looked forward to Palo on each ship we have been on. It has always been the meal we most look forward to.

As I said earlier, we have not been on Disney in seven years....

Reviewing the Palo menu this week and its been changed to a prix fixe for $45 per person with very limited selections for each course. Anything else above and beyond is charged. This is on a cruise - and food is included!

I can already tell it won't be close the experience we used to have.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I haven't found that to be true. I've sailed on DCL within the past year and found both to be the same as our first cruise seven years ago.

Lots of posts. Peruse the DCL board here on Disboards.

 

[dreamer17555]

This one doesn’t have soda included - you would have to add on. I think you could get that for the < $300 difference. (They do serve Coke, but often from a Freestyle machine). Two more cruise days, but also 2 more days‘ gratuities.

Same embarkation city as Dream - and also a Western Caribbean.

I don’t know If I would be convinced to book this over the Dream, as I am a Disney > Royal experience fan. But it is a nice deal and has two extra ports. Lots of activities in the Oasis.

I only checked Royal so far. I sailed the Allure of the Seas, this one’s sister. Lots of people love these ships.

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Thank you. I was seriously considering it but then the post after yours mention things like needing to keep track of pool towels and needing to make reservations for shows (which are very important to us) and with extra ports that would likely have us doing extra excursions- bringing the cost up. There is just not enough daylight between the two to try something new vs something we already know we love.

 

[holula]

Weird but we've found the opposite to be true: slightly better food and service on the Dream and Fantasy for us. I think most of it is which particular servers you happen to get, the size of your party, and your preferences.

I actually had great service in the MDRs on both the Dream and the Fantasy the last time I sailed them! It’s was just everything else that was just ok compared to the smaller ships when comparing the Fantasy. My room host in particular wasn’t great. (I think it’s unfair to compare the Dream when it was peak COVID and at a very reduced capacity, although I had no complaints.)

 

[Cheburashka]

Lots of posts. Peruse the DCL board here on Disboards.

I speak from experience. When was your last Disney cruise?

 

[Cheburashka]

Reviewing the Palo menu this week and its been changed to a prix fixe for $45 per person with very limited selections for each course. Anything else above and beyond is charged. This is on a cruise - and food is included!

You don't have to use the prix fixe menu. If you order a la carte, you don't pay the $45. There is the same variety of a la carte options for dinner as always. Since the reopening, I've ordered dinners that cost me less than $45 at Palo, including dessert.

 

[DCLMP]

So, this will be our 12th Disney cruise this week. First time in 7 years. I remember vividly the second time we ate at Palo (the first time we didn't know what was going on!) We were with lifelong friends and the four of us had the dinner of our lives. It was endless - the servers brought out more than we ordered. It was a spectacular meal. From start to finish and I think it was $15. You could have anything on the menu? I remember we could not decide on several items so the incredible waitstaff brought out extra of everything for the table. That was 2002 and we still talk about that meal -

Over the years, we really looked forward to Palo on each ship we have been on. It has always been the meal we most look forward to.

As I said earlier, we have not been on Disney in seven years....

Reviewing the Palo menu this week and its been changed to a prix fixe for $45 per person with very limited selections for each course. Anything else above and beyond is charged. This is on a cruise - and food is included!

I can already tell it won't be close the experience we used to have.

You are correct it's not close at all. If you choose to order off the a la carte they'll deduct 45.00 from the price. Basically as a platinum benefit you are paying a lot more for less.

 

[gscott8075]

Understood - other posters talked about declining experience level - and this one. Thanks!

 

[gscott8075]

You don't have to use the prix fixe menu. If you order a la carte, you don't pay the $45. There is the same variety of a la carte options for dinner as always. Since the reopening, I've ordered dinners that cost me less than $45 at Palo, including dessert.

Back in the day, there was no extra charge for al a carte items - it was all included except alcohol.

 

[lklgoodman]

Lots of cuts. It hasn't been much of an issue on DCL, imo (just very minor things you can easily overlook like paper navigators, individual shampoos and the officer's pin trading).

But at WDW it's been a big issue. They used to regularly have longer basic park hours, plus Extra Magic Hours for all resort guests that went late into the night (think a.m., not p.m.) It was so fun because you could get so much done and effortlessly by making use of these. FastPasses were free. Magical Express started your vacation at your home airport by taking care of your bags until they appeared in your resort room the day of your arrival, and you were cheerfully guided onto a bus to your resort. When you arrived early at Magic Kingdom, there was a morning show with all the characters that everyone watched from the gates that was so cheerful and welcoming: "Good Morning, Good Morning..." There have been many other cutbacks, too, that chip away at the experience, but those are a few I'll take the time to mention. Some magic has been lost, all while they're raising prices to stratospheric levels.

And it wasn't that long ago that it was different. I'm recalling our experiences from 10 years ago. Not 20 years, not a past generation.

There are valid reasons for complaints. If you're new to WDW within the past few years, you might not notice this and just accept what's given as the best Disney can do today. But those of us who went several years ago can see glaring deficiencies.

So far, DCL has held steady in its quality, probably because of the high cost for all guests, but if they pull a WDW and start cutting everything, we will stop cruising DCL.

I personally don't mind them getting rid of the paper navigators, but there were a lot of unhappy people posting about it when they first got rid of them. We starting cruising with DCL in 2001. We were given free pins and a bag on our first cruise. Now first timers aren't given anything. Since then we've seen a princess tea that once was free now cost a couple hundred dollars(not sure of the exact cost). My dd did it for the last time in 2014 and it was still free then. Palo and Remy have raised their prices twice in the past 5 or 6 years along with less options as pp, alcohol tastings have also increased in price in the past few years. Some would say not being able to make your own drinks in mixology is somewhat less magical. The prizes for trivia and other games were really nice items, not the cheap paper "awards" they now give. My dh won a stainless steal Keychain with a DCL charm on it once(I'm still using it) Another cruise I won a really nice pen set, the kind you refill, not the cheap throw away kind) This was on our 2013 and 2014 cruises. Seems like most of the changes have been happening in the past 10 yrs or so. Of course I don't expect prices to always stay the same, but they have been doing away with things that were really nice. We'll still sail on DCL. I had forgotten about some of the little stuff they no longer do, kinda makes me sad now.

 

[Cheburashka]

Back in the day, there was no extra charge for al a carte items - it was all included except alcohol.

Just making sure you understood a la carte is not in addition to the $45. It's either or.

 

[Cheburashka]

Palo and Remy have raised their prices twice in the past 5 or 6 years along with less options as pp, alcohol tastings have also increased in price in the past few years...The prizes for trivia and other games were really nice items, not the cheap paper "awards" they now give. My dh won a stainless steal Keychain with a DCL charm on it once(I'm still using it) Another cruise I won a really nice pen set, the kind you refill, not the cheap throw away kind) This was on our 2013 and 2014 cruises

I won an insulated DCL drink bag on the Fantasy in March. I haven't noticed items being removed from the Remy menu, or from the Palo dinner menu. The Palo brunch lost its buffet to Covid, which makes brunch not worthwhile imo, but I was never a big fan of brunch, anyway. I miss the paper navigators, individual toiletries and the officers' pin trading. I hope the latter comes back eventually.

 

[lklgoodman]

I won an insulated DCL drink bag on the Fantasy in March. I haven't noticed items being removed from the Remy menu, or from the Palo dinner menu. The Palo brunch lost its buffet to Covid, which makes brunch not worthwhile imo, but I was never a big fan of brunch, anyway. I miss the paper navigators, individual toiletries and the officers' pin trading. I hope the latter comes back eventually.

That's nice you won the bag. We were on the Fantasy in March also and all the trivia and games we went to got the paper awards. I'd love to see them give away real prizes again. They could give away all the slingbags they couldn't give out during the shutdown, lol! We bought one of the insulated coolers on one of our cruises. They are really nice.

 

[dreamer17555]

That's nice you won the bag. We were on the Fantasy in March also and all the trivia and games we went to got the paper awards. I'd love to see them give away real prizes again. They could give away all the slingbags they couldn't give out during the shutdown, lol! We bought one of the insulated coolers on one of our cruises. They are really nice.

They normally give away Mickey medallions which used to be very basic but got a design upgrade recently. What sort of paper Awards did they give?

 

[gscott8075]

Just making sure you understood a la carte is not in addition to the $45. It's either or.

Thank you!

 

[KashasMom]

I started to read some of the responses and decided "why bother"? Those that defend Disney to the death will always do so. Those of us who cruise other lines know that there is (good) life away from Disney. It cracked me up that "FREE" SODA was still a big deal! Our recent Magic cruise was so far from magical that I wondered if they put all the good crew members on the Wish. It really was our worst Disney cruise (and that includes the rattling/rumbling nightmare in our aft room on the Fantasy). Prior to our Magic cruise we planned to book another cruise next November but after our experience decided against it. There are too many other options that work better for our family. It's very unlikely that we'll cruise with Disney again and...we're okay with that.

 

[jujubiee4]

Now that we will be entering 2023 shortly I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

I was looking at the thread where someone asked advice on which cabins to choose for Alaska.
Made me wonder again why oh why is Alaska on DCL so expensive?? Do they get charged more port
fees/taxes or something? The cute outfits the characters wear? Or they charge the price because people will pay it? (like the parks).

 

[holula]

Or they charge the price because people will pay it? (like the parks).

Ding ding ding.

Although the May & September cruises aren’t too badly priced.