Disney Fantasy July 30th, worth the price ?

[MomtoBJSF]

My hubby and I are debating doing the The Fantasy on the 30th, the price including graduate,and insurance is well over 10K for a family of 5, we have it on hold, while we would like to go ahead and do it, the price seemed to be on the high side to me, and also the only room that was available is in the Guarantee category.

This would be our 2nd cruise, my DH would like to do a 4 day, instead of the 7, my opinion is that the 4 day is too short for 7K.

Any thought ?

Thank you.

 

[Msidescooter]

Worth it is up to you, you're the only one that knows what is within your budget. 10k for a family of 5 for a 7 night cruise is 286 a night, per person. Is this on the high side, yes it is. But it's also at the end of summer when families are doing their big push for vacations before school. If GTY is the only category available, that's a pretty good sign the sailing is almost sold out, which would explain the price.

 

[DLgal]

I would never pay that much for a guarantee category stateroom. No way. Those are supposed to be discounted fares and you could end up with a cabin in a crappy location. If I paid that much, I would want to choose my own cabin.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I would never pay that much for a guarantee category stateroom. No way. Those are supposed to be discounted fares and you could end up with a cabin in a crappy location. If I paid that much, I would want to choose my own cabin.

GTY is not a discounted fare. GTY bookings are offered once a certain percentage of rooms within a specific category are booked. You pay the same for a GTY booking as you do for booking a specific room.

*GT bookings are the discounted fares. Those typically show up (if they're going to) after the Paid in Full date for any given cruise. Those you book as a type of room (Interior, Oceanview, Verandah) as opposed to GTY bookings where you book a category (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc).

 

[DLgal]

GTY is not a discounted fare. GTY bookings are offered once a certain percentage of rooms within a specific category are booked. You pay the same for a GTY booking as you do for booking a specific room.

*GT bookings are the discounted fares. Those typically show up (if they're going to) after the Paid in Full date for any given cruise. Those you book as a type of room (Interior, Oceanview, Verandah) as opposed to GTY bookings where you book a category (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc).

Oh, okay. Noted. Doesn't change the fact that you can't pick your stateroom though.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Oh, okay. Noted. Doesn't change the fact that you can't pick your stateroom though.

Correct. With a GTY booking you can select a category, with *GT you don't even get that.

 

[Msidescooter]

Oh, okay. Noted. Doesn't change the fact that you can't pick your stateroom though.

No it doesn't. But there are plenty of people who don't particularly care which state room they are in.

 

[darnheather]

For my family? No way. But if that is what you normally spend on vacation then go for it.

 

[tinkerone]

'worth it' is all relative isn't it? to us, not in a million years. to you, maybe.
your going to be paying a lot just because of the Disney name, is that important to you? you can probably get just about any other ship for half that so if the Disney name isn't important look around before you decide. if the Disney name is important and you can afford it, book it.
yup, its all relative.....

 

[Hundredacre]

My hubby and I are debating doing the The Fantasy on the 30th, the price including graduate,and insurance is well over 10K for a family of 5, we have it on hold, while we would like to go ahead and do it, the price seemed to be on the high side to me, and also the only room that was available is in the Guarantee category.

This would be our 2nd cruise, my DH would like to do a 4 day, instead of the 7, my opinion is that the 4 day is too short for 7K.

Any thought ?

Thank you.

First, we would not do the insurance, so you could save a little there. But honestly, we wouldn't do the cruise at all. I just looked at a couple of other cruise lines for that week in the carribean. Half the price. We would do dcl off season. But this is just my opinion.

 

[hanscarlet]

I don't think it's worth it but I may change my tune when I'm forced to sail in the peak season because I can no longer take my kids out of school. We paid $6k for our 7 night on the magic, the only way I'd pay $10k would be for concierge, definitely not GTY

 

[MomtoBJSF]

Thanks everyone, sadly due to school age kiddos, and work schedule we are not able to do off season at all, and we are definitely last minute planners. I have moments when I want to book it, and other moment, I think of the fee and think to myself there's no way. financially it won't kill us, but the idea of spending that much on a cruise . I just suggested we look into another cruise line and my DH freaked out, lol.

 

[hanscarlet]

Thanks everyone, sadly due to school age kiddos, and work schedule we are not able to do off season at all, and we are definitely last minute planners. I have moments when I want to book it, and other moment, I think of the fee and think to myself there's no way. financially it won't kill us, but the idea of spending that much on a cruise . I just suggested we look into another cruise line and my DH freaked out, lol.

well kill the guilt by booking a placeholder and then booking opening day next time, problem solved! I definitely wouldn't cancel it, a 10k cruise better than no cruise at all

 

[tinkerone]

Thanks everyone, sadly due to school age kiddos, and work schedule we are not able to do off season at all, and we are definitely last minute planners. I have moments when I want to book it, and other moment, I think of the fee and think to myself there's no way. financially it won't kill us, but the idea of spending that much on a cruise . I just suggested we look into another cruise line and my DH freaked out, lol.

maybe if you printed out the pricing pages for a few ships and put them in front of him with the pricing page from dcl he may not freak out as much. its always a shock when you see it on paper.

 

[Ofinn]

The most the four of us have paid to sail on the Fantasy is 4k. DCL's summer prices blow my mind. Honestly off season prices are starting to blow my mind too. If you look at cruise fish you will see this cruise has only gone up about 400 to 500 dollars for double occupancy since opening day. Even if he would booked opening day he still would have paid close to 10k for the 5 of them. These summer cruises were priced high to start with. Some of the Summer cruises have not risen in price since opening day.
If your not comfortable with the price.... which you must not be since your asking for opinions.... I would look at other cruise lines. They may discount the remaining rooms, but since your a family of five discounts don't really work for you unless you get two rooms.

 

[Ofinn]

well kill the guilt by booking a placeholder and then booking opening day next time, problem solved! I definitely wouldn't cancel it, a 10k cruise better than no cruise at all

Yeah then he would only have to pay 9k for the cruise. What a bargain.

 

[cyclenut]

Yeah then he would only have to pay 9k for the cruise. What a bargain.

The savings are much better than than. A PP mentioned that a quick check of other lines for that sailing were half the price. I believe it. The myth that other lines make up for the price differential by hitting you everywhere with up charges is just that ... A myth. Once you add in fare, ports fees, taxes and gratuities, they are all pretty much the same in terms of additional expenses. Even if you did pay more, you are not paying another $2k more. No way.

I've paid more than that for a cruise for our adult family of 7 but that was for three staterooms in Alaska, one with a balcony. I ended up feeling it wasn't worth it.

 

[Ofinn]

The savings are much better than than. A PP mentioned that a quick check of other lines for that sailing were half the price. I believe it. The myth that other lines make up for the price differential by hitting you everywhere with up charges is just that ... A myth. Once you add in fare, ports fees, taxes and gratuities, they are all pretty much the same in terms of additional expenses. Even if you did pay more, you are not paying another $2k more. No way.

I've paid more than that for a cruise for our adult family of 7 but that was for three staterooms in Alaska, one with a balcony. I ended up feeling it wasn't worth it.

I'm not sure why your explaining this to me.

 

[bethy]

If I could *comfortably* afford to part with that much money and could only travel during peak season then I would probably do it. If Disney travel and cruising is something that works extremely well for your whole family like it does for ours then I would go for it. That is really priceless IMHO. I wouldn't worry about the "value" too much and that is totally subjective. For me the value would probably be there - especially if any of my 3 kids were older than say - 13-ish. You won't be able to vacation as a family unit like this for much longer. And that Disney magic is special when you have kids at home still - it just is.

Plus the prices haven't gone up much actually. So at least you don't need to beat yourself up for waiting till the last minute.

Life is short. And also cruising as a family of 5 is significantly more expensive than as a family of 4. We are a family of 5 and are paying 6k to cruise on the Magic for 7 nights in 2 rooms. But it's during the off season. We booked on opening day with OBB and the cruise has gone up $2500 and we are still 8 months out!

 

[hanscarlet]

Yeah then he would only have to pay 9k for the cruise. What a bargain.

Wow is the attitude necessary? It's a basic discussion about savings... you kind of have a prick-alee attitude... why don't you just leave the discussion if you're going to be rude to everyone. Obviously I wasn't freaking implying that she'd save $9k, how you arrived it that conclusion is kind of mind boggling actually