Disney Prices Sky high?

[cruiser21]

Thru there site. At the moment there doing a 30% off sale. I took that discount out, and used 2 adults and 2 children. I'm not as familiar with RCL cabin classes as Disneys which is why I just said balcony.

Royal always has dicounts. ALWAYS!! You can't take the discount out. It's impossible to book a royal cruise without a discount.

 

[truck1]

I have never priced or considered RCCL /Carnival ships. Although I know Carnival's new ship Vista is almost the same price as Disney Fantasy.

Just looked at MSC, Princess, Celebrity and NCL and there is definitely huge differences in price. We are paying $6,000 less for a family of 4 on Princess 10 southern Caribbean at spring break as compared to Disney 10 day Caribbean in June. In addition we have a drink package on Princess so our bar bill will not be a big deal.

On some ships yes theres a difference. Even lines. All depends. The only reason we are considering another line for a change is to go with friends. That and we have a free Carnival cruise to use.

The only thing to be carefull with when comparing is where is the ship going,from where, when and any discounts that are thrown in for good measure. RCL is doing a 30% off sale for the next couple of hours. So that same cruise on Oasis would only be like 4500 I think. Which is why I used the same time frame and took out the discount.

Ill be honest. I love DCLs 10 day southern. Not a fan of the price. Or time frame. Id wager that if they offered the same cruise in Oct, it would be half the price. Easy. Theres been a couple of itins that have come out that I said lets do this. Then saw the price. I forget what we priced out the 10 day at, but I could go in Nov with Princess, and do a b2b for 23 days and not come close to what DCL wants for the Fantasy's 10. And only duplicate 2 ports that DCL does now.

 

[truck1]

Royal always has dicounts. ALWAYS!! You can't take the discount out. It's impossible to book a royal cruise without a discount.

Give it 9 more hours and this discount would run out.

Anyway trying to keep it fair, since DCL didn't have any discount on that sailing, you really couldn't honestly say leave it. With most things being equal, With out the discount, Oasis and Fantasy are pretty close. At least for that sailing.

 

[chttyangel]

This will be my first Disney cruise. I have cruised other lines and am not a big "cruiser"; I would much rather go to an All Inclusive and be pampered on the beach for a week hands down. We are huge Disney fans and my kids have always wanted to do a Disney cruise. So for us it was never been between one cruise line and another. It was always someday we would do on a Disney cruise so price may have helped decided when we went but it never made other cruise lines attractive to us.

 

[cruiser21]

Give it 9 more hours and this discount would run out.

Anyway trying to keep it fair, since DCL didn't have any discount on that sailing, you really couldn't honestly say leave it. With most things being equal, With out the discount, Oasis and Fantasy are pretty close. At least for that sailing.

It will run out and then there will be another one. The point is DCL does not offer discounts. Other cruise lines run sales all the time which makes the cost considerably less then DCL. If you book a royal cruise without a discount your not to bright. I think anyone that follows royals website knows what I'm talking about.

 

[Lita]

Give it 9 more hours and this discount would run out.

Anyway trying to keep it fair, since DCL didn't have any discount on that sailing, you really couldn't honestly say leave it. With most things being equal, With out the discount, Oasis and Fantasy are pretty close. At least for that sailing.

They'll just come out with another sale. That is what Royal does. They need the sales to fill their 20+ ships. Disney doesn't need to run constant sales to fill their 4 ships. Also, Royal's sales aren't that great when you compare them to opening day prices. I sailed on the Oasis last month. I booked it in April 2015, and my price was about $1500 less than what the sale prices were going for in the months leading up to the cruise.

 

[Dug720]

They'll just come out with another sale. That is what Royal does. They need the sales to fill their 20+ ships. Disney doesn't need to run constant sales to fill their 4 ships. Also, Royal's sales aren't that great when you compare them to opening day prices. I sailed on the Oasis last month. I booked it in April 2015, and my price was about $1500 less than what the sale prices were going for in the months leading up to the cruise.

Although the "sales" often see the prices mysteriously raised just enough that the "big sale" really isn't so big after all.

Agree about running all the sales because of all the ships. Sure the behemoths are attracting people, but there are lots that don't have all that they still need to sail relatively full to keep profits up.

(As a note: I am not anti-RCCL. (I am anti-behemoth but I love their Radiance class) I am actually pondering a Southern on the Jewel next year for Spring Break.)

 

[mevelandry]

Ship to ship, theres no comparison. However room to room, the rooms are almost the same. The sq footage with balcony was off by like 2 or 4 square feet. The locations I used are almost the same. Same deck. Same size. Both balcony. Both same side. The location might be off a little bit as the Oasis Elevator shafts are different then Fantasy. Oasis room that I used was a little bit further aft midships then the Fantasy room. When I looked at RCLs site, trying to find a 7 day to do a side by side, Oasis is the only RCL ship in PC that showed up. There was 8 6-8 day cruises for the month of Sept in 2018. 5 in Ft Lauderdale and 3 in PC. The 3 in PC are all Oasis. Harmony and Allure are the other 5 in Ftl.

Basically what I tried to do was to find a similar RCL ship, out of the same port, with a similar itinerary, with a similar sized room. Unfortunately, Oasis is it.

Looking at the ship specs for the different RCCL classes, the closest that RCCL has to the Dream class is the Voyager class. There slightly smaller. About 6000 tons lighter, 100 feet smaller,Freedom class is 20000 tons heavier and they are longer and bigger. Plus trying to find a comparable itin on the Voyager is problematic at best. There is no Voyager 7 days in the carib at that time. Med, yes.Pacific Yes. Not the carib.

Using Liberty, which is Freedom class, out of Galveston doing a 7 night western, same time frame, 4200. But its a different itin and a different port. Room size is off by 10 sq feet, Libertys is smaller, the next size balcony on Liberty would be over by 20 or so sq feet.

I really think it's comparing apples to oranges...

Give it 9 more hours and this discount would run out.

Anyway trying to keep it fair, since DCL didn't have any discount on that sailing, you really couldn't honestly say leave it. With most things being equal, With out the discount, Oasis and Fantasy are pretty close. At least for that sailing.

I really don't see them as equal. Just like I wouldn't compare The Marriott Marquis to The Pearl because they are both situated in Times Square. They are too different.

 

[mevelandry]

It will run out and then there will be another one. The point is DCL does not offer discounts. Other cruise lines run sales all the time which makes the cost considerably less then DCL. If you book a royal cruise without a discount your not to bright. I think anyone that follows royals website knows what I'm talking about.

I can confirm that info. And that 30% has lasted for at least a week because we have priced out cruises in the beginning of last week and that promotion was on.

 

[For the love of Pooh]

My first Disney cruise was my 14th overall. I had sailed Holland, NCL, Royal, and Carnival and had enjoyed every cruise. Disney always seemed too pricey so I told my kids they would have to see the mouse at WDW and enjoy other cruise lines. The only reason I ended up on DCL is for a Panama Canal transit as they and Princess were the only ones offering it for when I wanted to go. The price was easier to swallow on a 14 night cruise with only four port stops as I would have plenty of opportunity to enjoy all the ship had to offer. I was not disappointed with the Disney level of service and entertainment and to be honest I was expecting more from Disney. For a Bahamas or Caribbean itinerary I could easily find on another cruise line I would not be willing to pay the higher cost of Disney, would rather save the funds to spend on other aspects of the vacation.

 

[cruiser21]

I don't know why DCL being more expensive than other cruise lines is even an argument. You can argue wether you think it's worth the premium, but I would think we're all in agreement that we're paying a premium when we choose dcl.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

Although the "sales" often see the prices mysteriously raised just enough that the "big sale" really isn't so big after all.

Agree about running all the sales because of all the ships. Sure the behemoths are attracting people, but there are lots that don't have all that they still need to sail relatively full to keep profits up.

(As a note: I am not anti-RCCL. (I am anti-behemoth but I love their Radiance class) I am actually pondering a Southern on the Jewel next year for Spring Break.)

Most of the sales are nothing but marketing ploys to make you think you're getting a deal. The sale price is basically the real price. There's so rarely not a sale and the not sale prices are really high.

Reagent does this. I've never priced them where it didn't come up as a 2 for 1 "sale". It would list the brochure price as something ludicrous like 21-30kk per person and then give you the sale price of 11k per person. I'm pretty sure that brochure price is a unicorn and it's really to make people feel like 11k-15k pp is a steal.

 

[cgolf]

It will run out and then there will be another one. The point is DCL does not offer discounts. Other cruise lines run sales all the time which makes the cost considerably less then DCL. If you book a royal cruise without a discount your not to bright. I think anyone that follows royals website knows what I'm talking about.

What we have done is book with our Dreams RCCL TA and they reshop our cruise every time that there is a deal to see if we can get a better price with the latest sale going on. Our TA has been wonderful and will use her for booking any RCCL, Celebrity, and maybe a DCL in the future.

I think you reached a bit on your no to bright comment, because as a first timer on DCL we didn't rebook onboard, and never looked to see if it got cheaper. Although with RCCL and all of there sale emails it is hard to miss. I will say newbies, especially those that don't do forums before they go are pretty green. My best example is at our first buffet meal as we embarked, I thought we had to tip for our great table service lol.

 

[cgolf]

Most of the sales are nothing but marketing ploys to make you think you're getting a deal. The sale price is basically the real price. There's so rarely not a sale and the not sale prices are really high.

Reagent does this. I've never priced them where it didn't come up as a 2 for 1 "sale". It would list the brochure price as something ludicrous like 21-30kk per person and then give you the sale price of 11k per person. I'm pretty sure that brochure price is a unicorn and it's really to make people feel like 11k-15k pp is a steal.

Regardless of whether a sale is a sale, I know that our 2017 8 day freedom of the seas trip, was exactly half of what a comparable room would get us on a 7 day Fantasy cruise in a similar time period in 2018, with a less desirable itinerary to us. As in my above post, a TA that will work for you is a must with RCCL.

 

[lucas]

We can only continue to sail with DCL with a Florida Resident rate. Otherwise, it is just too expensive.

 

[cruiser21]

What we have done is book with our Dreams RCCL TA and they reshop our cruise every time that there is a deal to see if we can get a better price with the latest sale going on. Our TA has been wonderful and will use her for booking any RCCL, Celebrity, and maybe a DCL in the future.

I think you reached a bit on your no to bright comment, because as a first timer on DCL we didn't rebook onboard, and never looked to see if it got cheaper. Although with RCCL and all of there sale emails it is hard to miss. I will say newbies, especially those that don't do forums before they go are pretty green. My best example is at our first buffet meal as we embarked, I thought we had to tip for our great table service lol.

I don't think I was reaching. In 2017 with infinite amount of information at our fingertips it doesn't take a lot intelligence to figure out pricing and how to get the best deal. It does take a little effort and some people would rather not bother. Maybe I should have used the word "lazy" instead of not bright.

 

[cgolf]

I don't think I was reaching. In 2017 with infinite amount of information at our fingertips it doesn't take a lot intelligence to figure out pricing and how to get the best deal. It does take a little effort and some people would rather not bother. Maybe I should have used the word "lazy" instead of not bright.

Lazy is better, our early DCL cruises were researched by buying the passporter books, not even sure if they are still a thing. I will say though that we had a family I work that my wife sent a long detailed email too, and I can tell that if they did read it, they didn't process it. Some people are just not planners, sadly it is probably most. Those of us on the boards are the exception and not the rule sadly.

 

[cruiser21]

Lazy is better, our early DCL cruises were researched by buying the passporter books, not even sure if they are still a thing. I will say though that we had a family I work that my wife sent a long detailed email too, and I can tell that if they did read it, they didn't process it. Some people are just not planners, sadly it is probably most. Those of us on the boards are the exception and not the rule sadly.

I would assume people that aren't planners aren't as concerned about price. I think most people when traveling search hotel and airfare on multiple sites. Cruising is odd because you either have to book way in advance or last minute to get the best price. I think that throws a lot of people off. People on this board book cruises a year or more in advance. I don't think that's the norm at least not in my circle. Most of my friiends just completed Spring break trips, and are just starting to think about their Summer vacation plans.

 

[truck1]

I don't know why DCL being more expensive than other cruise lines is even an argument. You can argue wether you think it's worth the premium, but I would think we're all in agreement that we're paying a premium when we choose dcl.

On my drive home I was thinking something similar. In which case the whole apples to oranges argument is moot.

 

[cgolf]

Although the "sales" often see the prices mysteriously raised just enough that the "big sale" really isn't so big after all.

Agree about running all the sales because of all the ships. Sure the behemoths are attracting people, but there are lots that don't have all that they still need to sail relatively full to keep profits up.

(As a note: I am not anti-RCCL. (I am anti-behemoth but I love their Radiance class) I am actually pondering a Southern on the Jewel next year for Spring Break.)

We just booked a seventh floor forward facing ocean view on the brilliance, can't wait to give if a go. Really excited to eat our buffet food outside again, a couple have said it is comperable to the magic