Does DCL still host meetings onboard?

[Keyser]

This is mainly out of curiosity: does Disney still let groups host conferences on the DCL ships? While I found one reference online (which referred to Disney Meetings), the Disney Meetings website seems to indicate only the land-based resorts as options.

My first time on DCL, and actually my first cruise ever, was for a conference. This was a 3-day on the Wonder (back before the Dream/Fantasy: in fact, our the captain made what he said was the first announcement of them during our cruise). The main conference meetings were held in rooms that are now the Edge. We also used other places on the ship for various sessions: Buena Vista theater and at least one of the restaurants, in particular. We generally had meetings in the morning, had afternoons free, and then after dinner had meetings until midnight(!). Our group all had the same dining assignment, and had about a third (?) of the tables in the room assigned to our group: the group had servers, but there were no table assignments by stateroom. Oh, and all that followed an opening half-day held at Coronado Springs. It was interesting, and probably the most unique conference, in lots of ways, that I've been to.

Since then, I've taken another 5 cruises on DCL (that cruise led to us trying a 4-day family cruise, which led to several more...), but I've never encountered any other groups like that on board. And, I know the meeting space on the Wonder was removed, and it seems many of the facilities (especially the BV theater) are "booked" pretty solid through most cruises. So, I'm curious if holding conferences on board is still a "thing", or if Disney has basically done away with having meetings like that held onboard.

 

[Dug720]

I'd be surprised if they were since Disney does not give group incentives like a free cabin for the leader with x-number of cabins booked, etc.

On the plus side, I do not see anywhere near the number of Disney cruises which were already on sale being bought out by a charter. That happens a lot on Celebrity and some on RCCL - just go to Cruise Critic and do a search. Sometimes people are "lucky" and have not already bought airfare, etc. But not all the time, and then it's a big mess because unless they bought their airfare through the cruise line, they will only get the standard cancellation/change fee reimbursed. I get that they make money off the full-ship charters, but I fail to understand how the cruise lines do not see that they are angering passengers by doing this - and those angry passengers are letting others know "Hey, don't book this cruise line. They'll sell you a cruise and then charter it!" It seems like the better option would be to contact the groups that typically charter the ships say a month out from releasing their schedule and tell them they have three weeks to decide what week(s) and ship(s) they want to charter and get that wrapped up a week before booking opens to the public. But they don't.

That went slightly off-topic, but it's in line because I think DCL not offering those "organizer perks" that others do makes them less attractive to meeting/charter groups.

 

[pixiedustedme]

This is mainly out of curiosity: does Disney still let groups host conferences on the DCL ships? While I found one reference online (which referred to Disney Meetings), the Disney Meetings website seems to indicate only the land-based resorts as options.

My first time on DCL, and actually my first cruise ever, was for a conference. This was a 3-day on the Wonder (back before the Dream/Fantasy: in fact, our the captain made what he said was the first announcement of them during our cruise). The main conference meetings were held in rooms that are now the Edge. We also used other places on the ship for various sessions: Buena Vista theater and at least one of the restaurants, in particular. We generally had meetings in the morning, had afternoons free, and then after dinner had meetings until midnight(!). Our group all had the same dining assignment, and had about a third (?) of the tables in the room assigned to our group: the group had servers, but there were no table assignments by stateroom. Oh, and all that followed an opening half-day held at Coronado Springs. It was interesting, and probably the most unique conference, in lots of ways, that I've been to.

Since then, I've taken another 5 cruises on DCL (that cruise led to us trying a 4-day family cruise, which led to several more...), but I've never encountered any other groups like that on board. And, I know the meeting space on the Wonder was removed, and it seems many of the facilities (especially the BV theater) are "booked" pretty solid through most cruises. So, I'm curious if holding conferences on board is still a "thing", or if Disney has basically done away with having meetings like that held onboard.

DCL is probably a bit expensive for most types of conferences at this point.

 

[KristiMc]

DCL is probably a bit expensive for most types of conferences at this point.

I agree with this. The price of sailing on DCL has gone up dramatically since the Dream/Fantasy started sailing.