Had to finally book with NCL because Disney wanted me to sell my house... lol

[perditax]

I found the free food to be very good on getaway, and ironically the upcharge restaurants weren't that great. La Cucina was pretty wretched, and Le Bistro was decent but nothing special and service was slow. I found the famous lobster roll on the waterfront to be too rich for my stomach (which was still adjusting to cruise food).

Free and excellent:

--Tropicana Room MDR. (had one meal there, to be fair, but bread was fresh, a duck/mushroom/pappardelle dish was very good, and had a very nice milk chocolate mousse dessert.) I wish I would have eaten there more often but I was traveling solo and my appetite was erratic
--Flamingo Grill (ate there many times for lunch)
--O'Sheehan's (excellent and quickly served prime rib dinner). The meat needed salt ... Which was on the table in front of me. I'd expected a saline/preservative laden slab of "beef", but what I got was akin to what Outback served for prime rib back in its heyday, perfectly medium rare
--Pastries in solo studios

Buffet was hit or miss, but I get the sense that is true on any cruise ship. Stuff I liked: a chicken and sausage gumbo one lunch. I went back for seconds. A chocolate mousse cake. A snack section that allowed you to make your own cheese plate (bries, hard cheeses, etc, walnuts, grapes, salami, crackers--took this back to my room one night). Eggs Benedict on disembark day was quite good.

All this said--the a la carte pricing annoys me, but that annoyance is not entirely rational because I enjoyed the complimentary dining more anyway. And they don't have the space to force everyone into the upcharge venues even if that was their plan.

 

[avgsuperheroine]

This will likely be our last DCL for a while. We cancelled a 7 night southern on RCCL for $1600 for all five of us to upgrade back to DCL. Our boys are just the right age, and this for us is a real dream trip. Comparative trip, destination, rooms--$5500 for the five of us, opening day rate. But--when we add in our travel costs to and from, the price difference becomes more and more minimal (per person, per day). We at least know when we go just as a couple we're doing other lines for a while. Nothing against DCL, if they can get those prices, great, and I do find the experience to be far superior. I'd just rather go away more often if I can.

 

[tinkerone]

another one moving on. we have our first cruise booked with rccl and that may be the game changer we need. i'm excited for it. we have a few dcl cruises to finish up first but they may me the last for a very long time if rcl works out. we are Canadians as well and can pay in Canadian funds. when we booked we were saving over $2000, now with the exchange even higher it is probably more than $2300.
waiting to see what happens.......

 

[cwdefouw]

I love to see threads like this. This clearly indicates that DCL have raised their rates beyond the "Balk" point for many people. Sure they are still continuing to sail nearly full ships even at the premium prices they are charging, however, eventually this will catch up to them and they will be forced to put the brakes on the extreme increases we have seen pretty much ever since the Dream and then the Fantasy started sailing. We love DCL, but we now have to be very particular about the cruises we take and pretty much only pay cash for the cheapest ones that we can find. Everything else is booked with DVC points, but even the "cost" of those are getting beyond what we feel is reasonable. We have not been on another cruise line since 2007, but are always on the lookout for a deal with the other lines, and I also have to say that the loyalty benefits that DCL are offering, even at the Platinum level, are not enough to prevent us from jumping ship.

 

[perditax]

I can't help but feel the pendulum will swing the other way eventually, particularly the next time the economy dips significantly. (I know there's always a sense of being in a recession, but I'm pretty sure quite a few years of lower fares were fueled by the actual 2008 crash.)

 

[Tooth Fairy]

We gave up on finding a *GT too! Renting some points for a 5 night stay at a deluxe with NOJ tickets and water park plus down time to relax at spa and dine. Land cruise if you will for half the price of a 4 day! Bon voyage to DCL....for a while anyway!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Does jumping ship also have to do with lack of ships/interesting itineraries to anyone else? For me it also gets down to being able to go to new places, I dont want to go to same islands every year. The other cruise lines have so many ships they can keep their "mainstream" itineraries but also take other ships to southern Caribbean islands and even Central America. Just my $.02

 

[bobbiwoz]

I do not often ask friends to pay DCL prices, but I do have some that will. We're doing a Vancouver to Honolulu cruise with a group on RCCL in September for economic reasons. However, I personally prefer DCL. Have taken cruises on 4 cruise lines, RCCL, DCL, Carnival and Princess, more than 10 cruises on each.

 

[Ofinn]

Does jumping ship also have to do with lack of ships/interesting itineraries to anyone else? For me it also gets down to being able to go to new places, I dont want to go to same islands every year. The other cruise lines have so many ships they can keep their "mainstream" itineraries but also take other ships to southern Caribbean islands and even Central America. Just my $.02

I think this is true for those of us that have done a number of DCL cruises. It's hard to keep paying more for the same cruise.

 

[emma'smom]

I do think we are getting priced out of DCL.....we still look for the deals, but they are few and far between which leads us to stray to other lines. We've done Royal and NCL and returned for additional cruises on both because the price is far more reasonable. I don't worry much about the itinerary for DCL since my main focus is the ship and programming, etc For the other lines, we do pay a bit more attention to the itineraries since I usually find fewer appealing programming options. Still, we go on those cruises on other lines......just take more good books with us!

 

[KashasMom]

Enjoy your Cruise!............BTW....NCL about 2 weeks ago, just raised the gratuities about 30%. Not to mention many new nice and dime measures over the last 6 months or so.

AKK

Don't know where you go THAT info but it's not correct. I believe gratuities went up 50 cents a day. And sorry, but no new nickel and dime measures either.

 

[KashasMom]

We are really happy with our upcoming cruises away from DCL. We have one more Disney cruise left in us (daughter is kind of "over" the characters, princesses). After that we'll get our Disney fill at WDW and Disneyland! We've done NCL Epic and Breakaway and have an upcoming cruise on the Getaway, that we are really looking forward to. We are also giving the Oasis a try. I believe the bigger/newer ships on Royal & NCL have more things for older kids. There are some other positives as well....and we like having the buffet as an option at night. And for us one of the biggest reasons we're moving away from DCL is not cost but itinerary!

 

[FloridaBabe]

Does jumping ship also have to do with lack of ships/interesting itineraries to anyone else? For me it also gets down to being able to go to new places, I dont want to go to same islands every year. The other cruise lines have so many ships they can keep their "mainstream" itineraries but also take other ships to southern Caribbean islands and even Central America. Just my $.02

I feel the same, we would like to see some more decent destinations. After our next Fantasy trip I am looking to jump ship so we can sail to places like Bermuda and then another line where we can explore more Island in the Southern Caribbean.

 

[WDW&DCLADDICT]

DISNEY FANTASY August 1st, 2015 in category 5A is
$9,446.96
PRICES DROP FROM THIS YEAR TO NEXT YEAR
Disney Fantasy August 6th, 2016 in category 5A is
$8,292.16

 

[FJS961]

For repeat cruisers with kids getting older it is very hard to justify increasing prices for the same cruise (itinerary). When DCL does offer something 'new' the prices get even more ultra outrageous. DCL ships will always be special to me for several reasons but enough is enough

 

[Ofinn]

DISNEY FANTASY August 1st, 2015 in category 5A is
$9,446.96
PRICES DROP FROM THIS YEAR TO NEXT YEAR
Disney Fantasy August 6th, 2016 in category 5A is
$8,292.16

Are you comparing opening day prices? I would expect a cruise a year away to be less than one that is in 2 weeks. I would never in a million years pay 8-9k for a 7 day Caribbean cruise. I'm always shocked that people do.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Don't know where you go THAT info but it's not correct. I believe gratuities went up 50 cents a day. And sorry, but no new nickel and dime measures either.

I already stated I made a error on the amount of the gratuities, but its even being report on this threat its $1.50 a day for each person.....As to the others....all correct. For the last 6 month the new CEO has been adding more and more nickel and dime add on and changes...including the more al la cart restaurants and more a la crate menus and increases on new reservations and cruises.........This is going add big to a al crate costs. Go back a few months in the NCL forums and see NCCL fans have been complaining big time. Yahoo news also have been reporting lots of increases.

AKK

 

[perditax]

The a la carte stuff has just barely been rolled out on a few ships and 1) only affects restaurants that were upcharge anyway and 2) seemingly doesn't affect people who have a dining package. In this particular instance, nothing included with your cruise fare has been taken away.

Disney has had upcharge dining increases this year, fwiw.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The a la carte stuff has just barely been rolled out on a few ships and 1) only affects restaurants that were upcharge anyway and 2) seemingly doesn't affect people who have a dining package. In this particular instance, nothing included with your cruise fare has been taken away.

Disney has had upcharge dining increases this year, fwiw.

However there is more restaurant's being added and more al la cart menu items at much higher prices that just the up sell. In January they are reported to be expanding the whole program on all the restaurants/ships.

This is just one item...............The real point here is that prices on all lines are increasing more and more and some of the cheaper line are cutting back.

AKK

 

[bceagle76]

I did 1 NCL out of Boston. It was an older boat they have the newer ones in Boston and the Getaway or Breakaway out of NY. But I had such a poor experience I can see myself doing NCL.
I did a RCCL once I would do that again.