Has the price of DCL chased you away?

[tinkerone]

Double post

 

[tinkerone]

One of the reasons why I might stay here, in the DCL section, is to feed the "other cruise lines that are not RCCL" threads for one specific reason:
I want to cheer up those who can't afford to cruise DCL anymore, and are very sad about it (I noticed that DCL is an emotional choice for most of the DISers), and reassure them that if they really enjoy cruising, there are great options outhere, more affordable, that could make them just as happy or at least almost just as happy.

This is why I created the Carnival Victory VS Disney Dream thread. And there is a strong chance that I might do the same exercise with the Carnival Vista... So they could compare and maybe get a little consolation from losing DCL.

Very well said. I feel very much the same and can tell @Ibus42 that I do not post in hopes of convincing people to switch lines, I post to have others feel they can switch if they so choose and not have to feel they are giving up on a great vacation. That was my biggest worry when I switched, and realized that fear was unfounded. All lines have pros and cons and the facts should be given by all sides. I listened to the whispers of 'your going to be nickeled and dimed' and that kept me from moving on to other lines. Had I not read threads like this one I would not have known any different. Now I know its not true, I'm not going to go home with a bill in the thousands because I didn't pay DCL fares upfront.
Long and short, threads like these are not so someone can try and convert people. They are to help people who wonder what is really out there. What are the options.
JMO

 

[mevelandry]

As I posted on a similar thread, we initially jumped ship to get the itinerary we wanted. But what we found, pricing wise, was eye opening. We have two NCL cruises booked. On the first one we opted to spend what we normally would on DCL (usually in a 5A or 5B) and see what we could get - turns out that was an aft penthouse suite with alcohol, specialty dining, internet, OBC, shore excursion credits included.

Impressive.

 

[Shanti]

• I sail for the itinerary first and foremost. This means DCL is often out of the running. But for any of their "exotic" itineraries the price on the concierge rooms is insane! I've consistently found prices in the 13-20k/pp range. I am always astounded that Disney can compete.They don't offer near the experience or amenities of a Reagent, Silversea, or Crystal etc. which are in the same price range.

  They offer a more family oriented experience than those lines. That's how they compete in $30,000+ specialty cruise concierge with the lines you mentioned. Even the kids of the 1% love the mouse.

 

[cgolf]

I personally believe that the purpose of threads like this are to try and convince others to leave DCL in the hope that if enough cruisers leave, then Disney will have to drop their prices. Posters will regale their stories of how they have been priced out by Disney or how great their experience was on another cruise line. And some of them will dismiss or even attack anyone who disagrees with their opinion and their hopes of Disney lowering their pricing.

This may surprise you since you think we are all haters on some level that I gave a coworker a link to this forum and am digging up an extensive planning email that my wife wrote for another coworker to help them plan for their upcoming DCL cruise they are going to book. It is going to be their second, but the first was a 3 night Dream where they didn't get to do a lot because of the short time frame. Heck I could even start a thread on here and post the email, she did a really good job on it for a newbie cruiser.

 

[squirk]

I wish I could answer to you but... English is not my first language. So... In total honesty, I don't understand what you mean.

A "long con" is when somebody engages in a plan of trickery or fraud that takes a very long time and requires a very large amount of patience to succeed.

Complaining about DCL pricing on this message board in an attempt to "scare people away", lower demand, and thus force DCL to decrease fares (as @lbus42 mentioned) is a plan that would require a LOT of time and patience.

 

[cgolf]

A "long con" is when somebody engages in a plan of trickery or fraud that takes a very long time and requires a very large amount of patience to succeed.

Complaining about DCL pricing on this message board in an attempt to "scare people away", lower demand, and thus force DCL to decrease fares (as @lbus42 mentioned) is a plan that would require a LOT of time and patience.

Why would we want to scare anyone away, especially since probably 1% of the cruising population is even on these boards. Maybe loony tune con instead of a long con since it would never work

 

[keaster]

I just posted this on the Royal Caribbean forum, just so people get an idea of pricing:

Currently we have the August 2018 7 night Northern Europe cruise booked on the Disney Magic. For three in a 5A balcony it is $10,317US (or with current exchange rate $13,753 Canadian).

I can get a Junior Suite on Serenade of the Seas same month/same itinerary for $8,950 Canadian (RCCL has Canadian pricing). If we wanted to really splurge we could do a Concierge Grand Suite for $10,294 Canadian which is still cheaper than our 5A on the Magic.

My loyalty to the Mouse in this case will probably be swayed

Edit to add...just took a look at NCL as well as I've never looked there before...we can do a 9-night cruise with an extra stop in Berlin also August 2018 on the Breakaway. 3 people in a mini-suite with large balcony (plus free specialty dining and free drink packages) is $8,071 Canadian.

 

[KayKayJS]

Yes and No.

We will continue to sail Disney, we are just picky when we do. We live in FL so we can sometimes snag those deals and we do try to keep an OOB placeholder. We ended up at 228/nt pp for DCL 7 Day Alaska in an OV and that's pretty much our max price per night.

This excludes us from sailing summer, so we're looking at RCCL for next summer on the Oasis or one of their larger ships. It will run about 2k for a verandah for 2.

 

[AquaDame]

To the OP no to both counts... we aren't tied to the expensive times of year to sail and we also haven't hit our limit on price yet since it is MUCH cheaper than sailing during the summer.

Not really. I think this is more of an issue for people who have done a lot of DCL cruises when they were cheaper. Having to pay higher prices seems weird to them, and they're often burned out from the same itineraries.

In our case, we aren't used to lower prices of years past, so that's a non-issue. I'm also very selective about which cruises we'll take, only choosing itineraries/ships that are new or appealing to us. We don't plan to repeat the same cruise over and over, like some enjoy doing. We also aren't interested in cruising several times a year, as some like to do.

I think DCL's ships and service are great, and they have some great, unique itineraries to offer. I think even a short Castaway Cay getaway is a special experience. My son also still loves the characters and theming. It's worth it to us right now.

We are kind of the same way... our first cruise ever was in 2011 on a 4-night Dream when it was still a new ship. We have yet to do the exact same itinerary twice - we pick itineraries with new places to explore. We *have* done two southerns and will be doing a third in January, but there have always been new ports. This time Bonaire & Aruba will be new and I'm not really looking forward to seeing Antigua or St Lucia a third time so we might just enjoy the ship more. Its one of the reasons we went with a concierge cabin this time. Eventually I might run out of "new" cruises and that might keep me from booking.

I think it must be an unspoken rule that we cannot have any less than three concurrent active threads on this topic in any given week.

I fight the urge to merge... maybe I shouldn't but I want the OPs to get all the support and opinions they need instead of having it watered down.

You cruise solo. It's a lot different for families with 2 or 3 kids. You can trust DCL all you want, but have a couple of kids and I'll guarantee you'll be singing a different tune.

That's why there are options out there... we're also DINKS (dual income, no kids) with no plans to have kids. Just because we haven't made the same choices in life than you doesn't make our experience meaningless until we conform. What can I say, I'm a rebel.

Same here, I will probably spend more time in the RCCL section...

One of the reasons why I might stay here, in the DCL section, is to feed the "other cruise lines that are not RCCL" threads for one specific reason:

I want to cheer up those who can't afford to cruise DCL anymore, and are very sad about it (I noticed that DCL is an emotional choice for most of the DISers), and reassure them that if they really enjoy cruising, there are great options outhere, more affordable, that could make them just as happy or at least almost just as happy.

This is why I created the Carnival Victory VS Disney Dream thread. And there is a strong chance that I might do the same exercise with the Carnival Vista... So they could compare and maybe get a little consolation from losing DCL.

We'd rather not see the DISNEY cruise board inundated with individual threads for each ship though... would it be alright to rename your thread into a Carnival mega thread and provide links to the reviews for each individual ship in the first post..? Or we could start a new thread to be the mega one and take it from there? I do think it helps people and I'd like to keep it going... just not at the expense of taking the forum off track.

 

[squirk]

Why would we want to scare anyone away, especially since probably 1% of the cruising population is even on these boards. Maybe loony tune con instead of a long con since it would never work

@lbus42 proposed that some people post these "DCL is too expensive" threads to depress booking rates and drive fares down.

Yes, anyone who thinks that would work needs to have their head examined. I think my dry sarcasm was too dry when I said such a con would take a really long time.

 

[rescuetink]

My DW and I have sailed another cruise line and found DCL to be much better. That being said I think when my kids are older we will probably try different cruise lines, but they are both bugging the heck out of me to cruise DCL again!! NOVEMBER 2018!!!

 

[mevelandry]

A "long con" is when somebody engages in a plan of trickery or fraud that takes a very long time and requires a very large amount of patience to succeed.

Thanks for the translation.

 

[cgolf]

@lbus42 proposed that some people post these "DCL is too expensive" threads to depress booking rates and drive fares down.

Yes, anyone who thinks that would work needs to have their head examined. I think my dry sarcasm was too dry when I said such a con would take a really long time.

Personally I think we come here to commiserate about the price increases and about the choices we are going to make, especially those of us that to that point had never cruised anything other than DCL. I think this would not have been such an issue though if DCL had rolled the price increases out over say 5 years. we saw two timeframes with huge jumps 2014-2015 Fantasy Concierge and 2016-2017 on the Magic, both being in off peak times. Had more incremental changes been made, DCL may have gotten more of our money and saw less people talking about the price increases on forums like this.

 

[mevelandry]

We'd rather not see the DISNEY cruise board inundated with individual threads for each ship though... would it be alright to rename your thread into a Carnival mega thread and provide links to the reviews for each individual ship in the first post..? Or we could start a new thread to be the mega one and take it from there? I do think it helps people and I'd like to keep it going... just not at the expense of taking the forum off track.

Already done!

Since I was thinking of doing the same thing for the Vista, today I changed the title of my Carnival VS DCL (originally called Carnival Victory VS Disney Dream review) into "Carnival VS DCL: the Ultimate comparison thread".

It's been very active so far and already used for different comparisons... so I figured that since most "ship jumpers" were already on it, we might as well use it for all comparisons Carnival VS Disney.

 

[AquaDame]

Already done!

Since I was thinking of doing the same thing for the Vista, today I changed the title of my Carnival VS DCL (originally called Carnival Victory VS Disney Dream review) into "Carnival VS DCL: the Ultimate comparison thread".

It's been very active so far and already used for different comparisons... so I figured that since most "ship jumpers" were already on it, we might as well use it for all comparisons Carnival VS Disney.

I just noticed that - you beat me to the punch! Thank you for taking it on!

 

[mevelandry]

I just noticed that - you beat me to the punch! Thank you for taking it on!

I had a feeling you'd be asking me to do it this way so I've been proactive.

 

[squirk]

Personally I think we come here to commiserate about the price increases and about the choices we are going to make, especially those of us that to that point had never cruised anything other than DCL. I think this would not have been such an issue though if DCL had rolled the price increases out over say 5 years. we saw two timeframes with huge jumps 2014-2015 Fantasy Concierge and 2016-2017 on the Magic, both being in off peak times. Had more incremental changes been made, DCL may have gotten more of our money and saw less people talking about the price increases on forums like this.

They don't care about us or how we feel about their pricing strategy.

Babies are being born every day. For every "veteran" that jumps ship due to large price hikes, there are five new young unlearned families to take their place.

 

[cgolf]

They don't care about us or how we feel about their pricing strategy.

Babies are being born every day. For every "veteran" that jumps ship due to large price hikes, there are five new young unlearned families to take their place.

Agreed, which is why we found a new landing place we are happy with. Couple that with a new job with less vacation, our cruising time is limited for a while anyways. Will do more local weekend trips.

 

[cruiser21]

To the OP no to both counts... we aren't tied to the expensive times of year to sail and we also haven't hit our limit on price yet since it is MUCH cheaper than sailing during the summer.



We are kind of the same way... our first cruise ever was in 2011 on a 4-night Dream when it was still a new ship. We have yet to do the exact same itinerary twice - we pick itineraries with new places to explore. We *have* done two southerns and will be doing a third in January, but there have always been new ports. This time Bonaire & Aruba will be new and I'm not really looking forward to seeing Antigua or St Lucia a third time so we might just enjoy the ship more. Its one of the reasons we went with a concierge cabin this time. Eventually I might run out of "new" cruises and that might keep me from booking.



I fight the urge to merge... maybe I shouldn't but I want the OPs to get all the support and opinions they need instead of having it watered down.



That's why there are options out there... we're also DINKS (dual income, no kids) with no plans to have kids. Just because we haven't made the same choices in life than you doesn't make our experience meaningless until we conform. What can I say, I'm a rebel.



We'd rather not see the DISNEY cruise board inundated with individual threads for each ship though... would it be alright to rename your thread into a Carnival mega thread and provide links to the reviews for each individual ship in the first post..? Or we could start a new thread to be the mega one and take it from there? I do think it helps people and I'd like to keep it going... just not at the expense of taking the forum off track.

The point I was making.. I think some people get it and some people think I'm criticizing their life choices. I really don't care if anyone has kids or doesn't. Get's married, stays single...whatever I don't care. I DONT CARE anything about anyones life choices. The only thing I know about anybody on this board is that they like to cruise.
I do think the people that book Dcl cruises with two people, and say that the prices are comparable to other lines need to take a look at the price differences when booking for four or five to know where a lot of us are coming from. DCL does not give huge discounts for third and fourth passengers, there's no kids sail free or reduced prices for families. I'm taking a couple of DCL cruises that I booked just for two people, and I can say the price difference is huge compared to what I'm used to paying when I book for four. That's why I made the "joke" have a couple of kids and you might change your mind about the prices. I did not make the "joke" to diminish anyone's opinion. It's seems like most of price complaints on this board are coming from people with kids. Kids are expensive, and I certainly can't blame anyone for not wanting them.