Is the Disney Cruise Line in trouble?

[Laurajean1014]

A friend told me that he was told by a vacation specialist at an agency that DCL was in financial trouble and that he should not book a trip.

This sounds frivilous, but I wanted to know if anyone has heard the same.

 

[MarkRG]

Uhm, I don't think so.

 

[missmulan]

hardly in trouble! on the contrary!

 

[CPM]

You never know, but they usually fill all two ships, and they charge more then most cruiselines.

 

[days-going-so-slow!!]

Sounds to me like that travel agent wanted to sell your friend a cruise for another cruise line instead. Thats wrong. What a pirate!!!!!

 

[days-going-so-slow!!]

I'll bet the travel agent gets a higher commission from some where else.

 

[TooPure4u]

In my opinion, Disney seems to me like the last cruise line that would be in financial trouble. While people cruise all sorts of cruise lines, Disney is something that will ALWAYS be around and be popular. I cannot imagine it ever being in financial trouble.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Tell your friend to not use that agency and book directly with DCL.

 

[ivanova]

DCL is doing great - doing great for the Disney parent company, great in the industry in general, etc.

Sounds like a TA that might not like DCL

 

[Cass]

Isn't Disney building a new ship?

 

[DCLgodess]

Isn't Disney building a new ship?

in the future. they are still in planning stages. there is another thread dealing with the building of the ship somewhere pretty far back.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i would say think about the logic, even if they did not fill the ship they have the disney company backing them, with all the money floating through that company and affiliates, they will always be just fine, think about it, we love disney, they may raise their prices, we may complain, but we still go and they still tkae our money

 

[disneygatorfan]

I think this travel agent sounds fishy to me... 9 times out of 10, DCL sails full, no matter what time of year.. and they keep raising rates, which means that there are plenty of people willing to sail it. You don't raise rates, if you are in trouble.. you raise it because there is such a demand! They have plans for a new ship, just waiting for better exchange rates for the dollar versus's the Euro. Right now the dollar is just not valued as high, so financially wouldn't be smart to start building until you got a good exchange rate. Other then that, DCL is doing great. Besides, why would that travel agency have that sort of "insider" info anyway.

 

[Mike320]

I'd have to say no as well! I'm on the 1/22 Magic, a totally off season voyage and it's full. Unless they can't manage their money (and I doubt the Disney folks aren't efficient) I'm sure they are doing ok. If not, let's all toss in a 5-ver for them! :jumping4:

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

DCL is one of the most profitable parts of the company right now. Rated as one of the cruise lines in the industry. What liar that TA was.

Matt

 

[soccerdad-Chris]

The cruise industry as a whole has been having issues. Numerous cruise lines have built too many ships, and as a result, in the aggregate, there is far more supply than demand. The cruise lines with excess capacity have been offering great deals to passengers (and incentives to travel agents as well, I can only surmise from your question) to get people on their ships.

DCL is the anomoly in that equation. They have only two ships, and those ships are full almost all of the time. As has been stated, they charge far more than other lines (the power of the Disney brand enables this), so their "always full" status is not the result of undercutting prices (trust me, we are in a Category 3 suite on one of the high-demand West Coast cruises--there is no "price slashing" being done).

Book your trip (if you're lucky enough to find a spot) and don't worry. By the way, the DCL has said they are going to make a major announcement in LA in July, and the rumor is that they will be announcing the addition of more ships to their fleet. My bet is that however many ships Disney builds, they will be filled, most likely at the expense of other cruise lines. When we docked in several ports in October, there were several other cruise ships in port at the same time. Almost everyone we met from those ships told us how lucky we were to be on the Magic, and that they wish they could have been on our ship instead of the one they were on (some said they tried, but couldn't get a room).

If the DCL were a separately-listed stock, I would buy it.

Chris

 

[tvguy]

I just cashed my $28 dividend check today from my Disney stock, so the company is making money. Yes fares are generally falling on other lines, but no line I am aware of has canceled any orders for new ships, and the shipyards have a 3 year wait because so many lines want to had ships, so they must be doing okay.

 

[CPM]

A friend of mine owns a cruise travel agency. He said that this has been a record year for the cruise industry.

 

[smchan]

No doubt Disney is making a profit and no doubt we have anecdotal evidence that DCL is probably contributing to those profits. But if I recall correctly, DCL financials are not published by Disney, so unless someone here is an insider, we cannot, positively state that DCL is profitable and "doing great."

One piece of negative (albiet still anecdotal) evidence is DCL has NOT built a new ship is several years whilst most other cruise lines have.

That said, I would book a cruise in full confidence and use my credit card to pay. In the unlikely event that DCL goes out of business, you should be protected by your credit card company.

Sam

 

[DCLgodess]

... By the way, the DCL has said they are going to make a major announcement in LA in July, and the rumor is that they will be announcing the addition of more ships to their fleet. ...

Will the whole world get to hear the annoucement or will you actually have to be in disney? because i want to know too.