Med Cruise Question?

[FLCMpirate82]

I have never done the Med. Cruise before and am going May 28, 2011. I was just kind of wondering what the dynamic of guests would be. Has any been before and can tell me....
Is it a lot of Americans because it's Disney or more people from Europe?
Are there less families because it's the Med or are there still mostly families with kids on board?

We are so excited, but just were kind of curious as to who we might encounter on the ship!

Thanks!

 

[NHdisneylover]

On our Med cruise last May the passengers were still primarily American and Canadian. There were (as always) many Brits--perhaps up to 50% more than normal. Additionally there were enough Spaniards to be noticeable--but still not all that many. DCL has failed miserably at marketing to Europeans and this the passenger mix did not change as much as one would expect.

There were just as many kids as always.

 

[2010Raptor]

We went on a Med cruise last September and I was actually surprised that most of the people on the boat were American! I just figured there would have been more Europeans, but nope! Don't get me wrong, there were some, but not that many in my opinion. I was also surprised by the lack of children on the boat, but that was probably just because most kids were probably back in school. We are going again this June, it will probably be a different story then!

 

[Simian]

I have never done the Med. Cruise before and am going May 28, 2011. I was just kind of wondering what the dynamic of guests would be. Has any been before and can tell me....
Is it a lot of Americans because it's Disney or more people from Europe?
Are there less families because it's the Med or are there still mostly families with kids on board?

We are so excited, but just were kind of curious as to who we might encounter on the ship!

Thanks!

It's an interesting question, but I don't really know the answer as this is my first ever DCL cruise. But my guess is that Americans will still be in the majority as on other DCL cruises, although since it's easier and cheaper for Europeans to travel to Barcelona (and conversely more of an obstacle for Americans) the balance will shift.
My total guess is that it will be around 50% from N. America, 40% Europeans (of those, about half from the UK), 10% others.
I'm also anticipating the age demographics to be a little different from the average DCL cruise, namely fewer school-age kids than normal (due to not many being able to be away from school for almost two weeks at this time of year).
In my case, I'm English, my wife is Dutch, and we're travelling with our 11 month old son. We specifically opted to remain in Europe for this vacation because we didn't want to subject the little one to a long-haul flight and jetlag, otherwise we would have probably chosen a cruise in the Bahamas, for example. Personally I'd be interested to see how many parents will be bringing their babies/toddlers across the Atlantic for this cruise. Good luck to those who do

 

[CruisingSarah]

Hi, we did the Med last August and I agree with the above poster. Majority Americans and Canadians. Some Brits (like us!) but not as many as we imagined there might be, certainly nothing like the mix you would see on board a RCI ship in Europe for example.

Last season the DCL cruises were barely marketed at all here in the UK and in fact they had no designated UK TA to handle bookings, you had to book online or call to DCL in the US. This year I believe they have been working with Virgin Holidays and there has been more media advertising presence in the weekend papers and certain 'family-ish' websites. So you may get a fair few more Brits this year who knows!

We'll be off to Alaska and will be the token Brits aboard I guess!

 

[CruisingSarah]

Ooops forgot to mention kids....In the UK the majority of kids are still in school until the middle of July. So you are less likely to see large numbers of British school aged kids on board on the earlier cruises and more likely on the late July/August cruises.

 

[Simian]

DCL has failed miserably at marketing to Europeans and this the passenger mix did not change as much as one would expect.

This is an interesting point. I live in the Netherlands, and when my wife and I started thinking about a Med cruise for us and our young son, we did some online research about cruising with babies and quickly began to see that for parents with small children, DCL were widely regarded as easily the best option (e.g. for nursery facilities). I went to a local travel agent and told them that we were looking to do a Med cruise and that our primary concern was onboard facilities for baby care. I asked which cruise operators she recommended, but I deliberately didn't ask any specific questions about DCL as I didn't want to prejudice the response to my enquiry. I wanted to see what she would come up with independently, and she listed several cruise lines, but made absolutely NO MENTION of DCL. I found that very strange. Surely as professional travel agents they should know of the existence of DCL and its reputation for outstanding childcare and so on. I almost got the impression that DCL were either being deliberated ignored for some reason, or that DCL had made no effort to sell themselves to European agents. Either way, very odd.
Suffice it to say I made no further enquiries with this agent for DCL. If they made no mention of them in their list of recommendations, I wouldn't trust them to make a good booking for me or arrange onboard credit etc. So I just booked it myself through the website.

 

[kcashner]

You are on the first Med sailing. There are many guests who will do B2B trans-Atlantic crossing + first Med sailing. Those will be primarily US and Canadian citizens. While we met many Brits last year, as noted, our friends have children who will not be out of school until sometime in June--they won't be cruising till June 8.

As to families with kids vs. adults without kids--again, you will see more adults alone than on a Caribbean cruise. For this year's crossing, there are many more families with college age "adults". Last year the crossing was in April and these kids were in school; this year many are out already. Last year, each of the crossings had fewer than 400 kids on the ship (all ages) compared to a normal cruise which has about 1200 kids. While all ages were represented, most of these kids were young--again, most older kids were still in school.

I think the number of kids will increase as the summer goes on (wasn't there a KSF on some cruises???). On the TA and first Med, there will be a much higher proportion than normal of repeat cruisers and a smaller number of kids. Most people will be US or Canadian, but there will be a sprinkling of others. There will be more singles than normal, and small groups of friends sailing together.

Reason for more repeaters--you get more of us on "special" cruises, and DCL offered 20% off on some Med dates for rebooking on board.

 

[NHdisneylover]

This is an interesting point. I live in the Netherlands, and when my wife and I started thinking about a Med cruise for us and our young son, we did some online research about cruising with babies and quickly began to see that for parents with small children, DCL were widely regarded as easily the best option (e.g. for nursery facilities). I went to a local travel agent and told them that we were looking to do a Med cruise and that our primary concern was onboard facilities for baby care. I asked which cruise operators she recommended, but I deliberately didn't ask any specific questions about DCL as I didn't want to prejudice the response to my enquiry. I wanted to see what she would come up with independently, and she listed several cruise lines, but made absolutely NO MENTION of DCL. I found that very strange. Surely as professional travel agents they should know of the existence of DCL and its reputation for outstanding childcare and so on. I almost got the impression that DCL were either being deliberated ignored for some reason, or that DCL had made no effort to sell themselves to European agents. Either way, very odd.
Suffice it to say I made no further enquiries with this agent for DCL. If they made no mention of them in their list of recommendations, I wouldn't trust them to make a good booking for me or arrange onboard credit etc. So I just booked it myself through the website.

We sail with German friends of ours who are convinced there is a HUGE market in Germany, Denamrk and the Netherlands for the Disney cruises in Europe if only peopel knew about them. We have asked travel agents and they have ONLY been sent info on the Disney Caribbean cruises (if at all). It is really weird to me that Disney is not tapping this market

 

[CruisingSarah]

We sail with German friends of ours who are convinced there is a HUGE market in Germany, Denamrk and the Netherlands for the Disney cruises in Europe if only peopel knew about them. We have asked travel agents and they have ONLY been sent info on the Disney Caribbean cruises (if at all). It is really weird to me that Disney is not tapping this market

For sure there would be with the Brits too judging by the huge numbers who go to WDW. It is odd that DCL don't target these European markets more. Last year one of Magic's itineraries was a UK based one and then back to Barcelona IIRC so I guess that may have had more Brits onboard.

 

[Anal Annie]

I have never done the Med. Cruise before and am going May 28, 2011. I was just kind of wondering what the dynamic of guests would be. Has any been before and can tell me....
Is it a lot of Americans because it's Disney or more people from Europe?
Are there less families because it's the Med or are there still mostly families with kids on board?

We are so excited, but just were kind of curious as to who we might encounter on the ship!

Thanks!

As already mentioned there will likely be fewer kids that early in the season as most schools aren't out yet for the summer. We're doing our first Med cruise in August so I can only speak from what I can tell you from our cruise meet thread. The majority of the cruisers on my cruise are from the UK and most have very young children. We have 3 couples so far cruising without kids. Our DS will be 14 and I think there's only 1 other family who's checked in with a teen. There are a couple of families with 10-12 yr olds...but most seem to have 4-6 yr olds. I think there's only 4 families on my meet thread that are traveling from the US. There are also about 3 or 4 families that are FROM the US but who are living in Europe (either via military stationing or government / embassy type jobs). We seem to have a fair amount of DVC'ers (even from the UK) so that Disney base seems to be well represented. I am expecting an interesting mix of people. I've told DH he may feel out of place if he's not in a Speedo since that seems to be a fav of the European men!!

 

[Ajojo]

I went last summer and was suprised at the number of Austrailans that I met onboard.

Overall not many kids though as it was the last Med cruise of 2010.

 

[pixie08]

On our cruise last August there were far less Americans than Europeans. Some of the Europeans were Brits but many were Spaniards. Most of the passengers were families.

It changed the dynamic a bit because I would say only 40% of the ship spoke English, but really not so much. Disney had a good grip in terms of sitting English speaking people together at dinner etc.

It never really effected us at all, there were enough Americans, Candaians, Aussies, and Brits and disboarders to have enough friends and people to talk to.

 

[MadHatterMom2]

I know it's not apples-to-apples, but we did the Baltic DCL cruise last Summer. We had expected more Europeans, but there were mostly Americans and Canadians. Also, one side benefit (depending on your perspective) was that the ship was only about 75% full. That made the whole experience pretty pleasant for us - it definitely did not seem packed with kids.

 

[KAZPRINCESS]

I have never done the Med. Cruise before and am going May 28, 2011. I was just kind of wondering what the dynamic of guests would be. Has any been before and can tell me....
Is it a lot of Americans because it's Disney or more people from Europe?
Are there less families because it's the Med or are there still mostly families with kids on board?

We are so excited, but just were kind of curious as to who we might encounter on the ship!

Thanks!

The week you are away is Whit week and a lot of the UK schools will be on holiday so you may see a lot of children.


It will be our

 

[FLCMpirate82]

Thanks everyone for your input! We certailny don't mind meeting people from all over the world, since we have traveled a lot of places, but I am a planner and like to have a grasp. Also, we are traveling without kids, but with Grandparents in their 80's and I know they will be more comfortable with a little less kids and more Americans for them to meet and talk to. Really, I don't care, this is my DREAM VACATION and I am excited whether it's sold out, or empty!

 

[FLCMpirate82]

OK, I have another question now! So for those of you who have gone, any idea as to the dining schedule for an 11 night cruise? What night would be formal? Is there a Pirate night and when would that be? Also, in your opinion what is the best dining rotation? I have Palo booked for night four of the cruise.

 

[sayhello]

OK, I have another question now! So for those of you who have gone, any idea as to the dining schedule for an 11 night cruise? What night would be formal? Is there a Pirate night and when would that be? Also, in your opinion what is the best dining rotation? I have Palo booked for night four of the cruise.

I did the 11-night cruise last year. Formal night was the second night of the cruise (the 1st sea day). There was a Pirate night, and it was on day 8, the La Spezia/Florence day.

Sayhello

 

[Simian]

OK, I have another question now! So for those of you who have gone, any idea as to the dining schedule for an 11 night cruise? What night would be formal? Is there a Pirate night and when would that be? Also, in your opinion what is the best dining rotation? I have Palo booked for night four of the cruise.

I've read elsewhere on these boards (the "meet" thread for our cruise, I think, here, http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2478407&referrerid=367918) that formal night is May 29 (when we're at sea), semi-formal night is Friday June 3 (sea day) and pirate night is when we're in La Spezia (Sat June 4).
My wife and I are booked for Palo on the 10th night (Villefranche).

 

[FLCMpirate82]

Thanks! I have been searching everywhere for this! I read the Meet Board, but must have missed this. That works perfect for us! We won't miss Pirate night!