I am one of the people who has been very glad to see DCL sailing out of Texas, and very disappointed that they won't be here in the spring. I'll keep hoping they'll be back for at least part of the fall. We just came off one of the Galveston sailings recently, and we have another booked for next fall. If they sail out of Galveston in 2014, we'll book one for 2014.
That said, DCL did make some mistakes with Galveston, and I'm not surprised they haven't initially been as successful as they hoped.
People around here do take cruises and do fill ships, and many of us are used to cruising out of Galveston... at substantially cheaper rates than DCL originally offered. I have several friends who were really excited about the prospect of DCL out of Galveston, but then saw the rates and basically decided to sail with another line even though DCL would have been their first choice. Once DCL lowered their rates a bit, offering price cuts and KSF, these families had made other plans.
When I say more DCL cost money, let me make it clear that we took two cruises this year, both out of Galveston, both concierge level in a cabin that could hold our party of 5 (both could hold more, but we happened to be a party of 5.) Our cruise on DCL was, quite honestly, more than twice the cost of our cruise on RCCL. Same duration, both concierge level, same party of guests traveling, and RCCL had a better and more interesting route. Admittedly, I happened to book the RCCL cruise on a day they were running a sale, but the price difference between the two cruises was huge. If you were a veteran cruiser who was considering trying DCL for the first time, as we were, you had to really want to try them to justify that price difference. As it happens, we did, and we loved it so much that we turned around and booked another one.
Their originally offered routes were not well thought out at all. They offered routes that cruisers around here have been doing for years, at substantially more money than we were used to paying. You had to really want DISNEY to book with them. You had to be willing to overlook that the ports were ones you would almost certainly have been to before, possibly many times before, if you were someone who often cruised out of Galveston. Their newer routes are better, particularly the ones that include CC. I think they were really smart to start alternating routes in fall 2013, so that people who wanted a traditional western Caribbean experience could have it, and people who wanted to try the Bahamas - and perhaps most importantly CC - would have a choice.
The school issue in Texas really is a factor. It is for any ship that does longer cruises out of Texas that target families during the school year, because the truancy laws here are so strict. Many cruisers around here, particularly ones who don't travel with kids, think of DCL as a line for families. Many of the frequent cruisers we know without young children assumed DCL wouldn't be for them, since DCL didn't do much advertising in the region and so didn't emphasize that there are many adults only areas and people who cruise without kids.
I hope they find a way to make DCL profitable in Galveston, and I really hope they continue to come for part of the year.
My husband wants to sail the Fantasy, but my youngest wants to sail the Magic again. I wouldn't mind sailing it refurbished, but was hoping we could do so out of Galveston.
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