Special Sailing ???

[provencio]

I am thinking of booking a Very Merry Christmas cruise or a Halloween sailing … are these special sailings any more crowded than a “regular” sailing? Now I understand Christmas Day may booked to capacity .. but I am thinking of an early December booking or early October…..

 

[princesscinderella]

No I don’t think they are necessarily booked to capacity. I see them more as a way to entice bookings during lower cruise season in the case of the Halloween sailings. The merry time have always been more crowded like the parks are during the 2 weeks that kids typically have off from school during the holidays. Typically on DCL if kids are out to school for a holiday or summer the rates are higher for the cruises. There are a few discounts being offered on the specials page on DCL for the holiday sailings so they definitely aren’t all sold out.

 

[Cfabar1]

They offer these sailings to make it "compelling" to sail DCL...

Pixar Day at Sea
Marvel Day at Sea
Halloween on the High Seas
and Merrytime Sailings

all occur at times, generally, that are low demand. There are some exceptions like the Merrytime sailings that occur over Thanksgiving break.

They throw out Thor or Clarabelle Cow in a Halloween outfit in hopes to stir up excitement and demand.

 

[holula]

In my experience the Merrytime is more crowded than Halloween, even if you don’t sail over Christmas. I’m sure that September is one of the lowest capacity times to cruise.

 

[DCL58]

Every cruise we have sailed on since late 2023 has been sold out. We have sailed Pixar, Halloween and Christmas cruises. 9 in total. On the Fantasy, Treasure and Magic. All sailing full.

 

[Girl of the South]

I did a MerryTime cruise a couple years ago (post Covid). It was early December and not overly crowded. Generally early Dec is a slower season. The decorations are lovely!

 

[disney2you]

I think it might vary based on the ship as well? I did the Wish in early december and it seemed quite empty in 2023. I did Fantasy for Halloween in mid october last year and I'd never seen such chaos and giant lines for character meetings. There were a ton more children on the Fantasy as well.

 

[DCLMP]

I've always found there to be a lot of cast members on the ships during slower times. It's nice the employees can catch a break.

 

[Love4Eeyore]

I think it might vary based on the ship as well? I did the Wish in early december and it seemed quite empty in 2023. I did Fantasy for Halloween in mid october last year and I'd never seen such chaos and giant lines for character meetings. There were a ton more children on the Fantasy as well.

The difference here is more due to school breaks. Many schools have their fall breaks mid-October, but are in session beginning of December.

 

[tvguy]

Not sure there will be a noticeable difference in passengers. Especially in regards to the number of kids. We have one district here with year round school which means at any given time a quarter of the students are on break. Not that it matters because it just seems many Disney cruisers have no issue taking their kids out of school for a vacation.

 

[Love4Eeyore]

Not sure there will be a noticeable difference in passengers. Especially in regards to the number of kids. We have one district here with year round school which means at any given time a quarter of the students are on break. Not that it matters because it just seems many Disney cruisers have no issue taking their kids out of school for a vacation.

This is also true! We are pulling DS out of school for 2 weeks for the WBPC in April. I do expect there to be a somewhat smaller number of kids onboard than normal sailings though. OTOH, large numbers homeschool too.

 

[longboard55]

Biggest factor in crowds would seem to be summer vacation where they go from 2 to a room to 4

 

[tvguy]

This is also true! We are pulling DS out of school for 2 weeks for the WBPC in April. I do expect there to be a somewhat smaller number of kids onboard than normal sailings though. OTOH, large numbers homeschool too.

Temporary homeschooling is the way some around here use to get around the truancy laws to take their kids on a vacation. They disenroll their kids for the length of the trip and homeschool them for the length of the trip, then reenroll their kids in the school. Only problem is, some school here have waiting lists, and if you disenroll from one of those schools, your child goes to the bottom of the waiting list.

 

[BrokeMack]

Judging by pricing, Sep and Jan are the lowest-demand months. But Disney is pretty good at using discounts to fill staterooms as we've seen. My recent Wish cruise was full and the most crowded I've ever seen was MDAS on the Dream during that 3rd and 4th guest free D+ offer in 2023. There's full at double occupancy then there's full when most staterooms have a family of four or more in them.