Star Wars Days, inflating the prices?

[JohnDaleswife]

If you love Star Wars, great. No hating from me! I get enough hating from people in the real world who know that I have made Disney a vacation destination quite a bit for the past 10 years.

 

[Ofinn]

Not a hater. I love Star Wars. I just wouldn't book a cruise that was overpriced to see bunch of Disney employees running around in star wars costumes.

 

[ludari]

When the announcement was made for the Star Wars Cruises I was going to book (which was at a decent rate when first announced) but I decided against it but now I wish I had booked.

 

[lauradis]

What works for us is we get next year school calender and plan from there, but I am sure 2017 school calendar is not out yet.

We always travel during non school breaks. Our work doesn't allow us to take off most school
Holidays, which is good and bad. I was thinking March or feb for Caribbean cruises

 

[jetskigrl]

This was the same thing they did with the Pixar Cruises in 2012. The cruises weren't selling well so they added all the Pixar stuff to get people on the ship. It worked pretty well then too since I know our meet group got a lot busier after the Pixar additions were announced. The prices naturally go up as the cruise starts filling up.

Luckily for us, they (I think mistakenly) added VGT rates before the Pixar announcement and PIF dates. So we snagged a great rate for a great cruise

 

[JimGA]

Unless I'm missing something, the cruise has a Star Wars DAY at sea. So for a mere $3000 you get to be part of a ship's passenger crowd of about 3500 people attending some Star Wars activities on a single day? Maybe a character meet and greet, perhaps Jedi training, etc. (similar to Star Wars weekends). So perhaps a total interaction of 5 minutes personally with a character, seeing characters walk around on the ship, and the privilege of watching live show(s). $3000? Think not.

I checked the prices the other day, a category 5 room is now topping $9000. Almost a $4000 increase over our 6b room. WOW, like you said, for one special day..

 

[undertheradar]

These price changes are nothing new. Look at the sailings for Galveston this year. We have a royal, and pricing for a 4A have risen to within range of our royal. Supply vs demand.

 

[jetskigrl]

These price changes are nothing new. Look at the sailings for Galveston this year. We have a royal, and pricing for a 4A have risen to within range of our royal. Supply vs demand.

Same thing with our 5-night Baja this October. The rate for an 11A is almost what we paid for our 1-bedroom. The last rate for a 4A (they are sold out now) is nearly twice what we paid for the 1-bedroom. Yikes!!

 

[gtpoohbear]

Back when the dates first became available in October, I booked a Western Caribbean cruise that would later be announced as a Star Wars cruise. Unfortunately, about a week before they made that announcement, I got it in my head that I wanted to to the Eastern cruise the next week and changed it. As soon as I heard the announcement about SW Day, I knew DS would absolutely LOVE that and I changed it back right away. I got lucky, and the price hadn't increased at all. I would have been kicking myself if it had! That was sometime in the afternoon of the day it was announced. I checked again the next morning, just out of curiosity, and our same stateroom had already gone up by $1000. it is now over $2000 more than what I paid.

So clearly this is driving up the prices, but I suspect it's just simple supply and demand. They obviously decided to do the SW day to make the cruise appeal to more people, and it seems to have worked. Just glad I got in on it when I did, and didn't have to pay the premium. I'm sure DS will enjoy it, but I don't think I would have changed back to it if it had meant a significant increase in cost.

 

[Yooperroo]

Non Star Wars fans may not realize that although it may be only one day of scheduled Star Wars events, many people going on these cruises do not plan on limiting their festivities to just one day and have been discussing and sharing Star Wars ideas in cruise meet groups that allows the celebration of all things Star Wars during other days of the cruise as well

 

[LWILDP]

Wow am I ever glad and happy we booked when we did! We booked onboard last Christmas and as I was $1000 cheaper than the cruise we were on. When we found out about a Star Wars day we were thrilled for our son who loves SW. Even happier now didn't pay the crazy prices. Does go to show though that if a cruise isn't selling well it's still worth booking early as they may throw in special events to attract more people. Now just hope it isn't too busy and we have great weather

 

[emilymad]

We are looking for January cruises and next year is double the price we paid this past January. We are now looking at another cruise line. There is no way we are paying double for something we don't care about. It is shame since we wanted to keep sailing DCL.

 

[RedStars]

I booked the day they announced and it's gone up $2K since then. We were considering the cruise already, SW put us over the 'yes' edge.

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

Yeah, we're going at the end of April, after all the Star Wars cruises are over. It's one of the cheapest times of the year, but should be very good weather still.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

I have noticed that at the end of April there does seem to be a lot of great deals. I wonder why that time frame?

 

[timrousbeastie]

I've been trying to figure out why the Fantasy is not stopping by Jamaica on the Western itinerary between mid-November and the end of April(?). We booked the Nov. 14 cruise as it is the last to visit Falmouth, our favorite port, until April 30. Btw., I can't believe how much the prices have gone up for our cruise since I made reservations in February. We went at the same week last year, but the prices for category 4A are already more than $1K over the highest they ever got in 2014. When I checked 4As yesterday, deck 10 was completely sold out for 5 person occupancy and there were only 4 rooms left on the 9th floor. Looks like a lot of people prefer the Falmouth stop compared to an extra day at sea(?).

 

[Ofinn]

On a positive note since everyone is booking the Star Wars cruises I can almost be assured of some good GT rates and discounts on the other ships.

 

[iZon]

What's confusing is that now for February the Eastern are far more expensive than the Western Star Wars dates. A 5C for 2A (which we get) is $5331/$4603 for the two Easterns and $4445/$4263 for the two Westerns. A while back it was the opposite - by far.

I had read that February was a slow time but these rates are high above the $3600 rack rate for our Fantasy Eastern 5C two weeks ago.

 

[mom4fun]

I wanted to go on the Fantasy for our 2016 spring break but when I saw they were doing a western, I decided to do the eastern on the Magic. That Fantasy cruise turned into a star wars cruise so of course the price went up crazy and after that I think people were only left with one affordable option. So now the magic eastern has gone up pretty crazy too. So the star wars cruise drove up the price of both cruises

 

[Dug720]

Yeah, we're going at the end of April, after all the Star Wars cruises are over. It's one of the cheapest times of the year, but should be very good weather still.

Believe me, I danced for joy when I saw that our Spring Break (NYC...it's based around Passover which is late April in 2016) fell in such a way that the Fantasy cruise I'd WANTED to take for Winter Break (Eastern to Tortola and St. Thomas) ended up being less than half the price of February. Woot!! Sign me up!!

I've been trying to figure out why the Fantasy is not stopping by Jamaica on the Western itinerary between mid-November and the end of April(?). We booked the Nov. 14 cruise as it is the last to visit Falmouth, our favorite port, until April 30. Btw., I can't believe how much the prices have gone up for our cruise since I made reservations in February. We went at the same week last year, but the prices for category 4A are already more than $1K over the highest they ever got in 2014. When I checked 4As yesterday, deck 10 was completely sold out for 5 person occupancy and there were only 4 rooms left on the 9th floor. Looks like a lot of people prefer the Falmouth stop compared to an extra day at sea(?).

Once the Magic and Wonder are back in Florida, the Fantasy goes to 2 alternating Eastern routes and the Magic and/or Wonder take the Western.

What's confusing is that now for February the Eastern are far more expensive than the Western Star Wars dates. A 5C for 2A (which we get) is $5331/$4603 for the two Easterns and $4445/$4263 for the two Westerns. A while back it was the opposite - by far.

I had read that February was a slow time but these rates are high above the $3600 rack rate for our Fantasy Eastern 5C two weeks ago.

I know one of those Eastern cruises falls over Presidents' Week, which is a vacation week for a good portion of the northeast. I think DCL figured out that's a potential full-ship week and that coupled with people booking cabins (my guess is it's a mix of Presidents' Week travel and non-Star Wars fans (we DO exist) opting for non-Star Wars weeks) caused the prices to go up.