What did you all book for Summer 2023? - thoughts on prices?

[Kwami]

If you didn't get the room you wanted, I would encourage checking again. We booked on May 3 (Gold) the 7-night Mediterranean from Barcelona on 7/8. We are a family of 5 so can only do family oceanview, family verandah, or concierge if we want one room. At the time, family oceanview was unavailable, so I booked verandah. Have been checking back, and today, a whole slew of oceanview rooms showed up as available on the website--basically had my pick of any Cat 8 room, so I booked one.

A little annoyed because prices did go up a bit since I booked (about $100), but I still saved $1,000 relative to a verandah so I can't complain too much. It is odd though--I wonder why they held those rooms back. Weird.

Disney plays these games all the time with their ships and with their hotels. It's really annoying!

 

[Dug720]

Disney plays these games all the time with their ships and with their hotels. It's really annoying!

It might not be Disney "playing games". It could be that a group had blocked them and then ended up not needing all so they are released back into inventory.

 

[MomOTwins]

It might not be Disney "playing games". It could be that a group had blocked them and then ended up not needing all so they are released back into inventory.

They were a mix of far forward and far aft on different floors, so would be a weird block. Plus for the same reason nit a muster station full in that area. Almost makes me wonder if it had to be a system glitch.

 

[Dug720]

They were a mix of far forward and far aft on different floors, so would be a weird block. Plus for the same reason nit a muster station full in that area. Almost makes me wonder if it had to be a system glitch.

That's possible too.

Or, given that we're talking about sailings that just went on sale, it's possible that there were a lot of 3-day holds put on them that expired. People holding rooms to the point that prices increase is nothing new to DCL early booking, sadly.

I'm not a "Disney is perfect" person, but I'm also not so quick to assign malicious intent to things.

 

[Kwami]

That's possible too.

Or, given that we're talking about sailings that just went on sale, it's possible that there were a lot of 3-day holds put on them that expired. People holding rooms to the point that prices increase is nothing new to DCL early booking, sadly.

I'm not a "Disney is perfect" person, but I'm also not so quick to assign malicious intent to things.

I'm not being malicious. Disney regularly does this kind of thing with all of their properties. I don't know why they do it. It could be that the re-release rooms as they become available from cancelations. It could be that they save some rooms to release on certain days. It could be that their system is just broken. I really don't know. But there's definitely a pattern that you can see across the cruise ships, the WDW resorts, and Aulani, at least. I've never checked the Disneyland hotels.

It's extra obvious on the cruise ships, though, because you can actually see the available rooms instead of just guessing like you do for the hotels. Log on one day and there will be an almost-contiguous block of rooms, say, starboard aft. Log on a day or two later and most of those rooms will be gone, but some other almost-contiguous block of rooms will be available. Wait a few more days and the first block will open again, but the second will be gone.

At least for the cruise ships, It's probably something to do with staff or life boats. It's still very annoying when you're trying to book, though.