When will 2026 cruises drop?

[scroogie]

I just did a back-to-back on the Wonder, a 4-nighter from Brisbane to Melbourne and a 2-nighter from Melbourne. I was quite surprised at how many kids were on board the 4-nighter considering it fell from a Monday to Friday, and overall the ship felt relatively full but not crowded. The 2-nighter on the other hand, I guess being short and sweet and a weekend to boot, was absolutely heaving. I've done many cruises with DCL and this was actually the first time I felt it quite this crowded.

Previous posters hit the nail on the head that they need to improve their itineraries, and I think Disney is paying attention to what books better. Case in point, the fact that there are no further cruises to/from Brisbane on the cards, and adjusting how many "longer" cruises (ie. 6- and 7-nights) compared to the shorter ones, which seem to be proving more popular.

Another thing is, whilst it's true that Australians "love Disney", there is also a huge slice of the country that doesn't "get" Disney the same way Americans, or more die-hard Australians, do. My partner and I are 30-something year-olds that have been going to Disney and going on Disney cruises for the better part of 15 years, and we still get weird looks when we tell people we're doing stuff involving Disney. A lot of Australians see how the parks/cruises are advertised and think it's all meeting and walking around with (what they see as) children's cartoon characters. Indeed, I saw a social media post from someone on one of those cruises I was just on, pretty much complaining that their cruise was likely a one-and-done because it wasn't just non-stop magic and characters like the advertising made them believe.

I think DCL choosing not to offer extras for Halloween and Christmas as they do in the US is also causing a lack of sales. Most people I have spoken to have commented that all the sailings are 'the same' so there is no point is going again or booking multiple sailings in a season for most people. They need to encourage people to come back and they need to give them a reason to do so. Many families we have spoken to have said they'd book again if they did a proper Halloween on the High Seas or Christmas Sailings that weren't the two just around Christmas

Exactly. And it doesn't help that Disney is half-assing it (excuse my language) by not theming the ship for Halloween, but still using Halloween on the High Seas napkins. They did add trick or treating on Halloween and had a Mousequerade Party, but the trick or treating was literally a handful of tables set up in Cabanas where random crew would scoop some chocolates out of a box and give them to you. Better than nothing, but also a pretty poor performance for DCL.

 

[wendlle]

Exactly. And it doesn't help that Disney is half-assing it (excuse my language) by not theming the ship for Halloween, but still using Halloween on the High Seas napkins. They did add trick or treating on Halloween and had a Mousequerade Party, but the trick or treating was literally a handful of tables set up in Cabanas where random crew would scoop some chocolates out of a box and give them to you. Better than nothing, but also a pretty poor performance for DCL.

to be fair all the halloween party is at the parks is CM's scooping candy into a bag. I mean they could also offer characters in halloween costumes.
I've done a halloween cruise with DCL in the caribbean it wasn't much more than the decorated halloween tree and some costumed characters - we didn't have CM's giving us candy - but this was back in 2014

 

[scroogie]

to be fair all the halloween party is at the parks is CM's scooping candy into a bag. I mean they could also offer characters in halloween costumes.
I've done a halloween cruise with DCL in the caribbean it wasn't much more than the decorated halloween tree and some costumed characters - we didn't have CM's giving us candy - but this was back in 2014

When I've done the Halloween parties at MK there's at least been Halloween theming or decorations in the trick or treating areas. This being some cardboard boxes with CMs in their uniforms like they'd been randomly selected (assistant CD, kid's club, lifeguard), it just seemed a little on the sad side When I was on the Fantasy in 2019 they had random stations around the ship for everyone to visit, which was a little more imaginative.

I do feel that this and the Mousequerade Party were late additions to make up for itinerary disruptions (we had a port cancelled as we spent a day anchored off of Queensland for hull cleaning).

 

[asgur5]

It was the wrong time of the year to do a 7 day cruise. Every single state has school term and you cannot legally take your children out of school without a reason so unless your children were under 5, few people were going to pick this cruise. It was also quite expensive when you weren't getting anything extra like a formal night on board. This was one of the few cruises for the season that have so few guests

I agree on the timing issue with schools. But it is legal to take your kids out of schools for a holiday in australia. For a week trip you dont even need to provide evidence of what you are doing.

Also there are week long trips in florida out of school season. Do they have such low numbers on board?

 

[rainbowredpanda]

I agree on the timing issue with schools. But it is legal to take your kids out of schools for a holiday in australia. For a week trip you dont even need to provide evidence of what you are doing.

Also there are week long trips in florida out of school season. Do they have such low numbers on board?

Perhaps it is different in each schools? We get a warning if children are out of school for family holidays but that clearly isn't the same for all schools in NSW. The only reason to take your children out of school for us is medical emergency and illness.

The numbers aren't that low on board. The 7 night cruise was but most of the other cruises are sailing at 70 to 80% capacity, especially in the school holidays.