Why are Disney cruises still so expensive?

[DCLMP]

Finding joy!!! View attachment 756495

Love it. That's so true especially now. The cost of the first three is killing the Disney fund. I'm running out of ways to be frugal.

 

[Kwami]

If you don't like other people doing your laundry then you are pretty limited when it comes to cruises. I don't like it either, but if I get to go to places like Turkey, Israel, Asia, or a multitude of other places then I'll suffer through some strange person washing my undies. I'm not going to cancel my bucket list over laundry.

As far as the VPN thing most people don't work on cruises and honestly, I don't think most people worry about it.

Don't get me wrong I love DCL and for years that was all we did, but I do like to visit new places laundry, internet, and straws be damned.

You do you. I'll do me. All is well.

 

[Dug720]

Since we have not sailed with them before, we'd have no priority booking for anything.

Just for future reference, Royal (and Celebrity and HAL) do not do staggered excursion (or anything else) booking. Excursions, specialty dining, etc. are open to everyone at the same time.

I'm not positive, but I think Disney may be the only line that does the excursions/adult dining/spa bookings by loyalty tier. It's definitely the only one of the lines I've cruised.

 

[jimmymc]

Eh Seabourn only has 6 ships along with another being built but 1 being sold next year so back to 6. They offer discounts and OBC deals. Depends on the itinerary, season and how sold out a particular cruise is but they offer them.

DCL does offer discounts, I frequently get offers in my e-mail or actual snail mail marketing but it's truly not really the best of deals overall regardless.

I would say Disney definitely has better brand recognition and marketing than Seabourn, but I understand your point.

To expand my answer, it's supply and demand. Tens of millions of people take Disney vacations every year, plenty more grew up with nostalgic connections to the movies, and they only have 5 ships. Seabourn offers a great product, but they don't offer nostalgia unless you've been on them before. As much as I hate the word, Disney has all but perfected synergy.

 

[jimmymc]

Just for future reference, Royal (and Celebrity and HAL) do not do staggered excursion (or anything else) booking. Excursions, specialty dining, etc. are open to everyone at the same time.

I'm not positive, but I think Disney may be the only line that does the excursions/adult dining/spa bookings by loyalty tier. It's definitely the only one of the lines I've cruised.

Celebrity and possibly royal offer early booking for suite guests but not member tiers. Diamond and above on Royal get "Priority Waitlist access" which I assume only kicks in after the excursion is full. But I think it's less of a problem on other cruise lines too, and if you're online the day they open you'll rarely have trouble booking what you want.

 

[DCLMP]

Just for future reference, Royal (and Celebrity and HAL) do not do staggered excursion (or anything else) booking. Excursions, specialty dining, etc. are open to everyone at the same time.

I'm not positive, but I think Disney may be the only line that does the excursions/adult dining/spa bookings by loyalty tier. It's definitely the only one of the lines I've cruised.

I was able to book excursions months in advance on Royal. You pay upfront, but if you change your mind the refund was quick.
I think you’re probably right about Disney being the only one.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I would say Disney definitely has better brand recognition and marketing than Seabourn

100% agree, honestly we had heard of Regent Seven Seas and SilverSea (almost booked them before the pandemic) but had not heard of Seabourn. To that end though these ultra luxury cruse liners do not have to have brand recognition from the masses, in fact they probably do better without their name being blasted everywhere. It's similar to Ritz Carlton for their ships. One thing I've learned just being on the FB groups is those who will cruise these high high end liners are not the clientele to have gotten the interest in them from commercials if that makes sense.

To expand my answer, it's supply and demand. Tens of millions of people take Disney vacations every year, plenty more grew up with nostalgic connections to the movies, and they only have 5 ships. Seabourn offers a great product, but they don't offer nostalgia unless you've been on them before.

I agree with that but I do think I was thinking about it in different terms. Seabourn is in no way attempting to be nostalgic the same way as Disney. What their nostalgic lies in for the repeat passengers is how the fries and cookies are made (seriously), the exact service replicated without inconsistency (or the passengers will let you know about it), etc.

My point about comparing the number of ships was that the number of ships doesn't seem to have much to do with it (IMO). Disney is Disney it can skate by on just that name alone no matter how many ships it has or doesn't have. When talking about such brandy loyalty in people supply and demand don't take the forefront as much (IMO), you can't ignore that people will cruise Disney regardless of any factors because it is Disney and that is more unique IMO in the cruise industry. Even then they do offer discounts when they need to or when they want to just like any other cruise liner out there.

 

[DCLMP]

I would say Disney definitely has better brand recognition and marketing than Seabourn, but I understand your point.

To expand my answer, it's supply and demand. Tens of millions of people take Disney vacations every year, plenty more grew up with nostalgic connections to the movies, and they only have 5 ships. Seabourn offers a great product, but they don't offer nostalgia unless you've been on them before. As much as I hate the word, Disney has all but perfected synergy.

I dont know anyone outside of this forum that has cruised on Disney. It’s usually Royal. Maybe being closer to Florida it’s different.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I dont know anyone outside of this forum that has cruised on Disney. It’s usually Royal. Maybe being closer to Florida it’s different.

I do IRL (who know nothing about internet forums like this existing) but it's because and only because it's Disney and they have young kids so both of those factors make it a good fit.

Usually on the Seabourn FB pages though people will suggest Disney for someone looking to cruise with young kids so it does get recommended based solely on the age factor as well. That said I don't know how the experience would be for those people who had been looking at ultra luxury for their 3 year old or 8 year old who didn't necessarily express a love of Disney. The older the kids are (say 15,16,18+) the less Disney is recommended at least observationally speaking from the FB pages.

 

[Carohs]

Being in San Diego, DCL is one of few cruise ships that docks here. Plus we're close to DLR so brand recognition is a given. Most of my co-workers who have cruised, have cruised DCL. And now that we've done it and talked about how much we enjoyed it, other people in our social circle have begun to consider it.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Why are Disney cruises so expensive and why are they not offering discounts like the other major cruise providers? My son just booked a 7 day European / Mediterranean cruise for $900 a person. This is a Norwegian cruise at that, on a fairly new boat. Disney is not offering anything close to those rates. I was looking to book for my family of 4 and it was going to cost over $10,000 since both of my children are adults and I would need two staterooms or a deluxe family stateroom. I decided to decline at this time

I also think it's ridiculous. We haven't booked one since 2014. We did Med Cruise in 2019 on Norwegian and it was wonderful. The only difference to me is, if you have small children, Disney is great with kids clubs. The NCL kids clubs sucked. But we were so busy on this particular cruise, it didn't matter. I wonder if as they add more ships, they will start offering more discounts?

 

[hrhdhd]

Celebrity and possibly royal offer early booking for suite guests but not member tiers. Diamond and above on Royal get "Priority Waitlist access" which I assume only kicks in after the excursion is full. But I think it's less of a problem on other cruise lines too, and if you're online the day they open you'll rarely have trouble booking what you want.

Celebrity does not offer early bookings for suite guests.

 

[jimmymc]

Celebrity does not offer early bookings for suite guests.

I thought the concierge was able to get you on excursions earlier than other guests.

 

[Sykes]

Celebrity does not offer early bookings for suite guests.

Correct, because most people do not consider early booking to be a perk. Celebrity, instead, holds back inventory for suite guests and concierges can get suite guests into most "sold out" activities, restaurants, and excursions.

 

[hrhdhd]

Correct, because most people do not consider early booking to be a perk. Celebrity, instead, holds back inventory for suite guests and concierges can get suite guests into most "sold out" activities, restaurants, and excursions.

Yes. (And specifically "Retreat Hosts," not "concierges." Concierge class is lower than suite (retreat) class.)

@jimmymc Suite guests can usually get what they want once onboard. No need to sit at a computer at midnight how many ever days out to book stuff.

 

[Sykes]

Yes. (And specifically "Retreat Hosts," not "concierges." Concierge class is lower than suite (retreat) class.)

They still call their shore-side hosts (who arrange details prior to arrival) "concierges"--my last one signed emails as "Retreat Suite Concierge". But your point is well-taken because I know many are confused about what "Concierge Class" means on Celebrity.

 

[DCLMP]

I do IRL (who know nothing about internet forums like this existing) but it's because and only because it's Disney and they have young kids so both of those factors make it a good fit.

Usually on the Seabourn FB pages though people will suggest Disney for someone looking to cruise with young kids so it does get recommended based solely on the age factor as well. That said I don't know how the experience would be for those people who had been looking at ultra luxury for their 3 year old or 8 year old who didn't necessarily express a love of Disney. The older the kids are (say 15,16,18+) the less Disney is recommended at least observationally speaking from the FB pages.

You can find luxury on any cruiseline if you can afford concierge. I’ve read great things about the haven on NCL.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

You can find luxury on any cruiseline if you can afford concierge. I’ve read great things about the haven on NCL.

Ships within a ship are a good concept and I wouldn't rule it out for us but it's a bit different having the whole ship available to you as opposed to having to book a category just to get access to a particular part of a ship or have services to you or the particular subsidiary focusing their experience on it. We did concierge level for our honeymoon at Sandals in St. Lucia which was nice but it would be different had we booked for instance Sandals Ocho Rios which is an all-butler resort.

We just got back from Mexico last week and due to a room issue we were given access to an area we would have had to book a specific area of the resort to get (same price point as we paid actually just different part of the resort). When you aren't needing to book a specific category it's like having the Bali beds and in-pool service no matter what color your wrist band is and a restaurant is not off limits to you because of that wrist band color.

Not all ultra-luxury are the same like Silver Sea has all butlers but Regent Seven Seas only on Penthouse and above. For Seabourn every suite has a suite host and a room attendant and the suite host will do things but not necessarily booking your spa appointments such that a butler may do on another line. But they will draw baths (unexpected I might add meaning not something the passenger has asked to do) for passengers that I do know. People post pictures of a bath being draw with cute notes about thinking they may need one after a long day out on an excursion or the weather, often with a towel animal made or the bears (which are ubiquitous to Seabourn) arranged in a way. How frequently that happens I would imagine varies based on the exact room attendant and host you have.

I'm looking at how MSC does with their new ultra luxury line Explora. MSC has Yacht Club for their ship within a ship but even so you can tell they see the value in creating the experience only elevated and within it's own ship rather than carving out space on a larger ship. And that's sorta the difference in what people are looking for, nearly all the places we had been looking for strongly for our trip we did in Mexico would have been Club Level or Adults Only areas and some places were mega resort complexes with 5 or more resorts all together. You'd need more of that intimate feeling that way.

I agree with you you can get a more intimate refined experience doing the ships within a ship and you may have more tailored experiences even just at the concierge level.

 

[Dug720]

No need to sit at a computer at midnight how many ever days out to book stuff.

No need to do that with Celebrity - at least for excursions, dining, activities. Those are available to all as soon as they are put up on the site for a particular cruise. I've booked excursions 2 years out - and I'm so not a Suite kinda girl. Yes, you are charged upfront, but they usually have OBC included with the cabin and you can use that. If the price goes down, you can cancel and rebook at the lower price (as long as the excursion is not sold out, obvs).

The only "up until midnight" is for check-in 45 days out (for everyone). BUT it's midnight at the embarkation point, so for a European cruise it would be earlier in the evening for those of us in the US.

 

[hrhdhd]

No need to do that with Celebrity <snip>

Right--I was referring to Celebrity.