Prices heating up?

[davidmbfonz]

Hi folks - as you can see from my signature, we’re not new to DCL.  However, I’ve been searching for cruises on their website and I can no longer find cruises for under $200 per person, per night!  Wow!  Didn’t think I’d ever be the person making “that” post, but this is getting ridiculous, no?  And the prices/rates looks more like $250 pp, pd.

 

Wonder if the prices will moderate when the new ships launch?  Hoping so!

[c-cruise]

Sad, but that actually seems like a pretty decent price for DCL to me. Last year on the Wonder we were at ~$250 per person per day for a 7 night Caribbean. This year we are doing a 9 night Alaska and it's probably double that per person per day.

 

We did Aulani in Feb and it was less per day than the cruise, but that was before food, etc so worked out about the same. I just plan that any sort of Disney trip is going to cost us $1000 a day. It's all expensive any way you look at it!

[kodesthemoose]

$250 pppn is not...sadly...out of range for DCL and may in fact even really represent an average across the board.  

[Oceansaway17]

I was told that the standard is now closer to 300 dollars a night.

This is why folks want bigger ships with lots of stuff.  Then they can justify the price.

 

I think the prices for 2020 Europe are outrageous.   I often wonder if Disney uses the ships to help out the theme parks or movie divisions.

[sunny2runner]

Wowzers! The last 2 yrs DCL prices have continued to climb. After 13 DCL, cruises we have jumped ship to Princess and MSC where we can get 3 cruises for the price of one DCL cruise. With our kids getting older, they/we no longer need DCL entertainment. 

[davidmbfonz]

On 4/6/2019 at 4:11 PM, sunny2runner said:

Wowzers! The last 2 yrs DCL prices have continued to climb. After 13 DCL, cruises we have jumped ship to Princess and MSC where we can get 3 cruises for the price of one DCL cruise. With our kids getting older, they/we no longer need DCL entertainment. 

 

I’m with you Sunny. None of our 4 Disney cruises went over $200 pp/per night.  I think a lot of folks have discovered DCL and it’s driving the prices way up.  

[c-cruise]

2 hours ago, davidmbfonz said:

 

I’m with you Sunny. None of our 4 Disney cruises went over $200 pp/per night.  I think a lot of folks have discovered DCL and it’s driving the prices way up.  

I don't think it's anything new. I have to go back to 2013 before I can find a DCL cruise I did for under $200pp a night. We are stuck with school break weeks though which are unfortunatley always more expensive.

 

We are doing a HAL Mexico cruise in a couple weeks that was so inexpensive compared to DCL that I got a separate cabin for the kids and still save thousands vs. doing the Wonder that same week.

[davidmbfonz]

1 hour ago, c-cruise said:

I don't think it's anything new. I have to go back to 2013 before I can find a DCL cruise I did for under $200pp a night. We are stuck with school break weeks though which are unfortunatley always more expensive.

 

We are doing a HAL Mexico cruise in a couple weeks that was so inexpensive compared to DCL that I got a separate cabin for the kids and still save thousands vs. doing the Wonder that same week.

 

We were on the Wonder with you last year!  Cool!

[c-cruise]

2 hours ago, davidmbfonz said:

 

We were on the Wonder with you last year!  Cool!

Nice - That was a fun trip! We ended up booking the Wonder again for Alaska this summer. Thought that was going to be our next cruise until we got a deal we couldn't pass up on the Nieuw Amsterdam for spring break. I was just looking back at the pictures from last years Wonder cruise and we were docked next to the Nieuw Amsterdam in St. Maarten. In a couple weeks we will be on that ship looking over at the Disney Wonder in San Diego. Too funny!

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Always at lest twice the price of any other regular line. No casino is one big reason.

[cruisingnewtoit]

I always thought Disney was a pipe dream for my DH & I. But if I Disney is selling cruises at $300/pp a day I can do this. But I have never seen seen these cruises  listed. Is the 1st day the cruise is listed when I can find them?

 

Is there a board I should follow to find out when the cruises are being released?

 

Is $300 an inside cabin? Lol if it's $500/pp then maybe Disney will stay a pipe dream for us.

 

TIA for any info

[sunnydays456]

it will probably go up from there

[dendave97]

We have a destination wedding in January in Tampa. We have never cruised anything but Disney. Disney doesn't cruise out of Tampa, so we are trying a different line. 6 day, Western Caribbean, 2 adults 1 Child $1500 (that includes gratuity). Guess we will see if Disney prices are worth it or not.  

 

 

Edited May 21, 2019 by dendave97
added something

[Cedricandsophie]

200 a person sounds like a great number but I can’t believe it can be done on a Disney trip.  We are doing Norway and Iceland in July on Disney in an ocean view and that comes out to over 15000 for 4 or about 359 a person per night.  Also we are looking st the Greek cruise in 2020 and that’s priced st about 18000.  

[davidmbfonz]

Our first DCL cruise (admittedly, 4.5 years ago) was $150 per person per night, with two deluxe oceanview rooms.  $750 per night seems like an awful lot for any family vacation (imagine the hotel room you could have for half that price in Paris or NYC!) - and to see that even $200 pp/pn is now considered a thing of the past makes DCL hard to justify.  We have 22 days at sea on DCL and will cherish every memory...

[cantgetin]

Prices just keep going up on DCL.  I was shocked to see a one week DCL cruise in Alaska at a "last minute" VGT rate costing almost exactly the same as I paid for 14 nights in a suite on another line in 2018.  True, we felt a moment of sadness while sitting in the specialty restaurant and saw the Wonder sail by as we enjoyed our "included" dinner.  Granted, we got a really good deal in 2018.  Yes, we like DCL better.....but not that much better!  I don't see rates coming down unless DCL finds that they can't fill their ships at the current rates.  As long as they are sailing full or nearly so, why lower prices?

 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Whatever the market will bear. Keep raising the price till they do not sail full. Then offer a deal. 

[cgolf1]

After having done 12 Disney cruises, if they just raised the prices I might have been ok with it. But the reality for us is the product is now less than what we had when we first started sailing Disney, and we noticed the activities were never really updated including having the same trivia questions year to year. 

 

So for us the value is no longer there, for newer cruisers that don’t know what it was like before will likely have a great time. The only trap I see for Disney, is that if their prices push luxury prices, they will have to step their game up, because that clientele has different expectations than I do (we did sail concierge twice on the Fantasy and didn’t make use of the hosts).

[martinm]

Oh sure... make me do the math.. my upcoming cruise is 300 a night, almost exactly, per person! 

Good thing I really like the restaurants and bars. My wife loves their spa... her spa bill rivals my bar bill. 

Can't wait to try Princess this summer. I sail Carnival more than Disney.. Disney has better service but Carnival throws stuff at me if I'm spending anywhere near this..

 

[cantgetin]

15 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

After having done 12 Disney cruises, if they just raised the prices I might have been ok with it. But the reality for us is the product is now less than what we had when we first started sailing Disney, and we noticed the activities were never really updated including having the same trivia questions year to year. 

 

So for us the value is no longer there, for newer cruisers that don’t know what it was like before will likely have a great time. The only trap I see for Disney, is that if their prices push luxury prices, they will have to step their game up, because that clientele has different expectations than I do (we did sail concierge twice on the Fantasy and didn’t make use of the hosts).

Unfortunately, we've noticed a decline on several lines, along with "upsells" if you want what used to be the standard.  As you noted, DCL quality isn't what it used to be, but it is still better than many other lines!  I like DCL, but I can't justify paying two to three times what another line costs for a similar cruise.

[cgolf1]

8 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Unfortunately, we've noticed a decline on several lines, along with "upsells" if you want what used to be the standard.  As you noted, DCL quality isn't what it used to be, but it is still better than many other lines!  I like DCL, but I can't justify paying two to three times what another line costs for a similar cruise.

 

We have been lucky that the service on RCCL has been comparable for us, and Celebrity was better. I know that hasn’t always been the case for others. Since we are new to Celebrity and RCCL, we don’t know what we are missing;)

[cantgetin]

Good to hear that Celebrity may be back to their former standards.  For a while after Blu opened, service and food quality in the  main restaurants dropped substantially.  We haven't cruised them in years.

 

[mizzoufinal4]

We went on MSC Seaside 2 adults and 2 kids age 8 and 10 and Stayed in the yacht club which includes unlimited drinks (alcoholic and non alcoholic), private lounge, private pool deck with private buffet area, private restaurant, and butler service (which includes priority embarkation and debarkation and priority tender) All for only $6000 for 7 nights during spring break last year. Seriously it is the ultimate cruise experience! We have sailed Disney twice, Rccl 4 times, princes 1 and Carnival 5 times. By far the best bang for the buck was MSC yacht club! It was so great we did the exact same cruise twice in 9 months! If you have any questions just ask I would be happy to answer any.

[cantgetin]

On 5/27/2019 at 7:24 PM, martinm said:

Oh sure... make me do the math.. my upcoming cruise is 300 a night, almost exactly, per person! 

Good thing I really like the restaurants and bars. My wife loves their spa... her spa bill rivals my bar bill. 

Can't wait to try Princess this summer. I sail Carnival more than Disney.. Disney has better service but Carnival throws stuff at me if I'm spending anywhere near this..

 

I don't know if the above poster will see this, but if  you own 100 shares of Carnival Corporation stock, and fax in the request, you'll get $100 OBC on a 7 night cruise (amounts vary on other lengths.)  The stock pays $2 per year dividend as well....and right now it is at the lowest price it has been in years.  There are things we like about each of the lines we've cruised.  DCL has better entertainment, but Princess prices are less than half of DCL, at least for the cruises we've chosen.  

[martinm]

I had no idea about the stock holder credit! Thanks!

Maybe I need to learn how to buy stocks 😉