STHCruising

Glad to hear the last poster got their refund.  I had confidence DCL would honor their promises, and the post from coolhand... is lacking details, blasting cruise lines in general.  I do believe that DCL is cancelling cruises mostly in monthly waves to space out cash outflow and preserve working capital.  We will be cancelling a June Mediterranean cruise once DCL takes action.  Initially, I wanted a cash refund as the future cruise credit could not be used on an existing future reservation, but they fixed their system to allow that, and I will likely now take the future cruise credit if it gets the 125% bump they have been offering on recent cancellations.  DCL, in my opinion, has been trying to be fair.

We were on the Wonder when she repositioned from San Juan to NOLA, and the cruise after that one. So many things have changed since early to mid-February.  One thing has not changed, and that is the strong, caring leadership on the Disney Wonder starting with Captain Henry who is just first rate.  I appreciate you sharing the actions and attitude of DCL on the Wonder as she made her WBPC journey to a San Diego.  I am heartened and encouraged by your report, and it reinforces why we still cruise with DCL.  Our next cruise is theoretically in June on the Magic and I have no expectations this cruise will occur, but trust DCL will do what is right.  Thank you and take care.

I read the full announcement and the statements issued by the CDC.  The head of the US NIAID, Dr. Fauci, was on the morning news shows and seemed to indicate this recommendation was for those who had underlying health issues.  That made sense to me, and, seemed consistent with what CDC, but not State, is recommending.

We are scheduled to go to Rome, and then onto Greece, in mid-June.  DCL has changed their cancellation policies such that we can cancel up to one day before the cruise and get a full cruise credit.  Our posture is “wait and see”, with hopes the coronavirus will be better contained, or at least the risk better understood, before the summer sailings.  We hope to be sailing.

I would be interested if Cantgetin world cruise under these circumstances as her opinions has always been ones we highly value.

The Alaska 5B was for 2 adults.  We are looking at Celebrity, and now, Viking, which does an 11 night one way Seward to Vancouver.  A junior suite is less than the 9 night DCL.  We aren’t sure we want to take a break from DCL as we just love DCL and know so many crew after 28 cruises with DCL.  It makes for great experiences.  We will consider this for the next few weeks and reconsider.  We are less inclined to look at Princess - last time we deviated from DCL was on Princess, and while we truly enjoyed the itinerary and ports (Canada/New England) we did not enjoy the ship the way we do a DCL ship.

I was very surprised they released itineraries and bookings started the next day.  We booked the 9. night Alaskan Cruise for 2021.  Great itinerary, but was very pricey.  13k for a 5B on deck 6.  I am researching Celebrity and will reconsider DCL for this cruise.  Love DCL but was stunned with this pricing.  Could do a Celebrity Suite on a similar itinerary for less than the DCL stateroom.

We are currently on the Wonder, doing a back-to-back cruises, a 5 night out of San Juan, and then 7 nights out of New Orleans.  We have now been in Tiana’s for three nights.  I truly enjoy the entertainment and experience in this restaurant.  But, I will admit that when the band is playing I struggle to carry on a conversation with table mates.  Especially if the table is up near the stage, which ours is.  On a prior cruise we were more towards the back, and I still struggled.  Yet, it’s my favorite dining room!  I go to Tiana’s knowing I will be entertained, and that while being entertained I won’t hear much else!

While I agree with Cantgetin (formerly Moki’smommy) that more Bahamian and Caribbean cruises is not high on our list after nearly 30 Disney Cruises, eroller makes some good counterpoints.  I do see the three new ships based 2 in PC and 1 in Miami.  DCL also has contracts for North American ports in NYC, New Orleans, Galveston, San Diego and Vancouver.  Ultimately, I am hopeful DCL will expand itineraries beyond the current Bahamian/Caribbean ports.  They have not said much in that regard.  I don’t see all 7 ships in the Caribbean in the winter months.  I might also add that there are some more interesting places in the Southern Caribbean that can be more easily or more frequently added to the Caribbean portfolio with more ships.

We spent 3 weeks on the Magic this summer (EBTA and first cruise of the Med season).  We prefer the classic ships and we especially enjoyed the Portuguese and Spanish ports on the EBTA.  There is so much more to see in Europe than where DCL currently visits.

I was encouraged last summer in Alaska when Captain Henry talked about one of the classic ships doing a sort of world cruise.  My interpretation of that discussion (at the Gold and Platinum reception) was that one of the classic ships could have multiple home ports in Asia over a 6-8 week period (maybe longer).  Sort of like the Magic does in the first half of the summer in the Med, switching between a Rome and Barcelona.

We continue to mostly stick with DCL, and are hopeful that they expand itineraries with more ships in the future.

When we book a cruise we develop a mindset as to whether we are cruising for sea days and relaxation, or for visiting new places.  In the Bahamas, Caribbean or Panama Canal cruises tend to be relaxation cruisers and we don’t always get off the ship at all the ports or spend much, if anything, on excursions.  Cruises in Europe tend to me more port intensive and the excursion budget is higher.  We try to avoid all day excursions but many times that’s not possible if you want to see something special (Rome for example).  We especially like Alaska as its so majestic, scenic and relaxing, we have already done the major excursions and enjoy visiting the small Alaskan ports.  We will pick an excursion to do somewhere.  We also like Transatlantic cruises for the many sea days and collection of not frequently visited ports.  We will stay on the ship after that and do the next Med or Northern European cruise.  These cruises thus provide a mixture of sea days and port intensive activity.

6 minutes ago, kodesthemoose said:

 

I don't think it was ever as low as that for a category 4 for 5 people.

The quotes I saw:

2A1K June 13, Cat 4B: $15,784

2A June 13, Cat 4B: $13,790

 

So about $2,000 for 1 kid.  So add two more kids and that's another $4,000, meaning even platinum opening day pricing was over $20,000 in one verandah for 5.

Sorry, to create confusion.  What I was quoting was for a single stateroom with 2 adults, whereas the original poster had indeed booked two staterooms with 2 adults and 3 children.  If you double my high range, the cost of two staterooms would have been $32k.  The original post, refers to $34k.  The difference is adding the 5th person.  The numbers in your post for 5 people are $20k.   You are correct that if you booked one stateroom for 5 people, the number would be around $20k.  No doubt it is pricey!

6 hours ago, smheese said:

We are a family of five and our quote was 36k. Ouch! 

 Is this for either a (1) concierge stateroom, or (2) for two staterooms?  Looking at a site that posts actual pricing data for the last three days, a stateroom in a category that would allow a family of five, should be around $15k to 16k (category 4 on one of the 9 night Mediterranean cruises).  

It also did not help that some guests were hoarding the individual containers - taking home 10, 20, or more of each shampoo/conditioner.  I don’t mind the pumps, but prefer the individual.

We booked this cruise today.  With DCL having not sailed to Greece in roughly 5 years, my sense is that it could sell out this week (similar to what occurred with the Hawaiian itineraries).  For this reason, as well as those listed above, it would make sense to book when available to gold castaway members.  The one factor that might cause people to back off booking this cruise is costs, not just the cruise fare, but air fare and the like.  Following booking on another site, I notice a few guests deciding, for costs reasons, to go with the 9 night Greek cruise versus the 12 night cruise.   All that aside, these Greek cruises look just outstanding!

Some of the excursions that are reflected as “sold out” were never available, even to Concierge and Platinum level cruisers.  My understanding is that they continue to work with vendors, and tickets for some of the venues are not available at this time. 

On 12/31/2018 at 8:25 AM, gometros said:

Another frequent contributor to this board was on the maiden voyage too. Speaking of which, has anybody heard from mokismommy since the boards went through their recent change?

I always listened carefully to mokismommy’s opinions and advice on these boards - she was almost always spot on.  I have seen one or two of her posts since the site changeover, but not recently.  I can only guess that she is sailing more on Celebrity or Princess.

As reported on Disney Cruise Line Blog, DCL is increasing the prices for Palo Brunch and Dinner from $30 per person to $40 per person.  Remy Dinner is now $125 per person and the Remy Brunch is $75 per person.   We mainly sail on the Magic and Wonder and always do both a Palo Dinner and Palo Brunch.  While disappointed to see a price increase, it probably won't impact our bookings at Palo.  What we won't likely do is book a second dinner, which we occasionally do book.  We sail on the Fantasy with our adult children from time-to-time and they don't appreciate the Remy experience.  At $125 per person, we won't book Remy very often - we thought the price of $85 from several years ago was a bit high for that experience.  How do you feel about these price increases?

https://disneycruiselineblog.com/2018/12/disney-cruise-line-increases-to-palo-and-remy-experiences/

I agree with Cantgetin’s comments on the DCL internet plans.  In addition to staying in airplane mode,  what I do to minimize usage, is (a) turn off the application updates, and (b) when signed on to connect-at-sea on the DCL internet, I put my phone in “low battery mode”.  Using low battery mode turns off a whole bunch of usage without having to change so many individual settings.  It’s as close to having an “at sea” button as I could find.  I have done this on the last four cruises, and it definitely slowed down my usage.  We purchased a 1000 mb package on the 14 night Panama Canal Cruise, were checking 2 emails several times a day, an occasional Facebook check, and a few FaceTime audio calls back home, and we used about 700 mb.  Because this is not the textbook approach to minimizing usage, I would carefully watch usage if you try this method. 

We did the DCL EBTA in 2015 (Port Caneral to Copenhagen), and are doing this cruise again next year (Miami to Barcelona).  We also recently did the Eastbound Panama Canal Cruise, which is a similarly long cruise.  In our view,  DCL upgrades the talent with Broadway stars, and a few unique variety acts or musical performances, and guests are pumped to attend shows in the Walt Disney Theatre every evening.  I will say, the entertainment was better on our EBTA than the recent Panama Canal Cruise.  Some guests were less than enthused.  For example, acapella group Voice Play (EBTA) was better, IMHO, than Filharmonics (Panama Canal Cruise).  Nonetheless, we didn’t miss a show and overall the entertainment was a plus.

We enjoy the peaceful sea days, assuming good weather.  And, some of the best and most interesting ports are part of a transatlantic cruise.  The upcoming EBTA stops in the Azores, Lisbon, and three unique ports in Spain (Cadiz, Malaga and Cartagena) prior to arriving in Barcelona.  We are quite enthused with these ports.

Our last EBTA had regionally inspired menus along with the normal menus.  We had one of the best dining experiences ever on that cruise, including a special feast for the four couples who were table mates.

We have cruised DCL 24 times and it is our “go to” cruise lines for the reasons detailed in a previous post.  We all know DCL charges a significant premium.  (“Cruise sailings” were noted in The Walt Disney Company’s recent earnings release as one of many factors contributing to record revenue and profits).  Whether DCL is a value or worth the premium is subjective.  Since we regularly sail on DCL, our answer must be yes.  But, when I complete the guest survey at the end of a cruise, I never score DCL high on the value question.

We just returned from the 14 night Panama Canal Cruise on the Disney Wonder.  We have done 24 cruises with DCL, starting from when our children were young, to now, when we cruise as empty nesters.  About 50% of those cruises were done as adults sailing on DCL.  We strongly prefer DCL, as do our now adult children.  We enjoy Disney for these reasons:

• Beautiful ships maintained in pristine condition;
• A fabulous crew that engages with guests (even the Captain!);
• Entertainment that we enjoy;
• Great customer services;
• Rotational dining which has been pretty good in recent years.

We do find there are adult activities that keep us very busy on sea days.  On the Panama Canal cruise, it was outstanding lectures from Captain Puckett (a retired Panama Canal Pilot Captain) and a senior producer from Pixar Studios.  Cooking classes, dance classes, and some fun "photo" scavenger hunts!  Many of these were unique to the long sailings, which we do prefer.  Our evenings were jam packed with shows in the Walt Disney Theatre, followed by the adult only shows in Azure (a secondary venue in the adult venues of the ship).  These kinds of activities are not unique to longer sailings.

We also appreciate DCL seating us with other couples our age who are sailing not part of a larger group or family.  We have made some great friends this way. 

I understand DCL is not for everyone.  But, as adults sailing as empty nesters we have had some just wonderful experiences with DCL.  We are hopeful they will continue to expand itineraries as they fleet grows.  The Captain was a bit more explicit about this topic on our Alaskan cruise this summer.  He didn't back off that thought, but he wasn't as explicit on this cruise.  The only reason we would not sail DCL is a lack of itinerary variety.  And, to Captain BJ's point, we would strongly consider Viking Ocean cruises if we were not sailing DCL. They have a new fleet, a mostly all-inclusive business model, with 930 adult passengers on ships with no casinos and clean Nordic style interiors. 

Interesting, while there were children on the Panama Canal cruise, there were loads of adults sailing as couples, and a slightly older crowd than I normally see on DCL. 

Regarding dining options, my experience is that is usually harder to get main dining rather than late dining. (We prefer early dining except when in the Med or places where excursions run late). On cruises where we have booked late, we usually end up with the later dining and have to wait list for early dining. Thus, if you want late dining, you should be able to get that. I would recommend you have your travel agent contact DCL and ask them to change you to the late dining.

We regularly book deck 6, in roughly in a range of the staterooms listed a few posts above this one. We have never had any noise from the children's activities below of deck 5. We used to book concierge, then we just booked deck 8, then we booked a cruise later than we normally booked, and ended up on deck 6. Plus, we found a number of table mates (all empty nesters traveling without children) prefer deck 6. It is easy to get anywhere on the ship from these rooms, and these rooms are the right size and price for the two of us traveling without children. Two things to be aware of: (1) the laundromat, which is on the other side of the ship, and (2) inside staterooms that are across the hall from some of these staterooms. The only noise you might hear will be from other staterooms, and we rarely have that problem.

Reference the bolded - that's not legal. You can't do a cruise from San Diego to Vancouver followed (on the same ship) by a cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii. It violates the PVSA.

Shmoo is correct as Canada does not qualify as a “distant foreign port” under the PVSA. My indication was I would like to do this but will not because of: (1) my wife doesn’t want to! and, now (2) the PVSA. I have researched PVSA before. For example, while Puerto Rico is US territory, cruises in and out of San Juan are exempt from the PVSA. This law goes back to President Grover Cleveland and, IMHO needs to be repealed. Think of the wonderful Pacific Coast cruises that could occur if foreign registered cruise ships could operate cruises that start and end at US ports! Instead, they go to Ensenada because of the PVSA.

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Responding to several posts above, I agree with many of the thoughts. We are hopeful that DCL will ultimately choose to move some of the ships to various places around the world, rather than be complacent with the itineraries in the current offerings. Using the classic ships for that purpose would be what we would most like to see. Japan, Asia, Australia, South Pacific, South America, more in Europe and Canada would all be pluses for us.

We determined we would rather go to Aulani than do one of the Hawaiian itineraries. My wife also has concerns that the peaceful Pacific is not so peaceful for the Hawaiian itineraries! I would do it (likely back-to-back positioning from San Diego to Vancouver and over to Hawaii).

I understand Shmoo's point about getting to San Diego. We love the port area and its a great place to visit for a few days before a cruise. We are doing the EBPC cruise in a few weeks and so look forward to our two night in San Diego prior to the cruise. The Coaster (train) can take you pretty close to the cruise port, and you might consider paying to park at a hotel of which there are many near the port. We don't have tons of experience with the Coaster, so I defer to Shmoo as to its reliability.

Sadly, DCL has been using San Diego for a number of years now.

What is the advantage of San Pedro/LA? Its an industrial area with the scenery being cargo containers. I am biased as we used to live in San Diego. The port is scenic, right next to Seaport Village, and within walking distance of a lively downtown area and lots of hotels. Seems like one of the better US based port cities.

But, I do agree with the consensus that the overall itineraries are not that great. We are going to book something into and out of New Orleans. I hope DCL can do better in future years as they add ships.

It will be interesting to see what DCL does with their Castaway Club loyalty program in the future. When we were sailing in Northern Europe in the summer of 2017, the Cruise Director indicated that changes would be coming soon. Since then, we have heard nothing. Speculation now is that DCL won’t make changes until the new ships are rolled out.

This topic is ripe for disagreement. Just last week, a thread of posts on this topic on social media was deleted as it became quite heated.

As frequent DCL cruisers (going on number 24 in less than a month), I expect the program to be divided into additional tiers, possibly based on number of days vs. number of cruises. The next cruise we are scheduled on has a social media group of nearly 500, maybe more, who have organized activities together. Many of these are Platinum cruisers. I wonder how many people will be doing early boarding? A good portion of the passengers!

As you read these kinds of posts, you have new cruisers feeling squeezed out. And frequent cruisers who feel their loyalty is not adequately rewarded. Both of these are fair observations. DCL may need to come up with a hold-back system so that certain activities are made available at the time first time cruisers can book activities. Since availability of some of the activities is limited, a guest may find that a hold-back will not fully solve the problem.

DCL definitely needs to reward those who sail frequently with additional “rewards” (free internet or laundry seem like a really good start to me). This is “market” for cruise lines, although DCL seems to like to make and control their own markets. Number of days vs cruises is a nuance to the program to which I don’t have an answer. My bias is number of days, but that is because we typically take longer cruises.

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