Jump to content

So, I just priced out a 7 day Disney cruise for my kids next year and...


john91498
 Share

Recommended Posts

It's $6,700 for the four of us and that's cruise only. We still have to fly out to Florida.

This cruise has Star Wars characters on it and my son loves Star Wars. So, my wife asked me to price out a cruise and see if's it's feasible. For $6,7000 and probably another $1,400 for flights...I think not...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's $6,700 for the four of us and that's cruise only. We still have to fly out to Florida.

This cruise has Star Wars characters on it and my son loves Star Wars. So, my wife asked me to price out a cruise and see if's it's feasible. For $6,7000 and probably another $1,400 for flights...I think not...

 

The Disney Cruises are always more expensive. The ones with Star Wars days are even more expensive. Even on cruises without Star Wars days, there are Star Wars themed areas and activities in the kids club.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We did Disney and my daughter actually prefers Carnival! There were SO MANY kids on Disney and it was overwhelming. Also didn't like their pools, no music playing or entertainment, just Disney movies 24/7. The private island and the way they do MDR dinners were the only highlights for us.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think my cruise for 2100 for two of us on the dream in a cove balcony is high too. But I booked it anyway-- it is for memorial day weekend, so....

 

We have paid 5,000 for 5 of us to cruise Carnival before out of New Orleans...

 

Prices are high right now I find...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's $6,700 for the four of us and that's cruise only. We still have to fly out to Florida.

This cruise has Star Wars characters on it and my son loves Star Wars. So, my wife asked me to price out a cruise and see if's it's feasible. For $6,7000 and probably another $1,400 for flights...I think not...

 

Wow! For $1675 per person, you could do 2 or 3 cruises on Carnival for the price Disney Cruises is charging. While I've never cruised Disney, I can't imagine that experience is worth that much more. Carnival is very kid-friendly while offering great value. Maybe you can get direct your kids in another direction besides Star Wars. How old are your kids? Maybe other parents of kids the same age can offer some advice if you will post their ages.

 

Good luck. I'd never pay $1675 per person for a cruise that doesn't have a casino. Just sayin'! Lol.

 

Hope you find the right cruise for your family.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Carnival has some Transformers cruises out of Long Beach. Combine the short cruise with Disneyland. Probably still come out ahead.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The question is not whether DCL cruise prices are high--they are. The question is whether you are willing to pay their current prices. That's a personal decision. We've been exploring other lines as we've seen astronomical DCL price increases. There are things that DCL does better than those other lines (entertainment), but there are things that they other lines we've cruised to better than DCL. We've decided that at this point, given our "adult only" family, DCL would need to have a pretty special cruise for us to pay their premium prices. We had booked a British Isles cruise in 2016. but discovered that we could do a balcony on Princess for one fourth the cost of an inside on DCL (we'd booked inside due to the cost). A balcony on Princess was half the cost of a balcony on DCL. The Princess cruise was longer and had almost identical ports.

 

We love DCL, but not at their current prices. BUT the bottom line is that there are people willing to pay those prices. If they find themselves not filling ships, prices will drop. We've seen two cycles of significantly lower fares during the line's almost 20 year history.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

See my post about our MSC cruise. Granted it was Europe and we had to get airline tickets there, but the cruise was 1/3 the DCL non-concierge price for a MSC concierge. It was fabulous. MSC sails the Caribbean as well, and they run good sales, which is how we got our good deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can occasionally get prices that are better on DCL, but it takes some flexibility. Usually families don't have that kind of flexibility due to school schedules, etc.

 

There's another issue with comparing DCL pricing. They show you the entire price, for two people, with port taxes and fees. Other lines typically show you the price per person without taxes and fees. I like the way DCL has you input the number of guests and information first, and then gives you the full price (the only thing you have to add are the daily gratuities). Here's a video I made of the process:

 

 

We booked that itinerary because it is one of the only itineraries I've found that is 7 days, in the UK and Ireland, and doesn't divert to Iceland or start in Amsterdam. It fit. Plus DCL is the best cruise line we have been on. Only Princess has some itineraries that are close among the lines we sail.

 

DCL showed it as "starting at $3,277 (shown at 24 seconds into the video). My wife doubled it in her head because of the way other lines post prices ... and said "$6,500 plus taxes for an inside? No way!".

 

We ended up paying $2,240 per person for a Navigator's Verandah cabin, compared to Princess' 7 day cruises in the same general area and at the same time of year that charge just over $2,000 a person for a balcony. The difference in price is minimal at that point, and we like the Navigator's protected balcony.

 

It seems that the earlier you book DCL the better; that itinerary is much higher now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find to get the best price on DCL I have to book when fares are first published. There is a way to check what those were at the time. My May18 cruise went up nearly $1k for 2 people by the 1 year out mark. Maybe explore what those fares were to give you an idea if you would have paid that....and if so wait until they release summer 2019 fares. DCL has seen what I call sharp increases year over year. Add me to the list of those saying it's gone higher than the max I'm willing to pay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's $6,700 for the four of us and that's cruise only. We still have to fly out to Florida.

This cruise has Star Wars characters on it and my son loves Star Wars. So, my wife asked me to price out a cruise and see if's it's feasible. For $6,7000 and probably another $1,400 for flights...I think not...

 

I travel alot and have been on all cruise lines. I was always like you. I would look into a Disney cruise and then dismiss it because of the price. I couldn't comprehend why it was more expensive than all other cruises I've priced. I always shied away from Disney. However I decided to give in and spend the money on a week on the Fantasy. I was amazed at how truly wonderful every aspect of the cruise was. The crew, the food, the service, the shows, the cleanliness, the safety for the children, too many things to list. For me it was worth every single penny. I am going on another one this December where I booked two suites on the Dream. i recommend everyone try it once. For me I thought it was amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please elaborate about these two cycles. Also, what do you think is going to happen to the fares when the three new ships come out?

When the Magic first launched, the fares were very high--$6000+ for a week of 2 adults in a balcony cabin (on the cruise we did, you had to book a full week which included a 4 night cruise and 3 nights at WDW. There were no exceptions to this rule). After about a 18 months or so, prices dropped significantly. What happened? Well, the Wonder came out the following year and was basically doing the same 3/4 deal on different days. I think that they were not filling both ships. There were other cruise lines charging a whole lot less! About this same time, it was announced that the Magic would begin doing 7 night cruises, but it was quite some time between the announcement and the start of the 7 nighters.

 

Prices did drift up a little from the "bottom," but not much.

 

In spring, 2009 prices dropped tremendously. I have no explanation for this, but we cruised in March and again in May. We paid (no kidding) $599 per person for an inside cabin on the Magic and were then able to do an upgrade at the port to a balcony for very little. This was March. On the May cruise, I probably should have done the upgrade to concierge--it would have added $1900 to go to a one bedroom concierge suite! I didn't do it because we were with a group and had cabins next to each other. We'd already gotten a complimentary upgrade. And because, frankly, it was daughter's graduation cruise and I wasn't into paying more money for a bunch of kids. In addition, Southwest was looking for people to bump on the way home, so we got $600 in airline credits!

 

Best deal I ever got (don't remember the year) was $699 per person in an inside on a 14 night TransAtlantic. It had been $799, and a few days before the penalty date, DCL dropped the price by $100--I called my TA and they got it for me! That was in the "old days" when a TA would typically have 200 kids on board, lots of 2 person cabins, and lots of 1 person cabins. The TAs stayed low for a long time, only increasing a lot in the last 4 years or so.

 

We have cruised in all types of cabins, all over the ship. My price point used to be $1000, typically cruises would cost $799 per person for a week in an inside cabin, and I got pretty good at watching availability and doing upgrades at the port. This would usually add a total of $400-$500 to go to a balcony, so I'd end up in a balcony for $1000-1200 per adult. Now, you're looking at $1500 per adult for an inside and $2000-2500 for a balcony. Since we now need an HA cabin, I book what I need and no longer cross fingers for a paid upgrade at the port.

 

At some point, DCL may not be filling ships on a regular basis. Yes, they cruise full, but the real issue is how many people are paying "full fare." TAs cruising at $25 per person per night of cruise keep them from losing money, and they do make a profit on adult beverages and t-shirts that those people may purchase...and they pay the automatic gratuity in advance. That keeps the crew happy. But that's a far cry from a guest paying full fare. Same for a CM on a last minute discount rate. As to what will (or might) happen when 3 new ships come out, it really depends on what DCL does with the ships. When a new ship launches, there are plenty of people who want to cruise on it that first year. The real question is what happens after that, and whether they are able to fill the "classic" ships in addition to the new ones. I don't have a clue what they are planning. A friend who was on the Magic this summer told me that there are lots of areas where maintenance was needed and appeared to be ignored. That doesn't make sense to me because even if they are planning to keep the classics only a few years after the new ones are out, they need to keep them up to snuff till then. If they choose correctly as to how to deploy the ships, I believe that they could fill 7 ships. But they are not going to do it if they try to base them all in PC! Hopefully they have learned. The first season or two in Europe were terrible and the guests were mainly from the US. European TAs were telling their clients that they didn't want to go on that "kid ship." DCL turned that around with aggressive marketing to TAs and the addition of shorter Med cruises to attract people who didn't need to travel far to "try it out." They've been thru 4 launches now and have greatly smoothed out that process. And they've learned how to keep the existing ships full while people want to see the "NEW ONES." I think that with 7 ships, it will be time to branch out and cruise some of the rest of the world. People have been saying that China is over-rated, but there's a lot more to Asia than China. Japan is full of Disney freaks. Australia is another possibility. They might base a ship in Europe. The bottom line is that I don't know what they have in mind. how they deploy the ships will largely determine what they will need to do with pricing.

 

At one point, in Disney's annual report to shareholders it was noted that DCL is the one division of the company that has always made a profit. This included the time shortly after 9/11 when there was a significant drop in park attendance. I don't know if that is still true....but there have been years when the movies didn't do well and years when parks were in a slump...and DCL was charging forward. There seems to be an endless stream of new cruisers, despite the loss of lots of "old timers." And as long as there are parents out there who will pay the DCL premium price, they will be happy to charge it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I am wrong but when I priced Disney for my family, 3 balcony staterooms, 3 people each in 2 rooms and 2 people in 1 room, the price for a 7 day cruise was just over $14,000.00, so sounds to me that you got a good price! I went to RCCL instead.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I am wrong but when I priced Disney for my family, 3 balcony staterooms, 3 people each in 2 rooms and 2 people in 1 room, the price for a 7 day cruise was just over $14,000.00, so sounds to me that you got a good price! I went to RCCL instead.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

The reason OP got a "good" price compared to you is that they are placing 4 persons in one cabin. 3rd and 4th person fares are significantly lower than the first 2 in a cabin.

 

I realize that this likely doesn't work for your group, but if you placed your 8 people in 2 staterooms rather than 3, your fare would have been lower.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's another issue with comparing DCL pricing. They show you the entire price, for two people, with port taxes and fees. Other lines typically show you the price per person without taxes and fees. I like the way DCL has you input the number of guests and information first, and then gives you the full price (the only thing you have to add are the daily gratuities).

 

Absolutely true at first blush, (and I'm going to admit here I didn't watch your video) but it's not hard to figure out how much it will cost on any given line with just a little work. Our MSC cruise was startlingly cheaper than DCL - about 1/3 the cost. That wasn't taxes and a soda plan.

And absolutely true that if you are flexible with dates, you can find some deals. With 3 teenagers, we are not flexible. Missing much school at this age becomes somewhere between difficult and an actual punishment for the kid.

I liked DCL, and would gladly cruise them for a reasonable price. I'm hoping the addition of 3(!) new ships will help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree--and it isn't that hard to figure out a total when another line gives you a price and then states "$175 per person taxes and port charged not included in the above quote." The lines I've used don't hide the taxes; they just list them separately. There are some TAs that post a "total" charge and some that eliminate the taxes, even on DCL. If a TA web site looks too good to be true or particularly if they show a reduced DCL price, they likely aren't quoting the full price.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were on the June 28 10 day fantasy cruise with 7 people in two cabins and booked an 11 day Fantasy cruise for June 30 2018 to get the 10% discount for the same 7. We really don't get care about ports we love the ship so much. We also signed up for the 2018 transatlantic cruise for 4 of us. While it sounds a little elitist the price really doesn't matter to us. Our family loves Disney, we have a disabled adult daughter who still loves the characters and always bring her best friend. We are lucky not to care about price. But we have tried celebrity (hated), princess (blah), carnival (loud, crowded and too many drunken young adults) and crystal (loved but it's really just for adults). So as long as our kids and teen grandkids want to go and as long as we can afford it we will continue to be Disney cruisers at least once a year.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel your pain. I was never going to consider Disney with their relative prices. And then they came out with the Marvel cruises. So now we're booked for April. Those at least have a 5-day option so it's a little less. But yeah. $3,500 for three and airfare will be at least $1,500.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's $6,700 for the four of us and that's cruise only. We still have to fly out to Florida.

 

This cruise has Star Wars characters on it and my son loves Star Wars. So, my wife asked me to price out a cruise and see if's it's feasible. For $6,7000 and probably another $1,400 for flights...I think not...

 

 

 

Lucky you (being funny)! It's 7 of us! It's Me and my hubby...our 17 yr old...14yr old...12yr old...6yr old and our 3 yr old. Disney want 10k plus from us lol. Nahhhhhh we will stick with Carnival. And just like you, not including our flights.

 

 

CARNIVAL LIBERTY 2017

CARNIVAL LIBERTY 2016

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I am wrong but when I priced Disney for my family, 3 balcony staterooms, 3 people each in 2 rooms and 2 people in 1 room, the price for a 7 day cruise was just over $14,000.00, so sounds to me that you got a good price! I went to RCCL instead.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Forgot to mention that the price is for a interior room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My take has always been that DCL is not competing with other cruise lines, but with the throngs of paying customers who are paying similar per-diem rates only 45 minutes from Port Canaveral. And when I say throngs, we're talking a quarter-million people on any given day who have already paid DCL per-diem prices... if DCL was cheaper, we'd all have to get in years-long lines!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...