°o° °o° °o° 9/11/09 DCL Announcement Discussion Thread °o° °o° °o°

[pillow]

I mentioned DCL's Alaskan cruise itinerary to a friend of mine who has sailed Alaska with Holland America cruise line. She was surprised that Disney would start and end at Vancouver. Seeing the same area twice with only 3 ports. I also read here that Glacier Bay is a must see with its calving glaciers.

Holland America starts at only $600 for an inside stateroom, $700 for an ocean view room for their 7 day northbound Glacier Discovery cruise on their ship ms Ryndam. Their itinerary starts in Vancouver and ends in Seward, Alaska. This gave my friend time, and money, to add on days and train rides to see Anchorage and Denali National Park.

Here's their itinerary:

Vancouver - debark at 5:00 pm
Day at Sea
Ketchikan - 7-3pm
Juneau - 8-10:30pm
Skagway - 7-9pm
Glacier Bay - 7-4pm
College Fjord - 5pm - 8pm
Seward, Alaska - 6:00 am arrival

I think we could do a 7 night Alaskan cruise with Holland AND add extra land days in Alaska for less that what DCL is going to charge for the cruise alone. I'm not saying NOT to cruise with Disney... it's our favorite way to vacation! I'm just saying you may get more of an Alaskan vacation for your hard earned money with another cruise line.

We are going to wait til 10/29 for the rest of the 2011 itineraries to be announced and hope for a long caribbean cruise on the new Disney Dream!

Happy sailing everyone!

Initially, I was thinking the same thing, but we were looking at RCCL as the alternative (also ending in Seward). Because I love the DCL experience, and because a cruise + all the land stuff we wanted to doo was driving our price WAY too high, I think we've decided to break it into 2 totally separate trips. When I figured out all the stuff I wanted to do on land, I was coming up with a 10 day trip - just can't afford ANY cruise + 10 extra Alaska days. SO, I think we'll do the DCL trip + 5-7 days pre-trip in Seattle and Vancouver. Then on another trip, we'll fly roundtrip Anchorage and do all the land based things. Interesting to note for us is that the round trip Anchorage is MUCH more pricey than flying into Seattle.

Jodie

 

[RedSox68]

Originally Posted by tlynk
I'm having surgery on 9/24- I hope I'm out of the hospital by the 28th. DH won't know how to book a Disney Cruise nor will he want to!

That's why I love my TA -- I just received an email from them that they are taking our requests for what bookings we want so they can get in on that 9/21 window. All I have to do is tell them dates and categories and they come back to me with quotes. Takes all the anxiety away about those phone lines (last time I did my own reservation was the 2005 PC).

 

[orlandothebeagle]

Disney and Hawaii?

 

[BethA]

ugh-I just went through all 50 pages and for those not going to Alaska,like myself, very little information. Alaska just does not interest me-so I will hope to love what the Dream will be doing.

A few thoughts--I hate when people get sarcastic on forums. I have avoided certain forums on the dis and other places because of comments-nasty or indirectly so- I hope Andrew ignores any of these. He has been helpful to me many times.

The Outlook bar being redone is a great idea-whenever I walk in the mornings I always wonder about the unused space. I doubt they would touch the teen area-way to popular and used a lot.

On RC those portholes in the front are large family rooms that sleep 6-8 I think-although the one sleeping area is like a closet. I wish they would release more information on the Dream.

So will repeat cruisers only get to go to the party after 5 cruises? Unlike RC they did not offer extra credit for cruising in suites. Longer cruises should also count for more than 3 nights do in my opinion

 

[mrsklamc]

We cruised with HAL and loved it, but it was our honeymoon so I can't speak to the kids clubs.

 

[RedSox68]

I took the photo this morning when I could not get into the DCL presentation.

Things I noticed about the model. There are two pools between the stacks. On the starboard side near the back stack there was a slide. The slide did not terminate in either pool. In front of the first stack was another pool (The adult pool?). In front of the masts above the helm there were deck chairs. There were no sports courts in that spot like they have on the Wonder and the Magic. Looked like the crew pool was on the bow again. Not sure what the forward facing port holes are. Other than that it looked much like the current ships, just bigger with additional decks.

Interesting design -- looks like they are not staying with the more classy design of the other two ships. It's a little boxy and top heavy looking, but looks like it will have a lot more verandahs.

Cannot wait to see it in person!

 

[pillow]

Have any of you used Holland America? I have only done Disney, but with the new tiered booking (I am silver) and already high prices I am now looking elsewhere. I can do the PC or Alaska for half of what it is speculated Disney will be. I have two young kids DS5 & DS1 so I am concerned about being comfortable with them on board.

TIA

Go to cruisecritic.com and research the Holland America ships. I'm thinking that RCCL or Princess would be a little more kid friendly.

Jodie

 

[RedSox68]

Sorry -- Duplicate!

 

[disneydreamerbelle]

Thanks, i'll try there!

 

[RedSox68]

Do you all usually have better luck getting through online of by phone? I will try both simultaneously of course.

FYI -- just be aware that we had friends in 2007 who spent well over three hours on hold trying to get Med ressies, and when they finally "got through", they were disconnected! By the time they got through again, the prices had gone up by thousands in just those couple of hours!

Yes, they can go up incredibly fast. For the PC in 2005, I did it by phone and as soon as I was done I went online and the price for my category had already gone up by hundreds!

Tip: While on hold, also try to book online. Take whichever one you get through on first!

 

[scrapycruiser]

Have any of you used Holland America? I have only done Disney, but with the new tiered booking (I am silver) and already high prices I am now looking elsewhere. I can do the PC or Alaska for half of what it is speculated Disney will be. I have two young kids DS5 & DS1 so I am concerned about being comfortable with them on board.

TIA

I did not think HAL was kid friendly. It's a beautiful line, very classic, wonderful service and food, but think I'll wait until I'm in my 70's to try HAL again. I was surprised when I went out to the pool and the band was playing "String of Pearls".
I would go with Princess for Alaska

 

[Pluto 2]

Exactly the reason we won't be going either. We were excited about Alaska for a few fleeting minutes until we heard the itinerary. We are hopeful they do it better in the future.

well it would of been nice but the airfare would of been a lot more. people can get roundtrip to vancouver for a decent price. if the cruises were one way, people would of had to get one way to vancouver than one way from somewhere in alaska to back home.which will be $$$. dcl probaly thought this way they can fill the ship better without offering big discounts.

 

[mrsklamc]

We liked that HAL was mostly older folks. We had the pool to ourselves and no loud parties

 

[shoes99]

well it would of been nice but the airfare would of been a lot more. people can get roundtrip to vancouver for a decent price. if the cruises were one way, people would of had to get one way to vancouver than one way from somewhere in alaska to back home.which will be $$$. dcl probaly thought this way they can fill the ship better without offering big discounts.

I agree about the airfare differences. We did the inside passage on the Diamond Princess and flew to Seattle. We then flew from Seattle to SNA to go to Disneyland then we went home to NJ. Flying to Vancouver and flying out of Seattle was a whole lot more money. We enjoyed the inside passage.

 

[KelsiesMommy]

Out of curiousity I started pricing flights from PHL to Vancouver...$581+ pp! Yikes!! I'm wondering if maybe Southwest to Seattle and renting a car to drive to Vancouver would be a better way to go? Looks like it's about a 3-4 hour drive. Anyone else thinking along those lines?

Welcome to our world- it's costing DH and me $1100 to fly to Orlando in Feb for our 4 day Wonder cruise. airfare for us from CA to FL is always high

I'm excited now we'll have the chance to not pay an arm and a leg to fly to just GET to a Disney Cruise ship, much less then adding the cruise fare to our expense. Though cruising to Mexico doesn't sound all that appealing to me, but I know I can get flights to Seattle a lot cheaper than I can to MCO

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Thanks to the previous posters that mentioned using AMTRAK for Vancouver, BC. I hadn't considered that previously as we live close enough to drive...but it might actually be less money for us to use the train than the cost of gas and long-term parking to take the car!

 

[Pudo]

well it would of been nice but the airfare would of been a lot more. people can get roundtrip to vancouver for a decent price. if the cruises were one way, people would of had to get one way to vancouver than one way from somewhere in alaska to back home.which will be $$$. dcl probaly thought this way they can fill the ship better without offering big discounts.

That's a good point about the airfare, but still not looking to go half way and then turn around. The other thing we want do is take the train that goes through Denali National Park so ideally we would fly to Alaska, take the train for a few days, cruise southbound and then fly home from the southern port (Vancouver/Seattle) where the cruise ends.

 

[MickeyAddict]

I was at D23 Expo on Thursday and I got some good pictures of the Dream model. The DCL representative told us that they purposely removed some features of the ship on the model for now, so they didn't "leak" some of the new surprise features of the Dream. I tried, but couldn't get him to tell me anything!

I think one of my pictures was a top deck view - I haven't downloaded it from my camera yet, but I will post it when I do. Right now, I am on the QuickTime bus from Seattle heading to Vancouver for a Celebrity Alaskan cruise. Yes, they have free wifi on the bus!

I am planning on booking the Panama Canal sailing in Jan 2011. Bookings open the day I get off of this cruise (we are gold...). Since it will be PST, I will miss the first few hours of booking. Do you think I should put it in the hands of a TA? Depending on the price, in both cash and DVC points, I might book it using points (and save the cash for the Dream inaugaural). If it is a points cruise, I will have to go through DVC and book it myself. I'm hoping that won't be too late by the time I get off of the ship.

Marilyn

 

[RedSox68]

Have any of you used Holland America? I have only done Disney, but with the new tiered booking (I am silver) and already high prices I am now looking elsewhere. I can do the PC or Alaska for half of what it is speculated Disney will be. I have two young kids DS5 & DS1 so I am concerned about being comfortable with them on board.

TIA

We are booked on a 20-day HAL cruise next year for the Baltic. We have always been Disney devotees and had booked a 12-day Baltic for next July -- until we saw on HAL that we could get the 20-day for LESS than the 12-day on Disney and the room is 378 sq. ft.

I know many have said it is usually an older crowd. Since our daughter will be 23, she won't care. And as the PP said, maybe it will be quieter

Looking forward to trying another cruise line (after our disastrous NCL cruise last year, still taking the chance doing non-Disney due to pricing ).

After waiting so long to do Alaska, if Disney's prices are ridiculous, then we will certainly look into doing a different ship for sure.

BTW, is Princess even more geriatric (I can say that cause I'm older) than HAL? I had heard that that line was even more staid. Just wondering. Thanks.

 

[nicki.momof3]

So we love the idea of going to Alaska but we can only see so many movies and the kids can only spend so much time in the kdis club on sea days.

We love the MICKEY pool and I am sure in Alaska it will be cold to use the pool what will you do all day with the kids (ours are 5/6/7 in 2011) with no pool?