2013 fall wonder and magic are out!

[AquaDame]

Guess Texans and Miami-ans spend more on DCL?

Which makes complete sense. How long has the line been closer for them/how much do they need to pay for airfare vs. west coast?

 

[DCL Cruiser]

Looks like the crappy cruises are back up on DCL's site.

 

[sissy_ib]

It was my understanding that the Hawaii cruises sold quite well. If I recall, they were sold out the first day! It just seems a little ridiculous that other lines seems to do just fine out of LA, and that's because there is more variety in ports, not to mention the expense. *sigh* I guess I will just have to get used to the West Coast being left out.

The 1st cruise sold out and they added the 2nd but it was a lot of adults. If you have a room that can hold 3-5 people with only two booked you are losing money. Then you are not making money off of additional excursions, photos, souvenirs, etc and the staff is making less in tips.
Sold out does not mean it was a big money maker.

 

[Kathymford]

BTW I forgot to mention, there was a PP who stated something about also marketing DCL to adults only; not everyone has kids. Especially the locals here that fill up DLR regularly. I know they hate us AP holders filling up their park, but pretending we don't exist doesn't make much sense either.

 

[AquaDame]

Hi neighbor (we are in the same city as you) I agree, our family loves heading to San Pedro on Sunday afternoons when the Wonder is here. They could do so much more if they really tried (especially with a tie in to DLR and now Cars Land).



Again...I have to wonder how DCL expects to stir much interest when they don't advertise here. If people don't know there is a ship here, how do they know to book it? There are Cars Land ads everywhere (even on those table-top post card things at our mall's local food court). But there has been very little advertising for DCL here. I have seen one billboard, and that is it. The only place I see it advertised is on the disboards and people here already know about them, LOL. Almost everyone I spoke to about our cruises has no idea that DCL has a ship here. And we live 15 minutes from the port. Yet we get TV advertisments for the Dream and the Fantasy here....

I think DCL missed the boat here (literally) by not advertising more, especially in regards to DCL/DLR land-sea vacations. If they would have advertised more heavily to the DLR regulars (So. Cal, No. Cal, NV, Utah, AZ, etc), I'll bet they would have done much better. It is like they just dropped a ship here with no real effort to actually sell the cruises

BTW I forgot to mention, there was a PP who stated something about also marketing DCL to adults only; not everyone has kids. Especially the locals here that fill up DLR regularly. I know they hate us AP holders filling up their park, but pretending we don't exist doesn't make much sense either.

There has been virtually NO advertising in Oregon, even for carsland. I doubt most people know it exists... the only time I have heard of adverts for DCL is on TV for the dream/fantasy, and it is becoming more and more common for people here to not have cable at all. They are missing us completely! I wouldn't even know about that ONE AD if not for my mother in law!

 

[Gina]

I have seen many posts from people who live in Texas and nearby comparing prices of cruises out of Galveston to those out of PC. Most conclude that it is cheaper to fly to PC and cruise DCL than cruise out of Galveston. Maybe that has changed this time?

I honestly can't imagine what they're looking at.

To go on the 2/2 W. Caribbean sailing out of PC aboard Fantasy for 7 nights would cost me $2844 for DS & I in a cat. 7A. Add to that $957 for airfare, and $140 for ground transfers. Total: $3941. That's not even factoring in a hotel for the night before, because I would never ever fly in the same day. Also doesn't include luggage fees.

Our 2/1 W. Caribbean sailing on Magic out of Galveston in a cat. 7A -- for 8 nights -- is $2786. No transfers, no hotel, no extra expenses.

I suck at math, but that's a pretty hefty difference, especially since we're talking about a whole extra day with the Magic!

 

[jetskigrl]

The 1st cruise sold out and they added the 2nd but it was a lot of adults. If you have a room that can hold 3-5 people with only two booked you are losing money. Then you are not making money off of additional excursions, photos, souvenirs, etc and the staff is making less in tips.
Sold out does not mean it was a big money maker.

Again, I think this is where DCL set themselves up to fail on the West Coast. They had no problems filling the ship during the holidays and Spring Break. Our April MR cruise was completely packed with kids. But then they move the ship to Alaska for the summer (which is an itinerary usually appealing to adults more) so they lose the prime summer cruising time out of Los Angeles.

If they tried some shorter cruises out of LA, I'll bet you would see more locals willing to take their kids out of school for a day or two vs. a full week in the middle of the school year. Or more people willing to combine it with DLR and still be able to do the entire trip in a week (rather than dedicating an entire week to DCL).

Look at the Pacific Coast cruises, for example. They are in September and early October. Kids here are just going back to school at that time. That is the reason our kids will not be joining us on the Pacific Coast cruise (we don't want to take them out for a week at the beginning of the school year). But if they had done the same cruises in August, my kids would have been there with us.

I just really get the feeling that the West Coast was an afterthought. Just someplace to stick the Wonder once the Dream started sailing, with no effort (advertising) to make it successful.

 

[KashasMom]

Last night I booked 4 staterooms for 12 people on the brand-spanking-new Breakway (June 2013). Got the OBC (times 4) and a great deal! Last week I booked the Epic for Dec. 2012 and got a fantastic deal (which will be our first NCL cruise). Still excited about our Fantasty cruise in Dec. 2013 (think we got a great deal on that) but will not spend the kind of $$ DCL is charging for the Magic or Wonder!! Still feeling the sting of being scr*wed pricewise on the Magic (NYC-Bahamas cruise).

Oh, and I vote a big 10 (sucks big time) for the new itineraries!

 

[peachygreen]

I honestly can't imagine what they're looking at.

To go on the 2/2 W. Caribbean sailing out of PC aboard Fantasy for 7 nights would cost me $2844 for DS & I in a cat. 7A. Add to that $957 for airfare, and $140 for ground transfers. Total: $3941. That's not even factoring in a hotel for the night before, because I would never ever fly in the same day. Also doesn't include luggage fees.

Our 2/1 W. Caribbean sailing on Magic out of Galveston in a cat. 7A -- for 8 nights -- is $2786. No transfers, no hotel, no extra expenses.

I suck at math, but that's a pretty hefty difference, especially since we're talking about a whole extra day with the Magic!

I know for me personally I was looking at opening day Fantasy prices vs Opening day Magic prices for Spring Break 2013. 3/9 cruise. 7 night Fantasy vs 6 night Magic. Opening day prices had me at almost $1000 more to sail on the Magic when I looked. Of course the Carnival Magic was about the same price for the same week. So it just made more sense to fly to PC for the cruise I had already booked. Ultimately when I did the math I would have saved maybe $500 cruising out of Galveston for one less night on board.

Any time but spring break (thanksgiving or Christmas) it would have been cheaper to sail out of Galveston. I just couldn't get away then. I'm hoping to swing something in 2014 if DCL is still in Galveston.

 

[Ssamara28]

Would it be totally impossible for Disney to do a 5 night Eastern Caribbean? One stop to Castaway, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico. I'm just asking is that feasible? That would be my Dream sailing.

 

[paulcrsb]

There has been virtually NO advertising in Oregon, even for carsland.

That's interesting. I work for a Portland TV station and our morning show did three days of live reports on the opening of Carsland!

 

[mkmommy]

Lack of Marketing- I have read the same thing from British DCL fans regarding lack of advertising when the Magic was sailing from Dover, I guess DCL figures word of mouth is all they need.

 

[Susiesark]

BTW, we saw a LA to Vancouver repo on princess that stopped in SF, Santa Barbara, Astoria, and Seattle!! I just don't understand why DCL cannot be more creative.

I guess we just give up our money too easily to Disney...

I'm on the DCL repo from LA to Vancouver for May 2013, with stops in SF and Victoria. The Princess itinerary sounds much more fun.

 

[GoofyTwinDad]

I'm hoping dcl made the non-creative itineries due to the dry docking of the magic. IMHO, dcl is trying to reduce their risk by saving their new itineries until next year. With that being said, I would love to see a Bermuda, CC and PC cruise from NYC.

On the other hand, if these just released itineries are what we have to look forward to, I will be looking forward to the last minute specials. Unfortunately I don't think I can use my dummy date discount on a sale fare. I just don't see dcl filling all four ships on a consistent basis now that the newness of the dream class is wearing off and fares are unreasonbly high compared to the competition.

 

[peachygreen]

Would it be totally impossible for Disney to do a 5 night Eastern Caribbean? One stop to Castaway, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico. I'm just asking is that feasible? That would be my Dream sailing.

I don't think this would be feasible due to the time it takes to travel to each of these locations. They used ever bit of 2 days to get to the St.Thomas/St. Maarten area and you don't get into CC coming back until 9:45 due to the sea day. The 3 sea days are requried on an Eastern for travel time. You might be able to cut it to 2 sea days and a 6 night if you shortened your port times. I would not personally want to see the port times shortened though because you wouldn't have time to do anything.

 

[adnil530]

Hi neighbor (we are in the same city as you) I agree, our family loves heading to San Pedro on Sunday afternoons when the Wonder is here. They could do so much more if they really tried (especially with a tie in to DLR and now Cars Land).



Again...I have to wonder how DCL expects to stir much interest when they don't advertise here. If people don't know there is a ship here, how do they know to book it? There are Cars Land ads everywhere (even on those table-top post card things at our mall's local food court). But there has been very little advertising for DCL here. I have seen one billboard, and that is it. The only place I see it advertised is on the disboards and people here already know about them, LOL. Almost everyone I spoke to about our cruises has no idea that DCL has a ship here. And we live 15 minutes from the port. Yet we get TV advertisments for the Dream and the Fantasy here....

I think DCL missed the boat here (literally) by not advertising more, especially in regards to DCL/DLR land-sea vacations. If they would have advertised more heavily to the DLR regulars (So. Cal, No. Cal, NV, Utah, AZ, etc), I'll bet they would have done much better. It is like they just dropped a ship here with no real effort to actually sell the cruises

My sister and I recently returned from Southern California after spending a few days in DL. We both love DCL and are sailing out of LA Thanksgiving week to enjoy the Wonder while she is still here. I was on an April MR also. Anyway, one thing that we talked about is how DCL advertised the west coast cruises. Why doesn't DCL have kiosks in DL, WDW, or DTD as they do with DVC? A lot of people shy away from the DVC kiosks for a variety of reasons and DVC's main selling point isn't using points to book a cruise. So why don't they have DCL Kiosks? It's pretty much free advertising as Disney has the property and a DCL kiosk wouldn't have the same "stigma of a time share" as a DVC kiosk and yes I know you can use DVC points for DCL, but most people don't know that. They could have a great kiosk with a Sailor Mickey, ship fan giveaways. I think a DCL would do great business utilizing property they already own to advertise DCL to people who already love Disney.

About the new itineraries, nothing there for me. It costs about the same for me to get to Galveston as it does to Orlando and I have a house in Orlando so Orlando it will be. I'm sad that we won't have a ship here on the west coast but will enjoy it while I can. Hoping to keep the 14 day PC later this year as well. Would have liked to see Disney compete with Carnivals 3 & 4 night itineraries though....we love Catalina Island. And see DCL do some Land and Sea packages for those who are not as familiar with California as they are Florida. I know that's how this whole cruising addiction started for me, a land/sea package out of Orlando in 2008.

 

[mrsklamc]

I am sorry you guys are bummed but I was just hoping for The Magic and Castaway Cay. So now it just seems to be deciding if we want the cheapest option of Nassau/CC or Key West or Cozumel.

 

[AquaDame]

That's interesting. I work for a Portland TV station and our morning show did three days of live reports on the opening of Carsland!

Tons of people with the money to go on vacation go to work in the morning and don't have time to watch morning shows... I am sure the segments were wonderful but if Disney had ADVERTISED then they would hit more people. Plus, there is still the question of DCL on the west coast. Was that covered by them?

Again, I don't think TV hits nearly as many people as it used to - they need to diversify ads to hit a younger generation. I and my friends are not even that young - we are in our 30s! At work more and more people brag that they don't get cable and use the internet for series instead.

 

[Tower]

They kept us waiting months for THIS?

Have to agree! It's a load of BS!
The Wonder is taking the same itinerary that the Magic is doing with us this Fall! Then they shorten the Magic to 5 day sailings to Cozumel (The Nassau of Mexico) and CC or Grand Cayman. Why don't they do something different???
Was planning on booking on our upcoming cruise in November for 2013, but there is absolutely NOTHING on this itinerary for either the Wonder or the Magic that is attractive.
Can't they move farther south? Go to St. Lucia./St. Kitts? Give us something that deserves the Disney Magic, not lower class stops. CC is great, but keep it on all stops.

 

[Silverfox97]

Cozumel (The Nassau of Mexico)

Why don't they do something different??? Can't they move farther south? Go to St. Lucia./St. Kitts? Give us something that deserves the Disney Magic, not lower class stops. CC is great, but keep it on all stops.

YOU ARE DEAD ON!!!!!!!!!!!