DCL carry-on alcohol policy changing Sept. 30 2015

[tinkerone]

So you think DCL trying to keep its costs down, and increase profits, pays a person to read all of these threads here. No.

Sometimes these boards get ahead of themselves on the tiny influence they have.

They have a full time job answering, ( and deleting their facebook page ) and answering, contact us and emails.

They do not have time to read these boards.

of course they don't read all of these threads but if you think they don't scour the pages to see what is being said then maybe you live in lala land. this is the biggest forum for disney and there not about to let that go in favour of only answering emails or checking their Facebook. no, there not going to read the thread titled 'should i bring one bathing suit or two' but there going to open and read the one that is titled 'disney changes policy and i'm pissed' or 'disney changes policy and i like it'.

eta-i was reading a thread on cc about royal cruises and a person came on and said that the issue was such that they would like to speak with the poster and i am p.m. you a number to speak with me. do you think only royal is doing this? i doubt it.

 

[LOL!]

So you think DCL trying to keep its costs down, and increase profits, pays a person to read all of these threads here. No.

They do not have time to read these boards.

You're right. They probably don't pay anyone to do it. They have interns that do it for free.

 

[jlynch924]

it is sad to say that Disney will do what they want and when they want. I don't think anyone from DCL actually reads these threads. The only way they will take notice is if sales drop.

So you think DCL trying to keep its costs down, and increase profits, pays a person to read all of these threads here. No.

Sometimes these boards get ahead of themselves on the tiny influence they have.

They have a full time job answering, ( and deleting their facebook page ) and answering, contact us and emails.

They do not have time to read these boards.

I guarantee they have people who read these boards. I work in a very small, but publicly traded company, and even we have people that read social media and discussion boards. It's like a free pass to what your target audience is thinking. As a marketing executive, I can tell you that is golden. Disney isn't going to pass up that kind of information. What's more, they likely have tools where they have ongoing keyword searches in social forums such as this so that they can quickly find what's trending. If my small company does it, Disney does it.

 

[cgolf]

So you think DCL trying to keep its costs down, and increase profits, pays a person to read all of these threads here. No.

Sometimes these boards get ahead of themselves on the tiny influence they have.

They have a full time job answering, ( and deleting their facebook page ) and answering, contact us and emails.

They do not have time to read these boards.

Ultimately if they do or don't alter the policy, it will come down to how full are the ships sailing and what happens to the profits at the bars. If the ships sail at the same occupancy level, but there is a sustained backlash at the bars and seminars with further reduced profits you may see them alter the policy. If the occupancy level drops and there are a lot of cancellations you may see them alter the policy. If they find enough people to fill the ships and profits go up in the bars then it will stick.

The problem is that they seem to be making a lot of changes lately, so if the do see a dip in occupancy, it might be difficult to know what caused the dip.

I would guess as an image conscious company, have heard they are very strict with there employees on the projecting DCL attitude, that they would have someone that monitors all forms of social media including here and cruise critic. While forum groups aren't a huge slice of the population, it will give you an idea of how changes are perceived by some. You then take the data from all sources and decide if it was a good or bad choice and how to move on.

 

[godde8ss]

I was thinking about the cutoff date for the alcohol policy implementation September 30th. I was wondering why not enact the policy effective immediately?there are many PIF cruisers in both groups, some sailing 10/1. And then I realize, September 30th marks the end of a quarter for business reporting. They can start a brand new quarter, and compare alcohol sales without an overlap, thus, probably why they will not grandfather any of us in who sail after September 30th. Just a thought....

 

[cgolf]

I was thinking about the cutoff date for the alcohol policy implementation September 30th. I was wondering why not enact the policy effective immediately?there are many PIF cruisers in both groups, some sailing 10/1. And then I realize, September 30th marks the end of a quarter for business reporting. They can start a brand new quarter, and compare alcohol sales without an overlap, thus, probably why they will not grandfather any of us in who sail after September 30th. Just a thought....

I like that thought, since we sail next year I will hold out a glimmer of hope, but no more than that. I assume they would compare against the previous year though since I would guess the fall crowd would drink less? As I wrote that I am not sure why I think it lol.

 

[littleblackegg]

of course they don't read all of these threads but if you think they don't scour the pages to see what is being said then maybe you live in lala land. this is the biggest forum for disney and there not about to let that go in favour of only answering emails or checking their Facebook. no, there not going to read the thread titled 'should i bring one bathing suit or two' but there going to open and read the one that is titled 'disney changes policy and i'm pissed' or 'disney changes policy and i like it'.

eta-i was reading a thread on cc about royal cruises and a person came on and said that the issue was such that they would like to speak with the poster and i am p.m. you a number to speak with me. do you think only royal is doing this? i doubt it.

A lot of companies contract with big PR firms to handle their day-to-day social media presence. I wonder if Disney does the same.

 

[TheLanes]

Ultimately if they do or don't alter the policy, it will come down to how full are the ships sailing and what happens to the profits at the bars. If the ships sail at the same occupancy level, but there is a sustained backlash at the bars and seminars with further reduced profits you may see them alter the policy. If the occupancy level drops and there are a lot of cancellations you may see them alter the policy. If they find enough people to fill the ships and profits go up in the bars then it will stick.

The problem is that they seem to be making a lot of changes lately, so if the do see a dip in occupancy, it might be difficult to know what caused the dip.

I would guess as an image conscious company, have heard they are very strict with there employees on the projecting DCL attitude, that they would have someone that monitors all forms of social media including here and cruise critic. While forum groups aren't a huge slice of the population, it will give you an idea of how changes are perceived by some. You then take the data from all sources and decide if it was a good or bad choice and how to move on.

I highly doubt this will decrease their occupancy level in the near or distant future. Most people could not care about this policy change, or other policy changes, and are perfectly happy with DCL. Or, as I have been hearing about from others, they have such a high percent of new cruisers that didn't about the old policies anyways.

 

[littleblackegg]

I like that thought, since we sail next year I will hold out a glimmer of hope, but no more than that. I assume they would compare against the previous year though since I would guess the fall crowd would drink less? As I wrote that I am not sure why I think it lol.

That's a solid, bottom-line way to look at it. It also allows for a complete quarterly analysis to be presented in January. I have a suspicion that the as yet unrevealed beverage plans will be revealed at the end of December/beginning of January to coincide with the Atlantic cruise season.

 

[C6PT7]

So you think DCL trying to keep its costs down, and increase profits, pays a person to read all of these threads here. No.

Sometimes these boards get ahead of themselves on the tiny influence they have.

They have a full time job answering, ( and deleting their facebook page ) and answering, contact us and emails.

They do not have time to read these boards.

Really? How do you know so with such certainty? Some people get ahead of themselves on the little knowledge they have of the inner workings of disney.
You are entitled to your opinion, but it is just that, an opinion and not fact!
i think it is time to repost this message again....

You are not DCL, you are not an agent of DCL and as such I really wish you would stop speaking as if you were

 

[Topper]

I honestly have no idea what you are trying to say, especially the first run-on sentence which is a syntactic mess. And what did I infer about the power of this Board?

I have a feeling English is not his native language.

 

[cgolf]

I highly doubt this will decrease their occupancy level in the near or distant future. Most people could not care about this policy change, or other policy changes, and are perfectly happy with DCL. Or, as I have been hearing about from others, they have such a high percent of new cruisers that didn't about the old policies anyways.

Neither do I, but at some point you would think you would dwindle down the pool of first time cruisers wouldn't you? I know their are a lot of people in the world, but you wouldn't think they are all cruisers.

It has been interesting though the last couple of years, the gold platinum reception has either been poorly attended, or there aren't that many of us on board.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Neither do I, but at some point you would think you would dwindle down the pool of first time cruisers wouldn't you? I know their are a lot of people in the world, but you wouldn't think they are all cruisers.

It has been interesting though the last couple of years, the gold platinum reception has either been poorly attended, or there aren't that many of us on board.

Well, the 3 receptions we attended on our last set of cruises were all very well attended.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

So you think DCL trying to keep its costs down, and increase profits, pays a person to read all of these threads here. No.

Sometimes these boards get ahead of themselves on the tiny influence they have.

They have a full time job answering, ( and deleting their facebook page ) and answering, contact us and emails.

They do not have time to read these boards.

Not DCL. Disney in general. I've seen these people called out (correctly) on other forums quite a while back. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, if I didn't know someone who had this kind of info first hand, I'd probly be laughing at the Big Brother goofiness myself. When I first became aware I was pretty shocked. Not trying to be any voice of absolution. Each person can believe what they will. I know this to be true. Others should at least consider it.

Ps. Don't ask my source. I'd be a fool to give specifics.

 

[wombat_5606]

For all the people that think DCL sails full, you might want to do a little research like I just did. I looked at all sail dates from today till the end of this year. I then looked at Sept.-Dec. 2016, just for a little comparison. Disney is cheapest when the sail dates are announced, so those cruises in 2016 should be pretty well booked.

This is what I discovered when looking into the 4 categories: Inside, OV, OV with Verandah and Concierge. I didn't look at the number of rooms in each category, just whether there was 1 cabin available to book. Someone else can do that and add in the Magic and the Wonder, but for my satisfaction, the information below is all I need to form my opinion.

Fantasy 2015: September has 3 cruises with only 1 category left with available cabins. 1 cruise in Sept. has 3 available cabin categories.
October has 1 cruise with no cabins, 3 with 3 cabins and 1 with availability in all 4 categories.
November has 4 cruises with availability in all 4 categories
December has 1 cruise with availability in 1 category, one cruise with 2 categories and the other 2 cruises have all categories

Dream 2015: September has 1 cruise this month left to book and it only has 1 category left to book.
October has 1 cruise with only 1 category and 2 with 2 categories.
November has 7 cruises with 3 categories with cabins available to book and 2 sail dates with all 4 categories available.
December has 5 cruises with 3 cabin categories available and 4 will all 4 cabin categories available to book.

Now, the most interesting thing I found, in 2016:

The Fantasy has 16 cruises between Sept. and Dec. and ALL of them have all 4 categories available to book. The Dream has 32 cruise between the time frame I looked at and ALL of them have all 4 categories available to book.

So, I believe, the alcohol policy is profit driven. They aren't filling the ships and therefore have to squeeze every penny from the passengers they do have. Just beware they are more "nickel and dime" charges coming soon........

 

[sweetpee_1993]

You're right. They probably don't pay anyone to do it. They have interns that do it for free.

Or other comps that can make it worthwhile.

 

[Joel0917]

Curious why you feel you have to pay for specialty restaurants on carnival if you wont do palo on dcl. People always talk about nickel and diming on other cruise line but the restaurants are optional. More than likely you will see some sales or specials on carnival before 2017. Im always getting emails for other cruiselines. Kids sail free, half off second guess, obb, free drinks, free excursions. It seems like other cruise lines are always running sales.

i would not say carnival's upgrades are all equivalent to Palo. I'd like to do italian and i forget the other. i view it as an upgrade in meals.

 

[steves100]

I've never been on a Disney cruise, and this is the first time I've even looked at this particular forum. But the reason I did this morning was because the issue was front and center when I was doing my usual morning review of current events (Yahoo, WSJ, Reuters, etc). There actually are a lot of people complaining and I think Disney may have underestimated just how many customers rationalized that being able to bring their own alcohol on-board justified their premium cruise prices.

Most people I know, never knew the policy. Once they found out you could bring alcohol on they were thrilled

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I was thinking about the cutoff date for the alcohol policy implementation September 30th. I was wondering why not enact the policy effective immediately?there are many PIF cruisers in both groups, some sailing 10/1. And then I realize, September 30th marks the end of a quarter for business reporting. They can start a brand new quarter, and compare alcohol sales without an overlap, thus, probably why they will not grandfather any of us in who sail after September 30th. Just a thought....

BINGO!!!

Oh but Disney did this because you drunkards were embarrassing Mickey......

 

[steves100]

I never looked closely at the policy, does this mean you CAN NOT brink the wine or beer in a carry on?

Anybody?