DCL Pricing debate, who is right? Well everyone

[cruiser21]

I have priced out other cruises on a comparable basis. That's why I'm skeptical. Not that it isn't possible to get a cruise for less cost - absolutely you can - but that it isn't necessarily a fully apples-to-apples comparison including all of the items that are important to me. I have been able to find somewhat comparable cruises that are 60-70% of the cost of a DCL but there's usually something about it that makes it a no-go or the price savings just isn't sufficient to sway me (30% may be a large percentage but may not be a lot of $). And I'm not looking for the biggest room I can get, I'm looking for one that meets my needs and I'm not really willing to go smaller.

You said in a previous post that square footage mattered. I guess a 600 sq foot suite on the Haven with a butler, free drinks, free dining, gratuity, and shore excursions included is comparable to a cat 11b on the Magic? No I'm not kidding. If your looking at a Baltic cruise a suite in the Haven is less then an 11b on the Magic. If You're comparing inside rooms then yes an inside room on a NCl is half the size and half the price of DCL. I'm not really sure what your apples to apples to comparison is. Do you want to compare a suite on DCL to a suite on NCL or Royal? DCL will be three or four times the cost. My guess is that if you can't get the exact same room that you're used to booking on DCL for half the price then it's not comparable. I think the items that are important to you are what you find on a Disney ship, and that's ok. You don't have to try and justify it.

 

[cruiser21]

I just priced out 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruises within a 2 week period in October (my only open window this year), using similar criteria as best as possible across all:

DCL: $3,200
RCL: $2,200 (~70% of DCL)
Celebrity: $2,100 (~66% of DCL)
NCL: $3,300 (~103% of DCL)

I don't consider a price differential of $1,100 for 7 days as much of a price difference despite the 35% spread. I don't think that this means that I'm kidding myself, full of it or blinded by Disney rose-coloured glasses - I suggest that perhaps our metrics regarding what constitutes "much of a price difference" are simply different. Those are the numbers as best as I can determine based what I consider to be the best apples-to-apples comparison I can come up with. This is my experience. YMMV depending on a significant number of factors.

1100 dollars may be pocket change for you, but for some people that's a lot of money.

 

[cadien]

You said in a previous post that square footage mattered. I guess a 600 sq foot suite on the Haven with a butler, free drinks, free dining, gratuity, and shore excursions included is comparable to a cat 11b on the Magic? No I'm not kidding. If your looking at a Baltic cruise a suite in the Haven is less then an 11b on the Magic. If You're comparing inside rooms then yes an inside room on a NCl is half the size and half the price of DCL. I'm not really sure what your apples to apples to comparison is. Do you want to compare a suite on DCL to a suite on NCL or Royal? DCL will be three or four times the cost. My guess is that if you can't get the exact same room that you're used to booking on DCL for half the price then it's not comparable. I think the items that are important to you are what you find on a Disney ship, and that's ok. You don't have to try and justify it.

I ran NCL Eastern Caribbean for NCL in October 2018 because that was their actual comparison, not Baltic in summer, and that $3,300 really does only get you a minisuite, not even the Haven.

 

[cruiser21]

I ran NCL Eastern Caribbean for NCL in October 2018 because that was their actual comparison, not Baltic in summer, and that $3,300 really does only get you a minisuite, not even the Haven.

A mini suite vs an inside is still quite an upgrade. DCL for 4 in a Verandah roughly 6100. A mini suite on the Getaway 3500 and the Haven 7200. The perks that come with the Haven are pretty substantial. Easily worth 1100, and since people don't think 1100 is that much more to pay for DCL cruise..well then.

 

[cadien]

A mini suite vs an inside is still quite an upgrade.

The DCL can't have been an inside if their priority is space.

 

[tvguy]

I first cruised in 1980. The industry has changed so much. There are soooo many more ships competing for your money now. And people are demanding more variety, less formality.
I thought my NYE Disney cruise in 2003/04 was expensive at $9,000 for 4.
Then I flash back to my first cruise.....which I did not pay for.....I was working as a photographer for a TV show that was doing a profile. My fare would have been $5,000 in 1980 dollars, that's $15,000 for one person. Even Disney isn't that expensive.
Things that stand out from that 1980 cruise.
> There was one seating for dinner, at 6 pm.
> Dinner was semi-formal every night except 2 form nights when tuxes were REQUIRED.
> Dinner lasted 3 12/ hours.
> Wine was included at no extra cost with lunch and dinner.
> There were no alternate dining venues, or room service.
> Food was gourmet.
> Entertainment......the Cruise Director was the featured comic......the CAPTAIN was the featured singer.
> The nightclub didn't even open until 2 am!
> No kids clubs. 450 passengers on board, 3 under the age of 18.
> The last day of the cruise you got a nice printed booklet with all the passengers names, home addresses and phone numbers.

 

[starvenger]

The last day of the cruise you got a nice printed booklet with all the passengers names, home addresses and phone numbers.

Can you imagine this happening now? Such a simpler time back then... but then again, I was a kid in the 80s, so of course it was.

 

[tvguy]

Can you imagine this happening now? Such a simpler time back then... but then again, I was a kid in the 80s, so of course it was.

Yeah. NCL was still doing it too into the late 1980's.

 

[SunnyDhappy]

I really liked your analogy OP

We started sailing in 2010. The prices were on the slightly high side but manageable. We did 13 DCL cruises in the 6 years. We loved it so much as our kids were growing up on these ships. We have been on all ships. Than 2 years ago we were like wow the rates are getting so high that we have tried MSC, NCL and Princess. We loved our experiences on all those ships and the prices we paid were always 1/3 to 1/2 of DCL rates for the same weeks sailed. We are now sailing more for but spending the same amount of money on vacations.

For instance, we sailed this Christmas on MSC Seaside. 12/23 7 night sailing in a balcony room (drink package) for family of 4 - We paid $3,500 - same sailing on Disney Fantasy was over 11K. Oh MSC will give you Platinum status if you have platinum status on other cruise lines. Plus there rewards are way more the DCL status programs.

Last summer (August) we did NCL Breakaway 7 night Bermuda in 2 inside state rooms/full drink package/on board credit of $150 for $4,500 that same week Disney Fantasty was over $9K.

This spring break (March) we are sailing Princess (Royal Princess) family of 4, 10 night Southern Caribbean in a balcony room, drink package and $300 of on board credit for $3,400. Disney Fantasy 7 night was $8,500

We haven't sailed Disney since last year and it was a 3 night but miss the magic of Disney. And always on the look out for a responsible fare. For now its not worth spending double and close to triple of the cost of what you can do very comparable trips on other cruise lines.

If DCL was just even in the ballpark of being reasonable we'd snatch up a DCL cruise. We have kids in school so we are stuck to the typical - Christmas/Spring break and Summer time frames. Now that our kids are in middle school taking them out is not as easy as when they were in elementary. We once got a steal VGT rate for May on Fantasy when my kids were in 2nd and 3rd grade. We took them out for a week no problem - yeah that won't fly in middle school.

I do wonder how long Disney is able to keep the fares so high but with them raising cost of WDW I doubt we will see them dropping fares for DCL in the near future.

 

[mcd2745]

I really liked your analogy OP

We started sailing in 2010. The prices were on the slightly high side but manageable. We did 13 DCL cruises in the 6 years. We loved it so much as our kids were growing up on these ships. We have been on all ships. Than 2 years ago we were like wow the rates are getting so high that we have tried MSC, NCL and Princess. We loved our experiences on all those ships and the prices we paid were always 1/3 to 1/2 of DCL rates for the same weeks sailed. We are now sailing more for but spending the same amount of money on vacations.

For instance, we sailed this Christmas on MSC Seaside. 12/23 7 night sailing in a balcony room (drink package) for family of 4 - We paid $3,500 - same sailing on Disney Fantasy was over 11K. Oh MSC will give you Platinum status if you have platinum status on other cruise lines. Plus there rewards are way more the DCL status programs.

Last summer (August) we did NCL Breakaway 7 night Bermuda in 2 inside state rooms/full drink package/on board credit of $150 for $4,500 that same week Disney Fantasty was over $9K.

This spring break (March) we are sailing Princess (Royal Princess) family of 4, 10 night Southern Caribbean in a balcony room, drink package and $300 of on board credit for $3,400. Disney Fantasy 7 night was $8,500

We haven't sailed Disney since last year and it was a 3 night but miss the magic of Disney. And always on the look out for a responsible fare. For now its not worth spending double and close to triple of the cost of what you can do very comparable trips on other cruise lines.

If DCL was just even in the ballpark of being reasonable we'd snatch up a DCL cruise. We have kids in school so we are stuck to the typical - Christmas/Spring break and Summer time frames. Now that our kids are in middle school taking them out is not as easy as when they were in elementary. We once got a steal VGT rate for May on Fantasy when my kids were in 2nd and 3rd grade. We took them out for a week no problem - yeah that won't fly in middle school.

I do wonder how long Disney is able to keep the fares so high but with them raising cost of WDW I doubt we will see them dropping fares for DCL in the near future.

I'd love to hear more about your experience with MSC. I've been intrigued by them. the Seaside looks like a great ship and the private island they are developing is very promising - especially since they are developing it to allow ships to stay there until late at night with dinner and nighttime entertainment options on the island.

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

For me its all about DISNEY... no way I would consider a different cruise line unless I won it for example...
I cruised a lot between 2007 and 2008, then had a baaddd experience on the Wonder. That in combination with the fact that prices started to get higher and a change in pricing policy for solo cruisers (so basically I was paying pretty much double the price within a matter of 1.5y) made me loose interest in cruising versus going to the parks. It had come to the point that for 1 week of cruising I could spend 3 weeks in a park.. At that time I had a lot of vacation time meaning I'd rather spend my budget in the parks and get more out of my money.

After a lot of hesitation over 5y, I found and booked a great GTY for the Fantasy last October. I went and was amazed again.. My personal situation has changed: higher income meanwhile, less vacation time and gotten older, done PLENTY of parktime and seeing the service go downhill for a higher prices as well meaning that apart from HKDL we're pretty much looking at the same budget 1 week cruise vs 1 week park.
Loved it that much that I went back for a merrytime 3 weeks later, and a SWDAS this coming Saturday. Also booked Panama for October and trying to squeeze in TA in May.. (and I live in Belgium so not exactly arond the corner) do I think the cruises are expensive? YES if you have your mind set to a specific cruise. I'd love to do the northern european captials again... I did it in 2008 and paid a little over 2200 USD (back then very expensive for me), seeing that the price now would be about 5 times that price.. nope...
BUT since I have no kids and a job with quite some flexibility, I can look for nice deals or those cruises that aren't priced crazy and then it is quite affordable.

I don't need smalltalk by the servers, just the information I need and some friendly service so I don't experience the 'service issues' some describe on the bigger ships... As to other departements I think the service is still outstanding... do I miss the cc reception, extra OB credit etc? Yes, but no dealbreaker to me... rather not have those vs even a biffer price raise hahahaha
I love characters and tbh there are more characters out nowadays then there were when I cruised 2007-2012. That is not just my feeling but objective facts: the character casts are 2-3 people bigger than they were back then+ because of them cancelling the mickey mail service the characters can be out more.

The only time that bugs me is the fact they try to run things more like the parks for example with ticketed character events.. They do it because guests complain when lines get a bit longer.. but so many people just book these ticketed events just cuse they can and not really care whilst others who have a sincere interest might not get them (late booking and late arrival on the ship for example) And to be honest these past 2 cruises (my first experiences with the ticketed events) I still ended up waiting in line close to half an hour for Frozen. For PG I waited 25 min the first time, only 10 min the second time.. so I don't feel like we benefit that much from them..

So long story short, I don't feel like we are getting less for more money.. I feel we pretty much still get the same but indeed for more money..