DCL Price increases just floored me compared to our Hawaii cruise

[Trera]

agreed but when you look at the upcoming cruises, they are nearly all full.

No incentive for DCL to lower prices what so ever. Look at some of the concierge pricing...........and those rooms fill up as well.

 

[cruiser21]

We paid $2900 for 2A/1C for the very last Alaska cruise in 2014. That was for an ocean view, made reservation a month before. Using that as a comparison it's really really hard to digest some of today's prices.

The last Alaska cruise this year for 1a1k is 3348 for an 11b and 3700 for an oceanview. If I booked onboard May 1 it would bring the price down a little. Not great prices, but not jaw dropping either. There are lots of insides rooms available. I thought about waiting for a IGT rate, but I tried that last year. I thought the first cruise in May might offer them, but it never happened. I remember those great rates in 2014 I had booked a balcony for 4 of us for around 5k. We did not end up taking the cruise.

 

[RedSox68]

We are mostly good on our choice to move on, my reluctance to stop helping out on this board, might say otherwise This did really hit home though, cause that trip was amazing, I know they say to never say never, but I am sure that trip will always be our #1 cruise. I had realized that prices had been creeping up to a point that we switched, I just hadn't really compared the price of our non concierge cruises to the new pricing. Generally each year we have just created a word document comparing the prices of each line and based our decisions on itinerary and price. 2017 and 2018 are the first times for us DCL lost out.

I will see if we still have some of those comparison docs, because in the past during off peak times DCL was super competitive with other lines. Not a hater just made a choice that was made easier being empty nesters now.

Just because you stop cruising DCL for a while doesn't mean you can't still help on these boards and be a part of it. I haven't cruised DCL since 2014, but love participating from past knowledge and future hopes LOL

The longer cruises on DCL are generally a better value. I don't know if I'll pay DCL prices to go to the Caribbean again. I rarely cruise just to cruise anymore. I like to see new ports. We did Hawaii too. It was a great value. The panama, TA's and even some of the early and late Summer European cruises are all in my per night budget.

Agree -- their prices for 7-night Caribbean cruises, where their itineraries rarely change, is out of sync with what we can get on other lines. Over $4,000 for the 2 of us in an oceanview for the Caribbean is an eye opener for sure!

 

[cgolf]

We paid $2900 for 2A/1C for the very last Alaska cruise in 2014. That was for an ocean view, made reservation a month before. Using that as a comparison it's really really hard to digest some of today's prices.

I just was really surprised, as well. This was the first time I had compared DCL now to DCL of old. Even my wife had a that is crazy remark lol.

Yearly now we will do the spreadsheet to compare cruise lines and see which ones fit our budget. The only exception is our 2019 cruise on the Edge which I believe is 150ish per person per night, which I see as trying out a new ship tax. We have paid more per person and will, it just needs to be for a good reason.

 

[RedSox68]

I just was really surprised, as well. This was the first time I had compared DCL now to DCL of old. Even my wife had a that is crazy remark lol.

Yearly now we will do the spreadsheet to compare cruise lines and see which ones fit our budget. The only exception is our 2019 cruise on the Edge which I believe is 150ish per person per night, which I see as trying out a new ship tax. We have paid more per person and will, it just needs to be for a good reason.

Yeah, we try to keep our per night at $150/pp or under as we wouldn't pay more than $300 or so for a hotel room per night on a basic vacation, but at least the cruise includes food LOL

 

[dclpluto]

I was just looking up a price to use as a comparison when talking in one of the threads and I came up with 3,999 for 2 people on the Wonder in mid February 2018 for and Eastern Carib cruise in an inside stateroom (285.71 per person per night). The part that floors me is that in 2012 we did the inaugural Hawaii cruise that was sold out to the point that you had to check multiple times a day hoping that the cruise would reappear so that you could book, it was 4,400 for a 16 night in an inside stateroom (137.5 per person per night).

I know that they can charge whatever they want because people will pay it blah blah blah, this is why we have moved on, because the value for us isn't there. For newer cruisers who never saw previous prices, now is their baseline.

If there ever was a cruise to mark up in price, it would have been that Hawaii trip, and it was a little bit from their normal prices back then, but not by a big margin.

3,999 that's a lot I can get a week DCL cruise for 2 people for around 2800.
DCL has never had a 16 night cruise you meant 15.

 

[cgolf]

3,999 that's a lot I can get a week DCL cruise for 2 people for around 2800.
DCL has never had a 16 night cruise you meant 15.

Yup, 15 nights and 16 days They do say that the memory is the first thing to go lol

The 3,999 was the number for I believe the Feb. 18th Eastern Carrib 7 night cruise on the wonder looked at yesterday. The Western was much cheaper, but that doesn't interest us anymore. The Feb 2018 easterns start at 3,173 or 3,295 for an inside stateroom, which is about 800 more than we are paying for an inside on the brand new Celebrity Edge in 2019 for an inside room with a soda package.

 

[mevelandry]

Comparing old with current can be surprising...

I've had a 3 nights on a Navigator's Verandah for 1600$ early april 2015. Booked 5 months in advance.

I got an inside room for the same price in early april 2017. Booked 16 months in advance.

 

[cruiser21]

I so wish I could convince my wife to do one of those cruises. She hates flying though and couldn't deal with flying both that long and that long over water. Even flying to San Juan is pretty much out.

You should take the Queen Mary over spend a week and sail back..

 

[Mika02]

I am really hoping the Hawaii one way will be back next year. We loved our Disney cruise in 2015 and my kids want to return. If it does that will definitely be my kids and my vacation for 2018.

 

[jahber]

We paid $2900 for 2A/1C for the very last Alaska cruise in 2014. That was for an ocean view, made reservation a month before. Using that as a comparison it's really really hard to digest some of today's prices.

We paid $2600 for 2A 2C in an IGT for the Sept. 2 sailing in 2013. 2014 was the last year we sailed DCL, because we added two kids to our family. Now prices are double what we pay on Royal and Carnival. Maybe when our eldest is in college and we can fit in one room again....Do you think she would disown us if we sailed DCL without her???

 

[cruiser21]

We paid $2600 for 2A 2C in an IGT for the Sept. 2 sailing in 2013. 2014 was the last year we sailed DCL, because we added two kids to our family. Now prices are double what we pay on Royal and Carnival. Maybe when our eldest is in college and we can fit in one room again....Do you think she would disown us if we sailed DCL without her???

I'm cruising with just my youngest son this year because my dh and oldest are doing something different. I'm doing DCL this year because of this. I can't believe the difference in price with just two. I'm not sure if all four of us will cruise on DCL together again or not. If you can figure out a way to leave two of your family members at home DCL is a lot more affordable. LOL.

 

[JanBlessed]

We're paying 350pp/day on an upcoming cruise in a 5B. I thought it was OK....until reading this thread

 

[JanBlessed]

I'm cruising with just my youngest son this year .... If you can figure out a way to leave two of your family members at home DCL is a lot more affordable. LOL.

We actually ADDED 2 people to make it more affordable , lol!!! Split the price in half even though we are 4 and they are two.
Works for us

 

[cruiser21]

We actually ADDED 2 people to make it more affordable , lol!!! Split the price in half even though we are 4 and they are two.
Works for us

Nice! I wish my teens could pay half.

 

[jahber]

I'm cruising with just my youngest son this year because my dh and oldest are doing something different. I'm doing DCL this year because of this. I can't believe the difference in price with just two. I'm not sure if all four of us will cruise on DCL together again or not. If you can figure out a way to leave two of your family members at home DCL is a lot more affordable. LOL.

Well, we have FOUR kids now, so we'd have to find childcare for all of them if we wanted to afford DCL. Not gonna happen. We'll just sail on other lines until DCL comes to its senses.

 

[RedSox68]

Comparing old with current can be surprising...

I've had a 3 nights on a Navigator's Verandah for 1600$ early april 2015. Booked 5 months in advance.

I got an inside room for the same price in early april 2017. Booked 16 months in advance.

WHEW

 

[jrabbit]

I asked the captain of the Wonder about this in Dec. He said they don't sell very well so he wasn't sure. I told him if they could figure out a way to do the cruises in October they might sell better. A lot of Western states have Fall break in October. They don't seem to have not trouble selling the TA's and Panama so I'm not sure what the issue is with Hawaii.

Just a thought on why Hawaii is a harder sell
It's on the West Coast!!! From reading these boards for about 15 years, I cannot count the number of times east coast and mid west people have "complained" that flying to LA, San Diego, Seattle or Vancouver is: Too Far, Too Expensive, Too Long, Timezone Issues etc. and have said that it's not fair that Disney brought a ship out to sail on the west coast (well that was mostly in '05 when the Magic sailed to the west coast for the first time to celebrate Disneyland's 50th birthday - which was nice!! BTW - I don't remember Disneyland getting anything else, BUT EVERY PARK in WDW got new attractions for DisneyLAND's 50th). oops, that got a little off topic

Those of us that live "way over here" are used to having spend a whole day traveling east (starting at 0-Dark-30), spending a lot of money to get there and back again and getting to blow off another day traveling home again.

 

[jrabbit]

Well, we have FOUR kids now, so we'd have to find childcare for all of them if we wanted to afford DCL. Not gonna happen. We'll just sail on other lines until DCL comes to its senses.

I'm guessing that you will have at least an 8 year wait (and even then Disney probably "won't come to it's senses" - lots of time to be saving money taking other vacations.

 

[cruiser21]

Just a thought on why Hawaii is a harder sell
It's on the West Coast!!! From reading these boards for about 15 years, I cannot count the number of times east coast and mid west people have "complained" that flying to LA, San Diego, Seattle or Vancouver is: Too Far, Too Expensive, Too Long, Timezone Issues etc. and have said that it's not fair that Disney brought a ship out to sail on the west coast (well that was mostly in '05 when the Magic sailed to the west coast for the first time to celebrate Disneyland's 50th birthday - which was nice!! BTW - I don't remember Disneyland getting anything else, BUT EVERY PARK in WDW got new attractions for DisneyLAND's 50th). oops, that got a little off topic

Those of us that live "way over here" are used to having spend a whole day traveling east (starting at 0-Dark-30), spending a lot of money to get there and back again and getting to blow off another day traveling home again.

They have no trouble selling Alaska and it's on the West. I agree flying to Hawaii for an east coaster is a long haul, but not any worse then a west coaster flying to Europe. Except the the planes used for international flights are nicer and you get food and wine. I live in Az and Hawaii is 7 hours so not easy from here either.