DCL now to have blackout dates for onboard discount

[ford91exploder]

Read it and weep - DCL now taking lessons from TDO.

Disney Cruise Line’s Onboard Booking Policy Now to Include Blackout Dates

Effective December 13, 2013, Disney Cruise Line’s onboard rebooking policy was modified to include blackout dates. The new blackout dates are not necessarily exclusive to holidays. The policy now states, for these sailings only, you will not receive the 10% discount, but will still receive onboard credit. Rest assured, if you have a cruise booked during one of the holiday dates and you keep this sailing, you will be unaffected by this latest change. If you decide to move your existing onboard booking to a blocked out date, you keep the onboard credit, but will lose the discount.


The following dates are the blocked out sailings for each ship.
Disney Dream Black Out Dates

2014
3-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Dream Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Nassau • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 4/17, 7/3

4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Dream – Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Nassau • Disney’s Castaway Cay • At Sea

• 4/13, 4/20, 6/29, 7/6, 12/22

4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Dream – Itinerary B from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Nassau • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 12/29

2015
3-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Dream Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Nassau • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 4/3

4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Dream – Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Nassau • Disney’s Castaway Cay • At Sea

• 3/30, 4/6

Disney Fantasy Black Out Dates

2014
7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • At Sea • St. Maarten • St. Thomas (w. St. John excursions) • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 3/8, 4/5, 4/19, 5/31, 6/14

7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Itinerary B from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • At Sea • St. Thomas (w. St. John excursions) • San Juan, Puerto Rico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 12/27

7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Itinerary C from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • At Sea • St. Maarten • San Juan, Puerto Rico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 12/20

7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Itinerary B from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • Costa Maya, Mexico • Cozumel, Mexico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 2/15, 3/15, 3/29, 4/12, 4/26

7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Itinerary C from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • Cozumel, Mexico • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • Falmouth, Jamaica • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 6/21

2015
7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Itinerary B from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • At Sea • St. Thomas (w. St. John excursions) • San Juan, Puerto Rico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 4/4

7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Fantasy – Itinerary C from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • At Sea • St. Maarten • San Juan, Puerto Rico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 3/28

Disney Magic Black Out Dates

2014
3-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Magic Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Nassau • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 4/18

4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Magic – Itinerary B from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Nassau • Disney’s Castaway Cay • At Sea

• 4/14, 4/21

12-Night Mediterranean Cruise (with Greece) on Disney Magic – Itinerary A from Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona, Spain • Villefranche, France • La Spezia, Italy • Civitavecchia, Italy • At Sea • At Sea • Piraeus, Greece • Kusadasi, Turkey • Mykonos, Greece • At Sea • Valletta, Malta • At Sea

• 7/26

12-Night Mediterranean Cruise (with Greece) on Disney Magic – Itinerary D (Venice to Barcelona) from Venice, Italy
Venice, Italy • At Sea • At Sea • Piraeus, Greece • Kusadasi, Turkey • Rhodes, Greece (Greek Isles) • Heraklion (Crete), Greece • Mykonos, Greece • Santorini, Greece • At Sea • Valletta, Malta • At Sea

• 7/14

7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Magic – Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Key West, FL • At Sea • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • Cozumel, Mexico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 12/21

7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Magic – Itinerary B from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • Cozumel, Mexico • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • Falmouth, Jamaica • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 12/28

2015
7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Magic – Itinerary A from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Key West, FL • At Sea • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • Cozumel, Mexico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 3/29

7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Magic – Itinerary B from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • At Sea • Cozumel, Mexico • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • Falmouth, Jamaica • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 4/5

Disney Wonder Black Out Dates

2014
5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Wonder – Itinerary B from Miami, FL
Miami, FL • At Sea • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • Cozumel, Mexico • At Sea

• 4/18

4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Wonder – Itinerary B from Miami, FL
Miami, FL • Disney’s Castaway Cay • Nassau • Key West, FL

• 4/23

2-Night Weekend Getaway Cruise Disney Wonder from San Diego, CA
San Diego, CA • At Sea

• 5/17

5-Night San Diego to Vancouver Cruise Disney Wonder from San Diego, CA
San Diego, CA • At Sea • San Francisco, CA • At Sea • At Sea

• 5/19

7-Night Alaskan Cruise – Itinerary A from Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver, Canada • At Sea • Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska • Skagway, Alaska • Juneau, Alaska • Ketchikan, Alaska • At Sea

• 6/30

5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Wonder – Itinerary A from Miami, FL
Miami, FL • At Sea • Cozumel, Mexico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 12/21

4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Wonder- Itinerary E from Miami, FL
Miami, FL • At Sea • Nassau • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 12/26

5 Night Bahamian Cruise Disney Wonder – Itinerary C from Port Canaveral, FL
Port Canaveral, FL • Disney’s Castaway Cay • Nassau • At Sea • Key West, FL

• 12/30

2015
5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Wonder – Itinerary A from Miami, FL
Miami, FL • At Sea • Cozumel, Mexico • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

• 3/29

5-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Disney Wonder – Itinerary D from Miami, FL
Miami, FL • At Sea • Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands • At Sea • Disney’s Castaway Cay

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Not to be snarky or anything but we discussed this like a month ago when word first came out. This change could also be the result of the popularity of using onboard booking discounts. Even with recent modifications to the program (this isn't the only one) Disney's onboard booking and repeat cruiser programs are still pretty generous for the cruise industry. I know Royal Caribbean doesn't do as much from firsthand knowledge.

I did notice, however, these changes coming down around the time of the WDI project freezes and other WDC-wide $-saving measures. I don't pretend to be a company sympathizer. Y'all know that! I have no problem calling a spade a spade. I definitely have had the dots connected in my brain on this one. The whole MM+ overrun kerfuffle has to be recouped. Personally, I think it should come from salaries of the geniuses who sold the whole thing to begin with. But then those "poor" souls would be without any income at all for a looooong time. Even Big Bob's bucks don't even come close.

 

[ford91exploder]

Not to be snarky or anything but we discussed this like a month ago when word first came out. This change could also be the result of the popularity of using onboard booking discounts. Even with recent modifications to the program (this isn't the only one) Disney's onboard booking and repeat cruiser programs are still pretty generous for the cruise industry. I know Royal Caribbean doesn't do as much from firsthand knowledge.

I did notice, however, these changes coming down around the time of the WDI project freezes and other WDC-wide $-saving measures. I don't pretend to be a company sympathizer. Y'all know that! I have no problem calling a spade a spade. I definitely have had the dots connected in my brain on this one. The whole MM+ overrun kerfuffle has to be recouped. Personally, I think it should come from salaries of the geniuses who sold the whole thing to begin with. But then those "poor" souls would be without any income at all for a looooong time. Even Big Bob's bucks don't even come close.

DW and I were looking at a DCL cruise and discovered this gem thought I would post it for reference, In hindsight should have searched for a blackout thread. But it's fascinating to see the damage that MM+ is inflicting across all of TWDC's lines of business.

Personally I think that TWDC should just take a writedown on MM+, It just seems TWDC is way too emotionally invested in MM+ And it makes me wonder why TWDC is so resistant to taking a writedown on this turkey and getting it off their books like any other large company which has a whoopsie.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

DW and I were looking at a DCL cruise and discovered this gem thought I would post it for reference, In hindsight should have searched for a blackout thread. But it's fascinating to see the damage that MM+ is inflicting across all of TWDC's lines of business.

Personally I think that TWDC should just take a writedown on MM+, It just seems TWDC is way too emotionally invested in MM+ And it makes me wonder why TWDC is so resistant to taking a writedown on this turkey and getting it off their books like any other large company which has a whoopsie.

I know. I agree. My opinion? They won't do the write-down and call it an expensive mistake because there's high-up egos and big salaries and/or bonuses at stake. If those who pitched MM+ and those who made the decision to buy MM+ (Think of those names!) admitted they made a mistake it would make them look like big screw-ups. It could compromise the faith the board has in them & put them on less stable, less lucrative ground. The other option when the poo is flying is to try to compensate and scramble to maintain the status quo. If they can make cuts to get the numbers where they need to be to make their poor decisions appear less dreadful then that will trump admitting defeat. Yes? It's damage control for the spreadsheet's bottom line. Then there's ego. Not to get all sexist but dudes have the fragile egos that require maintenance. Think again of the names involved here. These guys are up there and aren't about to choke on any bruised egos. Not gonna happen. They'll pawn things off on others, work damage control, fight tooth and nail to have no falter of ego. These people don't get to these positions by saying, "Well yeah, I flubbed on that one but I'm sure I won't do that again." LOL!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

@ford91exploder, I hope your discovery didn't bruise your desire to sail with Disney. The other recent change was a time limit for moving on board bookings (OBB). So many, me included, would book the cheapest cruise possible far out in the future with the intent to move that booking once a sail date was decided upon. When the policy change came down I looked and had 6 "placeholders" hanging out there on the books. Even I was surprised. I didn't realize I had so many! So I cancelled a few and made some decisions with a few to get them where they'll be. All these placeholders I'm sure were killing DCLs books. Think of all the cruises that would appear to be sold adequately then at the paid-in-full date have 1/3 of the bookings vanish overnight? Yikes!

The blackouts all appear to be during higher demand sailing periods, too. Unless you travel during times when you'd expect the parks to be busier, this doesn't affect you. That's why I'm really not too concerned. And, maaaany sailings during off-peak times get discounted anyway. You cannot combine discounts. This is how we ended up with so many placeholders floating. We kept booking them but sailed on special fares so we weren't using them. Even during the blackouts, you still get the on board credits. The portion you don't get is the 10% off. Not sure about the reduced deposit. Considering DCL runs discounted fares to fill ships during slower times & they do run special periods with the same reduced deposits, I wouldn't be surprised to see the 10% go away altogether within the next few years. When you look at it, they don't need it.

We sailed on Royal Caribbean for Thanksgiving and I can tell you their OBB program is almost laughable compared to Disney's. There no discount on fares that anybody at home couldn't get online & book. Their reduced deposit is $100 per person. Their onboard credits aren't even close to what Disney gives. We fully intend to sail Royal Caribbean again but did not see enough benefit to make tying up a couple hundred bucks by booking while onboard worthwhile. Hell, we haven't even bothered to sign up for their repeat cruiser program, The Crown & Anchor Society, because the different levels take so much more to achieve I just don't see us ever doing anything with that. We wouldn't sail them enough to ever really reap anything from it. Plus their website is a hot mess and kicked me out.

Just food for thought with DCL. Again, you know I'm no apologist and I don't follow the Disney shepard blindly like a good little sheep. When looking at the overall picture these are my thoughts on the subject. I'll be the first to tell you some of those summer & holiday fares are beyond outrageous and I sure wouldn't pay that on principle alone. I love my Disney but it just doesn't feel magical for me if I had to take a painful beating to get there. There's way too many interesting places and things to see in this world!

 

[ford91exploder]

I know. I agree. My opinion? They won't do the write-down and call it an expensive mistake because there's high-up egos and big salaries and/or bonuses at stake. If those who pitched MM+ and those who made the decision to buy MM+ (Think of those names!) admitted they made a mistake it would make them look like big screw-ups. It could compromise the faith the board has in them & put them on less stable, less lucrative ground. The other option when the poo is flying is to try to compensate and scramble to maintain the status quo. If they can make cuts to get the numbers where they need to be to make their poor decisions appear less dreadful then that will trump admitting defeat. Yes? It's damage control for the spreadsheet's bottom line. Then there's ego. Not to get all sexist but dudes have the fragile egos that require maintenance. Think again of the names involved here. These guys are up there and aren't about to choke on any bruised egos. Not gonna happen. They'll pawn things off on others, work damage control, fight tooth and nail to have no falter of ego. These people don't get to these positions by saying, "Well yeah, I flubbed on that one but I'm sure I won't do that again." LOL!

Agree completely. I clean up IT disasters so I understand the dynamics at work here and guys do indeed have tender ego's which require constant maintenance.

 

[ford91exploder]

@ford91exploder, I hope your discovery didn't bruise your desire to sail with Disney. The other recent change was a time limit for moving on board bookings (OBB). So many, me included, would book the cheapest cruise possible far out in the future with the intent to move that booking once a sail date was decided upon. When the policy change came down I looked and had 6 "placeholders" hanging out there on the books. Even I was surprised. I didn't realize I had so many! So I cancelled a few and made some decisions with a few to get them where they'll be. All these placeholders I'm sure were killing DCLs books. Think of all the cruises that would appear to be sold adequately then at the paid-in-full date have 1/3 of the bookings vanish overnight? Yikes!

The blackouts all appear to be during higher demand sailing periods, too. Unless you travel during times when you'd expect the parks to be busier, this doesn't affect you. That's why I'm really not too concerned. And, maaaany sailings during off-peak times get discounted anyway. You cannot combine discounts. This is how we ended up with so many placeholders floating. We kept booking them but sailed on special fares so we weren't using them. Even during the blackouts, you still get the on board credits. The portion you don't get is the 10% off. Not sure about the reduced deposit. Considering DCL runs discounted fares to fill ships during slower times & they do run special periods with the same reduced deposits, I wouldn't be surprised to see the 10% go away altogether within the next few years. When you look at it, they don't need it.

We sailed on Royal Caribbean for Thanksgiving and I can tell you their OBB program is almost laughable compared to Disney's. There no discount on fares. Their reduced deposit is $100 per person. Their onboard credits aren't even close to what Disney gives. We fully intend to sail Royal Caribbean again but did not see enough benefit to make tying up a couple hundred bucks by booking while onboard worthwhile. Hell, we haven't even bothered to sign up for their repeat cruiser program, The Crown & Anchor Society, because the different levels take so much more to achieve I just don't see us ever doing anything with that. We wouldn't sail them enough to ever really reap anything from it. Plus their website is a hot mess and kicked me out.

Just food for thought with DCL. Again, you know I'm no apologist and I don't follow the Disney shepard blindly like a good little sheep. When looking at the overall picture these are my thoughts on the subject. I'll be the first to tell you some of those summer & holiday fares are beyond outrageous and I sure wouldn't pay that on principle alone. I love my Disney but it just doesn't feel magical for me if I had to take a painful beating to get there. There's way too many interesting places and things to see in this world!

No not at all, I just found the timing fascinating - You have provided me with a wealth of useful information summer and holiday does not really work for me as that is when my customers tend to have maintenance downtimes.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

No not at all, I just found the timing fascinating - You have provided me with a wealth of useful information summer and holiday does not really work for me as that is when my customers tend to have maintenance downtimes.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to throw 'em out there. Best tips for discounts: think of when WDW typically runs their deepest discounts. That's when you're most likely to see DCL run good specials. Also, they often wait until they get inside the paid-in-full date / beginning of the penalty phase to release specials. This is to fill ships last minute. They aren't going to make it easy for people already booked to cancel & rebook on a discount.