No more group bookings for Disney Cruise Line

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The cruise lines, they are a changing!

Disney announced a little while ago that beginning with 2013 bookings, other than charters, coporate meetings or incentive groups, there will be no more group bookings.

Among other things, Disney groups used to allow companies to block whole groups of rooms and lock in a price. Then after the prices went up, they sold those rooms for less than the going rate. The smaller agencies generally couldn't do that, so now they won't be competing against the large agencies who are blocking space.

Disney announced several years ago that no one was allowed to discount their cruises, it's the same price no matter who you book with. This certainly falls in line with that.

Unfortunately it also means no extra commission on group bookings for the agency to spend on fun extras for the group.

I see this as a similar step to Carnival disallowing onboard credits and leveling the playing field so to speak.

Any opinions?
 

Crush Dude!

Back from WDW!Counting down to DLP in November!
The cruise lines, they are a changing!

Disney announced a little while ago that beginning with 2013 bookings, other than charters, coporate meetings or incentive groups, there will be no more group bookings.

Among other things, Disney groups used to allow companies to block whole groups of rooms and lock in a price. Then after the prices went up, they sold those rooms for less than the going rate. The smaller agencies generally couldn't do that, so now they won't be competing against the large agencies who are blocking space.

Disney announced several years ago that no one was allowed to discount their cruises, it's the same price no matter who you book with. This certainly falls in line with that.

Unfortunately it also means no extra commission on group bookings for the agency to spend on fun extras for the group.

I see this as a similar step to Carnival disallowing onboard credits and leveling the playing field so to speak.

Any opinions?

And it begins.....

Although wont stop me dreaming about my next cruise...... :)
 

corey154

Active Member
So it's to help the smaller booking agencies, but as a customer is it going to be a huge impact on us and getting discounts? I don't cruise enough to know so i'm curious how much this hurts us in the end....and scares me what else is to come....
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So it's to help the smaller booking agencies, but as a customer is it going to be a huge impact on us and getting discounts? I don't cruise enough to know so i'm curious how much this hurts us in the end....and scares me what else is to come....

No, I really don't think it will hurt the customer at all. Very very few of my clients travel in groups that big and even the ones that do weren't getting a discount persay. Just an extra little something onboard. :)
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
So it's to help the smaller booking agencies, but as a customer is it going to be a huge impact on us and getting discounts? I don't cruise enough to know so i'm curious how much this hurts us in the end....and scares me what else is to come....

Like Tammy said, it really isn't going to make much impact for consumers like us. Don't be scared. It's looking like there's a lot of shifting going on between cruise lines and TAs. To me it feels like their trying to keep TAs competitive on the basis of merit & service (not a bad thing for us!) by strongly limiting the ability for big TAs to undercut the smaller TAs. I don't see any of these changes impacting prices. They're redefining the rules within their own relationships.

Prior to this announcement there was very little advantage to group bookings like with the girls cruise we have going. It's my understanding that the way the group benefits depended on what the TA was able and/or willing to kick back to them in the way of OBCs or gifts of appreciation. There's not a point where the number of rooms drops everyone's prices. I think maybe the deposit parameters were a little different but I may be thinking of RCI on that one since I'm also part of Tracey's big family group booking with them for Thanksgiving 2013. BTW, RCI does virtually nothing for big families booking many rooms as a group either. Seriously. So little to nothing is changing for us.




So I hope I'm interpreting this announcement right. Basically, I think DCL is saying big TAs can't come in when itineraries release and grab blocks of rooms at discounted rates to resell at a later date once the pricing to get on that cruise has gotten much higher thus turning a profit on the room PLUS commission while undercutting other agents and the cruise line themselves. Yes?
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So I hope I'm interpreting this announcement right. Basically, I think DCL is saying big TAs can't come in when itineraries release and grab blocks of rooms at discounted rates to resell at a later date once the pricing to get on that cruise has gotten much higher thus turning a profit on the room PLUS commission while undercutting other agents and the cruise line themselves. Yes?

That is basically what is happening. Like you said, there won't be a bonus comission to spend on groups, and I'm sure that has a lot to do with it from Disney's standpoint, but in reality it won't affect the day to day consumer much at all.

Hopefully it will help the smaller agencies. I lost at least one booking this year because the client found an agency that had blocked a bunch of rooms and could offer them at the cheaper price. That was the only explanation I could come up with since Disney requires us to all sell them at the same price and he was definitely getting a slightly better price.

So while I'm sad the extra bonus to plan fun things for groups is going away, I am not sad that the slight edge for companies who can block big chunks of rooms is going away. :)
 

iloverags2

Active Member
I have never been crazy with the way Disney handled their group bookings. Honestly, the other cruise lines were much easier to book groups with in the first place. Having said that, their new policy does not surprise me as I always got the impression DCL was trying to persuade us not to book groups in the first place.

Still better than the Carnival fiasco!
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
I have never been crazy with the way Disney handled their group bookings. Honestly, the other cruise lines were much easier to book groups with in the first place. Having said that, their new policy does not surprise me as I always got the impression DCL was trying to persuade us not to book groups in the first place.

Still better than the Carnival fiasco!

Tracey's family are all doing a big Thanksgiving hoorah on RCIs Allure in 2013. RCI really doesn't do much in the way of incentives or perks to family groups. I don't know about corporate companies coming in & blocking out rooms for business, etc. But for regular old folks like us there's really no perks whatsoever other than we're all on the same cruise at the same time (which isn't always as wonderful as you'd think....I totally see a lot of us dodging each other but that's a whoooole other conversation...LOL).
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tracey's family are all doing a big Thanksgiving hoorah on RCIs Allure in 2013. RCI really doesn't do much in the way of incentives or perks to family groups. I don't know about corporate companies coming in & blocking out rooms for business, etc. But for regular old folks like us there's really no perks whatsoever other than we're all on the same cruise at the same time (which isn't always as wonderful as you'd think....I totally see a lot of us dodging each other but that's a whoooole other conversation...LOL).

Lol! I have noticed that with other cruise lines too. Not many perks for regular big groups.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
There should be more direct ways for Disney to avoid TA's gaming the group system (controlling timing between lock-in and assigning guests, etc) so I have to imagine such a move is more just to get away from a booking method that they just don't want to offer incentives for anyways.

Not a big fan of price controls - but a better understanding of what you are buying, and what you are getting, is always helpful.
 

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