ShookieJones
We need time for things to happen.
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- Thread starter huntzilla
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Buried20KLeague
Well-Known Member
I'm glad I got in touch with @WDW1974 about this yesterday/last night and he pointed me this way. Fuzzy brain with the head cold...I stopped reading this thread after a few pages. TDO crawfishing ~AGAIN~ is nothing new. In fact, it's kinda like their signature nowadays.
So, okay, back to the subject at hand. I realize I'm not the expert on DCL and how they operate. I've been closely following their doings and, admitedly, falling in love with their product for closing in on 2 years. When I saw the post on the Disney Parks Blog yesterday I found what I saw & read quite odd. Just as announcements are highly anticipated and salivated over for the parks by the big time parks fans, there's a huge group of DCL fans who anxiously anticipate announcements from them on baited breathe. It's almost a parallel of what you see within the parks fans. There's knowledgable insiders, long-time cruisers who are very familiar with the ways the company operates, some that get aggravated with things that they feel are sub-par, some that are so infatuated with their object of affection that they can see no wrong no matter how bad it gets, etc. It's strange to observe but then I understand on many levels. Anywhoo, so I read the Parks Blog yesterday, this announcement that the DCL fan world has been sitting on the edge of their seats anxious to receive for months now. It's the 2014 itineraries! We're hoppin' around ready to switch our "placeholder" bookings over to 2014 cruises to score opening day prices PLUS 10% off. Such a hotly anticipated announcement and it seems half of what was laid out was pushing the FLE. How. Totally. Strange. A Disney CRUISE announcement pushing a PARKS product. I know it's not unusual for people to pair a short Disney cruise with a parks trip and, sure, Disney enjoys cashing in on both fronts. I went back to the read the itineraries that were released for a second time and I was (frankly) annoyed.
My first thought was "Wow. Thumping a dead horse that's already been beat to death isn't going to do much." Running all 4 ships out of Florida for almost 5 months on the same beat-down itineraries that all the repeat cruisers have been on time & time again is BORING. Why are they not still sailing out of the alternate off-season, cool weather ports they are choosing for 2012 & 2013? You cannot argue that these sailings aren't selling well enough or that Florida cruises sell better. I don't believe that. Most sailings September thru May out of Galveston are running discounts. The cruise my family is going on in mid-January is almost entirely sold out. Early January's 8-night was sold out last time I looked. The discounting is working and the ship is filling. I can't say the same for the also mostly discounted sailings on the Magic's sister ship out of Miami during the same time period. So, why is the Disney Wonder being pulled from Galveston the first almost 5 months of 2014?
The DCL fans scream & beg for new and interesting itineraries. When DCL releases new & interesting sailings the ships fill up at lightning speed. Why in the world is Disney doing something so ho-hum??? Why are they doing the thing the DCL fans hate the most? A bigger picture comes into focus here. Disney seems to be moving their chess pieces into a defensive position on the larger than just cruise industry gameboard. We all know WDW occupancy isn't what Disney would like. We all know that the Disney parks attendance growth as compared to the competition statistically they're losing the battle. And, let's be honest, even the most passionate of WDW fan knows that the Orlando parks competition have, are, and will be putting out a high enough quality product that the mouse should be concerned and doing something proactive about it. I think this is another angle Disney is playing to attempt to counter their inadequacies in the world of theme park offerings. They're bringing all four ships to Florida, 3 of which will be running less than 7 day itineraries, for the purpose of pushing the (not very competitive with what the competition is doing) parks additions.
Personally, when I feel like I'm being played I'm going to put my thoughts and efforts into making sure whoever thinks they're being so clever only gets the most exact opposite of what it is they want and nothing more. IF I sail out Florida in 2014 while all 4 ships are there (very big IF) I'll be sure to make a pilgrimage to see Harry & company. Maybe I'll go sleep with the fishes-n-whales. I will NOT go to WDW. I'd stay home before I vacationed there. In short, TDO can kiss my proverbial...... well...... you know.
That's a very astute observation, Ms. Pee... And probably dead on. Awfully interesting to think TWDC might be using their fleet of cruise ships as pawns to prop up WDW attendance. I'm not sure there are many other possibilities either, unless maybe it has something to do with the prices of fuel, etc etc...
But as I believe you and I have chatted about before... I'd suggest saving the $$ on that same old DCL itinerary and spend it on plane tickets to Tokyo.
Not going to WDW, the place that apparently causes you so much aggravation.
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
I'm down with the stinkage of Nassau, not that I've bothered to venture much into town. Riding on the bus out to Atlantis (thrill ride unto itself!) we just don't see much that beckons us. Well, maybe not entirely true there. If money were no object I'd purchase some scrap of land on Dog Flea Alley just to have an address there. That's interesting, right? Really, Atlantis is a wonderful place that has a definite revisitability but it's also quite pricy. I'm thinking instead of seeing in short increments via Disney cruising we should just go there. Oh! But where does that leave the Mouse? Cut out of yet another vacation buck because they don't keep things interesting! Imagine that!
And, OMG! Really! Could they have been more obvious with the parks blog post. One pic of a ship at Castaway and one pic of the same rendering that's splashed everywhere.
We need a better eye-rolling emoticon here. LOL!What I don't get is why TWDC would think their little ("tee-hee, I bet nobody will know what we're up to") trick will bring more visitors to WDW. Maybe Harry Potter and Shamu should send Mickey & Co. some thank you cards for all the visitors they'll get off this. Like I said, I won't rule out DCL entirely (because FL resident rates ARE really nice..I'm predicting a whoooole lot of them in early 2014) but I wouldn't pair another DCL trip with WDW. Heck no! I'm going to see Harry! I want to see Suess Landing! And now that I know I can score such a sick deal on a SW platinum 2-year gig, guess where else I'm looking???
You'll have a blast on your cruise. What are your ports??? I know some of the Miami sailings are slated for Key West which is another place I'd love to spend more time. But, again, why sail to go there? I could just fly to Key West and have a ball.
The CC thing is a bit stickier for me. We do love CC. I'm not a beachy girl for the most part but CC is so much more than a beach destination. It's like the embodiment of a fictitious island paradise. Being in Texas when the Galveston sailings were first announced I talked up cruising with Mickey to a lot of folks who argued that the itineraries didn't include Disney's island. True. Then DCL changed some of the itineraries to 8-night Bahamian's that carry visits to CC (that's the Bahamas part of the trip), Port Canaveral with a free WDW parkhopper and transportation to/from the port, and Key West. That changed things. People started booking. Guests do sometimes want to go to CC, especially the first timers you mentioned. I'll be a 4th timer next month and I'm still itching to go there and spend an obscene amount of money just for an exclusive cabana on the private beach section of Disney's private island. My thing is why not continue sailing out of a port that can reach CC within a week that's not in Florida??? So many people are booking Galveston because they don't have to fly or have a 18 hour road trip to sail. I can definitely say that the location of the port has been a huge factor in our choice of sailing choice. We could've booked a back-to-back out of Port Canaveral and achieved Gold status (for the advantage with future bookings) but we would've had to travel 16-18 hours to get there. Give people options. I think DCL will be hard-pressed to fill 4 ships out of Florida. I really do. The discounts will be deep. Folks should pay attention. If you've not sailed Disney early 2014 might be a good option. I'd be keeping my eyes peeled in the fall of 2013 for the big roll-backs to happen.
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
That's a very astute observation, Ms. Pee... And probably dead on. Awfully interesting to think TWDC might be using their fleet of cruise ships as pawns to prop up WDW attendance. I'm not sure there are many other possibilities either, unless maybe it has something to do with the prices of fuel, etc etc...
But as I believe you and I have chatted about before... I'd suggest saving the $$ on that same old DCL itinerary and spend it on plane tickets to Tokyo.
I would like nothing more! Believe me, our travel tastes are a-changin' as our boys grow older. We've got a list going of things we intend to do once we can vacation just the two of us, you know, because it'll cost only half as much. LOL! Lots going on right now. Trying to do the right thing with the extended fam. The FiL is facing a hellacious battle with cancer and I'm about to lose a relative to the same villian. It's tough. But the list is there and it does NOT include WDW aside from our Port Canaveral stop next month while we are sailing the Magic out of Galveston.
I love the reference: Ms. Pee! That's awesome! My poor husband, for all his sweetness and lovability, he's a terrible speller. He took my wedding band to have it engraved many moons ago before we were married and that's the spelling he wrote down. Gotta love it.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
Bitter ? For expressing an opinion as a consumer? You truly have a warped perspective on society.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Wow. Thanks for the info and backstory! I'm not into cruise ship vacations (I'm trying to avoid using the word "cruising"... oops), so I'm out of the loop on that cruise ship scene.
The merits of Cars Land, DCA 2.0, and the Disneyland Resort as a whole are easy to understand. And the Disneyland attendance has been huge since June; the local newspapers have done several stories about soaring hotel occupancy in Anaheim and rising room rates and visitor spending fueled by Cars Land, so the local economy here is thrilled.
But to have the Disney Cruise Line pull out of the California/West Coast market altogether is quite a jolt. Not even Alaska cruises from Seattle in summer?! I'm surprised this hasn't shown up in our local media yet; the LA Times, OC Register, San Diego Tribune.
I wonder how much of this has to do with the shaky Mexican situation and the desire by many folks to avoid that part of the world? I had considered doing a Disney cruise, but realized my options out of SoCal all involved Mexico ports, and I didn't want to have to stay on the boat the whole time. Alaska is fantastic, but I prefer to see that state from land (rode a seaplane into Juneau once that was a real E Ticket!)
Adam5897
Active Member
Exactly, and then people will attack others because they don't act like everything TDO has been doing is amazing. I also wouldn't be supposed if people got on my case for saying that I would rather go to disneyland because of DCA. I love WDW and I always will, I just want the best for it.
Yes, always better to ignore any issues, because simply wishing them away has worked out so well before....
Adam5897
Active Member
Thank you for saying something, I just really didn't want to get in a fight like I have seen on here. They are so annoying and happen because of people who call others names because they can't handle opinions that are different from theirs.
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
Wow. Thanks for the info and backstory! I'm not into cruise ship vacations, so I'm out of the loop on that scene.
The merits of Cars Land, DCA 2.0, and the Disneyland Resort as a whole are easy to understand. And the Disneyland attendance has been huge since June; the local newspapers have done several stories about soaring hotel occupancy in Anaheim and rising room rates and visitor spending fueled by Cars Land, so the local economy here is thrilled.
But to have the Disney Cruise Line pull out of the California/West Coast market altogether is quite a jolt. Not even Alaska cruises from Seattle in summer?! I'm surprised this hasn't shown up in our local media yet; the LA Times, OC Register, San Diego Tribune, or the local TV news. Quite a stunning turn of events, after Disney made a very big deal of entering the West Coast market a few years ago.
I don't know for sure that DCL has pulled out of the west coast forever or even indefinitely. The 2 new ships are, from my understanding, contractually tied to Port Canaveral for some amount of time. The itineraries for the 2 classic ships, the Magic & Wonder, have only been announced thru the end of April 2014. There's nothing else released for them after that. It's entirely possible and somewhat probable that Disney will put another ship out west in the summer of 2014. We're all waiting to see what they do and when they'll decide to announce it.
Yeah, I know the cruising is a whole other animal. That's part of what entertains me with it. I'm anxiously waiting for the day I can start learning the Disneyland way of things!
Captain Chaos
Well-Known Member
A lot of times fights happen because these hooligans aren't banned or shut up in any way around here... They are allowed to continue to post their utter nonsense...
Buried20KLeague
Well-Known Member
I know I'm contributing to the thread drift here... But since the cruise topic is so hot in my brain I had to share.
I've spent the last 4 days pricing possible cruises over Spring Break 2013 and I couldn't believe how highly priced the Dis cruises were. The gap was insane.
For 5 of us, the Disney ship was a little over $8,000... And that was all 5 of us in one room.
On RC on Oasis of the Seas (the MASSIVE new ship), it was $6,700 for TWO ROOMS (one balcony and one interior across the hall), which would give the wife and I plenty of <ahem> privacy.
On the Carnival Dream (their largest ship class), the same two room situation came in at $4000.
All three went to similar ports.
Guess which one I ruled out first??
I know the Disney cruise has a ton of benefits, especially for my 4 year old. But there was no way I could justify literally twice the price for the benefits, especially with the expanded kids areas and programs on other fleets, plus the idea of having two rooms (one with a balcony) I just couldn't overlook.
The premium Disney commands for the product just seems INSANE to me. I felt like I was pricing staying on-site vs. staying off site. Did I want to pay rack rate for a conceirge level room at the GF, or do I want to stay in a very nice suite with twice the space off-site for 50% less?
I just really wonder how much longer before they have to drop their prices. The other lines are quickly catching up on the one area the Disney ships have had a strangle hold on... Programs and space for little ones. The competition is closing the gap.
Sound familiar???
**** EDIT TO ADD **** When I asked the Disney booking agent if they had a second room discount like the other lines, I literally had to EXPLAIN to her what I meant, and then was basically laughed at.
I've spent the last 4 days pricing possible cruises over Spring Break 2013 and I couldn't believe how highly priced the Dis cruises were. The gap was insane.
For 5 of us, the Disney ship was a little over $8,000... And that was all 5 of us in one room.
On RC on Oasis of the Seas (the MASSIVE new ship), it was $6,700 for TWO ROOMS (one balcony and one interior across the hall), which would give the wife and I plenty of <ahem> privacy.
On the Carnival Dream (their largest ship class), the same two room situation came in at $4000.
All three went to similar ports.
Guess which one I ruled out first??
I know the Disney cruise has a ton of benefits, especially for my 4 year old. But there was no way I could justify literally twice the price for the benefits, especially with the expanded kids areas and programs on other fleets, plus the idea of having two rooms (one with a balcony) I just couldn't overlook.
The premium Disney commands for the product just seems INSANE to me. I felt like I was pricing staying on-site vs. staying off site. Did I want to pay rack rate for a conceirge level room at the GF, or do I want to stay in a very nice suite with twice the space off-site for 50% less?
I just really wonder how much longer before they have to drop their prices. The other lines are quickly catching up on the one area the Disney ships have had a strangle hold on... Programs and space for little ones. The competition is closing the gap.
Sound familiar???
**** EDIT TO ADD **** When I asked the Disney booking agent if they had a second room discount like the other lines, I literally had to EXPLAIN to her what I meant, and then was basically laughed at.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
As they should be. I dont agree with anything they say but this site works because Steve allows folk to say their piece, even when its complete bollocks like most of my posts.
I'm sure you're in a great position to make this comment.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
I am, as I will be expressing my dissatisfaction with the product offered by WDW by taking my holiday at another destination.
And yes Im sitting comfortably with excellent posture.
Stick it to 'em.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
Is it a Post It or do I require an adhesive product?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Fantastic! That gave me the first smile of the day. Just think what a funny story that has made for the two of you as you live your life together; so much more interesting and loving than having a boring Ken Doll who says and does everything right all the time.
When you are ready to see Disneyland and SoCal for the first time, you head over to the Disneyland section on this forum and we'll get you pointed in the right direction. You'll love it as a Disney fan, and the boys in the group will especially go crazy over Cars Land.