Is DCL getting - or is it already - complacent?

[71 Truck]

I didn't really expect the focus of the replies to be on perks for repeat cruisers; I can understand why it is but I think that is only part of the bigger picture. I think that DCL needs to consider reviewing the overall cruise package, which is why I had also brought up tips, excursions, alcoholic drinks, specialist coffees, Internet, etc. Other cruise lines either offer special pricing (e.g. Princess offer a 50% discount for a bundle of a drinks package, tips and Internet) while other cruise lines don't want tips (P & O, Viking) and some even include a base excursion with the option to pay for something else (Viking). Ultimately, you do end up paying for those extras (Viking is not cheap) and it will be interesting to review particularly Viking's cruise contract to see how they handle the liability for excursions.

Not that it will matter much, but my wife & I have decided to take a break from cruising with DCL. We had actually made that decision after last year's bad experience but we'd already booked the recent cruises we just finished and didn't really want to miss out on those ports. Now that we've done those, we're going to try out other cruise lines to see if it just the case that we've moved on from what DCL have to offer.

It will be very interesting to see if the launch of the new ship(s) triggers an overhaul of DCL's offerings.

First let me say my wife and I love Disney cruises. We have been on twelve, seven day Disney cruises with another one booked for later this year. For the past few years we have been going two a year.
We have spent a lot of money with Disney. This does not even include that we have been DVC members for over 23 years now and spend a lot of time at Disney because we live 20 minutes away.

One of the thing that irked me last year was when they removed the $200 on board credit if you pre booked while on the ship. While other cruises are running all kinds of promotions to sail with them Disney is taking things away and Disney prices just keep going up.

So for the first time we have booked a 7 day cruise with NCL that is doing the same itinerary as Disney the same week we sail. The cost on NCL was a 60% savings over Disney for the same room category. We did not go for any offers because we want to go on the cheap to evaluate the ship and the crew. If we really enjoy our self's as much on NCL as Disney we will be doing less Disney and more NCL. We had once been on a princess cruise 15 years ago with my parents however they paid because it was for our 15th wedding anniversary.

The cost and the free offers are also the main reason my wife and I booked an Alaska cruise with Princess next year. The free offer is for the Premium drink package with drink tips included, Internet included,and all on board tips included. My wife figured out the cost if we had to pay for the promotion we are getting and it comes to around $1500 dollars. We booked an ocean view room because we know we will be on the upper deck for all the viewing of the glaciers.
The cost of this cruise is about half of what Disney would have cost if we had to spend the extra money on the promotions Princess is offering on Disney. Our cruise with Princess is a little over $3000 dollars and if we did Disney with the add cost we are saving from Princess, Disney would have cost us well over $6000

It will be interesting to see what happen with Disney cruise bookings when the new ships come on line. Every one wants to be on the new ships and most will be Platinum members in the beginning because of the ability to book before everyone else. I think Disney will have a hard time filling the older ships and may have to offer discounts and other offers.
My wife and I have sailed mostly in the off season. On the last four cruises we were on the ships went out noticeably less crowded and we heard on each cruise they were about 400 passengers short of a full ship. So even with the Florida resident rate,Cast member rates,guarantee rates,Canada and military discounts during certain times of the year they can't fill the boat.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

I don't think it's complacency so much as the fact that they know that their target demographic (families with kids) tends have a short window of interest in DCL. By the time the kids are grown, only a few of those families will still sail DCL, regardless of perks. This is something that separates Disney from all the other cruise lines: they offer an intense, unparallelled appeal to families with young kids, but once those kids grow up, that appeal falls off a cliff for the majority. This is true for the parks, too. It explains why Disney can charge so much, avoid loyalty perks, and yet still make profits year after year.

Btw, I'm probably one of the few people on these boards who think the current Castaway Club tiers are fine. If they do change them, I'd definitely want dollars spent to be a factor. We have to cruise during peak season, so we spend about twice as much per cruise as those who can sail off-season, for the very same category of stateroom. So changing to number of days would really make me unhappy, after what I've paid for our cruises over the past five years. Especially considering that many current platinums did most of their cruising back when DCL was a lot cheaper.

 

[tink1970]

while other cruise lines don't want tips (P & O, Viking

I don't want to be pedantic nor derail the topic but correction to the above-Viking, indeed does charge gratuities on their Ocean cruises-$15/pp/day.

 

[MomOTwins]

Just to chime in on the reward system. We are paying more for our upcoming 4-night Dream cruisr this summer for the same family of 5, in a LOWER stateroom category, than we paid for our 7-night cruise on the fantasy last fall. Given how much the price varies, I don’t know if # of nights is a better indicator of our loyalty when it comes to spending our vacation dollars on DCL than # of cruises.

 

[allashore]

One of the questions I was asked on the survey was if 10% obc should be a perk. I didn’t understand what they meant. 10%of what? We have spent 160 days onboard. There are many like us that’s why we need a higher category.

I just completed this survey, it was based on a cruise we took July 2019 to Alaska, we have taken 2 cruises since then, so it will be interesting to see if we get more surveys.
would like 10% obc, based on cost of cruise??? not sure what it meant either.

 

[smmco]

I just completed this survey, it was based on a cruise we took July 2019 to Alaska, we have taken 2 cruises since then, so it will be interesting to see if we get more surveys.
would like 10% obc, based on cost of cruise??? not sure what it meant either.

Yeah, wouldn't that be great it was 10% of the cost of a cruise? Somehow I don't think that's what they meant. That would be too good to be true. Ours was based on our May 2019 Mexican Riviera cruise and we've taken one cruise since then.

 

[o&smom]

I cannot figure out what the 10% would be based off of either.

 

[Sakura1017]

Maybe it's asking if you still want that 10% off the cruise when you book a placeholder?

 

[FigmentSpark]

Yeah, wouldn't that be great it was 10% of the cost of a cruise? Somehow I don't think that's what they meant. That would be too good to be true. Ours was based on our May 2019 Mexican Riviera cruise and we've taken one cruise since then.

It would make sense if they took away the 10% discount on the price of the cruise. That way, you pay full price, but get the 10% as OBC... DCL gets their money and you still get a discount, only the discount doesn't go in your pocket, it goes in theirs.

 

[Tasmen]

It would make sense if they took away the 10% discount on the price of the cruise. That way, you pay full price, but get the 10% as OBC... DCL gets their money and you still get a discount, only the discount doesn't go in your pocket, it goes in theirs.

A 10% OBC would be one heck of an OBC. I cannot imagine them doing that.

 

[lilsonicfan]

A 10% OBC would be one heck of an OBC. I cannot imagine them doing that.

True, but if they gave it as OBC rather than a straight discount, maybe that saves them money in the long run, because people may spend it on drinks, specialty dining, merchandise, all of which doesn't 'cost' DCL as much as perhaps 10% off rack rate does.

 

[LAX]

True, but if they gave it as OBC rather than a straight discount, maybe that saves them money in the long run, because people may spend it on drinks, specialty dining, merchandise, all of which doesn't 'cost' DCL as much as perhaps 10% off rack rate does.

I hope that's not the next round of erosion of loyalty benefits. Unless the OBC is refundable (even as DGC), there is no way I can use close to $1K of OBC (I travel as a family of 5). I would much prefer the 10% off cruise fare.

LAX

 

[PhilipC]

I don't want to be pedantic nor derail the topic but correction to the above-Viking, indeed does charge gratuities on their Ocean cruises-$15/pp/day.

It looks like it might be a UK-only offer. The UK website definitely says gratuities are included but the "Viking Inclusive Value" page for the US website shows different benefits. That said, I haven't compared the US and UK prices so there might be a difference there as well to accommodate those differences.

 

[AngelDisney]

I hope that's not the next round of erosion of loyalty benefits. Unless the OBC is refundable (even as DGC), there is no way I can use close to $1K of OBC (I travel as a family of 5). I would much prefer the 10% off cruise fare.

LAX

Ditto here!

 

[GOOFY D]

I hope that's not the next round of erosion of loyalty benefits. Unless the OBC is refundable (even as DGC), there is no way I can use close to $1K of OBC (I travel as a family of 5). I would much prefer the 10% off cruise fare.

LAX

OBC can be used for tips as well. On a 7 day for 5 people, that would us about half of the OBC at least.

 

[Jsoenning]

It's funny as we were one cruise away from Diamond when RCCL switched the reward program from # sailings to # nights. Those living in Florida taking 3 and 4-night cruises retained Diamond status, meanwhile we had likely sailed many more nights than them. We were lumped into a new Emerald status and took us multiple sailings to get to Diamond.

Disney is no different in that those that live close to the port in Florida can rack up to Platinum much quicker than those of us that have to fly to a port or only have the option of a 7-night cruise.

I like the idea of $-spent as it seems the fairest method. Would reward those paying the extra $$ for the suites. We started with the 1-bedroom suite for our 1st two Disney cruises but when the price more than doubled in one year, we now do balcony with Disney. Those still paying for the suites should have higher perks / Castaway Club status.

 

[Jsoenning]

I also agree that Disney has gotten complacent. Costs have sky-rocketed for the same room, gift shop, food extras, etc. while amenities have been cut.

 

[mom4fun]

The only valuable onboard perk that Platinum’s get is free Palo. I guarantee with the increased number of Platinum’s, that perk is going bye bye. They can’t afford to only have a few paying for an up charge restaurant.

 

[AquaDame]

The only valuable onboard perk that Platinum’s get is free Palo. I guarantee with the increased number of Platinum’s, that perk is going bye bye. They can’t afford to only have a few paying for an up charge restaurant.

We had our first platinum sailing last month and totally forgot to even ask for the room service perk. We also left our stateroom gift. The only benefit we use is priority booking for unique sailings and we did go to Palo for dinner, but I would have been fine without. It wasn't as good as it usually is - hopefully the kitchen was having an off day.

I feel like if we are getting ho hum about the menus and entertainment then I can't even imagine what the CMs feel. Change is good.

 

[cvjw]

Just got the castaway club survey and filled it out. I was pretty harsh with the criticism of the sling bag. We always book 2 cabins, so we get double the bags for 4 people.

I also think they are seriously thinking of revamping the program. I liked the choices for gifts for the different levels. There were some nice potential gifts listed. My favorite potential gift was a meal at Remy for the price of palo.

I was asked the question on the survey about how levels should be assessed. I voted number of nights and then wrote that it isn’t fair for an 8 night cruise to count the same as a 3 night cruise for castaway status.