Hi Lyn
It used to be that
Disney Cruise Line offered a small discount ($25 or $50 depending on the cat stateroom and sail date) for reservations booked within a group. That discount cobined with the fact that group space locked in the lowest tier pricing meant that group space was usually less than booking outside of a group at that time.
DCL has changed that policy and they no longer offer pricing discounts for being in a group, just the ability to lock in the lowest tier pricing possible.
The current $25 SBC DCL offers for online bookings cannot be combined with the group status of a reservation (DCL policy, not ours). So it is very possible that depending on another TAs SBC you could get a price as good as, or even better, than the group price and SBC we are offering for this cruise.
The difference, of course, is in the perks.
Obviously I can't tell you what those perks will be yet for our 2010 cruise, it's just too soon to even think about, but here's what podcast cruisers got last year all for the price of the cruise:
* The current SBC
* A welcome bag with tons of swag and snacks
* A party at Castway Cay complete with drinks and one-on-one character time
* Access to an exclusive seminar presented by the Disney Institute
* Access to an exclusive seminar presented by Lee Cockerell (complete with book and signing)
* Access to an exclusive live taping of the podcast
* A fairwell party complete with drinks
There were many other events given by DISers but this is what
Dreams Unlimited Travel provided for being a part of the group.
I would expect that the next cruise would have similar but not the exact same things.
So for the price of your cruise (a little less that $1100 for 2 people in cat 11 I beleive) you're getting all that extra stuff for being a part of our group.
Dreams Unlimited Travel could have opted to not hold the group space for this sailing and priced all reservations out of 'regular' space. This would have allowed for opportunity for the online booking SBC.
We opted to lock-in the price and secure the space for our listeners.
Now, it turns out that wasn't really necessary as the price of this cruise has not yet increased, but if it does and we still have group space we can at least still offer the lowest tier pricing possible until we run out of group space or DCL take it away.
Lyn, if you don't feel that the 'potential perks' will be worth it and you'd rather have the extra $25 SBC another TA is offering you please just let Tracy know and she will cancel your booking and have DCL refund your money.
Obviously you have to booked through Dreams Unlimited Travel to have access to any of the DIS Unplugged events.
John
