New Offer: Special savings from ABD on Danube River cruises for 2017.

sayhello · Oct 21, 2016

Here's a special offer on the ABD site for anyone interested in booking a Danube River cruise for next Summer!

https://www.adventuresbydisney.com/special-offers/danube-river-cruise-booking-offer/

Save $500 per person on select stateroom categories for the 2017 summer sailings of Danube River cruises when you book by December 20, 2016!

Special Offer Sailing Dates for Summer 2017
Save $500 per person for trips in select staterooms* on specific dates.

The Special Offer on the Adventures by Disney Danube River Cruise applies to the following dates:

June 21, 2017
June 28, 2017
July 5, 2017
July 12, 2017
July 19, 2017
July 26, 2017
August 2, 2017

*Excludes Suites, Categories AA and AB

Important Details
$500 per person discount is taken from the non-discounted prevailing River Cruise Package price as quoted on the Adventures by Disney site on date of booking ("Regular Rate"). Regular Rates vary by departure date. Offer is not valid for Suites and Categories AA and AB. Lead Guest of the booking party must travel on the Package booked. Valid for new bookings only. Bookings must be made through Adventures by Disney Travel Services, Inc. Discount not applicable towards deposit. Packages subject to availability. Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion. Offer valid for U.S. Residents only. Subject to change without notice. See additional Terms & Conditions.

Sayhello

carpenta · Oct 21, 2016

Thanks Sayhello for the "heads up" but for us we are all booked up for 2017.

CaliforniaGirl09 · Oct 22, 2016

Wonder if this means they aren't selling very well? That's a pretty hefty discount, although dynamic pricing might be the culprit. Not sure what opening day prices were.

sayhello · Oct 22, 2016

CaliforniaGirl09 said:
Wonder if this means they aren't selling very well? That's a pretty hefty discount, although dynamic pricing might be the culprit. Not sure what opening day prices were.

It would tend to make me think yes, they aren't selling well, because the discount is actually on every summer departure listed on the ABD website. Only the Holiday sailings aren't discounted. I'm not sure what opening day prices were, either. Maybe adding the Rhine cruises also was too much?

Sayhello

CaliforniaGirl09 · Oct 23, 2016

sayhello said:
It would tend to make me think yes, they aren't selling well, because the discount is actually on every summer departure listed on the ABD website. Only the Holiday sailings aren't discounted. I'm not sure what opening day prices were, either. Maybe adding the Rhine cruises also was too much?

Sayhello

That's exactly the same thought I had.

Raya · Oct 24, 2016

FYI: I called this morning and they were willing to apply the discount to my existing reservation (that has a complicated backstory). :banana:

Now, how much should I worry that our cruise gets canceled/moved?

luckylady131 · Oct 26, 2016

I really want to book this river cruise. And probably will in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it wouldn't get cancelled.

If disney wants to enter the European market more (which they are trying to do), they need to advertise a lot more here in Europe. I tell people I've been on a disney cruise and then have to explain what disney is! Or they assume we flew to Florida to go on it.

sayhello · Oct 26, 2016

luckylady131 said:
I really want to book this river cruise. And probably will in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it wouldn't get cancelled.

If disney wants to enter the European market more (which they are trying to do), they need to advertise a lot more here in Europe. I tell people I've been on a disney cruise and then have to explain what disney is! Or they assume we flew to Florida to go on it.

Are they interested in entering the European market? I've never particularly gotten the impression from them that they were interested in that...

Sayhello

luckylady131 · Oct 26, 2016

sayhello said:
Are they interested in entering the European market? I've never particularly gotten the impression from them that they were interested in that...

Sayhello

Is that not what these new european river cruises on the Danube and Rhine are doing? Or the special Europe Christmas market river cruises? Or the increased number of ABDs in Europe, Asia, and Africa? Or the new DSL cruises sailing to the Norwegian Fjords, Northern Europe, British Isles and the Mediterranean? Where these always available before?

It's great if Americans have the $$$ to be able to book these as well as spend the time and money on airfare to get over here. But at the same time, I think if Disney doesn't want to have to cancel river cruise ABDs because there aren't enough people signed up...then perhaps they aren't marketing enough to people who actually live over here.

When I say disney to people over here, all they think of is Disney Paris, which they don't tend to like, and disney World. If I'm talking Disney cruises...again, they assume you have to sail out of Florida, which puts the same damper as before about having enough time and money for airfare as well as the actual vacation. They tend to be shocked that I sailed out of Copenhagen for my disney cruise. Had no idea that disney even did cruises in Europe, of any kind.

sayhello · Oct 26, 2016

luckylady131 said:
Is that not what these new european river cruises on the Danube and Rhine are doing? Or the special Europe Christmas market river cruises? Or the increased number of ABDs in Europe, Asia, and Africa? Or the new DSL cruises sailing to the Norwegian Fjords, Northern Europe, British Isles and the Mediterranean? Where these always available before?

It's great if Americans have the $$$ to be able to book these as well as spend the time and money on airfare to get over here. But at the same time, I think if Disney doesn't want to have to cancel river cruise ABDs because there aren't enough people signed up...then perhaps they aren't marketing enough to people who actually live over here.

When I say disney to people over here, all they think of is Disney Paris, which they don't tend to like, and disney World. If I'm talking Disney cruises...again, they assume you have to sail out of Florida, which puts the same damper as before about having enough time and money for airfare as well as the actual vacation. They tend to be shocked that I sailed out of Copenhagen for my disney cruise. Had no idea that disney even did cruises in Europe, of any kind.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that ABD *are* marketing these trips to Americans, who want to travel to Europe with their families, but don't want to, or don't feel like they can, arrange such trips on their own. They've been doing European trips since they started in 2006 or 2007. They just keep expanding to new destinations. European River cruising is very popular in the United States right now, so they are trying to get their piece of that market, especially since not a lot of river cruise lines cater to families. I really don't think their target market is Europeans. There's a reason why the Magic is only in Europe for the summer months, then goes back to it's home in the US. Any special marketing or offers they have are only good for US residents (which is not very fair for our Canadian friends.) They've never really aimed either DCL or ABD towards Europeans.

When DCL European cruises are undersold (usually on the shoulder season) I've never heard of them offering discounts to local Europeans to try to fill the ships. Maybe they should, but they don't. It's just not their demographic. Same thing for ABD.

Again, I could be wrong, but it just doesn't seem ABD is interested in marketing to Europeans.

Sayhello

Cousin Orville · Oct 26, 2016

luckylady131 said:
When I say disney to people over here, all they think of is Disney Paris, which they don't tend to like, and disney World. If I'm talking Disney cruises...again, they assume you have to sail out of Florida, which puts the same damper as before about having enough time and money for airfare as well as the actual vacation. They tend to be shocked that I sailed out of Copenhagen for my disney cruise. Had no idea that disney even did cruises in Europe, of any kind.

Disney doesn't really market ABD or their river cruises much here in the US either. I don't think I've ever met anyone in my day to day life that was familiar with ABD or even DCL European trips. First and foremost they must attract English speaking guests. While it seems many/most Europeans speak English, maybe ABD feels it would be unwise to target their marketing there and accidentally encourage a non-English speaking guest onto the Adventure.

As far as the Disney Cruises. I've taken several in Europe and the ones out of Barcelona have had many Spanish guests. I would guess a couple hundred. So maybe there is targeted marketing in the port areas. Granted I sailed out of Copenhagen too, and I'm not sure if there were the same number of N. Europeans on that cruise. We were on the 9 Night Norway cruise btw. Absolutely spectacular.

luckylady131 · Oct 27, 2016

Well, too bad for them (Disney), although I know they aren't hurting for money. Europeans have more vacation time than Americans, and are very willing to take vacations to other places. And so far, of the 11 countries I've been to during the last year here...everyone has spoken English to a good degree.

But disney has a work practice that worked for them.

tgeorge · Oct 27, 2016

I agree with their lack of advertising here in the US. I know about DCL because I'm somewhat of a cruise-a-holic (if that is even a word)

, so I'm familiar with many cruise lines. DCL, btw, is my favorite. I actually found out about ABD when I was looking into buying a DVC. I'm not sure I would have ever heard of it otherwise.

It does baffle me that they don't advertise it more,but I'm sure the Mouse has some rationale.

sayhello · Oct 27, 2016

luckylady131 said:
Well, too bad for them (Disney), although I know they aren't hurting for money. Europeans have more vacation time than Americans, and are very willing to take vacations to other places. And so far, of the 11 countries I've been to during the last year here...everyone has spoken English to a good degree.

But disney has a work practice that worked for them.

Oh, I totally agree with you that they are missing out on a huge customer base. I'm just saying it's probably not an oversight, but a deliberate choice.

Sayhello

carpenta · Oct 27, 2016

In my opinion "Jack of all trades yet master of none". Disney is too diversified and some aspects get ignored.

Cousin Orville · Oct 27, 2016

I don't know how Disney's marketing department works, but I'm guessing Parks & Resorts prefers to push WDW and Caribbean cruises over something so tiny as ABD. It may boil down to what their perceived return on investment is.
My guess is ABD is something Disney is very proud of, but isn't very concerned with what type of profit it actually makes compared to the rest of Parks & Resorts.

AquamarineSteph · Oct 27, 2016

I was told that Disney is licensed to sell tours in the United States which go overseas, but they are not licensed to sell tours in other countries, even if the tour takes place in those countries. I could have been misinformed, of course, but I was given to understand that it has to do with the legal issues regarding the point of sale for tours and licensing to do so.

sayhello · Oct 28, 2016

AquamarineSteph said:
I was told that Disney is licensed to sell tours in the United States which go overseas, but they are not licensed to sell tours in other countries, even if the tour takes place in those countries. I could have been misinformed, of course, but I was given to understand that it has to do with the legal issues regarding the point of sale for tours and licensing to do so.

That sounds totally plausible to me!

Sayhello

RSM · Oct 29, 2016

We have been on a couple of tours in Europe with operators that market globally. From a customer experience perspective, having a more globally diverse group significantly added to the tour. Our group (~46) was approximately 50% US and 50% rest of world (Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa being predominant). We have loved our ABD's, but in terms of group dynamics, I think having a more geographically diverse group would enhance the experience.

New Offer: Special savings from ABD on Danube River cruises for 2017.

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