Getting outpriced, am I the only one?

[mevelandry]

I certainly wouldn't count on any of that happening, and not worth lower cruise prices if it did.
I'd rather have a strong economy even if means I can't afford DCL. I have bigger things to worry about than taking DCL cruises....like maybe retiring someday.

I agree. I may not live in the US but I have seen documentaries about the 2008 crash and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. (Not that the comment about the crash implied that... I'm just saying.)

 

[cyclenut]

If you can sail during non-peak times, book when the fares are released, and have an onboard placeholder to transfer, it becomes quite reasonable. We used to sail during the school year, but now that DS is in middle school, that's just too much school to miss. Now we have bitten the bullet and used our onboard booking for a summer time cruise in 2019. It's definitely not cheap, but we figure there's only a limited amount of time to sail with DS when he is still a child.

I agree with most of what you said, but I would modify it slightly. If you job and family situation allows for it and you can sail off-peak, use an onboard booking credit and your schedule is predictable enough that you can book early, then the fares are *more* reasonable. I don't think I'd ever say they are *quite* reasonable. Especially when you compare to other cruise lines that, even with all those accommodations to make Disney more more reasonable, are still much lower when compared to the same dates and itinerary.

Wife and I still sail Disney and will again in a couple of weeks. We booked on opening day and applied discounts offered by Disney. The ship sold fast due to the special itinerary (West Bound Panama Canal) and prices climbed rapidly. When we compared our final price to that of other lines sailing the Panama Canal, we found Disney prices very competitive, but that cruise is still expensive.

I looked at some 2019 itineraries we were interested in for opening day booking for Gold. Prices were almost double similar sailings.

When we sailed on Disney out of Galveston the price for that cruise was almost double that of the Carnival Breeze just a few months earlier. Both with 7 day itineraries, but different destinations.

You can make Disney prices seem reasonable, but when compared to other lines, they are quite expensive.

 

[cruiser21]

I agree. I may not live in the US but I have seen documentary about the 2008 crash and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. (Not that the comment about the crash implied that... I'm just saying.)

Agreed. It took about 7 years for our house to rebound, to start getting raises again and our 401k to recover. So many of our co-workers, friends and family lost their jobs and houses. Those discounts at WDW in 2009-2013 were awesome. It's why we got hooked on Disney. Although we both have recession proof jobs if I would have known at the time we would go 7 years without raises I'm sure I would have looked at those discounts differently. We've still been able to take a lot of DCL cruises, but the price increases have really caught up with us the last two years.