Tag Archives: disney wonder

Disney Cruise Line to return to  New York and Galveston in 2016

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Disney Dream enters New York.

Disney Cruise Line is to return to the US ports of New York and Galveston, and offer new seven-night cruises from PortMiami to the Caribbean in 2016.

Departing from New York on 2 October, Disney Magic will sail a five-night cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Saint John, New Brunswick in Canada. The ship will then return to New York to offer an eight-night Bahamas cruise on 7 October, which will include calls at Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay; Nassau, Bahamas; and Port Canaveral, Florida.

On 15, 22 and 29 October, Disney Magic will offer seven-night voyages from New York to Castaway Cay and Port Canaveral. Each guest will receive a one-day Walt Disney World Park Hopper ticket and roundtrip transportation between the ship and Walt Disney World Resort when the ship calls at Port Canaveral.

Disney Magic will then offer the line’s first season of seven-night cruises from Miami to the Caribbean in November and December.

On 20 November and 4 December, the ship will sail from Miami to destinations in the Western Caribbean including Key West in Florida, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Castaway Cay. Meanwhile, on 27 November and 11 December, she will offer sailings to Tortola, St. Thomas and Castaway Cay in the Eastern Caribbean. On 23 December, Disney Magic will sail to Tortola, San Juan in Puerto Rico and Castaway Cay.

Additional Miami sailings include a four-night Bahamas cruise departing on 16 November, a five-night Bahamas cruise departing on 18 December and a six-night Western Caribbean cruise departing on 30 December. Each sailing will include call at Castaway Cay.

Meanwhile, Disney Wonder will return to Galveston in Texas to offer a series of seven-night itineraries to destinations in the Bahamas, Mexico and the Caribbean. These include Key West, Castaway Cay, Nassau, Falmouth, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Costa Maya. The ship will also offer two four-night roundtrips from Galveston to Cozumel on 10 and 14 November.

The Disney distinction

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The Christening of the Disney Dream

Walt Disney Co. and its cruise line are on a roll.

The entertainment and media giant reported earnings rose 10% for the second quarter of this year with the fastest growth at its Parks and Resorts unit (which includes Disney Cruise Line), where operating income grew 24%.

What is Disney doing right?

First and most directly, it is raising prices. Disney said its earnings growth at parks and resorts was “primarily due to increases in average ticket prices at our theme parks and cruise line,” along with more spending on food and merchandise and higher average hotel rates.

Single-day tickets at Walt Disney World in Orlando cracked the $100 barrier last year.  And Disney Cruise Line prices are generally much higher than competitors on similar routes.

Tom Stieghorst
Tom Stieghorst

A random comparison shows a balcony cabin on a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise departing Port Canaveral on Dec. 5 listed at $1,814 per person on Disney’s website and $912.50 on Carnival Cruise Line’s site.

Several things that underlie Disney’s pricing power are qualities that other cruise lines are also trying to achieve.

One is brand strength.  On a 2014 ranking compiled by Interbrand, a unit of ad giant Omnicom, Disney held the 13th strongest global brand, just behind Intel and just ahead of Cisco Systems. Interbrand said Disney’s power as a brand stems from its “use of technology and data to understand what customers want and personalize their experiences.”

A second pillar of pricing power is capacity control.  Disney has resisted the temptation to expand its fleet of four ships, the last of which was delivered three years ago. Unlike many lines, Disney has no ships on order.  That helps keep supply scarce and drives demand.

But that doesn’t mean Disney gets stale. It frequently upgrades the experience, especially with new entertainment including shows from hit movies like Frozen and Tangled.

And Disney has a pipeline to first-time cruisers through its theme parks, where much of the programming on a Disney ship can be experienced.  Disney cruise customers know what they’re getting even if they’ve never been on a cruise ship before.Of course, we don’t know exactly how Disney’s higher pricing translates into profits, as those vital numbers are buried in the results of the overall parks and resorts division.
My guess is that Disney Cruise Line makes a solid contribution.

Cruise lines cancel Puerto Vallarta port calls

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Civil unrest and violence around Puerto Vallarta led to cruise lines canceling ship calls there.

The Celebrity Infinity bypassed the Mexican port on May 10 for a day at sea, spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said. On May 12, Royal Caribbean International’s Jewel of the Seas will substitute a sea day for Puerto Vallarta.

In a statement, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (parent of Celebrity and Royal Caribbean) said the decisions were made “due to the recent episodes of violent civil unrest, stemming from criminal gangs that have engaged in armed conflict with local authorities.”

Disney Cruise Line distributed a letter to passengers on a 14-day Panama Canal cruise aboard the Disney Wonder explaining that the May 12 port call was being canceled, citing “several reports of unrest in the area around Puerto Vallarta.”

Disney said taxes, fees and port expenses associated with the visit would be refunded to the original source of payment used by the passenger to book the cruise.

The Carnival Miracle will continue with its scheduled May 12 stop, but some shore excursions have been canceled, a spokesman said.

The U.S. State Department issued an updated travel warning for Mexico on May 5 detailing the “risk of traveling to certain places in Mexico due to threats to safety and security posed by organized criminal groups in the country.”