Reports from passengers originally booked to sail on the 4-Night Bahamian Cruise on Disney Dream – Itinerary A on August 24, 2014 are being notified by Disney Cruise Line that the sailing has been canceled as the Disney Dream has been booked for a private charter. Guests previously booked on this sailing are being asked to contact DCL to reschedule. However, reports on this Disboards.com thread from passengers affected by this change seem to indicate Disney Cruise Line will charge the difference for the revised booking by charging the difference in rates as they were at the time of the original booking date.
Below is a copy of the email sent to travel agents who had clients affected by this charter.
We are currently contacting travel agents with clients booked on the August 24, 2014, sailing to let them know that this particular sail date is no longer available as a group has chartered the ship. As such, we wanted to assist you in selecting another available sailing for your clients as soon as possible.
Please contact us by Tuesday, July 16, 2013, at 1-866-325-3905 or 407-566-7032 to learn about all the available options and to modify your client’s booking. We are confident that we have a variety of sailings to meet their needs and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
The Cast and Crew
Disney Cruise Line
The August 24th sailing has already been removed from Disney Cruise Line’s online booking inventory.
This is not the first time, nor will it be the last that a Disney cruise is canceled for a private charter. Recently, Turner Classic Movies, chartered the Disney Magic for their third TCM Classic Cruise.
Disney Vacation Club Member Cruise?
One final thought on this sailing… Could this be the 2014 Disney Vacation Club Members Cruise? Looking at the history of DVC cruises, they typically sail in either September, or October. With the Magic in the Med, the Wonder in Alaska, and the Fantasy on an Eastern, this would make it feasible to add a second stop at Castaway Cay. DVC members, what do you think?
UPDATE
This has been confirmed to be the 2014 Disney Vacation Club Members Cruise.
I can understand the cancellation part of this (although I wouldn’t like it either) but the part about charging you more for the same accommodations and around the same time frame is just ridicules on Disney’s part. They need to fix this problem with the people who were already booked on this cruise.
Sorry but after reading that forum I call BS on Disney’s part. Sorry but forcibly moving the entire sailing to a date 4 months later on a completely different ship from a different port and from a period when everyone is out of school to during school for a supposedly “family oriented” company is not an acceptable solution. Beyond that, not honoring the price that people paid for the same room type is really BS. We all know that Disney is making far more money off the charter than they would the normal sailing.
In 2011, we were on the WBTA from Barcelona. Apparently the last Mediterranean cruise on the Magic before the WBTA was chartered by a Mexican cell phone mogul (Carlos Slim – the richest man in the world from 2010-2013) and he took a bunch of his employees on the cruise. I can only imagine how much that cost, but clearly he could afford it.
I am with you John! That is BS! I LOVE Disney (especially DCL), but if they canceled my vacay because of a “higher bidder”, I’d be fit-to-be-tied!! You can’t do that to people! Our last cruise was booked 14 months in advance. You schedule time off work, book around school, reserve hotels and buy plane tickets! Then to add insult to injury, you are expected to pay a “difference”! That just makes me boil!
I guess even with Disney I need to start reading the fine print. With the cost of airline tickets these days, this type of situation could really make or break a family going on vacation.
I am not taking anyone’s side, but I don’t believe airline tickets can be booked this far in advance. It’s only July 2013, this change is over 1 year in advance in Aug 2014.
I was kicked off that cruise and will never give Disney another dime on their cruise line or at their parks. How dare they kick me off and then charge me hundreds of dollars to sail the previous week.
Jennifer … I completely agree with you. I’ve give his name to a few other people with this issue but you might consider contacting Chris Elliott (chris@elliott.org). Chris is Nat Geo’s travel ombudsman in addition to writing for a number of papers on travel issues (USA Today, Tribune, etc). Not sure if he can help but there’s no hurt in asking…
i believe its def going to be the Member Cruise
I just sailed on the member cruise August 24 it was great. It was not cancelled.
Elizabeth, when DCL first released this sailing it was available for any guest to book. It was canceled as guests who were booked had to change to another cruise when the sailing was changed to a DVC member only cruise.