Disney Cruise

Disney Cruise to leave Vancouver in 2012

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The local newspapers in Victoria and Vancouver for April 7, 2011 have both indicated that even though the first cruse ship for Disney , ‘Disney Wonder’ has not started its Alaska 2011 cruises season from Vancouver yet that it will be moving to Seattle for the 2012 Alaska cruise season.

The official Disney company release said beginning May , 2012 that Disney Wonder will begin 14 seven night cruises
from Seattle to Tracy Arm, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan Alaska as well as Victoria ,Canada.
http://www.disneycruisenews.com/ContentDrillDown.aspx?DisplayItem=48f2287a-4446-45ad-bed4-905457bf68cb

It is expected that Vancouver will loose 20 cruise ships visits in 2012 while Victoria will gain 14+ visits in 2012 in this move.
Home port visits benefit by more monies on transportation, hotels, visits, supplies and refueling while day visits still benefit by about a 1 million dollars to the local economy.
The indication is that excluding ship costs for mooring it is the airfare and hotel costs to Vancouver which are an added expense for an American family instead of flying to Seattle direct. As Disney is a prime family enterprise it would want to keep the travel costs down though once onboard those savings for the family, will to my mind , go back to Disney. Try and control the addon sales by your family once at sea for seven days.

Disney has not said why they are doing this nor what they plan for 2013. Economy of scale will tell the full story as their new venture to Alaska market unfolds.
All in all, it is exciting time for Disney and the ports they visit as a lot of forward planning has already been completed with excursion providers. 

Course I do have a bias in welcoming Disney Wonder to Victoria from 2 times in 2011 to 14 or more times in 2012.
Cheers

Local Noise: Alaska Cruise Ships

robbarcruises2 Comments

In reading some of the local news in Vancouver , Victoria , Seattle for 2010 it is evident that these three major cruise hubs are competing with each other for a share of what is a limited number of the major cruise ships per Alaska season.

Below are the links to the three ports used for majority of the Alaska Cruises
http://www.victoriaharbour.org/cruiseinfo.php Victoria, BC Canada about 229 visits this year

http://www.portmetrovancouver.com/about/cruiseandtourism.aspx Vancouver, BC Canada , about 215 visits this year

http://www.portseattle.org/seaport/cruise/ Seattle , Washington USA
Quote: “In 2010 we expect 223 cruise ship visits and an estimated 858,000 passengers”

In gross numbers we are dealing with about 230 – 300+ sailings.
So far , in Victoria we have had about 35 ships in to the port and now we (May 27, 2010) are having the 3 to 4 ships a day about three times a week.
On a weekend, of the 3 – 4 ships, about 3 would dock at 6 -7pm and leave at midnight while the other would dock around 9am and stay till about 11pm.
In 2009 Princess and others decided for 2010 to reposition themselves to use Seattle as a return base instead of Vancouver for a number of reasons, Alaska passenger head tax, economy downturn, less Airfare costs for passengers doing a one way cruise trip. Now majority of trips are return to Seattle allowing the average passenger to be able to have a longer cruise by reduced airfare. Course Princess would like to expand its cruise / tour packages. In this area Vancouver is used as one of its one way voyages to / from Whittier Alaska.
Holland America use both Vancouver and Seattle as bases and Victoria comes out ahead because of the USA Jones Act requiring ships to make one stop in a foreign country.
Smaller ports like Campbell River , Nanaimo in BC are competing to have passengers visit their areas vs. areas in Alaska.
Each visit of a ship is almost a million dollars for the main ports in trade and tourist spending.
With Disney cruise wanting to homeport (Disney Wonder) in summer 2011 in Vancouver we can expect an improvement as Disney is hoping to get a handle on the family market. As they have a unique product it should prove a major change in how the other lines provide services to families.
Another line that wil operate via Vancouver will be Crystal Cruises.