Disney Cruise Line - Australia

[calisota]

Unfortunately I think it'll be mostly Australian

That may come as a shock to crew who are used to getting tipped.


Greg

[KeithS]

Well, I was interested in trying to book the Sydney - Hawaii cruise in 2024, however it has already sold out! Nearly all the staterooms were gone with just the Platinum member bookings and this evening, the remainder of the rooms were snapped up by the Gold members. So us silver members never had a chance. I guess I'll keep an eye open tomorrow in case some rooms come available - that does happen when booking holds come off, but it shows quite a demand for these Australian cruises and I'd like to think Disney Cruise Line will expand their offerings in Australia in future years.

[ajp]

I agree Keith. We considered making a booking and also were prioritising the Sydney Hawaii repo. But whilst it’s disappointing, I’m hoping Disney get enough out of this experiment to warrant a more ongoing schedule of seasons in coming years.

[ajp]

Just had a look at the status of the Australian cruises, and many of the stateroom categories are sold out. Even Concierge on the 6 day out of Sydney is sold out, despite the crazy ridiculous price.

[KeithS]

Yep, I think this DCL Australia experiment has been a resounding success for them. It’ll have them thinking long and hard about future cruises from Australia. I hope they look to expand the itinerary. It would be good to have more ports in the cruises.

[Lauren05]

I was luckily working from home yesterday so started refreshing the page just before midnight ET (2pm bris time) waiting for held cabins to release. I got caught up with work and randomly looked again just before 2:30pm and Honolulu to Sydney appeared. With shaking hands I was luckily able to book an inside cabin. So happy! This will be cruise 5 then I have 2 of the Brisbane ones booked for December.
Sadly didn’t make it onto the club cruise for Feb 24 as I was waiting for HNL. Honestly quite surprised with how fast all of the Oz cruises booked out.

[KeithS]

That's so awesome Lauren. Yes, I was doing the same thing - refreshing all the time for the Syd-HNL cruise. I did see some balconies pop up for a minute, but by the time I clicked on them, they had gone. You have to be really quick and I hesitated while looking at the cabin numbers - so if it happens again, I know now just to add to cart without thinking LOL.

[Lauren05]

I had to pick 3 cabins before it let me proceed to payment. Then I had to sign in again so was stressing it would disappear on me.
Definitely have to move quickly though.
The FB group for the HNL-SYD surprisingly has a few first time cruisers so they were pretty lucky to get a cabin. There’s also a couple that will have done 35 Disney cruises by the time this one comes around

[KeithS]

So here is some news that is not unexpected.

The Disney Wonder will return to Australia for the 2024-25 cruising season.

The Port Authority of NSW has updated its spreadsheet of cruise ship arrivals and the Disney Wonder arrives in Sydney on 18 Oct 2024 and makes its final departure on 10 Feb 2025.

No official word from Disney yet, but when they release their schedules in the second half of this year, expect to see Australia on the list again.

[DisneyKaren]

Good to know, at least I have another chance if I want to brave the choppy seas for the excitement of a Disney cruise. I was so excited last time but chickened out!

[ajp]

We're contemplating booking the Hawaii-Sydney cruise, but seriously can't move past the pricing yet.

[KeithS]

The Disney Wonder is returning to Australia for the 2025-26 season. The NSW Port Authority shows it arriving on 17 Oct 2025 and departing on 2 Feb 2026. I was hoping that it wouldn't be the Wonder in 2025-26, I thought maybe the Fantasy would be coming here once it is released from the 7-Night Caribbean cruises with the introduction of the Treasure, but it looks like it'll just be the Wonder again for that season.