Disney Cruise Line Announces First-Ever Southern Caribbean Cruises on the Disney Wonder

CELEBRATION, Fla. (Aug. 5, 2005) – Disney Cruise Line announced today that its Disney Wonder cruise ship will embark on two special 10- and 11-night cruises to the Southern Caribbean, September 2006. This marks the first time Disney has offered cruises longer than three- or four-nights aboard the Disney Wonder.

The Southern Caribbean itinerary includes exotic ports such as St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and St. Kitts. Barbados and St. Kitts are new ports of call for Disney Cruise Line. The 10-night cruise will depart on Sept. 7, and the 11-night cruise departs on Sept. 17, 2006.

“We have found that once our guests experience a Disney cruise, they are eager to return again for a new adventure to different ports of call,” said Disney Cruise Line President Tom McAlpin. “These special, longer cruises were designed with our repeat guests in mind.”

The itineraries for the Disney Cruise Line 2006 Southern Caribbean Cruises are as follows:

Disney Wonder Southern Caribbean Cruises

Departing Sept. 7, 2006
Thursday. . . Port Canaveral
Friday . . . At Sea
Saturday. . . At Sea
Sunday. . . St. Thomas
Monday. . . St. Lucia
Tuesday. . . Barbados
Wednesday. . . Antigua
Thursday. . . At Sea
Friday. . . At Sea
Saturday. . . Castaway Cay
Sunday. . . Port Canaveral

Departing Sept. 17, 2006
Sunday. . . Port Canaveral
Monday. . . At Sea
Tuesday. . . At Sea
Wednesday. . . St. Thomas
Thursday. . . St. Lucia
Friday. . . Barbados
Saturday. . . Antigua
Sunday. . . St. Kitts
Monday. . . At Sea
Tuesday. . . At Sea
Wednesday. . . Castaway Cay
Thursday. . . Port Canaveral

Rates for the 10-night Southern Caribbean cruise start at $1,299 per person and the 11-night voyages begin at $1,499 per person.

Voyages to the Southern Caribbean add to an already diverse 2006 schedule of sailings. Starting May 27 and departing every fourth week through Dec. 9, 2006, Disney Cruise Line will offer alternate Western Caribbean cruises aboard the Disney Magic that includes two stops at Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay, coupled with a new port of call, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.

To learn more about Disney Cruise Line or to book a vacation, guests can contact their travel agent, visit www.disneycruise.com or call Disney Cruise Line at (888) DCL-2500. Travel agents can call Disney Cruise Line at (888) 325-2500 or visit www.disneytravelagents.com.

Now I just need $1,300 and two weeks off and I'm there :)

How cool would this be! But for my family of 5 the price would be as much as the West Coast cruises huh? Which for our family it was $9k, (so I passed and we went to London & we are going to Disneyworld in a few weeks with that $$$...$9k goes a long way).

I'd need a catagory 6 or less to fit us all I am sure. I may price it out. I want to go this Spring before the summer, but the first sailing is ideal in May.

Anyone going, or thinking about it??? I like this island combo A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!

How cool would this be! But for my family of 5 the price would be as much as the West Coast cruises huh? Which for our family it was $9k, (so I passed and we went to London & we are going to Disneyworld in a few weeks with that $$$...$9k goes a long way).

I'd need a catagory 6 or less to fit us all I am sure. I may price it out. I want to go this Spring before the summer, but the first sailing is ideal in May.

Anyone going, or thinking about it??? I like this island combo A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!

Unless you get two staterooms, there's the family stateroom that sleeps five (V-E-R-Y) cozily. That's category 4, and for the weeklong cruise to Mexico, it cost over $9K before the onship spending (ouch).

So, I gotta bite and ask this question...You have a family of 5 (as do I), but you went to London *and* WDW (staying at the Floridian??). How did you do that? My family can spend $9K on a week at the World without a blink, factoring flights, lodging, etc. London is *definitely* on my soon-to-visit-again radar....

My family of 4 plus my MIL is going to London next spring. We are renting a 3 bedroom house for a week for 1800 dollars. Much cheaper than 2 hotel rooms for 7 nights in Central London but still a lot. We plan to cook many of our meals, another big saver as eating out is super expensive there. Airfare is going to be about 3000, so we're up to 5K without food or entertainment yet. Eeeek. A Disney cruise would be less... but London is my favorite city in the world and I really want to take the kids.

Disneyworld next week came out to be a bargain...not sure how but we booked through AAA and Grand Floridian came out to $275 a night (3 nights), then Southwest Airlines is what we are flying & we got 3 day park hopper passes too. So far we have spent $3k & plan on another $1000 for food & stuff while we are there. 4 days and 3 nights.

London was just my hubby & I. We stayed 4 nights at Royal Horseguards Hotel on Whitehall St (A Thistle Hotel on the Thames) and flew first class (with American Express points to upgrade our ticket). I think total we spent $4800 with food, transfers from Gatwick, tours (did 3 tours), shopping, airline tickets & hotel. Hotel was a bargain of $180 a night off season (end of May).

It made sense to spend the $9k on these 2 trips....instead of the Mexico cruise. ;)

My family of 4 plus my MIL is going to London next spring. We are renting a 3 bedroom house for a week for 1800 dollars. Much cheaper than 2 hotel rooms for 7 nights in Central London but still a lot. We plan to cook many of our meals, another big saver as eating out is super expensive there. Airfare is going to be about 3000, so we're up to 5K without food or entertainment yet. Eeeek. A Disney cruise would be less... but London is my favorite city in the world and I really want to take the kids.

Years ago, I went to the UK solo and did a house swap with a family who lived outside London. I rented a car at Heathrow so that I could go see/do more than just London (and I didn't drive into town either!). The family's home was lovely, 3 bedrooms, nice back garden, and within an easy walk to the train (which is how I got into London itself). The family was coming to California to attend a wedding near Stanford University, and my house in Mountain View was close to Stanford as well as the train station, so it was easy to get to San Francisco. THAT was an ideal arrangement.

I was able to cook quite a lot of my meals on that trip, and I thought that going to the grocery store was an adventure. Because the small town I was staying in is not a tourist destination, the locals were welcoming and assumed I must be someone's American cousin.

Every so often, I get the itch to go back to England, and I feel it starting up. This time, though, I think I want to perhaps figure out how to take the train through the chunnel to Paris and go to DLP too. :D

Disneyworld next week came out to be a bargain...not sure how but we booked through AAA and Grand Floridian came out to $275 a night (3 nights), then Southwest Airlines is what we are flying & we got 3 day park hopper passes too. So far we have spent $3k & plan on another $1000 for food & stuff while we are there. 4 days and 3 nights.

London was just my hubby & I. We stayed 4 nights at Royal Horseguards Hotel on Whitehall St (A Thistle Hotel on the Thames) and flew first class (with American Express points to upgrade our ticket). I think total we spent $4800 with food, transfers from Gatwick, tours (did 3 tours), shopping, airline tickets & hotel. Hotel was a bargain of $180 a night off season (end of May).

It made sense to spend the $9k on these 2 trips....instead of the Mexico cruise. ;)

Oh, I wasn't questioning your decisions on how to spend the money--no, no, I was curious as to how it could be accomplished to do both things!

It would change the costs significantly to have the entire family going to England (at least for us). And I didn't factor time at WDW less than a week. For us, a trip that far away needs to be a week, I think. But that drives up the cost as well. Thanks for the info!! :)

Oh, no worries :) I knew you were not questioning, just curious. I am a bargain traveler.....I try to make my dollar stretch. That is why I am looking for a Disney Cruise for the 5 of us that is CHEAP.....no worries at all...just thought I'd explain. But yes, London was my hubby & I, Disneyworld is the 5 of us. You can see some pictures in my photo album (below). I am all about AAA discounts and using American Express points.........I wish Disney (and the cruiseline) had a partnership with American Express again :rolleyes:

Oh, no worries :) I knew you were not questioning, just curious. I am a bargain traveler.....I try to make my dollar stretch. That is why I am looking for a Disney Cruise for the 5 of us that is CHEAP.....no worries at all...just thought I'd explain. But yes, London was my hubby & I, Disneyworld is the 5 of us. You can see some pictures in my photo album (below). I am all about AAA discounts and using American Express points.........I wish Disney (and the cruiseline) had a partnership with American Express again :rolleyes:

LOL! I try to make the dollars stretch too, but it just seems like it's a challenge to stretch them to cover so many people. :p

We're selective, too, about what we'll splurge on. When we've gone to WDW, it's been a splurge because it's such a rarity. The first time, we lucked out because it was back in the dot.com bubble and my hubby got a bonus that covered the entire week at the Polynesian on the Grand Plan. Hoo hoo! That was choice.

Last time, we budgeted more, shopped around, but still spent on some extras like the Pirate Cruise for the kids one morning and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. All money well spent. The biggest bummer of that trip was not being able to get flights on miles, so we had to pay (and *that* wasn't cheap)!

Likewise, we've never gone on any cruise before and our thinking was that it would end up costing us more if we went to Florida to take a cruise because in addition to the cruise cost, there's no way we could go to Florida and not go to WDW....so it would just be that much more expensive! So, when DCL announced West Coast cruises, it just seemed *right,* ya know?

We booked the category 4 stateroom, and a couple months out, I was checking to see if that stateroom might be available for cheaper (due to people bailing on their reservations), I found a one-bedroom stateroom, category 3, for $3K more. I was *so* torn. Twice the floor space. Concierge service. All that extra money in cost when we'd stretched the budget already! So, we were 'practical' and kept the category 4 stateroom.

In retrospect, I wish we'd gone for the category 3 room, and know, that for a future cruise, I won't go unless I have that level of stateroom. Despite the fact that Disney staterooms are larger than the competition, living in that much (or little, depending on your view) space was not fun for us, and we ended up being pretty grouchy. And *that* was not choice.

So, on the other end of the spectrum, we go to DL on the cheap. It's 'our' park (OK, it's 400 miles away, but we still go pretty often), and I can't wrap my head around spending the kind of money it costs to stay at a Disney property. We stay at a nice, but cheap, place on Harbor that's become our home away from home.