2012 Cruises Sail from New Ports
In July, my husband and I are taking our first Caribbean cruise together out of New York on Princess Cruise Line’s Caribbean Princess ship. As New Yorkers (and Disney fans), we were excited to hear that Disney Cruise Line will add New York as a port of call on two new cruise itineraries beginning in 2012.
Disney Sails from New York, image from Disneycruise.disney.go.com
Disney’s first two cruise ships: Disney Magic, which launched in 1998, and sister ship Disney Wonder, which launched in 1999, are highly ranked on Cruise Critic’s Cruisers’ Choice Poll, earning a 4.6 and a 4.5 Overall ranking, respectively, and ranking especially highly in Entertainment (3rd & 4th overall) and Family & Children rankings for Kids Ages 10-12 (3rd & 6th overall), Kids Ages 13-15 (1st & 4th overall), and Kids Ages 16+ (2nd & 5th overall). And with two new Disney ships on the way: Disney Dream, which had its maiden voyage on January 26, 2011, and Disney Fantasy, which is set to launch in March, 2012, Disney Magic and Disney Wonder will soon debut at brand new ports of call.
The recently announced itineraries include an eight-day Bahamas cruise and a five-day Canada cruise out of New York, a seven-night Western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, and a seven-night Alaska cruise out of Seattle. Below are the new Disney itineraries and how they compare to the 2012 itineraries of other popular cruise lines out of the same embarkation ports.
Disney Cruise Line, image from Disneycruise.disney.go.com
Disney Magic |
Norwegian Gem Norwegian Jewel Norwegian Pearl |
Explorer of the Seas |
May-August |
January-December |
March |
Disney Port of Call, Disneycruise.disney.go.com
Disney Magic |
Caribbean Princess |
Norwegian Gem |
June-September |
September-October |
March |
Disney Port of Call, image from Disneycruise.disney.go.com
Disney Magic |
Carnival Magic |
Mariner of the Seas |
September-December |
January-December |
January-April |
Disney Port of Call, image from Disneycruise.disney.go.com
Disney Wonder |
Carnival Spirit |
Golden Princess |
May-August |
May-September |
May-September |
For help planning your next Disney cruise, visit the official Disney Cruise Line website. For reviews and information on hundreds of cruise ships and itineraries, visit Cruise Critic.
Hi Lesser Panda,
There is a new entry that just went up that includes port of call times for the new itineraries, and you can see the post here: http://disney-blog.com/?p=1278
The Alaska ports of call times are really stingy for the most part, but the other itinerary times are pretty generous, especially the Bahamas cruise out of New York.
Can you add port of call times? For example DCL port calls for alaska is shorter compared to other cruise lines. Like Juneau for example, DCL only stops there from 7:45AM to 12:30PM, a mere 4 hours and 45 minutes. The DCL stop at Ketchikan is even shorter.
Hi Rosemary,
If you’re looking for deals on cruises, I’d really recommend signing up for Cruisecritic.com’s email list (http://cruisecritic.com). Cruise Critic is a really excellent resource for planning cruises and for finding deals on different cruise lines, and if you sign up with them (it’s free), they’ll email you once a week with current offers from various cruise lines. Cruisedeals.com, Kayak.com, Priceline.com, and Hotwire.com are also great resources for discounts.
Unfortunately, Disney Cruise Lines tends to be more expensive than some of the other lines such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Lines, so you may want to consider those lines as well. Shorter itineraries (3-5 days) are usually cheaper than week long cruises, and there are also “cruises to nowhere” that last only a day or two and give you the experience of being on a cruise ship without taking you to any ports of call. Cruising in the off-season, usually the winter and fall, is cheaper than cruising in the spring and summertime, and it’s a good idea to avoid holidays.
Good luck finding an affordable cruise for you and your nephew!
WANT TO TAKE MY NEPHEW, WHO IS A COLLEGE STUDENT, ON A DISNEY CRUISE OUT FROM NY….LET ME KNOW WHEN IT THE CHEAPEST TIME I CAN DO THIS AND PLEASE INCLUDE WEEKEND CRUISES AS WELL AS THE ONE WEEK CRUISES…I ALWAYS PROMISED HIM…WANT TO SURPRISE HIM, BUT THE COST IS SO MUCH, PLEASE HELP ME OUT…THANK YOU ROSEMARY