The Real Value of Disney Cruise Line’s Romantic Escape Package
Disney Cruise Line offers several different add on packages to their cruises. One that has been around for quite some time is the Romantic Escape, formerly the Romance at Sea, package. Currently, this package can be added to any 3-, 4-, or 7-night cruise at a cost of $359.
So what do you get for your money?
At first look, the package includes:
- Romantic gift amenity delivered to your stateroom (one per package)
- Tropical Rain Forest pass for two at the Vista Spa & Salon (length of cruise)
- Priority seating at Palo (one night)
- Bottle of wine from the Premium Wine list (one night)
- Romance turndown service (one night)
- Champagne breakfast in bed (one morning)
Now, if we were to try to put a price on each component, it might look something like this
- Romantic gift amenity: $50
- Tropical Rain Forest pass: $30/day ($15 x 2 /day or 3n=$60, 4n=$90, 7n=$180 if used every full day)
- Priority Seating at Palo: $30 ($15 x 2)
- Bottle of wine from Premium Wine List: $50
- Champagne + hot breakfast in bed: $10 (2 x $5 glasses of champagne)
So, the total value for a 3 night cruise would be around $200, for a 4 night cruise around $230, and for a 7 night cruise around $320.
But there is a hidden value that to some, is worth the total package price itself, regardless of what benefits are already included. That hidden value is the ability to book your Palo dining, shore excursions, and spa treatments 105 days prior to your cruise, just like those guests paying thousands of dollars more to stay in a suite! That’s right, by purchasing the Romantic Escape package you have the option of paying for your cruise in full at least 106 days prior to departure and then on that 105th day prior to your cruise departure, you can log in and pick whatever shore excursions, spa treatments, Palo Brunch reservations, Palo High Tea Reservations and Palo dinner reservations you would like!
Now for some and maybe most people, planning to the nth degree is not the way they approach their vacations. Then there are folks like me that have our days planned out six months in advance. I know exactly what days I want to enjoy dinner, brunch, and tea at Palo (on 7 night cruises), what days I want certain spa appointments, and what days we want what shore excursions. I recently realized that for me the ability to be able to go online more than two weeks before even the Castaway Club Members (those who have sailed on a Disney Cruise before) and an entire month before the first time cruisers and make my selections can be well worth the money!
For example, we have a 7 night “double-dip” cruise coming up in October. A “double-dip” refers to a Disney Cruise that calls on Disney’s Castaway Cay island twice during the trip. These itineraries are very popular with past Disney Cruisers because most of us LOVE Castaway Cay. So exactly 90 days before our cruise, which is the date that Castaway Club members can go online to make their Palo reservations, shore excursion, and spa appointments, I was ready. The reservation system opens at exactly 12:00am on that 90th day. So I stayed up late, had my cruise reservation up, and watched the clock. At exactly 12:01am I was able to get into the system only to find that there were no Palo Brunch or Tea reservations to be had!! How could this have happened? Apparently fellow cruises who had booked a suite or had purchased the Romantic Escape package had reserved them all. This is their right for paying for a suite or the package and making their final payments earlier than the rest of us. But I was shocked. They were all gone!! I even had to settle for my second choice for Palo dinner reservations, however, I was able to secure our choices for shore excursions and spa appointments without a problem.
The following day, I called Disney Cruise as soon as they opened to explain what had happened and was told that there hadn’t been any reservations left to be booked and that I should continue to check online or I could try for a reservation once onboard the ship. Later, I checked several of the Disney Cruise boards to see if maybe I had encountered a glitch or something only to find out that many others had experienced the same thing, although they didn’t seem as upset about it as I was. So, my only recourse now is to try to be one of the first guests on the ship, run to Palo reservation desk, wait in line until they open at 1pm and hope for the best in securing Palo Brunch and Tea reservations.
I really felt bad for those new cruisers who had to wait until 75 days prior to book their reservations. There would be hardly any left, which after reading some of the boards again today, is exactly what happened. The only Palo reservations left were very slim and none for parties of 2. All of the prime shore excursion and spa times were gone and some had nothing left to reserve.
So the answer seems to be that if you have your heart set on a particular day/time for Palo dinner, brunch or tea, or a specific time for a spa treatment or a hard to get excursion and you are not a staying in a suite, you may really want to think about booking the Romantic Escape package – especially on the “double-dips” or popular holiday cruises.
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