We’ve mentioned before that Disney is seriously deciding to take up river cruising, emphasizing family vacations on the river. Remember, the ships on the rivers are not fashioned with swimming pools, water slides, rope courses, video game rooms, theatres both inside and out, miniature golf and basketball courts, and counselors who entertain with various games and activities that keep the kids occupied and involved.
It’s hard to imagine how they plan to keep kids active on these river boats. I presume that they could have counselors, or as Disney refers to them, “adventure guides”, who could take the kids to parks and play Frisbee or soccer, or hike in some area around a lake, or bicycle in some pre-arranged safe environment in the ports, but it would seem to be difficult to do that with varying age groups. Adults enjoy reading on vacation, but most kids that I know want a vacation from reading. Just thinkin’!!!
They are planning on partnering with AMAWaterways, and starting out with only 5 sailings, just to “test the water”. AMAWaterways is reasonably happy with the arrangement because it gives them another audience to attract to their cooperative product. It will be interesting to see how those folks who are just signing up for the river cruise are going to react when they are faced with 30-40 plus kids on the ship with them.
We can’t sell Disney short though because their management is highly skilled in marketing and designing their product. The Disney brand and the culture they have developed over the years will naturally draw people to their product just because of their reputation of presenting a well-designed vacation product. Just observe what they have done with their theme parks.
Another Disney plus is that they have marketed a vacation product called Adventures by Disney to families with cruises to many places around the world, so you can bet that they will have a program that will be very attractive, especially for those families who want to introduce their children to other cultures. They can use those contacts to encourage participation on a river cruise because those families know that the experience is going to be produced by Disney.
One negative for many families is that Disney’s cruise product, be it ocean or river, will be one of the most expensive cruises being offered. The price alone will turn many away, but if they have cruised on a Disney product before, they are aware of that fact, so if river cruising is a goal, this will be a viable summer option.
The experienced travel agents at The Travel Factory are anxious to help with any Disney product, so give us a call about that or any other vacation option at 698-1421 or toll-free 800-760-4040. We are located at 4150 Southwest Drive, Suite 120 between Rosa’s and Chick-Fil-A in the Plaza at Park Central.