DCL/Panama Canal story OOPS

Well, it looks like the Disney Magic's recent crossing of the Panama Canal was not a record setter after all.  MSNBC.COM printed the following Associated Press retraction mid-day last Friday:

The authority now says it wrongly estimated the fees and that Disney paid US$283,400 for "Disney Magic" to cross on May 16, an amount that was not a record.

Still, with 875 staterooms, that works out to be about $324 per stateroom in taxes, ONEWAY.  They still have to make the trip back of course.

Likewise according to the Disney Cruise Line Ship Facts page both ships hold about 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel.  So in the past year the price of diesel for the ship went from $2.00 a gallon to $4.00 a gallon, which has increased the fuel price from US$40,000 to US$80,000.  Given the same 875 rooms that's about $92 a stateroom (vice $45 a stateroom before that).

Disney recently, like most of the other cruise lines, added a fuel surcharge of $8 per person, per day for the first two people in a stateroom, and $3 a day for everybody else.   Obviously they did it to keep their core rates competitive in the highly competitive cruise market, just like the airlines are doing.  So for a 4 day cruise for a family of 4, we'll pay another $88 in fuel surcharges. 

On our recent cruise on the DCL, I don't recall us taking on any fuel in the Bahamas and certainly I do not believe that Castaway Cay has much in the way of on shore bunker storage.  I wonder if the ships are capable of making the 3 and 4 day cruises without having to fuel enroute?  Which would make sense to design them that way from the beginning.  Besides that, it makes the most sense for Disney to fuel as MUCH as possible where they can by in bulk and store it themselves (as they do in Port Canaveral). 

We'll have to see how the price of gas has affected DCL at the end of July when Disney announces their second quarter earnings.  If the off property discounts that are currently flying around the Net for hotel rooms starting in August at WDW is any indication, it might not be rosy.  I sure hope those two new ships coming online were priced in service for today's higher fuel costs.