Coronavirus and DCL Megathread - Suspension of Departures for the fleet until early November. Booking only available from early December.

[White_Rabbit18]

I remember a few years back my daughter was diagnosed with the flu two days before the cruise. She was starting to get better and the fever would go down for longer periods of time with meds but we decided to cancel because she was only just 3 and we wanted to be on Land in case she needed additional medical attention. And plus of course she was still contagious.
Anyway I called the morning of the cruise to cancel and the Disney representative actually tried to convince me to get on the boat with the sick child since I was going to lose money on the cruise....so hopefully people will take it more seriously this time around.
But yeah I think people rather go knowingly sick than lose out on money

 

[emilymad]

I feel like they need to do more than have people fill out a form. People always lie on those since they don't want to be denied boarding. The form is for DCL's liability not passenger safety.

We have a Europe cruise planned for September. We are holding for now but we haven't booked airfare yet. We were going to soon but now we will hold off. What if we can't get to the start of the cruise or the cruise is canceled when we are in Europe and then have to get home? Travel insurance may only do so much depending on what all of this looks like in a few months.

 

[Glenn3484]

We sail Monday on the dream, I'm grateful at the precautions Disney is taking. And I'm sure glad we're cruising now and not a few months out in case it gets worse.

 

[MarkLT1]

I feel like they need to do more than have people fill out a form. People always lie on those since they don't want to be denied boarding. The form is for DCL's liability not passenger safety.

It is great in concept, but I'm not entirely sure what else DCL can do, especially if we start seeing significant community spread in the US. The primary ways individuals will be infected are:

1. Traveling to a country with widespread cases
2. Caring for someone/being in close contact with someone who has the bug
3. Community infection by someone (say in a public space) without even knowing it.

For 1., you can check passports, but if it is widespread in the US, this is kind of useless. For 2. you can really only ask on a form. Its not like DCL can hire PIs to track all of their future passengers to see if they have been around people with COVID-19.. For 3. you have no idea. About the only additional thing they could do is temperature checks on all boarding passengers, but even this is not all that useful. If the incubation period is 1-week, with 2-weeks of symptoms afterwords, ~1/3 of people with the virus wont be showing any symptoms. In addition, there are reports of infected individuals not presenting with a fever at all.

In theory they could swab every person getting ready to board the ship, but 1) we currently don't even have enough testing capacity in the US to test potentially sick people in a hospital setting, and 2) I have no idea how fast a theoretical wide-spread swab test would even give results.

 

[justafigment27]

I am all over the place, but mostly stressed because I don’t know how this thing is going to play out. We are set to leave for a land & sea trip - a 3 night Dream followed by 5 nights in 26 days and I’m getting very leery about the whole trip - airports, planes, cruise ship and the busiest theme park in the country during a (potential) pandemic. I keep asking myself (and DH) if this is really the best choice. If we didn’t have a trip planned, I certainly wouldn’t be planning one for late March/early April at this point. Am I being an idiot for still considering it or paranoid for considering canceling the whole thing? I can’t decide.

Normally, this is the phase of trip preparation that starts my full out excited mode - counting down and excitedly saying to the family “at this time in 4 weeks we’ll be on the ship ...”, etc. But now it’s more like, “We’ve now entered the 75% penalty phase for cancellation ... we have less than 2 weeks to decide if we are going or not before we lose the entire payment”.

Our cruise has GT rates galore and vacancies throughout the ship in all 4 categories. You can pretty much book any category of room anywhere on the ship for a family of four ... and pay less than what I paid with an onboard booking discount. This is a spring break season cruise and we are less than a month out - normally you would expect to see very spotty availability and little to no choice on room location. It looks like many people are just not taking the chance.


My kids are older teens and know what’s going on - they both informed me to expect tears from them if we cancel ... they are good sports, but we have all just been so looking forward to this vacation as a reprieve from the cold, gray weather.

DCL sent out an email last night detailing all they are doing to try and reassure customers ... but it didn’t really reassure me. They can’t make a cruise ship germ free and, even if everyone is 100% honest, there is no screening test or questionnaire that can prevent an asymptotic carrier of the virus from boarding the ship.

IDK. I’m all over the place. Last night I was watching tours of one bedroom suites on the Dream on YouTube - there were 9 vacant ones available on our cruise last time I looked - thinking this might be a good trip to try for a port upgrade. So, you know, I either want to cancel the whole thing or try to spend extra cash to upgrade ... depends on hour.

 

[R2Dad2]

These types of novel viruses usually (I know this one isn't usual) take a break over the summer, but can come back again with a vengeance. My cruise isn't until late September, so I'm over here researching when these things start to re-emerge, and the first thing I see is that after tailing off in the early summer, the 1918 influenza roared back in September. Sheesh. I need to get off the interwebs.

 

[Karin1984]

In my country (Netherlands) we had the first two cases, since yesterday, both related to Italy, one man was on business (he's in the hospital, after checking himself in), and one woman who was in Italy for the holiday week (she is isolated at home).

Later today the government will open a phone number for anyone who has questions. They are looking into cancelling big events.

And in my hometown there is not one bottle of desinfectant available anymore. I have some bottles at home, but I went on a tour through my city center, I went into at least 8 store, everything is gone. Some stores had a sign at the door saying they were out.

 

[Glenn3484]

I am all over the place, but mostly stressed because I don’t know how this thing is going to play out. We are set to leave for a land & sea trip - a 3 night Dream followed by 5 nights in 26 days and I’m getting very leery about the whole trip - airports, planes, cruise ship and the busiest theme park in the country during a (potential) pandemic. I keep asking myself (and DH) if this is really the best choice. If we didn’t have a trip planned, I certainly wouldn’t be planning one for late March/early April at this point. Am I being an idiot for still considering it or paranoid for considering canceling the whole thing? I can’t decide.

Normally, this is the phase of trip preparation that starts my full out excited mode - counting down and excitedly saying to the family “at this time in 4 weeks we’ll be on the ship ...”, etc. But now it’s more like, “We’ve now entered the 75% penalty phase for cancellation ... we have less than 2 weeks to decide if we are going or not before we lose the entire payment”.

Our cruise has GT rates galore and vacancies throughout the ship in all 4 categories. You can pretty much book any category of room anywhere on the ship for a family of four ... and pay less than what I paid with an onboard booking discount. This is a spring break season cruise and we are less than a month out - normally you would expect to see very spotty availability and little to no choice on room location. It looks like many people are just not taking the chance.


My kids are older teens and know what’s going on - they both informed me to expect tears from them if we cancel ... they are good sports, but we have all just been so looking forward to this vacation as a reprieve from the cold, gray weather.

DCL sent out an email last night detailing all they are doing to try and reassure customers ... but it didn’t really reassure me. They can’t make a cruise ship germ free and, even if everyone is 100% honest, there is no screening test or questionnaire that can prevent an asymptotic carrier of the virus from boarding the ship.

IDK. I’m all over the place. Last night I was watching tours of one bedroom suites on the Dream on YouTube - there were 9 vacant ones available on our cruise last time I looked - thinking this might be a good trip to try for a port upgrade. So, you know, I either want to cancel the whole thing or try to spend extra cash to upgrade ... depends on hour.

My personal opinion would be go go on as planned, bring lots of sanitize, and wash hands frequently, and ENJOY your trip.

 

[DIS_MIKE]

Has anyone had any luck canceling their cruises without penalty? A few people have mentioned it but I have not see any updates. My cruise is already paid in full and is approaching the 60-day mark.

I declined insurance because it does not include outbreaks.

 

[o&smom]

I am all over the place, but mostly stressed because I don’t know how this thing is going to play out. We are set to leave for a land & sea trip - a 3 night Dream followed by 5 nights in 26 days and I’m getting very leery about the whole trip - airports, planes, cruise ship and the busiest theme park in the country during a (potential) pandemic. I keep asking myself (and DH) if this is really the best choice. If we didn’t have a trip planned, I certainly wouldn’t be planning one for late March/early April at this point. Am I being an idiot for still considering it or paranoid for considering canceling the whole thing? I can’t decide.

Normally, this is the phase of trip preparation that starts my full out excited mode - counting down and excitedly saying to the family “at this time in 4 weeks we’ll be on the ship ...”, etc. But now it’s more like, “We’ve now entered the 75% penalty phase for cancellation ... we have less than 2 weeks to decide if we are going or not before we lose the entire payment”.

Our cruise has GT rates galore and vacancies throughout the ship in all 4 categories. You can pretty much book any category of room anywhere on the ship for a family of four ... and pay less than what I paid with an onboard booking discount. This is a spring break season cruise and we are less than a month out - normally you would expect to see very spotty availability and little to no choice on room location. It looks like many people are just not taking the chance.


My kids are older teens and know what’s going on - they both informed me to expect tears from them if we cancel ... they are good sports, but we have all just been so looking forward to this vacation as a reprieve from the cold, gray weather.

DCL sent out an email last night detailing all they are doing to try and reassure customers ... but it didn’t really reassure me. They can’t make a cruise ship germ free and, even if everyone is 100% honest, there is no screening test or questionnaire that can prevent an asymptotic carrier of the virus from boarding the ship.

IDK. I’m all over the place. Last night I was watching tours of one bedroom suites on the Dream on YouTube - there were 9 vacant ones available on our cruise last time I looked - thinking this might be a good trip to try for a port upgrade. So, you know, I either want to cancel the whole thing or try to spend extra cash to upgrade ... depends on hour.

Obviously, keep watching what is happening, but at this time I would go. We are going next week on the WBPC cruise and then 5 days in DL. I am not really worried about getting it since none of us have asthma or anything and are healthy. I do wonder about how things would be handled if there was an outbreak on the ship. We are four people in an inside stateroom because we have done PC previously. Thank goodness we are not at all claustrophobic; even so the thought of being stuck in there does not sound fun. I do not think they would quarantine the ship, but quarantine offsite if at all since that went crazy last time. I have to admit one of the things that I am looking forward to after getting on the cruise is to be able to be oblivious to all of this and just enjoy a cruise.

 

[Gentry2004]

Has anyone had any luck canceling their cruises without penalty? A few people have mentioned it but I have not see any updates. My cruise is already paid in full and is approaching the 60-day mark.

I declined insurance because it does not include outbreaks.

I think if you are more than 57 days out you only lose your deposit? I was already inside of that when the Diamond Princess happened or I would have probably cancelled. My deposit (reduced) was only $500. So instead I am just waiting and watching. I haven’t heard of any refunds of people near their sailing date, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

 

[MarkLT1]

Just wondering (and I'll need to check into my insurance policy obviously).. Lets say this starts spreading in the US. My 84-year-old dad (who has half a lung missing) would definitely be a vulnerable individual. Would a doctors note, saying that the risk to him is too high to travel be a insurable incident? Also, does the insurance typically cover the entire party? Or just the one individual? (e.g.- would my dad get his portion refunded, or would all individuals on the reservation be able to get a refund). If it helps, I believe the insurance that was purchased, is whatever Disney offers on their website at the time of booking (my parents booked the cruise).

 

[Gentry2004]

Just wondering (and I'll need to check into my insurance policy obviously).. Lets say this starts spreading in the US. My 84-year-old dad (who has half a lung missing) would definitely be a vulnerable individual. Would a doctors note, saying that the risk to him is too high to travel be a insurable incident? Also, does the insurance typically cover the entire party? Or just the one individual? (e.g.- would my dad get his portion refunded, or would all individuals on the reservation be able to get a refund). If it helps, I believe the insurance that was purchased, is whatever Disney offers on their website at the time of booking (my parents booked the cruise).

I spoke with my insurance and here is what they said. The person has to be actually sick, with a diagnosable illness. Fear of becoming ill is not a valid reason. YMMV.

ETA: But lets say one member of my traveling party got COVID-19 before our trip, it is my understanding that our entire party is refunded, not just the sick person. I confirmed my policy does not exclude epidemics.

 

[rtill]

The chances of walking off the ship with the flu or norovirus are much greater than COVID-19. We are leaving in a couple of weeks for spring break and really are not any more concerned than we normally would be about catching something.

 

[Gentry2004]

The chances of walking off the ship with the flu or norovirus are much greater than COVID-19. We are leaving in a couple of weeks for spring break and really are not any more concerned than we normally would be about catching something.

Agree. But the real question is not what are my chances of catching COVID-19 but what are my chances of missing my ports due to denied entry and/or being quarantined to my stateroom?

 

[freshmanjs]

The chances of walking off the ship with the flu or norovirus are much greater than COVID-19. We are leaving in a couple of weeks for spring break and really are not any more concerned than we normally would be about catching something.

True, but not what people on this thread are concerned about.

 

[randumb0]

Agree. But the real question is not what are my chances of catching COVID-19 but what are my chances of missing my ports due to denied entry and/or being quarantined to my stateroom?

When is your cruise?

 

[Gentry2004]

When is your cruise?

Early April.

 

[randumb0]

Early April.

No one can tell you the chances of missing ports for April. How important are the ports to you? Do you have small kids? Those are things to consider

 

[Gentry2004]

No one can tell you the chances of missing ports for April. How important are the ports to you? Do you have small kids? Those are things to consider

I know I said "my chances" but my question was really hypothetical for all upcoming cruises. I think the chances of ports denying entry or other cruising disruptions are a lot higher than the risk of actually getting sick.