I was coming up to 50% penalty this Saturday. I agonized for weeks whether I would gamble losing our deposit or losing 50%. I blinked and went with the deposit. The CM never mentioned whether I would get our deposit back if DCL canceled the cruise. She only reluctantly said I would after I mentioned reading it here on Disboards. She emphasized, "that at this time" they would refund the cancellation fees, but their policy has been changing from day to day. So I asked is there a possibility, I won't get our deposit back? CM said if they change their policy again, it might happened.
Out of curiosity as I am in the same similar situation, why not PIF and wait for them to cancel? That way the choice of possible refund or FCC was the option? I just want to make sure I am not missing a line of thinking. Our cruise is scheduled for July 2020
Yes, we had a choice of 100% refund or 125% FCC for our canceled May 14th cruise, which was paid in full.
My wife really wasn't comfortable sailing less than 60 days away. There's some sliver of hope that this virus is subsiding but we really didn't want to take the risk of flying from California out to Florida. We would have had to go through LAX and MCO which are some of busiest airports in the world. She really didn't want to take that chance even if we DCL was allowed to sail. Since DCL isn't saying anything about canceling June cruises, we did the math and losing $1k was a lot better than loosing $6k. We had booked this cruise with a placeholder so our deposit wasn't as much as it would have normally been.
We are booked on the May 30th sailing of the Fantasy and have been waiting for DCL to officially cancel....imagine my surprise when I opened my mailbox today and got our "Your Vacation Details" booklet along with our luggage tags! This had to have been some kind of oversight right? As much as we would love for it to be true I just can't see any scenario in which that cruise will actually be happening.
Ok so your mindset was...what if the sailing actually sails and we paid in full and therefore lose it all or go? I see...I guess I haven't thought about the prospect of it sailing and we either forfeit the cruise funds or go. We are July 25 so in theory, it is possible it may sail. I just assume it will be canceled.My wife really wasn't comfortable sailing less than 60 days away. There's some sliver of hope that this virus is subsiding but we really didn't want to take the risk of flying from California out to Florida. We would have had to go through LAX and MCO which are some of busiest airports in the world. She really didn't want to take that chance even if we DCL was allowed to sail. Since DCL isn't saying anything about canceling June cruises, we did the math and losing $1k was a lot better than loosing $6k. We had booked this cruise with a placeholder so our deposit wasn't as much as it would have normally been.
We had land and sea adventure all planned. Our kids still to this day, don't know we were going on our 3rd DCL cruise. We were going to surprise our kids about the cruise, when the Magical Express "accidently" dropped us off at Port Canaveral instead of the airport. Oh well, now I'll have call WDW resort and cancel our room and tickets
Not to put more doubt on your decision, I was reading on the board that someone suggested that, if DCL still decides to sail. They would operate under a modified operating procedures. Cabanas would be modified from self serving to asking CM for items. Would that mean no self serve Eye Scream? What about the soda stations? Not sure if we're ready for that. If you do sail, be safe and good luck to you. Maybe we'll catch you on the next one.
They instituted theses processes on the WBPC cruise for the second week. Not really a big deal. The only thing was that they only had one side of Cabanas open, because they needed so many cast members to properly staff it. If you had a fairly full ship that could really back things up. They would not even hand you the beverages that they got for you. They would set them on a table where you would then pick it up.
This is not all that unusual, it is standard when norovirus is a concern. It happens on at least a few cruises each year. All self-service locations get manned by a CM.
Those buffet changes I prefer actually. I had never thought of kids club not being offered as a possible change. Like I said, I just blindly assumed a July 25 cruise would be canceled.
I do not think they could close the kid’s clubs with Disney’s focus on families. They may close for a couple of hours for an extra cleaning or something. With all the self serve modifications that were done on the WBPC cruise, the only “change” at the clubs was that the overnight camp out was only until 2:00 am, so they could deep clean before they opened in the morning. Luckily, kids do not tend to have the same experience with Covid 19 as older people do.
Amen to Cabana changes. I love kids in all, but I've seen some kids in that Cabana's line that just grosses me out.
I'll be looking forward to getting mine soon then; at least it will be a souvenir of what would have been our 4th cruise.
