Are cruises still sailing at reduced capacity?

[MamaMermaid]

Hi friends,
We are sailing this July after 3 cancelled cruises. Is Disney still sailing at reduced capacity? Is it a noticeable difference?

 

[jcarwash]

My 2/19 Fantasy sailing was about half full, so it was like a Magic/Wonder amount of guests on the larger ship. It was noticeable, but not like "this place is empty" -- it more depended on where I was.

Cabanas and the dining rooms still seemed busy to me, but if you looked closely, you'd realize there were fewer tables with more space between them. Normally in Cabanas, you could have trouble getting out of your chair because someone else was right behind you.

They were limiting seating in the Walt Disney theater (three seats between parties, skipping entire rows) and so that limited capacity for shows. They ran each show on two nights (Aladdin, Frozen, Believe) so you could try for either or both.

Mickey and Donald pools were limited to 12 or 13 bathers at a time, for about ten minutes each. (We thought it was actually a really good system.)

We got to ride AquaDuck multiple times this cruise since the line was short, especially like around 4pm even on a sea day. Last time on the Fantasy (way back in 2013), I think we got onto AquaDuck once because it was so busy.

Debarking for Castway, the stairs to the midship gangway was a jammed as ever despite the virtual queue system on the app. We went to the aft gangway instead. Once on the island, we're used to a Magic/Wonder amount of people on Castaway Cay, so our day there felt normal by comparison. "Busy" but we know it could be a lot more crowded with a full Fantasy.

In all, we had a wonderful time and we felt lucky to take advantage of the Fantasy with the amount of people on board.

 

[IcedCoffee52]

I'm literally on the Fantasy right now and the previous poster described our experience exactly. Definitely doesn't feel empty but clearly not as crowded as before. There are about 2100 on board.

 

[Jen81NYC]

My 2/19 Fantasy sailing was about half full, so it was like a Magic/Wonder amount of guests on the larger ship. It was noticeable, but not like "this place is empty" -- it more depended on where I was.

Cabanas and the dining rooms still seemed busy to me, but if you looked closely, you'd realize there were fewer tables with more space between them. Normally in Cabanas, you could have trouble getting out of your chair because someone else was right behind you.

They were limiting seating in the Walt Disney theater (three seats between parties, skipping entire rows) and so that limited capacity for shows. They ran each show on two nights (Aladdin, Frozen, Believe) so you could try for either or both.

Mickey and Donald pools were limited to 12 or 13 bathers at a time, for about ten minutes each. (We thought it was actually a really good system.)

We got to ride AquaDuck multiple times this cruise since the line was short, especially like around 4pm even on a sea day. Last time on the Fantasy (way back in 2013), I think we got onto AquaDuck once because it was so busy.

Debarking for Castway, the stairs to the midship gangway was a jammed as ever despite the virtual queue system on the app. We went to the aft gangway instead. Once on the island, we're used to a Magic/Wonder amount of people on Castaway Cay, so our day there felt normal by comparison. "Busy" but we know it could be a lot more crowded with a full Fantasy.

In all, we had a wonderful time and we felt lucky to take advantage of the Fantasy with the amount of people on board.

We're going on the Dream on what I assume is a very busy weekend (Easter weekend). I've never been on a cruise before but what you mention sounds frustrating to me--does this mean we can't decide on a whim to use the pool or the theater? Are there other pools beyond the Mickey and Donald pools because 12-13 people for 10 minutes sounds crazy to me! I guess I don't understand these capacity restrictions once you're on the cruise itself considering the testing hoops and vaccine requirements you do in advance?

 

[IcedCoffee52]

You can spend as long as you want in the pool if there is no line. On our sea days, we got to the pool at 9am and basically the kids didn't have to wait in line at all until closer to 12pm and even then they were able to get right back in most times until about 1pm when the line got long. It truly hasn't bothered my kids. They just go get an ice cream in the meantime. We also got them times in the kids club from 1-330pm or so when the pool was busiest so we could have some time in the adult area and pool.

 

[Calantha]

does this mean we can't decide on a whim to use the pool or the theater

For the theater - all the shows are on multiple times - the last day for example, Believe was shown 3 times throughout the day.
For the pool - we were there in January, and it did get a little annoying on the sea day...but DS just rotated between the 2 pools (there are only 2 kids pools), the water slide, the Aqua Duck, and the hot tub. Kept things entertaining. But yes, if you want to sit in the pool and watch an entire movie on the Funnel Vision, you will probably be annoyed. At other times, there were never that many people trying to get in the pool and he just stayed in as long as he liked. Maybe in a few more weeks, they will have eased capacity restrictions.

 

[Jen81NYC]

Was

You can spend as long as you want in the pool if there is no line. On our sea days, we got to the pool at 9am and basically the kids didn't have to wait in line at all until closer to 12pm and even then they were able to get right back in most times until about 1pm when the line got long. It truly hasn't bothered my kids. They just go get an ice cream in the meantime. We also got them times in the kids club from 1-330pm or so when the pool was busiest so we could have some time in the adult area and pool.

Was it hard to book time in the kids club? I think I’m just surprised because the cruise part of our trip is the part I thought was gonna be the most relaxing, without having to constantly monitor openings, availability, etc. We’re going to the parks for 5 nights after the cruise (postponed Covid trip) and there’s so much stress (for me) involved with that part of the trip due to the daily 7am thing that it’s a bummer to hear the cruise may be a hassle too. I don’t understand these trips that cost thousands of dollars and yet you still have to worry whether you’ll have easy access to the features you’ve paid for!

 

[Calantha]

Was it hard to book time in the kids club?

So you book your first round of times at 30 days out - 1 per day. Then once you're on the ship, you can ask for more if you need them. I've heard in general that getting more slots wasn't a hassle at all. DS only wanted to go once per day and he was happy with the times I picked, so no stress at all. Again, maybe if we had had to plan around more things, I would have been annoyed, but that wasn't the situation this last time.

 

[lanejudy]

Hi friends,
We are sailing this July after 3 cancelled cruises. Is Disney still sailing at reduced capacity? Is it a noticeable difference?

Recent reports on numbers are around 50% right now. If you'd asked a month ago, those numbers were considerably lower (<25% sometimes). So the difference 1 month makes really changes the answer and I would not try to assume status quo is maintained into July. We're headed into spring break season which likely affected the recent numbers from the past couple of weeks, and potentially for that to increase with more spring breaks in March and April. I would not be surprised if July is much closer to pre-covid numbers onboard.

FYI...these are low volumes largely due to reduced demand, not DCL limiting capacity. There were cruises in the fall that hit in the 65% range and year-end was expected to be much higher until Omicron hit.

 

[princesscinderella]

I have an April and June fantasy cruise booked. I had my pick of anything when my gold booking window opened for the April cruise with the exception of cabanas. The June booking window just opened up for me the other day and there were definitely more things booked up already such as excursions and adult dining. That leads me to believe that the summer sailings are going to have more passengers.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I have an April and June fantasy cruise booked. I had my pick of anything when my gold booking window opened for the April cruise with the exception of cabanas. The June booking window just opened up for me the other day and there were definitely more things booked up already such as excursions and adult dining. That leads me to believe that the summer sailings are going to have more passengers.

Summer is also further away so there may be more that are holding out for restrictions to drop and such, if nothing changes there is a good chance there will be more cancellations. All those cruises have till 60 days out.

 

[jujubiee4]

As time goes on and cases drop I expect capacity numbers to increase. We have April and
June booked. I normally would never book cruises this close but I want to try go before some
other "wave" hits. Plus I have expiring airline credits.

 

[MamaMermaid]

Thank you all! Hoping for as normal but safe of an experience as possible!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We are on the Wonder WBPC right now. There are approx 1100 passengers. They didn’t open our cruise to new reservations ever since it sold out last year. Finally it opened up 3 days prior to sailing and allowed booking for 2 days. I doubt many people are able to plan for a 14-nt one way cruise on such short notice.
So our wondering that cruises are “naturally” uncrowded due to lowered interest is unfounded. DCL intentionally allowed people to cancel for months without making those cabins available to the public.

 

[randumb0]

I see the guest count remaining low until they remove the vaccine requirements and testing at the port

 

[John VN]

We cruise in a few weeks, not DCL, and ship has 4,500 capacity. Yesterday's cruise left PC with under 1,000 according to a post by someone on the ship.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I see the guest count remaining low until they remove the vaccine requirements and testing at the port

I fully agree with this. I think some lines that attract the older crowd mainly might be able to okay with vaccines and dropping just testing but DCL needs families and the amount of families eligible to cruise is actually very low overall due to the vaccine requirement. Doesn't matter what side you are on fact is only about 25-30% of 5-11 yo are fully vaccinated and new vaccinations are dropping pretty low now. Families with kids 3-11 are a huge market for their cruises especially the ones out of florida.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

We cruise in a few weeks, not DCL, and ship has 4,500 capacity. Yesterday's cruise left PC with under 1,000 according to a post by someone on the ship.

Wow, that's crazy!

 

[John VN]

Wow, that's crazy!

We are hoping for a similar number.

 

[jujubiee4]

We cruise in a few weeks, not DCL, and ship has 4,500 capacity. Yesterday's cruise left PC with under 1,000 according to a post by someone on the ship.

Just curious which ship is that?