DCL Has Their Protocol Out!!!

[Chrissy-Mickey]

Has anyone had any luck booking excursions on Day 2 at Castaway Cay?

No, this morning everything was marked as 'sold out' and since this afternoon I've been getting the seven dwarfs.

 

[DCLMP]

I've been trying to follow along but I honestly can say I don't think I've read all 18 pages so I apologize if this was already answered.

Has anyone actually priced out what it would cost to get to the insurance the Disney is now requiring, either from DCL or 3rd party? And if from Disney, is it a different and separate insurance policy than the normal cruise insurance they sell?

I'm honestly just curious. No one in my party requires the insurance from a Covid perspective but we always sail with Disney's insurance anyway. Just curious how much it actually would cost for someone who is un vaccinated.

Yes I have.I can insure 2 cruises 5k in total cost for 198.00 total for adult and teen Includes cancel for any reason and Covid. DCL would be around 350.00 I always insure my cruises through third party so it’s not an additional cost for me.

 

[mevelandry]

Rainforest Room will be a private experience for $174 per 105 minute session. 10 people in your party max. Yikes!

My husband and I almost had it to ourselves —half the time alone, half with another couple— for a whole morning (on Nassau day) for 16$ each during one of our cruises. It’s only worth it if you are a party of 6 or more.

 

[laceltris3]

Even if they choose to do that (which I doubt, as the presence of so many unvaccinated younger kids onboard means the Covid transmission risk would still be significant), I would expect onboard protocols to be the same as in U.K. & Florida. In short, not what most of the unhappy posters here would want.

I strongly suspect that vaccinations will be approved for under 12 so that they can be fully vaccinated before Christmas. That’ll be the test for which population Disney wants to serve.

I find what Disney is revealing about itself in balancing safety with profits to be pretty revealing. And not in a good way.

 

[Mommb]

Does anyone know if Bippity Boppity will be open on the dream cruise? I messaged them but haven’t heard back yet.

Yes. From the new protocols on https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/why-cruise-disney/experience-updates/on-the-ship-us/:
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Magical makeovers at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique are available to children ages 3 through 12 years of age. Keep in mind, all children are required to wear appropriate face coverings during their makeover experience.

 

[TheBigErn]

As these new procedures and policies were only announced today, most likely they will see how many people organically cancel on their own. Then most likely if they still have too many passengers for their limited capacity requirements, they will contact guests. They did the same a few weeks ago, on the first Magic UK cruise, when the UK Government changed the date for increasing capacity and they had too many passengers.

Contact them and then what?

 

[BadPinkTink]

Contact them and then what?

This is what DCL sent to passengers on the first Liverpool cruise when the UK Government changed the date when capacity levels would be increased. They had too many passengers booked and needed to reduce numbers.


Thank you for booking a Disney Magic At Sea with Disney Cruise Line. As you may be aware many of the UK Governments Covid 19 restrictions were expected to end on June 21 but have now now been extended until at least July 19.

Among these restrictions is capping the number of passengers able to board cruise ships at 1000 people or 50% of the ships capacity. Unfortunately your sailing currently exceeds this limit.

We are currently offering a limited number of guests the opportunity to change their sail date and receive a 50% discount on the voyage fare of a 2, 3 or 4 night Disney Cruise Line sailing taken on or before December 31 2022 or cancel their sailing and receive a full refund.

This offer is only available to guests on the July 15 sailing. Current availability on Disney Magic at Sea Sailings from Liverpool is limited, however there is availability out of the other UK ports should you wish to sail this summer close to home. There are also 3 or 4 night sailings out of Port Canaveral, Florida or Miami Florida, available.

If you are interested in selecting an alternative sail date or cancelling your booking and receiving a full refund, we ask that you contact us by Tuesday July 6 2021.

 

[jrapps]

Yes I have.I can insure 2 cruises 5k in total cost for 198.00 total for adult and teen Includes cancel for any reason and Covid. DCL would be around 350.00 I always insure my cruises through third party so it’s not an additional cost for me.

Thanks!

 

[CalifornianOrangeBird]

Currently have a cruise booked for the end of April 2022, and I'm a bit torn right now on the protocols: especially when I have no idea how much of this will affect my sailing that's 9 months out! I feel for everyone who has cruises coming up this year, too. I understand it's hard to have a timetable out for this kind of thing, especially when it feels like restrictions and data are changing week by week.

 

[sethschroeder]

We probably won’t know until word gets out from the first august cruises. On the UK staycation cruises, guests who are B2B don’t have to leave the ship. But they have to take another covid test. For dream sailings, no covid test is required if you are vaccinated. Not sure how disney is going to handle things for US sailings.

It's a US law fairly sure that everyone has to disembark so they can clear the ship doubt that changes.

You have no proof of that. I'm talking about different protocols for vaccinated adults vs unvaccinated adults, not kids who can't be vaccinated. Other cruise lines are doing this. On CCL if you are vaccinated, no mask is required on board and you can debark the ship in port on your own. If you are not vaccinated, you must be on a cruise line "bubble tour" to get off the ship and you have no contact with other people outside your bubble.

Disney won't do that, won't worry about tracking, and has things like masks because of the CDC and their 95% rule which Disney won't even try to hit.

This is the same for Royal Caribbean as well.

Who is meeting the CDC 95% rule and doesn't need to deal much with mixed cabins of vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Wow, even Disney knows that these cruises are going to suck. Standard cancellation policy after the first US cruise sails.

Suck? Have you watched the vlogs? Look good to me and some others. Reduced capacity is a huge thing.

To protect the people who aren’t vaccinated.

Nah it's a cdc thing likely primarily. If they thought it was that big of a deal then WDW would have more restrictions.

For my late December cruise they have blocked all non-concierge categories from new bookings.

Yup its hit or miss now with what if anything is available on cruises.

 

[Sykes]

Who is meeting the CDC 95% rule and doesn't need to deal much with mixed cabins of vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Royal Caribbean is primarily sailing from the US under the test cruise scheme (same as Disney), not the 95% vaccinated rules. They've chosen to limit access to parts of the ship from unvaccinated patrons so that the vaccinated ones can forego masks and social distancing in those areas. If they were sailing under the 95% vaccinated rules then vaccinated passengers would not be required to wear masks anywhere on the ship (at least under CDC rules--they could choose to be more restrictive if they wanted to).

 

[sethschroeder]

Royal Caribbean is primarily sailing from the US under the test cruise scheme (same as Disney), not the 95% vaccinated rules. They've chosen to limit access to parts of the ship from unvaccinated patrons so that the vaccinated ones can forego masks and social distancing in those areas. If they were sailing under the 95% vaccinated rules then vaccinated passengers would not be required to wear masks anywhere on the ship (at least under CDC rules--they could choose to be more restrictive if they wanted to).

So the ships are bigger then? Not sure what you could limit to vaccinated guests. Also if you have a nonvaccinated guest in your room are you excluded then?

Personally prefer this model from Disney and is what I expected as well.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Notice you have to cancel BEFORE the first US cruise sails. That's has me more irritated than anything right now. Let us see what the reality is and then let us decide if we want to cancel. Just more bad business decisions - I'm very disappointed in Disney.

I thought the same thing. Sounds like they don't want people to wait to hear info from early passengers before needing to make a decision. I have a feeling they know a lot of people will be complaining, posting pics, etc. which will cause others to cancel. That would only further encourage me to cancel.

The FPDD for our Nov cruise is Aug 10. I'm still on the fence. That is mostly because we are fanatically paying off our mortgage which should be done by mid October. We could still cruise, but then that would push back our pay off date and I'm not sure it's worth it. I'm also afraid if we sail our 5 nt in November, it would make our 14-nt WBPC cruise in March a little less magical. Normally, that thought wouldn't cross my mind. I don't know. My thoughts are all over the place these days.

Maybe we should do a shorter cruise and sooner. It would relieve my craving for a day at CC and not be so close to March.

 

[icc2515]

Suck? Have you watched the vlogs? Look good to me and some others. Reduced capacity is a huge thing.

UK is quite different from the US. Maybe not the protocols, but the people. I have watched the vlogs and all the vloggers are English (that I have seen) and are quite positive. Like you said "look good to me and some others" "some" being the defining term. Not, "looks good to me a majority of others". Where I live, and all the places I have visited recently, almost everybody has forgotten about their masks and life has returned to normal. We had our fair, no masks in any business other than medical no social distancing, there is still sanitizer all over. Of the few people that do wear masks about half wear them under their nose...so. I just don't see people in the US wanting to go back to the whole mask thing for something that is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. Let's also not forget that you are more than likely going to have to make a reservation to use the pool or lay out on deck. There will be only 1 movie and 1 Broadway quality show playing. We don't even know yet if the adult clubs will be open. Kids clubs allowing only 1 1.5-2.5 hour slots per day. No deck parties, no pirate night (this is huge for us), no regular meet and greets (makes our Star Wars cruise look a little less attractive. Excursions in a bubble. Masks anytime inside except in your cabin or eating or drinking. Many of the deck activities cancelled. Oh all this can be yours for the same price or more than pre-covid. Plus don't forget that a couple of the cruise lines have decided to do the 95/95 type cruise with virtually no restrictions, watching those vlogs will be a sobering experience next to a Disney Cruise vlog.

Remember that my original post that you replied to said that even Disney knows that these cruises are going to suck. Standard cancellation policy after the first cruise sets sail.

Disney does things regarding money for a reason. There is a reason that they only are allowing full refunds up until the day that the first cruise sets sail and it's not because they think that people blogging and vlogging on the first cruise will create less refund requests. This was a very very deliberate date, not some random date pulled out of the air.

 

[lanejudy]

Has anyone actually priced out what it would cost to get to the insurance the Disney is now requiring, either from DCL or 3rd party? And if from Disney, is it a different and separate insurance policy than the normal cruise insurance they sell?

So basically add 10% for anyone cruising unvaccinated who doesn't already get Disney's insurance.

I don't think you can buy insurance through DCL after the PIF date. Unless they made a special exception here. But remember that "DCL's insurance" is actually a third-party product, not something that DCL can just change rules easily.

Purchasing travel insurance separately is almost always less expensive than purchasing with the travel reservation. It shouldn't be overly expensive for families to add if they need to do so to meet the new requirements.

 

[lovedisneycruise]

I just called and was told she honestly did not know and to check back. I appreciated the CM's honesty.
It is 2 months away and no one on this board knows either. It is all speculation. Until their is OFFICIAL
WORD on the Wonder not the dream I will wait.

She also used those words "fluid situation" again.

I am the poster who canceled earlier today and was told to be positive on the phone with the CM lol. She actually said to me when she was trying to convince me not to cancel something to the effect of “keep your onboard booking and wait and see what’s announced for the other ports.” I took that she was inferring there might be different rules for Texas or California that might be more acceptable to me - those were the ports I could recall at the time. I didn’t push for any more info, because neither of those are close enough to me to want to fly to a cruise.
Or she just really wanted to hold onto my deposit. I thought it was strange to make that suggestion to me but I didn’t bring it up earlier because I didn’t want to add to the speculation. Which I guess I am now…

 

[iannovich]

According to what somebody posted Disney is only running 50% capacity for the UK cruises. If they did the same here that would cut the min down to $2.2 million in your example. Subtract out the high cost of the canal, plus we don't really have much of an idea how much it costs to run one of those ships. I'm sure that if there is positive money to be made then Disney will do it.

Yes. Exactly. My math was based on only 2 people per cabin (min double occupancy) so that’s technically just a touch under 50% of capacity. And the math is also based on the rate for an Guarantee Inside Cabin. So the $4.4 million, although very rough math, is the really the bare minimum amount on the table for the EBPC.

The 7 day is also sold out, but I don’t remember how much an inside cabin was going for, so I cant rough that one out, also one of the 4 night Bajas is also sold out, and there are a few sailings that go in and out of only having Concierge left. There is a ton of money on the table and I don’t think Disney is afraid to take a loss on an empty canal crossing.

I had originally figured that, once the Alaskan cruises were canceled, the Wonder was unlikely to come over. But after looking at the sailings and rough running all the math, I think the West Coast sailings are way more lucrative than we ever thought, and I’m 86.5% sure they plan on sending the Wonder to San Diego this year.

 

[Fruto76]

Does anyone know if Bippity Boppity will be open on the dream cruise? I messaged them but haven’t heard back yet.

It was an option available to book on the Aug 16 Dream sailing

 

[TamaraH]

Does anyone know if Bippity Boppity will be open on the dream cruise? I messaged them but haven’t heard back yet.

I thought I had read that they would be open on the website but everyone needs masks.

 

[sugliac]

I thought I had read that they would be open on the website but everyone needs masks.

Correct.