Disney Cruise Line: Simulated Test Sailings With Volunteers Beginning June 29

[brentm77]

I cannot make the math work for the Wonder to sail July 15.

It would have to:

• Staff up under CDC rules for quarantine when bringing crew aboard.
• Vaccinate everyone (even J&J is 28 days to full effectiveness).
• Get to Seattle.
• Either get approval from the CDC to be a vaccine required set of sailings, or do test cruises from Seattle. (Tech guidance is clear about having to include each US port in test sailings for approval; each ship also must do its own test sail).
• After a test sail it is a minimum of 21 days to approval to sail a revenue cruise.

28 days to get crew vaccinated, through the PC, a test cruise AND 21-days post sail before approval? Not by July 15. And if they go the "full vaccine" route, they still need crew, a run through the PC, and 28 days for vaccination of the crew. And it is already June 1 and the Wonder is not staffed.

I made a critical error in my thinking - I was mixing up the Wonder with the Dream and thinking the test cruise ship (the Dream) was the one that hadn't been canceled through the end of July. I edited the other post.

 

[Princess Merida]

I cannot make the math work for the Wonder to sail July 15.

It would have to:

• Staff up under CDC rules for quarantine when bringing crew aboard.
• Vaccinate everyone (even J&J is 28 days to full effectiveness).
• Get to Seattle.
• Either get approval from the CDC to be a vaccine required set of sailings, or do test cruises from Seattle. (Tech guidance is clear about having to include each US port in test sailings for approval; each ship also must do its own test sail).
• After a test sail it is a minimum of 21 days to approval to sail a revenue cruise.

28 days to get crew vaccinated, through the PC, a test cruise AND 21-days post sail before approval? Not by July 15. And if they go the "full vaccine" route, they still need crew, a run through the PC, and 28 days for vaccination of the crew. And it is already June 1 and the Wonder is not staffed.

Everything I am reading says the guidelines are 14 days after vaccination. I know that you are more protected by 28 days, but I don't see where the cruise lines are using that number. Would they need a test sailing? Washington state is requiring people cruising from there to be vaccinated. In Washington does this mean kids under 12 can't cruise or are they excluded? I guess if they are excluded then that would make sense to need a test sailing. If not, then all will need vaccines so not required to test sail.

 

[mmouse37]

They said they don’t need volunteers beyond their cast member base so I don’t think they will need us unfortunately . I’d be all over that

MJ

 

[icc2515]

I guess Disney has decided to do the restricted cruise instead of the 95-95 cruise. This means many more rules on board like masks for everybody and social distancing in place everywhere. This way unvaccinated children can come on board. It will be very interesting to hear reports of how the cruise went and what the restrictions were like. How difficult it was to get a deck chair or pool time. I wonder what capacity they are going to do the cruises at and if there will be any shows or entertainment at all. Deck parties or pirate night with fireworks. All these things must be done on the simulated cruise if they want to do them on the real cruise.

 

[icc2515]

unvaccinated children could always come onboard that is where you get 95 percent.

That is not necessarily true. The 5% of unvaccinated could be a mix of children and adults. The CDC rules do not differentiate. Once they hit that number no more unvaccinated children or otherwise would be allowed. I would be willing to bet that the average Disney cruise had a lot ore than 5% of it's passengers under 12 years of age.

 

[Bibbobboo2u]

I would like to know what happens if COVID is detected onboard during a trip? Does the ship immediately return to its final destination port? Do you have to quarantine onboard? Since travel insurance doesn't seem to cover COVID (based only upon what I have read - no personal experience with this), are guests just out of luck if trip is cut short due to an outbreak, or will you receive a refund or other form of compensation from DCL? We still have a November cruise scheduled, but I would need to understand all of these issues before making a final decision should DCL be sailing by then. Fortunately, they did recently change final payment/penalty dates for our cruise, so we have a little longer to see how things go and find answers to these and other questions.

 

[J Cannon Kellerman]

I made a critical error in my thinking - I was mixing up the Wonder with the Dream and thinking the test cruise ship (the Dream) was the one that hadn't been canceled through the end of July. I edited the other post.

Why are you assuming they are waiting to get the crew vaccinated until they get the green light to sail again. I would assume they would have already started the process started.

 

[icc2515]

I would like to know what happens if COVID is detected onboard during a trip? Does the ship immediately return to its final destination port? Do you have to quarantine onboard? Since travel insurance doesn't seem to cover COVID (based only upon what I have read - no personal experience with this), are guests just out of luck if trip is cut short due to an outbreak, or will you receive a refund or other form of compensation from DCL? We still have a November cruise scheduled, but I would need to understand all of these issues before making a final decision should DCL be sailing by then. Fortunately, they did recently change final payment/penalty dates for our cruise, so we have a little longer to see how things go and find answers to these and other questions.

If 1.5% of the passengers or 1% of the crew test positive the cruise is over.

 

[icc2515]

If anybody is interested. Here is the instructions for the cruises from the CDC.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/ti-simulated-voyages-cso.html
Also per the CDC nobody under 18 is allowed on the simulated cruise. So Disney will be able to say that they had an adults only cruise.

 

[brentm77]

Why are you assuming they are waiting to get the crew vaccinated until they get the green light to sail again. I would assume they would have already started the process started.

I'm not. I didn't say anything about that issue. Did you mean to quote the person who replied to me?

My original point didn't make any sense. I was thinking the ship doing the test cruise was the ship that hadn't been canceled for all of July yet. I was wrong.

 

[squirk]

I volunteer as tribute!!

Why can’t I “like” this more than once?

 

[ninjanurse]

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/bus...0210528-n7jed5ukszchpizifs534iorhi-story.html

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Would they need a test sailing? Washington state is requiring people cruising from there to be vaccinated. In Washington does this mean kids under 12 can't cruise or are they excluded? I guess if they are excluded then that would make sense to need a test sailing. If not, then all will need vaccines so not required to test sail.

If they are doing a 95% they don't need a test sail. But they do still need a fully staffed ship, with vaccinated crew, and they need to cut the number of booked children (and unvaccinated adults) on the ship. I am still not making 45 days work for that even with J&J at two weeks post-vaccine. CDC does require "fully vaccinated" status for crew so the wait time is not optional.

Wonder does not have a full crew. So they have to get them in and quarantine and vaccinate them. Even if they get them the shot and then use the two week effectiveness period for the PC run up to Seattle they are already cutting things super close. Any unvaccinated crew have to quarantine 7 days and test multiple times on embark. Most crew are not going to be coming in vaccinated, so they embark and go into 7 day quarantine, during which they cannot share cabin spaces.

They haven't been bringing in much crew yet, and what crew they have brought on board a ship is mostly the Magic.

So you bring them all in tomorrow, you are looking at 21+ days before they can go revenue. And things don't seem like they have been working to staff the Wonder, so the timeline still has issues.

 

[JWG]

They still have to test sail 3 more ships and a Variety of ports. Or hope this goes way.

 

[sugliac]

Forget where I read this, but one blog said that they will not solicit volunteers (instead it will be Disney employees, which still counts if they are not paying I guess).

 

[sugliac]

^^This is of course hearsay so take with a huge pinch of salt.

Also still suspecting adults will require to be vaccinated, particularly after the royal announcement.

 

[Snowwhyt]

The confidentiality clause from Disney from Disney CMs would help them I imagine.

 

[Sakura1017]

If anybody is interested. Here is the instructions for the cruises from the CDC.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/ti-simulated-voyages-cso.html
Also per the CDC nobody under 18 is allowed on the simulated cruise. So Disney will be able to say that they had an adults only cruise.

So basically they want everyone on the simulated cruise as vaccine appropriate age. Yet, if they really wanted a simulated cruise they should have had a placebo effect of a small group not getting vaccinated to see if it would still spread on the ship.

 

[Sakura1017]

If they are doing a 95% they don't need a test sail. But they do still need a fully staffed ship, with vaccinated crew, and they need to cut the number of booked children (and unvaccinated adults) on the ship. I am still not making 45 days work for that even with J&J at two weeks post-vaccine. CDC does require "fully vaccinated" status for crew so the wait time is not optional.

Wonder does not have a full crew. So they have to get them in and quarantine and vaccinate them. Even if they get them the shot and then use the two week effectiveness period for the PC run up to Seattle they are already cutting things super close. Any unvaccinated crew have to quarantine 7 days and test multiple times on embark. Most crew are not going to be coming in vaccinated, so they embark and go into 7 day quarantine, during which they cannot share cabin spaces.

They haven't been bringing in much crew yet, and what crew they have brought on board a ship is mostly the Magic.

So you bring them all in tomorrow, you are looking at 21+ days before they can go revenue. And things don't seem like they have been working to staff the Wonder, so the timeline still has issues.

The only thing is that proof of vaccinations right now is based on an honor system since there's nothing that is mandatory that makes a person show their card. It's going to be difficult for DCL to cut number of booked children/unvaccinated adults down when they have already paid for their bookings if it needs to be a certain percentage of guests on a cruise unvaccinated. I guess one way they could cut bookings would be if any leading reservations were under a child who was not age appropriate to get the vaccine, but that would affect other members in that stateroom, so DCL might offer to change the lead person on that stateroom to get around it.

More than likely the age requirements to get the vaccine will be lowered. Now that Pfizer is good in the refrigerator for 30 days it can hopefully be distributed more to doctor's office to get shots.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

More than likely the age requirements to get the vaccine will be lowered. Now that Pfizer is good in the refrigerator for 30 days it can hopefully be distributed more to doctor's office to get shots.

The Pfizer data for the next age drop is expected to be submitted to the FDA in August or September. So certainly not in time for an AK season.