Disney Dream Experience (post test cruise)

[jrapps]

Now that the Dream is moving forward with test cruises, I wonder what the experience will be on the ship with masks, social distancing, dining rooms, etc. Of course, the CDC guidelines are likely to be changed a dozen times from now to then, but given what we know today, I see a few options.

First, just for ground rules...when a ship does a test sailing, it is "certified" as a mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated. Even if an individual sailing happens to have more than 95% vaccinated people, it would be irrelevant to the overall ship rules. Since this is Disney and lots of kids, I don't see that as an issue here.

Now this could be a controversial topic so I am going to tread lightly here...one interesting thing is that the CDC does allow the ship to separate sections off for vaccinated only people.

So, what do you think DCL will do for the overall experience? Cut the capacity way down and space everything out? Do reservations for kids club like on the UK sailing? Make everyone wear colored magic bands and have separate dining rooms for vaccinated vs un-vaccinated? (unlikely unless they say kids under 12 can be in unvaccinated areas)

Please note, this is not intended to be a conversation about vaccines, or if you agree or disagree with vaccines. There is another thread for that please keep those conversations there to avoid having this one shut down. Lets keep this to what we think the overall experience will be when the Dream first sets sail, hopefully in August!

 

[Cheburashka]

Now that the Dream is moving forward with test cruises, I wonder what the experience will be on the ship with masks, social distancing, dining rooms, etc. Of course, the CDC guidelines are likely to be changed a dozen times from now to then, but given what we know today, I see a few options.

First, just for ground rules...when a ship does a test sailing, it is "certified" as a mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated. Even if an individual sailing happens to have more than 95% vaccinated people, it would be irrelevant to the overall ship rules. Since this is Disney and lots of kids, I don't see that as an issue here.

Now this could be a controversial topic so I am going to tread lightly here...one interesting thing is that the CDC does allow the ship to separate sections off for vaccinated only people.

So, what do you think DCL will do for the overall experience? Cut the capacity way down and space everything out? Do reservations for kids club like on the UK sailing? Make everyone wear colored magic bands and have separate dining rooms for vaccinated vs un-vaccinated? (unlikely unless they say kids under 12 can be in unvaccinated areas)

Please note, this is not intended to be a conversation about vaccines, or if you agree or disagree with vaccines. There is another thread for that please keep those conversations there to avoid having this one shut down. Lets keep this to what we think the overall experience will be when the Dream first sets sail, hopefully in August!

No one here knows what DCL will do upon reopening. They're playing their cards close to their chest, as per usual. We'll only know whenever DCL finally makes announcements about it.

That said, I think it is extremely unlikely that DCL will separate anyone in the ship on the basis of vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated. For many reasons, but primarily because vaccination status is currently linked to age, and DCL is a family cruise line that typically has intergenerational groups sailing together. They aren't going to have a vaccinated-only dinner seating (which would be virtually adults-only) and another dinner seating for everyone else who has unvaccinated kids. Same goes for pool usage, etc. Families are going to want and need to be together, and that means that vaccinated and unvaccinated are going to share the same spaces.

There are not enough childless adults sailing on DCL to segregate passengers based on vaccination.

 

[CamColt]

I will be interested to see what people think. My only opinion right now is I have absolutely no idea.

I do agree with your though...hopefully the Dream will be sailing in August.

 

[jrapps]

That said, I think it is extremely unlikely that DCL will separate anyone in the ship on the basis of vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated. For many reasons, but primarily because vaccination status is currently linked to age, and DCL is a family cruise line that typically has intergenerational groups sailing together. They aren't going to have a vaccinated-only dinner seating (which would be virtually adults-only) and another dinner seating for everyone else who has unvaccinated kids.

Yeah, intend to agree. My hope here is in the 2 months between now and cruises resuming, the rules change again to say that they can get rid of masks and social distancing (either ship wide or in specific venues like dining rooms) if 95% of "eligible" people are vaccinated. That way kids under 12 won't count against it and the experience returns to almost normal.

 

[Cheburashka]

Yeah, intend to agree. My hope here is in the 2 months between now and cruises resuming, the rules change again to say that they can get rid of masks and social distancing (either ship wide or in specific venues like dining rooms) if 95% of "eligible" people are vaccinated. That way kids under 12 won't count against it and the experience returns to almost normal.

My guess would be that they'll require masks and distancing indoors, and distancing-only outdoors. Private tables at dinner at which families dine together with no masks on while seated, and tables spaced more apart than usual. They might enforce population limits within pools and hot tubs (maybe via some timed ticketing system for entry if needed to keep people from spending hours at a time in them), and will probably space the loungers out. If they have any brains they will actually enforce the longstanding rule that people can't "reserve" loungers for long periods by laying items on them.

 

[DisneyMusicMan]

I wonder about the rotational dining. If they space tables out, and group by families, wouldn’t that reduce the number of guests in the dining room per seating? Would they go to three dining times?

 

[Cheburashka]

I wonder about the rotational dining. If they space tables out, and group by families, wouldn’t that reduce the number of guests in the dining room per seating? Would they go to three dining times?

The early cruises are not going to be full sailings or even close to full. That will probably take care of that issue.

 

[DisneyMusicMan]

The early cruises are not going to be full sailings or even close to full. That will probably take care of that issue.

That makes sense.

I know they pulled some cruises from being sold, so they could control occupancy on those. But how about cruises that already had high occupancy?

 

[Cheburashka]

That makes sense.

I know they pulled some cruises from being sold, so they could control occupancy on those. But how about cruises that already had high occupancy?

Given that we're still in the midst of a pandemic, that cruising has been stigmatized and prohibited for over a year, that DCL is primarily a family cruise line and most people's children are not vaccinated yet, that DCL has funneled enthusiasm away from upcoming cruises and toward next year's Wish debut, and that people currently have no idea whether or not DCL's late summer/early fall cruises will even sail, I very much doubt that any of DCL's late summer/early fall cruises are high-occupancy. Most of the August & September cruises still have concierge staterooms available, and that signifies low-occupancy this close to sail date. Concierge is usually the first category to sell out.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

We are sailing a 3 day mid September and I’ve never seen a boat ‘so empty’ our Facebook cruise group has less than 75 and It’s gold activity booking day and literally everything is available with plenty of times available (but cabanas)

 

[Husker Mike]

That makes sense.

I know they pulled some cruises from being sold, so they could control occupancy on those. But how about cruises that already had high occupancy?

Disney has already cancelled everything through July. Many schools start back in early-mid August, so I imagine that there won't be "high occupancy" for any cruise until Thanksgiving.

And BTW, when I scanned my late July cruise on the Fantasy a couple of weeks before it was cancelled, it only appeared about 60% full. So I truly believe that high occupancy is not going to be an issue early on.

 

[jrapps]

We are sailing a 3 day mid September and I’ve never seen a boat ‘so empty’ our Facebook cruise group has less than 75 and It’s gold activity booking day and literally everything is available with plenty of times available (but cabanas)

I hope this is true. If the ship is half full, I will feel much more comfortable sailing in September.

 

[OpieDoodle]

There's so many factors that are at play I don't really think we can even begin to guess what's going to happen. I'd bet watching policies and how things change for WDW will be a good indication of what to expect.

I'd expect some regulations when they first start sailing but I'd bet things will slowly calm down and relax over time until we get back to some sort of "normal"

Until then its all speculation really