Fantasy Test Sailing

[katmigordon]

Wait, can they do that? The 7 days are justifiably twice the amount of a 3 or 4 day... how are they going to justify cutting the trip in half?

THAT ABSOLUTELY STINKS - I had no idea, still thought the test cruise was today. I am not loving that they are sailing the Fantasy to Nassau, that is not a port on either the Eastern or the Western. I sure hope they provide some information to those of us with September cruises SOON.

Could this be an indication that they plan to change the Fantasy sailings to 3 and 4 night cruises instead of a 7-night? Sure seems like it.

 

[KashasMom]

Wait, can they do that? The 7 days are justifiably twice the amount of a 3 or 4 day... how are they going to justify cutting the trip in half?

Cruise lines can change your itineraries. It's in your cruise contract. They do give a refund of days/ports missed.

 

[katmigordon]

Ok, so they do give a refund for days missed... that's better than having spent 10k on a 3 day cruise in September.

Cruise lines can change your itineraries. It's in your cruise contract. They do give a refund of days/ports missed.

 

[skoi]

I think these are the test cruises that are being offered to CM’s at a highly reduced rate, not the CDC simulated sailing, which will happen first. I know the Fantasy brought on more crew today, but I don’t know if they will conduct the simulated sailing before onboard training.

Thanks. I wasn´t clear. I had originally read today was to be the day, then someone posted that elsewhere.

 

[Dug720]

Ok, so they do give a refund for days missed... that's better than having spent 10k on a 3 day cruise in September.

They refund the port fees and taxes. NOT the days themselves.

 

[Dug720]

Wait, can they do that? The 7 days are justifiably twice the amount of a 3 or 4 day... how are they going to justify cutting the trip in half?

If they make the decision to change to 3/4 night cruises, they would give notice and you would have an option to accept or cancel. If during the cruise they have to miss a port, you get the port fees and taxes back only.

I'm not sure why people are saying the ports will be an issue...RCCL and Celebrity are doing Eastern and Western cruises now and stopping in ports.

 

[KashasMom]

If they make the decision to change to 3/4 night cruises, they would give notice and you would have an option to accept or cancel. If during the cruise they have to miss a port, you get the port fees and taxes back only.

I'm not sure why people are saying the ports will be an issue...RCCL and Celebrity are doing Eastern and Western cruises now and stopping in ports.

Thanks for correcting me on the days part. I knew the correct answer, just didn't come out that way.

Do you know if there are any restrictions for the ports RCCL and Celeb are going to - cruise line excursions only or can vaccinated people go off on their own?

 

[Dug720]

Thanks for correcting me on the days part. I knew the correct answer, just didn't come out that way.

Do you know if there are any restrictions for the ports RCCL and Celeb are going to - cruise line excursions only or can vaccinated people go off on their own?

It was more clarification.

I think it depends on the port - and also vaccine status. At least Celebrity got around Florida's ban on requiring vaccine cards by saying "If you show us your card, you'll get these privileges - and wrist band to indicate that you are vaccinated. You can choose not to show us your card, but you will be treated as unvaccinated." The unvaccinated have designated seating areas in dining rooms and at the shows and they are restricted to cruiseline only excursions. The vaccinated in most ports are allowed to do their own excursions.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a couple who were unvaccinated on the Edge and they started out on a ship curated tour in St Maarten, but wandered off. They were disembarked from the ship for not remaining with the group as required.

 

[Chloe&Jelly]

If they changed the 7 day Fantasy to 3 days and 4 days, does this mean that people booked for the 7 day could stay onboard or we would need to choose a shorter cruise?
I am confused.

 

[AquaDame]

In the past there have been only a very few instances where they have split a cruise up. If they do the same as then, you're given the option of whether you would like to stay on new itineraries or take a refund.

As long as back to back cruises are allowed, you should be able to choose both to keep your 7 nights onboard but you'd be doing the "same" itinerary and menus twice which is a deal breaker for some. It is very unlikely they would be able to reach the further ports possible on a 7 night cruise - you'd most likely be looking at CC and Nassau as the dream does.

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

Per a CM onboard (via Instagram) test sailing was moved to Aug 12.

 

[iannovich]

The Fantasy 3 and 4 night cruises at the end of August are only practice cruises to get the all the crew back up to speed. The destination doesn't matter, only the practice. I don't think they're an indication of the Fantasy's sail length changing. I wouldn't be surprised if there were port changes, but I would be surprised if they tried to change the length.

Where did someone see the Fantasy going to Nassau?

 

[lizzyb]

A DCL crew member just said that the test cruise is now scheduled for August 12th.

 

[Chloe&Jelly]

In the past there have been only a very few instances where they have split a cruise up. If they do the same as then, you're given the option of whether you would like to stay on new itineraries or take a refund.

As long as back to back cruises are allowed, you should be able to choose both to keep your 7 nights onboard but you'd be doing the "same" itinerary and menus twice which is a deal breaker for some. It is very unlikely they would be able to reach the further ports possible on a 7 night cruise - you'd most likely be looking at CC and Nassau as the dream does.

Thank you so much for the response!
Honestly, we will just be happy to sail. If they split it and we have same itinerary twice with 2 stops at Castaway, I won't complain.
We know this is not going to be close to normal for anyone for several months so we have adjusted our expectations, looking forward to a little downtime.

 

[skoi]

Thanks all for the clarification. Sorry for the misinformation.

 

[otten]

They refund the port fees and taxes. NOT the days themselves.

Not necessarily true. Now admittedly it was the ‘unprecedented’ Panama Canal cruise but when the ship returned to San Diego a day early we were given a partial refund on our cruise fare in addition to the refund of port fees, even though we didn’t have to disembark the ship early if we didn’t want to

 

[princessmommyx3]

In 2013 our 8 night from Galveston was changed to two 4 night sailings. We were given the option to keep both, or choose one or the other at new prices, or switch to a different sailing. We knew right away that we wanted to switch so I didn't even ask what the pricing was for either of the 4 nights or B2B. We were also given a large OBC no matter which scenario we chose. I think it was $500.

 

[kathi]

If they changed the 7 day Fantasy to 3 days and 4 days, does this mean that people booked for the 7 day could stay onboard or we would need to choose a shorter cruise?
I am confused.

Seriously - I was jut speculating based on the test sailings scheduled for late August and what they are doing with the Magic - no idea if they would do that. We will just have to wait and see how it plays out.

 

[ThinkTink1]

According to this it´s next month. I´m a bit anxious, as we´re set to sail in September and this is cutting it awfully close.

I used to work at DCL and know CM doing both test cruise for the Dream and the Fantasy… the Dream test cruise are the beginning of Aug and the Fantasy at the end of the month… with that being said I just booked myself a seven night cruise on the Disney fantasy for the very beginning of October and I can’t tell you how happy I am!! They’ve posted stuff on social media so I think DCL is allowing them to at least talk about the test cruises and it’s not a secret.

 

[Pinky3]

Who is booked on the Sept 4th Fantasy? Only 4 more days to check in - waiting to see how it goes. We are booked on the Sept 11 ----