Has DCL done away with isolating in one area of the ship?

[jktmom]

This should be a common question that Disney is getting and therefore they should be responding to it correctly. It is unacceptable that Disney did not block off balcony cabins for quarantine. It is also unacceptable that the shoreside staff is not expected to have accurate information. This is the only official source of information most people have. It is only a small percentage of cruisers that engage on these boards.

 

[BadPinkTink]

It is unacceptable that Disney did not block off balcony cabins for quarantine.

the reason they are using oceanview or inside and not balcony is due to negative pressure. When a door is opened on a balcony room air rushes OUT of the room into the corridor. When a door is opened on an oceanview or inside room air rushes into the room from the corridor.

Think about that for a second. Which is better from a health and safety point of view, Covid infected air going out into a corridor or fresh air going into a quarantine room!

 

[DisneYE]

They, being the phone CMs, many of whom are 1099 outsourced and receive limited training? They just barely know DCL is a cruise line. It is the nature of that kind of cost cutting.

They seem pretty adept at handling fcc's, refunds, cabin categories etc...at least in my experience.
These are way more complicated issues than simply knowing the location of a potential quarantine area.
I think they just don't want to say, so they come up with some word jumble.
As hrhdhd said above, I'd much rather them just say: "I don't know" or "this is confidential".

 

[DisneYE]

I think DCL has Plan A, Plan B and Plan C -- possibly more. But they aren't releasing details of those plans because...the details could change. You are asking them for written confirmation of plans now that you can expect to be in place a couple of months from now. Too many variables in what may change. Even if they confirmed rooms on those decks are set aside for quarantine, that doesn't mean who gets assigned to which quarantine location. Deck 5 might be "overflow" and only used if the rooms on deck 2 are full.

I agree with this. But why don't they just say, "we can't release this information, because its confidential" or something to that effect. . I'm a paying customer asking how they will handle a potential scenario that could affect me and family, I'm not looking for charity or special requests. I'm just asking for information that is nowhere to be found on DCL's own website...Their evasiveness and lack of transparency is what frustrates me

 

[Marrila]

I would prefer a "I don't know" or even a "We don't release that info" instead of some incorrect blather.

DCL seem to have made it clear they are not going on the record with any specifics. Its unfortunate phone cm's are stuck with an unhelpful script.
I'll ask my q's here and use recent experiences as good indicators and helpful information.

 

[lanejudy]

I agree that "it will be handled on a case-by-case basis" would be an appropriate response. Though I think too many guests are pushing for info beyond that and wanting specifics for hypothetical situations.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

They seem pretty adept at handling fcc's, refunds, cabin categories etc...at least in my experience.
These are way more complicated issues than simply knowing the location of a potential quarantine area.
I think they just don't want to say, so they come up with some word jumble.
As hrhdhd said above, I'd much rather them just say: "I don't know" or "this is confidential".

But that doesn't mean they have full training. They're trained on transactional issues: Booking, FCC, Refunds.

They're not trained on operations. They have scripts and are rated on turning over the call and getting to the next one.

 

[tvguy]

I agree with this. But why don't they just say, "we can't release this information, because its confidential" or something to that effect. . I'm a paying customer asking how they will handle a potential scenario that could affect me and family, I'm not looking for charity or special requests. I'm just asking for information that is nowhere to be found on DCL's own website...Their evasiveness and lack of transparency is what frustrates me

Well, I have never worked for a cruise line but I worked in TV stations for 40+ years and answered viewer calls and I FULLY understand what is going on. I suspect others who have worked with the general public also have had the similar experience. The person you are talking to hasn't been provided the information you are seeking, or has ZERO knowledge of operations beyond their job duties and location. For me the most maddening calls were regarding which College Sports games the networks were going to be running. All the networks send different games to each of the three time zones. I have no idea how they decide that, we just knew on Tuesday the network would tell us what games we would be getting on Saturday. Drove our local programming directors nuts, because frequently the selection was not the game with the most interest in our area.

As @landjudy put it, they have plans. But if you follow the situation currently with all cruises, the one common thing is because a virus is essentially running things, they have plans but no way to predict which plan will go into effect. And circumstances and plan can change multiple times in the same day.
So don't be mad at Disney because they are being fully transparent and honest. They don't know. But you should know because that is the reality of taking a cruise during a pandemic.

 

[tvguy]

You don't think they know what deck is set aside for potentially quarantining people? Of course they do.

One backed up toilet, or other equipment issue in the assigned quarantine area and it all changes. Or more quarantined guests than the area has room for. So no, they don't know for certain.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

One backed up toilet, or other equipment issue in the assigned quarantine area and it all changes. Or more quarantined guests than the area has room for. So no, they don't know for certain.

THIS! Yes they probably have an idea but things can change so rapidly that what’s true today may not be tomorrow but true again next week. If half the ship comes down sick the rules will be totally different if it’s 5 guests or 5 crew etc.

They seem to be doing the best they can under the current circumstances with what information they have at that time.

Cruising right now means you have to roll with it and trust that DCL is going to make the best choices they can for their guests in the limitations they have to work with- otherwise it sounds that a land based trip may be a better option if any piece of uncertainty or adjustment is ‘vacation ruining’

 

[MomOTwins]

One added bit of color/explanation—once they get closer to a given sailing they are moving guests who booked in the quarantine areas to other rooms. If they said in advance now “deck 2 and deck 5 forward are being used for quarantine” they’d be flooded with calls from people booked in those rooms asking what their new rooms will be and demanding a specific room type etc. But maybe by the time time those guests cruise, they wont need as much space for quarantine and some of those guests will keep their rooms. Or maybe they will have more need and will need to move guests out of higher category rooms and will need yo prioritize room upgrades in a way that makes sure nobody’s category is downgraded. Or maybe a ship is overbooked and will not have enough quarantine spaces so they are waiting to see how many cancel before firming up plans (Hawaii comes to mind). They just don’t know for weeks/months in advance what they are going to do.

This reminds of people asking when will they replace Grand Cayman with another port or sea day. Yes, Disney knows that port is likely going to be closed for at least some cruises, just like they know at least some rooms will be used for quarantine. But they can only decide one cruise at a time, once they have firmed up plans for each cruise closer in time, and can’t give a blanket answer right now.

 

[RedHead0186]

the reason they are using oceanview or inside and not balcony is due to negative pressure. When a door is opened on a balcony room air rushes OUT of the room into the corridor. When a door is opened on an oceanview or inside room air rushes into the room from the corridor.

Think about that for a second. Which is better from a health and safety point of view, Covid infected air going out into a corridor or fresh air going into a quarantine room!

This. And probably also that because it's airborne, if the quarantined party is out on their balcony and the people in the stateroom next door are also out on their balcony, it could spread that way. Probably not a super high risk (and I agree the negative pressure thing is a much bigger risk) but is likely also a consideration.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I wonder why people who test positive on other cruise lines are in balcony rooms, then?

Typically the areas onboard the ship being used for quarantine have to be able to be accessed by crew members servicing them without passing through public areas. This is for food service and any other services necessary. On some cruise ships those areas can include verandah rooms. On other ships not so much.

 

[hrhdhd]

the reason they are using oceanview or inside and not balcony is due to negative pressure. When a door is opened on a balcony room air rushes OUT of the room into the corridor. When a door is opened on an oceanview or inside room air rushes into the room from the corridor.

Think about that for a second. Which is better from a health and safety point of view, Covid infected air going out into a corridor or fresh air going into a quarantine room!

This doesn't make sense to me, given that other cruise lines are isolating people in balcony cabins (in some cases, in suites).

 

[hrhdhd]

Typically the areas onboard the ship being used for quarantine have to be able to be accessed by crew members servicing them without passing through public areas. This is for food service and any other services necessary. On some cruise ships those areas can include verandah rooms. On other ships not so much.

There are internal crew stairwells in every ship. There's no reason a section of deck that includes verandas can't be blocked off just like a section of deck 2 is.

 

[diablodancer]

This doesn't make sense to me, given that other cruise lines are isolating people in balcony cabins (in some cases, in suites).

To the best of my knowledge there’s now no centralised guidance on measures so each line will be doing what they want to/what they feel works best.

I’d also guess deck 2 may have been chosen as it’s a deck without much ‘through traffic’ due to there not being any attractions on that deck and it’s not a deck people generally transition through (like decks 6 and 8 on the bigger ships) to get between things. I always liked to walk around all decks pre-covid to look at door decorations and deck 2 was always deserted compared to 6/8. Only time most people will be down that low will be when getting on/off the boat.

 

[lanejudy]

This doesn't make sense to me, given that other cruise lines are isolating people in balcony cabins (in some cases, in suites).

Honestly, I haven't seen any specific confirmation of the "negative air pressure" assumption for using deck 2. And recent reports are that a section of deck 5 is blocked off for quarantine, a section that includes verandahs. So I think the deck 2 location is more likely due to proximity to the medical facilities. But regardless, I don't think the guest gets a choice of quarantine location if necessary. It may be a bargaining chip for the pro-rated refund...

 

[hrhdhd]

To the best of my knowledge there’s now no centralised guidance on measures so each line will be doing what they want to/what they feel works best.

Well, sure, but the stuff about negative pressure is not the answer to the question if other lines are doing it. I doubt Celebrity, HAL, et al., are putting their passengers at risk if this supposition were true.

 

[Kwami]

To the best of my knowledge there’s now no centralised guidance on measures so each line will be doing what they want to/what they feel works best.

I’d also guess deck 2 may have been chosen as it’s a deck without much ‘through traffic’ due to there not being any attractions on that deck and it’s not a deck people generally transition through (like decks 6 and 8 on the bigger ships) to get between things. I always liked to walk around all decks pre-covid to look at door decorations and deck 2 was always deserted compared to 6/8. Only time most people will be down that low will be when getting on/off the boat.

Well, Enchanted Garden and one of the Mid-Ship Detective terminals are down there, too. And the artwork on the walls.

But yeah, deck 2 is basically out of the way, close to the medical facilities, and easy to isolate. It's the logical choice for quarantine.

 

[diablodancer]

Well, Enchanted Garden and one of the Mid-Ship Detective terminals are down there, too. And the artwork on the walls.

But yeah, deck 2 is basically out of the way, close to the medical facilities, and easy to isolate. It's the logical choice for quarantine.

Ah sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve been on the Fantasy!