Has the EBTA plus Med Cruises been cancelled?

[CarolynU]

Neither EBTA or Med cruises Are being shown as available any more but mine is still showing up as my future cruise 6th June departing Rome on my future cruise bookings on DCL website.
I’m not at all surprised and wouldn’t blame DCL at all, but I’m just wondering which cruise to even switch it to which could potentially sail.
No one knows of course but my two possibles for this year would be an August Northern European or an August Alaskan. However, that assumes that at some stage the EBTA would switch to much later in the season. That’s it for 2020 so then last choice is to play safe and transfer the credit to our Northern European 2021 which is just inside the transfer period or presumably take a refund.
Like millions of others here though I just want my little grandkids to sail with Mickey this Summer, but do appreciate that no one has a crystal ball!

 

[Marc D]

The beginning of Magic’s summer season is not cancelled - as of yet - but they removed the possibility to book those cruise. I also think they do not allow new bookings on those cruises by phone or postponements to those cruises.

With the situation in Italy, Magic’s summer season was the first to be called into question. Even if everything resolved magically tomorrow, I don’t think they would chance basing their ship for a few months there. The country’s capacity to handle the logistics needed to turn around the ship each week - both for supplies and guests’ management - will not be determined for a few months after the crisis subsides.

 

[braysmommy]

They did the same thing to our Hawaii cruise last week and we are just waiting for cancellation email from DCL. I don't see how they can sail EBTA and beginning of Med season and they are probably trying to figure out what to do.

 

[lorimay]

I highly doubt there will be a European season this year. Italy is in really bad shape
Just waiting on the email from DCL about our EBTA cancellation.

 

[JTlikestheDuck]

The first European cruise listed on the DCL site is the July 25th cruise (which I'm on). We're still debating on cancelling before the PIF date of March 27th.

 

[spiders]

Personally, I think that if the European season does happen, the Magic is likely to sail eastbound without passengers. I think early May is appearing more unlikely everyday.

 

[mousefan73]

My feeling is DCL is simply too overwhelmed and dealing with current non-sailings. Also things are changing daily, weekly to the extreme. Granted the direction now is bad but who knows what 2 months brings us. Last year when the oasis had it”’ dry dock incident it canceled the EBTA and about 4 med sailings. Believe they started in June. We got lucky our sailing was mid June. Though I have to admit the feeling around here is pretty negative an anything getting better soon.

 

[CarolynU]

Thank you all. Lots of interesting theories. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed for something this Summer. Might be idealistic though.

 

[smmco]

They don’t need passengers onboard to reposition the ship. I wouldn’t be Surprised if the cancelled May and June and started the Europe season in July. The magic is schedukef for a dry dock in Europe in September.

 

[BadPinkTink]

They don’t need passengers onboard to reposition the ship. I wouldn’t be Surprised if the cancelled May and June and started the Europe season in July. The magic is schedukef for a dry dock in Europe in September.

thats exactly my thought too, that The Magic will re position and pick up half way through the season.

The Magic is scheduled to re position from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe on Saturday July 18, 2020 with the
7-Night Western Europe Cruise from Barcelona to Dover. My prediction is that this will be cancelled and that The Magic will go straight to Dover. The first European cruise will then be the scheduled Saturday July 25, 2020 - 11 Night Northern Europe Cruise from Dover to Copenhagen.

 

[smmco]

thats exactly my thought too, that The Magic will re position and pick up half way through the season.

The Magic is scheduled to re position from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe on Saturday July 18, 2020 with the
7-Night Western Europe Cruise from Barcelona to Dover. My prediction is that this will be cancelled and that The Magic will go straight to Dover. The first European cruise will then be the scheduled Saturday July 25, 2020 - 11 Night Northern Europe Cruise from Dover to Copenhagen.

That or they could change some of the itinerary’s in July. Maybe offer onboard credit or a future cruise discount to people that keep their cruises. They’ve done something similar in Hurricanes season when they’ve had to completely change itinerary.

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

I'm booked on the 5/23 Med and haven't gotten an email yet, but I expect one soon. I don't see how the season could possibly go as planned.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

thats exactly my thought too, that The Magic will re position and pick up half way through the season.

The Magic is scheduled to re position from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe on Saturday July 18, 2020 with the
7-Night Western Europe Cruise from Barcelona to Dover. My prediction is that this will be cancelled and that The Magic will go straight to Dover. The first European cruise will then be the scheduled Saturday July 25, 2020 - 11 Night Northern Europe Cruise from Dover to Copenhagen.

I was thinking the same thing, as a best case scenario. The Med ports would appear to be unlikely in any circumstances at this point, particularly those in Italy, but also France, Spain, and Greece as those countries deal with more confirmed virus cases. Right now, even Dover might become questionable, but July 25th is still 4 months out. DCL has removed the EBTA and all the Med cruises from Barcelona and Rome so far from their online booking listings, providing some more time to decide what happens after that.

We’re actually booked on the Vancouver to Honolulu, Hawaii cruise on April 29th and the 12-night Med-Greek Islands cruise out of Rome on July 1st. Waiting on official cancellations so we can request refunds for both. We will not rebook, even with a significant rebooking incentive. We booked the EBTA for May 2021 on the recent opening day, and that’s now the earliest we have any plans to cruise. We also have an Aulani stay after our scheduled arrival in Hawaii, booked on non-refundable rented DVC points and various airfares that were purchased about as early as possible (close to the 330-day mark), so unlikely to be able to use within the 12 months of purchase limitations currently being required by both United and Aer Lingus. We expect to eat those costs, since our travel insurance has an epidemic/pandemic exclusion.

 

[Intr3pid]

The drydock plan is just that. A plan.

Carnival, RCL, and NCL are hurting. They will likely push out or altogether cancel their new ships and refurbishments. A lot more shipyard capacity will become available. Those who can afford it - well, only Disney really - might use the cancelled summer for the drydocks.

 

[smmco]

I would assume if DCL was going to scrap their whole European season wouldn't cancel half of it.

 

[Geomom]

'If' NYC gets COVID-19 under control, I could see the Magic doing cruises from NY (to Canada...once their ports open, Bermuda, Bahamas, etc) until sometime in July, then doing a Northern transatlantic to Dover to do the Northern European cruises. They will still need to do a dry-dock somewhere as the hull needs to be checked at some point soon due to regulations.

 

[CarolynU]

Thank you for all your different theories. They are very interesting to read. Actually I’ve just had a thought. If my cruise is cancelled and I shifted it to something else in August and this thing was still prevalent but reducing and then we got sick presumably DCL wouldn’t transfer our cruise again to a different one and new insurance policies aren’t covering Covid-19.
My existing insurance expires at the end of June.

 

[slg]

I really think it will be 2021 at the earliest, people are going to be broke, insurance won’t cover anything and people will be scared.id the cruise industry doesn’t collapse there will be deals.

 

[jlbf06]

I’m wondering whether I’m the only one who’s actually really peeved with DCL about this. I live in Europe and it’s clear that the infection numbers here are still rising, to put it bluntly the Italians are shipping bodies by the truckload and there is zero chance that this ship is going to sail to Barcelona in May. Spain is being cited as the “Next Italy”.

Yet DCL have had full payment from the people sailing on the EBTA. They extended many other PIF dates to 30 days but we are paid and cannot cancel for a refund. Many people will be impacted by this catastrophe financially, which could be causing more stress and even forcing them to compromise their own health if they need to work to continue to pay their outgoings. I feel that DCL should now do the right thing - cancel and refund (or of course offer a future cruise credit for those who want it).

Sorry if I’m ranting but sometimes a company of the size and stature of Disney should lead by example and take care of loyal guests. The vast majority of TA cruisers are platinum and gold members.

 

[lorimay]

My though on this^^ is they are just going cruise by cruise and being inundated with calls from people about cruises happening before May at this point, we should hear something soon.