How are the April/May cruisers feeling at this point?

[CaseyCruiser]

I'm feeling good. Our December cruise worked out and I'm hoping for a good May cruise.

 

[kps7795]

We're scheduled for a 7 day on the Fantasy at the end of March and are still planning on going. We went on a Royal Caribbean cruise over Christmas and my daughter ended up coming down with COVID symptoms on board, testing positive, and having to quarantine onboard. The upside to this is that she's had COVID recently so the odds of us having it again at the port or onboard are slim. In addition, even though it is nerve racking testing at the port, I feel more comfortable with DCL's approach because I believe DCL is more likely to catch people who have COVID through their testing than RCL's approach of allowing you to test 2 days before the cruise.

I hate to burst Covid bubbles, but the DCL test at the port is mostly for optics. It is a Rapid Antigen test. Following the Disney World marathon, I started feeling Covid symptoms on Tuesday and tested myself on Wednesday with a Rapid and a PCR. My Rapid was Negative and my PCR tests have been Positive for the past three weeks!

 

[CM Dad]

My wife and I are doing B2B Vancouver-Hawaii-Vancouver.

We still don't know what to covid requirements are as far as testing to get into Canada, into Hawaii, reboarding to leave Hawaii, arriving by cruise back into Canada and flying back to Virginia.

Testing positive for Covid at any of these location could make the rest of the trip "interesting".

Current plan is to serious isolate the weeks before the cruises start.

 

[lanejudy]

the DCL test at the port is mostly for optics. It is a Rapid Antigen test.

The embarkation test at port before boarding? It is an RT-PCR. Not antigen.

 

[mousefan73]

I’m booked on the Vancouver to Honolulu cruise on April 26. We are nervously excited that it actually might happen. On CC on the forums someone had commented that they actually work for the Port of Vancouver and they are having a job fair next week getting ready for this season.We are paid in full, have everything booked. The only thing a risk is the one-way Hawaiian Airlines flight coming back. This is what’s making us nervous still:

1. Itinerary changes because the latest information is that Hawaii requires all ships to Port first in Honolulu. No one’s heard anything official, but On one port schedule site you see the wonder on May 2 in Honolulu. This sudden leaves a big question what days and what ports are we really at? It’s like you have to plan A and Plan B. So for the originally scheduled port stops I have car rentals booked. I also booked PAs in case there are changes I hope that Disney changes our PAs to the right days.( and then I don’t have to stress about fighting cars on new days) I did as a plan C Book a car rental for the day on May 2 in HNL. If the above confuses you, it sure the heck confuses me and took me two days to book and figure out.
2. Canada, oh dear Canada the stress you are causing us all. Sure go ahead and officially open your ports but make it the most stressful, Unknown, my whole trip can be ruined thing with your incoming testing requirements. I’m triple vaxxed, need a PCR test to even get on the flight, BUT you’re still going to most likely randomly make me take a PCR test at the airport. Where in some cases you read online takes days to get results. So do I book a hotel two days before my cruise, three days, five days? Might as well book 2 weeks since I have to enter with a quarantine plan. And God for bid I test positive am I going in quarantine jail for two weeks?
3. What happens if they have to test us before we arrive Honolulu and you are positive? Are you quarantine on the ship until the final destination Honolulu? So in essence you can’t see the other ports, but then do they just let you go free in Honolulu? Maybe I just won’t worry about that.

All I know is we are paid and ready to go and if it actually happens that I get on the wonder, I’m gonna kneel down on the floor in the atrium like the pope and kiss the ground and probably cry.

If all goes well and we disembark in Honolulu I’m probably going to French kiss every stranger I meet because I can totally live it up in Honolulu for days, fly to SFO, and fly to Frankfurt and there’s not one single testing required at all. That my friends, will be the other bliss after the hell we went through to get to this point

 

[Anthony Vito]

Well, it was actually announced that school mask mandates will end 3/31 here - so just in time for all the 2 weeks before we leave - I'm going to me a wreck. I should add that as nerve-wracking as I imagine it will be at the port with testing (and now in those 2 weeks leading up to it with the kids in school with no other kids wearing masks), the testing requirement is part of the reason we're okay with going - I'm pretty sure we would not go or would cancel if they did away with the testing requirement. I can't imagine it makes it any less stressful at the time or leading up to it though. I think we'd also feel a lot differently if we lived close to the port and weren't a 15 hour drive away.

 

[RedHead0186]

I hate to burst Covid bubbles, but the DCL test at the port is mostly for optics. It is a Rapid Antigen test. Following the Disney World marathon, I started feeling Covid symptoms on Tuesday and tested myself on Wednesday with a Rapid and a PCR. My Rapid was Negative and my PCR tests have been Positive for the past three weeks!

Yes, antigen tests are less sensitive than PCR tests, so I put more faith in the accuracy of PCR result. However, the DCL port tests are rapid PCR, not antigen, so they are pretty reliable.

 

[Alaska777]

I hate to burst Covid bubbles, but the DCL test at the port is mostly for optics. It is a Rapid Antigen test. Following the Disney World marathon, I started feeling Covid symptoms on Tuesday and tested myself on Wednesday with a Rapid and a PCR. My Rapid was Negative and my PCR tests have been Positive for the past three weeks!

i thought it was rapid PCR?

 

[TPgal]

We're on the Magic, leaving April 30th out of Miami. (Originally scheduled as a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise March 2020, then rescheduled, then rescheduled by us, but before the 1st replacement cruise was cancelled. - did you follow that? It's been a journey.)

We are a bit sheepish about going, but are really looking forward to it. The kids in our party (11 & 9) are pros at wearing their masks all day, so the flights (SEA to MIA) shouldn't be too terrible. We're hoping the non-spring break timing means that the ship won't be overly full, but also aren't really planning on attending the theater events onboard.

82 days and counting down.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

We're booked for the mid-May DIS Podcast cruise and are very much looking forward to sailing again. No one knows what the system will be in May but we are moving forward with our plans. We don't live our life on "what ifs", strictly the current data, information, and procedures.

 

[dreynolds1982]

This is us too. Our only stress is if someone tests positive or false positive and our family of four is going to have to make immediate travel reservations back to the West Coast, from Orlando.

Yeah I mean I keep telling myself that the odds of me randomly, asymptomatically testing positive at the port is probably next to almost nothing. But still, it's the one thing out of our control and unknown when it comes to planning for this trip. Hopefully as case numbers go down, the COVID positives at the port will go down too and decrease the odds even more.

 

[ChicosWife]

Yeah I mean I keep telling myself that the odds of me randomly, asymptomatically testing positive at the port is probably next to almost nothing. But still, it's the one thing out of our control and unknown when it comes to planning for this trip. Hopefully as case numbers go down, the COVID positives at the port will go down too and decrease the odds even more.

That is good news; however, I'm like you, I don't like the uncontrollable variables. It's a big trip, across the country for us, and that we have waited three years for, so the possible, huge disappointment is stressful.

 

[Husker Mike]

We passed our 60 day cancellation, and decided to plow forward with all our plans for an early April cruise. The only change we made is that we're skipping the parks prior to the cruise; renting a house with a pool instead for a couple of days to hang out before going to the park. We'll have limited exposure other than flights and normal life prior to the cruise. We're renting a car for the whole trip, and if the tests turn positive, we'll look to rent another house with a pool to wait out a quarantine.

 

[princesscinderella]

We are very excited for our April 16th Fantasy sailing. We plan to PCR test at 45 days and 2 week before the cruise just to get a baseline one in case we have had an asymptomatic case and can get the 90 day exemption. We are a 3 hour drive from the port so if we are positive we will just turn around and head home.

 

[SnowWhite2]

We just booked the April 25th Magic last Sunday. We got a FL resident rate. We sailed on the Fantasy Jan 2nd. Not much to do as they ran trivia several times a day, every day. Not much in the way of entertainment. There was a comedian but my husband said he wasn't very good, It was our 21st cruise on DCL. Honestly I didn't feel like I got the value out of it. It was expensive and I was bored a lot. It did rain for about 2 days of the trip and delayed our docking into Costa Maya by 4 hours. The ports were changed and our tastings were screwed up. No help in getting it resolved from Guest Services. Just a sorry. Was told I was booked for the tasting on Nassau day but wasn't. It definitely wasn't up to DCL standards. The tipped crew did try really hard to make it a good trip. I saw the price of the FL resident rate for the late April double dip on the Magic and booked it. Why? It was cheap! Two days on CC and two days on the ship. I can't get a nice hotel room for the daily rate I'm paying let alone food for the two of us. I know what I'm getting at this point. I don't have high expectations. I'm bringing several books and I'll just chill out on deck 4 or Cove Cafe.

 

[Sakura1017]

I am totally stressing out. I have concierge booked for the May 6 Hawaii cruise. So at the moment I know I would lose the deposit if I cancel. I was going to go with my parents, but if they don't go I might need to change rooms since its quite expensive as a 1 bedroom suite for just 1 person.

I haven't paid in full yet since I'm still deciding and see what they do. I'm worried that Hawaii might not let us in at ports which would defeat the whole purpose of a cruise. In addition, I haven't heard what happens if you are on a Disney port adventure and someone in the group gets positive. Do they automatically make everyone quarantine that was on the port adventure? I haven't had a chance to talk with Disney to find out how they are spacing on buses to port adventures either.

I'm trying to go on the cruise since visiting the different islands has always been a goal of mine. I was originally booked in 2020 so I felt like this is a nice redemption cruise. Plus I like how Disney is not sailing at full capacity yet and is requiring everyone that is of age to get vaccinated. But still there are always breakthrough cases which makes it frustrating.

 

[Sun_soakin]

We canceled our early April cruise. Decided it would be easier, less risky to go to HI instead

 

[Pinky3]

We are on April 29th Fantasy and already stressed about testing. I think we are going to test 25 days before and each week up the sail date to be safe.

 

[mousefan73]

[

I am totally stressing out. I have concierge booked for the May 6 Hawaii cruise. So at the moment I know I would lose the deposit if I cancel. I was going to go with my parents, but if they don't go I might need to change rooms since its quite expensive as a 1 bedroom suite for just 1 person.

I haven't paid in full yet since I'm still deciding and see what they do. I'm worried that Hawaii might not let us in at ports which would defeat the whole purpose of a cruise. In addition, I haven't heard what happens if you are on a Disney port adventure and someone in the group gets positive. Do they automatically make everyone quarantine that was on the port adventure? I haven't had a chance to talk with Disney to find out how they are spacing on buses to port adventures either.

I'm trying to go on the cruise since visiting the different islands has always been a goal of mine. I was originally booked in 2020 so I felt like this is a nice redemption cruise. Plus I like how Disney is not sailing at full capacity yet and is requiring everyone that is of age to get vaccinated. But still there are always breakthrough cases which makes it frustrating.

What’s the most frustrating part is the silence on Disney’s part. So many of us have contacted them directly in so many different ways asking for some clarity. I get it they’re probably still trying to figure things out as I type but you can’t tell me that at this point they don’t know anything. Especially seeing what’s being reported by other cruise lines who are already sailing to Hawaii right now.

I think less people would be canceling right now if Disney would be open and say listen worst case this is what can happen if it sails. There’s so many open questions they need to address and there’s silence is simply not addressing it.

 

[Lillebelle]

We just got off the Wonder and had an amazing time, and are very much looking forward to our next cruise which is booked in May. We did not really feel like we had a diminished experience but I think that's really going to depend on what is important to you. We have small children who are literally happy playing in a puddle on deck, so the activities schedule mattered less to us. I did see quite a few things scheduled (animation classes, family crafts, trivia, karaoke, bingo) but we went to none of them.

How I looked at it when we were deciding whether or not to do this most recent cruise - to put it bluntly, how desperate are you to go on a cruise? In our case, we just really wanted to be on the cruise ship, whatever the 'cost' to the experience might be. We were desperate to get back to cruising after having several cruises cancelled, and have no regrets about moving forward with it.

I will say though, as tempting as it is to wish for more time to decide, the reality of the pandemic is that trying to see even a couple months ahead with any degree of confidence has proven to be folly thus far. I'd say, walk through the different very real possibilities and see what your gut tells you. How sad would you be if you cancelled now, and by May things were looking good but that meant there were no rooms left to rebook? Conversely, what changes (or persisting current circumstances) would 'ruin' the cruise for you if you did go?