How many experiences removed before Disney wouldn’t cruise ( in your opinion)?

[TiggerBouncy]

See a lot of people answering what it would take for them to cruise. I am speculating here, but IMHO, Some things Disney would and would not accept.

* They would accept limited places to dock. they have had to deal with this before, and they will probably be able to find a port of call they can get into. Plus, they have castaway. They are presumably still working on the second island (more of a pier) that they purchased. So they have places they can go. I don't even think a pure sea cruise would be a deal breaker (they have done them before).

* I think they will accept no self service.

* I think they will accept meet and greets must be done at a social distance (more like the characters come out and do shows).

*they will need a form on on board entertainment.. They have to be able to open the main theater (even at reduced capacity / blocked seats) and the movie theater.

* They will need to be able to open the kids clubs.

* I think they will have to have pools. I am not sure on this one though. They may accept them being closed. After all, they close them in bad weather and still sail.

* They will need to be able to open the restaurants.

* Under 50% capacity is not likely to be acceptable - too expensive to run the ship.

Probably much of the rest is open to debate and they can work around.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Primeval Princess]

I just don't see how social distancing as we know it is possible on a Disney cruise, without removing many of the special events that make it a Disney cruise. Sail Away deck party, Pirate Night, the See Ya' Real Soon character goodbye show in the atrium, Bingo- these are all packed with people. So are the pools & water slides.

Take all of these things out, and what is left to do? Watch Disney on demand in the stateroom, I guess. Going to Castaway Cay is nice, but Pelican Plunge and the bike rentals both have to be open for us to find it worthwhile. I could see us just chilling and being pampered in the stateroom, walking the promenade, and enjoying Castaway Cay on a 3-night cruise, but that would be max for us. On a 7-night Caribbean cruise it would absolutely not be worth it imo. And for an Alaska or Europe cruise, why pay the premium on a port-heavy cruise when the experience is that reduced?

 

[MomOTwins]

I just don't see how social distancing as we know it is possible on a Disney cruise, without removing many of the special events that make it a Disney cruise. Sail Away deck party, Pirate Night, the See Ya' Real Soon character goodbye show in the atrium, Bingo- these are all packed with people. So are the pools & water slides.

Take all of these things out, and what is left to do? Watch Disney on demand in the stateroom, I guess. Going to Castaway Cay is nice, but Pelican Plunge and the bike rentals both have to be open for us to find it worthwhile. I could see us just chilling and being pampered in the stateroom, walking the promenade, and enjoying Castaway Cay on a 3-night cruise, but that would be max for us. On a 7-night Caribbean cruise it would absolutely not be worth it imo. And for an Alaska or Europe cruise, why pay the premium on a port-heavy cruise when the experience is that reduced?

The same could be said of the parks, which are even more crowded in "regular circumstances" than the cruise. But Shanghai disney land showed they were willing to operate at a loss; with drastically lower capacity so people could watch shows 6 feet apart.

Bike rentals--why not? Biking is one of the easiest activities to social distance.

Pelican plunge: markers on the stairs showing which steps you can stand on to be 6 feet away from the person in front of you; just like theme parks at Shangai Disney.

I agree Alaska and Europe are likely not happening this year given the uncertainty about whether ports will allow it, but Carnival announced it would only be resuming its Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries in August and I wouldn't be surprised if DCL did the same..

 

[Chemist]

I just don't see how social distancing as we know it is possible on a Disney cruise, without removing many of the special events that make it a Disney cruise. Sail Away deck party, Pirate Night, the See Ya' Real Soon character goodbye show in the atrium, Bingo- these are all packed with people. So are the pools & water slides.

Take all of these things out, and what is left to do? Watch Disney on demand in the stateroom, I guess. Going to Castaway Cay is nice, but Pelican Plunge and the bike rentals both have to be open for us to find it worthwhile. I could see us just chilling and being pampered in the stateroom, walking the promenade, and enjoying Castaway Cay on a 3-night cruise, but that would be max for us. On a 7-night Caribbean cruise it would absolutely not be worth it imo. And for an Alaska or Europe cruise, why pay the premium on a port-heavy cruise when the experience is that reduced?

I completely agree.

If you take away/seriousy modify: shows, characters, dance parties, pools, bingo.... What are you left with?

Obviously not everything is important to every person, but if they weren't important to a LOT of people, they wouldn't be on the ship.

 

[Primeval Princess]

The same could be said of the parks, which are even more crowded in "regular circumstances" than the cruise. But Shanghai disney land showed they were willing to operate at a loss; with drastically lower capacity so people could watch shows 6 feet apart.

Shanghai Disney still has its attractions open. So there is plenty to do there. On the cruises, if they take away the parties, atrium shows, bingo & pools, what is there to do all day? A few things, but not much, especially on the classic ships.

The ships are a lot smaller than the parks; I just don't see how they could manage social distancing at a deck party, even with only 50% of the ship filled.

If they're willing to forego socila distancing, it could work, but with it? I don't think a lot of DCL activities are possible.

 

[MomOTwins]

Shanghai Disney still has its attractions open. So there is plenty to do there. On the cruises, if they take away the parties, atrium shows, bingo & pools, what is there to do all day? A few things, but not much, especially on the classic ships.

The ships are a lot smaller than the parks; I just don't see how they could manage social distancing at a deck party, even with only 50% of the ship filled.

If they're willing to forego socila distancing, it could work, but with it? I don't think a lot of DCL activities are possible.

My point was Shanghai is not just open for attractions; they are also doing parades and character shows and castle stage shows. They did so by reducing the capacity, running the shows more frequently, and putting markers where people could stand to view the show. On DCL, they could similarly offer multiple times for the pirate party/sail away etc. (and even make them ticketed times to spread out the guests between shows), and have markings showing where people can stand to view the show (note: the pool deck has viewing not only on the pool deck but on the upper level by the railings. With the ship at reduced capacity, and that reduced capacity divided between two or three show times, I don't see how it is really any different from what they are doing in Shanghai.

 

[Primeval Princess]

My point was Shanghai is not just open for attractions; they are also doing parades and character shows and castle stage shows. They did so by reducing the capacity, running the shows more frequently, and putting markers where people could stand to view the show. On DCL, they could similarly offer multiple times for the pirate party/sail away etc. (and even make them ticketed times to spread out the guests between shows), and have markings showing where people can stand to view the show (note: the pool deck has viewing not only on the pool deck but on the upper level by the railings. With the ship at reduced capacity, and that reduced capacity divided between two or three show times, I don't see how it is really any different from what they are doing in Shanghai.

We'll have to agree to disagree. The more party sessions they hold, the more staff they need, so I don't think 3 separate Pirate night parties is going to solve this. I just think back to the cruises we've been on, and how crowded those activities were, and that even a 50% reduction wouldn't have had people standing 6 feet apart. Maybe 2-3 feet apart if lucky. Maybe on a ship, 3 feet will be the goal. It is such a smaller space than a theme park.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

We'll have to agree to disagree. The more party sessions they hold, the more staff they need, so I don't think 3 separate Pirate night parties is going to solve this. I just think back to the cruises we've been on, and how crowded those activities were, and that even a 50% reduction wouldn't have had people standing 6 feet apart. Maybe 2-3 feet apart if lucky. Maybe on a ship, 3 feet will be the goal. It is such a smaller space than a theme park.

There is zero question that there has to be stuff to do on a ship. DCL can't cruise with everyone being in their staterooms. I think a lot of individual functions they could do without - Disney is nothing if not inventive and they could come up with some great ideas. I have a lot of confidence in the entertainment directors and staff on DCL - I have seen them come up with some incredible fun concepts under pressure from annoyed passengers and bad weather.

That said, as I mentioned in my earlier post, I think the kids clubs are non-negotiable. If they can't separate parents from kids, they are just going to have a lot of miserable parents and kids.

I also think the main theaters, show rooms and using the rest of the area (like the bars and lounges) are non-negotiable. They can come up with intelligent ways to spread a crowd, but they need the space in order to do it. (Like when they first started doing the Star Wars Day at Sea).

Individual events like Pirates night, Sail A-Way, etc.... They can re-invent those. Castaway Cay has a TON of unused area that can be utilized. these things can be fixed in the modern era. But they have to have enough capacity to make the ship worthwhile to operate (or a plan to get there) and they have to have enough space to seperate those people. That means using both the upper decks and the lower decks to spread a crowd.

 

[Karin1984]

I think one of Disney's biggest selling points over other cruiselines is how family friendly they are with the kids clubs etc included. I think with these being closed, they lose their appeal to their main target audience.

Doesn't mean they can't switch temporarily to target guests without kids, but because no one knows how long this will take, and when they will need what kind of guests, it is probably less complicated not to sail.

 

[MomOTwins]

We'll have to agree to disagree. The more party sessions they hold, the more staff they need, so I don't think 3 separate Pirate night parties is going to solve this. I just think back to the cruises we've been on, and how crowded those activities were, and that even a 50% reduction wouldn't have had people standing 6 feet apart. Maybe 2-3 feet apart if lucky. Maybe on a ship, 3 feet will be the goal. It is such a smaller space than a theme park.

But I still think you're not hearing what I am saying. it is not a 50% reduction, it is much less than that. Shanghai began operating at 30% capacity. And they added extra shows to divide the guests between them. So imagine the ship at 30% guest capacity, with two pirate shows instead of one (e.g. one for early dinner, one for late dinner). That would only be 15% of the "normal" size crowd at each party.

Even at 50% capacity, if they ran three shows, that'd still be 16.6% of ordinary attendance.

 

[Husker Mike]

I would disagree that Disney cannot afford to run the ships at 50% capacity (or less). It might not be ideal, but I suspect that they could operate the ships with most of the rooms empty because they have been doing that the last two months. It's not like Disney can just dock the ships until science solves this virus. They have to operate the ships, consuming fuel and requiring a crew. Because that crew needs to eat and sleep, there's some food service and housekeeping. Plus there's depreciation of the boat itself. Plus customer service rescheduling passengers from their cancelled cruises.

All that is costing Disney money, with zero revenue.

So the question becomes, how much more does it cost to bring SOME passengers on board. Obviously, if you only fill some of the rooms, you don't need as much housekeeping staff or as much food service people. You might not need quite as many activities people since there are fewer kids in the clubs. Entertainment might be the only thing that doesn't scale down.

I don't know what the breakpoint is, and I don't think anybody outside of Disney's accounting team really does. But many of the costs DCL has are sunk whether they have passengers on board or not. This isn't trying to turn a profit by cruising...this may be merely trying to mitigate the losses in the meantime.

 

[jrapps]

We were on the Dream for Hurricane Dorian... Was supposed to be 3 days, ended up being 6. At least half the people cancelled the cruise (even with free days it's hard to adjust travel plans)

I mention this because I've been on a cruise that sailed at less than half capacity, and where DCL obviously lost money on the sailing. Overall the ship was EMPTY. Pirate night you could have done cartwheels on the top deck. Some times it felt crowded like at shows but I do believe Disney can and would sail ships at 50% or less capacity and make most experiences work. If the ship is that empty they can space people out in dining and shows.

For me, no pools would be hard but kids club is the clincher. My kids live for that, plus how do I do Palo brunch if they aren't at the club.

From Disney perspective I wonder if they decide it isn't worth sailing until they can do a 15 min Covid test to everyone before sailing. While not perfect, they would need some way of screening out as many infected as possible. While keeping guest safe is always a top priority, the crew is the real challenge. They live like sardines on the ship. One infected person gets on and infects one crew member, that's it. By the time they realize it your have 20+ infected crew members. That would cause them to shut down again. Having to shut down a 2nd time would be worse than opening up later.

 

[DCLDVC1]

Deal breakers off the top of my head

- Wearing a mask is required
- Kids club restrictions
- Limited character interactions
- Pool closure

 

[ilovebassets]

We never attend the major events like sail away parties, dance parties, and pirate night. I would have zero problem with these being canceled although understand that they're really important to many people. I could handle modifications in the kids clubs like having to sign up ahead of time (kind of like the nurseries which we have used several times between three kids spaced over 7 years). No kids club at all would be a deal breaker. Pool closures would be a deal breaker--this is where we spend the bulk of our time. Move theater closures would be a deal breaker although I would accept having to sign up ahead to time to limit viewers at any one time.

 

[monkeydawn]

Individual events like Pirates night, Sail A-Way, etc.... They can re-invent those. Castaway Cay has a TON of unused area that can be utilized. these things can be fixed in the modern era. But they have to have enough capacity to make the ship worthwhile to operate (or a plan to get there) and they have to have enough space to seperate those people. That means using both the upper decks and the lower decks to spread a crowd.

The problem with moving Pirate night or any of the shows to CC is that A-not all cruises go there and B-even cruises that are supposed to go there sometimes cant dock. Can you imaging the double whammy of disappointment of not being able to do CC or the Pirate show?

As an aside this is a problem I have with MSC's beautiful island Ocean Cay. They had a pretty low success rate of getting ships to actually dock there given that they were using it as a huge selling point. They are supposed to do 2 different "shows" there at night, a Junkanoo parade and a laser show at the lighthouse. Of the sailings that are actually making it to OC, some are leaving early and there was no effort made to at least have the parade (I know the laser show would not have worked during the day but the parade absolutely could have been held during the day). I was *really* looking forward to this parade so missing it kind of sullied what was otherwise a really nice experience.

 

[CaLuCa]

The deal breaker for me would be the shows and the kids clubs. I adore the shows, and love a good magician. We rarely get a babysitter so the promise of adult time is such a treat. I could do without Pirate night, although my kids love it. I imagine Cabanas will be served and not help yourself. I'll be the odd duck out and say the pools don't matter to us. We do the slides and aquaduck a couple of times, but that's it.

I cannot fathom how any sort of social distancing can occur on a cruise. I expect Disney will add to the waiver you sign when you board something along the lines of notice of potential contagions.

 

[cgolf]

I think a lot will be taken away and they will say it is for our good, and it might just save them money long term. Seeing DCL over the last 5 years I wouldn't hold your breath that all of the items will come back. Not being a hater, just that what we got as a product from 2008 to 2016, a fair amount isn't available and the price is higher.

I just hope cruise lines don't take away more things and charge even more than they currently do and blame the virus. We are thrifty cruisers and hate paying more for less. Our next two cruises are booked, but I am not sure how I will feel about air travel in 2021 and more importantly how my employer will feel about their employees flying to a vacation and going on a cruise.