(May 14) Disney Cruise Line Cancels Select Cruises Through July 2021 - Hope Remains for Alaskan Sailings

[nmackovski]

"Today, Disney Cruise Line announced the further extension of their cruise suspension, cancelling all Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy sailings through July 2021. Disney Wonder sailings have been cancelled through July 12, 2021 which seems to offer some hope the recent Senate passing of Alaska Tourism Restoration Act may offer Disney a potential Alaskan sailings via Seattle if the bill can quickly move through the House and the CDC give the Disney Wonder the green light to resume operations – it is premature to speculate, but to only cancel Alaskan cruises until mid-July makes one look for a logical reason and at this point it is all I can come up with. The Disney Magic sailings UK Staycations are NOT part of today’s cancellations as these are specific to the Bahamian, Caribbean, and Alaskan sailings. Disney Cruise Line removed these July sailings from further booking on May 14th ahead of today’s official cancellation."

Additional details:
https://disneycruiselineblog.com/20...-july-2021-hope-remains-for-alaskan-sailings/
source: https://disneycruiselineblog.com/

 

[_auroraborealis_]

He is clearly not stretching his logic sensor.

Currency float.

 

[kathi]

Disappointing - I had really hoped they could get going in July for Dream and Fantasy.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The math of doing the PC twice empty to do 9 Alaska cruises is not good.

 

[JWelch62]

The math of doing the PC twice empty to do 9 Alaska cruises is not good.

The EBPC in November is still available to book. It sails after the CDC order expires. (I don't recall who pointed this out to me on another thread) So, maybe only one non-revenue PC transit.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/cruises-destinations/list/#panama-canal-cruises

 

[MickeySwirl]

We have a fall baja cruise and salvaging cruises to Alaska this summer is our only hope of sailing. Just don’t see DCL bringing the Wonder west only to do the Mexican cruises.

 

[ahain]

The EBPC in November is still available to book. It sails after the CDC order expires. (I don't recall who pointed this out to me on another thread) So, maybe only one non-revenue PC transit.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/cruises-destinations/list/#panama-canal-cruises

Couldn't they throw together a last minute WBPC cruise with only 1 brief port stop to keep it to 7 nights to get the Wonder to the west coast? I would sign up in a heartbeat!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Couldn't they throw together a last minute WBPC cruise with only 1 brief port stop to keep it to 7 nights to get the Wonder to the west coast? I would sign up in a heartbeat!

I think it unlikely.

 

[ThinkTink1]

I did see something today mentioning that the Senate is trying to pass a Bill that will allow Disney and other cruise lines to sail out of Seattle and sail directly to Alaska bypassing Canada... if that happens it would hopefully save part of the cruise season... I don’t have a cruise book to Alaska, my cruise was the first one cancelled last March, sooo I have a 150% cruise credit just sitting there waiting to be used!!

 

[otten]

I did see something today mentioning that the Senate is trying to pass a Bill that will allow Disney and other cruise lines to sail out of Seattle and sail directly to Alaska bypassing Canada... if that happens it would hopefully save part of the cruise season... I don’t have a cruise book to Alaska, my cruise was the first one cancelled last March, sooo I have a 150% cruise credit just sitting there waiting to be used!!

They are quickly running out of time to salvage any of the Alaska season. There is more to sailing out of Seattle than just changing the rule.

I don’t know why the Wonder is only cancelled until mid July but it seems very unlikely to me that DCL would choose to have their first cruise in North America be a new itinerary out of a port they haven’t sailed out of in years with a state government that is not nearly as cruise friendly or as reopened as Florida.

 

[Pooh93]

We are scheduled to be on the Disney Magic in November sailing from Miami. There might be hope. Idk. It's exhausting waiting.

 

[Alyleth]

They are quickly running out of time to salvage any of the Alaska season. There is more to sailing out of Seattle than just changing the rule.

I don’t know why the Wonder is only cancelled until mid July but it seems very unlikely to me that DCL would choose to have their first cruise in North America be a new itinerary out of a port they haven’t sailed out of in years with a state government that is not nearly as cruise friendly or as reopened as Florida.

My take is that they are waiting as long as possible to cancel so they won't need to offer 125% credit for those who haven't PIF. Give folks more time to cancel themselves. I don't remember what the new PIF dates are now, 60 days out? 30 days out? I'm camping on my August Alaska and hoping to convert it to a nice booking on the Fantasy next Aug. I highly highly doubt Alaska will happen this year. 1. They have to get the Wonder back over to the left coast, and the fees for going through the canal are astronomical. 2. With all the CDC steps that have to be followed before paying customers are back onboard, the timing doesn't seem to work out for the Alaska season. They'd be out here for maybe a month?

 

[KVH]

Couldn't they throw together a last minute WBPC cruise with only 1 brief port stop to keep it to 7 nights to get the Wonder to the west coast? I would sign up in a heartbeat!

I think it unlikely.

Agreed. If you start counting days, I think you'd need at least 7 sea days + a transit day. ~4,400 NM from Galveston to SD (per NOAA). Assuming an average of 20 kn/hr (and that's FAST for 24 hr/day). That's at least 191 hours. Plus add the downtime with the transit. ☹

 

[bcwife76]

The House has now passed the Alaska bill as well; it's widely assumed President Biden will also sign off on it.
https://www.adn.com/politics/2021/0...rge-cruise-ships-to-visit-alaska-this-summer/

 

[kathi]

Do you think other cruise lines are in a better position (both physically and regulatorily) to sail Alaska in August/September? We focus on DCL here, but it's a big market for a lot of cruise lines and some of them are already saying 100% vaccinations for passengers - which would skip the test cruises and save some time.

 

[KVH]

I think the real question, even with the 100% guidance, is which ship(s) will be fully staffed in time. I've heard a lot of back and forth about who the ships can/can't hire, how quickly they can get on the ship, be trained, etc. That will be the make or break for when sailings start. I think late July is a fair estimate.

And unless Mazloum wants to chase some limited $$ (considering the offset cost of getting the Wonder over here), I don't think a left coast season is in the cards for us this year.

 

[bcwife76]

Do you think other cruise lines are in a better position (both physically and regulatorily) to sail Alaska in August/September? We focus on DCL here, but it's a big market for a lot of cruise lines and some of them are already saying 100% vaccinations for passengers - which would skip the test cruises and save some time.

I think the real question, even with the 100% guidance, is which ship(s) will be fully staffed in time. I've heard a lot of back and forth about who the ships can/can't hire, how quickly they can get on the ship, be trained, etc. That will be the make or break for when sailings start. I think late July is a fair estimate.

And unless Mazloum wants to chase some limited $$ (considering the offset cost of getting the Wonder over here), I don't think a left coast season is in the cards for us this year.

Honestly? I think it's a llllloooonnnngggg shot for DCL to start up in Alaska this year. Carnival, Princess, Holland and NCL have all announced restart dates from Seattle (not sure where their ships are all located at the moment) but they have all announced specific restart dates around the last week of July. Carnival and NCL have already stated vaccines will be mandatory (so I'm assuming Princess and Holland will, too). WA state currently has an order in place for ships that sail with less than 250 people and are over night cruises that vaccines are mandatory when sailing out or around that state so I would assume this will be expanded to include large cruise ships.

 

[Chrissy-Mickey]

Honestly? I think it's a llllloooonnnngggg shot for DCL to start up in Alaska this year. Carnival, Princess, Holland and NCL have all announced restart dates from Seattle (not sure where their ships are all located at the moment)

Carnival's Miracle is off the coast of Baja California.
Both Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam and Princess' Majestic are in California near LA.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

NCL is selling their August AK cruises again. They have contracts in Seattle already and apparently have hope of doing three months of sailing: https://www.travelandleisure.com/tr...ruise-line-resumes-alaska-voyage-ticket-sales

 

[kathi]

The Wonder is listed in the legislation.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1318/text?q={"search":["Hr1318"]}&r=1&s=2