The new « rules » for cruises in 2021?

[brentm77]

It's going to be interesting for sure. I'm in a few cruise groups on the site that cannot be named and there are a lot of members who are planning to cancel if the new policies prevent an experience they've come to expect. I think the changes will impact DCL more than the other cruise lines and have a feeling a lot of FCCs are going to turn in to cancellations.

It will be interesting. There is probably a sweet spot between lower capacity that allows less restrictions, thereby increasing customer supply beyond the initial surge of customers who will cruise under any conditions. WDW has seen that even with reduced capacity, getting customers back during restrictive measures, over an extended period isn't as easy as they thought it would be. Sure, some of that was simple fear of traveling, but not all of it. I have talked to many people who simply won't do WDW with a mask (we loved our trip there, even with masks). And cruising customers will be even more sensitive to restrictions. Where that sweet spot is for cruising, I don't know.

 

[AquaDame]

It's going to be interesting for sure. I'm in a few cruise groups on the site that cannot be named and there are a lot of members who are planning to cancel if the new policies prevent an experience they've come to expect. I think the changes will impact DCL more than the other cruise lines and have a feeling a lot of FCCs are going to turn in to cancellations.

You can say Facebook - I'm not sure who started the 'must not be named' trend. The DIS has a presence on Facebook too.

The only rule I know of is this: https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...uise-meet-and-fish-extender-programs.3353477/ which sets out the rule that you should not DRIVE people to other social media sites for cruise meets/fish extenders or share direct links to such.

 

[DietCokeMommy]

We're going to have to really think about things and whether the restrictions are worth it. I think a lot depends on the itinerary. For our last cruise it was Southern Caribbean and those kinds of restrictions would have been no-gos. We don't generally care for giant group (aka Disney) excursions. And some of the best things about cruising are how laid back it is and every minute doesn't need to be planned. Want to drop the kids off at the club after dinner? Sure! Want to swim in the pool and watch a movie? No problem. Sea days sound like a nightmare to me if you have to plan them out in advance and may not get the time slots you want.

The next cruise we plan to take is Alaska 2022. And while pool time will be much less of a consideration, it seems crazy that we would only be allowed to do Disney excursions. We are American citizens and we won't be free to move around our own country without supervision? I'm very liberal in my politics but that seems like pretty big overreach. At least there will be less concerns there if we're not let back on the ship.

 

[cgolf]

Do not agree. I find it hard to believe that DCL will be able to fill their ships with first time cruising adults. First time cruising adults will most likely try out a cheaper cruise line like NCL or go for a more expensive, adult centered cruise line like Viking. I would venture to say that most adults who choose to cruise with disney do so because they love the disney parks and have great memories cruising DCL with their kids. Also, DCL cruises are more expensive than a lot of other brands - don’t see a lot of normal, first time cruising adults picking DCL over Viking for a first time cruise if they have the funds for either.

DCL will go out of business if the normal, moaning DCL regular families don’t come back to cruising with them. You may not like regular disney cruisers, but we have kept DCL afloat for years, paying extra money for the disney cruising experience. DCL needs families like mine who spend $10,000 to $20,000 per year, every year to sail with them.

Honestly I think to some point you are wrong. DCL really started raising prices on regular fairs in 2017, concierge in 2015. In 2016 we did a 5 and 4 back to back. Looking at 2017, a 3 and 3 night back to back, same time of year, same ship, and same ports, except the 3 and 3 was missing one due to less days, was more expensive than the 2016 cruise that had 3 more nights! We also looked for 2021 and prices for an inside on the Fantasy are not that different from what we paid for our Cat V. room back in 2014.

I have noticed many that questioned me for leaving back then, have now moved on to other lines if not full time, at least part time. Yet DCL always still sails full. At some point though they will overprice it to a point people won't book because they simply can't afford it and the ones that can are looking for a luxury experience. What that threshold is, who knows. Maybe the pandemic will force a pricing correction downward, but I doubt it.

To the OP, masks and ship excursions aren't an issue for us because we always do ship excursions. The if they're late policy with ship excursions is worth it to us to make that choice. Not being able to just get off the ship and shop would be a bit of a bummer though. Honestly I would hope they would charge less for the early cruises, but from what I am hearing of other lines, the opposite is true, so could see DCL raising prices further as well. Time will tell.

 

[mm824]

I logged into my DCL account and this popped up:

"The CDC has issued a Level 4 Travel Notice recommending that all people avoid travel on cruise ships. If a threshold of COVID-19 is detected on the ship during your voyage, the sailing will end immediately, the ship will return to the U.S. port of embarkation, and your subsequent travel, including your return home, may be restricted or delayed."

bonkers.

 

[gwynne]

I logged into my DCL account and this popped up:

"The CDC has issued a Level 4 Travel Notice recommending that all people avoid travel on cruise ships. If a threshold of COVID-19 is detected on the ship during your voyage, the sailing will end immediately, the ship will return to the U.S. port of embarkation, and your subsequent travel, including your return home, may be restricted or delayed."

bonkers.

Yikes.
That is quite a serious and worrisome warning.

 

[Missingmypooh]

I logged into my DCL account and this popped up:

"The CDC has issued a Level 4 Travel Notice recommending that all people avoid travel on cruise ships. If a threshold of COVID-19 is detected on the ship during your voyage, the sailing will end immediately, the ship will return to the U.S. port of embarkation, and your subsequent travel, including your return home, may be restricted or delayed."

bonkers.

saw that yesterday. At this point, we’re never setting foot on a cruise line with those measures.
We have three young children, all with very restrictive food allergies, and one with ASD.

disney would have us quarantine in a small room with no way to know where our next safe meal comes from...

 

[KashasMom]

Hi!

I already posted this on the Carnival thread but I think it deserves its own thread since everyone is expecting to be pretty much what’s going to be the rules for most cruise lines.

Carnival has posted the new health measures related to COVID-19 on board their ships.

You can find it here:

https://www.carnival.com/Legal/covid-19-legal-notices/policies-and-procedures
I feel like it’s pretty realistic and while I understand that it won’t be for everyone, it’s not going to be much different from what we are currently experiencing on land in Canada and maybe in some states in the US?

Now, if I can share my « glass half-full » experience with you... Last summer, while we were (already) under a mandatory mask order, we had 3 hours cruise (with brunch) where we all had to wear masks everywhere, including outside, except when sitting at the table. It was a bit different ... but we chose to keep our mind open and it was amazing.

Since a lot of us here are « overplanners », I would encourage everyone to rethink the way you used to cruise and think of what you could do to make the experience feel a little bit more « normal » (like booking a verandah, in order to be able to relax outside without a mask, go for more in room dining, book an excursion you find very exciting/do more excursions, etc.) Yes, cruising in 2021 will be different, but different doesn’t mean « bad ».

While I understand it, they lost me at the cruise line excursion. I really hope this isn't the way it will be for my next Disney cruise in 2022, otherwise I'll have to move it further out and Dreams Unlimited will probably cut my credit yet again.

 

[cgolf]

While I understand it, they lost me at the cruise line excursion. I really hope this isn't the way it will be for my next Disney cruise in 2022, otherwise I'll have to move it further out and Dreams Unlimited will probably cut my credit yet again.

Why are so many so strong on the excursion thing, I see it on other boards too. Having been on a very late ship excursion where the ship was held for our group, we have been ok knowing that if something happens they will help us out instead of us just being out of luck. We know we will pay a bit more though. I will say though on some of the islands we have been to often, we don't do any excursions and just walk around and shop a bit. We will miss that if we can't do that on our first cruise back. But yeh for us 16 cruises and all ship sponsored excursions.

 

[KashasMom]

Why are so many so strong on the excursion thing, I see it on other boards too. Having been on a very late ship excursion where the ship was held for our group, we have been ok knowing that if something happens they will help us out instead of us just being out of luck. We know we will pay a bit more though. I will say though on some of the islands we have been to often, we don't do any excursions and just walk around and shop a bit. We will miss that if we can't do that on our first cruise back. But yeh for us 16 cruises and all ship sponsored excursions.

I simply have no desire to be on a bus with a bunch of other people all going to the same place, having to wait for people to shop or go to the bathroom, etc. We like the spontaneity of doing things in our own time and changing plans if we find something else to do. Cruise lines (IMO) don't have the best offerings either. We like to explore on our own, sometimes renting a car, going to a private beach, etc. We also like to stop for some local food, not the tour group stop. We've done over 100 excursions on our own and have never missed the ship. And can you imagine if the whole shipload of people ALL have to take a Disney excursion? Everyplace will be so overcrowded! Hard pass on that!

ETA - if we ever missed a ship, we'd catch a plane. Not the end of the world really.

 

[brentm77]

Why are so many so strong on the excursion thing, I see it on other boards too. Having been on a very late ship excursion where the ship was held for our group, we have been ok knowing that if something happens they will help us out instead of us just being out of luck. We know we will pay a bit more though. I will say though on some of the islands we have been to often, we don't do any excursions and just walk around and shop a bit. We will miss that if we can't do that on our first cruise back. But yeh for us 16 cruises and all ship sponsored excursions.

1). Because we don't do excursions at every port. It is expensive, and often there isn't anything that interests us from DCL. There menu of options is often lacking and/or very overpriced. Which means we couldn't even get off the ship to chill around the port or at a close beach. This is the biggest reason I would hate the new policy.

2). I'm not worried about making it back on time. For private, we would do a private tour where we pick what time we want to be back and we would leave plenty of extra time. If we somehow still didn't make it back, we have the means and capability to make it back to the states just fine, even if it would be a pain. Odds are low, and it's not the end of the world.

3) DCL can be a real pain and so slow to get you to the destination, that it often leaves very little time actually there. There is so much wasted time on moving the group. If I go private, I can get there faster, have more time, and still get back with time to spare.

4) I can often hire a better local guide and more comfortable transportation for the same or less money.

5) Disney is just selling some third party excursion at a markup. They don't guarantee quality, and from various accounts, won't usually make it right if the excursion is a bust. So you are paying more for the same thing you can get elsewhere, with the only benefit being the ship waiting for you. I used to think it was worth it for that, but am done worrying about it.

6). The best excursions can be booked before our window even opens.

 

[Carolynleanne]

We took all our money out of cruises for the next 1-2 years. I hope the lines will survive, but we don't want to be forced to get the shot ASAP to sail, or pay out of pocket for tests. We're going to wait and see what the next year holds first.

 

[Husker Mike]

Do not agree. I find it hard to believe that DCL will be able to fill their ships with first time cruising adults. First time cruising adults will most likely try out a cheaper cruise line like NCL or go for a more expensive, adult centered cruise line like Viking. I would venture to say that most adults who choose to cruise with disney do so because they love the disney parks and have great memories cruising DCL with their kids. Also, DCL cruises are more expensive than a lot of other brands - don’t see a lot of normal, first time cruising adults picking DCL over Viking for a first time cruise if they have the funds for either.

DCL will go out of business if the normal, moaning DCL regular families don’t come back to cruising with them. You may not like regular disney cruisers, but we have kept DCL afloat for years, paying extra money for the disney cruising experience. DCL needs families like mine who spend $10,000 to $20,000 per year, every year to sail with them.

We're all speculating here about what Disney is going to do, because Disney hasn't said what they are going to do. Honestly, I don't think Disney even knows for sure right now. They are still waiting the go-ahead from the US government.

That being said, remember Disney is not trying to make their current customers mad. The CDC is making the rules, and whatever Disney implements will be their way to try and operate under those rules. They are going to control excursions because they will be able to trace where people went and who they came in contact with. They are going to restrict their operations because they know that if there is an outbreak on board, they will end up being shut down for a couple of weeks, in all likelihood. So they are going to do whatever they can to control the people on board.

You can talk all you want about how Disney will go out of the cruise business if they don't provide the pre-pandemic DCL cruise experience. That immaterial, because the CDC will not allow DCL to set sail if they are offering the pre-pandemic DCL experience. So the choice for Disney is this: either slowly ramp up operations, following the CDC's guidelines or shut it down completely until the CDC rescinds all of their rules on this. Disney will have to make a decision whether they can operate during COVID under the CDC's guidelines, or if it makes more financial sense to keep their boats moored off of Port Canaveral. That will take into account that some of their customers won't sail under these rules, which will be just fine because Disney won't be allowed to set sail with a full ship until the pandemic's rules are lifted.

 

[Cheburashka]

Disney is just selling some third party excursion at a markup. They don't guarantee quality...

This. Our very first DCL-booked excursion taught us that lesson. The excursion hosts initially took everyone (3 buses worth of people) on the wrong excursion, and that mix-up added a couple of extra hours to the excursion's total time. There were no employees from the ship there, of course- it was completely 3rd party. And yes, it was very slow and lame, even aside from their huge mix-up.

Since then I have only booked one other excursion via DCL (trip to Chichen Itza which is quite a journey inland from Cozumel, so I wanted to be extra safe about knowing the ship would wait if we were delayed). That one was a good excursion, but it still hasn't moved me to book via DCL regularly. At other ports we either guide ourselves or book excursions independently.

 

[alieila]

We had done the Cozumel Ruins, Discovery and Chocolate through DCL port excursions and they had comped us a Castaway Cay package for our horrible experience as the speaker was broken and we couldn't hear the tour guide at all! :-( At least they comped us, but we missed all of what he was talking about during the bus ride and will never be able to know what we missed during the bus ride around the area! For Grand Cayman we did a private charter that I was able to find others that wanted to go in at $20 per person for 3 hour tour, which was wonderful! If Grand Cayman opens up for us in November I'm going to have a hard time figuring which DCL Port excursion to take, if we are fortunate to cruise for Thanksgiving! For Jamaica we ended up with the 19th century plantation tour through DCL Port Excursions and enjoyed the experience a lot! Very pleased with the tour guide etc. Since Thanksgiving is a CC Double Dip with Fantasy, we won't be able to go to Jamaica, but it will be a memory we will never forget!

 

[cgolf]

1). Because we don't do excursions at every port. It is expensive, and often there isn't anything that interests us from DCL. There menu of options is often lacking and/or very overpriced. Which means we couldn't even get off the ship to chill around the port or at a close beach. This is the biggest reason I would hate the new policy.

2). I'm not worried about making it back on time. For private, we would do a private tour where we pick what time we want to be back and we would leave plenty of extra time. If we somehow still didn't make it back, we have the means and capability to make it back to the states just fine, even if it would be a pain. Odds are low, and it's not the end of the world.

3) DCL can be a real pain and so slow to get you to the destination, that it often leaves very little time actually there. There is so much wasted time on moving the group. If I go private, I can get there faster, have more time, and still get back with time to spare.

4) I can often hire a better local guide and more comfortable transportation for the same or less money.

5) Disney is just selling some third party excursion at a markup. They don't guarantee quality, and from various accounts, won't usually make it right if the excursion is a bust. So you are paying more for the same thing you can get elsewhere, with the only benefit being the ship waiting for you. I used to think it was worth it for that, but am done worrying about it.

6). The best excursions can be booked before our window even opens.

I guess the excursions we have done have worked for us and we were lucky that they were pretty good on all 3 lines and pricing didn't seem awful. The biggest loss for us is not being able to walk around and shop. When we did the ABC islands that was a lot of fun and we got lucky since it was super bowl weekend last year. We had good timing Also for us we just want to see a little of each island to get a flavor and may eventually go back to one or two for an extended stay.

I will say on both RCCL and DCL when we had bad excursions, we were compensated for that. Maybe DCL has changed since they did that for us.

Falmouth in 2014 was wild. Due to weather we had to go to a different port and our bus driver picked us up there. The trip started crazy with a guest from the ship having the bus stop and pullover for a bathroom break and on the way back to port the bus driver stopped for what had to be 5 to 10 bucks in gas to get us the port, and I am pretty sure we saw some drug deals being setup while we were waiting at the gas station. That is one excursion I won't forget lol. The stops though were very nice, just a weird start and finish.

 

[mevelandry]

Why are so many so strong on the excursion thing, I see it on other boards too. Having been on a very late ship excursion where the ship was held for our group, we have been ok knowing that if something happens they will help us out instead of us just being out of luck. We know we will pay a bit more though. I will say though on some of the islands we have been to often, we don't do any excursions and just walk around and shop a bit. We will miss that if we can't do that on our first cruise back. But yeh for us 16 cruises and all ship sponsored excursions.

Excursions can be hit or miss. And they have pros and cons. To me the pros are that you don't have to worry about transportation you have a guide that will provide you tons of info and if you're late the ship will wait for you. The cons: pricier, being subjected to a fixed schedule and needing to do some research. This is why I like Carnival's website as people can rate the tours and leave reviews. I will also look on youtube for vlogs about the tours I'm interested in.

Most of the time, we do excursions so we are not going to be annoyed with this measure.

 

[brentm77]

To follow up my previous comment. I have done several DCL excursions and will do some in the future. They can be good, and they can be pretty affordable. I don't mean to take away from anyone else's good experiences with them. My biggest concern would be the lack of flexibility when I don't like the options or the options I don't like are booked prior to my booking window, and the inability to skip an excursion all together.

Would this be a deal breaker for me? Probably not for a typical Caribbean cruise for the near future. If I didn't like the excursion options, I wouldn't be devastated to have another sea day. But absolutely in Europe - for our canceled Italy/Greece cruise, all but one of our excursions was scheduled outside of DCL. DCL's options there were very limited and we had some fantastic private stuff booked.

I also don't really understand the benefit. I know they think they will somehow control virus spread better this way. But it seems minimal. You are still going out and about. Still mixing with local population in many cases. I guess if the significantly altered the types of excursions it could help - no cities, no shopping, no busy restaurants, spaced-out beaches only. It will be interesting to see if that is even possible.

 

[cgolf]

To follow up my previous comment. I have done several DCL excursions and will do some in the future. They can be good, and they can be pretty affordable. I don't mean to take away from anyone else's good experiences with them. My biggest concern would be the lack of flexibility when I don't like the options or the options I don't like are booked prior to my booking window, and the inability to skip an excursion all together.

Would this be a deal breaker for me? Probably not for a typical Caribbean cruise for the near future. If I didn't like the excursion options, I wouldn't be devastated to have another sea day. But absolutely in Europe - for our canceled Italy/Greece cruise, all but one of our excursions was scheduled outside of DCL. DCL's options there were very limited and we had some fantastic private stuff booked.

I also don't really understand the benefit. I know they think they will somehow control virus spread better this way. But it seems minimal. You are still going out and about. Still mixing with local population in many cases. I guess if the significantly altered the types of excursions it could help - no cities, no shopping, no busy restaurants, spaced-out beaches only. It will be interesting to see if that is even possible.

I wonder if some of it is coming from the governments and this was the easiest way to get sign off on cruising into the ports. Maybe some of the areas are closed off to general public when booked tours come through, not sure. I can definitely understand not allowing the people to just get off the ship and wander around randomly, especially without a quarantine time. If that is still the case on our next cruise we will have to coordinate a guava berry rum delivery to the ship

For us unfortunately cruises on the other side of the pond are out because the wife won't fly over the ocean for that long. Just the landing pattern at Ft Lauderdale bothers her.

 

[DCLMP]

6 months ago I might have sailed with restrictions. The longer I go without cruising the less I miss it. Ive never understood the term absence makes the heart grow fonder for me it’s always been the opposite.

I have no desire to wear a mask on a cruise or worry about social distancing. It’s possible after 25 cruises we’ll never cruise again.