Wonder Heading Back to Port Canaveral?

ScrapHappy

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
I'm a member of a social-media group for the March 2020 WBPC cruise and a fellow member of the group has been in contact with a crew member on the Wonder for quite some time now. This member of the group posted a little while ago that the crew member told her they're leaving tomorrow to go back through the Panama Canal to Port Canaveral. The crew member told her they will be dropping off crew members from Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica and other Caribbean countries on the way. Has anyone else heard this?
 
I'm a member of a social-media group for the March 2020 WBPC cruise and a fellow member of the group has been in contact with a crew member on the Wonder for quite some time now. This member of the group posted a little while ago that the crew member told her they're leaving tomorrow to go back through the Panama Canal to Port Canaveral. The crew member told her they will be dropping off crew members from Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica and other Caribbean countries on the way. Has anyone else heard this?

Well two days ago Canada ended any chance of the wonder going back to Alaska. In 2020. No cruise ships over 100 passengers can go to Canada until November. So could be true.
 
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Doesn't it cost the cruise line a lot of money to transit the Panama Canal though? So if they do it now, I can't see them sending the Wonder back to the west coast for the Fall, which would cancel all the Sept and October Mexico sailings out of San Diego and the November EBPC canal sailing.
 
If they are going to send the Wonder back now or soon, they're probably going to give up on the planned dozen or so Mexican Riviera itineraries planned for when the Wonder would have returned south from the Alaska season, most likely because they're probably expecting significant restrictions on porting in Ensenada, Cabo and Puerto Vallarta placed by Mexico on cruise ships. In addition there's no guarantee that the CDC won't extend the No Sail Order past July OR that they won't place a lot of regulations and restrictions in order for the ships to sail which could include reduced passenger capacity and reduction of services on board. DCL might figure it's better to just make a wash of the entire West Coast season and reset on the Atlantic/Gulf side, possibly with their eye on resuming in time for HOTHS and Merry Time Christmas cruises later this year. We shall see, only way to tell is watch it's position for the next few days to see what happens.
 


One might see this move as having three ships in the Bahamas/Caribbean area to cruise short 3/4 night cruises. That seems more manageable than long cruises. Also, Florida is easier to deal with than California regarding restrictions.

Or I could be completely in denial about cruises the rest of this year.
 
One might see this move as having three ships in the Bahamas/Caribbean area to cruise short 3/4 night cruises. That seems more manageable than long cruises. Also, Florida is easier to deal with than California regarding restrictions.

Or I could be completely in denial about cruises the rest of this year.

You pretty much nailed it. DCL, like pretty much every organization on the planet, is having to figure this out, take what was planned, and adapt to the situation at hand. If they don't expect to sail until the fall, they have crew on the ship they need to repatriate, and the easiest way to get them home is by ship. The shorter cruises make sense, but no one is really going to have a better sense of what will happen until late summer is my guess, and assuming there is a second wave in the fall the longer cruises present greater risks. Everyone should just assume there will be changes, everyone is doing the best they can, for the next while adaptability and flexability are key for all of us. It sucks (we had HAL booked for Alaska for the end of August), but we are all in the same boat.
 
You pretty much nailed it. DCL, like pretty much every organization on the planet, is having to figure this out, take what was planned, and adapt to the situation at hand. If they don't expect to sail until the fall, they have crew on the ship they need to repatriate, and the easiest way to get them home is by ship. The shorter cruises make sense, but no one is really going to have a better sense of what will happen until late summer is my guess, and assuming there is a second wave in the fall the longer cruises present greater risks. Everyone should just assume there will be changes, everyone is doing the best they can, for the next while adaptability and flexability are key for all of us. It sucks (we had HAL booked for Alaska for the end of August), but we are all in the same boat.
If they want to run ships at lower capacity, it might make sense to take passengers already booked on the Dream/Fantasy 3/4 night cruises this fall and offer them to switch to the same itinerary (though switching the Nassau/CC days so they can alternate docking) on the Wonder. Probably they will just cancel it all, but it would solve the problem of having more bookings than reduced capacity would permit.
 


Florida is easier to deal with than California regarding restrictions.

Exactly, if CA is not going to work with them on restarting their business, why leave their ship parked there. CA is not doing for Disneyland and DCL what FL has done for Disneyworld. FL sat down with Disney and hammered out a plan so that they could re-open. CA has just done endless shutdown renewals with no hope in sight for Disneyland. California put Disney in stage 4 of their re-opening plan which means they cannot open until there is treatment in place. When asked, California Governor Newsom stated "stage 4 will only be allowed when there is a vaccine for Coronavirus". So if it takes years for a vaccine, then DCL and Disneyworld will have to wait. Right now there is no incentive for a stage 4 business to keep their business in California. Makes total sense to pull your ship over to Florida so that you can actually conduct business.

If they want to run ships at lower capacity, it might make sense to take passengers already booked on the Dream/Fantasy 3/4 night cruises this fall and offer them to switch to the same itinerary (though switching the Nassau/CC days so they can alternate docking) on the Wonder.

That makes sense, if they want to lower capacity then bring over another ship and split the already existing Dream/Fantasy cruises. If they do go this route, I hope it's just an offer and not just done on our behalf. Would not be ideal if they took us off the Dream and stuck us on the Wonder. I'm just hopeful we'll even go out at all in Oct so obviously we'll take whatever we can get. My wife says there are only 2 kinds of people in the world, those on the DCL boat and those not on the boat. This current situation of not being able to be on the boat people is driving me crazy, so I'm going to take this moving of the Wonder as a good sign for our upcoming Oct cruise.
 
Being booked on the EBPC, this is depressing if it is going back to FL. But, we expected this to happen. Not sure when we'll take another cruise. Could be many years.
 
Exactly, if CA is not going to work with them on restarting their business, why leave their ship parked there. CA is not doing for Disneyland and DCL what FL has done for Disneyworld. FL sat down with Disney and hammered out a plan so that they could re-open. CA has just done endless shutdown renewals with no hope in sight for Disneyland. California put Disney in stage 4 of their re-opening plan which means they cannot open until there is treatment in place. When asked, California Governor Newsom stated "stage 4 will only be allowed when there is a vaccine for Coronavirus". So if it takes years for a vaccine, then DCL and Disneyworld will have to wait. Right now there is no incentive for a stage 4 business to keep their business in California. Makes total sense to pull your ship over to Florida so that you can actually conduct business.



That makes sense, if they want to lower capacity then bring over another ship and split the already existing Dream/Fantasy cruises. If they do go this route, I hope it's just an offer and not just done on our behalf. Would not be ideal if they took us off the Dream and stuck us on the Wonder. I'm just hopeful we'll even go out at all in Oct so obviously we'll take whatever we can get. My wife says there are only 2 kinds of people in the world, those on the DCL boat and those not on the boat. This current situation of not being able to be on the boat people is driving me crazy, so I'm going to take this moving of the Wonder as a good sign for our upcoming Oct cruise.
I’m with your wife! Truthfully we would get on any of the ships right now!
 
I love the Wonder and would be thrilled to do a cruise out of PC on her. Makes sense to limit capacity and allow people to spread out if you are going to try to restart cruises. We aren't scheduled until July 2021, but I'm sure they want to get back to some sort of functionality asap, and if Alaska is out, then it seems like a good move.
 
Being booked on the EBPC, this is depressing if it is going back to FL. But, we expected this to happen. Not sure when we'll take another cruise. Could be many years.

We are also currently booked on the Nov 6 2020 EBPC cruise. We will just wait to hear from DCL via emails concerning this year's EBPC and also wait to see the release of the Fall - Winter 2021 itineraries to decide what to book next? Maybe 2021 EBPC, 2021 Holidays cruises or maybe 2022 Wish cruises? Only time will tell what to book next? Take Care everyone, Be Safe and Stay Well......
 
Uh, think about this? Why would they go to Canaveral? If it had been said they were going to Galveston or Orleans, I might have thought this made at least a little sense. Why incur a PC transit charge with an empty boat? Why throw away all the late summer/fall revenue of west coast cruises? Why take an additional 25% revenue hit having to award a load of FCC for those cruises? Going to Fla and not the Gulf means also writing off Dec-Feb cruise too? And what proof do we have that it's easier to get CMs home from the few ports they can dock at down south versus just leaving from 'Diego?

Technically not impossible but seems so highly improbable.
 
Going to Fla and not the Gulf means also writing off Dec-Feb cruise too? And what proof do we have that it's easier to get CMs home from the few ports they can dock at down south versus just leaving from 'Diego?
Getting between Florida and Texas/Louisiana/Puerto Rico is relatively easy. No reason they couldn’t get back there after going to Florida. They’d already be on the east side of the Canal.

In terms of CM’s, they can literally sail to many of their home countries from the east side of the canal. That’s what the Fantasy is doing right now. In California, no CMs are allowed off the ship for any reason.
 
Why throw away all the late summer/fall revenue of west coast cruises?
Because California put Disney in phase 4 of re-opening, which means there is no summer/fall cruises out of California. Why leave the Wonder in California when you can move it to Florida (a state that is working with Disney to re-open) and start cruising and earning. Makes total business sense.
 

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