Wonder Heading Back to Port Canaveral?

Wow. Obviously Mazloum needs to fire his whole C-suite and hire the denizens here. There is just so much more knowledge about how to run DCL correctly in the forums. Especially allowing everyone to have all of the line's core knowledge when it comes to and justifying their actions and how/what decisions they have to make in very difficult times . . .

I haven't seen any posts about running DCL and agree these are difficult times but DCL does not have to add to the difficulty by stringing people along. DCL is a CLIA member. Does anyone here truly believe that DCL was blindsided by the CLIA voluntary ban announcement and that the cruises from 07/25-09/15 that they were selling only days ago had to be cancelled and that they truly intended to sail those cruises? C'mon man. It was just coincidence that DCL was going around the Caribbean getting rid of their crew and the ban until 09/15 just happen to come down? Sure. If you're getting rid of your crew, that means you're aware there are not going to be anymore cruises, yet you continued to sell the cruises or string along those who have already PIF.

I've got $10,314.91 tied up in a 10/02 Dream cruise that DCL removed from their website but does not have the decency to tell me is cancelled so that I can make other arrangements. Also have airfare, hotel, to and from port, etc tied up as well. This is a recurring thing happening to many, not just me. Has nothing to do with company's "core knowledge" or telling anybody how to run their company or "justifying their actions", there's just always going to be a right way to treat people and this isn't it. I understand the CDC and the virus is not their fault and am not blaming them for that. If they want to cancel my cruise or reduce capacity on my cruise because of the virus/CDC/CLIA, that's fine, I accept that. All I'm asking is if my cruise is being cancelled or removed from new bookings to reduce capacity, then let me know. It's really really obvious my cruise is no longer listed on their website, so the "we didn't know we were going to cancel" game by DCL is getting a little played out. It wasn't removed from their website by accident. It then gets compounded when you see all these reports that they're cruising around the Caribbean shedding their crews. I e-mailed shoreside concierge asking why my cruise was removed from the website and just got the standard form letter reply e-mail stating "if anything changes we will reach out to make you aware". To me DCL is the best cruise line in the industry so as such, I consider them an industry leader. One of the fundamentals of leadership is that you keep your people informed.

The first round of cancellations was a surprise but now that we've seen enough of these, you start to notice the company doing things up until the cancellation that appears like they had prior knowledge of the cancellation but continue to sell or keep PIF cruises, knowing they do not intend to sail them. For example, getting rid of your crews is a big giant red flag for future cruising. Removing all Sept and Oct Dream cruises from your website, another giant red flag. Would be very hard for DCL to make those kind of moves and then claim they didn't know they were going to have to cancel those cruises when they do finally let us know officially.
 
I haven't seen any posts about running DCL and agree these are difficult times but DCL does not have to add to the difficulty by stringing people along. DCL is a CLIA member. Does anyone here truly believe that DCL was blindsided by the CLIA voluntary ban announcement and that the cruises from 07/25-09/15 that they were selling only days ago had to be cancelled and that they truly intended to sail those cruises? C'mon man. It was just coincidence that DCL was going around the Caribbean getting rid of their crew and the ban until 09/15 just happen to come down? Sure. If you're getting rid of your crew, that means you're aware there are not going to be anymore cruises, yet you continued to sell the cruises or string along those who have already PIF.

I've got $10,314.91 tied up in a 10/02 Dream cruise that DCL removed from their website but does not have the decency to tell me is cancelled so that I can make other arrangements. Also have airfare, hotel, to and from port, etc tied up as well. This is a recurring thing happening to many, not just me. Has nothing to do with company's "core knowledge" or telling anybody how to run their company or "justifying their actions", there's just always going to be a right way to treat people and this isn't it. I understand the CDC and the virus is not their fault and am not blaming them for that. If they want to cancel my cruise or reduce capacity on my cruise because of the virus/CDC/CLIA, that's fine, I accept that. All I'm asking is if my cruise is being cancelled or removed from new bookings to reduce capacity, then let me know. It's really really obvious my cruise is no longer listed on their website, so the "we didn't know we were going to cancel" game by DCL is getting a little played out. It wasn't removed from their website by accident. It then gets compounded when you see all these reports that they're cruising around the Caribbean shedding their crews. I e-mailed shoreside concierge asking why my cruise was removed from the website and just got the standard form letter reply e-mail stating "if anything changes we will reach out to make you aware". To me DCL is the best cruise line in the industry so as such, I consider them an industry leader. One of the fundamentals of leadership is that you keep your people informed.

The first round of cancellations was a surprise but now that we've seen enough of these, you start to notice the company doing things up until the cancellation that appears like they had prior knowledge of the cancellation but continue to sell or keep PIF cruises, knowing they do not intend to sail them. For example, getting rid of your crews is a big giant red flag for future cruising. Removing all Sept and Oct Dream cruises from your website, another giant red flag. Would be very hard for DCL to make those kind of moves and then claim they didn't know they were going to have to cancel those cruises when they do finally let us know officially.
Your point about flights and hotels, etc. is an excellent one. It’s not just about the cruise fare.
 
I wonder why October sailings on the Wonder are still bookable on the website whereas other ships’ itineraries have been pulled?
 


I wonder why October sailings on the Wonder are still bookable on the website whereas other ships’ itineraries have been pulled?
Dream is supposed to be in drydock in October. The 3 Magic Bermuda cruises are still listed along with all of the Fantasy cruises for Oct (that take place after the cancelled TCM cruise).
 
Dream is supposed to be in drydock in October. The 3 Magic Bermuda cruises are still listed along with all of the Fantasy cruises for Oct (that take place after the cancelled TCM cruise).
Thank you for clarifying! The post I read made it sound very different.
 
Thank you for clarifying! The post I read made it sound very different.

5 different cruises on the Dream spanning Sept-Oct (Including mine which is in October) were removed from the DCL website but were not cancelled by DCL. These cruises are prior to the scheduled dry dock. It's kind of a weird limbo. If you go look at the DCL website our cruises don't exist but all of us on these 5 cruises are technically still a go because they were not on the last round of cancellations.
 
Last edited:


5 different cruises on the Dream spanning Sept-Oct (Including mine which is in October) were removed from the DCL website but were not cancelled by DCL. These cruises are prior to the scheduled dry dock. It's kind of a weird limbo. If you go look at the DCL website our cruises don't exist but all of us on these 5 cruises are technically still a go because they were not on the last round of cancellations.

Whether it is true or not, I have had multiple conversations with DCL booking agents that they were taken down for capacity reasons. If DCL does plan on sailing, they do not want to have the first sailings overloaded and keeping them up on the website would mean they could be booked to capacity. I am on the September 29th sailing on the Fantasy and they recently updated my dining to Main as I requested. Will they sail? Who knows, but these businesses and cruise lines can not just sit idle until the country figures out how to control this. Controlling the virus can mean a lot of different things. WDW is opening next month, Universal is open, SeaWorld is open, etc. These businesses need to learn how to operate in a pandemic. I'll continue to be optimistic and look forward to my cruise until they tell me otherwise!
 
cruise lines can not just sit idle until the country figures out how to control this. Controlling the virus can mean a lot of different things. WDW is opening next month, Universal is open, SeaWorld is open, etc. These businesses need to learn how to operate in a pandemic.

Yes, exactly, totally agree. I'm also glad booking agents are telling you that about the capacity thing and not a cancellation thing. Gives me a little more hope. Might be a little creepy sailing on an empty ship but better than not sailing at all. I'm used to hearing all the excitement and kids' feet running down the halls, with reduced capacity it might be what it's like when you go out on the ship at 4am during a normal capacity cruise. I have not been on a Disney Cruise since Oct 2019. This is the longest we have gone without a DCL cruise since 2014. We're definitely ready to get going with DCL again. I think the clue will be when they start picking up crew instead of dropping them off. So far it looks like the crews are getting off not getting on.

Someone wrote on one of these threads that DCL needs to have the crew onboard approx 42 days out from the first sailing for DCD reasons. Not sure where the 42 number came from but if that's true, then they need to have the crew re-board by the first week of August (Sept 18th Dream sailing is first up). So guess we'll see late July/early August if their are re-staffing or not. That will be the tip off.
 
Not sure where the 42 number came from

This is assuming that the current ruleset for crew embark/disembark is held to, which is highly likely. At this time, any time you embark crew, they must be quarantined in individual rooms for 14 days before being allowed to work. A ship has to be green to relax any physical distancing, including allowing crew to share quarters. The green designation also refers to how long it's been since there has been a positive test onboard. It is very hard to see the CDC not using this as a minimum as they move towards allowing passenger operations if this is what they are requiring to simply allow repatriation of crew to proceed via US ports.

It is not unreasonable to pad your 14 days of quarantine, because one person failing in quarantine sets your ship back from green status. If you consider how unhappy you are about the lack of status updates for a September cruise now, if they tried to do crew quarantine of 14 days and sail less than a week later, you could very well be looking at cancels on under 10 days' notice if a crew member tested positive. So with 42 days I am allowing more than one round of quarantine to get to green, plus ship prep time.

Once your crew is all onboard, the status is green, then you can actually prep the ship for launch.

DCL is not rehearsing production shows right now, and I'd highly suspect production shows will be a casualty in the first several sailings. It will all be solo performers who don't need 2+ weeks of rehearsals as a group. (Even a returning cast needs rehearsals before going on stage).
 
Realistically, I honestly don't see cruises restarting until there is a actual working vaccine in distribution. Also until airlines can fly internationally in and out of the U.S. to allow cruisers to fly in to embark on ships there really isnt a logical way to recommence operations since they would need to re-crew the ships first and there are way too many foreign nation crew that would need to probably fly in to get to the ships. Until that happens there is no "date" you can pin down in the near future.
 
I have never been on a Disney cruise so the only emotional attachment that I have is due to the money paid for a Christmas Day sailing. But, I do see a lot of signs that make me think that sailing isn't close.

1.) The CDC hasn't given guidance on what their expectations are for future US cruises. That has to be the first domino that falls. Then Disney can communicate with customers on what they can expect. The same process happened for Disney World.

2.) All US travel bans need to expire. The Magic will be departing from New York when cruising resumes. I live in a state that cannot travel to NY.

3.) Consistent messaging from Disney. If DCL plans on cruising during October, and all those voyages include Halloween on the High Seas, why did WDW cancel MNSSHP??

Obviously, there is a lot more to consider. With businesses starting to close down again, I don't see us getting any closer to cruising. WDW requires 2 year-olds to wear a mask! I have a 2-year old and can't imagine telling him to wear a mask for our 6-day cruise.
 
I have never been on a Disney cruise so the only emotional attachment that I have is due to the money paid for a Christmas Day sailing. But, I do see a lot of signs that make me think that sailing isn't close.

1.) The CDC hasn't given guidance on what their expectations are for future US cruises. That has to be the first domino that falls. Then Disney can communicate with customers on what they can expect. The same process happened for Disney World.

2.) All US travel bans need to expire. The Magic will be departing from New York when cruising resumes. I live in a state that cannot travel to NY.

3.) Consistent messaging from Disney. If DCL plans on cruising during October, and all those voyages include Halloween on the High Seas, why did WDW cancel MNSSHP??

Obviously, there is a lot more to consider. With businesses starting to close down again, I don't see us getting any closer to cruising. WDW requires 2 year-olds to wear a mask! I have a 2-year old and can't imagine telling him to wear a mask for our 6-day cruise.

A lot can happen in 3 months, and if airlines are flying in the US, theme parks are opening, hotels still allow people to stay, etc they will try to cruise.

WDW is still holding Food and Wine, not to mention hosting the NBA and MLS. I’ve heard MNSSHP was due to the fact that they wouldn’t be able to get merchandise fast enough. Also the fact that they were starting in August and would have no parades, fireworks, etc. That be a lot of money to spend on a party to get candy. Cruise I can sit in the pool all day.

I have an almost two year old as well and will only have her wear one when I need to.

who knows what will happen come September. Who knows what will happen at the end of July.
 
WDW is still holding Food and Wine, not to mention hosting the NBA and MLS. I’ve heard MNSSHP was due to the fact that they wouldn’t be able to get merchandise fast enough. Also, the fact that they were starting in August and would have no parades, fireworks, etc. That be a lot of money to spend on a party to get candy. Cruise I can sit in the pool all day.

Food & Wine is being offered to spread out the crowds among parks and compensate for many of the restaurants being closed/limited. They needed to do something to attract people to a park that is mostly under construction. Even still, EPCOT is the last park to fill to capacity. The NBA and MLS are getting isolated hotels and will receive daily testing. The staff and players will not be allowed to bring family members. They also can't play doubles in ping-pong and cannot use the same deck of cards for more than one round of poker. If MNSSHP party was canceled because of merchandise, shows, and fireworks, the same decision should be made for the cruise line. Does DCL have separate vendors for their Halloween merchandise?

I don't know what percentage of each cruise is comprised of those families willing to sacrifice the experience for the sake of being on the ship. I get the impression that many people on these boards are more than willing to do that. I feel the same way about WDW. But, WDW hotels are empty. I have never seen DVC availability like this before. We can't get a good estimation of what the ships are going to look like because of the cancellation restrictions. I would imagine them being pretty empty.

I completely agree that a lot can change in 3 months. We have all been saying that for more than 3 months and things haven't gotten better. I said that leading up to my June WDW stay and things didn't get better. Right now, we are all speculating and making assumptions. A person just died on the Wonder and it is currently heading back to Port Canaveral. Am I suppose to assume that they will quarantine in Florida, re-staff, re-train, head back through the Panama Canal and resume cruising in San Diego sometime in September? That just doesn't make sense. Some travel businesses will get back to doing things out of necessity. That doesn't make those things any safer.
 
I thought I saw a link somewhere that Curacao was making a lot of effort to allow foreign nationals from other countries facilitate flights home since many countries, especially the U.S. isn't allowing any international flights out at the present time. There was scuttlebutt weeks ago about one of the DCL ships sailing to Asia to drop off crew, this probably would mitigate the need if Disney could charter flights out of Curacao to countries that are allowing repatriation. I think that's why all the current CONUS based ships are there, to consolidate as many crew on to as few flights possible to get them home, including sadly the return of the body of the crew member from the Wonder that passed away last week to his home country the Philippines.

There are some mid-June articles about Carnival using Curacao to repatriate crew, so it makes sense DCL would if it is one of the few countries allowing significant repatriation efforts to other countries. See for example https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-cruise-line-crew-makes-cross-country-journey/

"Once everyone has boarded, The Carnival Glory will set sail for Curacao, where crew members will board chartered and commercial flights back to their home countries."
 
Disney Wonder is anchored just outside of Port Canaveral, What a journey ! Stay safe everyone!!!!
 
Disney Wonder is anchored just outside of Port Canaveral, What a journey ! Stay safe everyone!!!!
Why are October San Diego trips on the Wonder still available? There is no chance that the Wonder will traverse the Panama Canal again just to do a few October cruises, then return to the Atlantic for the winter.
 
They could put a west bound on the schedule and take a few DCL fans back to the west coast.
 
Last edited:
So the Wonder is headed to Castaway Cay, the Fantasy to Port Canaveral, and the Dream back to Curaçao?
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!














Top