I live in the DC area, and we drove up to the NYC terminal to depart on DCL back in Oct. 2023. It was an absolute breeze. I think we left around 6 am, and we were there plenty early. You really do basically park right in front of the ship, which is cool. It was also super easy on departure day. Of course, you have to find your own comfort level with everything, so I understand wanting to arrive the day before. Just adding my experience.
I am tempted to cruise from there again, especially because I have wanted to try the Wish. The way I did get burned on my 2023 NYC cruise was that we were supposed to go to Bermuda but ended up with a diverted itinerary to New Brunswick at the end of October due to a hurricane. That was a huge bummer and vastly different than we planned!
Ah I was wondering if we were on the same sailing! But I think you were a week or two ahead of us. We bought “cancel for any reason” insurance on our sailing for this reason since we literally live in Boston and did not want to go to Canada (since we’ve been many times!).
Driving is the best part of the NY/NJ ports for us!
It was the very last sailing, I think? End of October. i know we returned to NYC on Halloween. We had an extended family group with five staterooms because we were gathering for my 50th birthday. My brother and his DH were already in NYC doing early sightseeing before the diverted itinerary occurred. It would have been really hard for us to reschedule, so we just made the best of it! The St. John port had already closed for the season, and they made arrangements to reopen for us, which was really so nice of them. It makes for a funny story. But it also makes me nervous about trying to cruise to Bermuda again.
Feeling the same here. The sweet spot between a avoiding cooler Bermuda weather vs avoiding hurricanes is probably that longer itinerary to San Juan, but we can’t swing that with school in session.
Any idea what time (on average) embarkation would be for a cruiser with no castaway club privileges? Trying to figure out if we could keep kiddos in school that day and drive in after (we’re pretty close by).
Who did you go with for this insurance? I’m soooo tempted to book one of the great FL residents’ rates I’ve seen for the 2026 Very Merrytime Cruises for a short cruise with my mom in December, but am not 100% certain I’ll be able to travel then. Knowing that I could cancel up to the last minute would be a great enabler in pulling that trigger
Did you get a refund or credit towards a future cruise?
When I clicked on the add insurance option, I can see that Disney’s cancel-for-any-reason insurance seems to provide only a 75% refund in credit towards a future cruise, rather than a cash refund. For the refund, you need to claim one of the insured risks (like illness or loss of your job). I guess a change in itinerary/risk of hurricane that happeend to you might trigger a refund option automatically?
I could live with 75%, but a sailing credit that expires after only a year worries me a bit…I may just need to wait a few more weeks until I have more certainty and hope that there’s still availability then. Hmph.
Yeah I wouldn’t use the Disney insurance as a way to hedge whether I’m going to follow through. I would only rely on it for true exigencies. If you want cancel-for-any-reason, use a different provider, but even then don’t purchase with the intent to cancel.
If there is a hurricane or something like that that affects everyone, Disney has been very good at accommodating rescheduled cruises at full credit in the past. It’s pretty rare though since they can usually just adjust the itinerary.
So this was 2023 and it’s possible the terms have changed? I definitely would not have settled for just a credit! But they are very clear that a change in itinerary does not entitle you to anything. Heck, I am pretty sure a change in SHIP doesn’t even entitle you to anything. We would not have been ok with going to Boston (HA) and Canada instead of Bermuda.
If you want a true “cancel because I feel like it” I would look at Allianz. We have our annual policy through them and it’s always been the best deal for us.
Just to add here, when we had our diverted itinerary due to hurricane (Bermuda became Canada), everyone was offered the opportunity for a full refund at the last moment. And those who sailed got 20% off a future sailing (which could be stacked with other discounts). Insurance was not necessary in that particular scenario. But if your contingencies are more about your own personal uncertainty, that’s a different set of considerations. And I don’t know how often DCL offers last minute refunds to their guests. I imagine a diverted itinerary in the Caribbean would not be offering a refund— where it’s eastern tropical locations vs western tropical locations, for example. Our diversion was substantially and significantly affecting the product we purchased, and Disney recognized that. I was grateful for that.
