I saw this - I’m curious what Disney will say in response (assuming they say more than they already have). It seems more geared toward people who are disembarking in a country other than their home country (“travel by cruise ship” is pretty vague). But if at some point the U.S. government prevents a DCL ship from docking in Port Canaveral, you can bet I will take option 1.
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the warning against “travel by cruise ship” means getting on a cruise ship, not simply a warning against disembarking in foreign ports. I’m not offering a view or taking any stand on whether one should go on a cruise vacation, but this is a USG warning against going on a cruise for certain age and health/medical status populations.
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*cue 2021 government bailout of cruise lines. 
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I agree this seems to be an advisory for anyone embarking on a cruise, but the reasoning they give is 1) you are more likely to get sick (which I’m not as concerned about personally since my party is all young(ish) adults and children) and 2) some countries have not allowed disembarkation if COVID cases are identified found on board. I can see why a country like Japan would deny disembarkation fro the Diamond Princess after it stopped in China.
But would the U.S. government deny a DCL vessel disembarkation if a U.S. citizen on board tested positive, presumably catching the disease while in the U.S. prior to boarding?
I guess we’ll find out in the next couple of months. If this does happen, my end of May cruise is unlikely to be the first instance. If I see a DCL being quarantined for 14 days off Port Canaveral, I’ll know my answer.
Also, I found out that I have up until 45 days before to cancel and only lose my deposit (which is a couple grand, but not the end of the world). I might prefer that option to rescheduling to a time COVID may or may not still be a problem.
Also, I found out in another thread that I can book a package and get FPP at 60 days, then cancel the package and extend my existing tickets prior to 30 days without losing the FPP, if I decide to cancel my cruise. So I have options now.
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That’s what happened with the Grand Princess in California (went from CA to HI back to CA) for 6 days, although it did just land (?? I don’t know the term for when a ship parks at a port). This article says it’ll probably take a few days to disembark everyone, but they all will have to quarantined for 14 days on military bases. So it is possible.
(ftr, I don’t have an opinion either way re: to cruise/not cruise, probably because I’m not scheduled for a cruise)
edited to add: forgot article link: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/09/coronavirus-stricken-princess-cruises-ship-moves-to-port-of-oakland-in-california.html
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Oh I didn’t realize that was the itinerary. I’m very curious to see if DCL would get the same treatment, for a variety of reasons.
I’m curious, too, but hope we don’t find out!!!
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You were originally satisfied with that much time at WDW. And if you just move the DCL cruise that will keep those funds allotted. Why not do something else? Would your kids like Legoland? Gatorland? SeaWorld? Water parks? One of our best trips ever was the one we never went to WDW.
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Fair point! My kids LOVE Legoland, more than Disney even. But there is one closer to us (San Diego) that we will probably go to at some point. There’s also a Sea World in San Diego and we actually went to the one in San Antonio a few years ago, but I could see us going in Orlando. Water parks are a decent possibility if we add days, but my kids are scaredy cats so it’s not worth taking time if we’re just there a week.
In any case, it’s a good idea to think about the options a little more. No need to lock ourselves down to Disney. We’ll see what happens!
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My vote is to cancel the cruise and enjoy a full WDW stay. You can call customer service to make sure your FPP get transferred, and then you can stop stressing. The reason cruise ships are petri dishes is because the ventilation systems circulate bacteria throughout, and into everyone’s rooms. An issue that will hopefully be addressed now! Not sure if I ever want to do a cruise again 
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I and my wife have a WDW vacation planned for April 14th-28. We have everything set but are having last minute thoughts. Today Delta said they would waive fees for flight change or cancelation. That pretty much did it for us. We are from North Dakota and believe it or not a lady from North Dakota is on the cruise ship parked off Califoria. She has stage 4 cancer and needs therapy but doesn’t know how she is going to get it if she is farther qwaranted. Got us thinking, if we became sick while at WDW and we turned out positive or even suspended of it we could not fly home. What airline would take us. So if we had to stay for a qwarrantee where would one stay for 14 days and at what cost. After thinking long and hard we have decided it just isn’t worth the risk. We have AP’s we haven’t started yet and only a down payment for the stay. Hopefully we can get most of our money back. The virus itself doesn’t scare me, OK maybe a little, but dealing with the rest is just too much of a problem. Did I mention that I and my wife are past 65 and I have other medical conditions. We also have a WDW vacation booked for late August, early Sept. Hopefully we can make that one. Will miss Spaceship Earth as we were hoping to see it one last time before it closes. The good part is that maybe the rides such as Haunted Mansion and the rest may be repaired and running again For those of you still going have a Magical time and enjoy.
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