It’s funny to go back and read this now that cruising has resumed. I booked a DCL cruise for October 2021 in April 2021 and my TA at that time said she didn’t think it would happen. The back and forth of will it, won’t it sail was a roller coaster. And the changing guidelines from day to day and week to week. We did get to go on a 5 day 4 night cruise in October and loved it. We booked the cruise placeholder to save 10% on the next cruise and book again for October 2022. This time for an 8 day 7 night trip.
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We’re still waiting for our June 2022 cruise now. Was supposed to be May 2020, then June 2021, then June 2022… hoping the June 2022 will stick. Both kids are vaccinated. Cruise has been paid since December 2019.
Was the cruise in October worth it? I’m still worried about restricted offerings making it not worth what I paid for it all that time ago. But we are definitely going if it’s even close to worth it!
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It was amazing. It was our first Disney cruise. Loved it so much we are going again next fall on a longer one. Our son was 12 and he said it was the best vacation ever. He spent a lot of time at Edge the tween club. Husband and I did mixology and wine tasting class. Since we’d never done DCL before I’m not even sure what we missed if anything. We were able to do the Aquaduck several times with very little wait, saw Shang Che (sp??) at the theater. No popcorn or concessions but I’d brought snacks. Only 12 people in the main pools at a time but the adult pools weren’t limited. Food and service were outstanding. We had a room with veranda which was awesome. Castaway Cay was beautiful. We stayed on the ship at Nassau. I’d been before and we wanted to make use of the ship. It was well worth the money. It was the perfect vacation for us. Our oldest started college this year so DS was without his sister so we weren’t sure how vacation would go with him not having her but the Disney cruise was perfect. I hope you get to go. We loved it.
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It will be our third Disney cruise, so hopefully we can focus on all that can be done and not notice too much missing. The restrictions on kids club attendance is something I hope is lifted before June.
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Where, if anywhere, were masks required? How crowded was the beach (I hear pre-Covid it was super crowded)?
I don’t know if it might be something to keep an eye on but the CDC is looking at a number of cruise line ships and Covid related cases:
https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html
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We had to wear masks when getting tested, waiting for tests and boarding, and all indoor locations. We weren’t really indoors much so I didn’t feel like I had a mask on very much. I didn’t have to wear one when I went to the gym and you took off your mask when you sat at dining room tables. Anytime we were outside we didn’t have to wear them. Had to wear it on transportation on Castaway Cay but we walked over and back. We did not have to wear masks at the wine tasting or mixology class.
At Castaway Cay, it was not crowded. Chairs were spaced out. We stopped at the first beach. No lines at food or ice cream. We signed up for the virtual queue to get off the boat and were called immediately.
I’d say the boat was maybe 1/3 to 1/4 full. When we went to the movie, it was the three of us and maybe 4 other people.
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I had signed DS12 up for kids club everyday for the 90 minutes or the 2 hrs that were allowed but ended up canceling because the CM in Edge said he’d like Edge better. We went to the open house at the kids club and no none else was in there. Honestly, I didn’t see a whole lot of young kids. Most kids seemed to be tweens and up, perhaps because they could be vaccinated. At dinner there was a table near us that had younger kids, I’d say under 8 yrs. At our Halloween party/fireworks night there didn’t seem to be many littles but we did have the late dinner.
When I talked to my TA after the cruise she said it sounded like some of the changes made things better like the virtual queue to get off the boat, being served at Cabanas rather then self serve, menus and the navigator on phone only. There were tons of characters and just a few people in lines to meet them. Lots of times there were no lines. Characters came by the pool. Not sure if that’s typical or not. At dinner characters did little parades but didn’t come to each individual table. Without having been on a DCL cruise before I’m not sure what I missed if anything. It may have just been different.
Looking back at these pictures there are several kids but overall, I was surprised at how few kids there were compared to adults or older kids.
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My kids will be 8 and 11, so the older one could do edge, but his brother will probably want him to stay in the kids club.
Most of those changes do sound good, but we loved perusing and highlighting the paper Navigators! I had heard you could still request one at Guest Services, hope that’s true.
Sooooooo happy for you and minimal masking. I’d love to go to Castaway Cay again. 
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This just hit my newsfeed:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising people to avoid traveling on cruise ships, regardless of vaccination status, due to the high risk of COVID-19 infection onboard ships.
The agency updated the travel health notice for cruise ship travel from a Level 3 to a Level 4, the highest risk level on its scale. The warning comes as the number of ships under investigation or observation by the CDC for COVID-19 outbreaks continues to rise.
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Cruise ships have other germy issues too, so this isn’t that surprising, is it?
No I’d say it’s not surprising but it’s bad news for cruise lines.
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yes, true
The numbers I have read have not seemed outrageous. I expect that if everyone checked into a Disney or Universal resort on the same day, and then tested them 4 or 5 days later, you MIGHT have similar numbers.
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That is so sad. I feel like this industry is moments away from collapsing. I can’t imagine how all the employees have been managing with the ups and (mostly) downs of all of this.
I’d be on a ship tonight if I could. I’m starting to believe it will never happen again.
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I really hope they don’t have to shut down cruising again. But, if they do, I really hope they ramp back up by spring, so my June 2022 cruise will be safe.
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