7 Night Sailings Turned into 4 Night

[ASmerud]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but just received this. We were on the Fantasy 10/2 cruise to Virgin Islands.

All of us at Disney Cruise Line hope you and your family are staying well. We are reaching out with important information about your upcoming sailing aboard the Disney Fantasy.
As we welcome Guests aboard our ships, the health and safety of our Guests, Cast Members and Crew Members is a top priority. We are resuming sailing in a gradual, phased approach that emphasizes multiple layers of health and safety measures, developed considering guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical experts.
As part of our phased approach, we have modified select 7-night Disney Fantasy sailings into 4-night sailings. Your sailing is now a 4-night sailing featuring a day at sea and two stops at our private island, Castaway Cay.
We will refund the difference in the cost of your voyage fare, taxes, fees, and port expenses, and Vacation Protection Plan, if applicable, to reflect the new itinerary. As a thank you for sailing with us on the 4-night cruise, each stateroom will receive a $400 non-refundable onboard credit that can be used toward onboard purchases. In addition to the onboard credit, Guests that remain on their original sail date will also receive a 25% discount* that can be applied to most future sailings taken by September 30, 2022. This discount will be available to add to a future booking once you return from your 4-night sailing.
We ask that you call us at 1-866-352-6685 or 407-566-7797 between August 25th and August 30th, 2021 to let us know if you will remain on this revised itinerary. If you prefer, you also have the option to move to another sail date, or cancel your reservation and receive a full refund back to the original form of payment.
While we are making changes to your sailing, your reservation will not be visible on DisneyCruise.com or via the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app. Updated confirmations with pricing and itinerary details will be sent to each reservation by August 25, 2021.
Please be sure to review the information available on the Know Before You Go section of our website to understand our health and safety protocols and boarding requirements, as well as find answers to many frequently asked questions.
We look forward to welcoming you aboard soon.

Sincerely,

The Cast and Crew
Disney Cruise Line

 

[Cheburashka]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but just received this. We were on the Fantasy 10/2 cruise to Virgin Islands.

All of us at Disney Cruise Line hope you and your family are staying well. We are reaching out with important information about your upcoming sailing aboard the Disney Fantasy.
As we welcome Guests aboard our ships, the health and safety of our Guests, Cast Members and Crew Members is a top priority. We are resuming sailing in a gradual, phased approach that emphasizes multiple layers of health and safety measures, developed considering guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical experts.
As part of our phased approach, we have modified select 7-night Disney Fantasy sailings into 4-night sailings. Your sailing is now a 4-night sailing featuring a day at sea and two stops at our private island, Castaway Cay.
We will refund the difference in the cost of your voyage fare, taxes, fees, and port expenses, and Vacation Protection Plan, if applicable, to reflect the new itinerary. As a thank you for sailing with us on the 4-night cruise, each stateroom will receive a $400 non-refundable onboard credit that can be used toward onboard purchases. In addition to the onboard credit, Guests that remain on their original sail date will also receive a 25% discount* that can be applied to most future sailings taken by September 30, 2022. This discount will be available to add to a future booking once you return from your 4-night sailing.
We ask that you call us at 1-866-352-6685 or 407-566-7797 between August 25th and August 30th, 2021 to let us know if you will remain on this revised itinerary. If you prefer, you also have the option to move to another sail date, or cancel your reservation and receive a full refund back to the original form of payment.
While we are making changes to your sailing, your reservation will not be visible on DisneyCruise.com or via the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app. Updated confirmations with pricing and itinerary details will be sent to each reservation by August 25, 2021.
Please be sure to review the information available on the Know Before You Go section of our website to understand our health and safety protocols and boarding requirements, as well as find answers to many frequently asked questions.
We look forward to welcoming you aboard soon.

Sincerely,

The Cast and Crew
Disney Cruise Line

Yes, this is just what I expected would happen- DCL not ready yet for longer cruises. There will likely only be shorter cruises to Castaway Cay only for quite a few months.

 

[mcd2745]

Prorated refund, $400 OBC, and 25% off a future cruise? That's pretty darn good.

 

[ASmerud]

Prorated refund, $400 OBC, and 25% off a future cruise? That's pretty darn good.

I completely agree....25% off our next cruise when things are back to normal will be awesome!

 

[orum]

I have a $200 OBC for booking on board a few years ago (seems like forever). With an additional $400, I will have to figure out how to spend it all in a 4 day cruise with no excursions. (I also have a Travel Agent credit, but it is small compared to these 2.)

How good of a deal this is will totally depend on how they calculate the prorated refund.

I also wish the 25% off was able to be used in 2023.

 

[DIS_MIKE]

Prorated refund, $400 OBC, and 25% off a future cruise? That's pretty darn good.

I completely agree! A 7-night is significantly more when it comes to cost so losing those 3 nights hurts, but the 25% definitely makes up for it.

 

[DCLDVC1]

I completely agree....25% off our next cruise when things are back to normal will be awesome!

Will things be back to normal by September 2022?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Yes, this is just what I expected would happen- DCL not ready yet for longer cruises. There will likely only be shorter cruises to Castaway Cay only for quite a few months.

The requirements for a port call at USVI or BVI are fairly involved and present issues for DCL with theirr hybrid approach to vaccination.

 

[Cheburashka]

The requirements for a port call at USVI or BVI are fairly involved and present issues for DCL with theirr hybrid approach to vaccination.

Yep, and public ports are riskier than private ports, and longer cruises are riskier than shorter cruises.

 

[mmouse37]

Yes, this is just what I expected would happen- DCL not ready yet for longer cruises. There will likely only be shorter cruises to Castaway Cay only for quite a few months.

Apparently they are hoping to resume 7 night cruises in October according to an article posted at Scott's blog....but we all know things can change any time.

Disney Cruise Line hopes to resume 7-night voyages or longer onboard the Disney Fantasy in October and looks forward to sharing more information with Guests soon. The next bookable 7-night Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy is October 9th and is a Western Caribbean itinerary.

MJ

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

Will things be back to normal by September 2022?

Once they open up vaccines for the 5-11 crowd, I think Disney will alter their policies on letting unvaccinated people on board, at least for the Fantasy so they can get approval to dock at some of these ports.

 

[JWelch62]

Apparently they are hoping to resume 7 night cruises in October according to an article posted at Scott's blog....but we all know things can change any time.

Disney Cruise Line hopes to resume 7-night voyages or longer onboard the Disney Fantasy in October and looks forward to sharing more information with Guests soon. The next bookable 7-night Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy is October 9th and is a Western Caribbean itinerary.

MJ

And the first currently bookable 7N is the 7N MX Riviera from San Diego on Oct 1st. That has all sort of complications, like a public foreign port. I'm just waiting for DCL to make an announcement regarding that cruise.

 

[dclpluto]

Will things be back to normal by September 2022?

highly unlikely

 

[dclpluto]

I completely agree....25% off our next cruise when things are back to normal will be awesome!

sorry things won’t be back to normal before that 25 percent expires.

 

[randumb0]

I'm confused by this change. Either cruising is safe or it's not.

 

[mmouse37]

highly unlikely

Please don't say that!!!!!! I know its possible but I am hoping in a few months things will look more normal. We have to face that there are always going to variants to deal with but without so many restrictions. We are doing DCL Hawaii in May and I am hoping to not have to mask up onboard.

MJ

 

[sethschroeder]

I'm confused by this change. Either cruising is safe or it's not.

Disney doesn't want to require vaccinations is how I take it.

We cancelled and moved to B2B on the Dream instead.

25% off future cruise sounds nice but it has to be done by Sept of next year from the sounds of it.

 

[Lillebelle]

We were also on the 10/2 Fantasy sailing but moved it once covid cases started spiking in Florida. I'm especially glad we did now -- the compensation is a good deal for those that can do the 4 night cruise, but flying across the country for 4 nights wouldn't have been worth it for us so we would have had to cancel/reschedule anyway.

 

[Marrila]

Please don't say that!!!!!! I know its possible but I am hoping in a few months things will look more normal. We have to face that there are always going to variants to deal with but without so many restrictions. We are doing DCL Hawaii in May and I am hoping to not have to mask up onboard.

MJ

We know about the variants and how to limit them. But, it takes a village working together.
I hope we turn a firm corner by early spring. Crossing my fingers your cruise can be mask optional.

 

[Groucho]

Disney doesn't want to require vaccinations is how I take it.

I don't think it's that at all, but I think their hands are somewhat tied.
I feel like they had three options...
1. Require vaccinations, which would require joining Norwegian's lawsuit against Florida, hoping that they could get an injunction quickly enough, and that Norwegian prevails when it ends up in Supreme Court.
2. Keep policies as they are, visit CC twice, and have five at-sea days that will need additional entertainment options.
3. Do shorter cruises, give incentives to hopefully keep cruisers happy, and hope that in another few weeks, they'll know more about the Norwegian lawsuit and/or how other ports are doing with accepting cruisers, and hopefully be able to offer 7-day cruises again with updated rules and maybe updated ports of call.

Either way, anything they do is going to disappoint some people, and I'm sure they've spent a lot of time evaluating various options, none of which are ideal.

I'm watching this all with interest; we're booked on the Nov 14th Fantasy cruise and hit 90 days today. They are still showing Tortola and St Thomas and I can book port excursions (but much fewer options than in the past), but I think it's unlikely that we'll actually get to those ports.