Anyone get the DCL email about Alaska cruises before July?

[2gr8DisneyKids]

We are booked for a June 8 departure with my parents and kids...

Have they come up with a way to sail from Seattle or are they canceling?
I know we have months, but just wondering what others have heard since we have not received the fated email.
Thanks!

 

[dclpluto]

We are booked for a June 8 departure with my parents and kids...

Have they come up with a way to sail from Seattle or are they canceling?
I know we have months, but just wondering what others have heard since we have not received the fated email.
Thanks!

How can they They need a foreign port not being Canada ? When cruises sail out of Canada to Alaska they go to Victoria to get their foreign port. They cannot at least until july1

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

They stated in a previous update that they were looking at options. I don’t think they can get it to work out if Seattle either...

But wondering what those booked on the April 29 cruise have been told as we are not allowed to call until we get the email

 

[ajo]

We’re supposed to sail on the April 24 repo from San Diego to Vancouver on the Wonder. The cruise cannot go forward because of the closure of Vancouver to cruise ships until July 1, but we have heard nothing from Disney since they offered to allow all cruises through May 31 to cancel up to 24 hours before the sail date.

At this point I am waiting to be notified that the cruise has been cancelled and/or changed to have a different end port. Realistically, I don’t know what they would change it to and expect it to be cancelled.

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

We’re supposed to sail on the April 24 repo from San Diego to Vancouver on the Wonder. The cruise cannot go forward because of the closure of Vancouver to cruise ships until July 1, but we have heard nothing from Disney since they offered to allow all cruises through May 31 to cancel up to 24 hours before the sail date.

At this point I am waiting to be notified that the cruise has been cancelled and/or changed to have a different end port. Realistically, I don’t know what they would change it to and expect it to be cancelled.

Ugh! That is terrible! I get they are busy right now, but that is absolutely terrible when yours is so close!!!

And it is not like anyone of us want the cruises cancelled, but we cannot take them is the port is closed...

 

[Ralph&Pam]

But wondering what those booked on the April 29 cruise have been told as we are not allowed to call until we get the email

Nothing, so far, beyond the general opportunity to rebook a future cruise with 100% credit and 15 months to rebook. That email arrived on March 15th. No official cancellation of the cruise (yet) and no extra incentive to change the booking. I feel like we’re playing a game of chicken. For the April 29th Vancouver to Honolulu cruise (which we have booked), we’re now in the 50% refund period if we cancel versus taking a 100% refund if DCL cancels. After 30 days out (29 to 14 days) the refund drops to 25% for about two weeks, then to 0. We have no intention to cruise anytime this year, so we’re waiting on DCL to cancel so we can request our full refund.

We’ll lose our airfare and the prepaid, non-refundable DVC points rental for the planned Aulani stay post-cruise as well, since our travel insurance has an epidemic/pandemic exclusion. These total about 2/3rds of the cost of the cruise booking, so there’s still a substantial financial impact even if we get 100% back from DCL. Our flights on United were booked as early as possible and we’d have to use any credits from those within 12 months of the original booking date. That barely gets us into June, so no real likelihood. Waiting to see if United cancels those as well, but so far only being offered no change fees for rebookings. Right now the flights from O’Hare to Vancouver and from Honolulu to O’Hare are still flying. I don’t know if there are many passengers aboard, but United appears to be maintaining a small number of these flights despite significant reductions in other routes.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Seattle is a mess. I doubt they are going to take on new cruise ships even if they can get a PVSA exemption.

Alaska is also inching closer to not allowing docking.

Hawaii is a hard no at this point. Until the end of May they are requiring a 14 day quarantine of all arriving visitors. Sure messes up the cruise either way.

If Aulani stays open it will be for in state visitors.

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

Nothing, so far, beyond the general opportunity to rebook a future cruise with 100% credit and 15 months to rebook. That email arrived on March 15th. No official cancellation of the cruise (yet) and no extra incentive to change the booking. I feel like we’re playing a game of chicken. For the April 29th Vancouver to Honolulu cruise (which we have booked), we’re now in the 50% refund period if we cancel versus taking a 100% refund if DCL cancels. After 30 days out (29 to 14 days) the refund drops to 25% for about two weeks, then to 0. We have no intention to cruise anytime this year, so we’re waiting on DCL to cancel so we can request our full refund.

We’ll lose our airfare and the prepaid, non-refundable DVC points rental for the planned Aulani stay post-cruise as well, since our travel insurance has an epidemic/pandemic exclusion. These total about 2/3rds of the cost of the cruise booking, so there’s still a substantial financial impact even if we get 100% back from DCL. Our flights on United were booked as early as possible and we’d have to use any credits from those within 12 months of the original booking date. That barely gets us into June, so no real likelihood. Waiting to see if United cancels those as well, but so far only being offered no change fees for rebookings. Right now the flights from O’Hare to Vancouver and from Honolulu to O’Hare are still flying. I don’t know if there are many passengers aboard, but United appears to be maintaining a small number of these flights despite significant reductions in other routes.

Double yuck!!! Can you move the dvc to later and use the airfare to fly to Hawaii In the winter/spring? Or are you putting off all travel for a while?

We have airfare booked too, but one way is on a Canadian carrier offering a full refund and the other is on American. We have trip insurance on the AA leg, but I will need to check about a pandemic.

Our big issue is that this is also a trip with my parents (over 70) so we need to delay as much as possible and with school trips over the summer in 2021 it will push past 12 months...

 

[su_A_ve]

DCL is most likely trying to get a waiver to allow them to sail without stopping at a foreign port.

If this happens, they'll probably reposition to Seattle and sail from there to Alaska. This of course, if they can get space in the port to dock.

If not, they'll probably keep on sailing out of San Diego with stops in Mexico. They could potentially add a sailing to Hawaii (with a stop in MX as well).

 

[bcwife76]

Nothing, so far, beyond the general opportunity to rebook a future cruise with 100% credit and 15 months to rebook. That email arrived on March 15th. No official cancellation of the cruise (yet) and no extra incentive to change the booking. I feel like we’re playing a game of chicken. For the April 29th Vancouver to Honolulu cruise (which we have booked), we’re now in the 50% refund period if we cancel versus taking a 100% refund if DCL cancels. After 30 days out (29 to 14 days) the refund drops to 25% for about two weeks, then to 0. We have no intention to cruise anytime this year, so we’re waiting on DCL to cancel so we can request our full refund.

We’ll lose our airfare and the prepaid, non-refundable DVC points rental for the planned Aulani stay post-cruise as well, since our travel insurance has an epidemic/pandemic exclusion. These total about 2/3rds of the cost of the cruise booking, so there’s still a substantial financial impact even if we get 100% back from DCL. Our flights on United were booked as early as possible and we’d have to use any credits from those within 12 months of the original booking date. That barely gets us into June, so no real likelihood. Waiting to see if United cancels those as well, but so far only being offered no change fees for rebookings. Right now the flights from O’Hare to Vancouver and from Honolulu to O’Hare are still flying. I don’t know if there are many passengers aboard, but United appears to be maintaining a small number of these flights despite significant reductions in other routes.

I can't speak to the Honolulu-Chicago route but the Chicago-Vancouver flights would be only for US citizens getting out of Vancouver and CDN citizens getting out of Chicago. The CDN-US border is shut to non essential travel so it's basically flying to get people home. Here in Canada, Westjet (major carrier) stopped all international and US flights as of midnight Sunday, we were on one of the last flights home from Honolulu to Vancouver on Friday afternoon. Any flights with WJ now are either domestic (which they have cut by 50%) or to get Canadian citizens home. The flights leaving Canada are basically empty (our flight that landed in Honolulu, only crew came off, no passengers).

 

[otten]

DCL is most likely trying to get a waiver to allow them to sail without stopping at a foreign port.

If this happens, they'll probably reposition to Seattle and sail from there to Alaska. This of course, if they can get space in the port to dock.

If not, they'll probably keep on sailing out of San Diego with stops in Mexico. They could potentially add a sailing to Hawaii (with a stop in MX as well).

Right now, like everyone else, they are probably taking it day by day. Since they don’t know that cruising at all at that time is going to be on option, waiver seeking is probably not top priority. As things stand right now with travel they don’t have any options.

 

[KVH]

I'd be extremely surprised if they got space at pier 91 in Seattle at this point. They're going to have to work around HAL and Princess, which, while doable, is only part of the equation. Things have changed since Disney last sailed out of here. They'd also need an agreement with Metro Cruise Line to have appropriate port personnel available to board guests. Again, doable. But the scheduling will probably be a nightmare, not to mention the extra cost.

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

I would also assume this is at the bottom of Seattle’s to-do list at the moment...

 

[ramwitz]

They can’t just change the port and expect cruisers to be ok with it. I, for one, would not be and would still expect them to offer me a full refund if the port gets changed from Vancouver to Seattle. I had my hotel and flights all set for Vancouver (which I am losing money on). The longer they drag this out, the less time they are giving cruisers to scramble to change their bookings and now get a flight and hotel in Seattle. Many won’t be able to afford it considering they are already losing the money for the Vancouver bookings. Not to mention the fact that you couldn’t pay me to fly into Seattle anytime in the next few months! To make such a big change, they would still need to offer their cruisers a full refund out which I am sure many will take. It won’t be worth going through all that hassle and cost just to end up with a half empty (or more) ship. They just need to officially cancel these cruises already and stop playing chicken with their customers if they want us to be loyal in the future.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Double yuck!!! Can you move the dvc to later and use the airfare to fly to Hawaii In the winter/spring? Or are you putting off all travel for a while?

We have airfare booked too, but one way is on a Canadian carrier offering a full refund and the other is on American. We have trip insurance on the AA leg, but I will need to check about a pandemic.

Our big issue is that this is also a trip with my parents (over 70) so we need to delay as much as possible and with school trips over the summer in 2021 it will push past 12 months...

We’re working on moving the DVC points rental to a fall trip to Hilton Head instead. We do not plan to travel until then at the earliest. The potential issue is the “use year” for the DVC points we have rented, which is an unknown to us. The rental broker we used has been very slow in responding to our email query, but I’m sure they are trying to deal with all of the recent resort closings. It needs to get rebooked before we hit the 30 day cancellation to avoid having the points go into what DVC calls a holding account, assuming the change in dates (and resort) works for the actual point owner. We are DVC members ourselves, but we rented points rather than using our own to book Aulani at 11 months rather than waiting until our booking window would open at 7 months. Probably a mistake on our part, since if I had control of the reservation it would take about 2 minutes to cancel Aulani and book something else for the fall.

Our flights were booked as soon as United listed flights for our travel dates, so 330 days in advance of our return booking. They only allow a rebooking within 12 months of the original ticketing date, so that expires in mid-June 2020. Not much chance we would be trying to fly both ways to Hawaii that soon, even of we could arrange it. We only have a 5-night stay at Aulani after the cruise, and would not want to fly both ways for such a short stay in any case. The original plan was a 3-night stay in Vancouver, the 9-night cruise from Vancouver to get us to Hawaii, and a 5-night stay at Aulani before flying home. The best laid plans...

We’re in your parent’s age cohort (mid-70s for us), so delaying cruises at this time sounds like the right thing to do.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

They can’t just change the port and expect cruisers to be ok with it. I, for one, would not be and would still expect them to offer me a full refund if the port gets changed from Vancouver to Seattle. I had my hotel and flights all set for Vancouver (which I am losing money on). The longer they drag this out, the less time they are giving cruisers to scramble to change their bookings and now get a flight and hotel in Seattle. Many won’t be able to afford it considering they are already losing the money for the Vancouver bookings. Not to mention the fact that you couldn’t pay me to fly into Seattle anytime in the next few months! To make such a big change, they would still need to offer their cruisers a full refund out which I am sure many will take. It won’t be worth going through all that hassle and cost just to end up with a half empty (or more) ship. They just need to officially cancel these cruises already and stop playing chicken with their customers if they want us to be loyal in the future.

^^^^This.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

I can't speak to the Honolulu-Chicago route but the Chicago-Vancouver flights would be only for US citizens getting out of Vancouver and CDN citizens getting out of Chicago. The CDN-US border is shut to non essential travel so it's basically flying to get people home. Here in Canada, Westjet (major carrier) stopped all international and US flights as of midnight Sunday, we were on one of the last flights home from Honolulu to Vancouver on Friday afternoon. Any flights with WJ now are either domestic (which they have cut by 50%) or to get Canadian citizens home. The flights leaving Canada are basically empty (our flight that landed in Honolulu, only crew came off, no passengers).

Yes, so true. But since United has not actually cancelled the flights, we can only rebook, not request a refund. And the rebooking has to be within 12 months of original ticketing date, which is mid-June 2020 for us. Presumably, United cannot actually fly us to Vancouver but won’t refund our airfares, so our bad for booking non-refundable fares so far in advance of our planned trip (and not anticipating a possible pandemic when selecting a travel insurance policy).

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

^^^^This.

They can...

It is in the contract. They can change the ports and offer to let you switch your reservation to another cruise within 12 months. But since it is not canceled, there is no refund.

This caveat happened to us in Sept 2019 when a hurricane was hitting. We could get on the ship but the Bahamas cruise would be modified to have a stop in Cozumel and no guarantee of a return date.

We switched to a November cruise. Friends stayed in and the 3-night became a 6-night with a delivery of supplies to Castaway Cay, but no passengers could get off. You could just see it in the distance.

 

[ramwitz]

They can...

It is in the contract. They can change the ports and offer to let you switch your reservation to another cruise within 12 months. But since it is not canceled, there is no refund.

This caveat happened to us in Sept 2019 when a hurricane was hitting. We could get on the ship but the Bahamas cruise would be modified to have a stop in Cozumel and no guarantee of a return date.

We switched to a November cruise. Friends stayed in and the 3-night became a 6-night with a delivery of supplies to Castaway Cay, but no passengers could get off. You could just see it in the distance.

Wow. Unreal. Further confirmation that I am done with cruising and DCL forever.

I understand changing the ports during a cruise if things come up but to change the embarkation port last minute when that entails all the flights and hotel changes and money lost? That’s just wrong on so many levels.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Wow. Unreal. Further confirmation that I am done with cruising and DCL forever.

I understand changing the ports during a cruise if things come up but to change the embarkation port last minute when that entails all the flights and hotel changes and money lost? That’s just wrong on so many levels.

But what would you have them do? If the ports are not allowing ships, they have to go somewhere (if the cruise were to continue). They're just attempting to complete the contract you signed with them to provide you a cruise. If that's not possible, then cancellation/changes must be made.