For those with Cruises before May 31

[stowe75]

So I was all set to cancel/move out our 3/21/20 Fantasy sail date. But now I am having second thoughts and told my TA to hold off. I guess I want to see what happens this week with regards to a plan. It seems like extra precautions are being taken. My husband keeps sending me articles to justify his stance that we shouldn't go but they all reference and advise elderly and immunocompromised don't cruise. Neither of which applies to us or are children. His biggest worry is a quarantine. I get that but the more I think about it I am inclined to think that sure while a possibility...unlikely.

Are people with cruises in the next 1-2 weeks canceling? Are you worried about quarantine? What is your rationale for not canceling that I can use to convince my husband it will still be low risk for us to go.

This whole thing just sucks and is probably overblown to a degree.

I am grateful DCL has given us time to really think about it and see how this plays out.

 

[cwis]

If you have a TA you won't have to hold the line but your TA will need to speak with a DCL agent to move your cruise. Do not hold until the last minute if you plan cancelling.

 

[stowe75]

If you have a TA you won't have to hold the line but your TA will need to speak with a DCL agent to move your cruise. Do not hold until the last minute if you plan cancelling.

Yes. I did make contact with our TA last night as I had emailed him Friday convinced we were rebooking for next year. But then I told him to hold off. I do plan to decide this week.. Such a hard decision for some reason.

 

[Derry Wade]

We have 24 days ... still waiting to see. Conflicting information and advice makes it hard to navigate to a firm decision. Makes sense that staying home will mean we are less likely to be infected and pass the virus to another person who may be more vulnerable that we are. On the other hand, the economy collapsing from everyone stopping their travel and daily routines will ultimately have much longer, disastrous effect on the nation and world. Which ripple effect from one family causes more (or less) damage? I wish I could understand if the timing is relevant, i.e. less travel in April will help slow down transmission and buy us more time that will result in fewer deaths - but people should travel more in May and beyond to save the economy...? If so then I would easily rebook for later in the year.

 

[disneylove69]

Disney is allowing you up to 24 hours to cancel amd get a credit. Another Pribcess ship in Florida just had a few crew members tested. You can only decide but keep in mind if 1 person is suspected you could be isolated up to a month. 14 days plus what ever you stay on the ship time wise.

 

[cwis]

Yes. I did make contact with our TA last night as I had emailed him Friday convinced we were rebooking for next year. But then I told him to hold off. I do plan to decide this week.. Such a hard decision for some reason.

I sure understand. My next cruise is two months away and we're still not sure how to handle this, I don't imagine what we'd do if our cruise was in two weeks.

Not sure if it would apply to you but here's a list of what we've been thinking about:

The cons:

• we don't want to get COVID-19 onboard (obviously)
• we don't want to be quarantined
• we don't want to have “degraded” experiences (Cabanas not being a buffet, impact to room service…)
• we don't want to miss port of calls

The pros:

• with the increased health procedures there might be a lower chance of getting norovirus
• there might be less people on the ship
• better chance to get a port upgrade
• if the itinerary gets changed we might get a partial refund/OBC

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

So I was all set to cancel/move out our 3/21/20 Fantasy sail date. But now I am having second thoughts and told my TA to hold off. I guess I want to see what happens this week with regards to a plan. It seems like extra precautions are being taken. My husband keeps sending me articles to justify his stance that we shouldn't go but they all reference and advise elderly and immunocompromised don't cruise. Neither of which applies to us or are children. His biggest worry is a quarantine. I get that but the more I think about it I am inclined to think that sure while a possibility...unlikely.

Are people with cruises in the next 1-2 weeks canceling? Are you worried about quarantine? What is your rationale for not canceling that I can use to convince my husband it will still be low risk for us to go.

This whole thing just sucks and is probably overblown to a degree.

I am grateful DCL has given us time to really think about it and see how this plays out.

If I were in your shoes, I would go. DCL has a much younger and healthier demographic than Princess and Carnival, so that reduces the risk in one way. Second, this is a cruise off the east coast of the USA, not Europe, Asia or west coast. Third, DCL has some of the highest sanitation ratings in the cruise industry, well above Princess and Carnival. Fourth, although cases are rapidly multiplying in the US, the objective numbers are still very small. So I'd personally go and not worry. But I'm not the nervous type by nature. I totally understand that others would not feel comfortable going.

 

[TreeFalls]

We are 15 days out, and we are waiting until a few days prior to make the final call. Our plane tickets are Southwest so we can bank them if needed, and we booked a refundable drivable trip that would still be fun for our family, as a back up plan. Now we're just waiting and watching to see which looks like the better option.

ETA- Some people must be canceling. I dropped the ball on checking in and didn't like my PAT, and I was able to move it today to an hour earlier.

 

[SL6827]

I really feel for anyone who is in this position. I will be in the same position next year at the end of February if this virus is alive and well next year. I just returned from San Diego/Mexico and went through the Atlanta airport on the way there and back. Me and my husband are now really going to be looking out for possible early symptoms of the virus. Good luck to everyone.

 

[SL6827]

Will this virus go away when the weather turns much warmer/hotter?

 

[cvjw]

If you do decide to postpone, don’t wait til the last minute. it is really hard to get a dcl agent on the phone right now. I still have 11 days to cancel and only lose our deposit. I will not be waiting until day 11. I will cancel a couple days early, just so I have extra time for Costco to actually get a dcl rep on the phone.

 

[SL6827]

I don't think I could get on a cruise ship right now.

 

[Gentry2004]

Will this virus go away when the weather turns much warmer/hotter?

This Harvard Epidemiologist says there is no reason to think it will.

https://ccdd.hsph.harvard.edu/will-covid-19-go-away-on-its-own-in-warmer-weather/

 

[ScooterScott44]

Will this virus go away when the weather turns much warmer/hotter?

A cruise message board for a cartoon mouse is probably not the best place to get information on this item. Plenty of speculation and hearsay are passed along. It is really hard to know exactly how this virus will respond but most literature is saying that it probably will not quite die out.
https://ccdd.hsph.harvard.edu/will-covid-19-go-away-on-its-own-in-warmer-weather/
Edited- Funny, the Two of us posted the same link at the same time

 

[Husker Mike]

This virus is not going to go away. What will happen is that as people start spending more time outdoors and in less close quarters, infections should start to slow. Also, our scientists will develop vaccines and treatments.

Doesn't help me today; we're 8 days out. We're still planning on going, but suspect we won't be on board. The situation is evolving, but rescheduling isn't a good option for us. We picked this cruise specifically 18 months ago because it fit our schedule. We aren't terribly interested in the summer (and who knows if we're going to be clear by then). Fall break doesn't have a cruise that fits our school's break. Christmas might work, but it'll cost and we don't really want to interrupt family plans. And next year's spring break is in April, which is more than 12 months out.

Plus, we have other non-refundable parts of this trip; the cruise is just under half of the expense. So I've got other things to figure out. We have travel insurance, but not cancel-for-any-reason insurance. But if Disney is forced to pull the plug, I suspect we'll be covered then. So for now, I feel like I'm playing a game of chicken, expecting the government, cruises, parks and airlines to blink before I do.

What I don't expect to happen is the worst case scenario of quarantinining thousands of passengers for two weeks for much longer. That's a solution that isn't going to be scalable much longer. They might do it for one more cruise, but after that, the cruise lines will be forced to cancel en masse. And if we get cancellations, insurance will kick in and everything will work out financially.

 

[Darryl111]

We get on board in 6 days (Saturday). We are still going. Nothing short of Disney canceling would stop us at this point. We are a young healthy family though and if a quarantine did happen we could work remotely for a few weeks. We will take our work computers hide them in the luggage so we aren't tempted to work while out at sea and enjoy our time.

 

[SL6827]

A cruise message board for a cartoon mouse is probably not the best place to get information on this item. Plenty of speculation and hearsay are passed along. It is really hard to know exactly how this virus will respond but most literature is saying that it probably will not quite die out.
https://ccdd.hsph.harvard.edu/will-covid-19-go-away-on-its-own-in-warmer-weather/
Edited- Funny, the Two of us posted the same link at the same time

Oh, wow. Thanks for the link.

 

[Love2Cruise2015]

My family and I were supposed to be leaving on the Fantasy ship this upcoming Saturday but decided to cancel as we could get credits for our flights and the cruise itself and the risk (for us) just wasn't worth it to go. Considering the date of your cruise I would wait to see how things play out.
Good luck on your decision

 

[flstatenolefan]

Our problem is that there are no trips in the foreseeable future that are close to the rate we booked at. While DCL is generous in offering some military rates, they are a courtesy, not a guarantee. I've spoken to DCL "supervisors" and they can not guarantee that there will be future military rate offerings, and quite frankly we can't afford a trip at regular rates (or we would have booked those to begin with). Everything I've looked at is 2x or 3x the rate we booked. So, our option is to either go or lose our money. I don't know too many people that would like to lose their vacation money. It is not much of a choice. We chose the particular cruise we chose because it met our schedule, and I don't see any other possible time of cruising within the next 12 months. I'm not as concerned about the virus as I am the repercussions of possibly being quarantined.

 

[Gentry2004]

Our problem is that there are no trips in the foreseeable future that are close to the rate we booked at. While DCL is generous in offering some military rates, they are a courtesy, not a guarantee. I've spoken to DCL "supervisors" and they can not guarantee that there will be future military rate offerings, and quite frankly we can't afford a trip at regular rates (or we would have booked those to begin with). Everything I've looked at is 2x or 3x the rate we booked. So, our option is to either go or lose our money. I don't know too many people that would like to lose their vacation money. It is not much of a choice. We chose the particular cruise we chose because it met our schedule, and I don't see any other possible time of cruising within the next 12 months. I'm not as concerned about the virus as I am the repercussions of possibly being quarantined.

Even those of us who paid “regular” price are not seeing anything at the same price to rebook. The only way to get under the price I paid is to pull my kids from school. Not ideal.

My biggest concern with the quarantine is our sweet dog. The lady who boards her for us could probably keep her, but I’d feel so guilty. Also my kids would miss 2 weeks of school and I have a middle schooler now.