Thursday, March 25, 2021

Taking a Look at the Newly-Announced Summer 2022 Itineraries

Last week, Disney announced their itineraries for the summer of 2022, from early May to late September.  I was expecting to hear about the Wish with this group of itineraries, but this announcement was only for the current four ships.  I was disappointed by this, but at least the itineraries that were announced are interesting.  Also, the omission of Wish cruises in this announcement probably means that the Wish will get its own special announcement at some point in the future.  The Disney Parks Blog post about the itineraries says that information about the Wish's itineraries will be announced at a "later date", so while we wait for that, let's look at the itineraries that were announced.

First, let's start with the Magic.  Like it has done in past years, the Magic will be spending the majority of the summer in Europe.  Before it goes there, though, it'll go on a 3-night Bahamian cruise from Miami.  This is an average 3-Night cruise on the Magic, it stops at Key West and Castaway Cay.  After that is the 13-night Eastbound Transatlantic cruise.  This cruise goes from Miami to Barcelona, Spain, with stops at Ponta Delgada and Lisbon in Portugal, and Cádiz, Málaga, and Cartagena in Spain.  This cruise starts out at a surprisingly reasonable price, around $4,250 for two adults in an inside room.  From Barcelona, the Magic will do a couple of 7-night Mediterranean cruises, going to places like Naples, Italy, and Villefranche, France.  After these, there'll be a 6-night Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona that ends in Civitavecchia (near Rome), Italy.  From Civitavecchia, the Magic will go on a few Mediterranean cruises that visit some of the Greek Isles, like Santorini, Mykonos, and Heraklion on Crete.  After those, it'll go on a 12-night Mediterranean cruise that visits parts of Greece, Italy, and France before ending in Barcelona.  Following that, it'll go on a 5-night Mediterranean cruise visiting Cannes in France, and Civitavecchia and Livorno in Italy.  When that cruise ends, the Magic will go on a 7-night Western European cruise to Dover, England.  This cruise stops at Cartagena, Spain; Porto, Portugal; La Coruña, Spain; and Bilbao, Spain.  From Dover, the Magic will start an 11-night Northern European cruise that ends in Copenhagen, Denmark.  This cruise goes to Tallinn in Estonia, then spends two days in St. Petersburg in Russia, then goes to Helsinki in Finland, Nynäshamn (near Stockholm) in Sweden, and Riga in Latvia.  During the next cruise, a 7-night Northern European cruise, the Magic visits some of the same ports it went to on its last cruise.  After that, the Magic will head back to Dover on an 11-night Norway, Iceland, and Scotland cruise.  This cruise visits Olden and Maloy in Norway, spends two days in Reykjavik in Iceland, and visits Kirkwall and Invergorden in Scotland.  If you go on that cruise, there's Norway you won't have fun.  Back in Dover, the Magic will go on a 7-night Northern European cruise that goes to Amsterdam, Netherlands; Warnemünde, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Oslo, Norway.  Again, there's Norway you won't have a great time on that cruise.  You may be thinking that there's Norway a cruise could only go to Norway.  But there is a way!  The next cruise is a 7-night Norwegian cruise that goes to Alesund, Nordfjordeid, Eidfjord, and Stavanger.  There's Norway I can pronounce those names right.  Finally, after that cruise is a 7-night British Isles cruise from Dover.  This cruise goes around England, Ireland, and Scotland and ends up back in Dover.  That's it for what was announced on the Magic.  I like how the European cruises are very diverse, no two European cruses in 2022 are the same.  Each cruise has something unique about it, and it's impossible to get bored with that variety.

Let's move on to the Wonder.  I just mentioned how diverse the European cruises in 2022 are, but in Alaska, there are significantly less options.  There are only two types of Alaskan cruises (the Wonder will go to Vancouver during a previously-announced cruise) happening in 2022, and they're both 7-night cruises.  The first variant starts from Vancouver and visits Dawes Glacier, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan.  There are fifteen of this type of Alaskan cruise happening in summer 2022.  The other, less-common variant is similar to these.  Instead of going to Skagway, these two cruises go to Icy Strait Point.  

Out of all the ships, the Dream's itineraries are usually the most consistent.  Almost every week, it does a 3-night Bahamian cruise and a 4-night Bahamian cruise, both round trips from Port Canaveral that go to Castaway Cay and Nassau.  Well, in summer 2022, there will be some major changes to what the Dream's been doing its entire life.  The Dream will start out the summer as usual, with 3-night cruises and 4-night cruises from Port Canaveral in May and early June.  The Dream's last scheduled cruise from Port Canaveral starts on June 3rd, and its next cruise leaves from Miami, where it will start and end its cruises for the rest of the cruises that were announced.  Unlike the Dream's other 3-night cruises, the final (for now, at least) Port Canaveral one doesn't go to Nassau.  Instead, it only goes to Castaway Cay and spends a day at sea.  This cruise is not a repositioning cruise.  While this may seem strange, it's not possible for a Bahamian cruise to go from Port Canaveral to Miami because of the Passenger Vessel Services Act.  This US law says that a foreign ship, like Disney's ships, can't take passengers from one US port to another without visiting a distant foreign port first.  Since Port Canaveral and Miami are both in the US and Castaway Cay isn't far enough from the US to classify as "distant", the Dream can't take passengers from Port Canaveral to Miami.  So, after this cruise ends, the Dream will sail from Port Canaveral to Miami without any passengers, and start a 4-night Bahamian cruise the next day, which will the first-ever Bahamian Disney cruise from Miami in the summer.  For the remainder of the summer, the Dream will be doing a mix of 3-night, 4-night, and 5-night cruises from Miami.  There are three different 5-night versions:  A Bahamian cruise with two stops at Castaway Cay, a Western Caribbean cruise with stops at Grand Cayman and Castaway Cay, and a Western Caribbean cruise with stops at Castaway Cay and Cozumel, Mexico.  The cruises that the Dream will offer from Miami are similar to what the Magic offers from Miami, and they're more diverse than the Dream's Port Canaveral offerings.  We'll come back to the Dream in a bit, but first, we need to talk about the Fantasy.

In summer 2022, the Fantasy has less surprises in store than the Dream.  For the most part, it'll be doing its normal alternating 7-night Western and Eastern Caribbean cruises.  All of the Western Caribbean cruises will be following the normal itinerary and visiting Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Castaway Cay.  All but one of the Eastern Caribbean cruises will be following their normal itinerary and visiting Tortola, St. Thomas, and Castaway Cay.  The one special cruise, starting on September 24th, goes to St. Maarten, San Juan, and Castaway Cay.  This would be a good cruise for people who want to go on the Fantasy but have been on both of its standard itineraries.  Another unusual Fantasy cruise in summer 2022 is its 5-night Western Caribbean cruise. This cruise isn't that exciting, it just goes to Cozumel and Castaway Cay like a variant of the 5-night cruises the Dream will be doing.  The Fantasy will be doing this cruise to prepare for the following 9-night Southern Caribbean cruise.  This cruise goes to St. Maarten, Dominica, Antigua, St. Thomas, and Castaway Cay.  In the past, the Fantasy has done longer Southern Caribbean cruises, like a few 11-night cruises, but there aren't any scheduled for 2022.  This is probably because the demand for those cruises was too low because of the high price.  Anyway, that 9-night cruise doesn't go as far south as the two Southern Caribbean Wonder cruises I went on, but it's a still nice itinerary.

Back to the Dream.  Why is Disney moving it from Port Canaveral?  In summer 2022, the Fantasy will continue to offer its normal 7-night Caribbean cruises from Port Canaveral, but there won't be any ship offering Bahamian cruises from there.  The Dream's move to Miami doesn't make much sense until you remember that Disney has a fifth ship coming that summer, the Wish!  Moving the Dream to Miami opens up room for the Wish to do what the Dream had been doing from Port Canaveral, 3-night and 4-night Bahamian cruises!  Disney hasn't explicitly announced the Wish's itineraries, but the Dream's move likely means that the Wish will take over the Dream's old itineraries.  If this happens, then in summer 2022, Disney will have two ships offering Bahamian cruises from two different ports, allowing them to accommodate more customers and make even more money!  

We can learn more from the Dream's move.  The Dream will sail from Port Canaveral to Miami on June 6th, 2022.  This could mean that the Wish will take over the Dream's former role and start sailing in early June.  This is earlier than I expected it to start, as Disney said that cruises on the Wish will start in summer 2022, and the 6th is still technically spring, but I'm not complaining!


Overall, this group of itineraries didn't have that many surprises, except for the Dream.  It was surprising that the Dream was the most surprising.  Disney will officially reveal the Wish's itineraries at some point in the future, and we'll be able to see if our predictions were right.  But until then, enjoy browsing the new itineraries that are now available to book on the DCL website!

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