Update: Some Cruises Longer Than Seven Nights Are Canceled

A few days ago, on their website, Disney announced that in accordance with the CDC conditional sail order, all cruises longer than seven nights are canceled.  This announcement is very minor, as only three cruises are affected.  The Magic's 12-night transatlantic cruise from May 9th to May 22nd is canceled, a 9-night Alaskan cruise on the Wonder from June 18th to July 7th is canceled, and a 9-night Southern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy from July 22nd to July 31st is canceled.  The Dream is unaffected by this announcement, since it mainly does shorter cruises, typically of 3-nights and 4-nights.

Though it may seem like it, not all cruises in 2021 that are longer than seven nights were canceled.  The Magic is scheduled to do quite a few European cruises that are longer than seven nights.  These cruises are possible since they don't visit any US ports, so the US CDC doesn't have any control over them.

As always, all of the people affected by this minor suspension will have the choice of receiving a full refund or a 125% cruise credit (as long as they've paid the cruise in full).  Be sure to check the Disney Cruise Line website for more information and the latest updates.  Also, the CDC website is another good resource for information about travel and cruise restrictions.

Actually, the Wish Isn't Huge

Remember when I wrote about the engine room of the Disney Wish going down the Ems River?  Remember how there was a large section of a ship at the end of the video?  Remember how I said that was the Wish?

It actually wasn't the Wish.  It was the AIDAcosma.

Like many of the other videos I've featured, this video is from inselvideo.  This video gives a great look at the AIDAcosma and makes it really obvious that that ship is not the Disney Wish.  Just look at the shape of the windows!  Also, now I understand why I counted so many decks in that other post.  According to the AIDA website, the AIDAcosma will have 20 decks!  That's a lot of stairs.

So now, please disregard pretty much everything I said about the "Wish" in that post.  I was completely wrong, and I'm sorry for the confusion that may have caused.  Don't worry, I'm not becoming the AIDAKid.  Anyway, we can still look forward to when the Wish is in the state of construction that the AIDAcosma is in the video.  We've got a while, though.

Again, I'm sorry for the confusion and false excitement my mistake may have caused.  I'll try to never let this happen again.  I've updated the post from a month ago to show what's actually correct and what isn't, so if you want to see me annoyed with my past self, feel free to check it out.

Update: All Disney Cruises Are Canceled Until February 28th, 2021

Earlier today, December 4th, on their website, Disney announced that all cruises are canceled until February 28th, 2021.  On the Magic and the Dream, cruises will resume on March 1st.  On the Wonder, they'll resume on March 12th (that would've been the Panama Canal cruise).  Finally, on the Fantasy, they'll resume on March 6th.

Like the last 3 suspensions, Disney says that this extension is to give them more time to work on their safety protocols and measures for when cruises resume.  They're just copying and pasting at this point.  That's fine, because so am I!  You've probably noticed that aside from dates, all of my posts about cruise cancelations are very similar.

I knew this announcement was coming.  At the end of November, I mentioned that all of the February cruises were removed from the DCL website.  As of now, the March 2021 cruises remain listed, but I'm pretty sure those will be canceled.  If cruises get canceled through the month of March, the suspension will have lasted over one year.  In March of this year, if you had told me that there would be no cruises for a whole year, I wouldn't have believed you.  But now, that doesn't seem too farfetched.

As we all know, all of the people affected by this new suspension will have the choice of receiving a full refund or a 125% cruise credit (as long as they've paid the cruise in full). Of course, be sure to check the Disney Cruise Line website for more information and the latest updates.

The Wish's Deck Plans Might Be Revealed Soon

While I was working on my last post, I checked the deck plans on the Disney Cruise Line website to make sure the Dream and Fantasy don't have any guest staterooms on Deck 1.  There aren't any on Deck 1, but I found something much more interesting than that.

On the deck plans, there's a box you can click on to change which ship you're looking at.

For example, in this screenshot, I'm looking at the Magic.  If you click on the box, a menu will appear with the names of all of the ships.

There's the Magic, the Wonder, the Dream, the Fantasy, and finder.deck-plans.facet-bar.ship-wish.  Wait a minute, what's a finder.deck-plans.facet-bar.ship-wish?  Could this be the Wish's deck plans?  Did I just find something Disney released on accident?

Wow!  There's nothing here!  Yet.  The fact that the Wish is an option to click on could just be a mistake, or it could mean that Disney is going to release the deck plans for the Wish soon!  Also, if the amount of decks isn't just copied from the Dream or Fantasy as a placeholder, the Wish will have 14 decks!  This makes sense, since the Wish won't be too much larger than the Dream and Fantasy.  On the right side, the shape of the ship appears to be the same as the shape of the Dream and Fantasy.  This doesn't change between the decks, so this won't be accurate.  For some reason, in the center drop-down menu, you can't click on Concierge staterooms.  Don't worry, the Wish is definitely going to have Concierge rooms.  You also can't click on any of the onboard activities.  In addition, the search feature doesn't work.

You're welcome to look through the website on your own.  I can't link directly to the Wish's deck plans, so you'll have to click on the box with the ship names then click "finder.deck-plans.facet-bar.ship-wish".  If you find anything I didn't, please let me know in the comments!

The option to click on the Wish's deck plans probably means that the official deck plans are coming soon.  Would you book a cruise on a ship you know pretty much nothing about?  People have done crazier things.  I think cruises on the Wish will be announced at the same time or shortly after the deck plans are released, and when that happens, I'll have a lot to write about!

This Really Looks Like the Wish

This morning, Inselvideo posted a new video with an update on the Wish's construction.  This short video shows the inside of the massive building where the Wish will be put together.  More importantly, it shows two small sections of the Wish itself!

The first section, best visible at 13 seconds in, looks like part of what will be the promenade and the decks under it.  On the Dream and Fantasy (the ships the Wish will be the most similar to at launch), the promenade is on Deck 4.  Let's say the top part of this is Deck 4.  It looks like there are three decks below it, so the promenade will probably be on Deck 4 again.  But wait, we can't forget about the "secret" decks below Deck 1!  This section does not appear to have any decks below Deck 1, but that's okay.  Remember the video of the Wish's engine unit from early November?  The section from this video will probably go on top of the engine since it doesn't have any crew decks.

At the top of this section, there are holes in the wall on Deck 4.  They're rectangular, so they could be door frames.  The two on the left have rounded corners, so they may be for something else.  Maybe a mechanism for the lifeboats will go there.  Or, maybe there will be two fancy doors and one normal door.

Now, let's take a look at the second section, best visible at 26 seconds in.  This section has two large portholes on Deck 4.  It also gives us a better view of the portholes on the lower decks.  The portholes on Deck 3 are large, just like on the rest of the ships.  On all of the DCL ships, the portholes are larger on the "interesting" decks, those that have attractions and fun features.  For example, they're big on Deck 3 and Deck 4 because the atrium, restaurants, bars, and shops are located on those decks.  The portholes are smaller on the decks with only staterooms, like Deck 2 and Deck 1.  This continuity is reflected in this section of the Wish.  Deck 2 has the smaller portholes found in oceanview staterooms.  The portholes on Deck 1 are small and in groups of two, just like in the Deck 1 staterooms on the Magic and Wonder (the Dream and Fantasy don't have any guest rooms on Deck 1)!  I'm not sure if the Wish will have guest rooms on Deck 1, but since it'll have the same amount of rooms that the Dream and Fantasy have, I don't think so.  If Deck 1 doesn't have any guest rooms, it should have crew rooms instead.

I'm surprised I managed to get so much writing out of a 39 second video, but I guess I'm just that excited for it.  The Wish isn't actually that far away.  It's almost 2021, and the Wish will probably be completed in the spring of 2022.  But for now, we have to keep watching 39 second videos and try to get as much information out of them as possible!

The Wonder Came Back To the US, But What About the Others?

If you've been following my blog and general DCL news this year, you probably know that starting in May, the Disney ships went to Europe.  I guess they all pretended to be the Magic and spent the summer there.  They sent to Europe for a few reasons.  For one, all of the ships went to France for dry dock renovations.  Also in France, all four ships met up for the first time, which was really cool.  Towards the end of the summer, the ships were likely picking up the crew that had been sent home earlier in the year.  I don't know about you, but I'd much rather cross the Atlantic Ocean on a cruise ship than on a plane.  

By now, you might have heard that the Disney Wonder left Europe and arrived back at Port Canaveral.  The Wonder probably brought some of DCL's European crew with it.  The Wonder is the first of Disney's ships to come back from Europe, and I assumed the rest were following it.  Let's check our good old friend Marinetraffic.com.  

We already know the Wonder made it back from Europe, so let's see what the Magic's doing.

At the time of me writing this, the Magic is headed to Dover, a port town in England.  It's been to Dover multiple times since it arrived in Europe, which makes me think it's where the European crew members are meeting with the ship to get back on.  Or maybe the crew that's  on the Magic really likes to see the White Cliffs of Dover.

The Dream is surprisingly close to the Magic, although it isn't going to Dover.  Instead, it's coming back to Port Canaveral!  Like the Wonder, it's likely bringing crew from Europe back to Port Canaveral.  Because of social distancing and health protocols, the crew is probably spread out among the guest staterooms.  I'm sure they're happy about this, since the guest rooms are larger and fancier than the crew rooms.

Finally, lets see what the Fantasy is doing.  Like the Dream, it's coming back to Port Canaveral.  It's closer to Florida than the Dream, so unless it starts going really slow, stops, or turns around, it'll arrive first.

At the time of me writing this, here's a summary of where the ships are going:

Magic-going to Dover

Wonder-at Castaway Cay (probably delivering supplies and crew)

Dream-going to Port Canaveral

Fantasy-going to Port Canaveral

After the Magic does whatever it needs to do in Dover, I think it will follow the other ships and go back to Port Canaveral.  Port Canaveral is a familiar place for most of the crew, and it's a good place to start practicing the implementation of the restrictions.  Even though I'm no longer going on a cruise in January, I hope the restrictions that are made won't ruin the cruise experience.

Cruises are currently planned to resume in the beginning of February, but I know they won't.  The Disney Cruise Line website doesn't let anyone book cruises in February anymore, and Disney should make an official announcement in the next few days.  Keep your eye out for that!

Update: All Disney Cruises Are Canceled Through January 31st, 2021

Earlier today, November 23rd, on their website, Disney announced that all cruises are canceled until January 31st, 2021.  On the Magic, Wonder, and Dream, cruises will resume on February 1st.  On the Fantasy, they'll resume on February 6th.

Like the last two suspensions, Disney says that this extension is to give them more time to work on their safety protocols and measures for when cruises resume.  I'm not sure if that's the entire reason, because the COVID-19 pandemic has been going on longer than almost everybody expected.

This announcement means that I'm not going on a cruise in January.  I was expecting this, and even if Disney didn't cancel the cruise, my family and I probably wouldn't have gone because of all of the restrictions.  I'm disappointed, because now the most exciting thing happening in January for me is that I might go back to school.  We'll see what happens with that.

Like always, all of the people affected by this new suspension will have the choice of receiving a full refund or a 125% cruise credit (as long as they've paid the cruise in full).  Of course, be sure to check the Disney Cruise Line website for more information and the latest updates.

The Doomed Disney Infinity Room

Earlier this month, I wrote about the Arr-Cade, the arcade that used to be on the Dream and Fantasy.  Both Arr-Cades have been replaced by specialty dessert shops, and writing that post got me thinking.  What area on the DCL ships will be replaced next?

In a major dry dock renovation, it's almost a guarantee that something on the ship will be altered or converted into something completely new.  For example, in the Fantasy's 2017 dry dock, the Arr-Cade was transformed into Sweet on You.  Sometimes, the areas that get changed are unexpected.  In the Magic's 2018 dry dock, Carioca's, one of the rotational restaurants, was replaced by Rapunzel's Royal Table.  It's weird that they did this, since Carioca's was added in 2013.  See?  Unexpected!

Across the fleet, there is one room that is begging to be changed:  The Disney Infinity room in the Dream's Oceaneer Club.  

Before I go into why it'll probably be taken out, here's some background information.  Disney Infinity is a video game that was released in 2013.  It features characters from everything owned by Disney.  It has characters from classic Disney movies, Star Wars, and Marvel.  The main money making aspect of this game is that all of the characters have figures, like this one:

Players put figures like these on the scanning base, and they could play as them in game.  In order to get more characters to play as, players had to buy more figures.  One of the most fun parts of the actual game is designing worlds in the Toy Box game mode, where there's an infinite amount of things to make and do.  It's called 'Disney Infinity' for a reason.

In what was likely an attempt to boost the sales of the game, Disney added a Disney Infinity themed room to the Dream's Oceaneer Club in 2015.  Here, kids can play the video game and participate in activities themed after the game.  A cool feature of this room was that people could take their Oceaneer wristband home and scan it on the Disney Infinity base to unlock Disney Cruise Line-themed content, like a rideable mini DCL ship and a recreation of parts of the Dream, Nassau, and Castaway Cay.  I'm pretty sure this is the most expensive content in the game.  

Sadly, Disney Infinity didn't do as well as Disney hoped, and the game and its figures were discontinued in 2016.  It was a shame, the game was a lot of fun.  However, this actually had a few good effects, the figures received a big price drop since the game they were made for was dead.  However, in the long run, Disney Infinity's cancellation was pretty unfortunate, especially for the room on the Dream.  They now had a room promoting a discontinued video game.

"Hey kids, if you liked playing in this room, you should buy the video game!  Oh wait...You can't anymore."

The Fantasy never had a Disney Infinity room.  Instead, it got a Marvel Super Hero Academy room added during its first dry dock in 2017, after Disney Infinity ended.  When the Dream's Disney Infinity room inevitably gets removed, a Marvel themed room will probably fill the space to keep parity with the Fantasy.  

During the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the Dream went into dry dock in France.  Nothing has been revealed about any changes that were made, so I doubt anything major was changed.  This dry dock was probably just for minor, routine repairs and maintenance.  The Disney Infinity room might have been replaced with a Marvel room, but you would think Disney would've announced something like that.  So, the Disney Infinity room might still be around to see some more guests.  If it is, it'll be removed in the Dream's next major dry dock.  Disney Infinity was a great game, and I (and probably DCL) wish it hadn't ended so soon.

The Sixth and Seventh Ships Have Been Delayed

In October, Disney announced that the Disney Wish, which was originally scheduled to start cruises in January of 2022, had been delayed until summer of 2022 because of COVID-19.  When I saw that it had been delayed, I assumed that the other two ships would be unaffected, since they were planned to start cruises later than the Wish.

Sadly, that is now not the case.  On November 12th during Disney's financial earnings report, Bob Chapek, Disney's CEO, announced that the unnamed sixth and seventh DCL ships are now delayed according to Cruise Industry News.  The sixth ship, previously scheduled to launch in 2022, will now launch in 2024.  The seventh ship, previously scheduled to launch in 2024, will now launch in 2025.  These delays are not due to closures at the Meyer Werft shipyard, like the Wish's delay.  Instead, it was likely Disney's choice.  When cruises resume in January at the earliest, there will probably be less demand overall for a while.  Since there won't be as much demand, Disney doesn't need three more ships right away.  Also, Disney hasn't made nearly as much money in 2020 as they have in normal years, so paying millions of dollars for two cruise ships might not be the best thing they can do at the moment.  

I'm really disappointed by this announcement, two extra years is a long time.  2024 and 2025 seem so far in the future.  In 2025, the Magic will be 27, the Wonder will be 26, the Dream will be 14, the Fantasy will be 13, the Wish will be 3, and the sixth ship will be 1.  At that point, what will happen with the aging Magic and Wonder?  Will they still be in Disney's fleet or will they be sold to another cruise line?  I think they'll still be used by Disney.  They're much smaller than the other ships, and that allows them to visit more ports.  Plus, Disney is constantly improving them and maintaining their best condition.  When I was on the Wonder in 2019, it didn't feel like it was almost twenty years old thanks to the constant improvements being done.

Anyway, I'm just glad this delay doesn't affect the Wish.  If the three future ships are anything like the four existing ships, they will all be very similar with minor differences like restaurant theming.  This means that when the Wish is completed in 2022, we'll have a pretty good idea of what the sixth and seventh ships will be like.  And hey, it's almost 2021, a rare year when we can say, "There's a new Disney ship coming next year!"

Buried Treasure

If you went on a cruise on the Dream or Fantasy between 2011 and early 2017, you may have noticed a pirate-themed arcade outside of Cabanas.  This arcade, called the Arr-Cade, is no longer on the Dream or Fantasy, and has been replaced with specialty dessert shops on both.  

Like many modern arcades, the arcade machines in the Arr-Cade were operated using cards.  Not Key to the World Cards, though that would've been nice.  Instead, the Arr-Cade used cards specifically designated for arcade use.  When guests entered the dark, noisy, wooden plank-design carpeted Arr-Cade, they paid however much they wanted to spend on arcade games at a machine and got a card that looked like this:

I think this card was from the Fantasy's Arr-Cade in January of 2017, when the Arr-Cade's days were numbered.  This card was hidden deep under a lot of random papers in a drawer, so it was buried.  It's also a treasure to me, even though it has no cash value.  You can't get one of these anymore!  It's a relic from DCL's past.  I wonder if it still has a few cents left...

The Arr-Cade's older sibling, Quarter Masters Arcade, was on the Magic and Wonder.  It was taken off the ships before I had the chance to see it, and was replaced by Edge, which was moved to Deck 9 from Deck 2.  I think the card design was the same between the two arcade types, since the card just says, "Arcade Card", not "Quarter Masters Arcade Card" or "Arr-Cade Card".  

Since the arcades were removed from all four Disney ships, there's no way there will be an arcade on the Wish.  Disney is definitely making more money from Vanellope's Sweets and Treats and Sweet on You, the specialty dessert shops, than they ever did from the Arr-Cade.  It's pretty safe to say that there will be a specialty dessert shop on the Wish.  Even if people don't buy anything from it, they'll still go for the delicious smells.

I think it's really cool looking back at Disney Cruise Line's history and seeing what's changed.  While all of the ships have had changes, the Magic and Wonder have had the most.  In the future, I might write about some of the areas and features on those ships that have changed in their 22 and 21 year histories.  But until then, rest in peace, Arr-Cade and Quarter Masters Arcade.  You won't be missed by Disney, because they're making more money without you!