Current State of Disney Cruises

We know that people want to get back to cruising, but are Disney cruises still enjoyable with all of the safety protocols in place?  We get asked this quite a bit.  We recently sailed on the Disney Magic and are here to give you the low down.

Disney knows how to handle safety protocols, so we still felt safe and managed to have a good time.  Here are the Pros and Cons we discovered.

First, let's go over some of those basic safety protocols that Disney is managing.  Vaccines are mandatory to cruise.  Anyone old enough to be vaccinated has to be, and those that are too young have to have a negative test within 3 days prior to boarding.  Also, everybody gets a quick test at the port.  We waited for about an hour before we were finally cleared to get on the ship.

The other big one to know about is you have to wear your mask inside the ship.  So, anytime you aren't eating, you are supposed to wear your mask.  You do not have to be masked when outside, so we enjoyed spending some time up top for the fresh air.

Mixed Feelings on the Welcome Party

The welcome aboard celebration has been changed for everybody's safety.  Now you are brought in a few groups at a time and have a smaller welcome by Captain Mickey and Minnie themselves.
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​It's a small change but it was nice to be greeted in small batches.  This also means you are waiting on the gangway as batches of 10 families are let onboard.

Pro:  Low Crowds

From what we've been told, most of the ships are running at roughly half capacity.  So the ship certainly feels less crowded.  We had no issues finding seating anywhere on the ship and when visiting Castaway Cay.
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It was nice being able to just grab a beach chair where ever we wanted without having to rush around or scout out for good seating.

Con:  Social Distanced Characters

You can still see a lot of characters but they are socially distanced.  Still no hugs or autographs.  It will probably be a while before we can get close to the characters again.  But it's not all bad, as the lines for photos move quickly.  It was always a little annoying when the family ahead of us would try to have Mickey sign a bunch of things and slow the line down.

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Pro:  Dinners are still great!

Dining is still top notch on Disney cruises.  With less cruisers the food gets to your table very quickly and the waiters are around more often to take care of your requests.
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The dining entertainment has been slightly modified to include social distancing but we still got to see Rapunzel and the ruffians do their number at Rapunzel's Royal Table.  Rapunzel's still ranks among my favorite dinners on Disney Cruise Line.

Con:  Cabanas Buffet wasn't as good.

The buffet at Cabanas was a bit disappointing.  I like a good buffet, you get to pick from a wide variety of options and get as much or as little of each thing as you want.  Cabana's buffet has been broken down into multiple sets of the same food to help control the number of guests standing around waiting to get food.  I get it from a safety standpoint, but there wasn't nearly as much to choose from.

Con:  Limited Pool and Hot Tub usage...

The Main Pool only allowed about 15 people in at a time and for 15 minutes at a time.  So the kids kept having to hop out of the pool to get in line to be able to get back in.  It wasn't an issue when no one was in line because they would get back in line and back in the water really quickly.  But there were several times they had to wait.  The kids didn't seem to mind as much as they were usually distracted by the movie being played in the area.

The Hot tubs had their own queue.  It was one family at a time in each hot tub.  It was nice to not be crowded in the hot tub, but getting kicked out after 15 minutes got old really quick.
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As long as there was no one in line, we got to stay in longer, but that usually didn't last long for us.  We maybe got a solid half hour in the hot tub before we were asked to get out for the next family.

Pro:  Same great shows and entertainment

There were less shows than they normally run on board, but the quality is still there.  We love Disney's stage shows for a good reason.  The sets they manage to create on the ship are just amazing.

We got to see a close up Magician as well.  We were impressed with his skills of prestidigitation.  We ended up having to get my daughter a magic kit for Christmas because of how impressive he was.

Con:  Pirate Night was really dialed back

Pirate Night was almost non-existent.  Dinner was still pirate-themed, but there wasn't a Pirate Party or show at the end of the night.  They still had fireworks, but you were assigned a time slot to avoid crowding up on deck.

​The kids really got a kick out of the Pirate Game Show, but that was about it.

We are used to Pirate Night being a big production.  Lots of guests dress up in their best Pirate outfits and really get into the spirit.  The pirate spirit walked the plank on this one.

Mixed Feelings:  Disembarking the ship

In order the get off the ship you had to join a Virtual Queue.  It wasn't as bad as grabbing a spot on Rise of the Resistance, but it was odd not being able to just go ashore whenever we wanted.  Though it was nice that the gangway was never crowded to get off the ship, so it has its perks.

Con:  Kid's Club

The Oceaneer Club wasn't as accessible.  You had to book time slots at the kids club which wasn't hard to do, but not always convenient.  Some times slots didn't match up perfectly causing us to have to take the kids out for a bit before they could go back.  If your time slot ended at 6:15, you wouldn't be able to grab an open slot from 6 to 7.  You would have to either grab a slot at 6:30 or later, which left you with an inconvenient 15 minutes to fill.

The kids still had fun, but there weren't as many kids to play with.  The kids were broken into groups based off their time slot, but if their group only had 2 kids then they didn't have much choice of who to play with.  Though they did get more personal attention from their counselors.
The tween and teen clubs, Edge and Vibe, didn't require time slot reservations.  My daughter turned 11 on this cruise and was very happy to be able to go and check out Edge.

But did we have fun?

Despite some of the changes for safety we still managed to have a GREAT TIME!  Was everything perfect, not really, but the world is making its way through this pandemic.  You can't expect everything to be exactly as it was.

The kids still got to enjoy a bunch of time at the kids club.  The adults still got to have their fancy Palo dinner and take Mixology classes.  The fun was still there, just with some modifications.

If you have any other questions about Disney Cruises, contact us for more info.  We test the waters of Disney so we can give you our honest opinions before you book your trip. 

When it's time to plan for Disney:  It's Mouse O'Clock!