The Disney Magic’s October 21, 2014 Cruise Canceled for Private Charter – Unofficially for TCM Cruise 2014

The Disney Magic’s 5-night Bahamian Cruise scheduled for October 21, 2014 has been chartered, and as a result is no longer available to book.  No additional details are available at this time as to whom may have chartered the Magic. This sailing was to be the first cruise for the Disney Magic from Port Canaveral following her repositioning from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The itinerary was scheduled to include a day at sea as well as stops at Castaway Cay, Nassau and Key West.

The October 21st sailing has already been removed from Disney Cruise Line’s online booking inventory.

DCL Oct 2014 Magic Bahama Bookings

Below is a copy of the email sent to travel agents who had clients affected by this charter.

Thank you for selecting a Disney Cruise Line vacation aboard the Disney Magic.

We are currently contacting Guests booked on the October 21, 2014, sailing to let them know that this particular sail date is no longer available as a group has chartered the ship. As such, we wanted to assist you in selecting another available sailing with us as soon as possible.

Please contact us by Tuesday, November 26, 2013, at 1-866-325-3905 or 407-566-7032 to learn about all the available options and to modify your booking. We are confident that we have a variety of sailings to meet your needs and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

The Cast and Crew
Disney Cruise Line

DCL TA Email Canceled Magic Sailing October 2014All guest reservations will automatically be transferred on Tuesday, November 26, 2013 (if not moved prior) to the December 3, 2014 4-Night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Wonder with stops at Castaway Cay, Nassau and Key West as a placeholder along with a 10% discount and $100 OBC.

This discount and OBC will stay on the reservation if it is subsequently modified to another sailing. One displaced guest informed us that Disney is compensating guests by allowing them to keep any previous discounts and onboard benefits from the canceled sailing as well as 10% off the rescheduled sailing with additional onboard credit.

This cancelation is another in the recent string of chartered sailings. The Disney Magic was chartered by Turner Classic Movies for their third TCM Classic Cruise this December, and an August 2014 sailing of the Disney Dream was canceled for a the 2014 Disney Vacation Club Members sailing.

UPDATE: It was announced during the 2013 TCM Cruise that the 2014 cruise would again sail on the Disney Magic on October 21st. A guest commented on the cruise promoter’s website with the following details.

2014 date is Oct. 21 – 26. Disney Magic; destination TBA. This was announced by Robert Osborne on the Dec., 2013 cruise.

 

17 Replies to “The Disney Magic’s October 21, 2014 Cruise Canceled for Private Charter – Unofficially for TCM Cruise 2014”

  1. Pingback: NewsBrief: Anthem of the Seas Keel Laying, Former Royal Caribbean Ship Sold, & Disney Sailing Cancelled | Cruise Currents

  2. Anni

    My family of 9 were booked on this cruise and it wasn’t easy to rebook … it took us hours! We wanted the Magic and Key West .. Now have the Dream and Nassau … Discount was nice as is the on board credit … The Disney booking agents were phenomenal!

    Reply
  3. Steve

    Since when did DCL become a CHARTER cruise line???? If they had scheduled the charter BEFORE regular guests had booked cruises, that would be a little more acceptable. To CANCEL a scheduled cruise just to make more money on a charter is immoral!!!! Didn’t DCL create enough bad feelings with the problems with the re-imagined Magic? Looks like Karl Holz is trying to turn DCL into Carnival!!

    Reply
  4. Janet

    I’m curious. How often does something like this occur? Not just on DCL but in the cruise industry as a whole. This just seems wrong. Not everyone has a completely flexible schedule. In fact most do not. Once you plan and book a vacation at a certain time you expect the company to make good on that reservation. Obviously mechanical issues, weather, etc can change plans. That’s perfectly understandable. But to basically kick out paying customers because someone offered a higher price (which is essentially what is happening here) while probably legal – check that fine print in your cruise contact!! – certainly doesn’t endear the Disney brand in the eyes of the public. The reality is that you could often book two cruises on another line for only slightly more than what you pay on Disney for one cruise. Customers are willing to pay that premium for the fabulous Disney service and quality. It seems lately that some of the decisions DCL is making are counterproductive in maintaining that Disney loyalty. They might help the bottom line in the near future, but are they eroding that Disney name and reputation?

    Reply
  5. Debi Walton

    What happens to the large family group that picked their date because that’s what worked for them to be able to get everyone together? Sometimes, there is only one date that works.
    I’m not comfortable with DCL canceling already booked cruises. How do you know that the alternate booking isn’t going to be canceled too?

    Maybe DCL could reserve one or two sailings per year for charters two years out. If the ship isn’t chartered by 9 months before sailing, then they could put that sailing up for availability again with maybe some kind of discount. I’m sure they would probably sell that sailing out if there was a discount attached to it even on short notice.

    Disney is supposed to be “The Happiest Place on Earth” in any of it’s forms. Well, how does that calculate when your dream cruise has been pulled out from under you for the sake of “more money”?

    Reply
  6. Dennis

    We’ve taken two Disney cruises and have booked a third. All three cruises were booked at least a year in advance and involved booking flights, making hotel reservations, arranging car service and months of anticipation. A cancelled cruise would pretty much kill our vacation plans and send us scrambling for something else to do. If we had to rebook we’d be looking at waiting another year.

    Reply
  7. JOSHUA UNDERWOOD

    Not happy about this.. So how much would we all need to get together to re charter it back to the guests that were already booked?

    Reply
  8. Jerry

    This is just another example of Disney catering to the rich and not caring about the rest of us. They look at us as pennies in their pockets and the rich as hundred dollar bills in their back account. what they are not seeing is the pennies add up and if you lose enough of them it will hurt.

    Reply
  9. Eric

    It will be interesting to see who actually chartered the ship. I am guessing it’s either a political fundraiser
    ( aren’t there elections in the Fall ) or a corporaiton. Money definitely talks, though, when it comes to DCL. I love DCL, but it’s hard to stick up for them when a family experiences a rough time at sea, an unfinished ship or a cancellation like this.

    Reply
  10. Hannah

    We too had booked this cruise. We took a lot of time to find the cruise that was exciting, a new experience and affordable. We were at Disney World having a great time when we got the call that our next years cruise was off. It kind of put a damper on our day in Disney World. We now have reservations to places we have already been and not as excited. It will still be great but not the trip we wanted. As mentioned by others…the rebooking agents were awesome. Doesn’t seem right to put this many people out.

    Reply
  11. Kay

    Well, we returned from a fabulous cruise on board the Fantasy yesterday to find out that our reservation for 10/21/14 has been cancelled because the entire boat was chartered. Talk about destroying the happy mood! Plus to make matters worse, I’ve spoken to the rebooking agents already at Disney and they are not honoring our booking rate of a year ago (when we booked onboard). If we rebook it will be at today’s prevailing rates only, and honestly the 10% on board discount plus a new 10% discount is not going to touch the rate changes that have occurred over the past year. We are extremely disappointed and may not rebook the cruise.

    Reply
  12. Karen Kelder

    Very upset about this… Our group of 10 just rebooked another cruise that now forces us to pull our kids out of school in order to go in 2014. We are also losing a day and the one destination that we really wanted to go to (Key West). On top of that the 10% didn’t save us any money since the prices have gone up since our original booking. Disney may be making more money but this is a slap in the face to its customers who now have to pay more and get less. We are very loyal Disney customers and vacation club members that have been anticipating to do this cruise for the last 3 years. We would at least appreciate a better explanation about this along with better compensation.

    Reply
  13. MJR

    Disney only cares about Disney and Disney only gives you what you pay for and you pay for what you get. If you expect caring on their end… not going to happen. Their go to saying that I have come to know very well when they won’t do anything for you is (Have a magical Day)

    Reply
  14. Luana

    The TCM cruise leaving Port Canaveral on Oct 21, was sold out on July 1, 2014. Taking my mother-in-law as a 90th birthday gift. . She has never been on a cruise before and is very excited! TCM is her favorite TV channel. But I do feel bad for those guests whose reservations were cancelled.

    Reply

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