Disney Cruise Line is alerting guests booked on this weekend’s January 25, 2020 Disney Fantasy 7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise with Star Wars Day at Sea that the Disney Fantasy is currently experiencing a technical issue that requires the ship to sail at a reduced speed.
I noticed we haven’t been going faster than 17 knots in the last few days. Thought it was because we couldn’t dock in ports and were taking it slow. I did notice that we picked up a pro dive crew in Coz, and were diving today at Castaway. Could see their video, were at props
— Ryan Smith (@erdoc38) January 24, 2020
While the ship is operating safely and will be back to full speed by Tuesday, January 28th, an itinerary change is necessary. On Tuesday, the Disney Fantasy will call on San Juan, Puerto Rico instead of the previously scheduled stop in Tortola.
Disney Cruise Line will be issuing each stateroom a $150 onboard credit as a gesture of good will.
The revised itinerary is as follows:
- Saturday January 25, 2020 – Port Canaveral
- Sunday January 26, 2020 – At Sea
- Monday January 27, 2020 – At Sea
- Tuesday January 28, 2020 – San Juan
- Wednesday January 29, 2020 – St. Thomas (St. John)
- Thursday January 30, 2020 – At Sea
- Friday January 31, 2020 – Castaway Cay
Saturday February 1, 2020 – Port Canaveral (Debarkation)
Below is a copy of the email which was sent to travel agents with clients booked on the sailing. Special thanks to Heather Keller from Storybook Destinations for passing along this information.
The email states that any pre-reserved Port Adventures in Tortola will automatically be removed from Guests’ cruise plans and Disney will try to re-accommodate Guest with excursion in San Juan. Pre-reserved service at Palo, Remy, it’s a small world nursery, and senses spa will also remain as originally scheduled. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique was not mentioned in the correspondence.
Do you think any other cruises will be impacted? I’m going in 4 weeks.
Based on what we’ve learned, the current issue should be resolved by Tuesday.
Thanks Scott! Over on the disboards there are lots of stories that this is a bigger, ongoing issue and the vibration problems, makes me a little nervous. It will be our 1st on the Fantasy, so curious what it will be like.
I was on the Jan 25th Fantasy cruise and the captain announced that the issue was fixed on Tuesday. So I don’t think it should impact any other cruises.
We just got off the Fantasy this morning. There was definitely a lot of rocking and rolling on the ship the past 7 days, but we assumed it was the seas (were a bit choppy at times). Now we know there might have been something else at play. But we were never told that. Each stop that was cancelled was due to “unfavorable weather conditions”. Interestingly, on Grand Cayman day, we went past the island and then had to turn around to deal with a medical emergency, in which a tender was used to transport the patient and crew to the island.
Interesting information. I stumbled on this bIog by chance today. We were also on this last Disney Fantasy cruise (Jan 18-25, 2020) and found it exceedingly rough.This was our 6th Disney cruise and first experience missing ports. Very disappointed that we were not informed of the issues the ship was experiencing, nor offered any form of compensation.
We just got out after a week and we had a rough go of it for a few days and nights. We were under the impression that the weather was the problem and didn’t find out it was a technical issue until now. We weren’t happy as the boat rocked hard and we didn’t sleep much. No one on the cruise has ever missed two ports and wish we would have been told about it instead of not being told the truth.
We were on the Fantasy on a 7 day in July 2019 and we had an ‘issue’ that resulted in lower speed, an itinerary change, a shipboard credit and a discount on a future cruise. As I recall, we skipped Jamaica and substituted a sea day. It is a great platform and another day at sea was another wonderful day on board.
Quite a number of cruise ships having propulsion issues recently. I don’t recall so many in such a short period of time before, but it could just be that more of this is being reported. Slow is always better than no propulsion.
May 2017 it was having vibrations and engine problems, we docked several hours late with a tug boat assist into Port canaveral. We were just on it last week and it seemed Ok.
How nice of Disney to offer the $150.00 on board credit. We were on the prior cruise where 2 out of 3 ports (Grand Cayman and Jamaica) were cancelled and they offered NOTHING.
Hopefully, this hasn’t posted twice. How nice of Disney to offer the $150.00 on board credit for the cruise after ours because they changed the itinerary of one destination. We were on the 1/18/2020 through 1/25/2020 Fantasy Cruise directly before, and 2 out of 3 ports were cancelled (Grand Cayman and Jamaica). We were told the seas were too rough and the dock masters would not allow them to dock. We were offered NOTHING, but the return of the dock fees we paid in advance. We had three days at sea and to say we were disappointed would be an understatement.
We were also on the 1/18/20 cruise. This was our 3rd cruise on the Fantasy. The vibration was very noticeable throughout the ship. We also talked to Guest Services about the incredibly loud noises in our stateroom. They offered to move us to an open stateroom, but we had connecting rooms and that wouldn’t work for our family. Overall, very disappointed in missing the ports and the noise levels – really could not sleep at times. Also I think DCL could have handled it better.