Earlier this week, history was made at Port Canaveral when three of the four ships in the current Disney Cruise Line fleet shared neighboring berths. The Disney Fantasy tied up at the Disney Cruise Line terminal (CT8), the Disney Dream at CT10 which will be utilized in the coming years when multiple Disney ships are in port on the same day, and the Disney Magic over at CT6.
MICKEY HAPPY FACE: Port Canaveral had the honor to receive three Disney Cruise Line ships at once, so we decided to put them all together – the Magic, Fantasy and the Dream. It will just be a matter of time before happy passengers are embarking on their new journey.
Port Canaveral’s video description
The ships have been rotating between CT8, Cape Canaveral Anchorage, Castaway Cay, and at sea during the shutdown caused by Coronavirus pandemic. The Florida fleet, as I’ve been calling it, spend the time in port to expedite crew transfers between the ships ahead of a repatriation effort highlighted by the Disney Magic sailing to Europe which left Port Canaveral on Thursday. On Friday, the Magic made a short stop at Castaway Cay before setting out on the Transatlantic crossing with a scheduled arrival at Ponta Delgada on May 15th and Dover on May 19th.
This is a result of CDC restrictions in the United States. Crew have effectively quarantined on board for well over a month, well past the normal two-week period, yet the CDC still requires private transportation for any crew member debarking. It is beyond me why crew quarantined offshore Florida cannot be transported to one of the many vacant Walt Disney World resorts for a 2-week quarantine period on land, and then be allowed to travel home.
Below is the same video which was posted on YouTube. Added as an alternate for those unable to view the video on Facebook.
So, if I understand well, the Magic is actually travelling to Europe ? But what would be the purpose ? I could not imagine that would be for leisure travelers.
The Magic is more or less pre-positioning in possible anticipation of resumption of operations, they normally would be starting the European Summer season about now anyway, but as it stands they need to repatriate many crew members that live in Europe, Asia and Australia, since there there really isn’t any viable air travel out of the U.S. (The CDC requires cruise line to charter private flights for returning crew members to their home countries) this is a great opportunity for them to send them home, the ship will lay up in Dover, UK in Cold Shut Down mode until resumption of operations. If they scrap the entire season there the Magic is slated to go into Dry Dock in Cadiz, Spain in Sept so she would need to be there for that anyway. It optimizes the ship in an effective and efficient method. The Fantasy & Dream will remain in FL waters until a decision is made service, the Wonder is biding her time in the San Diego port area also.
i don’t look for any resumption of summer european cruises this year for any cruise line. those countries are still reeling from the first wave, the last thing they need is entry of foreign travelers to disrupt their reopenings. and with the UK introducing 14 day quarantine for air travelers (finally) that basically cancels out any UK cruises, including the WBTA in the fall. i question if the dry dock will even happen as scheduled, if the facilities are even open and if the staffs are even working. but i seriously doubt any passengers will be on board this summer. can understand wanting to be ready, but very doubtful.
I tho I you are right about the Europe season ; I do live in Europe (Paris to be precise) so I was very surprised indeed. We are just about to end our lockdown – and still most things are closed and it is not possible to travel more than a 100km (sorry for the metric system).
The UK 14 days quarantine is not a sure thing yet, as most European countries threatened of retaliation if the UK dared to put that in place whilst the rest of Europe did not.
The Magic is sailing to Europe so crew members can disembark and travel home. The Magic is also scheduled for a dry dock in Europe at the end of the summer season.
Thanks for the explanation ! Much clearer
Yes. Thanks for the explanation. Please keep us posted!
Considering it’s basically been a three month shut down (maybe longer in the end), DCL probably should have used the time to refresh the ships. Fresh paint, maybe a few adjustments for social distancing like creating a second kids club on most ships so to spread out the kids.
Reality is cruise ships are going to have to run at 50% capacity for awhile, so it would make sense IMO to re-purpose cabins into something productive that guests will want. Of course another option is to just figure out a pricing pack so a instead of a family of four being in one cabin, they can have two now. So more adjoining cabins could be a good thing.