Earlier today, an internal email was sent to Disney Cruise Line cast and crew from Thomas Mazloum informing the team the CDC has approved their application to conduct a 2-night simulation cruise aboard the Disney Dream on June 29, 2021. I do not have any further details to share because there has NOT been an official public announcement by Disney Cruise Line on the matter.
I reached out to Disney Cruise Line asking for confirmation and/or a statement, but I have not heard back. Therefore, I am not going to post the contents of the email in this article. There are several places you can find the leaked contents of the email and they can argue over who wants to claim ownership of leaking internal communications first – I’m actually surprised it took so long for someone to post it, I heard the details before lunchtime.
The cruise industry is fighting to resume cruise operations and these simulation cruises are of the utmost importance. The 2-night simulation cruise with volunteers will be pivotal and there is no room for error. If you are wondering how to become a volunteer, I wouldn’t hold your breath. There is a massive pool of Disney Cast Members all within a short drive of Port Canaveral that have been through Traditions training and know-how to follow company rules. I fully suspect the test cruise will be filled primarily with Cast Members because the CDC test is way too important to let John Q Public or Disney Blogger onboard.
I will continue to follow this story and share updates such as an actual public announcement as it becomes available.
UPDATE – Statement from Disney Cruise Line
“We have reached an important next step toward our gradual and responsible resumption of service, and are grateful for the productive dialogue with state, local and federal officials, the CDC and others in our industry that has made this possible. We look forward to our amazing crew once again creating magic for our guests and to helping the many workers who support our industry get back to work.”
Employees are not allowed on the test cruises so I doubt they will let Cast Members on.
WDW Cast Members are not technically DCL Cast Members.
I called Disney Cruise Line a little while ago, and the Castmember confirmed that DCL has been given the green light for 2 night simulated cruises at the end of June. She also confirmed that the volunteers would be cast members. Right now, I am totally speechless, and it is looking much brighter that we will be on a Disney ship some time this year. Thank you Scott for all of your updates.
This is such exciting news!!!
This is another brilliant move by Disney. The CDC has two ways for the cruise lines to start sailing First, 95% of passengers need to be vaccinated or second, they need to conduct test cruises. Because a large percentage of Disney cruisers fall into the teen and tween age group that are not being vaccinated, Disney has decided to with test cruise criteria. 50 miles away at Disney World, Disney is in the process of hiring new “CAST MEMBERS” (not CREW MEMBERS) They have to “earn their ears” by attending Disney school known as Traditions where you learn the to do things the Disney way. The added bonus for Disney is that they have lodging and a fleet of busses to transport the Tradition students aka Cast Members to the ships. BRILLIANT
Can’t wait to see how this all goes down. If DCL sails out of Florida they will not be allowed to require vaccinations as per law. And a test cruise with Disney employees is not much of a test. I’m guessing DCL will only allow employee embarkation one at a time and they must go directly to their stateroom and stay there until the ship returns to port. Voila! No problems.
Does each ship needs to run a test cruise or does the Dream test cover the other ships in the fleet? I would think the former but not sure. We are scheduled for the Aug 9th Alaskan on the Wonder but with each day that she stays in Mexico, the window for that cruise happening gets smaller (even with the Alaskan port schedule document posted here last week). I would think she needs to head to the states soon to run her test cruise from either the east or west coast to make her July 19th cruise from Seattle.
I thinks this a good sign about the future of cruising on DCL. Other Lines may be doing this same thing in one form or another but the one we care about is DCL since out next cruise has been booked since 2019. Needless to say, we are quite anxious and looking forward to 2022 to be back on board, any one of the DCL ships at this point.
The certificate is only issued by ship, not by line. Each ship with each line requires an individual certificate.
Going directly to their staterooms won’t be an option. It will have to play out like an actual cruise. As for the law, there’s some question as to whether or not it would hold up in court (which the cruise lines are very much aware).
I have my doubts about cast members representing the general public. They presumably know what’s at stake whereas the general public as I’ve seen on a few cruises could care less about anyone other than themselves. I’m surprised that the CDC would accept a 2 night cruise since a full restaurant rotation is 3 nights. That would be more representative of an actual cruise.
WHERE DO I APPLY TO TEST THE DISNEY CRUISE WITH MY FAMILY
Why hire new CMs for this? Couldn’t they use existing ones that’ve been through Traditions?
Its odd that no one has asked what the CDC is trying to accomplish by letting the ships sale on a 2 day test cruise? All it will show is yes you can clean the ship, mandate mask wearing and enhanced cleaning works. The big picture will rear its ugly head and thats when the ships are sailing and then an outbreak happens then they need to trace the guest back 2 weeks…. man I wish this would just blow over and we all get back to some normal life if we can even call it normal!