Disney Cruise Line announces return date for Disney Wonder

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Disney Cruise Line has announced the start date for Disney Wonder so that all four ships in its fleet will soon be back in business.

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Disney Cruise Line announces return date for Disney Wonder

Disney Wonder

Disney Cruise Line has announced the start date for Disney Wonder so that all four ships in its fleet will soon be back in business.

The ship will resume sailing from San Diego on Oct. 1, according to a statement posted to the DCL website.

Disney Magic, the line’s first ship, began the company’s return to sailing with voyages in the United Kingdom. Disney Dream was the first ship to make a return in the U.S. sailing from Port Canaveral and Disney Fantasy is set to join Dream from the Central Florida port on Sept. 11.

 

Wonder will begin with three- and four-night sailings to the Mexican Riviera with stops in Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas.

Some planned itineraries that were still on the website, though, had to be canceled including voyages on Sept. 24 and 26. The line will offer those guests refunds or moves to future cruises with a cruise credit.

Sailings that were planned for seven- and five-night trips are being dialed back to the shorter voyages, similar to what the line has done for the first sailings of Disney Fantasy from Port Canaveral, which is also limiting its trips to three- and four-night options.

Disney Wonder sailings to Mexico require guests 12 and older to be fully vaccinated while those 11 and younger need to provide proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test taken between three days and 24 hours of the sail date. All guests will have to take a COVID-19 test at the terminal before boarding as well.

While at ports of call, vaccinated guests can debark without booking an excursion through the cruise line, but those with children who are not vaccinated have to book an excursion if they want to get off the ship.

Wonder will continue California-based sailings until it departs on a 14-night sailing from San Diego through the Panama Canal on its way to Galveston on Nov. 5. That sailing requires all guests to be vaccinated regardless of age.

The ship recently sailed without passengers across the Panama Canal leaving Fort Lauderdale ahead of the return-to-business announcement. The ship traditionally sails Alaska in the summer months, but DCL opted to bow out of Alaska sailings for a second season.

The ship has not sailed with passengers since March 2020. Disney Cruise Line shut down all four of its ships during the pandemic, only bringing Disney Magic back sailing from England in July followed by Disney Dream on Aug. 9. Dream performs three- and four-night sailings to the Bahamas including stops at the line’s private island Castaway Cay.

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For both Dream and the soon-to-start Fantasy, the cruise line will beginning Sept. 3 be requiring all passengers 12 and older to be fully vaccinated to fall in line with an emergency order issued by the Bahamas that will not let cruise lines dock at any of its ports including private islands without fully vaccinated passengers. There are exceptions to those 11 and under who cannot be vaccinated yet, as well as those with a medical reason for not being able to be vaccinated. The Bahamas order lasts through October.

Disney Magic continues to sail in England limited to UK residents with voyages planned through early October ahead of a planned transatlantic crossing to begin service in Miami, according to its website. The first Miami voyage available to book is Oct. 21, but an official U.S. restart date has yet to be announced by the cruise line.

Disney is set to welcome a fifth ship in the fleet next summer when Disney Wish makes its way to Port Canaveral in June. It’s the first of three ships in a new class that will grow the DCL fleet to seven ships by 2025.

 

 

Richard Tribou

Orlando Sentinel