We’re ready to set sail on the big blue once again with the Disney Cruise Line! Thankfully, the cruise industry, including the Disney Cruise Line is slowly but surely making progress as they prepare their comeback. The Disney Cruise Line set sail with passengers for the first time in over a year with a successful test cruise in the UK! And recently, Canada announced they would be ending their cruise ban, opening the door for Disney to return their Alaskan cruises. The ups have been met with downs however, as we recently shared that on June 29 a test cruise out of Port Canaveral was postponed due to positive COVID results. Great news however as the previously postponed Disney Cruise test sailing is back on!
As reported by OrlandoSentinel: “Disney Cruise Line is ready once again to get its ships underway from Florida after a COVID-19 test result forced a delay of a planned simulated sailing from Port Canaveral. Now with a Saturday departure, Disney Dream will become the first cruise ship sailing with “passengers” from the Orlando area port in more than 16 months, the cruise line confirmed. The passengers, though, are all volunteer Disney employees, sailing for free as part of a required test voyage in order to get a conditional sailing certificate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Why are test cruises needed? Disney needs to work with CDC’s guidelines for the final approval to have paying passengers come aboard. OrlandoSentinel reports, “Now, Disney Dream will sail with about 300 people, which is more than the required 10% capacity, in an effort to get the OK from the CDC to sail with paying customers. Disney Dream is still listed with an Aug. 9 sailing date on the company’s website with a four-night trip to the Bahamas. The Saturday sailing is headed to the line’s private island Castaway Cay and returning Monday. The ship will sail away from Port Canaveral around 4 p.m., according to port officials.”
We’re so thrilled to hear this! Happy sailing to all those test cruisers out there. We hope everyone stays happy and healthy so us paying passengers will once again be able to take to the big blue with the Disney Cruise Line!
