My Family's Next Cruise

Earlier this month, I wrote about the Passenger Vessel Services Act and how it prevented my family from going on a back-to-back cruise.  While this was disappointing, my family didn't stop looking for cruises.  For school, the weird scheduling gives us a few days off at the beginning of November, so my siblings and I wouldn't miss much school if we go on a cruise that week.  It would be the perfect time for us to go on a cruise, if there's one we want to go on.  At that time, the Magic will be doing a 5-Night Bermuda cruise from New York to San Juan and a 4-Night Eastern Caribbean cruise from San Juan to Miami.  Those two cruises are the ones we tried to book but couldn't thanks to the law from the 1800s.  The Wonder will be doing a 5-Night Baja cruise from San Diego.  The Dream will be doing its normal 3-Night and 4-Night Bahamian cruises it does every week.  Finally, the Fantasy will be doing a normal 7-Night Eastern Caribbean cruise.  

All of those are pretty good options.  San Diego is a long way away from where we live, so getting there would be expensive.  We took the Wonder out of the picture.  We've done both a 3-Night cruise and a 4-Night cruise on the Dream, so we took those out as well.  We've done the 7-Night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy, and while it would be fun to do it again, our most recent cruise was on the Fantasy.  Some of my family members, including myself, would like to go on another ship.

So what does that leave?  Those two cruises on the Magic.  If we could, we'd do them both, but we can't because of the Passenger Vessel Services Act.  The first one, the 5-Night Bermuda cruise from New York to San Juan, goes to Bermuda and Tortola and has two days at sea.  This cruise is a Halloween on the High Seas cruise, a type of cruise we've never done before.  Also, we'd be able to drive to New York City instead of spending more money on plane tickets.  The second one, the 4-Night Eastern Caribbean cruise from San Juan to Miami, goes to the Dominican Republic and Castaway Cay and has one day at sea.  This isn't a holiday cruise, just a normal repositioning cruise, and we'd have to fly there and back.

Which one did we choose?  The 5-Night Bermuda Cruise from New York to San Juan!  We chose this one because it's more exciting than the 4-Night.  Also, we only have to get a one way flight, from San Juan to home.  I'm looking forward to going to Bermuda, a place we haven't been to yet, and Tortola, a place we've been to a few times.  Last time we visited Tortola was on the Wonder in 2019.  We went on a Port Adventure to the Virgin Gorda, an island with some amazing sea caves.  We may do this again or try something completely new, we haven't looked at our options yet.  This cruise will be the first time we've done many things:  It'll be our first Halloween on the High Seas cruise, our first 5-Night cruise, our first cruise out of New York, our first repositioning cruise, and our first time going to Bermuda.  I can't wait!

This will be our second cruise on the Magic.  Our first Magic cruise was a 4-Night Bahamian cruise back in 2015.  Since then, the Magic has had some changes made to it, like the removal of Carioca's and the addition of Rapunzel's Royal Table, so it'll be interesting to see what's been changed.  It's not a new feature, but I want to ride the AquaDunk again.  Last time, I only rode it once and didn't like it.  I was much younger then, so I think I'll like it now.  I probably won't like it more than the AquaDuck, but it's possible.  We'll be staying in rooms 7072 and 7074.  These two Deluxe Oceanview Staterooms with Verandahs are between Midship and Aft, and they're on the Port side.  Deck 7 is a nice central location, with Deck 9 two decks above and Deck 5 two decks below.

As excited as I am for it, this cruise could get canceled by Disney.  I'm not sure if cruises will resume by October.  I hope they do, but it's possible they don't.  Also, Disney hasn't announced the health and safety restrictions that will be in place when cruises resume.  When they make the announcement, if my family and I think that the restrictions are going to detract from our enjoyment of the cruise, then we'll probably cancel this cruise and find another cruise.  

This cruise is less expensive than our 7-Night Western Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy that got canceled, so it doesn't use all of our 125% credit.  I don't know what we'll use the remainder for.  We have to use it before the cruise in October starts, or else it gets applied to our stateroom account.  If we don't use all of the credit on our stateroom account during the cruise, it's gone.  Hopefully the summer 2022 itineraries get announced soon so we can see what the Wish will be doing.  I'm probably the most excited person in my family for the Wish, and I'd really like to go on it.  Last year, the summer 2021 itineraries were announced in February, so the summer 2022 itineraries could be released any day now, so I'm excited to see what happens!