The Magic is Coming Back (in the US)!

Earlier this month, Disney announced that the Disney Magic will resume cruises from Miami on October 28th!  While this is good news, Disney has canceled two cruises on the Magic before the 28th, one starting on October 21st and one starting on October 24th.  The Magic will be going on mostly 4-night and 5-night cruises from Miami, but it's starting with a 3-night Halloween on the High Seas Bahamian cruise.  This cruise goes to Nassau and Castaway Cay, so the Magic isn't resuming just with Castaway Cay like the Dream and Fantasy did.  

I'm glad they're doing cruises that are a bit longer on the Magic, and while most future cruises weren't canceled, changes were made to some of the Magic's cruises.  Some ports of call that the Magic would have visited, like Grand Cayman, currently aren't open to cruise ships.  So, for a while after the Magic resumes cruises, it'll stop in the Bahamas on 4-night cruises and in Mexico on some 5-night cruises.  

Something else you may notice when looking at the Magic's cruises for the rest of this year and all of next year is that none of them go to Key West.  The Magic used to go to Key West quite frequently (the photo above was even taken in Key West), but it's not going at all now.  This isn't because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's because of a vote that restricts the size of cruise ships coming to Key West and some other legal drama.  If you're interested, the Disney Cruise Line Blog has a lot of information about Key West's situation, so definitely check it out.

To avoid trouble in Key West, all of the cruises that were planned to visit Key West have been altered.  My family is planning on going on the January 31st to February 5th 5-night Bahamian cruise on the Magic, and it originally included a stop at Key West.  However, DCL sent us an email alerting us that the itinerary was changed:

The email didn't say how our specific itinerary was changed, but after we checked the DCL website, we learned that the day at Key West was replaced with a second day at Castaway Cay!  Key West is cool, but I'd choose a second day at Castaway Cay over a day at Key West any day.  Thanks, Mickey!

As you may know, the Magic has actually resumed cruises already.  It's currently going on Magic at Sea cruises from the United Kingdom.  These cruises only go out to sea and don't stop at any ports, which is pretty boring.  The Magic will do a few more Magic at Sea cruises, then it'll make its way back to the United States.  It'll be the last of the four DCL ships to resume cruises from the United States (as long as DCL's plans don't change).  Cruises have been canceled for so long, and I'm happy that all of the DCL ships are finally coming back, even if they're not totally the same as before the start of the pandemic.  Restricted cruises are better than no cruises at all!