Disney Cruise Line® Returns to Sailing: DCL Transport and NEW pre-testing protocols

By Tink's Planners, Meghan, Lynn and Mindy
Several Tink’s agents were recently invited on a Disney Cruise on board the Disney Fantasy to experience first hand the many NEW safety protocols put in place in September of 2021 so that cruising can resume on all ships safely!  We share our Disney Cruise Line transportation and pre-boarding testing experience here for you!  To read more about on board experiences be sure to read this! 

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Disney Cruise Line Transport
While we all typically arrive the day before a cruise departs (Tink’s HIGHLY recommends you do the same) due to the last minute nature of this sailing for all 3 of us, 2 of us flew in the day of and we used the DCL transport to get to Port Canaveral. 
We collected our bags from the baggage claim and found the Disney Cruise line waiting area on the bottom floor Level 1 of Orlando International Airport in Terminal B near the Disney’s Magical Express Desk (so you could follow those signs) Somehow we both missed the Disney Cruise representatives milling around baggage claim carousel to help direct us downstairs.  
In the waiting area there were plenty of places to sit.

Don’t worry if you don’t get your bag tags or forget them, we didn’t have any and they had extras and they checked our bags straight through to our Disney Cruise stateroom!  A few notes on checking your bags - you can no longer check your bags all the way through from your home airport - DCL IS NOT collecting bags from baggage claim - so if you check a bag at your home airport -you will need to pick up your bag PRIOR to heading down to the busses!  Also make sure that you have all important documentation, medications and any alcohol or food you need in your carry on - once they put your bags under the bus - they will then be delivered to your stateroom up to a few hours later! 

TIP: Make sure you have your stateroom number OR the check in page you printed with your QR codes easily accessible, they ask for this info SEVERAL times throughout the embarkation process beginning with boarding the bus!

DCL Health Screening Tent

Once we arrived at Port Canaveral - we were escorted to the Health Screening area for our Covid tests, as of September 13, Guests 12 years of age and older must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)**.  All Guests, regardless of age and vaccination status, are required to take a COVID-19 test (paid for by Disney Cruise Line and administered by Inspire Diagnostics) at the terminal before boarding. Guests with positive COVID-19 test results, including those in their travel party, will be denied boarding.

(if arriving in your car, they will give you a test to take in your car) click here to read the most updated details of  the new pre-sailing protocols including Covid testing protocols for those 11 years of age and under.

​In this health screening tent we were given a ziplock bag with a vial, sticker and pen (there was a bag for each one of us) and we were asked to write our name on the sticker and then put everything in the bag again.  We then were told to head to a testing booth in the same tent (everyone in the same stateroom is put together in one testing booth)

​In this private booth, we were instructed to put our sticker on the vial then (one at a time) to use a swab they gave us to circle for 5 seconds in each nostril (we did the swab ourselves). We then inserted the swab into the vial in our bag and closed it up, placed it back into the bag and put the whole thing in a plastic basket.

Inside the DCL Testing Tent

Testing instructions

Capping our own vial after swabbing

Waiting for our results

​We were then instructed to head to the “waiting tent” where we would be informed of the results of our tests in approximately 45-60 minutes.  The waiting tent was air conditioned and had a screen up front to inform staterooms once they were cleared. We were also told the results would probably be uploaded to our safe passage account faster then we’d see it on the TV in the tent!  We only waited about 20 minutes for this result!  Once cleared we were then escorted to the cruise terminal for boarding.

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DCL "waiting" tents

Screen that lists results by stateroom number

Overall the new pre-testing protocols were well run, organized and didn't add nearly as much time as we feared it could!   Cruising for 4 nights on the beautiful Disney Fantasy made this process well worth it!  Contact your Tink's Planner to get you booked on a future Disney Cruise sailing today!! 
​**Please be aware that as of January 13, 2022 ALL guests age 5 and older now must be fully vaccinated, as defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)!!