DCL UK Staycation Cruise info - Liverpool

[MickeyMouse110]

Hi all,

I was doing a bit of research about the upcoming Liverpool cruise which my family and I are on and found the following that may be of interest on the Cruise Liverpool website:

"All 2021 embarkation and disembarkation operations will take place from the Arena & Convention Centre Liverpool (ACC Liverpool) this is so additional requirements relating to Covid protocols can take place.

It is important that you do not travel to Liverpool Cruise Terminal where the ship is berthed.
You will not be able to check-in at Liverpool Cruise Terminal.
You should travel directly to ACC Liverpool, where all passenger operations will take place and then you will be transferred by Cruise Shuttle Bus to the ship, once all of the passenger elements have been undertaken."

As a newly registered user to this site, it wouldn't let me link the URL, but if you use the following to paste in your address bar it should work! cruise-liverpool.com then go to Passenger information and select Disney Magic Passengers it will give you the info.


Hope this helps!

[D23er]

I wonder if you have to take the shuttle bus? I wouldn't mind the walk up to the ship (if it's a nice day!)

[DisneyDavid]

Would love to know if you can drop your luggage off before your PAT, as would love to have a look around Liverpool for a few hours before my PAT

[HiddenMickey35]

Originally Posted by D23er

I wonder if you have to take the shuttle bus? I wouldn't mind the walk up to the ship (if it's a nice day!)

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Depend if you want to walk to Cruise terminal? Will you get through the gate? you need double check it

[Beth_Disney]

MSC have already been doing this for their Liverpool embarkations. You have to take their shuttle bus to the terminal to secure the bubbles as the LFT tests are done at the arena. Its caught a few people out as they've booked parking and/or hotels close to the terminal rather than the arena.

[Elodie]

Originally Posted by D23er

I wonder if you have to take the shuttle bus? I wouldn't mind the walk up to the ship (if it's a nice day!)

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I’m pretty sure we’ll have to take the shuttle bus as we’ll have been tested by then and they won’t want us potentially picking anything up before boarding.

[Temp77]

I disembarked from MSC Virtuosa in Liverpool last week after a 7 night cruise. It took over 2 and a half hours from when we arrived at the arena when embarking until we actually got on the ship.

I spoke to one of the cruise port staff at the arena whilst waiting to check in and she said they were dealing with lots of different cruise lines over the summer including Disney. As we’re also booked on the Magic embarking 23 July I was trying to absorb as much info as possible as I figured it would help for when we embark on the Magic.

There were only about 350 getting on the Virtuosa the same day as us so the long lines to check in certainly had us concerned for how it would be with even more passengers getting on when we get on the Magic.

The majority of the long wait we had was actually getting to the check in desks. We had a port arrival time of 1:20pm and arrived around 1pm to find a very long line just to get into the arena. There was no checking of paperwork or anyone asking what port arrival time we had so if we’d had an even later port arrival time we could have gotten in line just the same. The port/arena staff were handing out free bottles of water to people waiting in line outside in the sun. I certainly hope Disney will insist on PAT times being honoured as we didn’t appreciate the free for all it seemed to be with MSC.

Once inside the arena there was another long wait to get to the check in desks of which there were only 4. At the desks they were only really interested in seeing our insurance documents for COVID cover and vaccination certificates which took a few minutes to check the whole party.

After getting through the initial check in desks we were directed further along the concourse to an area where luggage handlers were taking luggage from those who’d passed through the initial check in.

After leaving our luggage we were then directed further along the concourse to where they were carrying out the lateral flow tests. There were desks set up where they’d check your name and cabin from the e docs we’d been provided with as well as the health questionnaire completed before you were directed to an area where they were carrying out the lateral flow tests. This was a fairly straightforward process. The test was carried out by a health official and it was a single swab up a single nostril.

Before leaving the testing area you were given a number and told to go and sit in the area with that number. I’d say there were around 25 people per numbered group. After waiting around 20 minutes our number was called and the whole group were escorted to the coaches waiting at the back of the arena (river side) to take us to the ship. We weren’t given individual results of our tests and were basically told they were calling the groups as all the results came back negative for that group.

There was no option to not get on the coach and I don’t think anyone would be allowed to walk from the arena to the port as they wouldn’t be able to preserve the bubble if people could make their own way to the ship after being tested. There is a lot of construction on the Strand with traffic down to a single lane which meant what should be a very short journey took over 15 minutes!

Once the coach arrived at the port it dropped us off in a secure area and we then had to go into another check in area where our passports were checked and we were given our stateroom cards. I appreciate Disney aren’t giving Key to the World cards out until people are on board so this part of the process might not be exactly the same but I suspect there will be some checking of passports at this stage.

We then went through to security where we had to send our hand luggage through the usual scanners and walk through the metal detectors like at an airport/cruise port. Once we’d cleared through security we could then walk to the ship and board.

The embarkation process was long and frustrating but we had a great cruise so it was worth a little short term suffering to actually get on board a cruise again!

The disembarkation process was far quicker. We didn’t self disembark and had our luggage taken the night before as we usually do. We thought we would have to go to the arena to collect our luggage but they actually set up the luggage pick up area inside the terminal at the port so we were able to collect it there. There were coaches waiting to take anyone who wanted to be taken to the arena but there was no obligation to use these coaches and we were able to just walk out and head to our car which we’d parked at the Ibis nearby.

The process may not be exactly the same for the Magic but I suspect it will be fairly similar so I hope this information helps.

[D23er]

Very useful, thanks.

[DisneyDavid]

I am in Boarding Group1 on the Liverpool cruise on the 23rd Disney have confirm all paperwork is done from my side as I have had email from Disney to that effect.

Problem is the Port Arrival pdf has no arrival time on it, anyone in Boarding Group 1 or 2 got a time of arrival so we know when to turn up.

Spoke to Disney over but just said turn up when you want which seems incorrect, as in emails etc says not to turn up before your PAT

[Temp77]

Originally Posted by DisneyDavid

I am in Boarding Group1 on the Liverpool cruise on the 23rd Disney have confirm all paperwork is done from my side as I have had email from Disney to that effect.

Problem is the Port Arrival pdf has no arrival time on it, anyone in Boarding Group 1 or 2 got a time of arrival so we know when to turn up.

Spoke to Disney over but just said turn up when you want which seems incorrect, as in emails etc says not to turn up before your PAT

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We’re boarding group 4 on 23rd and our Docs say an arrival time of 1pm-1:15pm so boarding group 1 must be shortly before 1pm.