What I learned on my 14 night WBPC cruise.

[KVH]

The Wonder's fall/winter home port will now be New Orleans, starting in Feb. 2020. DCL has a contract for several years with the Port of New Orleans, so (unless they change up itineraries when the new ships arrive and move the Magic there instead) the Wonder will be sailing from that port for a while.

Which kinda makes you "wonder" why Disney signed a ten-year agreement with Galveston mandating sailing counts and payment regardless of usage. They obviously have plans . . .

 

[gotomu212]

Not to judge if you do or didn't do a camel ride, but I thought these kind of animal tourist places were discouraged to go to nowadays? Like elephant rides or photo-ops with monkeys or tigers in Asia, for the wellfare of the animals and such.

Based on what I heard, camels are still in a "grey zone" because their limits are not really known yet... (Unlike dolphins swims where it's obvious that they are kept in conditions that do not suit them but people keep participating in dolphin swims, regardless.)

Not to derail this thread, but I have family that have worked for periods on Australian camel ranches, and camels have been used for centuries as pack animals and as transportation-very similar to horses. While there can absolutely be horse and camel stables that aren’t properly treating their animals, it is generally accepted that riding these horses and camels at reputable stables is humane and honors centuries of using them as working animals (Although I understand that to some even horseback riding is seen as unacceptable).

Other animals mentioned don’t have a history of being domesticated and working with humans and usually have to be kept in deplorable conditions in order to cooperate with human interactions (drugging, chaining, restricting food, caged, etc). Just a perspective from someone familiar with camels

 

[Mickey of the Villages]

Which kinda makes you "wonder" why Disney signed a ten-year agreement with Galveston mandating sailing counts and payment regardless of usage. They obviously have plans . . .

From what I can see the Disney Wonder will sail out of New Orleans for about a month - most of February 2020 (5 cruises). That's it. The Wonder is in Galveston from Nov. 22, 2019 to Jan. 13t, 2020 (10 cruises). The Wonder has many "homeports" in any given year, but it is usually in Port Canaveral, San Diego, and Vancouver. I am from the North Shore but now live in Houston. I would love to see Disney cruise more from New Orleans or Galveston in the future. Maybe with a slight preference for Galveston. Remember, the Port of New Orleans is at mile marker 90 (or so) from the mouth of the Mississippi. That's an expensive pilot and a more dangerous journey than merely pulling into Galveston.