VWLforever
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2019
I'm one of the several thousand folks with a June Alaska DCL cruise that has been cancelled. Trying to figure out whether I should just take the refund, or take the incentive and book for next year.
I've been on 6 previous DCL cruises, and have loved them all. Emotionally I 100% want to take the credit toward a future cruise. So I'm about as far away from a DCL naysayer as you can get. But something occurred to me. Even after strict social distancing and business closures subside, the cruise industry is going to be absolutely devastated in the short and middle future terms. What if DCL goes bankrupt?
Magical Cruise Company is an indirect subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. They do business under the name "Disney Cruise Lines". It appears entirely plausible that Magical Cruise Company could declare bankruptcy, without triggering liability on the part of the remainder of the Walt Disney Company. That separate corporate liability is one of the main reasons they bothered to make separate corporations for each division, after all.
So, if that were to happen, what would it mean for the folks who have money down on future cruises? Would they be made whole first, or would they get in line with other major lenders to receive pennies on the dollar in reimbursement?
To be clear, I have zero insider knowledge. I'm just a random guy trying to figure out whether it would be safest to take my money and run, or if I should roll my thousands of dollars worth of cruise payments into a 2021 cruise. I'm posting here because I know there are a lot of smart folks who contribute to these boards.
So the questions are, how well capitalized is Magical Cruise Company if cruising completely stops for half a year or more- and then comes back at a tiny fraction of the popularity it had pre-COVID? And, what is the actual exposure to loss that would be experienced by those of us who have significant money down on future cruises, if such a bankruptcy actually happens?
I've been on 6 previous DCL cruises, and have loved them all. Emotionally I 100% want to take the credit toward a future cruise. So I'm about as far away from a DCL naysayer as you can get. But something occurred to me. Even after strict social distancing and business closures subside, the cruise industry is going to be absolutely devastated in the short and middle future terms. What if DCL goes bankrupt?
Magical Cruise Company is an indirect subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. They do business under the name "Disney Cruise Lines". It appears entirely plausible that Magical Cruise Company could declare bankruptcy, without triggering liability on the part of the remainder of the Walt Disney Company. That separate corporate liability is one of the main reasons they bothered to make separate corporations for each division, after all.
So, if that were to happen, what would it mean for the folks who have money down on future cruises? Would they be made whole first, or would they get in line with other major lenders to receive pennies on the dollar in reimbursement?
To be clear, I have zero insider knowledge. I'm just a random guy trying to figure out whether it would be safest to take my money and run, or if I should roll my thousands of dollars worth of cruise payments into a 2021 cruise. I'm posting here because I know there are a lot of smart folks who contribute to these boards.
So the questions are, how well capitalized is Magical Cruise Company if cruising completely stops for half a year or more- and then comes back at a tiny fraction of the popularity it had pre-COVID? And, what is the actual exposure to loss that would be experienced by those of us who have significant money down on future cruises, if such a bankruptcy actually happens?