Disney Magic Unexpected "Guests"

[JeffR]

We've just returned from the Western Cruise and was wondering if anyone had found any news items regarding the five people in the row boat the Magic stopped and picked up Thursday night.

For those of you who haven't heard, the ship was brought to a stop and an announcement was made that we were stopping to assist four people in a rowboat. The message was that they wouldn't be allowed on-board until the Coast Guard had arrived (in about an hour's time). A latter message said that we were going to go ahead and allow the five passengers on board so that we could continue on our way and they would be transferred to the Coast Guard once they had arrived.

That's what I know. What I heard was ...

The four or five people in the rowboat were Cubans and had been adrift for five days. Everything else is speculation. Any links to news articles would be greatly appreciated.

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Haven't seen any news items about it (Cuban refugees adrift in the water is a pretty common occurrence and it usually doesn't make the news unless one of them is Elian Gonzalez). However, someone recently reported "live" from the Magic about it...

www.disboards.com/showthread.php?threadid=245634

[Mtdewbuzz]

I was on the trip & I saw some footage someone had taped. From what I understand, there were 5 of them, and they were not able to be let on until the couast guard arrived. At that time, Disney let them aboard briefly, gave them all DCL shirts to wear (and I assume some food/drink), and then they were taken off by the coast guard.

The downside was the boat had to go quicker than usual to make up for lost time to get to Castaway Cay on time, and the boat was doing some serious rocking that night!! I took my one & only motion sickness pill that night before going to bed, just to be safe.