Magic Late Departure out of Galviston

[Weedy]

Originally Posted by time for travel

I was on the Magic ....as we returned and got caught in the fog. I thought it was wonderful that they opened up so many activities. My 7 yr old daughter enjoyed them with some tablemates....but I was stuck in the phone line for the whole time......and really wondering when to try and rebook. Also, I had purchased travel insurance with air tickets through Priceline and was told....insurance???..oh too bad for you....it doesn't work if it's weather related...only if you are sick, etc. So, they wanted $350 to change the flights plus $60 service fee. Hey, Disney.....can you help me out here??? I appreciate the phone lines opened...but it took me 3 + hours to sort of get it solved...so, that part really "clouded" my ending of the cruise. I know Disney can't do anything about the weather, but having to rebook the flights was no fun and certainly not magical. Also, I missed out on all the fun around the ship!!!! ugh

What did you want Disney to do for you??? They have 100's of people trying to rebook flights. They can't rebook everyone's flights, they don't have the manpower to do that.

[MelMtlk]

I am leaving on the magic Friday and pray this doesn't happen. I can go with the flow for leaving, but delayed home would stink! I really don't want to spend hours on the phone rebooking

[Our 2 Princesses]

Originally Posted by MelMtlk

I am leaving on the magic Friday and pray this doesn't happen. I can go with the flow for leaving, but delayed home would stink! I really don't want to spend hours on the phone rebooking

Me either! Hopefully the fog will not be an issue on our cruise...

[cypressmom]

Originally Posted by time for travel

I was on the Magic ....as we returned and got caught in the fog. I thought it was wonderful that they opened up so many activities. My 7 yr old daughter enjoyed them with some tablemates....but I was stuck in the phone line for the whole time......and really wondering when to try and rebook. Also, I had purchased travel insurance with air tickets through Priceline and was told....insurance???..oh too bad for you....it doesn't work if it's weather related...only if you are sick, etc. So, they wanted $350 to change the flights plus $60 service fee. Hey, Disney.....can you help me out here??? I appreciate the phone lines opened...but it took me 3 + hours to sort of get it solved...so, that part really "clouded" my ending of the cruise. I know Disney can't do anything about the weather, but having to rebook the flights was no fun and certainly not magical. Also, I missed out on all the fun around the ship!!!! ugh

What a hard lesson to learn. You really need to read your contract when buying insurance and make sure you will be covered in instances like this. I'm not sure what Disney could do for you since you booked your airfare on your own. If you had purchased through Disney, they would have rearranged your travel for you. I'm sorry your departure day was clouded and it was so difficult for you to get home.

[kcashner]

Originally Posted by cypressmom

What a hard lesson to learn. You really need to read your contract when buying insurance and make sure you will be covered in instances like this. I'm not sure what Disney could do for you since you booked your airfare on your own. If you had purchased through Disney, they would have rearranged your travel for you. I'm sorry your departure day was clouded and it was so difficult for you to get home.

Exactly--if you book it thru DCL, they take care of you. If you book it on your own, you get to deal with it on your own. If you book thru a TA, hopefully your agency has a 24 hour emergency number--my first call would be to that number and let them deal with it.

Those of us who choose to book air/insurance/whatever on our own rather than thru DCL generally do it because we either get more flexibility or a lower price, but when something happens we all want the service that would have been attached to booking thru DCL. That's human nature, but from DCL's standpoint, it isn't realistic.

[cypressmom]

Originally Posted by kcashner

Exactly--if you book it thru DCL, they take care of you. If you book it on your own, you get to deal with it on insurance. If you book thru a TA, hopefully your agency has a 24 hour emergency number--my first call would be to that number and let them deal with it.

Those of us who choose to book air/insurance/whatever on our own rather than thru DCL generally do it because we either get more flexibility or a lower price, but when something happens we all want the service that would have been attached to booking thru DCL. That's human nature, but from DCL's standpoint, it isn't realistic.

We were able to drive to the port for our first cruise, but will fly the next time. I very well may use Disney for our air travel and/or insurance.

[jnweinmann]

Does anyone know when the outbound cruise accually left the harbor, or when the outbound passengers were boarded?

[riofriotex]

Originally Posted by jnweinmann

Does anyone know when the outbound cruise accually left the harbor, or when the outbound passengers were boarded?

I am in a Facebook group with the inbound cruise (the January 4 sailing), and someone posted: "Met some people whose daughter was a performer on the Magic. They sailed with us to see her (Ariel!) She called them late last night and said the Magic left port just before 10. They had their safety drill after the evening shows around 10:30. So, they did their shows before they left port."

On Cruise Critic, someone posted, "I checked the [harbor] webcam about 11:00pm CST and the other ship [Princess] was still in port. The Magic docks behind her and could not see."

I remember checking the webcam sight myself and the Princess ship left before midnight. That's good, because RCCL's Mariner of the Seas shares one terminal with Disney, and the Carnival Magic shares the other terminal with Princess, and they both had arrivals on Sunday. I checked the webcams that morning and both of those ships were in port.

[time for travel]

Well....guess I was tired when I posted my comments....no, I didn't expect Disney to pay for my missed flights....although, I would have appreciated a few more updates...so, I and others would know....try to get a late night flight or the next day or ? I THOUGHT my insurance would cover inclement weather....and perhaps, the time I called....the Priceline agent didn't know the details...I will pursue that issue very soon. Anyway, I ended up calling the airline directly.....what's another hour in line???? I got better results from talking directly to the airlines. Some people were getting or having to get flights as late as Monday! It's just that seats were going fast with so many people having to rebook. All in all, it was a great cruise and I would go again....and hopefully, not have the fog situation.....but after sitting in a line for a very long time waiting for a phone....it makes for a very tiring day and night! Glad everyone got home safely and happy.

[bats]

If you're from the UK, you have no option to DIY your flights .. DCL can't do them and it greys out that option for you on the website.
We are used to travel insurance though and always make sure it covers everything possible .. Even ash clouds from volcanoes (been hit with that one before)!
Glad everyone got sorted in the end ... What a pain in the bottom though!!!

[sweetpee_1993]

Originally Posted by jnweinmann

Does anyone know when the outbound cruise accually left the harbor, or when the outbound passengers were boarded?

We live about 20 minutes from Galveston in Kemah. We took a ride down to the island just for something to do and I wanted to show my husband where we'll be boarding our dog for our upcoming cruise (he wanted to calculate drive time). Anywhoo, we passed the terminals at 5-ish and boarding for both the Disney Magic and Crown Princess was in full swing. We stopped for dinner at Rainforest Cafe at the San Luis Resort area at 6 or so. When we left the restaurant the sun had set and the fog had definitely increased in density during the time we were eating. Especially on the Gulf side of the island, it was THICK. We passed back by the cruise terminals on our way off the island and I noted the time as 7:30. People were still arriving at the terminals, parking, etc. so boarding was definitely still going. We could see the glow of the Funnelvision from Harborside Dr. but couldn't really tell what was on it. The fog on this side of the island wasn't as dense as the Gulf side but it was still pretty darned bad. We figured the ships weren't leaving anytime soon with fog like that. It was really bad.

DCL's advisory on their website requested all embarking passengers arrive by 9 pm at the latest. Everything we'd seen jived with that.

At 11:30 pm before I went to sleep I checked the Galveston webcams again. The fog was not improved from what we'd seen when we left the island 4 hours earlier. I checked MarineTraffic.com and the Disney Magic still showed in port at that time. I don't always trust Marine Traffic 100% because sometimes we can see the ship in port but they don't show that. In the webcam the Crown Princess was still in port so it was impossible to see the Magic regardless of if she was there or not.

Sunday morning when I checked the last track of the Disney Magic before it went out of range on Marine Traffic it looked like it pulled out around 3 am, maybe a little earlier or a little later. Can't remember exactly. Hubby was up at 5 am and checked the webcams. He said shortly after 5 both the previous ships were gone and he watched the Carnival Magic sail into port. No fog at all. Not surprising. We had a 30 degree temperature drop from Saturday night to Sunday morning. At some point the temperature dropped enough for the fog to dissipate. Just not sure what time it was. Was after 11:30, I can tell you that.

[Cackyschmackers]

We were also stuck on the Magic on Jan 12 trying to disembark. Yes, all the restaurants/quick service was open, and they added movies and activites, but we didn't have the relaxing extra half day some of these posters enjoyed. We needed to fly back to Philadelphia, and our original flight was quite late in the afternoon (4pm) but we still missed it seeing as we were not able to disembark until almost 4pm. We did have to wait in very long lines for one of three secured land lines to be open to call a 1-800 number for rescheduling our air. No internet connection or cell reception was difficult for us having to scramble for last minute arrangements. And although we did have trip insurance, thank goodness, we did not get enough info from crew to determine how to reschedule. We ended up having to book a hotel in Houston that night and had a 15 hour day of connecting flights and delays (w/3 small children in tow; not fun). Basically, we needed more info than we were getting from the crew. Standing in all the lines (for phone and debarkation) then calling the shuttle, hotel and airline made this vacation way more work; left us on a sour note.

[JackieO]

Well I'll stop hoping the fog keeps us out an extra 1/2 day. We are driving in and in no hurry to get back, a little extra time sounded fun to me. Although, if my 9ers win on Sunday I'll be in a HUGE hurry to get back on watch the Superbowl on my big screen!

[riofriotex]

I'd highly recommend that folks here on DISboards get on the forums in CruiseCritic.com as well. There's a real lack of information in here on anything non-Disney, such as information about ports of departure - particularly one that is new for Disney, like Galveston. Galveston "veterans" on CruiseCritic can tell you fog is a problem this time of year. If I had to fly to Galveston to cruise during fog season, I'd just plan on staying another night (lots of fun stuff to do in Galveston) and fly home the next day.

There's also a thread in CruiseCritic (in the Royal Caribbean forum, as they've been there a while) with people who specifically watch the harbor webcams for cruise ship arrivals and departures.

[Weedy]

How was Disney suppose to know when the fog would go away? It seems they were lucky just to get into port. They did not leave until 11pm-12 pm because the fog was still bad. If they told everyone one time and then it was even later, how would people have reacted. It was possible that they might not have even made it into to port that evening.