Hurricanes...Tropical Storms...UGH

[disneyma]

Was curious as to how the ship handles the rough seas and the potential storm track of the storms? With this Saturday being the Western Carb. it looks like ther will be a big storm in the area....what do they do?

I know Mickey will steer away the storms though!!

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

It caught my attention this morning that tropical storm Bonnie is headed for the gulf also. When we sailed in 1998 Hurricane Bonnie caused the first diversion due to weather for DCL!

At that time they set sail so we were outside of the storm's immediate area and we only had some big waves to deal with when we headed back into port. We've been lucky and not had to deal too much with big storm swells on our 3 cruises.

Deb

 

[mmouse37]

"Tis the Season!!!"

DCL will do everything in its power to steer away from the storms...they may (and have done in the past) visited other ports....I believe it was dubbed the "Mystery Cruise" because each day they got an itinerary update depending on what the weather was doing.

I prefer cruising in hurricane season rather than land based vacation because you can still have a vacation on the cruise but if you on an island that was in a storms path...you are out of luck!!

MJ

 

[Ursula's Mom]

We're on the 8/14 western and I have been watching the weather, too. I guess if we have a "mystery cruise", we'll just have to rebook another western while on board!

 

[LAMPSKIES]

We caught the "tail end" of the tropical storm on our Dec Eastern sailing last year.........it was windy and there were 26 ft seas.....I was fine, DDs were fine wife was a little queezy. But, the only thing was that in high winds they don't stop at CC.......we did

 

[mbaker]

We sailed last September during Hurricane Isabel.
The Captain changed our route.
We went to Castaway Cay the first day. No complaints.
Yes, we had rough seas throughout the trip, but the Capt. warned us in advance each night. All went well. We did as they say in the cruise business "Chase the Sun."

 

[DawnL]

We're sailing on the 8/14 Western also!! A little nervous about the weather - we have never cruised in August before, usually July. According to the tracking it looks like Bonnie will move over land on Thursday and hopefully Charley will move by Saturday. Since the ship leaves from the East Coast, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will have a clear sailing!!

 

[juniorbugman]

Link to the National Hurricane Center

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Added link for the Kids:

http://www.fema.gov/kids/hurrtrac.htm

 

[skyhawk]

Looking at the maps - it APPEARS that we SHOULD miss all the weather - unfortunately, hurricanes don't know how to read maps!

 

[cindalu]

We are getting ready to go away in 4 3 days. but we are going to WDW. I hope the weather is nice and we don't get any rain other than the normal showers in the afternoon.

 

[Lthouseprincess]

2 OR 3 YEARS AGO, We were going on our first cruise ever and Hurricane Michelle hit! It was rough sailing! Everyone looked wasted while trying to walk. By the time you got to your chair half your drink was gone. We sailed to South Carolina and then we made it to Castaway Cay. I was very sad. I was told that half the crew was sea sick also!

 

[Pidge]

Never having cruised, all I can picture when someone says 20-something foot waves, is the movie, "A Perfect Storm" with huge waves coming over the ship. What is it like to travel in bad weather?

 

[kcatoir]

We also cruised during Isabel on the wonder. No ports were changed but there were many green cruisers that first night at dinner.

I hadn't even had anything to drink but still had a problem walking a straight line
KC

 

[videoman]

BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY ADVISORY NUMBER 6
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
5 PM AST TUE AUG 10 2004

...CHARLEY CONTINUES MOVING RAPIDLY WEST-NORTHWESTWARD OVER THE
CARIBBEAN...TROPICAL STORM WARNINGS ISSUED...

AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF HAITI HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL
STORM WARNING FOR THE ENTIRE SOUTHWEST PENINSULA OF HAITI FROM THE
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BORDER WESTWARD INCLUDING PORT-AU-PRINCE.

AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA HAS ISSUED A
TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR JAMAICA.

AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CAYMAN ISLANDS HAS
ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR THE CAYMAN ISLANDS.

AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 15.2 NORTH... LONGITUDE 70.8 WEST OR ABOUT
440 MILES... 710 KM...EAST-SOUTHEAST OF KINGSTON JAMAICA.

CHARLEY IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 26 MPH
...43 KM/HR...AND THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR
THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THIS TRACK THE CENTER OF THE STORM WILL BE
NEARING JAMAICA TOMORROW MORNING.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 50 MPH... 85 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. SOME STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 105 MILES
...165 KM FROM THE CENTER.

AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE RECENTLY REPORTED A
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE OF 999 MB...29.50 INCHES.

RAINFALL TOTALS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE LIKELY IN ASSOCIATION WITH
CHARLEY.

REPEATING THE 5 PM AST POSITION...15.2 N... 70.8 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 26 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED
WINDS... 50 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE... 999 MB.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE MONITOR
PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL
HURRICANE CENTER AT 8 PM AST FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT
COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 11 PM AST.

FORECASTER PASCH

Forecast Track
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ftp/graphic...IF/102123W5.gif

Latest Satellite
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DAT...OAT2/IR4/20.jpg

 

[TiggerStac]

I think that any cruise line will try as hard as they can to keep you away from as much of the storm as possible. I was on another cruise line for hurrican floyd in 9/99, when they actually closed WDW for the first time. We did not see one bit of bad weather. When we got to our first port, we were only there 1/2 day (freeport) instead of until 8pm. We did not get to go to nassua, but we were in the sun the whole time. They had told us we would be going to key west instead (great for me..always wanted to go there), but then said they couldn't. About 20 minutes before, they announced we are going to be arriving in key west in 20 minutes. It was great, and like I said, they kept us in the sun the whole time, not one bit of rough seas or anything!! When we got back to port canaveral, we could see what had happened while we were out!!

 

[cindalu]

I meant to say that we are leaving in 2 days. We are leaving at 11 pm on Friday night.

 

[zyezye]

I was on that "mystery cruise" back in March. WE hit rough seas and had to cancel Grand Cayman, only stayed at Key West 1/2 day and ended up
at a very small port called Costa Maya.
I was very sea sick as were many passengers AND crew!
My biggest recommendation is MAKE SURE you bring as many seasick/motion sick meds/patches, etc as you can as the gift shop did sell out of the
wrist things.
Be prepared!

 

[kcashner]

We cruise nearly every year at hurricane season as it involves birthdays....the captain has the authority to alter the course at any time. Generally, he comes on the PA each evening (more often if needed) and tells us what is planned. THe CMs really hustle to arrange shore excursions at alternate ports, etc.

You have to be willing to be flexible at this time of year--the cruise is always fun, but you may not go where you're planned....IF Port Canaveral is not accessible, there is a port near Tampa that they can use.

Guess we've been lucky--we've always gotten to Castaway. DCL will frequently use Castaway or Key West as a "stopover" to see what the storm is going to do before they head out on a more definitive course.

 

[crainbow]

I was at sea on an aircraft carrier during a hurricane. It was a lot of fun. We were taking "blue over the bow" and the bridge windows were getting smacked by the spray. All ships avoid those things.

And the perfect storm was pure fiction and hokem.

Chuck

 

[disneyma]

Well it looks like the Magic will be okay for SaTurday. It may be hard getting into Orlando on Friday though!!

Keeping those Fingers crossed!