Can't wait myself. Starting to pack snacks and essentials. I've also begun charging all the small items like cameras and ipods so they are ready to go.
Just a heads up. It looks like a tropical storm is heading for our destinations.
At the moment they are saying it is only a tropical storm and only a 15% chance it might become a hurricane by Monday. By Monday at 2 am it will be to the North East of St Martin and will actually be north of Puerto Rico.
The way it is heading it will hit St Martin two days before we get there. It looks like St Martin and St Thomas will probably be ok. They will have 50 max mile an hour winds going through, but it is ranked as a tropical storm. If Disney was smart, they would take us to Castaway Cay first since the way the storm is heading it will be in the Florida area anytime Thursday through Saturday. Castaway Cay is off to the east of Florida. The last time we cruised we missed Castaway Cay because of the winds. It only took 40 mph winds for them to skip the island. The max wind speeds for this storm ranked as a tropical storm is 40 mph minimum and go up to 60 mph.
Tuesday is our St Martin Day
Wednesday is our St Thomas Day
Friday is Castaway Cay
The way it is looking I bet we will hit Castaway Cay first and then we will probably have an extra day or two to reach St Martin and St Thomas so they can clean up a little after the tropical storm. I hope they do this. Finger tightly crossed that we are able to reach all of our destinations. Also, I kind of hope the storm is hitting Florida on Saturday and they extend our cruise. It's been done before. I know I would not be crying if the 7 day turned into a 9 day for example. Just an fyi tropical storm Ophelia could impact our cruise. If the schedule does not change we may be looking at our trip to St Martin possibly being swapped, cancelled, or some excursions may be cancelled. We are also looking at a strong possibility our Castaway Cay might be cancelled. This is all speculation, but based on the current prediction and how Disney has to be protective of their passengers we could see some changes. I'm not a hurricane expert. Just an excited cruiser who looked at the current path and pace and how it relates to our destinations.
Up to date link on Tropical Storm status.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/#OPHELIA
I don't think it will be as bad as you are imagining. There are always possibilities that we may miss a port if there is a hurricane in the area, or if one just passed through. From what I have saw, we will be in St. Maarten and St. Thomas after the storm has hit. It doesn't look like there would be a lot of damage from what I am seeing now. Castaway Cay may be the one that we could possibly miss if it hits the Bahamas and is destructive. I don't forsee DCL changing the itinerary to do CC first, especially if there is a Bahamian Dream cruise that corresponds with that as well. I also wouldn't think of our cruise extending by 2 days, and I am PRAYING that it doesn't. Flights would be screwed up, it would also mean me missing another day of work, and my DD8 missing another day of school. We are already missing 6 each and def don't wanna miss anymore.
I am hoping it doesn't change, I really didn't like the Western ports. (Well at least not Mexico) Key West, Grand Cayman, and Castaway Cay, would be cool, but def not Mexico. Hopefully we hit our scheduled places and no hurricane.
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