Any word on how Castaway Cay is doing?

View attachment 432658
Has anyone seen this Carnival post. This makes me worry about my cruise on the Dream on Sept. 16. We are supposed to go to Nassau and Castway Cay. Are we gonna be able to stop at either one?
The city of Freeport is on the island of Grand Bahama and that is one of the two larger islands in the Bahamas that took the major hit... the eye dragged directly over this island and sat there for well over a day with devastating winds and flooding. It's not a typical DCL stop though.

Nassau took some wind but earlier the website Atlantis resort (that big huge pink one that is iconic in Nassau) had a message that they were open and seemed fine and now that is gone and their website just has some offers and deals to stay there. Nassau had some damage due to flooding but nothing like Abacos or Grand Bahama and the largest resort areas seem up and functional.

Disney is also saying that damage at castaway cay was minor. We'll have to wait and see when they return but they had an optimistic tone that it would be soon.

Good luck and stay tuned.
 
I found the following on the NASA website. I imported the .kmz file they had into google Earth. The red and yellow pixels show where the likely damage is on Castaway Cay. Thought this might be of interest. I also added the explanation link.
https://aria-share.jpl.nasa.gov/201.../ARIA_Sentinel-1_DPM_v0.3-Bahamas_caption.txt
Bahamas - ARIA Damage Proxy Map v0.3

View attachment 432846

I read the commentary. This picture is supposed to have been taken the day after the storm, yes? Why is there a ship docked?
 


I'm on the Hurricane Dorian 6 day cruise right now. We just pulled up at Castaway. Can't dock since they haven't checked the pier yet but are tendering a boat for supplies to the island. At this distance it doesn't appear to be much damage. I can see the cabanas on the beach. I took photos, will try to upload after we are back tomorrow.
 


The Dream is offloading supplies to the island which will go onto Abaco. The ships stationary just off the dock and a crew boat is ferrying the supplies to shore.

One or two steel gantrys on the pier are missing but otherwise the island looks okay.

The Dream will be getting back to Port Canaveral tomorrow morning around 4:45am

It will then overnight there until guests arrive for the Friday cruise.
 
I saw on the news yesterday that they were evacuating those that were rescued on grand bahama to Nassau, so I suspect that the damage there was minimal.
 
I saw on the news yesterday that they were evacuating those that were rescued on grand bahama to Nassau, so I suspect that the damage there was minimal.

Yeah, Nassau is even further south than Castaway.
 
There's definitely some damage but the pics I've seen on FB don't look too bad.
 
Saw some pictures on Instagram and it looks fine. The water was rough
 
Pics look okay, some visible damage, but some of the posts also speculate that it won't be open for awhile. Even if the island was okay, and there aren't debris in way of the ships docking, I have no idea how they will staff the island with the locals having lost family members and homes.
 
Currently onboard the Fantasy 7 nights Westerns Carribean. Captain just announced we won’t be stopping in Castaway. Very disappointing :(
 
In their official statement they said that Friday’s Dream and Saturday’s Fantasy will not be impacted. They also say they’re waiting for survey equipment to give the greenlight for Castaway Cay. Not being impacted seems to indicate they expect both those cruises to visit the island next week, but the second part indicates it’s in no way certain.
 
Pics look okay, some visible damage, but some of the posts also speculate that it won't be open for awhile. Even if the island was okay, and there aren't debris in way of the ships docking, I have no idea how they will staff the island with the locals having lost family members and homes.

My husband speculated that it seems many of Bahama employees are in charge of the excursions. Perhaps those will be cancelled because people can’t work - or vice versa many or all will work desperately needing the regular income to help repair their island home.
 
In their official statement they said that Friday’s Dream and Saturday’s Fantasy will not be impacted. They also say they’re waiting for survey equipment to give the greenlight for Castaway Cay. Not being impacted seems to indicate they expect both those cruises to visit the island next week, but the second part indicates it’s in no way certain.
I read the official statement as referring to that they will depart from Port Canaveral as planned. I also seems like returning to Castaway Cay is really going to be dependent on the condition of the pier and the channel.

Not really sure how many staff stays at the island on a permanent basis. Don’t think it a high number: (maintenance, caretakers for the stingrays, small medical team?). I know the wait staff and Cookies staff are ship personnel. I realize most of the excursions are run by locals and those will be case by case I am sure.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!


GET UP TO A $1000 SHIPBOARD CREDIT AND AN EXCLUSIVE GIFT!

If you make your Disney Cruise Line reservation with Dreams Unlimited Travel you’ll receive these incredible shipboard credits to spend on your cruise!















facebook twitter
Top