April 13-17 4 night Wonder

[metroliner]

Just got home from our first cruise. Everything was great except for the fact that we never reached Castaway Cay! We tried for two days and were unsuccessful. I have never heard of this. I know a lot of people on the ship were very upset about this. I've been reading on this board for a while and never read anything about this occuring. I'm thinking Disney needs to compensate us in some way. I know some on this board are going to say Disney can't control mother nature. However, that does not change the fact that we paid a significant sum of money with the understanding that we were going to visit Castaway Cay. I think most on this board would agree that visiting this island is the major atttraction for this cruise. Any suggestions of how to approach DCL?

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Just got home from our first cruise. Everything was great except for the fact that we never reached Castaway Cay! We tried for two days and were unsuccessful. I have never heard of this. I know a lot of people on the ship were very upset about this. I've been reading on this board for a while and never read anything about this occuring. I'm thinking Disney needs to compensate us in some way. I know some on this board are going to say Disney can't control mother nature. However, that does not change the fact that we paid a significant sum of money with the understanding that we were going to visit Castaway Cay. I think most on this board would agree that visiting this island is the major atttraction for this cruise. Any suggestions of how to approach DCL?

Whew, Metroliner, I sure am sorry. Actually, failure to dock at CC is far from uncommon. And the cruise documents we all signed are crystal clear on this, that DCL is not obligated to offer any compensation of any sort. I thought that was a little unfair, but it is standard operating procedure among all cruise lines, I've learned. I do hate it for you all, but it's an assumed risk that come with all cruises. Ships are routinely re-routed because of weather conditions and ports skipped, especially during hurricane season.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Wow - sorry you missed Castaway Cay -- I'd have been disappointed too.

I hope that you'll post about your trip, though - I'd be interested to read about how DCL handled the day - did they hand out new Navigators when they realized they wouldn't dock? I know on the 4-night that there is a Sea Day and wonder if they switched to the Sea Day schedule on the first day they didn't dock, and then what did they do on the other day?

I know the weather has been icky here in Florida this week, so I'm not surprised that docking at CC was a problem. Sorry you guys missed it.

But other than that, how was your trip?

 

[aaronandterri]

Hi Metroliner

We were on this cruise too.

Whilst we tried to dock at CC several times over two days the reason was the winds blowing across the channel into the Cay. When the wind finally changed the power failed, we lost lights, etc and the engines packed up. Whilst they fixed this the wind changed again and we ended up aborting any further entry. Following this all changes to the itinerary were blamed on 'Inclement Weather'. Is this strictly true?

On the first CC day they said that the kids clubs would be open. When we got there they had opened the Oceaneer Lab, not the club. They had all age groups in here, 3-12. They wouldn't open the other one until they had received confirmation from the bridge that they wouldn't dock. They didn't open the club till after lunch. We didn't leave Alex (3) as they the lab is not suitable and nor were the activities.

With everyone stuck on a ship for two days some of the of the additional things to do were swim in the overcrowded pools or make paper aeroplanes. If you didn't do that you could stand in line for hours waiting to see characters that swapped with another when you reached the front.

One consolation was winning a beer drinking competition at Diversions, I won a case of stella and a cool bag....woo hoo!

I agree that Disney could have offered some consolation maybe further discount on next cruise (ours it meant to be Podcast Cruise), or shipboard credit. All (i saw) they offered were a free rum punch drink up on deck. You pay a lot of money to go on a cruise where Castaway Cay is the highlight and when you don't get there you feel gutted.

Aaron

 

[frdeb1999]

Sorry you did'nt get to do CC! Hopefully the rest of your cruise was good though?

 

[metroliner]

I'm really upset about not getting to CC. I have to say I didn't go on the cruise for karaoke, bingo, and board games. I felt like I was stuck on a ship for two days with nothing much to choose from. I could not help but notice that the cruise director took every oppurtunity to push us to play bingo. Why?

 

[MODisneyfan]

WOW.. That don't sound like much fun not being able to go to CC.. I think that they could have done something, You are right, CC is exactly what most people go for.. I know that is a HUGE reason why I am going..

 

[cocowum]

Wow, that stinks. I'm sorry you didn't get to CC. Being a first time cruiser, I'd love to hear your thoughts about the rest of the DCL experience.

 

[RLccweems]

Sorry to hear this happen to you. This has happened to us as well....reasons being the weather. But we made the best of it and had fun. And it just made us book again because we didn't make it to CC the first time.

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Reading other people's trip reports is a lot of fun. I've observed, though, that for every dozen or so stellar experiences, there is one bad experience like this one. I've tried to put myself in that position, i.e., how I would feel if I missed a port I was really looking forward to. I'd be bummed out, too.

We actually had a little conversation at our house about this before we left, that "stuff happens." One clause in that multipage contract I signed (and actually read - how anal is that?) that we joked about was, "What if a Disney cruise ended up being fulfilled by the HMS Rustbucket?"

Check this out: "Carrier may substitute another vessel for the one named herein, whether owned by the Carrier or not, at the port of embarkation or any other place. The Vessel, either before or after proceeding toward the port of destination and though not required by any maritime necessity, may remain in port, proceed by any route and deviate from or change the advertised or intended route, once or more often, in any order ...any such procedure or occurance shall be considered not to be a deviation but within the voyage herein intended as fully as if specifically described herein."

Pulled off the Disney Magic or Wonder and put on a freighter? That sure would be a trip report to read.

But, back to the OP - did y'all get to see Toy Story? What did you think?

 

[JAZ2525]

I was also on this cruise. I am VERY upset not to get to Castaway Cay. That is why I picked DCL rather than RC! And all they offered us was Rum Punch! I am a DVC member and therefore expect alot of Disney and can't believe the way things were handled. My DH and I were traveling with no children and we had nothing to do!!! I don't want to play bingo! I wanted to go to the beach! He is going to write a letter to both DVc and DCL. We had better get something in return becuse this cruise was a huge disappointment for us. We should have just spent the week at WDW.

 

[OceanLvr]

Having served in the Navy, and frequent DCL cruiser, I will tell you that there isn't a Master at sea that would put his vessel or passengers in danger. I'm quite sure that if the Captain could have put his ship into that bearth, he would have. My guess is that he made more than several attempts and given the situation at that time, it wasn't safe.

With that being said, the pp are correct, the cruise line really in not obligated to compensate for a "missed port." It is just terrible luck. Believe me, we love CC as much as anyone, but the reality is, you might not get there.

 

[westjones]

We have been on 8 cruises, and once we were not able to dock at CC. It wasn't fun staying on the ship, but it was probably not as bad for us as it was for first time cruisers who had never been to CC.

I'm sorry you didn't get to dock. One reason we pick the 4 night cruise is because they have 2 chances to dock at CC (the 3 and 7 nights only have that one day to try). So it was really bad luck that you couldn't dock either day.

It seems like when it happened to us they offered more movies in the theater, and they did have a prize bingo on deck 9 (the bingo that is free to play), and the free drinks for awhile. We still had fun, but that was like our 5th Disney Cruise, and we knew we would be back the next year.

I hope you will get a chance to try the Disney Cruise again. We are avoiding hurricane season for now on (that is what messed up our cruise--Hurrican Jeanne).

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Having served in the Navy, and frequent DCL cruiser, I will tell you that there isn't a Master at sea that would put his vessel or passengers in danger. I'm quite sure that if the Captain could have put his ship into that bearth, he would have. My guess is that he made more than several attempts and given the situation at that time, it wasn't safe.

With that being said, the pp are correct, the cruise line really in not obligated to compensate for a "missed port." It is just terrible luck. Believe me, we love CC as much as anyone, but the reality is, you might not get there.

I hate it when I pay for a service and don't get it, be it a cruise, a vacation, or hiring a roofer (which is what we're dealing with right now after tornado damage.) But I can't see any evidence, other than horrific disappointment, where anything that has been mentioned on this thread, on any cruise, could be interpreted as a breach of any contract. If I'm purchasing something for thousands of dollars, I'm gonna read the fine print to make sure I'm getting what I'm paying for... and, conversely, getting paid for something I didn't get. Yeah, I'm that guy who sends in warranty cards.

 

[aaronandterri]

i dont think anyone was saying they breached the contract, we all know things can happen, the point is they all seemed to happen, the ship lost power but still blamed the wind, when the truth was that if they had been able to dock when the power was down we would have been able to, then to add insult to injury they didnt rearly provide much else for anyone to do, most of the 2 days were spent waiting to be told we couldnt dock.
A huge dissapiontment, and disney should of tried to make it a little better for everyone.
When you have travelled thousnads of miles spent thousands of pounds to have the highlight of the trip ruined then i think we have the right to be dissapointed.

xterrixx

 

[GavinsMom]

I've been on Two Disney (4-day Wonder) Cruises!

First Cruise We missed Castaway Cay........Too Windy! Our captain tried for the two days and could not dock. And yes we were very Disappointed too! All we got was free drink on the top deck also.

Second Cruise We made it to CC! Loved it and had a great day! Missing it the first time just made me want to cruise with Disney again so I could hopefully get there the next time around!

Now I'm doing another 4-day Cruise in 2009........I'm hoping we get there!

If you do a search on the main DisneyCruise Forum........there are lots of Missing CC threads and posts. Its a sad, disappointing fact that can happen!
Hopefully you'll book again and get there next time!

 

[Malagueta]

I actually went on the 4 Day Wonder just prior to the one described here, which--outside of the crazy waves on night four--went just peachy in my eyes. But, when I read your story regarding the cruise, a comparison popped to mind.

Last year, on our annual MNSSHP night, the evening started out lovely. Then, the sky opened, and it rained like mad. If you've never been in a Florida downpour, you cannot imagine. There are no rain drops, just sheets and sheets of water accompanied by huge cracks of thunder illuminated by ripping lightening. We're Floridians, so we weren't that put off. We just pulled out our ponchos and carried on. It actually stopped raining about halfway through the night, but the heavy cloud cover completely obscured the fireworks and everyone was fairly soggy. So, it was quite evident throughout the park that the joyfulness was over for many, especially given that it was a fairly costly hard ticket event. But, as has been mentioned, even Disney can't control the weather.

So . . . I was really taken by surprise when we left the MK at the night's end. The CM at the gate was calling out "one per family" and pressing little cards into people's hands. I took ours and my eyes opened wide . . . it was a nicely worded apology that the night hadn't gone as planned and an offer to visit the MK again for free any one day in the next year. Even my husband, who is fairly anti-mouse but tolerates my looniness, was impressed. WDW certainly was under no obligation to offer everyone at the park a free day, but in doing so, they likely bought about 9000 times the value in customer loyalty than those days cost.

In reflecting on that evening, I think that--similarly--if DCL were to have offered everyone on this cruise a one-level upgrade coupon for their next four day cruise or a significant credit toward the next cruise purchase, probably the tone of the posts here would be very different. No one expects Disney to manage the weather, but it can manage its reaction in a way that finds the silver lining in the stormy cloud.

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Agreed. Free drinks is not an equal "trade" for missing CC. I'm probably way off base trying to discern the minds/policies of the Disney Powers that Be. Since missing CC does not seem to be uncommon, I wonder if they have a standard response in place, i.e., rum punch and more bingo. They aren't obligated to provide squat, but Disney could do more to generate good will in these emergency situations. Perhaps they're limited in what they can do based on the severity of the problem. For instance, I recall Disney having to berth a ship down in Fort Lauderdale during a hurricane, having to bus passengers from Port Canaveral, and I think they did offer some significant shipboard credits because of the extraordinary circumstance. Ditto the time both ships had to huddle in Galveston, stuck in port, and wait out another hurricane.

Point is, I'm sure they have a real good sense of what they can offer in "compensation" and what they can't, without increasing fares across the board.

As a previous poster said, you do indeed have a right to be disappointed. I would be, too. I'd be a lot more disappointed if I was on a ship that foundered somewhere, though, because the captain wasn't prudent enough to know the limitations of his vessel and took an unnecessary risk. Like other posters have suggested, it'd be worth giving another cruise a try. Disney ships are big, but the seas are always bigger, and I want to cruise with someone who understands that.

I still want to know about Toy Story and the good things that happened ... surely in the midst of letdown there were some bright spots.

 

[trace]

Hello!

This was our first Disney Cruise and we were on board the Wonder Apr 13-17 when it didn't dock at Castaway Cay.

We (my DH, and 2 DDs age 5 and 7 and myself) were quite disappointed that we didn't land and to be honest, my DH and I weren't overly surprised. We have been on 2 other cruises before that were supposed to dock in the Bahamas but due to bad weather, had to continue on to the next port. ( Once we actually were in 30 ft waves!!) I guess it's not that uncommon, especially in this area. My oldest dd and I were just glad we got to do the dolphin encounter at Nassau!

All that said, we had a great time. We want to go again on DCL, this time on a 7-day cruise!

 

[metroliner]

I know some of you were asking about the shows. Here is how I ranked them:

1. Dreams
2. Golden Mickeys
3. Toy Story

Sorry, I was hoping for more from the new Toy Story show. I thought the music would be better.