Castaway Cay in January?

[GhostlyHitchhiker]

I've been reading that it's possible in January and February for the weather to be too rough to dock at Castaway Cay. I've done some looking around, but weeding through every trip report from the last two years for those months is kind of a pain.

I'm just trying to find out how frequently this happens and if it does happen, what does Disney do instead? From what I've seen they just treat it like another day at sea with the same activities as a prior day at sea? (For the seven night cruise.) Do they do anything else? Does the ship hang out near Castaway Cay during the day, or do you actually head back to Port Canaveral?

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[TinkerBellMom]

I sailed in a horrible storm in Jan 2003 and missed CC. We were sad to miss it-but we also remembered that January cruise prices are usually a savings over the more popular months when storms are less likely. They treated us well! Great Italian lunch and free mixed drinks. That is when I discovered the DIS Boards! We tried to escape the storm by sailing around it but no luck. We were treated well on the ship and when we docked, we found that it had snowed in Coco Beach! Just a freaky trip and a reason to sail again.

Go and don't worry. If you are into the beach--see the beach for sure at the port you do visit and then CC is a bonus!

Sailed 6 times (often in January) and missed CC once.

TinkerBellMom

 

[mark & sandra]

We sailed both of our last cruises in Jan. The first one we had a crew filming, According to Jim, onboard and they made the port, but I think they were pushed into doing so. On the second trip we couldn't dock at Castaway Cay. We just sailed home a little slower (Whoopee), and as far as compensation, they did offer free drinks of the day for 1 hour and added 1 movie and another showing of Hercules; Oh and they refunded us 15.00 each. All in all I felt completely compensated ...Mark

 

[NCRedding]

We sailed in January of 2002 and had no problems reaching CC. The water temp was a bit chilly, but otherwise it was a beautiful day.

 

[skibum]

Sailed last January with great weather, and a great, sunny 80 degree day on CC. Water was not warm, but acceptable for our northern bones.

 

[Regina]

We went in early January of '04. The weather was fine and we did go to Castaway on a bright, sunny day. Some people thought that the water was a bit too cool, but I enjoyed it.

Coming home afterwards to the frigid north and finding out that our furnace glitched out and our pipes froze wasn't fun.

 

[the4nitz's]

We cruised January 04 & 05. Both times we were able to dock at CC. The weather was in the mid 70's, water was a little chilly at first, but once you were in it, it was fine. Going again January 06. Any weather is better than single digits at home.

 

[mamalle]

we went the 1st week in feb and we made it to CC. the water was alittle too chilly for us floridians so we didnt spend too much time in the ocean. we still had a great time though.

 

[Chattyaholic]

We have done 2 7-night Disney Magic cruises and 1 4-night Wonder cruise all in January. Our first Magic trip we went to Castaway Cay and had a beautiful, very warm, sunny, blue-sky day. Our second Magic cruise we were not able to go to Castaway Cay because of the wind/waves. And if I remember correctly our "sea day" and day at Castaway Cay on the 4-night Wonder cruise were flip-flopped because they couldn't get there the first day, but were able to the next.

 

[PiperG]

Sailed last January with great weather, and a great, sunny 80 degree day on CC. Water was not warm, but acceptable for our northern bones.

Ditto.

We have sailed in Dec, Jan and Feb. We have been pretty lucky and always made CC. The water is definitely cool, but we are not big swimmers. The main attraction is getting away from MN in the middle of winter!

 

[Meshee]

We sailed January 2005 on a 7 day Western Cruise and could not make it into Castaway Cay or Grand Cayman because of wind/waves. This was very disappointing since these two islands were the ones we wanted to see the most. However, we could not blame DCL for bad weather. We recently booked a 4 day land/3 day sea for March 2006 and hopefully we will finally be able to see Castaway Cay.

 

[JSCTRico4]

We sailed the Magic Jan 8-15 of this year. We made it to castaway cay. It was warm, but not sunny. It was a bit windy, and the water was a little rough for my taste to be out there snorkeling with the kids. It was nice, but, not ideal.

 

[Cruisin]

We have sailed 6 times on the Disney Cruise Lines, 5 times were in a January and once in August.

We went to Castaway Cay, all 6 times.

 

[TheWog]

We too have cruised to CC in Jan. It was the week prior to Mark and Sandra's in 04. CC was sunny and in the high 70s with the water temps fine for our New England tastes.

Do a search for LloydDobler. He has a chart of the success and failure to dock at CC.

 

[mmouse37]

13 DCL cruises and many in Jan and Feb......

The only time we missed CC was last Sept due to damage from Hurricane Jeanne.

Jan of '03 on the Magic was chilly on CC and Key West (about 65 degrees).....and we did miss Grand Cayman that week due to high winds, but spent an overnight onboard in Cozumel which was a neat experience and very warm temps.

Jan of '05 on the Wonder was great....Nassau and CC were mid 80's and sunny.

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

Of the cruises I've been able to account for, the success rate for January is 94%. The Magic has been successful on 19 of 22 cruises, while the Wonder is 27-27. Overall, that adds up to 46 of 49.

The worst month statistically is September, but that is heavily weighted by the storms from last fall, which caused the island to be closed due to damage. We're sailing this September, the numbers aren't discouraging me.

Overall, accounting for almost half of all DCL cruises, the ships make it 95% of the time, so the January numbers are pretty much in line with what is normal. The reality of cruising is that there's a chance that you'll miss any port at any time of the year, but the overwhelming likelihood is that you'll sail the scheduled itinerary.

 

[GhostlyHitchhiker]

Of the cruises I've been able to account for, the success rate for January is 94%. The Magic has been successful on 19 of 22 cruises, while the Wonder is 27-27. Overall, that adds up to 46 of 49.

This is exactly the info I was looking for. Thank you all for the wonderful replies! I understand the risk vs. price factor and weighed that when we made our plans, but I was curious just what the likelihood really was.

 

[the kabuki]

So if the ship can't dock at CC, how soon ahead of time are passenger's notified? If we're to be at sea that day, could one head down to the spa or are they usually booked up in advance?

 

[CM_Mom]

Unless there's a hurricane or strong winds/waves that can be seen/measured on weather instruments, I think not docking is usually a "real time" event. They try to dock if they can and if they can't, they can't.

Last year when they were racing ahead of hurricanes or other evasive measures I think they did announce the night before that they wouldn't be docking at CC.

After seeing the picture of the non-Disney ship with the gash in the side from banging into the dock in Costa Maya earlier this spring, I can better understand why they are so careful.

 

[logan1_2000]

Wanted to make sure the Grandeur of the Seas docking damage from Costa Maya was mentioned to reinforce that conditions for docking are taken seriously by the captain for good reason. On the Jan. 16th Wonder this year, a clear day, we docked but it was 60's and windy, only yankees and canadians were in the water because to them it seemed balmy (hey, I'm a refugee from CT, the blood thins out fast when you move south, so it was too cold for us but depending where they were from, some were swimming) but otherwise a lovely day on the island for a stroll, to relax, have a nice lunch, play games, etc. Similar results on Jan. 11, 2003 Magic day at CC. April 2, 2005 MAgic this year had a morning announcement from Capt. Tom that the weather was not promising, but that we would attempt to dock. We did dock. And then it poured most of the day so we got the rained out type of new navigator and additional movies, etc., that a cancelled docking would have brought. Still a great day on vacation, all in all. And I did sneak on down to the Tropical Rain Forest for the first time that day and it was empty for a while until lunchtime or so when others figured out to come on down.