Castaway Cay Storms

randomguymike

Earning My Ears
Joined
May 6, 2023
Hi- So, I just pulled up the extended forecast to start getting an idea of the perfection in store for us in early June, and I saw 8 straight days of thunderstorms from the 23-31st. Same shows in Nassau.

1. Is this like Orlando where that just means we'll get an hour of thunderstorm in the afternoon, but the rest of the day should be great?
2. If not, and these are more legit storms, is this normal for this time of year or would folks expect it to clear by say.... June 7?
3. Is there a good way to tell what weather will be at sea? If Castaway Cay is getting these storms, does that mean my visions of chilling and watching funnel vision all day are also at risk?

Anyone have any "but it was still great" stories to pass along if the whole 4-day cruise is thunderstorms?
 
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It's next to impossible to know for sure what the weather will be look over two weeks away.

It is certainly possible that rain will last just an hour or two. If lengthy thunderstorms are forecast, the Captain will try to sail away from them. If it's just rain without thunder, the ship may still dock at Castaway Cay, and some excursions may be cancelled. During thunderstorms, all water activities are definitely cancelled.

Rain is not an unusual occurrence, so if it prevents guests from enjoying time in port, there should be additional onboard activities,
 
We have been to CC on several different cruises where the weather was perfect when all of a sudden a random dark cloud would come by and dump some rain. We hardly ever had a whole day of rain. Of course it could happen but we have been very lucky with our visits to CC. We have gone all different times of the year.

MJ
 
Hi- So, I just pulled up the extended forecast to start getting an idea of the perfection in store for us in early June, and I saw 8 straight days of thunderstorms from the 23-31st. Same shows in Nassau.

1. Is this like Orlando where that just means we'll get an hour of thunderstorm in the afternoon, but the rest of the day should be great?
2. If not, and these are more legit storms, is this normal for this time of year or would folks expect it to clear by say.... June 7?
3. Is there a good way to tell what weather will be at sea? If Castaway Cay is getting these storms, does that mean my visions of chilling and watching funnel vision all day are also at risk?

Anyone have any "but it was still great" stories to pass along if the whole 4-day cruise is thunderstorms?
I will say every time we’ve sailed to the Bahamas the forecast was bleak! Rain EVERY DAY. We got there - not a drop fell from the sky. I’ve learned not to bet on the forecast because it’s happened multiple times. I’m not talking 30% chance of rain - I’m talking 60-80% chances. I was sooooo bummed - but it didn’t happen. Fingers crossed the same will happen for you!
 


We experienced the opposite on our last cruise - you just never know. Not a drop in the forecast, then when we got off the ship it said a 10% chance of rain for some hour in the afternoon. We no sooner picked up our car and got into Ardastra than the skies opened up and dumped, solidly, for over an hour. I have never been stuck in such strong rain and for so long! Eventually they came around to all us tourists tucked into what shelter we could find and told us they were closing for the day - we saw none of it, and no, no refunds. Worth a shot... as we drove around streets were flooding, parks were flooding.. it was kind of crazy in retrospect.
 
For whatever it is worth, that is the forecast every cruise we've taken to CC and we've always had great weather. Island weather is difficult to predict with precision and as others have said, 2 weeks out is not highly accurate (they say 5 days out is really when they can "lock" in weather). We have lived in FL close to 30 years now and in June our forecast would be the same - rain predicted daily. Sometimes we get a couple hours, sometimes nothing at all, and, rarely, we get a full day of rain.
 


In June, I'd say it's likely a quick shower and then over. We went in December, and it was cool and rainy all day and then started thunderstorming and they had to clear everyone off the island early.
 
I just wanted to add that in my experience cruising storms often come and go so quickly. Storms on our cruises usually are a quick storm sometimes really hard rain and they move past pretty quickly. Obviously that's not always the case but at least our experience.

Being over two weeks out I wouldn't trust any predictions quite yet anyways.
 
As others have said, usually (outside of a hurricane) they blow over quickly. Also remember that the percentage is for over the whole area covered by the forecast and Nassau and Castaway Cay are only a tiny portion of that.

That said, forecasts can be wrong in the other direction. A few years ago I was sailing on a Double Dip to Castaway for my birthday. Our first day to be at Castaway the morning dawned cloudy. But the forecasts the captain and bridge team were getting indicated that it would blow over at least by noon. So we docked. The crew started setting up and the gangway opened…and the literal bottom fell out. Crew and the few passengers who had gone out had to shelter in restrooms until golf carts could be sent for them. Gangway closed. And it never blew over. There were some moments it was raining so hard we could not even see the island and we were docked! The ship activity staff scrambled and pivoted and lots more indoor stuff happened. That evening the captain addressed us at the shows and apologized profusely and explained what all the forecasts had shown and said if they had any indication it might not blow over he would have delayed docking. (We were unable to leave the dock because we were safer moored there than had he tried to move us out of the channel.)

(And no, there was no ship-wide compensation given. I phrase it that way because I am sure some people pitched fits at Guest Services and got something. But those of us who understood that was part of cruising and so did not go pitch fits got nothing.)
 
When life gives you lemons - make lemonade!

There are some positives to rain at CC - most everyone returns to the ship, and you have the entire beach to yourself!

But as one of the PP stated, in Dec '22, it really RAINED - starting just around lunch. I think by 2:00 pm, the entire island was deserted.

As one of the other PP stated - wind is the major concern - there nothing so depressing on a DCL cruise is when you can see CC, and it's sunny, but the ship in unable to dock - which occurred twice for us in 2022😭

Lastly, since there is absolutely nothing you can do about the weather, enjoy the cruise.

As Jimmy Buffet sang in Jamaica Mistaica - "But it's just another ...... day in paradise" :-)
 
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Hi- So, I just pulled up the extended forecast to start getting an idea of the perfection in store for us in early June, and I saw 8 straight days of thunderstorms from the 23-31st. Same shows in Nassau.

1. Is this like Orlando where that just means we'll get an hour of thunderstorm in the afternoon, but the rest of the day should be great?
2. If not, and these are more legit storms, is this normal for this time of year or would folks expect it to clear by say.... June 7?
3. Is there a good way to tell what weather will be at sea? If Castaway Cay is getting these storms, does that mean my visions of chilling and watching funnel vision all day are also at risk?

Anyone have any "but it was still great" stories to pass along if the whole 4-day cruise is thunderstorms?
We went last November, and, yes, it rained while we were at CC...lots of people still went into the water as no thunderstorms, but there were lots of dark clouds towards the end of the day. We were lucky enough to get a cabana, so when everyone was scurrying back to the ship, we stayed dry and just enjoyed being there. On the way back to the ship, tho, THAT was a lot of fun..it POURED and everyone was running back to the ship. The crew was great...they had warmed towels for everyone as they entered the ship, and, boy, did they feel good! So, it was a good day most of the day, it stayed dry for Cookies, which was fantastic, and rained hard at the end of the day, but we still enjoyed the experience.
 
Captain can't do much about ports of call and rain, but I've seen the ship do some major course changes to sail around individual storm clouds. Not much they can do with a front, or large system.

The weather is the weather... extended forecast aren't worth much, and they are worth even less they further out they go.

I know the OP's plan isn't to visit the islands, but one of our best Castaway days was very cloudy and more of a misting rain that came and went. Island was mostly deserted, think they only did half of one of the Cookies for lunch.

Was almost as good as the early post COVID Cruise we did with only about 600 people on the Dream...
 
It is pretty difficult to get the exact weather predicted correctly even a day out. Trends can be helpful but even then you might find variances. As a general rule in the Caribbean, especially the Bahamas, you can probably expect mostly sunny to partly cloudy with chance of passing showers. Fronts may be stronger and have more winds, longer rains or "bigger storms" but usually the whole day is not ruined. Winds are usually more of a concern for docking ships than rain so that is the bigger issue since it can cancel a stop even in sunny/dry weather.

Since you are looking at June, you cannot ignore that you are past the start of hurricane season but that should not really be a concern. Tropical storms and hurricanes are much easier to track and ships can usually work around them but it can change an itinerary. That is really rare and not common at all early in the season (June). We have been in two storm systems on cruises that later developed into hurricanes, I think one was Mark a number of years ago and last year we passed the front that became Ian while in Aruba. Funny that while on the ship it was just a storm but once we got home had to prep for a hurricane.
 
I agree with others that forecasts that far out are almost worthless. They could (and probably will) shift several times before your actual cruise.

When you get to three days out, then you have forecasts that you can actually start placing some stock in. But even then, things could change suddenly, or the projected storms could be short-lived.

As far as at-sea goes, the captain will make every effort to sail around bad weather. Sometime he can, sometimes he can’t.

But in eight 7-day cruises, we have never been completely “rained out”. We’ve had rainy days, we have missed a CC day due to rough seas, and we have had a CC day with a persistent light drizzle. While those were undoubtedly bummers, they were “one-offs,” and it was still great.
 

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