Castaway Cay

[Donut23]

Anyone hear anything about Castaway Cay after Irene's visit?

 

[firecracker725]

Been wondering the same thing...

 

[roxy84]

The Dream is supposed to be there tomorrow I believe? So there will be some more updates after that.

I've heard that there has been some trees uprooted and heavy winds. They were supposed to get the bad part of it yesterday afternoon/evening. There has been no mention of CM being evacuated from the island (which they will do if it is that serious). I'm sure we will get more updates in the next couple days.

 

[Donut23]

The Dream is supposed to be there tomorrow I believe? So there will be some more updates after that.

I've heard that there has been some trees uprooted and heavy winds. They were supposed to get the bad part of it yesterday afternoon/evening. There has been no mention of CM being evacuated from the island (which they will do if it is that serious). I'm sure we will get more updates in the next couple days.

I'm a 57 year old woman with a 90 year old mother. Even at THIS age, I can only imagine what my mother would say to the Disney folks if she heard they were NOT planning to evacuate me if I worked at Castaway Cay.

At 110 pounds, suffering from cancer, she can STILL be a formidable force.

 

[OKW Lover]

There has been no mention of CM being evacuated from the island (which they will do if it is that serious).

The report I read from a Disney spokesperson said that they have hurricane shelters for the CM to ride out the storm.

 

[firecracker725]

Found this...

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/...-cococay-norwegian-great-stirrup-cay/416942/1

 

[dismichael]

I bet Castaway Cay is a mess... that Irene is a heavy party-er that never cleans up after herself


She just blew threw my town last night and now it is a mess...

 

[mitros]

The report I read from a Disney spokesperson said that they have hurricane shelters for the CM to ride out the storm.

Can't imagine how you could be safe on a small man made Island like that.
Especially the way huge bodies of land are torn apart by these storms.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Can't imagine how you could be safe on a small man made Island like that.
Especially the way huge bodies of land are torn apart by these storms.

First of all it is not a man-made island. It is a real island and I am sure Disney considered hurricanes prior to purchasing it.

Second, if construction at WDW is any indication, all permanent buildings on Castaway, including Cast living Quarters, are built to withstand 200mph winds. They know it is a lot cheaper and less expensive to do it right the first time than to have to redo construction.

 

[Donut23]

First of all it is not a man-made island. It is a real island and I am sure Disney considered hurricanes prior to purchasing it.

Second, if construction at WDW is any indication, all permanent buildings on Castaway, including Cast living Quarters, are built to withstand 200mph winds. They know it is a lot cheaper and less expensive to do it right the first time than to have to redo construction.

Doesn't matter how well it's built when mother nature has PMS.

1999 shortly after Castaway Cay opened, hurricane Floyd rolled over Castaway Cay. Luckily staff was evacuated prior to "island-fall" because the Island was badly battered by a massive surge (remember the summit of Castaway Cay is about 18 feet above sea level.)

I was in the travel business at the time and had guests for many weeks on the ships off and on as they would pull into Castaway Cay and offload construction supplies. Once done......they would quietly pull away and that was all of the island guests would see and photograph. That went from September into November. They had to rebuild parts of the jetty, reclaim beaches and repair some buildings including castmember housing. You can find details and photographs on Google.

Irene was no Floyd.....Floyd was a category 4 at one point and close when he arrived at Castaway Cay. Floyd went on to landfall in NC as a category 2.

I was at the Wildie when all this occurred. It was one of the few times WDW was shut down. Luckily, Floyd went elsewhere and not into central Florida as originally predicted. They evacuated the central east coast of Florida. The Beeline was westbound....all lanes at one point. Port Canaveral was closed to all maritime traffic when Floyd got close.


note from Orlando paper.....

By Richard Verrier of The Sentinel Staff, September 14, 1999

Port Canaveral closed Monday evening, bracing for Hurricane Floyd.The closing didn't disrupt the major cruise lines, whose ships were already at sea. They had left on schedule Sunday and Monday.But Floyd prompted cruise lines to change itineraries and divert ships from the stormy Bahamas.Disney's Wonder, which left Port Canaveral on Sunday on a four-day cruise to Nassau, picked up 30 workers Monday morning who were evacuated from Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas.Choppy seas and high winds prevented the Wonder from docking at Castaway Cay. So the 30 workers piloted boats to the 964-foot ship after boarding up the island's wooden huts and securing furniture.

In this case, I guess they DID have to do some of it twice.

Mother Nature with PMS.