Disney Dream during Hurricane Matthew

[tigerlily2009]

I would love to hear about anyone's experience on the Disney Dream that was cruising during the hurricane. What were the extra days like on board? What were the menus and food like? What did they do for entertainment?

 

[blair327]

I would love to hear about anyone's experience on the Disney Dream that was cruising during the hurricane. What were the extra days like on board? What were the menus and food like? What did they do for entertainment?

It was great! They flew in another entertainer and picked him up on Cozumel. They were so accommodating!! Personally it was awesome!

 

[plethera1]

I was very concerned before the cruise watching Matthew. I didn't think they'd cancel it but figured the ride would be pretty rough. Boy, was I wrong. Disney's choice to go to Cozumel and Costa Maya kept the Dream far away from the storm and the seas. There was very little ship movement and the weather was great every day.

As the previous poster said, they picked up an extra act in Cozumel to fill the extra night and constantly had activities going as if the cruise was planned the way it went. They even allowed people to stay on the boat over the night on Saturday while in port because they knew hotels would be at a premium due to the storm.

Disney handled the whole situation as well as they possibly could. Getting a 5-day cruise was awesome!!

 

[snoopy5386]

It was amazing, we had the best time. Weather was beautiful all week, we had slightly rough seas the first night out and the last day coming back. Our dining rotation was ERRA, 5th night we went back to Enchanted Garden and 6th night we went to Animators. We stayed on the ship last night and maybe one out of every 10 tables had someone at them for dinner. I read that somewhere around 800-1000 people were on board and that sounds about right. It took them about an hour to clear the ship, but getting on and off was very smooth and the staff was there cheering and high fiving us as we got back on the ship last night. Even with so few people on board they had a full night of entertainment - crew talent show in the WD theater, movies going all night on the funnel vision and in Buena Vista theater, activities in D lounge and the adult areas (karaoke, scavenger hunt, etc), pools and Aqua duck open, band playing in the atrium and characters all over the place. I ran into chip and dale randomly while walking around last night. They were still running two different movies and entertainment in the atrium at 11:30 pm even though they wanted us up and off the ship by 5:45 am!

Saturday morning/afternoon they had no idea when we would dock and they still managed to run an ever evolving entertainment schedule with loads of characters about.

As the others said they flew in an entertainer to Cozumel for the first extra night. They did a great job of keeping everyone informed and up to date on what was going on, they pulled together port adventures for Costa maya on little notice, printed up new navigators, the app was constantly being updated, etc. We actually found out about the Sunday extra day through the app before they announced it via the PA. Lots of onboard announcements in 3 different languages, free phone calls, a small amount of free internet to rearrange travel, free transportation to wdw or the airport and the captain gave us weather updates in the WD theater every night. They also waived tips for the last two days, though we upped our tips both for wonderful service and to make up for the lost cruise. Each extra day was met with cheers from the crowds in the theater and letting us stay on again last night was just going above and beyond.

 

[tigerlily2009]

This was all wonderful to hear. Thanks for sharing and so glad everyone enjoyed!

 

[Laundress]

Lovely to hear that all went so smoothly in what could have been a stressful time. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Lori J]

It was a blast. The two ports were beautiful. The first and last was a little bit of rough seas but not bad. The weather was really pretty. We stayed Saturday night on the ship as well. The entertainment and the food was awesome.

 

[Rabb it]

Glad everyone had such a good experience!

 

[Imahikergirl]

I had a blast as well. Loved the ports we were taken to. I felt well informed as to what was happening elsewhere.

Thanks to disboarders, I was parked on level three of the parkade, dead center. We still managed sea spray but that was it.

 

[Lori J]

I had a blast as well. Loved the ports we were taken to. I felt well informed as to what was happening elsewhere.

Thanks to disboarders, I was parked on level three of the parkade, dead center. We still managed sea spray but that was it.

We was parked on the lower level of the parking garage and all we had was sea spray also. The captain was great at keeping everyone informed about the storm and all that was going on with the ship.

 

[MinnieMama411]

My husband and I are new to cruising and this was our second cruise. What an adventure! The captain, cruise director and crew did a tremendous job keeping us well informed of changes to our daily itinerary as well as hurricane updates. We didn't know what to expect when we embarked. The entertainment was kept fresh and the high level of service didn't suffer in any way. They did all they could to keep us happy and in a positive frame of mind. Cozumel and Costa Maya were beautiful ports. The waters were so calm along the Mexican coastline that you'd never know we were avoiding a hurricane. Kudos to the captain and crew! We would ride out a storm with them anytime.

 

[disboardlover]

The only disappointment was knowing we would not make it to Castaway Cay, but given there was a hurricane in the area, the choice to go west was the safest and best choice. Other than a bit of rain on arrival on embarkation day (which cleared up before sailing), the weather was nearly perfect. There was very little motion compared to our other cruises, though some still found some movement on the first and last days to be a bit more than usual.

The entertainment was great, and there were lots of activities. Costa Maya was fine, but felt like a manufactured cruise port with very inflated prices. Cozumel, as usual, was a great port to visit and there is always something to do or somewhere to go. It was nice of Disney to fly in an extra act to Cozumel so we would have an extra night of new entertainment.

While the extension of the cruise was nice, it did wreak havoc with people's travel plans. However, satellite phones were available around the clock for you to call airlines, hotels, etc. They kept us informed and that is all you can expect when dealing with a hurricane like Matthew; following it for a week before the cruise, it seemed to be very unique, kept speeding up and slowing down, altering course even at the end to wobble a bit east and minimize port damage.

The final night as "Hotel Dream" was a very unique experience, kinda like if you rented out the ship for the night. No lines pretty much anywhere, but plenty of things to do and water activities to keep you busy. The only unfortunate thing was that we had to be off the ship by 6:30am as the ship had to move out of port for the arriving Disney Fantasy. Still, the amount of effort and expense Disney went through to help people enjoy their vacation even with the travel changes was amazing.

 

[lorimay]

Disney knows how to take care of their guests!