How has bad weather effected your cruise?

[Andrew951]

We booked a Sept trip with the kids - peak month for hurricanes. Has anyone had their cruise itinerary altered due to weather? I understand the ship will sail even with bad weather but may change ports and sail around a storm.
Generally speaking, how has bad weather effected your cruise? What kind of experience did you have? This will be our first Disney cruise.
Thoughts appreciated.

 

[Maxxumuser]

We sailed over Halloween in 2011 and were booked for a Western Caribbean on the Magic. There was a hurricane in Mexico and they changed our itinerary to Eastern two days before sailing. It was a great trip, had to change our excursions but it all worked out.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Our first cruise was in October on the Dream. To the east of us was a low level hurricane and to the west was a tropical depression. The captain did an amazing job of keeping us safe, but because of it, we couldn't do Castaway Cay. He tried docking 3 times but was unsuccessful. We ended up having a sea day instead. They did an amazing job of keeping us entertained. That is the day I fell in love with having lots of sea days. I enjoy the ports but sea days are my favorite. The most important thing is to just roll with the punches and not get upset if things don't go perfectly. Enjoy your cruise.

 

[EskiLvr]

Not on DCL - but we were on a 4 night Bahamas cruise with Carnival and we couldn't get into Freeport. Became a sea day, and IIRC, we got a credit of something like $50 for our stateroom (because they were trying to get people to drink their cares away...).

 

[princessmommyx3]

We have had to sail around a storm in the gulf but it didn't change our itinerary. We just had high seas and I think they closed deck 4 and the top 2 decks during the worst of it.

 

[lbgraves]

Our January 7-night western on the Magic was great, until we got to Cozumel. All excursions were cancelled because the port was closed to small vessels due to the weather. That night they closed deck 10 because the ship was rocking so much. The next day was rough with 50 knot headwinds and 20+ ft swells. All the pools were closed that day. Castaway Cay was cold and windy [low 60s if that]. Still a nice cruise overall. DCL can't control the weather.

 

[Bree]

I have sailed twice in September on RCCL. Our honeymoon cruise in 2002 was supposed to be a western Caribbean - Labadee, Jamaica, Grand Cayman & Cozumel. Our trip turned into Labadee, Jamaica, Labadee & Nassau. They gave us open bar for about 4 hours on a sea day and all excursions on our second trip to Labadee were half price. I highly doubt they do that anymore LOL!!!! Our second was on RCCL on a 4 night Bahamian - CocoCay & Nassau. We made both ports and had great weather on those days. However going back to Port Canaveral we had to sail around the storm and it was a very rocky night.

 

[bobbiwoz]

The Setember 2005 DVC Member Cruise could not sail into Port Canaveral, we were diverted to Port Everglades. This was due to Hurricane Ophilia. On board, the day before you stood in line and Disney gave you a free call to whomever you needed to contact, airline, family, WDW if you wanted to get a room. Tom called our airline directly and we did get an on board credit for a future cruise from Disney. Disney bussed to WDW, MCO and the port, depending on your destination. We chose to go to WDW for a night, got a bargain price room at Pop.

Bobbi

 

[Medic193]

I look at it this way. Even an altered, "bad" cruise, is better than an unaltered "good" workday.

 

[elphie101]

We cruised the Fantasy on October 18th, still hurricane season. St Maarten (one of our islands) had actually been slammed by Hurricane Gonzalo the week before we docked (and the devastation was clear on the island). From our perspective, we had utterly amazing weather - until Castaway Cay. It bucketed rain the entire day, with enough strong winds that it was raining sideways. I heard some people calling it a tropical depression, but since the ship officers never did I hesitate to say it was more than just really crappy weather We still docked and still went out onto the island and swam (if we were going to get wet anyway, am I right?) before throwing the towel and going to play board games at OGills and watch movies in our stateroom. This was our first cruise as well, and yes I was very disappointed to be rained out of CC, but in my opinion I'm glad the island we got rained out of is one featured on nearly every DCL itinerary we're likely to pick next, as opposed to the other Caribbean islands, where I don't know when we'll be back to.

DCL does beef up the on-ship entertainment if you dock with inclement weather, especially on CC day when there is virtually nothing scheduled on the ship (we extra movies in the Buena Vista Theater, trivia in the bars, and of course all the island character appearances were on the ship). I don't recall the water being especially rocky other than the first night (when DH actually got tossed into the hallway wall), but neither of us were seasick and got our sea legs pretty quickly.

 

[ludari]

I've been on a few cruises with bad weather but luckily we where at sea so it didn't effect any of our ports. The bad weather at sea did effect those who wanted to swim or lounge in the sun (we had rain and large swells) but on the plus side with the bad weather a lot of passengers stayed in their staterooms so the dinning rooms, shows, movie theatre and other areas where practically empty.

 

[warrenite]

We were stuck at castaway cay overnight, the ship couldn't back out.

 

[Dug720]

We were stuck at castaway cay overnight, the ship couldn't back out.

Which is why they now back in.

 

[CamColt]

Last August we sailed on the Fantasy. Due to a hurricane our scheduled stop in St Maarten was changed to San Juan. Also, in Feb we were on the Wonder and couldn't dock at CC. We went to Nassau instead.
We have also had 2 other instances on 4 nights cruises where we had to change the sea day with the CC day, once due to a hurricane and once in Dec because of rough seas(we actually stayed in Nassau until about 2:00 am on that trip).

 

[JLMDisneyCruise]

Awesome! So it sounds like even if there was some bad weather( or awesome to some of us. Climate freaks) all in all, no one seems to have had a disappointing trip!! Good to hear! I'm crusing Sept 19th and actually hoping for some..."extreme" weather!(sorry)

 

[lovedisney123]

We had a cruise in September during Hurricane Jeane. We missed Castaway Cay and they let us off of the ship on Friday night (instead of Saturday morning). They bussed us to the Dolphin at Disney and the next morning had a small breakfast for us in a large conference room. After that we had to make arrangements because the airport closed (I believe for two days). We had already planned to stay at the Poly one night before our flight home and they had room to let us stay the two nights as we waited out the storm. The airline got us on another flight and so we were only delayed one day. At the Poly they sold bagged breakfasts that we picked up because the morning of the storm they did not open the food services. They put on extra movies on the TV for guest to watch. It was a bit stressful, but Disney did what they could to make things pleasant. We never lost electricity, but some of the non Disney hotels near by did for a rather long time I believe. The day that everything was closed they did bring in some entertainment into the lobby to help pass the time. Some activities for the kids.

After that we started booking in March instead. I was so sea sick during our time on the ship during that cruise that I could not really enjoy it. The winds were so high as the storm approached. So I haven't traveled during that time of year since, so that may have been an unusual year. I hope all goes well.

 

[timrousbeastie]

That must have been a scary cruise with hurricane Jeanne chasing you towards Port Canaveral. We were wrapping up a stay at the Beach Club Villas during that hurricane and ended up staying an extra night as it hit. We could hear the pine trees breaking like matchsticks outside the window. Can't even imagine what a cruise would have been like.

 

[lovedisney123]

It was a very rocky cruise. One of my DDs and I could hardly leave the room from the motion sickness. They did get us off of the ship before it hit. I remember we were at the Poly when it did go through and I was grateful for the huge bathroom in our room. We could all fit in there together. But Disney did a wonderful job taking care of us.

 

[JLMDisneyCruise]

It was a very rocky cruise. One of my DDs and I could hardly leave the room from the motion sickness. They did get us off of the ship before it hit. I remember we were at the Poly when it did go through and I was grateful for the huge bathroom in our room. We could all fit in there together. But Disney did a wonderful job taking care of us.

Ah, rocky is nothing, I grew up on the ocean....best friend owns a Whale Watch, now, that is some rocky waters!
We are always doing some weird hanging over boats to get photos, etc. I'll take my chances, that is one reason I booked in sept! One can only hope! Sorry you did not enjoy it thou....

 

[AquaDame]

Not us, but the cruise right after us had their itinerary reversed - they went to the last island first and the first island last with everything in the middle swapped as well. Those who had excursions booked through outside companies were out of luck, but I think Disney was able to accommodate the ones booked through them.

Bad weather in Skagway meant we had our float plane excursion cancelled, and we missed doing parasailing twice on Castaway Cay twice due to windy conditions, but had a blast on both trips anyway!