How has bad weather effected your cruise?

[Pinkcoachpurse]

On our February 6-9, 2015 Dream cruise the water was so choppy on our first night due to some high winds. There were a few sick people on board (clean up on aisle 6) and it was tough walking around. I think a lot of people skipped the MDR's and ate room service in their staterooms as we saw tons of trays outside rooms. The ship was rocking and rolling!! They closed deck 4 due to the waves. My husband and I had a great time! Thankfully neither of us had any issues with sea sickness as I'm sure lots of people did that night! We walked around the ship having fun laughing at how we felt like we were drunk stumbling around lol. We tried to go out on our veranda but couldn't even open the door.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Our very first cruise was aboard the Fantasy, the October 20-27, 2012 sailing that Hurricane Sandy interrupted. Our excursions to St. Maarten and St. Thomas/St. John were wonderful! We were informed of the pending storm when were back on the ship after our St. Thomas/St. John excursion and that we would not be visiting Castaway Cay on Friday. I was so disappointed, but had no idea of the magnitude of impending storm until Captain Tom showed us at the evening show. He also explained how the cruise would be diverted. Thursday we were beginning to feel Sandy's influence and Friday day was rainy and rocky. There were plenty of things to do, so we made the best of it. That evening the dining rooms were fairly deserted, and the rocking of the ship was worse. We retired to our room early, and followed the advice of the cruise director and Captain to stay there unless absolutely necessary to leave our room. We had to remove everything from the desks and night stands as everything was sliding off. We took all the hangars in the closet off the rods as their clanking together was driving us crazy. We tried sleeping, but it was practically impossible between the constant safety announcements and the rolling/pitching of the ship. We were not scared at any time, more worried about getting home to our home in Massachusetts before Sandy was there. We missed our flight but luckily got one at the airport after disembarking. The only thing that we experienced that was a nightmare was the disembarking. We couldn't even get off the elevator when our deck was given the ok to leave our staterooms. We squeezed our way into the crowd, and wow...we were like sardines. LOTS of unhappy people...many questioning Disney's decision to come into port, but that's a whole other story. We did receive a 25% discount off a future cruise or Disney vacation ( some said they'd never cruise again ).
Our bottom line was that we would indeed sail again, that Captain Tom and the crew got us into port safely and we would have no hesitation sailing DCL again. We did feel badly for those traveling with children who were afraid, ( it was just my DH and me ) for people who were ill from the severe rocking of the ship and for those who were injured. We saw much of the damage to the gift shops and dining rooms, but noticed many things on the floor or moved by the crew for safety, not from the hurricane.
We have sailed with DCL since, and are sailing again this November...( yes, the tail end of hurricane season ) and are entirely comfortable and confident to do so!

We were on the cruise right after yours. The Fantasy was hours late getting into port Canaveral, but what a relief to see her arrive! People from our cruise were trying to board as your cruise was disembarking. Hurricane Sandy was north of us by the time we left, so the weather was fine, but the ports had taken a beating. The itinerary was changed a couple of times so we missed Grand Cayman, but we did make it to Castaway Cay. The leaves were all brown from salt water damage there (except for the cell phone tower disguised as a palm tree.) An RCCL ship was scheduled to leave Port Canaveral the same day as we did, but it just stayed there and those passengers were given the option of just using that ship as a hotel for the week. boring.

On our DCL Panama Canal cruise in 1-11 we had to miss Castaway Cay because the winds were whipping the waves around. Someone here on the DIS did a survey of the most common month to miss CC because of weather, and it's January.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

This video has always blown my mind.

If you watch carefully you will see the Fantasy, as the Pilot boat approach's, the Fantasy is turning to port to provide a *LEE* for the Pilot boat/Pilot. Namely a area of the water where the boat is out of the worst of the wind and choppy waves as much as possible. She is also slowing down, which takes some time. As the Boat get close to the Fantasy hull you can tell that the choppy waves are cut down a lot but every once in a while the odd, large ones slip by bouncing the boat.

As the BOAT approach's the Sideport of the Fantasy, the pilot on deck is watching the water and waves and giving instructs to the CM's about the height/position of the ladder and when he feels its right he pops onto and up the short ladder, and boat drifts backs away from the Fantasy as fast as possible.

The kicker here is that is not a rough sea and not unusual conditions for a Pilot to board a vessel. I have been involved in boarding Pilots in much rougher conditions. The Pilots are indeed taking their life's in their hands many times when boarding vessels.

I'll add another mind visual for you folks, think of a Pilot having to get on the ladder and then climb, 20, 30 even 40 feet to reach the weather deck of a freighter, container ship or tankers.

AKK

 

[phinz]

We make it a point to watch the pilot disembark every time we leave port. These men and women really do take their life in their own hands every time they do this, and most people have no idea what they do.

 

[gotomu212]

For me part of it is just the adventure of cruising. We take October cruises normally and 3 years ago they started calling one of our cruises the Magical Mystery Cruise because we boarded and they switched us from eastern to western (other than longer lines at port excursions everyone seemed okay) but then the ports kept shuffling and we did those in different orders and cancelled Grand Caymen altogether (on GC they old us that even if we managed to tender all the port excursions would be cancelled because you couldn't really see anything in the water.) Then we ran into the coolest lightning show ever near Cozumel. We never knew until the day before where we were going next! But it was so fun.

The only real disruption was when they had to cancel one Disney production show for performer safety (but they rescheduled it as a matinee) and I remember on formal night the captain made an announcement and asked all the ladies wearing high heels to remove them when walking around the ship because we were pitching around and with long dresses and heels people were tripping. That was when formal night was a little dressier and it was funny to see all the ladies barefoot in their nice formal wear.

Honestly though the vast majority seem fine even when weather alters plans and you still get a terrific time on the ship!

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Of the six DCL cruises we have taken we have only had weather effect us once. That was the Panama Canal cruise on the Wonder way back in 2011. And unfortunately it was on the CC day. The wind was blasting us broadside and you could see the ship slipping past the docking area as the Captain attempted several times to back in. The waves hitting the breakwater was spectacular however, giant sprays of water with each wave crashing against it. We ended up having to pass by and made a quicker trip to Aruba and docked late at night one day ahead of time. They kept the gangplank open the entire night for those interested in getting off, I am assuming to go gambling because I don't know what else could have been open.

We did have one incident where they had to clear the swim areas while on CC when a small squall hit. The wave got big in a hurry, the wind was blowing pretty good and the rain came down in bucket loads. Didn't last long, passed through and we were back in the water. Storms could be seen the rest of the day passing by in the distance.