Hurricane Concerns?

[Uncleromulus]

Well--hurricane forecasting is hardly an exact science!!

We've done 3 early Oct W Carribean cruises on Fantasy and have yet to encounter anything hurricane-like on any of the trips.

It's a guessing game right now and the longer away you are, the more unreliable the guess will be.

 

[wilkeliza]

If you travel during hurricane season buy trip insurance and then hope for the best. There is no sense in worrying as there isn't anything you can do to change the weather.

Just know hurricanes don't usually just pop up. Sandy was an issue because it didn't follow the expected patterns. As much as the last day of that cruise sucked for those on board there were no casualties and very minor injuries. Everyone arrived back at the port safe and the crew worked quickly to get the boat back to sailing shape.

 

[MUN]

It was the cheapest Western Caribbean itinerary. I would assume that if it was that big of an issue, DCL wouldn't sail during this timeframe, right?

It's the cheapest because kids are in school. Other than the hurricane threat, it would be a great time of year to take a Caribbean cruise. The water at the beaches should be plenty warm and crowds should be low. Plus, as you said the price is low (for DCL). The chances of you being harmed by a hurricane on a cruise ship are very low. These ships are built to withstand rough seas and high winds.

 

[ChicosWife]

It's the cheapest because kids are in school. Other than the hurricane threat, it would be a great time of year to take a Caribbean cruise. The water at the beaches should be plenty warm and crowds should be low. Plus, as you said the price is low (for DCL). The chances of you being harmed by a hurricane on a cruise ship are very low. These ships are built to withstand rough seas and high winds.

I'm not so worried about the harm part, I am sure Disney will do everything they can to avoid that. I am just worried about having rocky seas, missing ports, etc.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Well we are 6 days from the start of Hurricane season, and for those interested, thre is nothing on the horizon................yet!

AKK

• All
• at Northern Atlantic
• ep Eastern Pacific
• wp Western Pacific
• io Indian Ocean

Sea Surface Temp

Anomaly

Well, Well...........a few hours and the board changes. It seems there is NOW a tropical invest east of the Bahamas.

Official or not the tropical season has started.

AKK

 

[ChicosWife]

Well, Well...........a few hours and the board changes. It seems there is NOW a tropical invest east of the Bahamas.

Official or not the tropical season has started.

AKK

That's the scary part. It can happen so suddenly...

 

[Uncleromulus]

But nothing has happened yet!

THis could end up as absolutely nothing.

Or--

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

That's the scary part. It can happen so suddenly...

Hi Chicoswife,

Well no not really. A invest is the start, it is really only a windy area now. It will likely take a few days to develop, if it ever does develop to the next stage a Tropical Depression which will still be not much more then a windy area. next a tropical storm and the the 5 stages of Hurricanes.


All storms, including Tropical one take days to grow and gain direction and speed. All we can do is watch them for now. At this time of year this invest will very possibly die off.

DCL and the other lines have various Maritime reporting weather services that provide a lot of information if a tropical storm grows and the Master and shore staff have many plans to divert, or change ports or port arrangements. In the end it is still the Master's decision.

As Uncleromulus pointed out, nothing has happened yet and nothing may happen. Please relax and just go on your cruise and enjoy it.

AKK

 

[ChicosWife]

Hi Chicoswife,

Well no not really. A invest is the start, it is really only a windy area now. It will likely take a few days to develop, if it ever does develop to the next stage a Tropical Depression which will still be not much more then a windy area. next a tropical storm and the the 5 stages of Hurricanes.


All storms, including Tropical one take days to grow and gain direction and speed. All we can do is watch them for now. At this time of year this invest will very possibly die off.

DCL and the other lines have various Maritime reporting weather services that provide a lot of information if a tropical storm grows and the Master and shore staff have many plans to divert, or change ports or port arrangements. In the end it is still the Master's decision.

As Uncleromulus pointed out, nothing has happened yet and nothing may happen. Please relax and just go on your cruise and enjoy it.

AKK

Good information! Thanks!

 

[New England Mickey]

Photos from Fantasy, 10/27/12. Hurricane Sandy, prior to rough seas.

These are some rough seas photos, prior to when it got bad.

It got bad when dark, so .... It was hard to capture the max waves.

The images above are of 15 - 20 foot seas, in 40 -55 mph winds.

Later in the sailing it became worse. lol

Love the added photos.

 

[New England Mickey]

As for missing ports, when I sailed on the Magic in 2014 we missed a port adventure in St.Maarten because of a hurricane there but we were giving a refund and we went on the island anyway just without a port adventure which is fine in most cases.

 

[ChicosWife]

Photos from Fantasy, 10/27/12. Hurricane Sandy, prior to rough seas.

These are some rough seas photos, prior to when it got bad.

It got bad when dark, so .... It was hard to capture the max waves.

The images above are of 15 - 20 foot seas, in 40 -55 mph winds.

Later in the sailing it became worse. lol

Wow, how was the boat ride?

If you're a data junkie like I am, this page is a good read. It includes average hurricane per certain time periods over the last 100 years, average origination points and tracks per month, etc. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/

I guess September really is the worse month!

We sailed "around" a hurricane on our southern Caribbean cruise back in 2014. Antigua was scheduled to be our first stop but the hurricane was headed there so we sailed down to St. Lucia to start and they completely reworked the schedule. We made all of the ports and finished up at Antigua, where the impact of the hurricane was evident but we still enjoyed our day. Other than what we saw at Antigua, you never would have known that there was a hurricane in the region.

I'll will note that this was Disney's approach and other cruise lines didn't handle it the same way. We heard from some Carnival passengers, for example, that they just went out to sea for the entire week and skipped all or most of the ports of call instead of rescheduling. They successfully avoided the hurricane but I don't know that I would be happy about that. I guess we would have received a refund of some of the port charges and taxes. Hopefully they didn't run out of food and beverages.

What happens with scheduled port adventures?

 

[Jestocost]

What happens with scheduled port adventures?

For the excursions scheduled through DCL, they worked like crazy to get everything rescheduled for different days. I believe DCL even assisted passengers who had booked private activities with contacting the providers to reschedule. In our case all of the excursions we had booked through DCL went on as planned even with the schedule change, although I am sure that there were a few that they were unable to reschedule.

 

[ChicosWife]

For the excursions scheduled through DCL, they worked like crazy to get everything rescheduled for different days. I believe DCL even assisted passengers who had booked private activities with contacting the providers to reschedule. In our case all of the excursions we had booked through DCL went on as planned even with the schedule change, although I am sure that there were a few that they were unable to reschedule.

Good to know. We went ahead and rescheduled our cruise to December (outside of the normal hurricane season), not because we were that scare of hurricanes, but it was cheaper and gave us a little extra time to save. Problem solved!!

 

[Bear3412]

Wow, how was the boat ride?

Your "User Name" seems familiar, You weren't there?

If not, perhaps it was another sailing, later, that we shared.

How was the sailing? Well, it varied depending on where and who you were IMO.

Hurricane Sandy thread;
I can't find the thread that was 20 - 30 pages. Oh my.
Great descriptions of the events are within that thread.

They may have deleted it.

 

[ChicosWife]

Your "User Name" seems familiar, You weren't there?

If not, perhaps it was another sailing, later, that we shared.

How was the sailing? Well, it varied depending on where and who you were IMO.

Hurricane Sandy thread;
I can't find the thread that was 20 - 30 pages. Oh my.
Great descriptions of the events are within that thread.

They may have deleted it.

No, I have only been on one cruise and it definitely wasn't during a hurricane! LOL