Hurricane Season...thoughts?

[CRSNDSNY]

Because of complications with academic schedules and wanting to make the most of our annual passes, we changed our March '05 7-day cruise to a September '05 7-day cruise.

I am slightly apprehensive about traveling during hurricane season -- but the price is so darn good! We got a CAT5 for two adults under $3000 which includes all taxes, port fees, transfers, insurance, etc. I know weather is generally unpredictable and that a cruise has never been cancelled due to weather, but I was wondering what you all thought about this?

For those of you who have cruised during September to the Caribbean, what were your concerns, expectations, and experiences with this?

 

[ALBA]

We sailed in sept 2002 and the weather was ideal, in fact sometimes too warm.

In Grand Cayman some of the ships were leaving early because of a hurricane heading in that general direction, not DCL we stayed there until the agreed time.

We did seem to travel a little bit quicker that night, you could feel a bit more movement in the ship and the waves were higher. According to the info apparently this was to try and get far enough ahead of the storm, but other than that we didn't notice any difference.

I would certainly book another sept cruise without hesitation.

Alba

 

[scottygirl]

We cruised back in 1991 on NCL on a much smaller ship than the Magic and it was fine. We had perfect weather, only a little rain while we were on Martinique which was no great loss because the island was not my favorite by far. We left out of San Juan and only the first night did we feel a little queasy. I would cruise in Sept again without qualms, in fact we are going in Nov and that is still considered hurricane season.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

All of our DCL trips have been in Sept or Oct (prices are cheapest, and we don't have any school-age children).

We've been on six cruises and never encountered problems.

No Mystery Cruises.
No missing CC.
Almost no Rain.

We've only run into rough sea once for a single night. We've had our day at CC cut short when a storm came rolling in around 3 o'clock (so we still got most the day on the island). We've also hit a few showers on our way to a snorkel excursion. But otherwise the weather has been GREAT.

The only thing I can think of to complain about the weather this time of year is that it is still pretty hot. The only curise we've taken where the weather wasn't hot was our last one that we took the last full week in October (all the others have been early September to early October).

 

[kcatoir]

We cruised last Sept right on the heels of Isabella, and I mean "right on". our weather was gorgeous, but the seas were ruff, the ship swayed soo much the first night even with the stabilizers that at times you do the quick side shuffle so you don't fall over. There were quite a few "green" faces that night, luckely they weren't in our family.
We plan to cruise again in Sept 05, this time more to the end of the month, can't beat those prices.

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

We've cruised six times during the heart of hurricane season (august-november), and have only been diverted once. In Oct. of 2000, we called at Key West instead of St. Maarten. I didn't have any problem with it, and we ended up doing a really fun snorkeling excursion on Key West.

I like cruising this time of year because the rates are definitely lower, the weather is still very warm, and the days are still long. Even on the cruise on which we were diverted, the seas weren't overly rough. We've encountered higher seas at other times of the year.

The first night of any cruise is likely to be a bit rougher than the rest, since the ship has to pass through the Gulf Stream.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

You are all making me feel so much more confident about this decision. Thank you SO much!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Bumping to see if anyone else wants to add anything.

 

[Muushka]

I did so much research for our cruise. I thought I picked one of the best months to sail- March. Well, we had 20 to 30 ft seas and winds of 63 mph- so much for careful planning. Go for the low price! That is what we will do next time.

 

[mattmommy]

We sailed in September on our first trip. We were the last cruise to Castaway Cay before Hurricane Floyd hit and decimated the island. Disney would never put you in danger. The cruise that was out during the hurricane went to different --safe-- ports. Maybe a little disappointing, but being on the ship is absolutely great. Sometimes when you go to islands (other than Castaway), you're disappointed that you didn't stay on the ship. There's just so much to do and you never have enough time. Have a great time. By the way, my husband can't even watch the teacup ride he get so sick. He wasn't sick once in the two Disney cruises we did.

 

[mamo-4-wdw]

I haven't taken my 1st cruise yet but we did pick Sept 25th2004. My Ds's(14&22) researched when we should go and when they saw a show on the travel channel about the Magic and how they had the best weather forcasting equipment,plus the captian would run away from the storm and try to keep the ship in"sunshine". They decided to go for it. I haven't had one worry about the weather,(I am a born worrier). I think you will really enjoy a sept. cruise.Just my 2cents worth,mamo

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Great advice, everyone! I appreciate the encouragement & positive views!