Large jellyfish or Portuguese Man of war

[NJMomto2]

At Castaway Cay yesterday, many cruisers, adults and children, suffered large jellyfish stings with tentacle lashings wrapping around arms and torsos etc. Before we even made it to a chair, we came upon the 1st person stung where it looked like a jellyfish wrapped around her forearm. It was stinging and she was seeking out vinegar at the float stand. Then we found our dinner table mates and the son was stung around his entire torso and down his leg. Large red welts with wide tentacle markings. Painful, he was crying. One after another more reports at all chair groupings - lines of kids off the slide getting sprayed with vinegar. Our server said he never saw anything like it in 7 years. Such a shame as we feared going in the ocean, which is my favorite Castaway Cay activity. A floating mat for hours...

So sad, wasted beautiful day...anyone else experience this? Definitely not sea lice, this appeared to be a large sea creature but no-one actually saw it.

 

[John VN]

At Castaway Cay yesterday, many cruisers, adults and children, suffered large jellyfish stings with tentacle lashings wrapping around arms and torsos etc. Before we even made it to a chair, we came upon the 1st person stung where it looked like a jellyfish wrapped around her forearm. It was stinging and she was seeking out vinegar at the float stand. Then we found our dinner table mates and the son was stung around his entire torso and down his leg. Large red welts with wide tentacle markings. Painful, he was crying. One after another more reports at all chair groupings - lines of kids off the slide getting sprayed with vinegar. Our server said he never saw anything like it in 7 years. Such a shame as we feared going in the ocean, which is my favorite Castaway Cay activity. A floating mat for hours...

So sad, wasted beautiful day...anyone else experience this? Definitely not sea lice, this appeared to be a large sea creature but no-one actually saw it.

Thinking it would be hard to miss a Portuguese Man of war

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/portuguese-man-of-war

 

[magsnwonderland]

There have been reports of increased numbers of box jellyfish in other parts of the Bahamas lately - they have long tentacles and are very hard to see.

 

[Cheburashka]

It sounds like a man of war. I'm sorry that put a damper on your CC day and that it hurt some of the swimmers.

 

[NJMomto2]

Agreed - I looked up some stings and they appeared to match the squiggle of the man of war more so than the box jellyfish stings but both seem very serious. Glad we were cautious - better safe than sorry. We disembark tomorrow so hopefully we will hear from others that may have more info. It seemed they cleared out the snorkel area as people getting stung were concentrated there. Water was really warm so attracting the creatures.

 

[o&smom]

Thinking it would be hard to miss a Portuguese Man of war

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/portuguese-man-of-war

That is a large one. Many are much smaller. I got stung by one in Hawaii and the top float on it was only about the size of a nickel. Never saw it! Very painful! Then two weeks later, I got hives in the same area I had been stung. That was worse.

 

[insureman]

Not to worry. Disney legal has this covered!