Lookout Cay long pier.

[CampbellzSoup]

Getting a Castaway Cay sailing on one of the older ships is more difficult because on some sailings the Magic and Dream are visiting Lookout Cay and not Castaway Cay. The Fantasy has many sailing to both islands, and the Wish and Treasure are stopping mostly at Castaway Cay. So there are still many cruises to Castaway Cay, but not on the ships some people prefer.

The Magic is the best ship so I can understand

 

[SL6827]

So Disney will team up the ships that most don't prefer with the island they do prefer. I'll give that one to them, a great strategy.

 

[Kwami]

So Disney will team up the ships that most don't prefer with the island they do prefer. I'll give that one to them, a great strategy.

I don't think that you have any evidence at all for "most" here. The Wish has been very successful and the Treasure is looking even better. Lookout Cay is still too new to say how it's going.

 

[Lucien Franciosa]

Getting a Castaway Cay sailing on one of the older ships is more difficult because on some sailings the Magic and Dream are visiting Lookout Cay and not Castaway Cay. The Fantasy has many sailing to both islands, and the Wish and Treasure are stopping mostly at Castaway Cay. So there are still many cruises to Castaway Cay, but not on the ships some people prefer.

so I am a data person... Here is the breakdown as of today for cruises available for booking ( does not count those already booked)... listed by ship, cruises going to castaway cay, overall number of cruises and cruises going to LC

Magic 37 cc /132 total / 67 lc
Dream 76 cc /142 total /100 lc
Wish 189 cc /193 total /19 lc
Fantasy 78 cc /120 total /79 lc
Treasure 75 cc /75 total /0 lc

the magic, the dream, the wish, and the fantasy are all going to CC. The wonder wont be in the carribean. Interestingly there are more ships going to castaway cay than lookout cay, the treasure isnt going to lookout at all.

Now it is accurate to say the distribution between islands varies ship to ship, with the wish going the most often to castaway cay, and the magic the least. so your options vary by ship. but its also fair to say in this list the magic and the fantasy have the fewest available cruises period than the others (besides the treasure which hasn't been launched yet).

Point is, while undoubtedly the opening of LC gives Disney more options and has changed the distribution of ships going to castaway cay, there are still 455 cruises to Castaway Cay on all the available ships and so there does seem to be options. If you like the Wish there is great news for going to Castaway Cay. If magic is your preference and only ship you will sail, there are fewer available cruises, but still 37, not a small number. And I have read plenty of posts that suggest people avoid the magic. I am not one of those people but there it is. I think people that want to go to castaway cay on the magic still can.

 

[Uncle Coaster]

A system like the Tampa Airport Dual Tram would not need a turn-around with ALL Guests required to use it for efficiency and safety.

I would suggest taking a system that gives people options for getting from ship to land and removing the options would not sit well with a number of people.

 

[Lucien Franciosa]

I would suggest taking a system that gives people options for getting from ship to land and removing the options would not sit well with a number of people.

Diplomatically stated! does highlight you cant please all the people all the time. It's hard sometimes to tell what would give the highest number of complaints. I suppose if we were talking a dual tram system, one that takes you to the official customs gate and then one takes you to island amenities, it could work. But it would have its own complications in terms of delays etc. No easy answer. Certainly cant please everyone!

 

[John VN]

I would suggest taking a system that gives people options for getting from ship to land and removing the options would not sit well with a number of people.

I understand but will counter with --
A TRAM will be faster and more efficient for getting guests from ship 2 shore and back. Once on land then gung-ho for walking or not.

 

[Lucien Franciosa]

I understand but will counter with --
A TRAM will be faster and more efficient for getting guests from ship 2 shore and back. Once on land then gung-ho for walking or not.

I think we need to run the numbers before making any assumptions. Yes, obviously once you are on the tram it will be faster, thought not warp speed. But the trams will be capacity limited and this is something Disney knows a LOT about. I will do this top down estimates, giving all my boring assumptions at the end to quibble over

Hourly capacity = number of passengers per tram x number of trips

hourly capacity = 144 people x 4 trips = max 576 people per hour.

Disney Wish has 4000 people, let's assume 75% want off the boat, or 3000 people

TO MOVE ALL THE PEOPLE ASHORE BY A SINGLE TRAM THAT WENT BACK AND FORTH WOULD TAKE A BIT OVER 5 HOURS, RUNNING NON STOP.

and then its time to go back

see the problem? We can debate how this could be improved, but longer trams and faster trams are probably not likely.

okay so where did I get the numbers from?

Trips per hour: we know the tram Disney is currently running goes roughly 1.5 miles (from satellite map) in 10 minutes, or 9 mph. Disney wont want to go faster on the pier, but lets round it to 10 mph. ... estimates from the ship to the existing tram is about 0.7 miles (with the pier being .5 miles). so okay this would indicate one way on the tram for .7 miles would roughly be four minutes? give it loading and unloading time of 4 minutes each way, a round trip is 16 minutes with loading and unloading. so thats roughly 4 round trips per hour.

People per trip. again from pictures of the existing tram, s well, lets say its 4 seats per row, from images it seems to be 9 rows, so thats 36 people per car. There appear to be 4, maybe 5 cars on the existing tram. thats pretty long for a pier tram, but okay lets go with 4 x 36 = 144 max people moved per round trip. for 4 trips in an hour that would be 576 max people moved per hour.

edit: some will say, how can this be true, people are moved fast enough from the tram loading area to the beach area... yep... but in all the videos they have multiple trams lined up at a time at the station. load one, it leaves, another moves up right away. I don't know how many trams they are running at a time, but during surge period is more than one

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

so I am a data person... Here is the breakdown as of today for cruises available for booking ( does not count those already booked)... listed by ship, cruises going to castaway cay, overall number of cruises and cruises going to LC

Magic 37 cc /132 total / 67 lc
Dream 76 cc /142 total /100 lc
Wish 189 cc /193 total /19 lc
Fantasy 78 cc /120 total /79 lc
Treasure 75 cc /75 total /0 lc

the magic, the dream, the wish, and the fantasy are all going to CC. The wonder wont be in the carribean. Interestingly there are more ships going to castaway cay than lookout cay, the treasure isnt going to lookout at all.

Now it is accurate to say the distribution between islands varies ship to ship, with the wish going the most often to castaway cay, and the magic the least. so your options vary by ship. but its also fair to say in this list the magic and the fantasy have the fewest available cruises period than the others (besides the treasure which hasn't been launched yet).

Point is, while undoubtedly the opening of LC gives Disney more options and has changed the distribution of ships going to castaway cay, there are still 455 cruises to Castaway Cay on all the available ships and so there does seem to be options. If you like the Wish there is great news for going to Castaway Cay. If magic is your preference and only ship you will sail, there are fewer available cruises, but still 37, not a small number. And I have read plenty of posts that suggest people avoid the magic. I am not one of those people but there it is. I think people that want to go to castaway cay on the magic still can.

I love data. Thank you.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

I think we need to run the numbers before making any assumptions. Yes, obviously once you are on the tram it will be faster, thought not warp speed. But the trams will be capacity limited and this is something Disney knows a LOT about. I will do this top down estimates, giving all my boring assumptions at the end to quibble over

Hourly capacity = number of passengers per tram x number of trips

hourly capacity = 144 people x 4 trips = max 576 people per hour.

Disney Wish has 4000 people, let's assume 75% want off the boat, or 3000 people

TO MOVE ALL THE PEOPLE ASHORE BY A SINGLE TRAM THAT WENT BACK AND FORTH WOULD TAKE A BIT OVER 5 HOURS, RUNNING NON STOP.

and then its time to go back

see the problem? We can debate how this could be improved, but longer trams and faster trams are probably not likely.

okay so where did I get the numbers from?

Trips per hour: we know the tram Disney is currently running goes roughly 1.5 miles (from satellite map) in 10 minutes, or 9 mph. Disney wont want to go faster on the pier, but lets round it to 10 mph. ... estimates from the ship to the existing tram is about 0.7 miles (with the pier being .5 miles). so okay this would indicate one way on the tram for .7 miles would roughly be four minutes? give it loading and unloading time of 4 minutes each way, a round trip is 16 minutes with loading and unloading. so thats roughly 4 round trips per hour.

People per trip. again from pictures of the existing tram, s well, lets say its 4 seats per row, from images it seems to be 9 rows, so thats 36 people per car. There appear to be 4, maybe 5 cars on the existing tram. thats pretty long for a pier tram, but okay lets go with 4 x 36 = 144 max people moved per round trip. for 4 trips in an hour that would be 576 max people moved per hour.

edit: some will say, how can this be true, people are moved fast enough from the tram loading area to the beach area... yep... but in all the videos they have multiple trams lined up at a time at the station. load one, it leaves, another moves up right away. I don't know how many trams they are running at a time, but during surge period is more than one

Again, more data.

 

[schepp]

People have cited MSC's Ocean Cay as an example that Disney could do better. Ocean Cay is a fine location and I bet Disney wished they could have found an island like that. Ocean Cay was bought in 2015, several years before Disney bought LC in 2019.

"In the late 1960s, Dillingham Construction of Hawaii built the artificial island by dredging so that private companies could extract white aragonite sand for industrial use around the world. Mining operations ceased in late 2015, leaving the island in poor condition with industrial debris littering the land and ocean." They also dredged the ship berth when they built the island. Since it was a manmade location there were no coral reefs that were of any concern. MSC benefited from having a clean slate with a dredged port to start with.

Again I will say I am not a big fan of Disney anymore. We sold all of our DVC contracts, haven't been to the parks since 2019, and don't plan on going back. Less than 10 years ago we sailed the WBPC in a one-bedroom suite with 3 people for less than $10,000. Now it is over $25000. No one likes the price increases, but all the cruise lines and parks are doing it. Having sailed on multiple brands (NCL RCCL, Carnival, Regents Seven Seas), we do like DCL and the level of service and amenities we receive most of the time (2023 WBPC had poor service).

In September my family will visit LC and I will be pushing my youngest daughter's wheelchair with my bad knees (Uncle Sam disability) as my 70th birthday approaches. I am willing to give the place a try and if we don't like it we won't come back. That is how capitalism works - you get to decide how to spend your own money just like Disney did when they built LC.

No one is required to go to LC, so why make such a fuss about it - Just go to CC or some other location that you like....

 

[john1012a]

my wife and I were just at LC on July 4th. we felt the water and beach were very nice, better than CC. it was beautiful.
we didn't have an issue with the walk, but fully appreciate those that do. I would only say there was there was Princess ship just to the north of us and they tender to their private port Princess Cay on Eleuthra . I am happy that DCL doesn't use tenders and opted to build the pier.

 

[gsdweller]

Telling people who are complaining "just don't go" is telling me and anyone that has a problem with this not to go. In twenty, thirty or fifty years from now how will you feel when someone tells you "just don't go" because you don't get around like you used to.

I have been told that I could not go certain places in National Parks because my age was high and associated fitness level was too low. I was OK with it. That is just how the ball bounces some times.

 

[loislane]

Unfortunately no. I will be there in August. Can’t wait. . But thanks for the offer

Oh, but I'll be there in August and buy you that drink if we're on the same cruise!

 

[anricat]

No one is required to go to LC, so why make such a fuss about it

Because it's a discussion forum and we are discussing. I don't really see that there is a "fuss" insomuch as we want to discuss how differently abled folks are handling the long pier. Early on there were conflicting reports about who can and cannot use the golf carts.

I do think that when people who are differently abled or have family members who are are told it's not a big deal or just go somewhere else, it tends to raise defensiveness. I think, for the most part, the discussion here has been fairly civil, though I think some have treaded a fine line (myself included and I did apologize in a private message to one member).

 

[insureman]

I have been told that I could not go certain places in National Parks because my age was high and associated fitness level was too low. I was OK with it. That is just how the ball bounces some times.

That's fine for you in a national park but this is something different than climbing a mountain or repelling down a canyon. This is a just going from point A (the ship) to point B (the island). As I said before this wouldn't be a discussion if they went in a direction that would work for everyone.

 

[insureman]

Because it's a discussion forum and we are discussing. I don't really see that there is a "fuss" insomuch as we want to discuss how differently abled folks are handling the long pier. Early on there were conflicting reports about who can and cannot use the golf carts.

I do think that when people who are differently abled or have family members who are are told it's not a big deal or just go somewhere else, it tends to raise defensiveness. I think, for the most part, the discussion here has been fairly civil, though I think some have treaded a fine line (myself included and I did apologize in a private message to one member).

You are correct and I think a lot of the remarks that have been made are coming from people who dislike it when anyone criticizes Disney. I am a big Disney fan and as I have stated in a prior post we are Pearl status with 28 DCL cruises so I think that affirms my loyalty to DCL. I just think Disney is better and smarter than this that's all.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

A must watch

 

[insureman]

A must watch

Bob Chapek Pier, hilarious and aptly named.

 

[nancipants]

A must watch

Watching this right now, it’s a very fair and well-rounded review.