I'm with the OP. We were in Orlando for Hurricane Charley, staying at the Contemporary. Disney took good care of us, but it was stressful with the airport closing and wondering when we would get home. Had we not gotten out the Sunday after the hurricane, flights were full until the following Wed. Not fun.
Then, we barely turned around and we were in Miami trying to go on a cruise (celebrating my dad's birthday) during Hurricane Jeanne. Our ship departure was delayed two days, cutting it from 7 days to 5 and the itinerary was completely changed. The worst part was, however, we were a family group with elderly grandparents and a baby. We were at a beach hotel and under a voluntary evacuation inland. We couldn't get an inland hotel so stayed at the beach, since the hotel was only advised, but not forced, to close. Many people we later met on the ship actually slept in their cars the night of the hurricane since the inland hotels were full and the beach hotels weren't taking new guests. Very dangerous to sleep in a car during a hurricane.
For us, the worry about whether we made the right decision not to try to move everyone to a shelter inland was very stressful, particularly with elderly folks and a baby. Although we got a shipboard credit from the cruise line, it was not sufficient to make up for the worry and inconvenience and loss of 2 days aboard ship.
Trip insurance did pay for the extra two nights at the hotel. The cruise line didn't start permitting rebookings until the Friday night before the Saturday cruise. They never did give any refunds -- only a credit toward another cruise. But, by then we were in Miami and had spent over $4,000 in airfare to get there. So, too late for us. We felt like the cruise line forced us to fly directly into the path of a hurricane because if they did manage to get the ship in, reload it and leave before the port is closed and you're not there, you lose your whole cruise plus insurance won't pay in that scenario. Had rebookings been permitted earlier on Friday (and I stayed in touch with the cruise line and our
travel agent all day), we would absolutely have rescheduled the cruise and changed our flights. Airlines permitted rebookings without penalty during September, but the cruise lines didn't!
The outlook for 2005 is another very active hurricane season, although they are predicting fewer hurricanes will actually touch down in Florida. Nonetheless, all I can say is I will never again book a Caribbean cruise for anytime during hurricane season (and that means June 1 through November 30!). And I will think long and hard about booking anything in Florida (at Disney or otherwise) during August, September or October.
So many things can go wrong on a vacation anyway. They are too few and far between for us (the two this year will be the only ones for quite a while) to book at a time when we know we face a hurricane risk. I don't care how cheap the prices. Frankly, they couldn't pay me to go on a cruise during hurricane season again -- too much worry and stress about our safety. No discount is worth that.
