Trouble Docking at Castaway Cay in Fall & Winter???

[budwmn]

After reading another thread, I'm getting concerned about my New Year's Eve Cruise. Someone on that thread mentioned that the ships are only able to dock at CC about 50% of the time in fall and winter due to poor weather.

Is this true? While I know some people love sea days, I don't like them as much (especially on a 4-day cruise).

Past fall and winter cruisers, please give me the scoop?

Thanks!

 

[budwmn]

Sorry, I just found the other thread asking this same question.

I guess panic set in after reading the first thread and I pounced.

Thanks!

 

[stormi65]

Could DCL have a statistic on this?

 

[tbuot]

We docked last year on our Thanksgiving Magic cruise. That is my only experience thus far

 

[goodfaerie]

Am very grateful to the DIS board folks for warning that this can happen--it never occurred to me! Now I will come up with a suitable contingency plan (mmmmm...rainforest room...) Thanks again!

GoodFaerie

 

[Jeanny]

Hey Goodfaerie~
You go with the flow, that's a great attitude to have, other people take it personally and panic... we can't control mother nature... and there's a chance of not being able to dock at ANY port at ANY time.

Just like in other parts of the country, we cope with snowstorms, hurricane's, tornado's, we don't control the weather. What about the mystery cruise this summer because of the hurricane? yeah, it may have inconvenienced some people, but you're alive right now because DCL didn't go to those ports effected by the hurricane just because that was the itinerary.....

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Where do you suppose the 50% statistic came from? I don't believe that for second.

As I posted on that other thread, we were on a 4-day this past January and had trouble porting on our CC day. Luckily we had another day left to our cruise and were able to port that day instead. It worked out just fine and our CC day was beautiful!

We've also cruise a 7-day DCL during Christmas and had no trouble whatsoever docking on any of those port stops.

I would definitley say that the likelihood of docking during the winter and fall months are decreased a bit, but 50%? Like I said, I'd love to see the analysis report that came up with that number.

 

[goodfaerie]

we can't control mother nature... and there's a chance of not being able to dock at ANY port at ANY time.

Now I'm just imagining being "stuck" on the ship for a month while we are forced to cruise around and around the Caribbean, eating fabulous food, hanging out with people we love, seeing shows, swimming, sunning, doing the spa thing...yeah, that would be just awful...LOL

GoodFaerie

 

[MarkRG]

During fall/winter I have two words that covers it good: hurricane season.

Having been on 5 and only missed once, that one being due to a hurricane, the real fact is simple. It is VERY flat out there. Us landbubbers with geography to break up wind don't realise how strong a straight line wind can be. If the wind pushes the ship into the pier we could easily have a staten island ferry condition, with one difference- no civilization nearby to help. While some may think the idea of being marooned on CC romantic or something, I certainly wouldn't. And yes, it is that serious a condition as once the wind gets above a certain point the steering jets can't compensate and the ship will drift, and they don't want to risk it drifitng into the pier.

Could they tender? possibly, but don't know what kind of anchorage conditions they have available there with reefs and such.

 

[Lisa F]

Originally posted by MarkRG
Could they tender? possibly, but don't know what kind of anchorage conditions they have available there with reefs and such.

If it's too dangerous to dock, it's likely also too dangerous to tender. On our western cruise we missed grand cayman because of bad weather. If it's that windy i'd rather be on the big mickey boat than on a tiny little tender in choppy water.

Lisa

 

[cjsmith]

On our January 5 Wonder cruise, it was amazing to watch the captain try and dock the boat at CC on the first day. But, the winds prevailed and it wasn't meant to be no matter how hard he tried. It really was something to watch though.
We spent the day traveling the area and luckily had the next day to try again. This time around, no winds and he slipped the ship right into the dock!
I guess you just have to realize that winter can be tough and you have to be willing to adapt to whatever changes are made, but hey, I'll trade places with you and love spending the day at sea!

 

[outahere]

I have no way of knowing DCL'c success rate at docking at CC, but I have been on 3 wintertime cruises on NCL and only missed their private island once, due to very high seas (25 feet). That's only 33% of the time, not 50%.

 

[DMS_cruisers04]

If the winds are that strong anyway, why would you want to go and try to sit on the beach? Why not make the best of it, let the cap take you back out to sea and enjoy the afternoon by the pool in calm wind and water.
We missed TWO ports on the Mexican Riviera cruise we took. Ended up porting in Encenada (sp?), wasn't even on the itin, after being onboard for 4 days straight . AND HAD A GREAT TIME!

It's all in what you make of it!

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

I don't think sailing in the fall or winter will make you any more or less likely to be able to dock at Castaway Cay. We've been on 9 cruises and are 9-9 in docking. Seven of these have been between Sept. and Dec. Even on trips where we've been re-routed due to storms we were still able to dock at Castaway Cay.

 

[budwmn]

Okay, docking at Castaway Cay may not happen.

Here's a new question: How often do they alter the itinerary if they know they won't be able to dock at a scheduled port?

For example, would they ever go to Freeport or Key West instead?

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by cjsmith
On our January 5 Wonder cruise, it was amazing to watch the captain try and dock the boat at CC on the first day. But, the winds prevailed and it wasn't meant to be no matter how hard he tried. It really was something to watch though.
We spent the day traveling the area and luckily had the next day to try again. This time around, no winds and he slipped the ship right into the dock!

WE WERE ON THAT SAME CRUISE (Jan. 5-9th)! It was actually a ton of fun watching them try to dock -- although, not fun for the Captain and Crew, I'm sure. We were hanging out on Deck 8 Aft watching. SO cool!

We loved flip-flopping the days and being able to end with CC.

 

[starmouse]

My mom and I were on the Wonder on Jan 11, 2000 and we were diverted from CC to Freeport .

Kept a smile on our faces and had fun anyway. Did my first snorkeling there.

Next time around on the Magic we got to see how much we missed on Castaway Cay.

 

[budwmn]

bump

 

[cjsmith]

Wasn't that something to watch CRSNDSNY?! The ship was shaking so much that it woke my husband and I up. We immediatley went out on our verandah to watch and got to witness the sunrise which was just amazing. I was happy to be able to go the next day, but even if we hadn't made to CC, I still would have loved the cruise. After all, any day on DCL is wonderful!!!!!!

 

[Stepharoonie!]

I had never felt the ship shake like that before when we were trying to dock at CC this past weekend. It was interesting to see it just sitting in the middle of the ocean trying to back up to the dock It was sad though, being ***that*** close to the dock (it seemed like a football's throw away!) and not being able to get to it. The wind ranged from 32 to 37 knots, and the safest docking wind is 30 knots.

We were told that we were going to go to Freeport instead...the Captain had been in contact with the island, and they said that the weather was sunny and no wind. Unfortunetly, the bad weather followed us there, and the wind and waves were much, much worse. It actually felt like the ship was going to on its side into the ocean at one point We only tried to dock at Freeport once.

As the night went on, the weather got a little worse (still no rain, just a LOT of wind) and the rocking of the ship started to get a little more unbearable. They made 2 revised Navigators....one for the morning, and one for the afternoon. The only real problem was a party they threw in the atrium...it was PACKED! A lot of guests were upset because there was just no room to move around. The also added a matinee of Disney Dreams.

Hope this helps.....looking back, I could have made the most of my afternoon, but I was so grumpy I didn't do much. Oh well, there's always next time!