What is it like to cruise during hurricane season (September)?

[Crazy4Disney06]

We have only been on one cruise ever, a 3 day Wonder cruise last October. My family is just dying to go again however the only good time for us to sail would be in September 2010, due to my college and work schedule. I know October was still considered hurricane season, however more towards the tail end. Anyone have any experience with cruising in September?

 

[NancyIL]

Hurricane season is June 1-Nov. 30. My mom's house in Cocoa, FL was damaged by a hurricane in Oct. 2005 so you can't predict when one will "blow through"!

 

[Grandma4ever]

Really no difference in the risk between September and October. I love cruising in both months! Go enjoy!

 

[justhat]

We did the 5 night last September (1-6) and we did have a hurricane so we missed our 2nd Castaway Cay day. We stopped at Nassau the day before the storm hit and it was so, so windy! We also 'followed' the storm in an attempt to make it to CC, which resulted in us abruptly turning around at 4am, with the ship so tilted water was just pouring out of the pools, and i couldn't even walk from our bed to the bathroom! It was insane. The next day was calm, but cloudy. DCL did a great job of planning activities inside the ship at the last minute and I would not say we were negatively impacted for the most part.

We're sailing again the same time this year, 8/29 on a 7 night, but hoping for much better weather!

 

[yazee1]

We cruised last year at the end of September. The storms didn't affect our cruise much at all. We didn't miss any ports and we never experienced rain. It did affect our trip down to Florida from Maryland. The southbound train was canceled so we drove instead.

 

[ScouterJT]

the bad news is that September is smack dab in the middle of hurricane season

the good news is that the ships are mobile and will do whatever they can to out-manoever any foul weather -- skip ports, switch ports, switch itineraries, shorten cruise, lengthen cruise.

DCL really works hard to find the "nice" weather for its guests to enjoy. On my last cruise, the Captain apologized one day for not being about to move around a storm -- so we had rain for a couple hours, ending around mid-morning.

 

[ppony]

We've not cruised yet but have traveled to WDW then and my first thought when I read your post was "just a lot more nail biting and worrying". You just never know. Wasn't it last year or the year before they "predicted" one of the busiest seasons ever and there turned out to be hardly any? Ships are good at staying out of harms way. My DH was actually in a hurricane on his aircraft carrier about 20 years ago. He said the Tower of Terror had NOTHING on that.

 

[RSADP]

We were on the Wonder last September...it really wasn't that bad overall. The night of the Pirate Party, only the drunk people were walking straight. I was feeling a little woooozy, but it was late at night and I ended up dozing off anyways.

We have to miss the family cruise this year but we will be back on board September 2010!!!

 

[Morty Fieldmouse]

We did the 4 day cruise the first week of September last year. There was a hurricane forcasted to possibly reach Castaway Cay around day 4, so they rearranged our stops as a precaution. We went to CC first, and Nasau last. The only real effect the weather had on us was that we travelled near full-speed the first night which rocked us to sleep. The captain found BEAUTIFUL weather for our at-sea day.

The hurricane ended up heading into the gulf so it wouldn't have affected us, but Disney played it safe and kept us from needing to worry.

 

[trimix]

We have only been on one cruise ever, a 3 day Wonder cruise last October. My family is just dying to go again however the only good time for us to sail would be in September 2010, due to my college and work schedule. I know October was still considered hurricane season, however more towards the tail end. Anyone have any experience with cruising in September?

Keep in mind that hurricane season is HALF THE YEAR! And hurricane season does not mean hurricanes are a constant. This year has been very mild so far - one tropical depression in May, and nothing since.

Hurricanes are a possibility, but unlikely at any one time. If a hurricane happens to blow through the Caribbean when you are on your cruise, the only impact will be a change of itinerary. The real concern is the much slimmer possibility of a hurricane interfering with Port Canaveral when it is time for you to get on or off. And even then Disney will come up with a plan B - some time back they sent a ship to Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale and bussed passengers between Port Everglades and Port Canaveral or Orlando.

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

My husband and I have only cruised the last week of September and have never had an issue. We only began cruising in 2005, and there have not been many hurricanes in that time (2004 was very active). Every year is different, and you never know what you are going to get. But, DCL will always be cautious and prepared for most situations. I would suggest you purchase vacation insurance so you are covered in the case something does happen. Have a great cruise!

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Thank you all for your replies, it makes me feel a lot better about the possibility of hurricanes in September knowing that Disney will do what they can to make sure we still have a magical vacation. We are still working out the kinks and waiting until October to book after dh knows what his vacation bid is for 2010, but it is a very high possibility that we will sail next September for our second time !!

 

[Keggy]

We cruised Labor Day week last year and we sailed through 3 hurricanes. We were not on DCL, but they changed the itinerary so that we would not experience the brunt of the weater. We are sailing DCL the same week this year. Cruises that time of year are a great value if you are able to sail then. For us it is worth it!

 

[ericamanda01]

Our last 3 cruises have been in Sept and we have a cruise coming up next month. We love cruising in Sept, the weather isn't has hot and the crowds are lite. Not to mention how great the prices are.

 

[Pennyb123]

I cruise every OCtober and wouldn't trade it! There is always a risk of a storm, not just a hurricane, but the ships are so mobile, you just go around the storm! Last year the captain slowed our ship down to 3 knots (you would have thought we were not moving!) so that he could give us a full day of gorgeous weather, because we were headed towards a storm. Once daylight was gone, he shifted into high gear through the storm to make up for the lost time and hurry us through so we could arrive at our port the next day. The seas were rough, but I wasn't seasick. Just some interesting movement of the ship. Kind of like an adventure! I would think that all those pirates in all those smaller ships (Like the Black Pear) would have had it way worse!

 

[LAWalz23]

We did the 5 night last September (1-6) and we did have a hurricane so we missed our 2nd Castaway Cay day. We stopped at Nassau the day before the storm hit and it was so, so windy! We also 'followed' the storm in an attempt to make it to CC, which resulted in us abruptly turning around at 4am, with the ship so tilted water was just pouring out of the pools, and i couldn't even walk from our bed to the bathroom! It was insane. The next day was calm, but cloudy. DCL did a great job of planning activities inside the ship at the last minute and I would not say we were negatively impacted for the most part.

We're sailing again the same time this year, 8/29 on a 7 night, but hoping for much better weather!

We are hoping the 8/29 cruise will be better than our last one also! It was the end Sept/early Oct in 2007 where we had waves so high that the outside deck were closed one night and even I, who never gets seasick was feeling queasy. Then again we have always sailed in hurricaine season (6 times) and have hardly ever hit bad weather.

 

[dodle]

We've sailed twice and both times were in September. The first time was 2005 and we were in between hurricanes. We really didn't have any trouble, the Captain did rearrange our schedule so we would miss any leftovers of the first storm. It also seemed like he was going around and around the one island during our at sea day. Each time he told us where we were it was in reference to the one island. But we have beautiful weather during both cruises and they were both about the third week in September. Great rates then, too.