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Raining on Disney Dream Vacation


glamer57
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This Friday, Jan. 22, we leave for our first cruise out of Port Canaveral (3-night Bahamas cruise) and the forecast shows rain almost the whole trip, especially on Friday :(

 

I am trying to stay positive, but are there any tips that anyone may offer on how to still have fun even if it is raining. We were going to go to the Melia Resort in Nassau, but won't do that due to the weather (don't want to pay for that and then end up not staying due to rain), but then I see that others have had it where they weren't even able to dock at Castaway Cay.

 

Any suggestions for what to bring and/or what Disney does when it rains during the cruise? We've been looking forward to this for a year and I'm getting sad at the thought of our sunny family vacation being rained on (my kids are 8 at 4).

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Thats not exactly what anyone would hope for!!!!

 

One of the reasons we're splurging on a Disney cruise, after considering ALL the lines.... There are so many things going on to keep kids AND adults busy. Our foursome is quite varied, and I want us all happy. This will be a benefit on less-than-ideal weather days too.

 

Heres hoping the forecast is WAY off!!!

 

Peg

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Saturday forecast for NASSAU is rain very early in the day but by 10am it drops to 30% and less as the day continues .... Sunday the rain chance is less yet ... gonna be cool tho..

 

and a lot can change by then

 

Nassau forecast is probably gonna cover Castaway too . . . pretty close anyway.

 

and it is pretty unusual to get rain ALL DAY .... a 100% probability for the day means you WILL get SOME rain - not that it will rain ALL DAY.

 

But in all honesty the weather IS calling for COOL temps this weekend and what I see says it will extend east to the islands . . .

 

***************

some kids can't be pulled from the clubs with a crowbar ..... they care less about rain!

 

after dark, many activities are inside anyway ..... dinner then the shows ... an after show libation and maybe a stroll around deck, but even when the weather is 'nice' the is usually a 15 mph wind making the walk short . . .

 

summary

 

don't sweat it ... you'll have a good time

Edited by Capt_BJ
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Good grief, Charlie Brown...typical rain in the Bahamas is 10 minutes and then it clears up. RAIN won't prevent docking at Castaway Cay. Rough seas and high winds might. And yes, there are times when the ship cannot dock safely. You don't want them to risk a billion dollar ship as well as the safety of the crew if the situation is iffy.

 

The most rain we've ever had in the Bahamas was about 3 hours. It cleared up and the rest of the day was sunny and beautiful. If the weather stinks, the cruise staff increases the number of inside activities offered.

 

We've had some crummy weather on cruises. They hold sail away in the atrium. They obviously have to cancel fireworks. They do a modified pirate show inside.

 

Your cruise will only be ruined by rain if you allow it to be...and most of the time, the rain is very short lived in the Bahamas.

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There is a lot to do on the ships. I think Dream and Fantasy have the Mid-Ship Detective Agency, depending on the age of your kids you can spend days on it. Kids clubs activities too, some people have to drag the kids out of.

 

We stay on the ship or close in Nassau a lot of times. A trip out to the straw market for t-shirts and such. As a backup look for excursions that rain wouldn't affect, any kind of bus tour os food tour or such.

 

Rain won't keep them from docking at Castaway Cay, high winds will. Many times we've pulled in there and it had rained the night before or early morning, and the clouds part, the sun comes out...

 

Try to keep up the positive thoughts, weather changes every day.

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We just went on the Dream from 1/15-1/18 and it did rain at Castaway Cay for about an hour. The winds, unfortunately, were about 60mph the entire day. But that didn't keep us or our kids from enjoying the beach for a few hours before the rain.

 

When the weather is bad they do extra activities on the ship. In our case, they did an extra 3D showing of Star Wars in the Walt Disney theater, along with some other assorted activities for different age groups that I can't remember exactly. We opted for the non-3D showing of Star Wars at 12:45, then put our kids in the kids club at 4, enjoyed some adults-only hot tub time, dinner, and then the show. And like I said, we still got a few hours of ocean time in the morning. So I wouldn't say the day was ruined at all.

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Good grief' date=' Charlie Brown...typical rain in the Bahamas is 10 minutes and then it clears up. RAIN won't prevent docking at Castaway Cay. Rough seas and high winds might. And yes, there are times when the ship cannot dock safely. You don't want them to risk a billion dollar ship as well as the safety of the crew if the situation is iffy.

 

The most rain we've ever had in the Bahamas was about 3 hours. It cleared up and the rest of the day was sunny and beautiful. If the weather stinks, the cruise staff increases the number of inside activities offered.

 

We've had some crummy weather on cruises. They hold sail away in the atrium. They obviously have to cancel fireworks. They do a modified pirate show inside.

 

Your cruise will only be ruined by rain if you allow it to be...and most of the time, the rain is very short lived in the Bahamas.[/quote']

 

 

While I appreciate your feedback, this is the second time you have responded to one of my questions in a condescending tone. You seem to be a very seasoned Disney cruiser. However, you may not realize that your comments may come across as sarcastic (and not in a humorous way), especially to people like me who are totally new to cruising and to this website.

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While I appreciate your feedback, this is the second time you have responded to one of my questions in a condescending tone. You seem to be a very seasoned Disney cruiser. However, you may not realize that your comments may come across as sarcastic (and not in a humorous way), especially to people like me who are totally new to cruising and to this website.

 

The written word does not always come across in the same tone or with the same intent it would if spoken.

 

I have found that out to the detriment of offending or upsetting some / a lot people on here. And humor and good sarcasm can be very difficult. 10 people out of 10 people may each read something different in to what was written.

 

You do need to have a certain thickness of skin to post on a internet forum.

Those that have tissue paper thin skin (not saying you), that are easily offended and outraged and disgusted unless they get fluffy have a nice day, I'm so sorry you didn't do XYZ even though you knew you should and were told to answers tend to only post a few times.

Others see that their over dramatic (again not you) writing style maybe uncalled for, and asking how could or would something affect your cruise.

 

The ones with tissue paper thin skin get offended and either leave or accuse others of being mean, nasty and unsympathetic.

Those that read the comments and learn how your question is posed and how you ask something gives you the best and most accurate answer are the ones that stick around in my experience. They grow a thicker skin and also get to know the posting style of someone without feeling they are being attacked or berated.

 

ex techie

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Rain on a cruise sucks....sorry, but it does! You come back with no tan.. it's awful! JMO, but I don't like rain!

 

In your experience, how long does a regular Caribbean rain shower last unless it is a storm cb at sea? How often are forecasts accurate 3 days in advance?

 

It would be helpful to the OP if you could share your experiences on many lines and many itineraries.

 

ex techie

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In my experience, unless it's a huge storm, any subtropical climate shower rarely lasts an hour. Rain a bit, sunshine, little rain....

 

In Hawaii we;d wait for a rain shower and the tourists would run from the beach, and we'd then take a much better place on the sand.

 

I try to only worry about things I can control. I've never had a BAD cruise, but some were better than others.

 

Have a great time!

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I've just realized the OP left today 1/22.

 

Accuweather shows some rain in Nassau around 10am and partly sunny from 11am onwards tomorrow.

And mostly sunny all day on Sunday.

 

I hope the OP has a great cruise and realizes that "We were going to go to the Melia Resort in Nassau, but won't do that due to the weather (don't want to pay for that and then end up not staying due to rain)" 3 days before the cruise is too early to make decisions like that when they may only have 1 hour of rain in a two day window of being in the carribean, and the weather is just what it is.

 

ex techie

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Just returned today and we had an awesome time! We did get some rain towards the end of the sail away party and Saturday, but we had a great time. We held our breath on Sunday because it took 4 attempts to dock at Castaway Cay, but we were able to disembark around noon and of course it was beautiful. My kids loved everything, especially the kids club...lol. This was our first cruise and we are definitely looking forward to our next one! I'm a rookie at this so thanks for all of the positive feedback.

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Just returned today and we had an awesome time! We did get some rain towards the end of the sail away party and Saturday, but we had a great time. We held our breath on Sunday because it took 4 attempts to dock at Castaway Cay, but we were able to disembark around noon and of course it was beautiful. My kids loved everything, especially the kids club...lol. This was our first cruise and we are definitely looking forward to our next one! I'm a rookie at this so thanks for all of the positive feedback.

 

Glad you had a great time, and your weather turned out to be good for your cruise at this time of year!

 

ex techie

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The weather we've been getting in South Florida is not the typical "10-minute shower" we get in our rainy season.

 

I think the OP was concerned because the recent weather has been pretty turbulent.

 

We sailed on Disney Fantasy Jan. 9 and our weather wasn't the greatest.

in Cozumel we had driving rain and wind - many people didn't get off the ship because it was so bad. It lasted all day - not 10 minutes.

 

The Pirate Deck Party and fireworks were canceled.

Had a bit of a sprinkle on Star Wars Day @ Sea for the deck party, but it held off.

 

Did not get into Castaway Cay because if the wind/waves. We headed back to Canaveral and it rained relentlessly the whole way back. When we disembarked, people at the terminal were telling us how bad it was there the previous day - so it was a fairly large storm system.

 

For us, the weather was a minor inconvenience. We really wanted to go to Castaway Cay, as it was our first Disney cruise. Maybe next time!

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Just returned today and we had an awesome time! We did get some rain towards the end of the sail away party and Saturday, but we had a great time. We held our breath on Sunday because it took 4 attempts to dock at Castaway Cay, but we were able to disembark around noon and of course it was beautiful. My kids loved everything, especially the kids club...lol. This was our first cruise and we are definitely looking forward to our next one! I'm a rookie at this so thanks for all of the positive feedback.

 

Thanks for coming back and letting us know...especially since it's good news!!!

 

Peg

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We were on the Magic during that time (Jan 20 - 24) and our weather experience did not turn out as well. On Fri (Nassau) almost every excursion was canceled due to weather. It rained pretty much all day, with significant periods of heavy rain. Saturday (Key West), our port call was canceled completely due to rough seas and high winds. Both days (actually, the entire trip) the weather was cool at best, ranging from the mid-60s to low 70s.

 

The pools were heated for the brave souls willing to bear the cool air temps and the (younger) kids clubs had loads of activities all day long, though there were a lot of "open house" hours (all families welcome). During those hours, the kids without parents present were herded in to the opposite club (Oceaneer Lab or Oceaneer Club), which sometimes (IMO) resulted in overcrowding in the "secure" areas. The "tween" area is super-small, so it was pretty crowded, though the kids there did not seem to mind much. There wasn't much of note going on (one event at a time, and some periods with nothing special scheduled) but socializing between genders and video games seemed to keep them occupied just fine :-)

 

Both days with itinerary changes saw activities added to the schedule, though the info took a couple of hours to be published. The only problem was some of the activities (mainly the games) were pretty overcrowded. Unfortunately, there were a couple of groups that attended every game/trivia contest/etc and tended to monopolize the event each time. The cruise staff did not do a very good job controlling this, so if you were not part of that up-front and center repeat crowd you pretty much just watched the activity. They did add an extra bingo (quite crowded), more movie showings and a matinee performance of the stage show of the day ("Dreams" - very crowded!) too.

 

I thought the staff did an amazing job re the food, especially as they had to provide many more meals than anticipated on two out of four days on the cruise. To their credit, it appeared they used excess from dinners for the buffet lunches rather than skimping, as there were items such as tenderloins, crab legs, shrimp etc. The new "at sea" day also included an extensive taco and fajita bar and a few other "new" items rather than simply recycling previous days' menus. You would never have known based on quantity or variety that the schedule had changed.

 

I know this is "after the fact", but thought I'd post our experience for cruisers searching the topic of what happens in the case of poor weather.

Edited by kdzgon
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Yes, Disney did an amazing job reorganizing the events. When we docked in Nassau, we didn't get off of the ship because of not wanting to get caught in the rain so we went to the pool, but the aquaduck was not running the whole time while in Nassau due to the high winds, so we braved the pool (which was amazingly warm), then my son went to Jedi training (in their show)...lol. After dropping the kids off at the kids club, my husband and I won the movie quote trivia. That night was a bit rocky also. It was kind of funny because I had a few moments where I had to walk by the walls so I wouldn't fall, but I didn't mind the rocking while we were sleeping...it was kind of soothing. When we were having problems docking in Castaway Cay the next day, they had a character dance party in the atrium and added additional activities very quickly (plus it worked out for us because my daughter met all of the princesses that morning anyway so we weren't upset about the delay). We were able to brave the wind and cold water (the water at Castaway Cay was FREEZING....lol), and we got to witness a wedding there also so that was nice. I really feel for those that had the non-stop rain during their cruise, especially when you invest so much into this vacation. I would totally do a Disney cruise again though no matter what the weather!!!

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The weather we've been getting in South Florida is not the typical "10-minute shower" we get in our rainy season.

 

I think the OP was concerned because the recent weather has been pretty turbulent.

 

We sailed on Disney Fantasy Jan. 9 and our weather wasn't the greatest.

in Cozumel we had driving rain and wind - many people didn't get off the ship because it was so bad. It lasted all day - not 10 minutes.

 

The Pirate Deck Party and fireworks were canceled.

Had a bit of a sprinkle on Star Wars Day @ Sea for the deck party, but it held off.

 

Did not get into Castaway Cay because if the wind/waves. We headed back to Canaveral and it rained relentlessly the whole way back. When we disembarked, people at the terminal were telling us how bad it was there the previous day - so it was a fairly large storm system.

 

For us, the weather was a minor inconvenience. We really wanted to go to Castaway Cay, as it was our first Disney cruise. Maybe next time!

 

Yes! That was exactly my concern.

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