hurrican advise

[pauliner]

i am thinking of booking a disney cruise for august/september can any one advise me about if a hurrican is in the carribean what does the cruise ship do and if the cruise goes ahead how does this effect the ship, any advise would be helpfull. worrried cruiser:confused:

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Howdy,

Hurricane season is a tricky one to call. Sometimes the ship will just change direction and go to a different port and sometimes they just head out to sea( away from the storm) and you have extra sea days instead of ports. That really isnt a problem for them because they do have plans for this.

The problems occur when the hurricanes hit Florida the past 2 years. One storm brought in so much sand that they had to bring in a big dredge to clean out the channel to Port Canaveral, and until it was done they had to use Fort Lauderdale to dock, which caused some confusion for people. Those that were already on the ship were provided transportation to either Port Canaveral to pick up their cars, to WDW to continue their vacations or to the airport.

So they really will take good care of you. One good thing was a couple of times a 7 day cruise became a 9 day cruise. Because it wasnt safe to dock anywhere so people just partied a few more days on board. They always carry an extra weeks worth of food just in case. We live near the Port and this is big news every year, they always announce all the changes that happen, especially when it is Disney.

We are going this September with no worries!!! They will steer clear of any storms, not just hurricanes, any bad storm they will avoid. safety first!!!

If you decide to go in September, think about going on the 23rd, that is when we are going and we would love to have you join our cruise meets thread to get aquainted with your fellow cruisers.

 

mom x4,grandma x4

[gatour]

To further echo mom,

 

In a "normal" year what would happen is.

 

1. A port could be substituted or skipped.

2. The intenary be reversed.

3. An eastern intenary is substituted for a western intneary or vice versa.

 

What happened the last two years is the hurricanes affected the embarkation/disembarkation ports on the days they were unloading/loading passengers. Some cruises were extended/shortenned or outright cancelled.

 

What I tell people these days, is if you absolutely want to visit a particular port do not book during huricane season. Most likely you will get a cruise but it may not be the exact one you booked.

[metrowon]

Disney,or any other cruise line doesn't like to go through 30 foot seas, it's no fun for anyone. If bad weather is in the picture, DCL will try to avoid it. Your cruise may be extended, or shortened. Buy the trip insurance, book through Disney, and make sure if your a day or 2 late getting back to work you won't be fired! We have been compensated beyound belief for trip changes by DCL. I'm not talking about chump change, and then the 25% off coupon for the same week, the next year! Disney Cruise Line{DCL} wants you to come back, period! 25 to 30% of the people on board are repeat cruisers. Re-booking on board beats, any deal available on line/or through travel agents. Book it, try to get a room in the middle of the ship. When the front of the ship goes up, and the rear goes down, the middle stays put, welllllllll aLLlmost! Come on and get on board{RISKY BUSINESS], SOMETIMES..........................................METROWON!

[captaincrash]

We were on....

 

The September 2004 labor day sailing that was disrupted by Frances. We've sailed several times in hurricane season and had NO disruptions... until the last few years came along with higher then normal activity. Check the NOAA web site for a dissertation and they'll explain that we are in a multi-year period where they predict higher then historically normal activiy.

 

BUT - what you want to hear is what is the deal with hurricane threats. In addition to what has already been mentioned I'd like to add...

 

DCL gave us a place to stay during the hurricane while we waited for the ship to pull into port... so they put us up at no charge in their Polynesian resort plus thy included WDW Ultra passes good for all the parks and attraction areas. However, there were no food vouchers. Then, since the port was changed to FLL from PC they offerred free transfers from WDW since we were flyin in and driving on our own. In addition to this we were given 50% refunded and a 25% off a future cruise for going on the reduced 4 nite sailing. This was in addition to an upgrade from catagory 9 to 6... worth another 1000+ or so.

 

All told - we figure they gave us about $4000+ in value plus 4 nites on the ship.

 

BUT - let me tell you something... only hard core enthusiasts would have done what WE DID to get to the port considering how far we traveled and what we had to endure. We changed our flights 7x because our arrangements kept getting cancelled by the airlines with the changing hurricane trac. We could not fly in any closer then Charlotte from Westlake Village, CA. ... and that was after hop scotching from Oxnard to LAX to Chicago to Washington to Charlotte. We had rental car reservations in so many airports it was not funny since we were scheduled to come in at so many different places at one time or another. Then once we landed in Charlotte we drove a couple hundred plus miles into Jacksonville... which was as close as dared drive with the hurricane passing. Then the next day we endured endless clugging traffic to get the 80 or so miles to Orlando (5+ hours) so we could wait for the Magic - whch was originally expected to deliver a 5 day cruise which was why we timed our effort to be at Jacksonville to go to PC to meet the boat... only the boat could not enter PC due to the hurricane damage and was vectored to FLL and was a day delayed by the rough seas. SO we headed to Orlando.

 

SO... they gave us in effect a very free vacation for the 4 night cruise... oh yeah - almost forgot - they also gave us a $200 cabin credit to add to our TA's cabin credit of $100.

 

Aside from all that... once we were on the boat we had a terriffic time. The idea of going for the deal was not the motive - cuz when the sailing was supposed to be a 5 day sailng as described efore we decided to fly out - the refund was something like 40% with no 25% off a future cruise.

 

In the end - some of the things we observed... every hurricane disrupted sailng got a mildly diferent mixture of benefits and offsets. The sailing ahead of us was extended from a 7 day to a 10 day cruise. The ship had to put in at Houston to take on supplies (food supposedly) and they offerred to let off anyone who wanted to get going. Fresh entertainment was brought aoard there to keep folks entertained with new stuff.... impressive. And I think they might have been offerred some sort of incentive towards a future sailing ut no money back for the extended cruise... and nothing for air travel or ground changes UNLESS of course you had air arrangements through DCL.

 

From what I've read our sailing was the 2nd highest compensation package... which implies our sailing was the 2nd most seriously disrupted in their eyes. Other considerations... in retrospect - if we have a similar circumstance in the future we will NOT repeat the effort to drive in. We'll take the offer on money back with no penalty and simply reook for another sailing. We did it in part because we SIMPLY DID NOT KNOW ANY BETTER. Initially it did not seem too disrupted until our flights started gettting canceled when we were already in flight or waiting for a connection enroute!

 

Even so... we had a decent time since our spirits were pretty high. Our kids travel well - as do my spuse and I since my job used to involve 50% travel and her job has about 10% travel. Our 1st daughter has flown about 175,000 miles before she was 3 with several visits to Europe and Asia. So she travels well... and she really loves the Disney Cruise... so she was very very good with all the travel changes and general hardship. Yeah... HARDSHIP.

 

So... if the situation was threatening ... but not as directly threatening as our Frances trip... we would go. Kno what I mean? We're currently reserved for the Oct 28th 2006 halloween sailing... that's still in hurricane season. Yeah.. we're hard core to some extent!

 

Cheers!

[metrowon]

We were on....

 

The September 2004 labor day sailing that was disrupted by Frances. We've sailed several times in hurricane season and had NO disruptions... until the last few years came along with higher then normal activity. Check the NOAA web site for a dissertation and they'll explain that we are in a multi-year period where they predict higher then historically normal activiy.

 

BUT - what you want to hear is what is the deal with hurricane threats. In addition to what has already been mentioned I'd like to add...

 

DCL gave us a place to stay during the hurricane while we waited for the ship to pull into port... so they put us up at no charge in their Polynesian resort plus thy included WDW Ultra passes good for all the parks and attraction areas. However, there were no food vouchers. Then, since the port was changed to FLL from PC they offerred free transfers from WDW since we were flyin in and driving on our own. In addition to this we were given 50% refunded and a 25% off a future cruise for going on the reduced 4 nite sailing. This was in addition to an upgrade from catagory 9 to 6... worth another 1000+ or so.

 

All told - we figure they gave us about $4000+ in value plus 4 nites on the ship.

 

BUT - let me tell you something... only hard core enthusiasts would have done what WE DID to get to the port considering how far we traveled and what we had to endure. We changed our flights 7x because our arrangements kept getting cancelled by the airlines with the changing hurricane trac. We could not fly in any closer then Charlotte from Westlake Village, CA. ... and that was after hop scotching from Oxnard to LAX to Chicago to Washington to Charlotte. We had rental car reservations in so many airports it was not funny since we were scheduled to come in at so many different places at one time or another. Then once we landed in Charlotte we drove a couple hundred plus miles into Jacksonville... which was as close as dared drive with the hurricane passing. Then the next day we endured endless clugging traffic to get the 80 or so miles to Orlando (5+ hours) so we could wait for the Magic - whch was originally expected to deliver a 5 day cruise which was why we timed our effort to be at Jacksonville to go to PC to meet the boat... only the boat could not enter PC due to the hurricane damage and was vectored to FLL and was a day delayed by the rough seas. SO we headed to Orlando.

 

SO... they gave us in effect a very free vacation for the 4 night cruise... oh yeah - almost forgot - they also gave us a $200 cabin credit to add to our TA's cabin credit of $100.

 

Aside from all that... once we were on the boat we had a terriffic time. The idea of going for the deal was not the motive - cuz when the sailing was supposed to be a 5 day sailng as described efore we decided to fly out - the refund was something like 40% with no 25% off a future cruise.

 

In the end - some of the things we observed... every hurricane disrupted sailng got a mildly diferent mixture of benefits and offsets. The sailing ahead of us was extended from a 7 day to a 10 day cruise. The ship had to put in at Houston to take on supplies (food supposedly) and they offerred to let off anyone who wanted to get going. Fresh entertainment was brought aoard there to keep folks entertained with new stuff.... impressive. And I think they might have been offerred some sort of incentive towards a future sailing ut no money back for the extended cruise... and nothing for air travel or ground changes UNLESS of course you had air arrangements through DCL.

 

From what I've read our sailing was the 2nd highest compensation package... which implies our sailing was the 2nd most seriously disrupted in their eyes. Other considerations... in retrospect - if we have a similar circumstance in the future we will NOT repeat the effort to drive in. We'll take the offer on money back with no penalty and simply reook for another sailing. We did it in part because we SIMPLY DID NOT KNOW ANY BETTER. Initially it did not seem too disrupted until our flights started gettting canceled when we were already in flight or waiting for a connection enroute!

 

Even so... we had a decent time since our spirits were pretty high. Our kids travel well - as do my spuse and I since my job used to involve 50% travel and her job has about 10% travel. Our 1st daughter has flown about 175,000 miles before she was 3 with several visits to Europe and Asia. So she travels well... and she really loves the Disney Cruise... so she was very very good with all the travel changes and general hardship. Yeah... HARDSHIP.

 

So... if the situation was threatening ... but not as directly threatening as our Frances trip... we would go. Kno what I mean? We're currently reserved for the Oct 28th 2006 halloween sailing... that's still in hurricane season. Yeah.. we're hard core to some extent!

 

Cheers!

I went through Hurricane jean's problems, and am on-board 10/28. See you there, Metrowon

[chefdeedee]

We were at sea on a Carnival Ship during Katrina - bottom line is - if you are going to sail during hurricane season -there are NO guarantees - buy the INSURANCE.

[chefdeedee]

We were at sea on a Carnival Ship during Katrina - I will NEVER sail again in August - the bottom line is - if you are going to sail during hurricane season -there are NO guarantees - buy the INSURANCE, you never know when you need it, but if you don't have it - you are ON YOUR OWN.

 

NExt trip is Disneyworld, no cruise, I need my land legs for a while.