Hurricanes and DCL

[Anchors Away 2016]

June 1 - November 30

Otherwise known as half the year, including all of the summer. Avoiding hurricane season altogether can be impractical for many.

 

[mhconley]

Otherwise known as half the year, including all of the summer. Avoiding hurricane season altogether can be impractical for many.

Correct...

Hurricane season is officially June 1 - November 30 but most occur between August 1 and October 31 with the peak around September 10. Hurricanes can and do happen other times of the year but they are very rare.

Martin

 

[lanejudy]

Didn't mean they would cancel other people's vacations at Disney World Just thought they might hold some open rooms for those on a delayed or cancelled cruise. Wouldn't mind spending some extra time at the Magic Kingdom

WDW has not run with much vacancy lately. WDW will do what they can to accommodate, but most likely if a storm is impacting Port Canaveral enough to affect the cruises, it is also impacting Orlando to some extent. WDW visitors may cancel and others need to extend a stay due to canceled flights. Plus they get a lot of land-based evacuees. I believe last fall WDW opened up convention halls as accommodations, but that may not have been guests as much as CMs. For the delayed cruise last fall, DCL guests were allowed to "hotel" on the ship for 1 night after finally docking, but that's a more extreme example and I wouldn't count on it.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[NS8VN]

Didn't mean they would cancel other people's vacations at Disney World Just thought they might hold some open rooms for those on a delayed or cancelled cruise. Wouldn't mind spending some extra time at the Magic Kingdom

As seen last year during Matthew if there are extra rooms those will go first to guests already staying onsite but not in hurricane-safe accommodations. Last year Fort Wilderness guests were all rehoused. RVs were parked in the MK lot and their owners houses where there was availability, along with those camping in tents and in the cabins. Justin Scarred (YouTube vlogger) happened to be staying in a cabin and was put in a POP room due to flooding concerns. As well there were a lot of people scheduled to leave but have cancelled flights who are trying to stay longer. Really there just aren't going to be extra rooms to be held open for displaced DCL cruisers.

Regardless, I hope you don't have to find out. I have friends cruising from Port Everglades that day so I have been watching Irma as well and hope for the best for all of you!!

 

[mrswillson]

Following - my husband and I are honeymoon cruising on 09/09 and I've been extremely nervous watching Irma yesterday and today. From what I can tell, NOAA and WC have spaghetti plots showing a south westerly track, but of course no guarantees with nature. I have cruised before with hurricanes and our past Magic sailing that was a Western 7 Night was directed Eastern and to Puerto Rico and it was a blast - but my biggest fear/concern currently is total cancellation of the cruise or delayed departure, which (thankfully) many of you are putting to ease. Fingers crossed Irma takes her butt elsewhere.

 

[samily]

Many years ago we were on a 3 night cruise during a hurricane. We skipped Nassau and Castaway Cay and headed to Cozumel instead. They kept us out for an extra night, turning it into a 4 night cruise. Also, we couldn't return to Port Canaveral as it was closed so we disembarked in Fort Lauderdale and the passengers for the next cruise boarded there (Disney had bussed them down).

 

[Erintx7]

Correct...

Hurricane season is officially June 1 - November 30 but most occur between August 1 and October 31 with the peak around September 10. Hurricanes can and do happen other times of the year but they are very rare.

Martin

Thanks - definitely why I asked since there seems to be a 'more active' window those later months.

 

[lahobbs4]

We are on the same Sept 8 cruise! Fingers crossed this thing fizzles out some before then. I'm a nervous traveller already (we are basically the Griswolds anytime we go anywhere) so this may result in some extra adult beverage charges on the ship.

 

[Goldys4]

I live here (about 75 miles due west of WDW) and this morning our local Tampa news said this storm deems serious watching. They have this at a 90% development over the next 5 days headed directly for the islands (Puerto Rico/Cuba/Hispaniola) as of right now. It's just too far away to tell. I have family flying in on the 13th and we board on the Dream on the 22nd so I'm watching the seas very carefully.
I hope it skirts us and even though I'm on the gulf side, if it spins into the gulf, the East will be spared. We'll wait and see how this one goes. Hope all goes well and everyone is safe.

We are on the Dream on the 22nd as well! It's our first cruise, so I hope we aren't affected too much. We don't really care where we go, we just want to go!

 

[Rjw615]

Irma now a category two- forecasted by the Hurricane Center to become a Category 4 by Tuesday. Yikes!

Please be a fish storm at this point!

 

[jdg345]

Irma now a category two- forecasted by the Hurricane Center to become a Category 4 by Tuesday. Yikes!

Please be a fish storm at this point!

The strength and location of that high pressure system is going to play a huge role in where this goes ... keeping fingers crossed ...

 

[n2mm]

We are on the Fantasy leaving 9/9 and also watching that storm...out big stress is making it on the airplane to Florida. From there it is up to fate...we are flying in on the 8th and it looks like the storm will still be far enough away from Orlando to not affect the airport. Our cruise, however , is a different story - perhaps they will reroute us on a western Caribbean? We will make do with whatever they have in store for us. Worst case they cancel the cruise but they is highly unlikely - I wonder if they do that do they clear up some rooms at Disney world for people to make reservations?

We are also on that cruise. Also getting to Florida is what we're focusing on. We leave on 9/7, but watching JetBlue in case they offer to bump us up earlier. We've done this before. I agree,dcl seldom cancels. However we did cruise last fall and they cancelled the 3 night right before our 4 night cruise. I'm not nervous, but you do need a backup plan.

 

[kboo]

Disclaimer - we're a 1-time DCL cruiser and past experience does not guarantee future results, but:

We were on the Fantasy Aug 19-26. Upon embarking our captain told us that we'd be changing course because of "Tropical Storm Harvey" so instead of Cozumel-Cayman-Jamaica, we'd be going Jamaica-Cayman-Cozumel instead. Harvey made landfall on the 26th, so it was apparently making its way through the Caribbean while we were cruising. Amazingly, we had beach weather, hot and sunny, with one day with a little light rain, every day. Some/many evenings were very windy and rainy, we could see and hear thunder and lightning, and some nights we could feel the ship moving a bit. But all in all it was pretty amazing that we had glorious days and sailed through the bad weather at night. When I went off airplane mode on 8/26, it was truly shocking to read the news of Harvey's landfall.

 

[WhoDat09]

We are leaving Monday on a 4 day cruise to Nassau Tuesday and to Castaway Cay on Wednesday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that if it goes on the current trajectory, it at least doesn't pick up speed. It "shouldn't" be near that area until Thursday I believe on it's current pace.

 

[phino]

We are part of the Dream 11-15th of September and we're all keeping an eye out, so we're hoping everything goes well.

 

[Vicki106]

We sailed on the Fantasy last week and Harvey was a concern. When we boarded, the Captain (or Cruise Director) made a ship wide announcement that in order to avoid bad weather they were shuffling the order of the ports. Instead of going to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and then Falmouth, Jamaica we went to Falmouth, GC and then Cozumel. The weather was fine. (It rained with thunder and lightening most nights, but sunshine and relatively dry - with the exception of some showers in Cozumel in the days.) The Captain and crew will do whatever they can to keep everyone safe and comfortable. Enjoy your cruise.

 

[kboo]

We sailed on the Fantasy last week and Harvey was a concern. When we boarded, the Captain (or Cruise Director) made a ship wide announcement that in order to avoid bad weather they were shuffling the order of the ports. Instead of going to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and then Falmouth, Jamaica we went to Falmouth, GC and then Cozumel. The weather was fine. (It rained with thunder and lightening most nights, but sunshine and relatively dry - with the exception of some showers in Cozumel in the days.) The Captain and crew will do whatever they can to keep everyone safe and comfortable. Enjoy your cruise.

This was our cruise! I was really impressed by how we had great weather during the days.

 

[OneTrueKing]

Ten minutes long I'd say it's worth the watch for anyone cruising Irmas lifespan https://www.tropicaltidbits.com

There's still plenty of days ahead that can change things quickly with the forecast but this guy seemed pretty thorough.

 

[Trera]

Ten minutes long I'd say it's worth the watch for anyone cruising Irmas lifespan https://www.tropicaltidbits.com

There's still plenty of days ahead that can change things quickly with the forecast but this guy seemed pretty thorough.

That was interesting to watch.

 

[Stacieseestheworld]

Thanks for the link! I wonder how the weather will impact the seas next week. It looks like even if Irma does come close to the Bahamas then it won't be until Friday/Saturday. Does anyone have any experience with what to expect next week sailing in the Bahamas? I just hope the seas aren't too rough!