I have followed this board for a while now, but just joined so that I could post- this forum has been very helpful in planning our cruise. My family and I were on the 10/20 Fantasy, it was our very first cruise so we had nothing to compare.
My husband and I were standing on our Veranda in St.Thomas when we first heard about the hurricane, we had no idea that one had developed until the announcement was made about the reroute and not going to Castaway Cay.
I had asked my
travel agent what would happen if there was a hurricane and she told me that the captain would simply go to another island or go around it and that we would never be in danger if one should happen. So I never even thought we would be in danger. Thursday was kind of rough and there was more rocking than before, and Friday all day was rough, we were bumping into things a bit and sometimes it was hard to walk, by Friday evening it was noticeably worse, at dinner we kept hearing glass break and you could feel some major rocking, lots and lots of people were feeling ill, including my husband.
We decided to stay in our stateroom following dinner and looked at the ocean from the closed veranda door, the waves were huge and it was tough to move around. It was overnight that the nightmare began and I seriously knew that we were in a horrible situation, things were flying around the room and we could not stand, the ship pitched so far that I was sure we would tip all the way over, I was screaming at my husband in panic and my teen boys telling them not to open the veranda door, we were terrified for our 19 month old and protected him in the pack &play, thankfully he slept.
I called guest services and my husband went down to get info, we were told that this was not as bad as she had been through and not to worry....we had no idea what was going on and I remember thinking "thank God" when we heard an announcement was coming, but there was not any information except for us to stay in our staterooms and then another one that the ship was ok....I personally would have felt much more relieved if there was some information about what was happening. We made it through the night in complete terror and I constantly expected to hear instructions for evacuations and putting on our life jackets etc...
Later they made announcements about getting to PC late and if you had a morning flight to call the airline, our flight was at 2:40pm so. We thought we would be ok, they told us we could go to breakfast, which we did even though we were sick in our stomachs, I tripped a few times it was still pretty rough but not like the middle of the night. After breakfast we went to our stateroom and stayed there, they informed us that security would be going through the ship as we docked and that it could take some time...
That is the last info that we received, by 11:30 we thought we should go to guest services to see what we should do, we could not even get there, there were wall to wall people everywhere, went back to the room and called GS to get advise, she told me we might make our 2:40 flight but it would be close....after another half hour we called again and she suggested that we call the airline to reschedule our flight, I told her that we had no cell service and she told us to call from our room but it would cost 6.95 per minute or we could come to GS to use their phone... We went down and it took us a LONG time to get to the desk, I called our travel agent and could barely speak since I was so upset and nervous, not sure what to do... Our travel agent was able to reschedule our 2:40 flight to a 8:15pm flight.... It took a very long time to get off of the ship, there was no direction and people everywhere and it was very hard for our family to stay together... We finally got to the airport around 3:00pm and waited for our 8:15pm flight, not easy task with a 19 month old, but thankful to be off of the ship and safe! None of us had slept the night before and were exhausted and sick to our stomach, I was having some severe rocking sensations and had some trouble walking.... During our flight there was some turbulence and it terrified me more than usual....we got home at 3:15am on the 28th
I am still having some rocking sensations on and off and I'm not sure how I feel about our experience.... I know that it was the most terrifying night of my life personally and feeling the ship pitch as severely as it did, I thought for sure that we were goners... I asked a lot about hurricane season and believed what I was told and never thought that we would go into a hurricane... I do wish that there was more information- I wish we had known there was a hurricane brewing sooner, I wish that there was some sort of weather information posted every few hours and I certainly wish that there was more information posted or announced Friday night and Saturday morning about what was happening, not knowing was horrible...and I really wish the disembarking was not as awful with the crowds and lack of info and instruction. Seeing the damage on the ship made us heartsick, we were so impressed with the beauty and wonder of the ship during our trip.
The people on this post saying things about whining and this is what you get when you sail during hurricane season are just plain cruel, no one has any idea how bad it was unless you lived through it personally and as a parent it was so much worse than maybe for some others because I was watching my children panic and fear for their lives and that is the worst experience ever! It's shameful the way that some of you are speaking and very disappointing...
We will go again on a DCL vacation, our experience before Thursday was fabulous and we loved every second, I will never go during hurricane season again, nor do I completely trust my TA, which may not be her fault, but I had asked so many questions and was completely reassured...I will ALWAYS book on my own and book everything through Disney, since the airline issues were a nightmare since we booked through the TA and not Disney...I am extremely thankful that we did the Disney Transfers.... We had also signed up for the pre-check-in for our flight through Disney but it got canceled and that made things a bit more confusing for us regarding our luggage and what to do etc...
Please be kind! Please do not judge others unless you have walked in their shoes! It's a sad world when people can not talk about their bad experience and horrifying night without being judged and called names for it! I have written 2 e-mails to DCL only asking a few questions about what happened, but so far have not heard anything back....
. After not sleeping Friday night (during the storm), waking both Saturday and Sunday night in a sweat with my heart pounding and in tears then not being able to sleep, I finally was able to sleep last night with the help of some anti anxiety medicine (I certainly hope no one starts in on this one, I have never taken anything other than an anitbiotic in my life, but my nerves were still a complete mess, and I have to function and get back to my life.)
. It's a tradeoff for the decreased cruisefare but odds of rough weather are certainly increased
) for compensation when travel goes awry. DCL was wise to rapidly announce what they were offering.
