I am done. DONE. A pox on September!

fredandkell

I'd rather be cruising
Joined
Apr 4, 2013
After having my 2017 September cruise ruined by Irma, you would think that I would have learned to not book cruises in September. But alas, I convinced myself while onboard the Magic last summer that a September Bermuda cruise was different. "Bermuda never gets hurricanes!" they said. "It'll be fine!" they said. Meanwhile, Humberto just went directly over Bermuda, and now freaking Jerry is slowly turning to point right toward Bermuda, and I am scheduled to cruise there next week.

I KNOW the Mouse will do the right thing. I KNOW that DCL will keep us safe and possibly change the cruise to a different itinerary (e.g. Canada) or cancel all together if it's too dangerous. What I am throwing a pity party over is the fact that for days I have been anxious, worried, stalking the weather channel, now trying to predict "what-if," madly researching shore excursions in Canada without knowing which port(s) they'd use due to short notice, etc. A vacation is supposed to be relaxing, and right now the lead-up is anything but.

So....you heard it here first. I'm done with booking cruises in the fall. Even the west coast isn't safe; they've got 3 named storms over there right now. I don't have the mental risk tolerance attitude for it. I know lots of cruises sail just fine this time of year. But from now on, I'm paying the premium to sail in the spring. A couple extra thousand dollars is starting to look really attractive compared to the mental grump I've been in.

Ok, whining over. :)
 
I'm with you. Last year we did the 7 day Eastern in late August. I was thinking it was early enough that I wouldn't have to worry about storms. The 2 days after we got off the ship, there were 3 storms surrounding the eastern Caribbean. We were lucky and I refuse to press our luck again. November - July sailings for us moving forward.
 
DH and I are Florida residents. We used to take advantage of the FRR and go during hurricane season. NO MORE. We have been chased by Ivan (which actually were the calmest seas of any cruise we ever took) fretted each trip over what was out there, or what might be coming. We have had storms form out of nowhere while at sea, luckily not directly affecting our cruise but threatening our home while we were away. 2017 bring in IRMA.... we sailed 2 weeks after, but were so stressed over the storm coming, then having to experience it which was horrible, and then once it was over stressed over the fact that we now needed a new roof and were playing the insurance company game trying to get it situated before we left. We just can't take it any longer. We now book our cruises after the "season" ends. The anxiety worrying a cruise on top of just surviving through what might come is just not worth it.

Now, this year after stressing over Dorian for a week plus and waiting and worrying about getting through this storm reminded me that you can't focus on the 10 days out predictions. I was sick with worry for a week and then off it goes and misses us - and we all have 4-5 days of sitting home waiting and waiting. Unfortunately, you just don't know anything until the storm is a few days away - the modules give their best estimate but that changes by the hour.

Do your best not to focus/worry about what if (I know I know.... easier said than done; trust me I know) and give it a few days to see what happens. There is a lot going on out there and a couple days may hopefully make the world of difference. Keeping my finger crossed for you that Mother Nature steers the storm out to sea and way from all of us.
 
I'm with you. Last year we did the 7 day Eastern in late August. I was thinking it was early enough that I wouldn't have to worry about storms. The 2 days after we got off the ship, there were 3 storms surrounding the eastern Caribbean. We were lucky and I refuse to press our luck again. November - July sailings for us moving forward.
Remember... Hurricane season starts June 1. July tends to be a quieter month... but it isn't a sure thing.
And the season doesn't end technically until the end of November.
 


I’m not sure who “they” are that said Bermuda doesn’t get hurricanes. This is a listing of past storms.

Number of recorded storms affecting Bermuda
MonthNumber of storms
January
1
February
0
March
0
April
1
May
0
June
3
July
11
August
30
September
70
October
53
November
10
December
0
Unspecified
7


I have two friends living there and this is their least favourite time of year n

I hear you though. We sail next weekend. Not too worried but watching carefully! Best of luck that your cruise is a go and that those affected on island come through it unscathed.
 
I totally get it. Our cruise on the Fantasy was completely altered due to Irma. We are on the Bermuda Cruise next week as well, and sure enough, here comes Jerry. I know DCL will keep us safe. I just am worried that no matter which course we go, it's going to be wet and dreary weather even if we avoid the hurricane itself. This also means rough seas.
 
Are you able to cruise in Jan? That's when we cruise and it's usually cheaper than cruises in March. Only negative(for us) is that's when the Fantasy does the Star Wars cruises. We aren't fans, but will be going on our 3rd SW cruise next Jan. We've also been lucky that we haven't had any big snow storms hit when we fly out. Last year there was a huge storm hit that cancelled our flight home, but we were able to get a new flight.
 


Right there with you! Our cruise got cancelled thanks to Dorian. We will not be sailing in September again. We'll be moving them to springtime or go north in the summer. Tried to convince DH that he would love cruising since he had never been and after the h e double hockey sticks we went through with this last cruise he never wants to give it a try again. Trying to convince him we go in the spring when hurricanes and snowstorms are less of a problem. Or try for the summer and get insurance so we're not stressing out over it like that and can just cancel if we're in that situation again.
 
Are you able to cruise in Jan? That's when we cruise and it's usually cheaper than cruises in March. Only negative(for us) is that's when the Fantasy does the Star Wars cruises. We aren't fans, but will be going on our 3rd SW cruise next Jan. We've also been lucky that we haven't had any big snow storms hit when we fly out. Last year there was a huge storm hit that cancelled our flight home, but we were able to get a new flight.
I wish! School schedules don't allow, esp. with my oldest. Our school district has a fall break next week which is why we are cruising at that time.
 
But from now on, I'm paying the premium to sail in the spring.

The way I think about is I am not paying a premium to sail outside of peak hurricane season; I am paying the "regular cruise" price and opting not to sail on the discounted "budget" hurricane-season option when there is a decent chance my vaycay would be ruined. Same reason I won't do IGT/OGT/VGT fares--the discount to me is not worth the risk of getting a room I hate; I'd rather pay the "regular" price to choose my room. Sure in both cases there is a chance that it could all go well (no hurricane / good room assignment), but if it goes badly that is my vacation tanked for a year and I am still paying thousands of dollars to be unhappy.
 
IF I lived close to port and could book pretty much last minute, I MIGHT be tempted to try a cruise during hurricane season. I don’t, so I wouldn’t. The uncertainties do not appeal.
 
I wish! School schedules don't allow, esp. with my oldest. Our school district has a fall break next week which is why we are cruising at that time.

This will most likely be our last cruise in Jan because of our dd getting older also. Not looking forward to paying Spring Break prices for 2021. I lived in Massachusetts for few years(a long time ago) and thought it was silly that where we lived the kids got a week off in Feb for winter break. Now that we have kids and like to cruise in the winter, I would LOVE to have a week off in Feb!!
 
@fredandkell what about coming over to Europe? The Magic has routes in Northern Europe, British Isles, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, St Petersburg, France, Amsterdam etc in August and September. Then at the end of summer season in Europe The Magic does transatlantic back to East Coast America.

September in Europe is very different to September in Florida / Caribbean / Bahamas , we dont get hurricanes :)
 
@fredandkell what about coming over to Europe? The Magic has routes in Northern Europe, British Isles, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, St Petersburg, France, Amsterdam etc in August and September. Then at the end of summer season in Europe The Magic does transatlantic back to East Coast America.

September in Europe is very different to September in Florida / Caribbean / Bahamas , we dont get hurricanes :)
It looks lovely, but for our family the flights double the vacation cost! I expect that drives a lot of of folks to cruise in the caribbean.
 
@fredandkell what about coming over to Europe? The Magic has routes in Northern Europe, British Isles, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, St Petersburg, France, Amsterdam etc in August and September. Then at the end of summer season in Europe The Magic does transatlantic back to East Coast America.

September in Europe is very different to September in Florida / Caribbean / Bahamas , we dont get hurricanes :)
Oh trust, I would LOOOOVE to do the Magic in Europe again, esp. one of the northern ones! Thus far it has not lined up with our September break week (which is usually the last week in September), we usually are about 1-2 weeks too late.

I'm in a school district where we go back beginning of August, and because we start so early, hence the week-long fall break in late September.
 
I have a feeling that we are going to see more active hurricane seasons in the years to come. And I think that might just result in DCL having to offer more and more discounts to sail during the months of September, maybe October?
 
Just saw this quote on CNN:
"Bermuda rarely sees storms as big and powerful as Humberto. Only 21 hurricanes have passed within 100 miles of the Atlantic Ocean paradise over the past century, with Hurricane Gonzalo in 2014 being the last to make landfall there."
Harrumph! :)
 
I can relate, OP.

Each year I'm telling myself it's the last time I book during hurricane season.
And then, I book again thinking I'm gonna be fine...
And then I spend the last 2 weeks before the cruise freaking out. :rotfl2:
 

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