Last minute itinerary changes?

[Toot]

How often are there last minute itinerary changes? I read about cruises skipping Castaway Cay because of wind or spending 2 days there because of bad weather elsewhere.

Has anyone had this experience? What are the usual contingency plans?

Just curious, we are planning on the western for April 2004 and wondered what the weather would be like at that time of year.

We've been on the 4 night Wonder in Feb and the wind kept it a bit cool but it was still great.

Thanks!

 

[rae519]

When we boarded on 9/28 - we were supposed to follow the Western itinerary but Hurricane Lili and her friends had different plans for us.

We didn't find out til we left port that we would spend Day 1 at Castaway Cay! Afternoon at Castaway Cay, we found out we were going to Puerto Rico!

We also went to St. Thomas and a return visit to Castaway Cay - the seas were pretty calm and we had good weather for most of the trip.

Personally, I enjoyed the diversion even though I had excursions for Grand Cayman and Cozumel - but hey, it's vacation so "go with the flow" and stay away from bad winds!

Rae

 

[Señor Ferrari]

This doesn't happen all that often, but it can happen. It will usually happen during the fall months, as this is the height of hurricane season. I don't have any hard numbers, but I would venture to guess that it happens 3 or 4 times per ship per year, probably less.

It happened to us on an eastern 7-day in October of 2000. There was a hurricane in the southern Atlantic heading towards the leeward islands, so we stopped at Key West on the first day. There was also talk of a stop at Nassau and an extra Castaway Cay call, but as we pulled out of Key West, the captain announced that we were heading for St. Thomas, as the storm had turned south and been downgraded. So our itinerary ended up being:

Sat. - embarkation
Sun. - Key West
Mon & Tue - at sea
Wed. - St. Thomas
Thur. - at sea
Fri. - Castaway Cay

In the end, we swapped St. Maarten for Key West. I actually enjoyed the change of pace. The only rain we saw on the entire trip was during the first night and early morning at Key West.

Recently, the port of Georgetown, Grand Cayman was closed due to high seas, and the Magic had to skip its call there. It instead called early at Cozumel and remained there for an extra half day, I think. Since Georgetown is a tender port, the rough seas make it hard to work the tenders from the ships at anchor to the shore. For other ports, with cruise ship piers, there would have to be pretty substantial wind and sea conditions to keep the ship from docking.

I've also heard of Bahamas cruises substituting a day at sea for a Nassau or Freeport stop. The Wonder once called at Charleston, S.C. due to a hurricane in the Bahamas.

While the weather is hard to predict at any time of year, I would think that you will not have any problems in April. It is not during hurricane season, and the weather is generally very warm in the Caribbean at that time of year. My advice would be to not spend a great deal of time worrying about this. I think it's unlikely that it will be an issue.

 

[Toot]

Many years ago I cruised to Bermuda during Sept. We spent an extra day at sea because of a hurricane but managed to stay in nice weather. I quess fall cruising can be full of surprises.

As long as they follow the sunny weather and calm seas I guess we can't complain!

Thanks for the info and enjoy your trips!

 

[mmouse37]

On the 1/4 Magic Western cruise this year we were supposed to dock in Grand Cayman on a Tuesday....when we got to the harbor the Grand Cayman Port Authority advised DCL that they would not let them dock due to stong wind and rough seas. The wonderful crew onboard immediately announced that we would head for Cozumel instead and spend the night in Cozumel and the full next day. The crew was so excited because they got a surprise night off the ship.

The DCL staff printed up new Navigators and had them ready by 10:00 am with updated activities. Basically it was just like another sea day with activites by the pool and such. We enjoyed it very much. DCL refunded everyone's shore excursions automatically and even refunded everyone's Grand Cayman port charges.

We got to Cozumel at about midnight on Tuesday and were able to come and go from the ship at our leisure for the next 23 hours!!!!

MJ

 

[inkkognito]

We too were on the 1/4 cruise. In 29 Disney cruises, that is the first time that we've ever had an itinerary change. Since we travel a lot during hurricane season and the winter, I consider hubby and I to be VERY lucky that we've never missed Castaway Cay. On that trip, it took multiple attempts to dock at CC, but Captain Thord got us in.
Although I was sad to miss Grand Cayman, we had fun doing an unexcepted day at sea and we used it as an excuse to book another Western in May.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[rae519]

Barb - hahaahah! Some of us don't need any reason to book again, and as President of our club, I think you know why!!

Rae

 

[Chattyaholic]

DH and I were on the 1/18 sailing of the Magic and we didn't make it to Castaway Cay. About 3:00 on Thursday you could see a "curtain" of bad weather approaching. It became very windy and we had waves up to 15' and winds at 40 knots. We had hoped the weather would improve for the next day at Castaway Cay, but it never did so we had a day at sea. We've been to Castaway Cay before, so we weren't too disappointed to miss it this time but I know others who had never been there were quite disappointed.

 

[ducklite]

Has anyone ever experienced not being able to dock in St. Thomas?

Anne

 

[Señor Ferrari]

Originally posted by ducklite
Has anyone ever experienced not being able to dock in St. Thomas?

While I'm sure this must have happened, I've never heard of it having happened in the last several years, since I've become a cruising nut. The harbor at Charlotte Amalie is very sheltered, and the channel is pretty deep and wide. There isn't a large amount of maneuvering to be done with the ship, and where the ship turns, it is pretty much sheltered on three sides.

I've spoken to one of the harbor pilots there, and was told that sometimes the ship has to pull in forward, because wind or currents won't allow it to back in, but I've never heard of the Magic, or any other ship in recent memory, actually arrive at St. Thomas and miss a call there.

 

[plutojudy]

I don't think we would mind a change at all. See some place new and exciting then rebook to cruise again and again and again.