Experienced cruising during hurricane?

[justme0729]

We’re booked on an October 20-26 cruise that I’m very excited for (2 stops castaway, 1 lighthouse!) but I’m a little hesitant about it being hurricane season. If you’ve been on a cruise during a hurricane but Disney rerouted you instead of cancelled, can you share your personal experience about if you still ended up having good weather away from the storm, not too rocky seas etc? There is a concerning video on YouTube of the Fantasy during hurricane Sandy that shows water coming in on the pool deck, furniture tipping etc. I would much rather have Disney cancel than be in a situation with very rough seas but I’m hoping that video was not the norm for hurricane cruises.

Also, are odds decent in this point of October to likely not have a hurricane affect our trip?

 

[Marc D]

From memory, only once did DCL cancel a cruise because of a hurricane. The ship was stuck in port and could not get away before the storm came in. But they’ll do everything they can - leave early, leave late, come back one day late - instead of cancelling. They also have state of the art weather monitoring systems so they can and will do everything to move the ship to calm waters. They can’t always go far enough but the video you are referring to is an anomaly.

In our case, we were once rerouted because of a storm. They knew we wouldn’t be able to reach St Martin, since we would have had to wait out the storm crossing our path, so they canceled the port on embarkation day and changed the routing to add a second CC stop.

As per October, you can’t predict anything. Hurricane season is from August to November. Sandy, one of the biggest in the last few decades, formed on Oct. 22 2012 and disappeared on Nov. 2nd. Michael made landfall on Oct. 10th. There have been more and more storms outside of the normal season in the last few years.

 

[lanejudy]

There is a concerning video on YouTube of the Fantasy during hurricane Sandy

As I recall that cruise did NOT change itinerary and wound up in the storm. I would not consider that a “typical” experience at all. While it’s possible you’ll hit stormy weather, it’s more likely the ship will change itinerary and you’ll move to clearer skies, whether or not that means days at-sea or alternate port stops would be decided at the time based on storm predictions. It is highly unlikely your cruise will be canceled.

 

[minniebeth]

I sailed on the Dream during Hurricane Ian last October~
It was a 5 night cruise out of Miami with 2 stops at Castaway Cay and a stop at Nassau.
It rained sailing out of Miami, and rained during one of our Castaway Cay stops. We had our itinerary altered, changed around Nassau day and were not able to dock for the second time at Castaway Cay.
It did rain intermittently throughout the cruise but they tried really hard to sail into good weather and find sun. The waters were relatively calm except the last night, it was pretty rocky sailing back to Miami. DCL was amazing at navigating through the storm both literally and figuratively!
A lot of people had flights from Miami cancelled and scrambled to find other flights and alternate ways home.
Some passengers were on the cruise for safety away from the hurricane and some dealt with some devastation. It felt like so many came together to support each other.
It was such a unique experience and honestly one of my favorite cruises. ( Just turned Platinum) It was a Halloween cruise and it was a lot of fun~ when the itinerary changed, they added a lot of activities as well.
I would not hesitate to sail during hurricane season again, I trust that DCL will make good decisions in sailing, not sailing/alter when need be.
Sandy was a whole different league of a storm, so not typical. There is always a risk of an anomaly of storms, etc. which encompasses all travel.
Cruising in October is really nice in general~ just make sure to have insurance and know that things don't always go as planned.

 

[msmama]

On last years EBTA there was a chance of "weather" (which I assume meant bad weather, but I never actually got that clarified) and so we skipped the Azores port. The captain came out before the show one night and did a power point presentation about the "weather" and what we were going to do to avoid it.

One of the things they emphasized (which I don't know how true it is or not) was that the captain had full control of the safety of the ship and didn't have to answer to the folks back in an office saying "sail through the weather" to keep your schedule like some other cruise lines have.

I also wouldn't base too much on Sandy as that storm surprised everyone. Is it a possibility? Obviously, since it happened, but it was also called a once in a generation storm for a reason.

 

[Marthasor]

It is extremely rare for DCL to cancel a cruise due to weather - if memory serves, things really depend on the conditions at the port, mostly (if it's closed or not) and if they can get a ship back to port - I believe last year one cruise was canceled only because they had to leave a ship out at sea because they couldn't get back to PC (I believe it was the Wish). Best case scenario, they re-route and go to different ports. Worst case scenario, you end up on a cruise to nowhere - I have a friend who was on DCL during a storm and they never docked and even the at sea days were very rocky. Once she got back to PC, she found her flight had been canceled and she had a hard time finding a hotel to stay in because so many tourists were stranded in the area. We were on the Wish last October and missed the storm by days - even then, it was very difficult flying in to MCO on time to make it to the cruise - we changed our flights and hotels multiple times. There is just no predicting what will happen each hurricane season. I highly suggest purchasing insurance and going in knowing your itinerary could be altered.

 

[Husker Mike]

Bottom line: the cruise likely won't be cancelled unless the hurricane directly affects departure. If the ship can't get into port, there's no subsequent cruise possible.

That being said, if a storm affects your ports, those ports may get skipped. And a double Castaway plus Lighthouse itinerary could end up being a bunch of sea days in theory. Or a trip to Cozumel instead.

 

[NAB]

We were on the Wish last year and got 2 extra days because we couldn’t come in because too many boats were coming in .

We made it to Nassau , couldn’t get into Castaway Cay due to weather. We just went in circles, went into the Atlantic Ocean a few times. Stayed in nice weather . Had to make sure the port and surrounding area was ok .

They let the Fantasy to come in and we went to Castaway Cay . The cruise after ours was cancelled.

This was our path…lol

 

[CamColt]

We have taken many cruises in July and August, and also 1 in October. Once we had to skip Cozumel but had a nice sea day. Another time we skipped St Maarten but went to San Juan instead. We had great weather there. We also had to change a sea day with CC day once as they needed an extra day to clean up from the storm, but at least we made it. The October cruise was fine but choppy the first night.

In other months, once in Dec, we had to stay docked at Nassau, until the overnight hours and push CC off a day (changed the sea day with CC), and in Feb we missed CC and went to Nassau instead. That was a cold and windy day.

 

[FastPasser.]

We were on the Wish cruise mentioned by a previous poster. We were kept out at sea for a few hours until the Port opened. They came up with spur of the moment activities in order to kill the time. It was handled just fine.

 

[fredandkell]

We were supposed to be on the Fantasy Eastern in 2017 when Irma hit; cruise was changed to a Western. We didn't go because we'd already done that itinerary, so we called DCL and they were very good about letting us switch to a Europe cruise the next year.

We were on Bermuda 2019 a few days after a rare hurricane whacked Bermuda. The day we left, another hurricane was racing toward Bermuda. Very calm seas the whole time.

I will, however, never book during hurricane season again. Too much worry. I was sure that they were going to switch our Bermuda cruise to a Canada cruise which would have necessitated an entirely different wardrobe, redoing all the shore excursions, etc. Having two September cruises in a row (due to a school break week) that had all the uncertainty was not fun.

 

[DisneyConvert]

Twice. We did a back-to-back on the Dream and the first cruise was highly-interrupted. No Ccay, a day+ hanging in a safe harbor waiting for the Catg. 2 hurricane to pass. 2nd cruise was closer to normal, and Ccay was back on the schedule but the storm's effects were significant.

Out first trip to Bermuda was during October, and to quote George Costanzo, "the seas were angry, my friend."
We had slight changes of plans (less time in Bermuda) and a longer route to miss the worst of the storms (not a hurricane). Yeah, it was a bit "choppy".

Won't stop me from booking in Sept, Oct.

 

[tlprice]

We have taken 3 cruises in September and 1 in October. The only one we were affected by a hurricane was the WBTA in 2019. We missed our two Canadian ports because we had to avoid a hurricane. We got an extra day at sea and an extra day in New York instead. I do always make sure to get trip insurance during hurricane season.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Official hurricane season is June 1-November 30. That is almost half the year. Get insurance and you will be fine.
It sounds like a great itinerary.

 

[magsnwonderland]

We were rerouted on our cruise last fall, so we missed our castaway day, but we had beautiful weather the whole time because they just sailed out of the path.

 

[Cats12]

We followed monster Category 5 Hurricane Matthew (corrected from Michael) around the Caribbean. Seems he hit every island the day before we did. We, however, stayed in beautiful weather the whole time. We finally caught up to him and missed Castaway and had to sail back around Cuba the other way. Then it hit Port Canaveral the day we were supposed to be back, which shut down for a day, so we stayed on board an extra day and made an extra stop at Cozumel. Luckily, we had driven to the port and didn't have to scramble changing flights, so we just got a bonus day!! They made an announcement at noon every day what the next 24 hours would hold, and honestly, if you can just go with it, they will give you a great cruise, although it might not be exactly the one you signed up for. I was so worried when I saw the path that it was going to wreck the entire cruise, but honestly, if we hadn't known where we were supposed to be that day or when we were supposed to have gotten off, we'd have never known it happened.

 

[pogmog]

We were on the Fantasy during hurricane sandy. Never went to Castaway the last day of cruise which was Friday. Due back at Port Canaveral that Saturday morning (arrived several hours late...if memory serves me right we got off the ship close to noon time). Next cruise left but also late. Furniture was all tied down on the open decks. Definitely hurricane prep work going on. Evening hours, early dinner the seas were getting quite rough. Passengers were told to stay inside...but of course not everyone listens. Other cruise lines had already decided to stay out to sea an extra day and stay out of the storm's path. Captain did stay he was continuing on with reassurance that we were perfectly safe. But the storm turned and we were going through it. At around 11:30pm Captain came over intercom in room saying we would be going through rough seas and to please stay in rooms. It was scary for sure. Since closets were emptied in preparation for disembarking, hangers were clanging, anything on top of the dressers was sliding back and forth, you heard glasses breaking and getting out of bed was a little challenging. The ship was definitely listing. Captain came over intercom again to reassure passengers we would be safe. My hubby and I stayed put. It was definitely rough and rocking and rolling. Ultimately we did get back safely. In the morning you saw evidence of damage in the stores, broken glass cases, people slept in the lobby with their lifejackets. Cast members that did transatlantic crossings said they never experienced seas as bad as this. It definitely was an experience I would have been happy to miss, but we still cruise and wouldn't miss it for anything.

DCL went out of their way to help passengers with travel, airline issues and we also received 25 percent off future bookings. They try to always make things right.

 

[hrhdhd]

We followed monster Category 5 Hurricane Michael around the Caribbean. Seems he hit every island the day before we did. We, however, stayed in beautiful weather the whole time. We finally caught up to him and missed Castaway and had to sail back around Cuba the other way. Then it hit Port Canaveral the day we were supposed to be back, which shut down for a day, so we stayed on board an extra day and made an extra stop at Cozumel.

Not to be pedantic, but Michael (2018) didn't hit PC. Well, it hit Panama City (PC), but not Port Canaveral (PC).

 

[hrhdhd]

As per October, you can’t predict anything. Hurricane season is from August to November. Sandy, one of the biggest in the last few decades, formed on Oct. 22 2012 and disappeared on Nov. 2nd. Michael made landfall on Oct. 10th. There have been more and more storms outside of the normal season in the last few years.

As someone else noted, hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. So it's not strange to have storms in October.

 

[soniam]

We skipped Cozumel once on Fantasy due to a tropical storm. No issues. The ship was moving pretty fast to get out of the path and some very sensitive people felt the motion more. These were people who already had motion issues on the ship. You could feel it a bit in the hallways. Nothing bad though. Most of our cruises have been in the Caribbean during hurricane season. That’s the only time we were affected.