Castaway Cay Bypassed on Recent Cruise

[Tom]

Some friends of ours just got back from the September 26 4-night Bahamian Cruise. This would have been their 4th Disney cruise.

On the day they were supposed to stop at Castaway Cay, Tropical Depression Nicole was heading through, and it was a little more windy than usual (according to the crew, even though to the passengers it felt like normal). So, DCL decided to skip Castaway and told the passengers they'd come back the next day instead, and just swap it for the day at sea.

The next day, Nicole had passed and they were actually within sight of the CC beach when the crew announced that it was still too windy and they were just canceling CC completely.

Now, I know, and our friends know, that safety comes first - and they must have had a REALLY good reason for not going to CC, but DCL didn't present it well. And DCL's way of saying sorry was....offering an extra Princess Meet-n-Greet, replaying the movies they'd played the day before, offering additional opportunities to PAY for tastings, and an extra showing of that day's musical.

On top of this, they didn't receive their Navigator until after 10am, meaning they missed out on the "extras" that were offered in the morning.

Disney Cruise Line has a reputation for knowing what to do if a storm interrupts a trip, but it seems as if they had an epic failure on this one. It's one thing if there is actually a hurricane, but our friends get SEVERE motion sickness, and claimed that the "extreme wind" wasn't enough enough to make the ocean choppy (i.e. they didn't get sick).

Obviously my friends aren't maritime experts or Navy veterans, but they're sane, logical people. The lack of Castaway Cay brought the Mrs to tears on day two. She was more shocked at the way the crew treated the situation than the situation itself, saying that they almost appeared as if it was no big deal and that they didn't care.

Castaway Cay is a MAJOR part of a Disney Bahamian or Caribbean cruise, and again, I'm sure they had extremely valid reasons for not going, but their way of handling it was, in my opinion, sub-Disney.

Thoughts? Anyone experience this before?

My friend wants to send them a letter, but is going to sleep on it a few more nights so that it's tactful. She really just wants them to know that their service and "Plan B" disappointed her, since they paid good money to visit Castaway Cay and were compensated for that loss with, essentially, nothing.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

It's happened to us before. Unfortunately Disney just can't control the weather. I am sure if the captain could have made it in they would have. They know exactly how big of a deal it is to miss Castaway Cay.

There was a RCCL ship that once made it to their private island (they tender in), but by the end of the day the winds were high enough that the tenders couldn't make it off the island. They had hundreds of guests sleeping outside on lawnchairs and in hammocks for the night. No one wants that to happen again.

I don't want to minimize their disappointment at all. We were very very disappointed.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I don't blame your friends at all for being upset. I would be, too, considering CC is one of the big perks to a DCL Caribbean cruise. We met a lady on one of our return flights a few years ago that was thoroughly miffed that CC was skipped on her cruise. CC was the entire reason she went on that cruise.

Officially, of course, DCL has a blurb in the documents that cruisers agree to that states if they have to bypass CC it's pretty much a tough-noogies. Sounds bad that way but that's what it is. Your friend's cruise wasn't the first time CC has been skipped & won't be the last. Officially, DCL doesn't owe anyone anything because of the itinerary change.

I do think the way they described things sounds pretty crumby. I would expect a better contingency plan for entertainment options than what you told us about. Maybe some different games or deep discounts or minimal charges at the spa or for the day and things like that. I've never been on a cruise so I have no idea what all would be possibilities. At minimum it would be nice to have different movies on standby. That is poor planning. It also sounds like execution of alternatives felt indifferent. Not that it's an excuse but most likely the crew & CMs have been in that unhappy position before with guests who were on the grumpier side. I imagine they've developed some tough skin that comes off as callous. I know when I worked in law enforcement communications over time hearing things that would normally break a persons heart & be upsetting became routine & wouldn't phase me. My husband said I was cold & indifferent sometimes but it was never my intent to be. It was purely my way of coping, I guess. Doesn't make it right, tho, and for that I have regret. So if the crew came off like they could care less about the guest's disappointment and didn't seem to try so hard I imagine they would have felt like they weren't going to be able to make up for what happened and emotionally distanced themselves from the guest's experience. Doesn't make it right but it. I know.

Not sure what specific reasons were the issue. If a storm had passed recently undertow and or rip currents could have made conditions unsafe for guests. Both of those things you cannot see and can exist on perfectly sunny days. Especially with rip currents, these are both extremely deadly conditions that claim lives all the time. I can't imagine what it would be like to allow guests on the island but require them to stay out of the water. Many, I'm sure, would look at the sun in the sky, the inviting blue water, and go in anyway. The last thing Disney wants is guests who drowned because they were on Disney's island during unsafe conditions. Ya know?

By all means, your friends should write about their experience with the poor alternatives and uncaring crew. I would recommend caution, tho, in assuming that even tho conditions appeared normal on the island that they were.

Sorry for your friends' sadness. I hate to hear the Mrs. was so heartbroken.

 

[kverdon]

Sorry to hear about what happened to your friends though its not uncommon for Cruise Ships. It can be worse. On our last cruise on HAL the wind was too strong for us to anchor at thier version of Castaway Cay (I really think there is just one of these Islands and they just change the name based upon docks there We just got an extra day at sea.

Then we got to the Caymans and they determined that while the weather seemed fine, the sea was too rough and canceled all sea based excursions (snorkling, glass bottomed boats etc). Unfortunately we were not told of this before we left the ship or we could at least have brought beach attire. We were not even given credit for the sea portion of our excursion. That left us paying 2X for our excursion as those people who had purchased the same excursion but without the sea portion.

When we got to Cozumel, they found out that our docking spot had been taken by another ship so we had to anchor and tender ashore. Since it was a bit rough my Mother-In-Law could not transition to the tender so she did not get ashore. Thoughout the whole curise the shore excursion staff was pretty much "too bad so sad" about the whole thing. Hope your friends have a better experience on their next cruise.

Kevin and Mona

 

[dixiegirl]

Some friends of ours just got back from the September 26 4-night Bahamian Cruise. This would have been their 4th Disney cruise.

On the day they were supposed to stop at Castaway Cay, Tropical Depression Nicole was heading through, and it was a little more windy than usual (according to the crew, even though to the passengers it felt like normal). So, DCL decided to skip Castaway and told the passengers they'd come back the next day instead, and just swap it for the day at sea.

The next day, Nicole had passed and they were actually within sight of the CC beach when the crew announced that it was still too windy and they were just canceling CC completely.

Now, I know, and our friends know, that safety comes first - and they must have had a REALLY good reason for not going to CC, but DCL didn't present it well. And DCL's way of saying sorry was....offering an extra Princess Meet-n-Greet, replaying the movies they'd played the day before, offering additional opportunities to PAY for tastings, and an extra showing of that day's musical.

On top of this, they didn't receive their Navigator until after 10am, meaning they missed out on the "extras" that were offered in the morning.

Disney Cruise Line has a reputation for knowing what to do if a storm interrupts a trip, but it seems as if they had an epic failure on this one. It's one thing if there is actually a hurricane, but our friends get SEVERE motion sickness, and claimed that the "extreme wind" wasn't enough enough to make the ocean choppy (i.e. they didn't get sick).

Obviously my friends aren't maritime experts or Navy veterans, but they're sane, logical people. The lack of Castaway Cay brought the Mrs to tears on day two. She was more shocked at the way the crew treated the situation than the situation itself, saying that they almost appeared as if it was no big deal and that they didn't care.

Castaway Cay is a MAJOR part of a Disney Bahamian or Caribbean cruise, and again, I'm sure they had extremely valid reasons for not going, but their way of handling it was, in my opinion, sub-Disney.

Thoughts? Anyone experience this before?

My friend wants to send them a letter, but is going to sleep on it a few more nights so that it's tactful. She really just wants them to know that their service and "Plan B" disappointed her, since they paid good money to visit Castaway Cay and were compensated for that loss with, essentially, nothing.

Oh we've been there!! We actually could see the pirate ship thats how close!! The Captain tried soo many times but safety of passengers and ship comes first, the wind was a big factor in our case as well! Yes it was such a bummer, but what can you do....They did have free booze stations set up for quite some time after that and quite a few activities to choose from!!! But I think thats with any cruiseline, if the wind or just in general weather is not good they have an alternate route...Can't do to much about that! and yes I know disney cruise line is far from cheap! But, gives another reason to try it again.

 

[Monty]

Just because they didn't get seasick doesn't mean they weren't in rough seas. Cruise ships have advanced stabilizer controls that will smooth out some of the roughest seas short of a hurricane.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

It's unfortunate that your friends didn't get to make this stop, but these kinds of things are usually written into all of the cruise docs and quite common. While I've never been on DCL, we've encountered situations with major storms where every single one of our stops were changed to avoid the storm. It's fine if you're upgraded to places like Grand Cayman when you were expecting Cozumel, but the reverse doesn't sit quite as well. My aunt and uncle went on one cruise, and while there were no major storms in the area- seas were so rough they weren't able to make a single stop. So, they got to see all 4 of their ports of call, but the ships could never dock. They complained, but this scenario was written into the standard trip docs...i.e. no stops (or sailing altogether for that matter) are guaranteed - at least in most situations. Still bites though.

 

[Tom]

Thanks everyone. The responses are making her feel a little better already.

And please understand that they (and I) completely understand that safety is indeed first, and after the initial grief, I'm positive they came to that realization. As I mentioned, their biggest beef is with the apparent lack of a contingency plan.

I'm sure DCL has encountered this scenario many times in its history, so the fact that they weren't able to at least attempt to offset the "loss" and that they couldn't print and distribute auxiliary Navigators overnight is distressing.

Monty, thanks for the heads up on the motion sickness/rough sea thing. I hadn't considered that, but I've also never been on a cruise (because I'm deathly afraid I'll waste a couple grand on a cruise that I'll spend most of my time worshiping the porcelain god on).

 

[mathew-westfall]

Don't feel too bad, I have been on six Disney Cruises and had 3 CC misses. One of the cruises we missed Grand Cayman also, they bought us drinks for a few hours after the CC miss.

In my experience, the winds and currents across the front of the island are the biggest challenge for the Captain. If the wind is from the NW, the current just rips across the front of the island and guarantees a miss. It's no fun, but the island is not much fun when the conditions are like that. We had a near miss last November and I can tell you Serenity Bay was nowhere you wanted to be that day.

I think it was last year the Magic was stuck on CC overnight as the weather deteriorated during the day.

It is awful to miss, unfortunately it is not uncommon and there is no obligation for Disney to refund any part of the cruise experience. Heck, last November, we drove into the backside of Hurricane Hannah trying to get into CC. 50 foot waves were a pretty wild ride, worth the price of admission.

 

[Firepath]

It happened to us on our first (and only) Disney Cruise Dec. 2002 which was also our first trip to WDW. My DH was so unhappy with the way the crew handled it that he refuses to go on any more cruises. We did understand the reason - they told us the current was running too swiftly and the ship would be pushed into the dock so to speak. But, like the OP's friend experienced, there really wasn't a back up plan. I think we spent about 2 hrs. in a crowded club playing bingo when we just wanted to be on the beach. They didn't play a movie, extra drinks,open the spa, nothing. It was a rather boring day at sea, then we headed back to Florida. I kept hoping they would offer us a discount on a future cruise or something, but that didn't happen. I've since learned the foolishness in expecting that. I wonder, if it happens fairly often, why they don't have alternative activities or shows. Anything would be better than bingo!

 

[marcriss]

We did the DCL for our honeymoon in '98. The crew actually managed to avoid 2-3 major storms/ hurricanes. We were completely clueless. They flip flopped our CC w/ the day at sea and we had amazing weather. We didn't know how bad it was til we came into port. Our families were really worried.

I would write a letter expressing frustration over the way it was handled. As repeat cruisers Disney will likely appreciate their feedback if written in a constructive letter. You never know, maybe they'll get offered an incentive to come back again. I wrote a letter about our trip last year and had a great conversation with someone who actually listened to what we had to say. I know the information got passed on because I got another call from a manager regarding an issue we brought up.