What Happens On a Cruise Ship In a Hurricane?

What Happens On a Cruise Ship In a Hurricane?

This is really an important question to ask! It is also a good reason to get Trip Insurance if sailing in Hurricane Season. You should check the policy of the Cruise Line in case of a hurricane when sailing during hurricane season (June-November). If you book during Hurricane Season make sure you keep up on the weather and stay informed of Tropical Storms and Hurricanes that could impact your cruise or the ports you are going to.

 

Should you be concerned about cruising in Hurricane season? Be aware of the risks and evaluate if you are ready to accept those risks. What are the risks? Your cruise could be cancelled. Your cruise could be rockier than in other seasons. There is a higher risk of getting seasick. Your ports could be altered due to the weather, or weather-related damage. You may be looking forward to going to a certain port, but you don’t get there due to weather or damage.

 

So what happens? Cruise Lines are concerned for the safety and comfort of their guests as well as their ships so they will not take you directly into the path of a hurricane. The lines monitor the weather very carefully and watch for any storms and make both major and minor adjustments accordingly. They may even adjust ports/direction during the cruise if the storm changes direction or intensity or if there is damage in a port that makes stopping unreasonable/unsafe.

 

Cruise Lines will alter direction/ports of call to avoid the worst of an incoming hurricane. They may go Eastern Caribbean instead of Western completely changing ports. In worst case scenarios they will cancel the cruise entirely. If they cancel the cruise they often give the options of refund, rescheduling the cruise date or a future cruise credit to be used at a later date you choose.

 

Airlines and hotels have different policies, you need to make sure you understand what will happen if there is a hurricane and your cruise gets canceled or plans alter. Know their policies as well! Again, Trip Insurance will help you with that if you are concerned.

Monitoring Tropical Storm Idalia

 Monitoring Tropical Storm Idalia

By: Disney Destinations

August 28, 2023

 

Walt Disney World Resort is currently operating under normal conditions. We are closely monitoring the path of the projected weather as we continue to prioritize the safety of our Guest and Cast Members.

 

Guest may reschedule their trip or cancel their stay with us; any customary cancellation fees will be waived. Travel Agents can now modify or cancel online for the impacted period and fees will be automatically waived.

 

For the most up-to-date information about the weather, visit the Weather Updates and Information Page on DisneyWorld.com.

Weather Updates WDW:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/experience-updates/weather-updates/

First Look: Disney Cruise Line to Honor Families with Special Island Display

Disney Travel News

First Look: Disney Cruise Line to Honor Families with Special Island Display

By: Disney Destinations August 16, 2023

Over the years, families have made countless magical memories together from riding bikes and completing the Castaway Cay 5K, to snorkeling and spending time together on Castaway Family Beach.

 

In honor of the families who have sailed 50 or more times with Disney Cruise Line, a commemorative display will be added to Disney Castaway Cay this fall. This will recognize the legacy and heart of the Castaway Club, our members. The display will take residence near the Island Post Office with a colorful fence that features the names of these families. Check out the artist rendering!

Eligible Castaway Club Members will have the opportunity to select one of the beautiful icons below to accompany their family’s name on the display. Here’s a sneak peek of the options!

Castaway Club is Disney Cruise Line’s way of recognizing guests who have sailed.

 

Stay tuned for more on the installation! Details will be coming soon to each eligible family who has already reached this milestone.

Trip Insurance/Protection or No Trip Insurance/Protection. What is Best?

Trip Insurance/Protection or No Trip Insurance/Protection. What is Best?

This is a good question to ask! Simple answer, It is up to you and there is no clear answer. More com plex answer, It is like all insurance, you need to look at the risks and see if it is worth the money to you. Do you think you might cancel your trip or have an emergency during the trip.

 

Why have Travel Insurance/Protection? Things can happen even before you leave. Someone gets sick or injured just before vacation. Flight delays/cancelations make it so you miss connections and don’t make it to your destination at all or you miss your cruise ship. You get sick, injured, or someone you are responsible for caring for is sick or injured. Any of these and more can cause you to miss a trip.  You can also have a problem on the vacation. Things like, Airlines losing luggage, illness, and injury happen while on vacation.

 

What to consider when thinking about Travel Insurance/Protection:

Do you have any health worries? Are you older, have known health issues?

Are you traveling during a season where weather may be a concern and cause delays or other issues? An example of this is sailing the Caribbean during Hurricane Season.

Do you have an obligation, are you caring for an elderly family member, ill child, spouse or other family member at home that may result in you needing to cancel your trip?

Accidents happen, even on vacation. Will your medical bills and possible emergency transportation home be covered by your regular insurance, or could you afford it out of pocket ?

 

There are two choices when purchasing Travel Insurance/Protection:

You can purchase Travel Protection from the destination. Make sure to read all the cancelation policy information before doing this. Often major destinations have their own Travel Protection that will refund your Reservation Costs and more. Places like Disney Parks, Cruise Lines and other locations have Travel Protections they either they fund or they have an Insurer.

Plus side. of Travel Protection from the destination is, many times you can add it as you make final payment and no health questions being asked. The upside of this is you don’t lose your premium for the protection because you paid for it already if you have to cancel before the final cancelation/payment date. Remember, once the premium is paid you lose it if you cancel for any reason, even there would be penalties.

Downside, to this is if you choose a small cruise line or destination and they fund the Protection and they don’t have the money to refund you, you are out. Sad to say people have lost tens of thousands of dollars because of this.

 

You can buy Travel Insurance from an established Insurance Agency. Travel Guard is one of many. They cover the same things the Travel Protection does.

Plus side, you know you are covered even if the Destination goes under like some have. You can choose to up the limits and pay more if desired.

Downside is in most cases you only have 15 days after booking your vacation to purchase the Travel Insurance without qualifying questions needing to be answered. After 15 days you may need to answer questions and get a form filled out by your doctor to get the insurance with a higher premium. You cannot wait until final payment date to make the decision about insurance and you will lose the premium if you purchase it then cancel.

 

Wait, What?? A Disney Cruise is a Better Value Than WDW?

Wait, What?? A Disney Cruise is a Better Value Than WDW?

Let’s pick a date and compare prices - 6/15-22/24 2 adults 2 kids 7/10. We will do the same dates and family size for both locations.

 

Disney Cruise Line 7-Night Oceanview on the Disney Fantasy out of Port Canaveral - price is $10,240.

Walt Disney World 7-Night 7, 1 Per Day Base tickets, Port Orleans Riverside (equivalent to DCL Oceanview room) - price is $5,191.99.

 

Wait!! The WDW package is almost ½ the price!!! Really?? How can anybody think DCL is a better deal? Let’s think about this and take a deep dive.

 

What is included in your WDW package, Room, Park Tickets, Transportation around the Resort.

 

What is included in your DCL package, Room, Port Fees, Taxes, Fees, 3 meals plus snacks all day (including dinner each night at a find dining restaurant equivalent to Be Our Guest), Soda, Regular Coffee/Tea, Juice, Milk, Hot Coco, 3-5 live shows plus first run movies, Daily 2 times per day Room Service, Dedicated Main Dining Room Dinner Servers, Entertainment all day, and Kids Clubs so parents can have adult time. Check the link at the bottom of the page for all that is included in the Cruise Fare.

 

Now let’s add up what is not included at WDW:

For this to be fair we need to include high-end dining every night and 4 shows while there. You would get these included at DCL so it is not fair to compare less. Remember these are higher end shows on the cruise and not the Park shows. They are equivalent to Drawn to Life and what you would expect on Broadway, even if a little short, average 45 minutes.

2 quick service breakfast and lunch ($75 per meal), 1 sit down equivalent to the restaurants on the ship ($250 per day - Be Our Guest for example) and snacks $100. Total $450 per day or $3,325 for 7 nights or $3,500. Yes you can eat for less but that is not a fair comparison to what you get on the ship. If you only ate quick service and snacks you may do $325 per day with a total of $2,275. This would save $1,050

Live shows like Drawn to Life $125+ per person average. $500 per show with 4 for the week. $2,000. You get at least 4 live shows on the cruise and maybe a movie. You can skip the shows and save but is that a fair comparison to what you get on the ship? I think not.

The food and entertainment adds $5,500 to the cost bringing the total package to $10,691.99. If you when without shows and only quick service meals that would save you $3,050 making the total $7,641.99. For a little more you get a higher-end experience, relaxation, and the cruise experience. Well worth it to me!

 

This is a fair comparison between the two vacation destinations. DCL is far more inclusive and in fact more budget friendly than WDW in my opinion. You know what the prices are before going. You can plan for the expenses and prepay almost everything.

 

I did not add Port Adventure to the DCL package. Those run from $30-$300 per person depending on the experience. Honestly we usually just stay on the ship or explore the area around the port rather than doing an expensive Port Adventure.

 

I did not add Spa, Adult Dinning, or Alcohol because we don’t usually do it and it is not required to have fun. Spa prices depend on what you are having done, Adult dining runs $50-$300 per person depending on ship, restaurant, Alcohol is $6-$18 per drink average but can go way higher for some specialty drinks.

 

I think DCL is a much better deal. You get all the higher things added in and there are no surprises with added fees! Even the “added things” such as Spa, Adult Dining, and Port Adventures you can budget for them and even prepay by adding funds to your onboard account/folio before boarding. Budgeting for a DCL vacation is a lot easier. And don’t forget to check out Money Saving Tips, such as using a Target Red Card to purchase Disney Gift Cards!

 

This is not to say a DCL vacation is cheap. It is not. This is to show the value of a DCL Vacation. This is a fair comparison between the two destinations. The choice is yours.

 

What is included in your DCL Cruise Fare:

https://pixiepranks-panstinkerbell.blogspot.com/2023/07/whats-included-in-disney-cruise-fare.html

 

Disney Vacation Money Saving Tips:

https://pixiepranks-panstinkerbell.blogspot.com/2023/06/disney-cruise-line-money-saving-tips.html

 

Rogers the Musical Review

Rogers the Musical Review

Recently we went and saw Rogers the Musical at Disney California Adventure Hyperion Theater. His is a limited run show and is scheduled to end its run August 31^st, 2023. Here are my thoughts. Spoiler Alert!  I will be telling you about the show.

 

Hyperion Theater is a approximately 2,000 seat theater in the Hollywodland area of Disney California Adventure. It has a very retro 1920’s feel. It is state-of-the-art as far as sound and effects. To get tickets to see this live stage show you can join the Virtual Queue or join the standby. To join the Virtual Queue you open the Disneyland App and go to join Virtual Queue at 10 am or 2 pm. Just keep refreshing the page and hopefully you will get a spot. You will be assigned a return time for the show. It is advisable to get to the theater about an hour early. This is a 3-story building and if you have problems with stairs I suggest you request Orchestra Level. You can just show up about an hour early and join the Standby Line and hope there is room for you.

 

Rogers the Musical based on a short sequence in the Disney+ Christmas Serries, Hawkeye. In the TV show they show Hawkeye watching the play with his children and dreading how silly it makes the Avengers look. I kind of equate what I saw to being so bad its good like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. In the TV show we just saw the stage actors acting out what they thought the Avengers did to save the world.

 

While you wait for the play to start you will listen to 1940’s music being played on a large radio on the set. This sets the mood for the play and is a lot of fun. This play does not take itself seriously. It is just seriously FUN!!

 

The show is a Musical so there is LOTS of singing and dancing. You get to see the transformation of Steve Rogers from scrawny kid to a super soldier. He stumbles over his tongue when he talks to Peggy Carter. In the 4pm 08/11 showing there was a young lady in a wheelchair as part of the cast.

 

I loved the moral of this little play. I came away with don’t tire of doing the right thing and don’t be afraid to reach out for the good you want. It is also very Red, White, and Blue patriotic!

 

SPOILER ALERT!! STOP HERE IF YOU DON’T WANT THE STORY!:

 

The show starts much like the first Captain America movie with Steve trying to join the army. He meets Peggy Carter and gets tongue tied. He is transformed and goes on to do his War Bond bit and then off to fight the war. His exploits are show off in very cartoon ways. He ends up crashing, like the movie in the artic. He wakes up 70 years later and starts to fight modern bad guys. You see his attitude of I can do this all day. He is getting tired of the fight and Old Steve shows up and tells him to go back in time where he stays with Peggy. This basically ties all of the Avenger Movies together in one little 45 minute play.

The story of Cruise Lines Private Islands and Ports

The story of Cruise Lines Private Islands and Ports

 

In the 1960’s-70’s a young Abaco man saw the coming boom of the Cruise Line industry. He started purchasing Beach Front property and opening it up for Cruise Lines to bring their guests. Many of these became private ports of call for various Cruise Lines such as Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity, Disney and others. Some spots became hotels and other tourist venues.

 

He purchased Gordo Cay, a little approximately 1,000-acre island, and opened it up to the island for local Abaco people to grow crops and raise animals. Gordo Cay means Fat Island. It was called Fat Island for its fat little shape. He built a small airstrip on the island so he could fly his family to the island for visits and keep track of what was going on there. Often, they would have a picnic or camp out there on the island with his family. One day in the 1980’s he was flying his family to the island for a day of fun. When landing he saw men on his runway with AK47’s! He did not land and decided right then to sell the island right away!! He sold the island to a company he had not heard of. He just wanted rid of this island and the Drug Runners that had taken control of it. Let the Cruise Line deal with the problem! The fledgling Cruise Line was Magical Cruises, now known as Disney Cruise Line. He let Disney and US Drug Enforcement deal with the Drug Runners.

 

Disney is using approximately 175-200-acres of the island for recreational and infrastructure. The majority of the island is being kept as a natural wild habitat. In fact, Disney is working to rebuild the natural coral reef in the lagoon. There have sunk some things there to make it inviting to the aquatic life that supports and is supported by a living coral reef. Sunk in the lagoon you will see Submarines from old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, ships with Mickey and Minnie mast heads and other items that look like they fell off a Pirate Ship that was hiding in the Lagoon. These items not only are fun for the guests to go looking for they give hiding places for aquatic life, encouraging them to stay.

 

On the island guests find lots of activities. Port adventures range from Bike, Snorkel Gear, and Floats to Paddle Boats, Jet Skis, Parasailing and even Fishing! There are several places to grab a bite to eat and even some places to get adult drinks. Fook is free but alcoholic drinks and other specialty drinks cost, as they do on the ship. Like the ship most thins are included in your cruise fare.

 

The island is broken up into areas for kids, families, teens/twines and adult only. You can take your pick where to spend your time. Just like the ship there is a kids clubs activities so adults can head to Serenity Bay for a quiet bite to eat, a drink and some time to relax on the shore.