Hurricane Rita About This Page:

[JoanW]

It says on the DCL website that the Magic is "currently enjoying a modified itinerary". Today would have been Grand Cayman Day, but perhaps they've moved on to calmer seas.

[iamgrumpy]

to those being affected by Rita and hope the Magic is having a good time.

Amy

[dmpyron]

We have just given Carol's parents notice that not only can they stay with us, but that I'll skip school and drive down to help them out. They live in Houston and about 110 feet above sea level. But Houston isn't a sea side city, like, say Galveston. We've also told Carol's b-i-l, who's 48 feet above sea level, to bolt our way on a moment's notice.

[katydid]

We are just back yesterday from our 4 night Disney Wonder Cruise Sept. 18-22. We arrived at Port Canaveral around 10:45 and as we stood at the desk to check in the cast member was handed a paper. She said, "Oh-oh, it looks like you will be having a change in plans for your cruise itenerary." She let us read the letter she was just given, and it detailed the changes being made so we could avoid any of Rita's wrath.

We enjoyed our Day at Sea on Monday, our first full day. Tuesday we visited Nassau, and Wednesday was Castaway Cay. We ran into a lot of overcast skies, a few rain showers, but the only difficulty was the rocky seas Tuesday night. The velcro on our closet door kept coming un-done and the door would slam open. I lined up all of our shoes in the opening but at one point some of them shifted and fell out, causing the doors to slide back and forth again. The rocking caused our Grandchildren's sippy cups to fall from their bunks. Then they would roll on the floor and into the dresser. I was up and down all night retreiving cups, re-securing the closet and being awakened by the rocking.

Our situation was probably one of the worst on the ship since we were in 7001, as far foreward as you can get on our deck. We still had a great time, and would would do it again in a heartbeat.

[Big Baloo]

Glad you had a great time and that you are all safe.

[dmpyron]

[ QUOTE ]

Our situation was probably one of the worst on the ship since we were in 7001, as far foreward as you can get on our deck. We still had a great time, and would would do it again in a heartbeat.

[/ QUOTE ]

And the bow is always worse than the stern.

Glad you were able to still enjoy yourself.

[Kimika]

We just had an incredible time on that modified western itinerary due to Hurricane Rita. The Magic was scheduled to do the Eastern cruise. Everything began as normal, but shortly after the Bon Voyage party Captain Thord came on to announce the change. Here’s what we did, with the original schedule in parenthesis:

Sunday – Castaway Cay (was at sea – all spa, Palo reservations moved to Friday)
Monday – At sea (was at sea)
Tuesday – Grand Cayman (was St. Maarten)
Wednesday – Cozumel (was St Thomas/St John)
Thursday – Costa Maya (was at sea)
Friday – At sea (was Castaway Cay).

We had incredible sunny weather every day. I know some of the more experienced Disney cruisers were disappointed because they’d already done the Western trip, but we didn’t mind. In fact, shortly before we left, I’d been having regret at not scheduling the western route because of the extra snorkeling day. Worked out great for us.

I know the Palo staff were pressed to get three days of brunch reservations into two, because we lost a sea day– which they seemed to accomplish fine. I did cancel a spa reservation that was scheduled for Thursday so I could snorkel in Costa Maya. Really enjoyed that port, esp the pool area for the cruise ship passengers. Our spa reservations for Sunday were automatically switched to Friday _ swapping Castaway Cay and at sea days.

Only weather related problem we encountered was choppy seas around Cozumel causing the local harbor patrol to cancel all boat based excursions (and the ones to the mainland – I guess they were worried about the ferry shutting down and stranding passengers in Mexico). Even with that there wasn’t any significant movement while sailing.

I really have to commend the crew and the Captain for making this decision and making the very best of a bad situation. They were able to put together a full excursions list for each port in a short period of time. Rachel, the cruise director, said this was one of the most understanding groups of passengers – and that some other cruise lines had cut their trips short due to the weather. Great job by Disney!

[dmpyron]

RCCL's Rhapsody of the Seas will be returning on either Monday or Tuesday (7 nights returning Sunday). Carnival's Conquest returns Tuesday (7 nights, Sunday) Carnival's Elation returns Tuesday (5 nights, Saturday). All out of Galveston.