I was on the Jan 18-25 sailing. Let me tell you, it's my first time on the Fantasy, and my 11th cruise. One of the nights was the most frightening I have ever experienced. I'll preface it by saying, I had to go down to deck one and take their sea sickness pills 3 nights, but the last night (Thursday) the boat was rocking so significantly, that I was planning my escape route in my head and took 2 hours to fall asleep (how will I get my kids and head safely to the muster area kind of planning). It was bad. We missed the two ports, and I get that we don't get compensated (but boy is it hard not getting off a boat from M afternoon until F morning. What makes me angry is that reading your posts (and I'm familiar with many of your specialist background, b/c I love reading threads you're involved in), tells me this is an issue. YET, for our sailing they blamed all issues on the weather, and then gave the NEXT sailing (which I imagine is still traveling to ports, with the one switch out replacement in San Juan). What exactly are they getting compensated for? Our sailing was a poop show, and one that will likely turn me away from
DCL for a bit (which is something I NEVER thought would happen). I don't really have a question in this, if not to say... wouldn't mechanical issues make it more rocky, without adequate stabilization, and 2, wouldn't mechanical issues (ie.. traveling at a slower speed) impact DCL's ability to find an alternate port to go to... b/c the rumors on our ship were that we wouldn't be able to make it anywhere else in time, and still get to Castaway by Friday). The handling of it all, and the lack of transparency really put a bad taste in my mouth. And I've always been one of those that understands, hey, you can't change the weather... if that was the only cause of 2 missed ports. Ok, I've vented. I'm better now.
Feel free to vent away.
Let me see if I can clear up a few things.
If Im not mistaken, your cruise was a western, which should have stopped at Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica and then the usual Castaway Cay. So if Im understanding this correctly, Grand Cayman and Jamaica were canceled due to weather. Im not sure on Jamaica, but Grand Cayman is on the list of frequently canceled due to weather. Reason is that its a tender port, which means the ship anchors or uses a dps to stay in 1 spot off shore, and smaller boats come out and ferry passengers to and from the ship and shore. So even if the ship comes in and can anchor or hold her position off shore, the tenders may not be able to make it to the ships safely so they stay tied to the pier. In that case the lines skip the island and either find somewhere else to go, or just slow down and head for there next stop.
For Jamaica, I honestly cant say but its possible that the port was closed due to weather. I know we had a pretty strong cold front come thru Fl last week, and its possible it made it to the carribean in that time frame.
The difference between your cruise, and the one that ends tom, is that the 25th cruise, had a issue that severely limited the ships speed, and required a stop in San Juan for parts and to fix. Your cruise, the ship never had power problems, and full power capability. Only weather. Im not saying its right, but thats the difference.
This time of year is a tough time to cruise the Caribbean. Its 50/50 at best if the ship makes CC, let alone the other stops. Basically from Nov to about April is the roughest time in the Caribbean and Bahamas. Typically my family cruises Late August to Nov. Its the cheaper times of year, and the most reliable in terms of getting into ports.
As far as how bad the sea state is, vs how a ship reacts, theres a lot of factors. Which way is the ship heading vs the seas, which way is wind blowing vs the current, how fast is the wind blowing, what is the wave interval,(the closer the interval, the faster they are coming) how deep is the water, how is the ship ballasted........ That, plus a bunch of other factors, all play in to wave height, direction, ships motion etc. With that said, a ship can only do so much to remain stable. The stabilizers on the ships, work well to dampen the side to side motion, but wont do much if anything for pitching, which is the bow going up and down. This is where the ships heading vs the seas come in. A lot of times, depending on your location on the ship, it can feel like the ship is rolling pretty far. Realistically, its probably not rolling that much. The further you are from the ships center of gravity, the more pronounced the movement becomes. For passengers that may be susceptible to anxiety or motion sickness, inside rooms midship nearest to deck 1 or 2 depending on what class ship your on, are the best for minimal movement.
The Fantasy, has 2 known issues. 1 is near constant, which is the vibration that everyone can feel and see, usually aft, like in Animators, or the aft cabins. Thats the one that has been there since the ship was delivered, and for what ever the reason, has not been corrected. The issue that the Jan 25th cruise had/has pops up every so often. It may be related to the vibration issue, and it may not. But the severely limited speed has popped up at least twice that I can remember, and possibly 3 times. This one has no ryhme or reason, just all of a sudden, something fails and the ship has reduced speed.
