Upcoming port/itinerary changes HERE

And perhaps a bigger consideration is that the sail time can't exceed 7 days unless you want departures during week which most people don't want.
the eastern route now stretches the distance to pretty much the farthest they can go , and this is stretching it with 3 sea days + the first day
 
FWIW, Tortola saw 100mph+ winds again, and St. Croix got hit, it looks like. St. Croix had been the island least worst of the USVI from Irma and was the main staging for a lot of stuff.

For an Eastern, keep in mind Dominica got pasted and is worse off than the VI chain. St. Lucia, Barbados and Grenada are too far out for a 7-day sail. Aruba is too far south for a 7 day sail. Cuba is complicated, obviously. Haiti and the DR are unlikely Disney cruise destinations (especially if you consider how much people complain about Falmouth and Nassau).
 
And perhaps a bigger consideration is that the sail time can't exceed 7 days unless you want departures during week which most people don't want.
the eastern route now stretches the distance to pretty much the farthest they can go , and this is stretching it with 3 sea days + the first day

I agree. Most cruises that go as far south to Aruba are 10 day cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. Expecting cruises out of Port Canaveral to get further south than Cozumel is totally unrealistic. Even Cozumel might be a stretch in only a week.
 
There's a report on Trip Advisor that a cruise ship is scheduled into Key West on Friday. Don't know the line or size of ship. This may be a test run to see how KW can handle crowds. By most accounts it will be several weeks at least before they will be ready to welcome tourists in any numbers. But a cruise ship is so much more self contained so this may be an option sooner than previously thought.
 


I agree. Most cruises that go as far south to Aruba are 10 day cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. Expecting cruises out of Port Canaveral to get further south than Cozumel is totally unrealistic. Even Cozumel might be a stretch in only a week.

Carnival does 8 nights cruises with Aruba and Curacao as ports.

Also I am going on a 6 nights cruise that stops in Cozumel. Not that much of a stretch for a 7 nights cruise. Especially since DCL adds a stop to Castaway Cay in the deal.
 
I doubt most can do more than 7 days , Caribbean sailing that is. Suspect a whole bunch work and or have children out for a week at a time. Especially during off summer times.

As for how long? Who know's but as a level set I do remember when Hurricane Ivan ripped into Grand Cayman. Ivan went thru in mid September, it was mid January when we arrived at port. I truly think we were ship number 2 to land. Luckily they had the funds to quickly recover. Some of the islands hit this month do not. Hope for the best,, Prayers to those who are in the path of these monsters.
 
I agree. Most cruises that go as far south to Aruba are 10 day cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. Expecting cruises out of Port Canaveral to get further south than Cozumel is totally unrealistic. Even Cozumel might be a stretch in only a week.

Cozumel is quite close. Much closer than San Juan and St Thomas. Belize is also an option for a western cruise.

Carnival does 8 nights cruises with Aruba and Curacao as ports.

Also I am going on a 6 nights cruise that stops in Cozumel. Not that much of a stretch for a 7 nights cruise. Especially since DCL adds a stop to Castaway Cay in the deal.

Aruba/Curacao require 2 full sea days to reach. Disney could do both with 7 nights, but only if it skipped Castaway Cay (which is not really a option, as people would go nuts).
 


I doubt most can do more than 7 days , Caribbean sailing that is. Suspect a whole bunch work and or have children out for a week at a time. Especially during off summer times.

They can't really change trip lengths for the 2018 cruises at this point in the game. Not without mayhem on the booking/rebooking/payment side.
 
A headline that I read about 20 minutes ago (Noon Pacific on Sept 20)

Puerto Rico - 100% withOUT Power!!! Sad Times.

We are really considering canceling our January Cruise out of Puerto Rico :sad2: St. Kitts has been hit (but not badly), Antigua (Pretty Hard), Martinique (sounds like Maria mostly missed it) and Aruba (south of Hurricane Alley :jumping3:)

So what's next up on the Hurricane season of 2017?
 
A headline that I read about 20 minutes ago (Noon Pacific on Sept 20)

Puerto Rico - 100% withOUT Power!!! Sad Times.

We are really considering canceling our January Cruise out of Puerto Rico :sad2: St. Kitts has been hit (but not badly), Antigua (Pretty Hard), Martinique (sounds like Maria mostly missed it) and Aruba (south of Hurricane Alley :jumping3:)

So what's next up on the Hurricane season of 2017?
I really wanted to switch out oct fantasy eastern turned western to one of those Jan southern sailings. Dh said he didn't want to use up so many vaca days right at the beginning of the year.
 
There's a report on Trip Advisor that a cruise ship is scheduled into Key West on Friday. Don't know the line or size of ship. This may be a test run to see how KW can handle crowds. By most accounts it will be several weeks at least before they will be ready to welcome tourists in any numbers. But a cruise ship is so much more self contained so this may be an option sooner than previously thought.

That seems really unlikely. The lower Keys just fully reopened for residents yesterday and their recovery homepage does not show readiness for tourists. http://www.keysrecovery.org/re-entry/
 
Something I find interesting...

Just checked the GC port schedule and see Fantasy on every week thru Dec. I didn't look beyond that. (FYI there are 4-5 ships per day in port most weeks. yikes!)
Didn't see Fantasy on Falmouth or Cozumel yet beyond the 10/14 western. Unsure if they aren't updated or if Disney has a diff plan to pair with GC. Falmouth has 4+ ships in port each week too.

We are on the 12/30 eastern(?)- the first one not included on these port calendars. In fact if it were switched to a the typical western itinerary, we would be in GC on a Tuesday and there are already 6 ships in port that day. Also noted the NCL Escape, scheduled for Eastern cruises starting 11/4-4/7 now shows up on the Grand Cayman port calendar for those dates.
 
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I'm beginning to think my Feb Wonder cruise might be one day at Castaway and then all sea days...
 
Tortola, post-Maria: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-islands-hurricane-maria-irma-recovery-effort

Even despite the huge clean-up efforts of the government, army, aid groups, and people helping each other on the ground, the main island of Tortola still resembles a bomb site. In every direction there are roofless buildings, piles of galvanised sheet metal, upturned and smashed cars and broken and leafless trees. In a small territory that sells itself on its natural beauty, it is hard for most to see how normality will be restored before the next tourist season, in November.
 
A headline that I read about 20 minutes ago (Noon Pacific on Sept 20)

Puerto Rico - 100% withOUT Power!!! Sad Times.

We are really considering canceling our January Cruise out of Puerto Rico :sad2: St. Kitts has been hit (but not badly), Antigua (Pretty Hard), Martinique (sounds like Maria mostly missed it) and Aruba (south of Hurricane Alley :jumping3:)

So what's next up on the Hurricane season of 2017?

@jrabbit We are on the same cruise in January, flights and pre-night hotel booked. Starting to think about cancelling as well.
 
@jrabbit We are on the same cruise in January, flights and pre-night hotel booked. Starting to think about cancelling as well.

We are on a January out of San Juan as well...... Not sure what to do..... Thinking we should wait for Disney to call it off so we don;t lose our deposit.... Plus if Disney calls it off we may get those nice discounts they offered when Irma hit...
 
Sandy, Mum and I loved this excursion - ok she didn't climb the falls but I did and we both loved the bobsleds. Would have loved more time at Mystic Mountain.

Thanks, Wendy. That helps a lot. Nice seeing you on the boards.
 

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