With all do respect to those of you commenting on this, I was on that ship last night with my children, husband, and mother, and it was by far the most terrifying experience of my life, and I an experienced cruiser and boat owner. Let me say we had a FABULOUS cruise and were MOST impressed with the cast members and ship up until the decision to depart St Thomas on Wednesday night and chase the hurricane back to the port. None of cared about missing Castaway, disappointed yes, but we all understood the itinerary change, but then everything changed, here is a short review.
First of all, I applaud the Captain and crew for sailing us through the storm safely.
This is not the question at hand. The question on the table is
why the heck were we sailing into hurricane force winds when we didn't HAVE to. We went into the storm, it didn't develop around us. None of us are as clueless as some of you are commenting on that it is hurricane season, and none of us blame
DCL for the weather, please. However, the consensus on that ship between most of the passengers I spoke with and many of the crew was that it was NOT necessary to try to navigate that storm to return and we would have all traded a delay for the trauma we experienced last night and the last 2 days. (for those of you not on the boat, a retired naval captain I was with stated the winds were 80+ MPH last night and 40 ft waves were crashing over the bow of the ship all night as well). It was nearly impossible to stand.
Second, there were injuries, many, among the crew and guests. I walked down to the atrium at about 2:00 am. I was talking to an officer, with multiple stripes on her shoulders at guest services, she was reassuring, we sat down to talk (as I was very nervous and was seeking reassurance), when the 2 of the worst hits occurred. In that moment, the dishes, chairs, tables, ALL of the merchandise in the gift shops, the desks, bottles, everything crashed, it was the loudest sound, breaking glass everywhere, people falling and screaming. This officer looked at me with more fear in her eyes and said she had never experienced this before (this sentiment was repeated by MOST crew - the worst they had ever experienced!). She and I walked back to my staircase where I then returned to my cabin to find my family. I spent the entire night (as did MANY of the guests I spoke with) in tears, in prayer, trying to calm my family and myself. I realize this may sound dramatic to some of you, but unless you were on that ship last night, please do not judge those of us that were.
Communication: Cruise Director Ray did a fabulous job of updating us and was reassuring. The Captain and Ray came into our cabins repeatedly for the last two days, including multiple times last night to try and reassure us. We spent 3 hours standing in the atrium this morning waiting to disembark the ship - this is where the communication stopped. People were already shaken, exhausted, concerned about flights, sick (yes, vomiting everywhere for 2 days - thankfully my family and I do not experience motion sickness, but our hearts went out the the guest and crew, many of whom were very ill for the last 2 days), and we stood there, for 2-3 hours, there was chaos, there were no directions on when to come down, when we were getting off, how, it was beyond ridiculous. This is were I just lost it. I am so disappointed.
I sell the Disney product proudly, I bleed Disney and am a true believer in the magic... people, let me tell you, DCL has completely lost my trust in keeping my family safe, period. You spend 2 days with the last 10 hours of that in a hurricane looking into your families eyes and feeling crazy for putting thier safety in the hands of people who think that it's ok to sail INTO a hurricane to stay on schedule, that is what it boiled down to. And spare me the 'ship can handle it' and 'it was still safe' speech, it was NOT safe, people were terrified, falling, and in danger. I don't care how well built that ship was, it doesn't mean DCL should field test it's sea worthiness with my family on board,
shame on them, Mr. Disney would be disgusted with the decision they made to put us in harms way, and that is exactly what happened. It will be a long time before I can step on a cruise ship again, which is so sad, because we LOVE cruising, but I can't imagine ever being that terrified again, especially with my children and family with us.
God bless those of you on the east coast in the path of the storm, we will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.
Yes they came through the Tropical Storm last night and it was rough. Thousands of people were able to make their flights without having to pay for changes or even when they would get on another plane. DD and friend got stuck in Houston returning from Costa Rica, didn't get out until the next night and only then because I was able to work my connections and get them re-routed then back.
