Ok so I booked for a 4 day cruise for July 30th of 2010. I couldnt book the 3 days on land yet because prices are not out yet for 2010 but i will book the land part later. anyways, I told my Aunt how excited i was and she went ahead and scared the living daylights out of me when she told me i booked during hurricane season. I have been doing research and i feel a tad bit better but still nervous about things. If there happens to be some type of hurricane activity while the land part of my vacation will that interfere with transporting to port canaveral?I would believe that hurricanes do delay things a bit right?. What if it delays us for hours? Will the ship leave me and my family? How does the transportation to port canaveral work? Will I get reimbursed? Say im too scared out of my pants to even go to disneyworld will i be albe to change the date of my vacation? PLEASE HELP.
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Last edited by clueluvzmickey; 03-21-2009 at 03:46 PM.
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Firstly, hurricanes rarely come as far inland as Orlando - although it has happened before.
The cruise part of your trip is more likely to be disrupted by a hurrican than the land part - although you'd still have to be pretty unlucky.
I beleive that when hurricanes (and related storms) are affecting Port Canaveral, boats sometimes divert to Fort Lauderdale and board there. If you're taking the cruise bus from WDW, they will obviously know about it and take you to the right place.
I'm sure there will be a phone number in your documents that you can ring while at WDW to check if there is a hurricane about.
And I'm sure if you are delayed getting to the port, many, many others will also be affected so some kind of allowance must be made. Given the proximity of WDW to the port though, if a hurricane was close enough to be disrupting road transport I'm sure the ship would not risk setting sail anyway.
If it helps, we visited WDW at the tail end of the hurricane season in 2007 (September/October) and, other than a few storms and more rain that we usually get in May, there was certainly no sign of hurricanes.
According to news, there were hurricanes lurking way out at sea but none affected the cruises as far as I know.
Luckily hurricanes mostly start to build south of central america normally.. They can plan for them usually at least a week in advance.. Cruises in the gulf also know to navigate around hurricanes if there is one. My parents took a hurricane out of New Orleans when there was a hurricane and the cruise ship just navigated around that... you don't need to worry about that
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"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney
If you still have some worries make sure you get the insurance that cruise lines offer, I know who wants to spend like $ 100 more (that could be a great souvenir) but I tell you it’s worth it when things happen. We were going on a cruise in Jan (different that Disney), we left Minnesota during the winter months (tons of ice and snow) got flight delays and missed the boat. They flew us to St. Thomas and up us in a four star hotel on the beach for two day (first day on the boat was an “At Sea day”) we did not have to pay for anything.
Cruise lines don’t want to cause damage to their boat or cause passenger discomfort. They may change to a different pick-up location. While at sea they may change the itinerary of the ports of call to avoid the weather that is hitting the land. Be advised that if you are prone to motion sickness you may have rougher seas at that time. To prevent discomfort during your vacation, ask your doctor for a scopolamine patch you will see lots of people wearing them, they stick behind ear and help to alleviate the queasiness; I cut mine in half because I just need a little help taking the edge off. Most of all enjoy the vacation, relax by the pool, eat tons of food, and play like you’re a kid again!
Look, I live in Louisiana and anywhere in the south, hurricanes are a part of life. To make you feel a bit better however, there is a running joke around there that Walt sits up in heaven and blows hurricanes away from WDW. I am guessing he does the same for the cruise line. I have heard people say over and over again that the safest place to be during hurricane season is WDW!!!! Enjoy your trip and remember they will not put you or your family in harms way.
Not to worry...My family was there in 1999 during Hurricane Floyd. It was the first time ever that Disney closed the parks due to a hurricane. They advised us to stay in our room for the day. However, people were out and about at the resort and Downtown Disney opened back up at about 4:00. It really was no big deal, they were just being cautious. We stayed for a week so we didn't feel like we missed out on anything anyway. The hurricanes rarely come that far inland. We always go during hurricane season...less lines!
oh my goodness!!! all you guys are the sweetest. I feel better everyday when i read these. best believe that i will be going to my doctor to get my honey some patches for motion sickness. i got insurance already WOO HOO
I see a few replies from people in the hurricane areas but no one from Florida, I am in the Fort Lauderdale area about 2 hours south of the parks.
First dont let someone from England tell you hurricanes dont make it to the WDW area in Kissimee. They do and have in the past. My friend from NJ was on property and they put him from one hotel into the Wilderness Lodge to be safer and around less trees. That was for the record hurricane year of 2004 or 2005. I dont remember which it was. Wilma went right over us and about 2-3 hurricanes criss crossed over and near the parks. They were reopened within 2 days of the storms passing. So yes, hurricanes do go through Central Florida.
As far as the Wonder and Magic. They will go around and out of the way of a storm. They have also in the past brought the ship down to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale to leave from here. I wanted to take photos of the Wonder in Fort Lauderdale last year but they wanted $5.00 to get into the state park. I told her what I wanted to do and then told her I would save the $5.00 for my next cruise and turned around and left. Disney Cruise Lines busses will bring you from your Resort to Fort Lauderdale in case of a hurricane in the Port Canaveral, WDW Resort areas.
And yes it is best to buy Vacation Insurance. Hurricane season starts on June 1st and runs through November 30th. Personally I wouldnt worry about it at all though. Its not a big deal and Disney will take care of you the best they can.
I've cruised in Nov. luckily no hurricane. DCL looks out for their cruisers.
One thing certain...make sure you purchase Disney travel insurance Disney covers things other travel insurance policys don't. (AAA pointed that out to us when we booked our vacation.)
Other than a freakishly bad year in 2004 when, as Scwinncoll says, 3 hurricanes crossed central Florida within, I think, 6 weeks - the worst of course being Charley (see my youtube clip below), the last major direct hit hurricane before that was Hurricane Donna in 1960 - 44 years before!
Like I said - it happens, but it's rare. Even David in 1979 hardly had any impact on Orlando with winds well below the tropical depression definition of 40mph (coastal winds were over 100mph).
In fact during the 150 years leading up to 2003, only 59 storms (not just hurricanes but tropical storms and depressions too) passed Central Florida with nothing coming even close to a category 4 or 5.
Of these 59, only 48 of the storms were classed as a "direct hit" (a "direct hit" is a storm hitting a rectangular area, 60 miles wide north to south and 80 miles wide east to west with the city of Orlando in its center).
Breaking this down further, of these 48 storms, only 15 were direct hit hurricanes.
Of the 3 hurricanes in 2004, only Charley was categorized as a direct hit on the Orlando area although the others may have affected theme park operations at WDW.
So, including 2004, that's 16 direct hit hurricanes in 155 years plus an additional 13 classed as a near hit (which may or may not have effected WDW operations). 29 hurricanes in total including the near hits.
Assuming hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November (183 days per year) and even a direct hit hurricane may only cause operational issues for couple of days (when WDW closed for Charley, it was only the second time in history that they had closed because of a hurricane) that's a maximum of 58 days difficulties out of more than 28,300 days worth of hurrican season.
Assuming you only ever visit Orlando during hurricane season, that's less than a 0.20% chance of you being affected!
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Ok so I booked for a 4 day cruise for July 30th of 2010. I couldnt book the 3 days on land yet because prices are not out yet for 2010 but i will book the land part later. anyways, I told my Aunt how excited i was and she went ahead and scared the living daylights out of me when she told me i booked during hurricane season. I have been doing research and i feel a tad bit better but still nervous about things. If there happens to be some type of hurricane activity while the land part of my vacation will that interfere with transporting to port canaveral?I would believe that hurricanes do delay things a bit right?. What if it delays us for hours? Will the ship leave me and my family? How does the transportation to port canaveral work? Will I get reimbursed? Say im too scared out of my pants to even go to disneyworld 
There's a great big beautiful tomorrow 
Blue punch buggie! 
Enjoy your trip and remember they will not put you or your family in harms way.
Disney covers things other travel insurance policys don't. (AAA pointed that out to us when we booked our vacation.) 
, there is actually a great YouTube vid of hurricane Charley hitting WDW... 
