It is everyone’s worst nightmare on a cruise: having an issue that prevents you from docking at your destination, causing you to miss a port day or private island day. The private island stop is a large percentage of the reason you pay for a cruise. The thought of bad weather or some other unplanned event resulting in you taking a cruise without the private island fun is terrifying.
It can happen. It does happen. It happened to us on our Disney Fantasy cruise, and I want to share our experience.
Please do not misunderstand what I am saying: there’s no way to make this situation good, correct, or take away disappointment. This is not an article about you not having the right to be heartbroken, angry, upset, sad, or disappointed. This is not a story about whether or not you should contact customer service. This is not a story about how you should react while on the ship or a discussion of what counts as events outside of the cruise line’s control. This is a story about how it can happen, and if it does, maybe something about my story will somehow lessen the devastation and make it a little more tolerable.
I handled the situation well and was proud that I did not have a tantrum. I thought we would miss it due to the weather from the beginning of our cruise. An unseasonal storm hit, and I had guessed it would be too windy for us to dock at the island. The hangers in the closet in our stateroom swung and rattled with the constant swaying of the ship throughout the cruise. Toward the end of the cruise, I had difficulty not sliding around and slamming my body into the shower walls. It probably helped that I knew deep inside that we would not be docking.
Maybe I had a day that allowed me to handle it well by being thankful that I had a beautiful stateroom and that I was out in the ocean and sharing it with my husband. Perhaps I decided that all of that was enough for that moment. Maybe I figured my worst day at sea was better than my best day on land.
I could have done without the overly animated activities director throughout this nightmare. I could have done without her overly excited talking at length the entire cruise, to be honest, but nothing is worse than a ship of heartbroken people having to listen to an activities director being upbeat and saying sorry you missed the reason you took this not-cheap cruise, but hey, we added some arts and crafts activities to give you something to do today.
Missing a private island day on a cruise is a metaphor for life: we can plan all we want, but sometimes, things are out of our control and do not go as we hoped. If the unthinkable happens, you must pick yourself up, carry on, and try to make the best of things. If that is not an example of life (just out at sea), I do not know what it is; apparently, cruising is not an exception to life. Life at sea is the same as on land, and knowing this and understanding that cruising is an adventure where things can go wrong is very important.
Something has become very apparent to me. Missing an island day is so upsetting because we put it on a pedestal, which means we are opening ourselves up for possible heartbreak. It will sting if you think of your cruise as a fairytale and you do not get that unbelievable ending. Okay, so you can put your cruise up on a short pedestal…because it is pretty fantastic with the food, views, entertainment, and sunsets. It is okay to be excited about your cruise, but you must also leave a pedestal for bad weather, illness that breaks out on the ship, and missed island days. You have to realize that it is still life. Leaving land does not make life easy or without problems in a protective bubble. I wish it did. We all would be cruising more often. Cruising might not be for you if you are devasted waiting a year for a cruise and then missing your ports of call or island day. You might have to think about it like you are okay with staying on the ship, and anything else you get to do for ports of call is extra if they happen. It is a gamble. You must pay for airline tickets or gas to drive to the port. You have to pay for a hotel the night before the cruise. The cruise is not cheap. It can rain and be extremely windy, the seas can be rough, the ship can sway a lot, and you can miss ports of call and island days. There can be hurricanes and storms. If things go badly on a cruise, not only do you have to pick yourself up and carry on, but you have to do it quickly, or you lose the rest of your cruise. These are the things I would consider before booking a cruise.
Overall, we were fortunate. We had good food, took fun pictures with characters, had a nice stateroom, and saw two pretty sunsets. We still had a good time; I know we were blessed to have the experience. When we lost our private island day, the weather was bad enough that some of the upper decks were closed, and there was no view out into the ocean, so that day was pretty gloomy. It still beats being at home doing laundry. You can read how our cruise went overall, learn how housekeeping pampered us, and take a 360 tour of our stateroom.
We missed our private island day but still had an adventure together. I am sure there will be better cruises someday, and I am sure there will be worse ones. I will cruise again. I do not know what the seas have in store for me, just like I do not know what land has for me, but I am not giving up on either. I will keep adventuring through life and encourage you to do the same. When things are bad, there is something beautiful about picking ourselves up and continuing our journey. It is nice to know that when things go wrong, there is still that beauty in life, but that’s just my view.