Not very long ago, we received some Mickey Mail for an upcoming Disney cruise:

The cruise was meant to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.  We had actually managed to plan a getaway without the kids — our first adult-only trip in a long time.  We planned to fly into Orlando and stay at the Hyatt at the airport, which would allow us to try out the bag transfer option.  The bag transfer option, available for guests using Disney Cruise Line transfers, lets you leave your bags in your room upon checkout and have them sent directly to the ship.

The cruise itinerary had it leaving Port Canaveral on October 7th, docking in Nassau on October 8th, traveling to Castaway Cay on October 9th, then returning on the 10th.  The cruise was a Halloween on the High Seas cruise, so the ship would be decorated nicely for Halloween and we could dress up in costumes!  We booked a Palo brunch on the October 8 at 11:30 AM and Remy dinner on October 9th at 7:00 PM.  We didn’t plan any excursions in Nassau, but managed to get a cabana on Serenity Bay (the adult beach) on Castaway Cay that someone dropped a few days before the cruise.  All of this seems like the making of a great anniversary celebration trip, doesn’t it?

Then, this little guy came along.

Which meant, we got this email:

As we’d been monitoring the storm once it developed, we had moved our flights to earlier in the day on October 6th, and made several backup bookings (rental cars and extra hotel rooms) in case Matthew caused the cruise to be delayed or moved to a different port.  When we got the email saying the cruise had been canceled, we immediately canceled all our contingency plans, including our night at the Hyatt.  All of our money for the cruise itself, including ground transfers and trip insurance, was refunded by Disney.  However, we did not recover the costs of our flights, since we hadn’t booked those through Disney Cruise Line but as two one-way trips directly through the airline.  The first flight I booked with American Airline AAdvantage miles, so the flight cost 25,000 miles and $11.20 in taxes.  I paid for the return flight, but it was only $175.  I canceled the flights and contacted the credit card company to see if the trip insurance on the card will reimburse us for the costs of the flights.  I suspect the $175 will get return, but we will be out the 25,000 miles that I used to book the flight down to Orlando.

So, do we cry over spilt milk, or look at the bright side?  Who are we kidding, we did both.  We took the 20% discount and immediately applied it (along with the the refunded money from the cancelled cruise) to a cruise we are taking in 2017.  We saved over $1000 by applying the discount to that cruise.  We then booked a cruise on the Dream for 2017, this time with the kids as well using a placeholder cruise we booked while on board for our spring break trip.  And we’re trying to keep our sense of humor; we’re spending the weekend joking about what we’d be doing if we were on the ship today.  (For example, right now we are enjoying the sunshine and a beverage by the adult pool).

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