Frances has been thrashing that poor area for hours.

Not that theres much on the island anyway.

Will there be an island left?

That beautiful island ... :(
I'm sure it is going to be a mess. I will post if I hear anything.

According to a MouseSavers article (http://www.mousesavers.com./hurricane.html#frances):

On September 1, Disney stopped selling hotel rooms for September 3-6. Disney is housing Cast Members who lost homes to Hurricane Charley, evacuated Cast Members from Castaway Cay (Disney's private island in the Bahamas) and Disney's Vero Beach Resort, evacuated guests from Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground and evacuees from coastal regions.

I haven't been able to even think about the hurricane damage to Castaway Cay. It is such an awful thought... :crying:

You'll let us know if you hear anything, right, Julia? I wonder how it'll look in a month and a half...

Has anyone heard anything about Castaway Cay yet?

We got a chance to talk with some from DCL about 2 weeks ago. He said that there had been damage to some of the folliage. The beaches had been hit hard, so they will need to replace a lot of the sand. I'm guessing that the snorkeling course will need attention as well as a result, but he didn't say that explicitly. None of the buildings had been damaged so far as he knew.

He did confirm that they sent one of the boats (the Magic?) on a dead head with the entire crew out to start cleaning up.

The cruises this week will be stopping there (one goes on Friday) -- so that will probably be the first time we get a report. :)

Well, did a 3 night cruise this past Thurs - Sunday on the Wonder. Did not stop at CC. From what I was told, CC took a bit hit from Hurricane Jeanne. A dock collapsed, huge amounts of eroision, and wide-spread damage to folliage.

While I was disappointed, I know that Disney cannot send anyone to an unsafe island. I only hope that the beauty of the island is restored in due time.

Was wondering if anyone had an update on Castaway Cay? If I am correct, the Wonder leaves today for another 4 day trip and the Magic has had a couple of trips since Hurricane Jeanne as well.

I'm really hoping that things are getting back in order.

The first ship to visit the island got back a little over a week ago. Passengers reported that the beaches are still not completely back (a lot of exposed bare rock, rather than the sand). Apparently there is a serious lack of shade that used to be provided by the trees and other folliage.

Additionally, the snorkling lagoon is apparently pretty shot. The artificial reef that they were building took a direct hit, and will likely take a number of years to recover.

The buildings are apparently in in good shape, with no visible damage.

We will be there in the 29th, and hope to have a better report, and photos about a week later.

Was on the Wonder last weekend.stopped at castaway cay on Sat. It was great.All is well there. 10/28/04

Looks like MrBrown was on the Wonder with Lani, Alex, Tony and I!

Castaway Cay looks a lot better than I expected. Pretty much all of the taller palm trees were toppled by the hurricanes, so they have been busily replanting trees for the past few weeks. You can absolutely see where the foliage was stripped by the wind - some bushes have 6" - 8" of bare branch at the top.

They lost a decent sized chunk of the pier, and the rubble is still visible. They had to re-pour some cement walkways, and they aren't done - we saw lots of work while we were in port. We have some pretty good photos, and will run a photo tour when we get back home.

None of the buildings are visibly damaged, although some of the locations lost their fiber optic connection to the ship, and were processing sales using hand-written slips.

Some areas are less shaded, but there seem to be a LOT more umbrellas than I remember, so it probably all works out. A cast member said that the coral reefs were pretty badly raked by the storm, but I had a blast snorkeling anyway. (And since it was my first time, I had nothing to compare it to)

AVP