Hurricanes

[mumsy1955]

Anyone got thoughts on hurricane Irma and possibility of it reaching Peurto Rico or Florida if they have holiday/cruise booked in next couple of weeks.What is RC policy if they think ports of call might be affected

 

[OKW Lover]

RC, like all the other cruise lines, will decide on departure day (or very shortly before) if there will be a change in the ports of call as a result of weather conditions. Rest assured that the captain has no interest in taking the ship into the path of a hurricane.

 

[Laz]

The National Weather Service does a great job of explaining things in terms we can understand. They will not predict anything more than 5 days out due to unpredictability. Right now they put the storm around Cuba on Saturday. This path just shifted overnight, and it could shift again. While at sea, the captain has the discretion to skip ports or stay shorter or longer in a port due to weather. If the predictions come in before your cruise, RCCL will announce any changes. If you have trip insurance, any cancellation or disruption should be covered.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at1.shtml?cone#contents

 

[NS8VN]

They will not predict anything more than 5 days out due to unpredictability.

Exactly. I understand people get nervous and want to know what is going to happen, but I don't understand the reaction. When the meteorologists who have gone to school for a decade and worked in the field even longer say that predicting more than 5 days out is impossible, asking amateurs on the internet is not the logical move. I'm not a "blindly trust the experts" kind of guy, but I do acknowledge that they probably know more about weather than I do. If they say that anything past 3 days is basically a guess then I don't think my guess is any better than theirs, and I especially don't trust anybody on a message board to guess better than them either.

As far as RCCL, they have a meteorologist on staff, James Van Fleet, to give them as accurate information as quickly as possible. Odds of any cruise cancelling are slim, just don't fall in love with any port you are scheduled to visit this time of year. The captain is literally in the same boat as you, he will decide what is and isn't safe and that will be the final say. You may get some advanced notice like the DCL Fantasy and RCCL Allure did this past week, or it might be a day-of decision. Hard to say.

Enjoy your cruise and I hope it is uneventful as far as weather is concerned!

 

[HopperFan]

Just an FYI .. this is RCL's Meteorologist, great about answering questions.

https://twitter.com/JamesVanFleet

 

[HopperFan]

James Van Fleet‏ @JamesVanFleet
Weather Update regarding #Irma and @RoyalCaribbean Ships in the Atlantic / Caribbean

 

[HopperFan]

As far as RCCL, they have a meteorologist on staff, James Van Fleet, to give them as accurate information as quickly as possible. Odds of any cruise cancelling are slim, just don't fall in love with any port you are scheduled to visit this time of year. The captain is literally in the same boat as you, he will decide what is and isn't safe and that will be the final say. You may get some advanced notice like the DCL Fantasy and RCCL Allure did this past week, or it might be a day-of decision. Hard to say.

Enjoy your cruise and I hope it is uneventful as far as weather is concerned!

THIS^
If you cruise during hurricane season, be prepared you may miss your ports. We have gone on 3 in Hurricane with Western ports ..... and would have been perfectly fine to be diverted East. But next cruise booked is East and I do not want to go West so I booked outside of Hurricane season.

 

[RedSox68]

We sailed in 2004 during Hurricane Frances -- Disney diverted to CC first and we had to skip Key West on our way to Cozumel and Grand Cayman, but they added Costa Maya to replace it.

They did not announce this until that first night at dinner, but they took good care of us the whole time and we had no worries.

 

[mevelandry]

Is it me or the Bermuda tend to be a little bit less impacted by the hurricanes? We have a Bermuda cruise booked for October 2018. I am not thinking about changing the dates yet but our Carnival Vista cruise due in October 2017 may change my opinion.

Not so sure I will book caribbean cruises in October in the following years. It seems even riskier now.

 

[RedSox68]

Is it me or the Bermuda tend to be a little bit less impacted by the hurricanes? We have a Bermuda cruise booked for October 2018. I am not thinking about changing the dates yet but our Carnival Vista cruise due in October 2017 may change my opinion.

Not so sure I will book caribbean cruises in October in the following years. It seems even riskier now.

Most of our sailings have been during hurricane seasons -- we even ran into a hurricane in 2005 sailing to the Panama Canal from L.A. in August (Hurricane Hillary). Last October Bermuda was hit by a hurricane and many ships were diverted to other destinations -- and there was much grumbling about where some people ended up going. We were there the week the storm was headed to Bermuda. The only way it affected our cruise was we left at Noon the last day instead of 5 p.m. However, the Carnival ship that was in port actually left a day early. We had zero affects from the storm and had gorgeous weather while there. I wouldn't hesitate to cruise in September or October again -- it's our favorite time of year.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Is it me or the Bermuda tend to be a little bit less impacted by the hurricanes? We have a Bermuda cruise booked for October 2018. I am not thinking about changing the dates yet but our Carnival Vista cruise due in October 2017 may change my opinion.

Not so sure I will book caribbean cruises in October in the following years. It seems even riskier now.

I was just viewing the Bermuda webcam and there is a ship in port now so I assume the port is in good shape.