Tuesday, April 2, 2024

What You Need to Know About Cruising During Hurricane Season NCL Travel Blog

hurricane and cruise ship

According to Paul Walker, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com, the general answer is no. Late summer and early fall is when seas are calmest, other than when there's a hurricane in the basin. When a hurricane is in the area, waters can be quite rough even if you're far from the storm. Generally speaking though, usually it's in the winter and early summer when storms are stronger across Northern latitudes, projecting big waves. The entertainment staff will schedule more sea-day activities, just as they did when Castaway Cay got canceled.

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What You Need to Know About Cruising During Hurricane Season

If you go this route for a hurricane-season cruise, be sure to check cancellation policies before prepaying for excursions. Some cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, will reimburse you for at least some of the costs of trip delays, cancellations and interruptions related to severe weather if you have booked the trip on the card. The travel protection benefits provided by such cards may also reimburse you for expenses when your baggage is lost or delayed. As a rule, cruise lines don't offer refunds to passengers who cancel a voyage on short notice, even if there's a big storm brewing in the area where the cruise is scheduled to take place. Purchase travel insurance covering weather-related cancellations and delays, and have a plan for alternate travel arrangements, such as flights or hotels.

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Allure ended up safely behind Hurricane Ian, slowly moving west as the storm cleared out of the Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico. In our case, Allure of the Seas dropped a visit to Roatan so we could instead sail the long way around Cuba and circumnavigate the island as a way of avoiding Hurricane Ian, while still making out way south.

Be careful booking shore excursions during hurricane season

Cruise ships can easily avoid storms by sailing away from them and chasing better weather. For Disney Wish, a port change announcement came on the morning of Sept. 28 when the ship was scheduled to dock at Castaway Cay for the day. Rather than head toward Disney's private island, and toward the storm, the ship turned toward the eastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean where seas would be calmer. When Disney Wish set sail on Sept. 26, the captain made an announcement that the ship might return to Port Canaveral later in the day than originally planned based on the projected forecast at that time. Matt Roseboom, editor and publisher at Attractions Magazine, is on board the sailing and captured video footage of the initial announcement. The Eastern Caribbean tends to see more hurricanes toward the beginning of the peak season, while peak season in the Western Caribbean islands stretches throughout the entire period.

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Great vacations are made up of adventures, memorable moments and ideal weather. What if we told you there’s a vacation you could take and have zero worries about the forecast literally raining on your parade? Wave Season is the time to plan an escape to warmer weather or anywhere with Royal Caribbean—and for a great deal. Whether you cruise multiple times per year or you're new to cruising, the goal of Royal Caribbean Blog is for it to be a useful resource for keeping up to date with what's new and exciting with Royal Caribbean. Hurricane or not, there can be "motion in the ocean", so no cruise is immune from waves.

What you need to know if you’re doing a hurricane season cruise

Ship evacuation plans are carefully crafted to handle such scenarios, ensuring a swift and organized process to get everyone to safety. When a hurricane is approaching, cruise lines take several precautionary measures to ensure the safety and security of their ships, passengers, and crew. These preparations begin well in advance to minimize the potential impact of the storm. Within this time frame, the peak period for tropical storms in the Atlantic, by far, is the weeks between mid-August and mid-October. This is the key "iffy zone," as I like to call it, for cruises to the Caribbean and the Bahamas, as well as sailings out of eastern U.S. ports to Bermuda and New England. For the most part, cruise lines will redirect their routes in the event a tropical storm or hurricane develops in the Caribbean ahead of them, so you won't likely encounter a storm if you've already set sail.

hurricane and cruise ship

The construction of a cruise ship can withstand a hurricane, but it is not enough to guarantee safety. Many technological advancements can help with securing the journey against hurricanes. That way, even if the outer hull is breached with water, the inner one can prevent internal flooding in the boat.

By carefully selecting ports and implementing safety measures, cruise lines prioritize the well-being of everyone on board, ensuring their safety during these turbulent weather events. One of the first steps taken by cruise lines is to modify the ship’s itinerary. This may involve altering the route to avoid the hurricane-affected areas or changing the scheduled port calls. Cruise lines prioritize the safety of their passengers and crew, and it’s not uncommon for destinations to be replaced with alternative ports that are considered safer during the storm.

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It can also help reduce mileage and conserve fuel, which is key in dire situations. There’s also the matter of strong currents and surges, causing a person to lose balance. Having fundamental design choices is essential to prevent people from going overboard. Luckily, there are also stabilizers for coping with tougher sea conditions when they turn up.

In speaking with crew members, a few shared anecdotally some guests actually question why the ship doesn't simply sail into the storm to make the scheduled port on time. While skipping Roatan is not ideal, it's something you have to assume could happen with any cruise on any sailing. Itinerary changes are not uncommon, regardless of if it's hurricane season or not.

Whatever you decide, you are certainly not going to find yourself sailing right into a major storm, so deciding whether to cruise or not is a matter of comfort and convenience—not safety. And you should be prepared to be flexible in terms of any possible itinerary changes. Passengers on Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship Disney Wish had their four-night sailing out of Port Canaveral extended by a day when the ship could not return to port and instead found calmer seas to hang out in. A video was posted on Twitter of passengers cheering when they learned they would have more time on the ship.

The biggest challenge if a hurricane disrupts a cruise is finding alternate places to dock or anchor when ships' scheduled ports of call are threatened. Keep in mind that airports in these regions can also be affected by severe weather. Hurricanes in the Caribbean seasons are often easy to track, so finding a hurricane-free embarkation area should be simple. With that in mind, we've put together the things you'll need to know to book your vacation during hurricane season with confidence.

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