How many of you who cruise during "hurricane season" have actually...

[disfan13]

all cruises so far were during hurricane season. In 06 - we sailed in between 3 hurricane's and would never ever know it. Other than the first night out of NYC where the seas were so rough. We had no idea there were hurrican'es out there until we left Bermuda - our last stop that there were storms. We had big swells one day that was it.

 

in 08 Grand Turk was cancelled because of a prior storm. We are sailing next week - it's kind of early so I don't expect anything, hopefully!

[Shelli]

Most of our cruises have been during hurricane season. Other than a really rough ride to Bermuda one year, the only other problem was in 2004 on Caribbean Princess. It was a bad hurricane year, one after the other, and 2 affected our cruise. We ended up changing course from Eastern to Western, but then had to miss more ports-- wound up with only Cozumel and Nassau (probably our two least faves!). But we also had to stay at sea an extra 2 days, making our cruise a 9-day instead of 7-day. (I felt bad for those the week following ours-- they lost 2 days off their cruise.) We'd gotten a great deal on it, plus got upgraded from an inside to an outside, so it ended up being the world's cheapest cruise, I think! Changing flights and work plans was a bit of a hassle, but not too bad.

[spiritkat090909]

First cruise 1995...Hurricane Marilyn, RCI's Sovereign of the Seas (pre-add on decks). We were already on board & had no idea for quite a while WHY the seas were so rough. News in those days while on the ship was REALLY scarce & if I remember correctly internet was not available.

 

We skipped St. Thomas, USVI and were re-routed to St. Croix, USVI.

 

This was the most memorable of cruises...it was Royal's only (Country music) Swing at Sea celebration. Entertainers were Carl Perkins, Johnny Rodriquez, (Johnny Lee & Clinton Gregory cancelled), Kitty Wells, Asleep at the Wheel, & 2 other bands that were unknown then & still unknown...and I can't remember there names but I CAN remember their faces. So, we had PLENTY of entertainment. I actually slept the day of St. Croix...but I saw the pictures. :D

 

It WAS wavey...but, not more so than some cruises I've been on that were NOT in tropical storm waters.

 

The only issue that worries me is actually making it ON the boat if a hurricane is in the predictions. Once onboard, I'm good. Never been delayed back HOME, but it would be nice. :cool: And if the car is flooded in Galveston...we have car insurance. And family close enough to come pick us up if we have spent all of our money & are dumped in New Orleans. (These things have happened to others, read about it here.)

 

P.S. Hurricane season cruising is for those who are FLEXIBLE for their port of calls. If you HAVE to make the island you have chose a specific itinerary for, or you HAVE to be back on X day for a once in a lifetime event...you may want to rethink your plans. If a wedding onboard is planned, go with a cruiseline (Princess) that offers an alternative onboard event if you can't make the island...and don't complain about it. Bend with the wind.

[nybumpkin]

Here is your ship (on your sailing) in Cozumel:

 

 

 

We were right next to you on the Miracle. When we left Tampa a few days prior the seas were somewhat rough due to Hurricane Cindy - heading back to Tampa, it was all Dennis.

 

Tom

And here is your ship coming into Cozumel! (Sorry I had to post it as a thumbnail, but I never uploaded the photos from this cruise to a website.) I remember reading about your late-night debarkation. We were fortunate that while we docked late at night we were able to spend the night aboard.

[SkyMaster]

We do multiple cruises every year during hurricane season, and have NEVER missed a cruise, but have had the itinerary changed, missed ports, and rough seas due to the storms. We've always enjoyed our "hurricane cruises" and the extraordinary fares to do those cruises. :D

 

"SKY"

[oncruisecontrol]

Most of our cruises have been during hurricane season. Other than a really rough ride to Bermuda one year, the only other problem was in 2004 on Caribbean Princess. It was a bad hurricane year, one after the other, and 2 affected our cruise. We ended up changing course from Eastern to Western, but then had to miss more ports-- wound up with only Cozumel and Nassau (probably our two least faves!). But we also had to stay at sea an extra 2 days, making our cruise a 9-day instead of 7-day. (I felt bad for those the week following ours-- they lost 2 days off their cruise.) We'd gotten a great deal on it, plus got upgraded from an inside to an outside, so it ended up being the world's cheapest cruise, I think! Changing flights and work plans was a bit of a hassle, but not too bad.

 

My friends (whose story I recounted in post #21 of this thread) were on the Caribbean Princess sailing immediately following yours. But, as I had stated, we all lived near Port Everglades, so it was not a hassle for them. Princess also gave them a small refund to compensate for the lost 2 days.

[wasiii]

.....last week of August, first week of September. We have never missed a cruise or a port during that time. The only time I missed a port was in November 2008 at HMC. It was a gorgeous day out. Waited up on deck for about an hour and all of a sudden the ship starts to leave.

 

It was too windy for the tender boats to come to the ship.

 

:(

 

But I'll try to go there again this August.

 

:)

 

wasiii

[carsastic]

Thanks for the replies so far, keep them coming. My thinking is that at this point (with 4 cruises under our belt), even if our route does get changed, I've done enough reading here on CC about ports, plus our own experiences, that I'd still have an educated guess or two as to what our excursion options are. Just trying to widen our "window of opportunity" a bit as to when we can go.

yes thats true but when ther are major re -routes.. alot of the time its hard to get in to some of the places ... when there are many more ships in port.. happened to us in coz once... everything was booked...

[Inklight]

Our August 2007 cruise aboard the Imagination was re-routed due to Hurricane Dean. Our original itinerary had us going to Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios with two sea days. A couple of days before we left to embark, Hurricane Dean started forming. We quickly realized the path would drive straight into us by the time we reached Ocho Rios (we would be nose-to-nose with the hurricane).

 

So, much to the shock of family members who weren't going on the cruise ... we took all seven of us to the port for our vacation anyway. I knew Carnival would have a plan, of course. It was between flights that we found out what that plan was ... our cruise itinerary would be completely changed. So, instead of the trip we planned (to Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios) we were now heading for a seemingly 'blind date' cruise to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau.

 

What an adventure ... we had a great time! AND while we were tracking Hurricane Dean and saw that it reached Cat 5 when it hit land ... we didn't see any affect of it whatsoever where we were. The seas were calm and the weather beautiful.

[ccruisequeen]

My Splendor cruise was detoured so we missed a port, but we were compensated with extra OBC & a discount for a future cruise. We'd already booked a cruise on the Elation, so we applied the discount to that & practically sailed Free!:D

 

We had rough seas going out of Ft Lauderdale for the first 2 days on our Princess cruise, but after that, it was smooth sailing!

[cruisinskier]

Last August we were on the NCL Epic and Hurricane Earl turned our eastern Caribbean into a western Caribbean cruise. While we were a little disappointed as we prefer the eastern ports, we had a great cruise, we discovered Roatan which was new to us (the ziplining rocked :D), and we had about 10 minutes of rain all week with very smooth seas....

[sassy_mrsjay]

Last year we book eastern on dream and ended up doing their western. My advice is to research as many port as you can. We didn't know much about the western port. We are booked for Nov to sail a western route and maybe there will be a storm and we can go east. Lol.

[Shelli]

My friends (whose story I recounted in post #21 of this thread) were on the Caribbean Princess sailing immediately following yours. But, as I had stated, we all lived near Port Everglades, so it was not a hassle for them. Princess also gave them a small refund to compensate for the lost 2 days.

 

I did wonder when I read your post if it were that cruise! But there were lots of other ones shortened as well, so it could have been any of them.

[Mike981]

First cruise we took the kids on (15 & 13) was in August (2 or 3 years ago) and I was very worried when I booked it that this might not be a good idea. As we got closer to our date, sure enough a tropical depression formed. The closer the date got, the more I realized that we were going to be effected by one big mother of a storm.

 

The day we flew into Orlando, the sky was dark, then on the drive the closer we got to the port the darker the sky got and you could make out a definite line in the sky where the nasty stuff was.

 

We had light rain as we left the port, but then sunshine. And then more and more sun! The storm was going one way and we the other.

 

Shortly after, the CD came on and said that the captain just told him that we will be able to hit all of our ports and to expect smooth sailing. And smooth it was.

 

Every single day of our seven day cruise was sunny and VERY smooth. In St. Thomas the hurricane sucked all of the dust and sand out of the air that the visibility was incredible for our charted sail boat day.

 

Sadly those who were on land vacations in Florida got nailed. We heard their stories at the airport on the day we flew home.

 

You just never know, but as you tell by those who have been effected by weather, it's all how you adjust and bend with the situation.

 

Have a great time!

 

Oh by the way, we are going on another cruise with the kids in July. :D

[beeg]

If I could've just gotten on the ship...

I know that OP asked about the hurricanes but there are other things that can cancel your cruise. I was supposed to be on Ectasy when it was cancelled 2 weeks out due to the flu epidemic (bird or swine, don't even remeber which now.) The fun for me is the ship, missing ports would just be an adventurous story.

[platinum.wannabe]

Our Honeymoon cruise in late September '02 was re-routed from Calica/Playa Del Carmen & Cozumel to Vera Cruz. :p Didn't bother us (much) and we (finally!!!) have another one booked for this coming October. :D

[CRUISING71]

When is Hurricane Season? We are planning for our BRB cruise in August 2012. Is this time consider Hurricane Season?

[oncruisecontrol]

When is Hurricane Season? We are planning for our BRB cruise in August 2012. Is this time consider Hurricane Season?

 

Atlantic hurricane season is June 1st thru November 30th. So, yes. August is definitely in hurricane season.

[LANDLADY]

This has happened to us 3 times. Three times I have been scheduled to go to St Thomas...haven't made it yet. Twice ours itinerary chnaged completely..once we just skipped St Thomas and had an extra sea day. it's annoying but we just make the best of it. One time they gave us an OBC and then a coupon for 25% off our next cruise. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

[Arizona cruisers]

Liberty Eastern - extremely rough seas, cancelled shows onboard, skipped Grand Turk. I learned that I don't need to pack ginger, accupressure bracelets, or Bonine anymore. We were looking forward to St. John's but spent the day touring St. Thomas instead (with friends we met on cc - hi Stu). Substituted Nassau for Grand Turk. Had an absolute blast anyway and will do the Eastern again so that we can (hopefully) get to Grand Turk and St. John's. We are booked for the Dream Western in October...I have no concern about hitting bad weather as it will be fun no matter what!

[dallas52]

we were rerouted once and this past Jan. we missed two ports due to high winds.

[Colorado Kat]

Years ago, we were on a small vessel (35 total, passengers and crew) in late November. Hurricane, but we skirted it. Seas rough enough that cook fell and broke arm. Took him off ship to hospital, pulled on some kid who had never been on a ship before to be dishwasher, and everyone else got elevated a level. Food was less than good that week, since the person cooking was not really a cook. But still lots of fun.

[PatrickZJD]

On my first cruise back in 2006 on the Legend with my now-wife, we missed the port of San Juan due to a tropical storm. We got a $25 OBC each and had an extra day at sea, with the added benefit of really slowing down the ship as well! Nicci didn't mind at all, as she really dislikes San Juan, but we felt bad for this one couple who habitually shared the hot tub with us -- turns out he was headed home to Puerto Rico to ask his girlfriend to marry him in front of both their families! As it turns out, however, they had a shipboard engagement instead, so all was well that ended well.

[hancogran]

We sailed Victory last September (southern carib.) and missed our last port (St. Marten) due to the weather. Overall, it was still a great cruise since it was pretty port intensive to begin with and the idea of an extra sea day at that point was welcomed :D

[EMc&DrS]

had it effect your cruise? Like being rerouted or having rougher-than-normal seas? Or the opposite and your cruise hasn't been effected?

 

Just curious.

 

We followed behind a cat-4 hurricane all during our first cruise. We made every port, but the waters were rough in Grand Cayman, and there was no power on Cozumel (it had taken a direct hit two days before our arrival). Only one beach on Cozumel was open; most excursions canceled. The storm had upset all the bees nests, and the island was swarming with bees. We had to stay in the ocean up to our necks to avoid being stung. Back at the ship, they had to close all outside food services and bars because it took the bees only about 30 minutes to find there way out to the ship after it docked. Despite the storm, we had a great time and saw very little rain (if any) the entire trip. Since it was our first cruise, we didn't know what to expect anyway, so we thought the trip was great. In two weeks we'll be back in Cozumel for the first time since that trip--hope to see the real Cozumel this time.