Hurricane Season in the Caribbean

[TXCruzing]

I was looking up hurricane predictions for 2016 since we are booked for September. It seems that this hurricane season is either going to be more active than usual or less active than usual. Very helpful, right? ;) My understanding is that cruises are unlikely to be cancelled due to a hurricane but that the ports may change. If you have had a trip changed or cancelled because of a hurricane, I would love to hear about your experiences.

[serene56]

if you are heading to the western caribbean and a hurricane is going there-- you will go some where else-- like the eastern side

 

If a hurricane is coming to where you board the ship could come in a day early or leave a day later.

 

Cruiselines are not putting their ships in harms way

[cb at sea]

Have you listened to the last several years of predictions??? The weather folks know NOTHING! NOTHING, i say!!!

 

A ship will not sail thru a storm, if it's avoidable. The "season" means nothing....just that it's summer and the water warms, which is what enables a storm to form.

 

No worries...book your cruise. You won't be in danger. You might...(might!!!!) miss a port if a storm does form..which is unlikely.

[paul929207]

Be sure you have insurance to cover you.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

A risk you could run is that airports (at least here in Florida) can close when a hurricane nears. If you are flying into Miami, for example, your flight cannot land.

Also the ports themselves can close if they suffer hurricane damage as happened several years ago here. The returning cruise ships had to go to another port and bus passengers back to the closed port to get their cars.

 

As long as the El Nino remains strong the chances of a big hurricane in the Caribbean are smaller because El Nino creates strong winds that tear potential tropical storms and hurricanes apart in the Caribbean. However I did read that some scientists are predicting that El Nino may shift to neutral by summer, so the chances for storms could be higher than last year. But it really is anyone's guess what El Nino will do because it has been so strong.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Gangway Style

[TXCruzing]

Be sure you have insurance to cover you.

 

That's the plan. :)

[djny1077]

Here is my experience, which I'm sure is probably the worst of all "worst case scenarios", but thats the luck I have haha

 

I was scheduled to sail on the 10/29/12 sailing of the NCL Gem. If anyone remembers, that was the day Superstorm Sandy blessed NY with her presence, wreaking havoc, and leaving disaster behind her.

It was a scheduled 9-day Eastern Caribbean (leaving from NY). With the damage from Sandy ships couldn't get into the harbor, so our precious Gem was stuck at sea. :eek:

We were supposed to leave on a Monday. The end result was leaving on that Friday and taking a 5 day trip to Bermuda instead. Not the ideal itinerary I had dreamed about for the 9 months prior, but hey it was a vacation and it was better than being cancelled!

I am one of the lucky few who live locally and was able to make it to the port. Most people weren't as fortunate, with airports being closed for days and a shortage of gas, NYC was not easily accessible. The ship was easily half empty (if it was even that full :eek:).

 

Now for all of those talking about the travel insurance. I feel the need to add that I did have travel insurance on this trip and it proved to be an expensive waste of money. In this case, the people who couldn't make it were refunded in full, and those that did make it, were credited the days that we did not sail. But having travel insurance meant nothing. Trust me, I made many phone calls those few days! I wont spend the money on it again, but thats just my opinion and experience. I'm actually curious to know if anyone has benefited from having insurance, please share if you have!

Edited February 3, 2016 by djny1077

[6rugrats]

I have turned in three travel insurance claims for trips that had to be cancelled due to illness and have received nonrefundable payments back in full.

 

In your case, you took the cruise. I understand your post to say you were refunded for the days you didn't sail. Thus, you had no monetary loss. What did you want your insurance to pay for?

 

Insurance doesn't cover everything.

 

I would never travel out-of-the country without travel insurance.

[Keith1010]

You just never know.

 

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

The biggest impact would be if it hit the port of embarkation or disembarkation when you are sailing but that is highly unlikely. Otherwise if it hit a port of call you are sailing they will drop that port and try to go somewhere else.

 

Keith

[kitty9]

The weather people can't tell the weather if they look out the window of their office.

[MarKay525]

I was looking up hurricane predictions for 2016 since we are booked for September. It seems that this hurricane season is either going to be more active than usual or less active than usual. Very helpful, right? ;) My understanding is that cruises are unlikely to be cancelled due to a hurricane but that the ports may change. If you have had a trip changed or cancelled because of a hurricane, I would love to hear about your experiences.

 

In November, 2013 when we were on the inaugural 7 day Caribbean sailing of the Royal Princess our first port was supposed to be Princess Cay, their private resort. Due to a nasty storm (not a hurricane), we were rerouted to Turks and Caicos instead with our back-to-back sea days at the beginning of the cruise instead of the end. We made our other two ports, St. Thomas and St. Maarten, but not on the days we were originally scheduled to be in those ports. One sea day at the end and we were safely back in Ft. Lauderdale. (I enjoyed the change as I'd never been to Grand Turk.)

 

We had arranged to fly in a day before our departure - always a good game plan IMHO.

Edited February 3, 2016 by MarKay525

[djny1077]

I have turned in three travel insurance claims for trips that had to be cancelled due to illness and have received nonrefundable payments back in full.

 

In your case, you took the cruise. I understand your post to say you were refunded for the days you didn't sail. Thus, you had no monetary loss. What did you want your insurance to pay for?

 

Insurance doesn't cover everything.

 

I would never travel out-of-the country without travel insurance.

 

You make a good point, never thought about it like that. Thats why I was asking - thank you!! I wasn't looking for any monetary compensation. Really, all I wanted to do was rebook the same itinerary for one of the following sailings but they wouldn't let me. I guess I can kind of understand, I'm sure everyone was trying to do that as well. However, I had my heart set on that particular itinerary. We did go to Bermuda, and, even though the trip was cut short, not where I wanted to go and the weather was poor, we still made the best of it, had a great time and, at that point, I was just happy to be going. I had never been on a cruise before so it was still exciting. But I still have not made it to the Caribbean :(

[kdzgon]

Here is my experience, which I'm sure is probably the worst of all "worst case scenarios", but thats the luck I have haha

 

.....But having travel insurance meant nothing. Trust me, I made many phone calls those few days! I wont spend the money on it again, but thats just my opinion and experience. I'm actually curious to know if anyone has benefited from having insurance, please share if you have!

 

We sailed on a Christmas cruise (So Caribbean, out of Puerto Rico) a number of years back (2000), flying in and out of Newark airport. We returned to port in San Juan on Dec 30 and were scheduled to fly back later that day. Well, there was a huge blizzard forecast for the northeast, and nearly all flights to the area had been canceled proactively. Because of the holiday, hotel rooms were limited and expensive (I think it was ~$200 per night, back in 2000!)

 

Crazy as it sounds, it took nearly a week for them to get us out of Puerto Rico back to NJ. We had travel insurance. The insurance paid for the five nights in a hotel, meals, and incidentals in Puerto Rico - it was a pretty nice vacation extension, made better by the fact that it didn't cost us a dime extra!

 

I suspect the travel insurance didn't matter in your case because of the magnitude and related potential bad PR. I think had you been delayed four or five days due to a less publicized/less destructive storm (or even perhaps a storm that didn't affect the US in quite the same way) your experience might have been different.

 

Now, on the other side: we cruised with my parents the year before. On that cruise, my dad had a severe heart attack and had to be airlifted from port (Jamaica) in the morning to a hospital in Miami. My mom left the ship with him, but DH and I did not. They had travel insurance - paid for the ambulance, airlift, delivery of luggage home, my mom's hotel room for several days and I don't know what else. DH and I did not have insurance, so while we weren't sure if my dad was going to survive the next few days (they had saved his life on that Celebrity ship that day!), DH and I didn't really have the funds available to get off at port and arrange flights to Miami with my parents.

 

That experience, btw, is why we had travel insurance for that Christmas cruise, despite having no severe personal health issues or hurricane threats. We learned then that good travel insurance covers a lot more than the disappointment of a missed port or two.

[djny1077]

That experience, btw, is why we had travel insurance for that Christmas cruise, despite having no severe personal health issues or hurricane threats. We learned then that good travel insurance covers a lot more than the disappointment of a missed port or two.

 

Thank you for your story! I really am starting to change my mind. It is a girls trip, and we will all have kids at home. In my case, I am local to port, but my 2 friends are not. 1 is flying in from CA and the other driving from TN. I really do have a bad track record when it comes to big trips like this. lol

I've inquired about it from my TA and really, in the grand scheme of things it is a small price to pay, per person for peace of mind in emergency.

 

If you had the insurance, would it have covered your expense if the emergency was your dad? Asking because if something happened to our kids at home, would it cover travel expense for us to get to our kid?

[TXCruzing]

Just purchased our insurance today. Weather wasn't our only concern. We will be leaving 3 children behind with family, and my husband has no siblings, so if something happened with his parents, we would need to cancel. It is worth it for peace of mind.

[Mud_Shark]

We did a September Caribbean cruise last year (2015). Our final stop was to be Princess Cays, but due to a hurricane approaching the Bahamas, it was cancelled. The cruise was still great. Weather was beautiful at all 5 of the other stops - not a drop of rain or even much cloud at all.

 

I read on a website that the average chance for a Hurricane to make landfall in Florida in September is approx. 7% per year. If you are in Florida for half a month, your chance of having a Hurricane make landfall while you are there (not necessarily in your area) would be 3.5% (half the total % for the month). That's not all that high.

 

Of course a Cruise does not just stay in Florida, but the percentage for a Hurricane to hit any of the islands has to be somewhat similar. And the ship will have great weather reports and steer clear if a Hurricane is bearing down towards their position on the open water.

 

We have not purchased travel insurance for any of our previous cruises or trips (10 years of trips - 1 trip per year, only 2 cruises). We have health coverage, but figure that if we have a problem and have to cancel or incur some costs due to factors unforeseen, it has evened out after not paying insurance on all the other trips.

 

 

 

Don

[kdzgon]

...We have not purchased travel insurance for any of our previous cruises or trips (10 years of trips - 1 trip per year, only 2 cruises). We have health coverage, but figure that if we have a problem and have to cancel or incur some costs due to factors unforeseen, it has evened out after not paying insurance on all the other trips.

 

 

 

Don

 

Let's face it: buying insurance is sort of like betting something bad will happen, right? It was truly the emotional pull that triggered our purchase (that ultimately financed a pretty sweet vacation extension for us!).

 

I will say though that the cost of travel insurance for those 10 years of trips would likely still have been less than the cost of the one airlift for my dad, never mind everything else it paid.

 

Now that my DH has the health issues he has, for us it's no longer the same "optional" purchase I once considered it to be.

[Flatbush Flyer]

Let's face it: buying insurance is sort of like betting something bad will happen, right? It was truly the emotional pull that triggered our purchase (that ultimately financed a pretty sweet vacation extension for us!).

 

 

 

I will say though that the cost of travel insurance for those 10 years of trips would likely still have been less than the cost of the one airlift for my dad, never mind everything else it paid.

 

 

 

Now that my DH has the health issues he has, for us it's no longer the same "optional" purchase I once considered it to be.

 

 

Witnessing one med evac is all you'll need to cure any doubt about the importance of insurance.

[kcdancerkc]

Booked to go to the ABC islands

 

Outside of the hurricane belt! :)

 

Bucket list islands!

[navybankerteacher]

Booked to go to the ABC islands

 

Outside of the hurricane belt! :)

 

Bucket list islands!

 

The islands, yes; getting to them, maybe not.

[FireStation46]

Even the weather experts are more like an Oracle's pronouncements

 

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-season-2016-after-strong-el-nino

 

Go, enjoy. If you bought cruise insurance that will help a but. If they have to change destinations, they will. The industry will be studying what recently happened on the Anthem this month and i am sure they will up their game.

 

If you are still concerned and can adjust your schedule, do it now.

 

In the main, just go and enjoy!

[etherknot]

I wouldn't worry too much about a hurricane as long as you're on the boat.

 

I was on Rhapsody of the Seas in late August 2005. You may have heard of a small tropical storm named; Katrina? It was following us pretty close but we were faster and got out of Galveston hours before it made landfall. Was pretty lucky. But while on board the only thing I noticed was the deck not quite matching up where my foot was going to be when walking. The captain kept us quite informed about any changes they were planning on making (bee-line-it-the-heck-outta-there).

 

Travel insurance could not be a bad thing to purchase.

[bigsky]

We've cruised many times during hurricane season. We have one booked for September as well. That's how worried I am. We've been effected once out of 12. Just rerouted us to another port.

 

 

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[GMRPHRN]

I was on the CL Glory last year the week after a cruise. We missed one port and it was the one I was most looking forward to, but that is life. I was most disappointed because it created an extra sea day which are not my favorites.

[mamkmm2]

Hurricanes aren't the only kind of storm that can affect cruise itineraries. Living here in Florida for most of my life I've seen it all. Our afternoon squall lines are sometimes stronger and do more damage than Cat 1 and 2 hurricanes, it all depends on the winds and volume of wet stuff and how fast it comes down.

 

Last August was our first Caribbean cruise. Honestly? I probably won't do one again, at least on Carnival. I see that kind of stuff every day. Had more fun in Key West than we did Cozumel. I watched the other passengers get in a funk and worry about a hurricane that threatened our trip. It did affect some of the eastern cruise itineraries but we weren't the least bit affected except for the extra heat and humidity.

 

There isn't a thing you can do to change the weather so just be prepared.