What If %@&!

[pepsicruiser]

I have relatives sailing on a reposition cruise on Jewel from Boston to Florida (I think Miami/FLL not sure) the end of Oct. What do you think could happen if a hurricane started up the coast and Jewel couldn't just decide to go north for change of itinerary? What could happen? Could it pull into port along eastern coast?

[cruiseguy1016]

My guess is it would head out to sea to calmer waters (Bermuda maybe?). Ships don't like to be in port during a hurricane.

[negc]

Generally speaking, the last place a cruise ship wants to be when a hurricane or tropical storm is in the vicinity, is in port. Most likely the ship would head as far out to sea as feasible to minimize the effects of the storm (remember that tropical storms extend hundreds of miles out from the eye, so they don't need to be in the direct path of the storm to feel its effects). A second thing to note is that the path of such storms can be very difficult to predict (see Fay's performance just weeks ago in Florida when it took forever to leave and actually made at least four landfalls (west and east coast) before finally moving on. We are also on thr Jewel repositioning cruise but have sailed in hurricane season before and have great confidence in the captain's ability to protect us, the crew and the vessel from the power of the storm. A few years back we were docked in Bermuda when Wilma passed us by and the authorities actually closed the port meaning that our departure was delayed by several hours. We were on the outer fringes of the storm and aside from some rain and winds we were not seriously effected.

Trust the cruiseline and its captains to take whatever measures and routes are required to reduce any danger, but always be prepared to have your itinerary changed and the ship rerouted.

[barbarah33]

I did that cruise two years ago and we had a similar situation with a hurricane coming. The ship is aware of all weather patterns and the captain will adjust the sailing as necessary. You may have to skip a port somewhere or change islands but they will do everything they can to avoid a tropical storm and hurricane; no worries.

[pepsicruiser]

Thank you for all your replies. I'll pass it on to my family.

[abridalmaven]

I have relatives sailing on a reposition cruise on Jewel from Boston to Florida (I think Miami/FLL not sure) the end of Oct. What do you think could happen if a hurricane started up the coast and Jewel couldn't just decide to go north for change of itinerary? What could happen? Could it pull into port along eastern coast?

It has happened and you can imagine the complaints. Some people would have rather braved the storm than go North.:eek:

[go^uk]

Haven't cruised the Caribbean (only Europe so far).

 

What would happen (if it hasn't already) if your disembarkation port was inaccessible due to the weather?

 

Does the ship circle offshore? Does it divert to another port? What happens to the passengers travel arrangements to go home?

 

Just curious...

[pepsicruiser]

A couple of years ago a few ships ran into that problem with Florida ports during a hurricane. I remember hearing some ships extended sailings to avoid returning to port in a storm. It caused a lot of havoc.

 

My original concern was if a storm was coming north and would the ship go north instead of south but that would screw of the future cruise going out of Fla. Having read the other posts I now see the ship would go further out to sea to avoid problems.

[SUZCRUZ]

Haven't cruised the Caribbean (only Europe so far).

 

What would happen (if it hasn't already) if your disembarkation port was inaccessible due to the weather?

 

Does the ship circle offshore? Does it divert to another port? What happens to the passengers travel arrangements to go home?

 

Just curious...

 

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, WE COULDN'T RETURN TO Ft. Lauderdale, so we went to Tampa. They put us in a very nice hotel, then bussed us back to Port Everglades.

It was an adventure.

[Cruisenouvelle]

Statistically, few hurricanes form or strengthen in late October. I would not worry too much about it. ("The Perfect Storm" was a once in a century event...)

[LAKaye]

Statistically, few hurricanes form or strengthen in late October. I would not worry too much about it. ("The Perfect Storm" was a once in a century event...)

 

October 2001--Bermuda--Nordic Empress......tied to the pier at the west end of Bermuda, Dockyard, during a hurricane that blew up not from Africa and through the gulf, but just straight out of the middle of the Atlantic.

 

DH and I in our stateroom aboard the ship, he dead asleep throughout the "tempest" (get it?) and me, scared to death, shivering in bed, wishing that I had left the ship to check into a shoreside hotel that afternoon.....fond memories of the Zenith getting out of "Dodge" in time. The Nordic Empress could go nowhere because we were to be in port another day, and so many of our passengers were ashore---we couldn't leave, couldn't run away from the storm....

 

The ship was tied to the pier all night, engines running full speed ahead, while The Faithful, the largest tugboat in Bermuda, had her prow pressed against the rear end of the Nordic Empress, just to keep her straight in the storm.

 

This was the sailing of October 6, 2001. Was anyone else here aboard on that sailing? The next morning the sun came out, and the ship stayed in Bermuda one extra day while RCI and other engineering folks came to study the long gash in the port side of the ship and determine whether or not she was seaworthy. It took a month to repair the pier in Dockyard.

 

A 7 night cruise became and 8-nighter, and we sailed again on this ship exactly one year later, using our issued good-will credit of I don't remember how much...

 

Just wanted folks to know that not every storm is outrun. :)

 

Bon Voyage~~

 

Leslie

[jillyfish]

Haven't cruised the Caribbean (only Europe so far).

 

What would happen (if it hasn't already) if your disembarkation port was inaccessible due to the weather?

 

Does the ship circle offshore? Does it divert to another port? What happens to the passengers travel arrangements to go home?

 

Just curious...

We were out during hurricane Jeanne. The captain was trying to get us back to Port Everglades a day early, ahead of the storm. But on the way they closed Port Everglades so we stayed out to sea until Monday instead of returning on Saturday as scheduled.

 

I had made our own air arrangements, fortunately we were not booked to fly home until Monday so we were able to catch our flight. Even if we had made it into port, the airport was closed at least Saturday too.

 

 

[Luv4dacruise]

October 2001--Bermuda--Nordic Empress......tied to the pier at the west end of Bermuda, Dockyard, during a hurricane that blew up not from Africa and through the gulf, but just straight out of the middle of the Atlantic.

 

DH and I in our stateroom aboard the ship, he dead asleep throughout the "tempest" (get it?) and me, scared to death, shivering in bed, wishing that I had left the ship to check into a shoreside hotel that afternoon.....fond memories of the Zenith getting out of "Dodge" in time. The Nordic Empress could go nowhere because we were to be in port another day, and so many of our passengers were ashore---we couldn't leave, couldn't run away from the storm....

 

The ship was tied to the pier all night, engines running full speed ahead, while The Faithful, the largest tugboat in Bermuda, had her prow pressed against the rear end of the Nordic Empress, just to keep her straight in the storm.

 

This was the sailing of October 6, 2001. Was anyone else here aboard on that sailing? The next morning the sun came out, and the ship stayed in Bermuda one extra day while RCI and other engineering folks came to study the long gash in the port side of the ship and determine whether or not she was seaworthy. It took a month to repair the pier in Dockyard.

 

A 7 night cruise became and 8-nighter, and we sailed again on this ship exactly one year later, using our issued good-will credit of I don't remember how much...

 

Just wanted folks to know that not every storm is outrun. :)

 

Bon Voyage~~

 

Leslie

 

 

Wow, that really is an amazing story Leslie.

[daytona]

Leslie-We were on that cruise also. You described it very very well. Ive got our cruise compasses from that trip out right now. We sailed Oct 7th it looked like. We were supposed to sail from NYC but we all know what happened a month before. I couldn't remember which Celebrity ship left that afternoon but remember hoping they had good luck.

 

Its getting late here but I will pull out the pictures from the cruise tommorrow. I know we have a few of the tug/pier, etc. Do you have any? We did the same trip 2yrs later and it went off with out a hitch.

 

We leave on the Mariner for a BtoB Sunday so we may have some more storm action.:D

 

Dave

[Luv4dacruise]

Leslie-We were on that cruise also. You described it very very well. Ive got our cruise compasses from that trip out right now. We sailed Oct 7th it looked like. We were supposed to sail from NYC but we all know what happened a month before. I couldn't remember which Celebrity ship left that afternoon but remember hoping they had good luck.

 

Its getting late here but I will pull out the pictures from the cruise tommorrow. I know we have a few of the tug/pier, etc. Do you have any? We did the same trip 2yrs later and it went off with out a hitch.

 

We leave on the Mariner for a BtoB Sunday so we may have some more storm action.:D

 

Dave

 

That would be great to see those pictures Dave.

 

Happy Cruising!

[JanineM]

Just last week they diverted cruises from Port Canaveral because of Tropical Storm Fay.

 

Both Disney and Carnival had cruises return to Fort Lauderdale, where those passengers were bussed back to PC.

 

The passengers who were to DEPART from PC that day (it was last Wednesday, I think) were bussed from PC to Fort Lauderdale. Their cruise returned to PC on Monday morning.

[cyndyt]

I was on the Rhapsody cruise out of Galveston in 2005 that had to stay out an extra 3 days because the hurricane was headed for that port. My kids thought it was great.