What happens when there's a hurricane to cruise ports/routes etc?

Hey Im wondering, this is only my second cruise and Luckily my first one was great weather.

I am in the Dawn on Aug 22 to bahamas. But there is tropical storm reports etc...

So my question what happens to the cruise if their are storms around your ports or ion your route etc..???

Does the cruise cancel or what?

anyone been stuck in anything bad? any stories ?

Or will we be brought to different ports?

thanks

Last year, our cruise to Bermuda was the first week in September and a hurricane hit Bermuda Friday and we were leaving Sunday. I called the cruise line several times on Saturday and they could not tell me definately where we were going but could say we definately would not go to Bermuda as it was too bad there. SO we ended up going to Maine, Massachusetts and Canada. If you cancelled, you lost your money. The only compensation they offered us a coupon for $200 per person off a Bermuda cruise this summer. Quite a few people on board the ship complained the WHOLE week, but a cruise is a cruise. The food was great, service excellent. As the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons make lemonade.

One thing that happens is some people will log onto the boards saying they should get a full credit because their ship didn't go where it was scheduled to go.

-Monte

Last year here in Hawaii - we had a hurricane and guess what - it was right in our way to go down to Fanning Island. Since I was paying attention prior to sailing, I knew we probably weren't going to go to Fanning. As soon as we checked in we were given a sheet with the expected new itinerary. One port was closed the day we were supposed to go there, so we went to that port on a different day, they added another port visit on Maui, and everything got a bit scrambled up as to when we did activities on board and port calls - but I think about everything was done except the trip to Fanning.

They also opened up the duty-free shopping so we could buy as much of what we wanted as we wanted and since I smoked back then - I bought I think 8 or 10 cartons of cigarettes. Lots of people were buying lots of alcohol or jewelry...

Oh...since things were scrambled up - the shore excursion desk was bombarded every day. Since I booked a rental car and took their phone numbers with me...as soon as I knew our new schedule, I called them all and rearranged the rentals. I did have 1 shore excursion booked that I had already planned on cancelling but I was told I couldn't cancel it until I got the tickets. They never came and I never got charged for it.

I think NCL did a wonderful job of handling things on our cruise with that hurricane in our way. Believe me, I would rather have missed Fanning Island then try to sail through a hurricane to get there...lol!!! But I did notice a lot of people were upset about it and seemed surprised. Don't they even watch the news or anything or do even a fundimental research on what they are going to be doing???

Okay...*smile* Off my soapbox.

Emi

One thing that happens is some people will log onto the boards saying they should get a full credit because their ship didn't go where it was scheduled to go.

 

-Monte

Yeah right that happens a lot there is a lot of BS about getting full credit. When we went to Canada instead of Bermuda not only did I get full credit, a free cruise and a letter from Colin Veitch they paid my liquor bill(yeah right) any one want to buy the brooklyn bridge...

So my question what happens to the cruise if their are storms around your ports or ion your route etc..???

 

Does the cruise cancel or what?

It's highly unlikely that the entire cruise would be cancelled. But it's always possible that the itinerary will be modified, meaning a port might be missed or the sequence of ports might be shuffled. Every cruise is subject to the small print in your cruise contract, which allows the Captain to change the cruise itinerary as he sees fit based primarily on safety issues. Believe me, this is a good thing. You do not want the Captain to be forced to adhere to an itinerary if it means sailing through a hurricane.

You do not want the Captain to be forced to adhere to an itinerary if it means sailing through a hurricane.

Aw come on, where's your spirit of adventure? (hey, that would make a good name for a ship)

-Monte

Aw come on, where's your spirit of adventure? (hey, that would make a good name for a ship)

With so many ships out there, that MUST be a ship name. Probably one of those small ships (more like a big yacht) with 100 passengers max.

On my Mediterranean cruise back in 1997 on the Pacific Princess, we skirted a fairly major storm at sea and had to skip one port (Olympia). We were disappointed but knew the Captain had made the right decision. That night, in the dining room, at one point, the plates, utensils and glasses all slid across the table, with some of them crashing to the floor. Not surprisingly, many people were missing from dinner. I assume they were in their cabins trying to cope with the turbulence or in the infirmary seeking medical solace. That's probably close to my limit as far as spirit of adventure when it comes to storms at sea.

But the bright side is that the main dining room became "all you could eat" (course in seas like that "all" is not much)

BTW-You're right, the MV Spirit of Adventure does tours into Glacier Bay (I googled it)

-Monte

Well I wouldnt mind different ports, however i would mind if they went north instead of south.

I mean mass, maine that is not a vacation. At least not for me.

I expect warm weather not an early taste of winter.

But hopefully the worst that will happen is ports get re-shuffled.

I would be pretty pissed if i had to go to canada instead, i live in NY i can go to canada anytime i feel like driving up there. That would truly suck.

In a way...that's how my friend felt about our cruise. We live in Hawaii and ended up with an extra Hawaiian port and longer time in Hilo...that sort of thing. And we could literally drive to Hilo in 2 hours - so - she was a bit upset about not being able to go to Fanning Island...that is somewhere we just can't go to every day. Not mad at NCL or anything - just mad in general at the way things turned out.

Emi

Hey skilzygw... I too are going on the NCL Dawn on 8/22 and I see by your profile you were born in 1979... send me an email, I am looking for people my age to hang with... Terrence, 24, CT

We were sailing out of Yokohama to Honolulu and hit the tail end of a typhoon. Spend two days plowing through waves like those old WWII movies. Ship was rolling 20 degrees each way (IIRC) and the pool became a giant wave machine. I would not recommend it.

On my last cruise, we were near Costa Rica and went thru a 'Noreasterner . . . boy, that wasn't fun. The weather got really bad around dinner time and after that, everything on the ship closed down and you couldn't even walk down the hallway without holding on. I went to sleep that night with my life jacket right on the floor next to me!! Thankfully, it was all over by morning and I never even got seasick.

hey all,

my bf and i (both in our 20's) will be going on the dawn on 8/22 too. i too are worry bout the storms and hurricane..PRAY nothing bad will happen. we even booked a snorkeling at stirrup cay, our first snorkeling trip and totally looking forward to it

- sillybutt

Hang in there guys. Hurricanes can change at any time. You may not have any problems at all. Rest assured that the Captain will take good care of you. We were supposed to spend two days in shanghai on our way to Hong Kong one year and were threatened by a typhoon. The captain pulled us out after the first day saying it was too risky to stay. We skirted the typhoon, everyone had free wine that evening and when we got to Hong Kong a day early we were given shore excursions while we spent the additional night on board and had a fabulous time.

Good luck, chin up, happy thoughts and happy sails...;) (Pollyanna-Colette)

i am also going ont he dawn this sunday. and there are some nasty weather resports goign on . id hate to think that wed head somewhere north as opposed to south .especially for me livin on long island for that i oculd hop on i95 and drive to maine if i wanted lobster that bad. i was hoping for some sun and sand . well see if i get either. but as far as the ship i sailed teh same ship to the same places back in december. and i remember talkint to teh captain about rolling adn waves. he said the ship can tilt on either side to a 45 degree angle and still be fine. me personally i love a rocky ship its kinda like being gilligan except its the dawn not the S.S. Minnow. im sure somewhere on the boat there willbe a rich couple a movie star a skipper adn theres gota be a professor somewhere school doenst start quite yet. well ill see everyone with their raincoats and unbrellas at the poolside bar.

Adam

Bmada419@aol.com

p.s. neone wanna try to see abotu meeting up e-mail or im me im 19 with a fake id that works everywhere hahaha

undefinedundefinedundefined

Biggest problem would be if the hurricane is hitting the embarkation port: big problem there. In most other cases the captain can steer around storms and yes, you may miss a port or two or God forbid you may go North instead of South, but better than become another Titanic. It might be kinda fun to start out heading to St Martin and end up in Canada. lOL.

NMNita

ps I wouldn't expect one penny reimbursement if the weather caused a course change, well pay my bar bill please!!!

NMnita

Here's a funny story that happened to a friend of mine. He was scheduled to sail out of Los Angeles on a 7night Mexican Riviera cruise, he was part of a group celebrating a friends wedding. There were two hurricanes hovering off the coast of Cabo. Once they checked in the Captain said that due to the hurricanes in Mexico, he was going to revise their itinerary. They sailed up to San Francisco where they docked for two nights (my friend lives in San Francisco) then sailed to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. Talk about being dissapointed. He made the best of it though; he put a group together of cruise passengers and gave them the best city tour of San Francisco these folks have ever seen. He even spent one night in his own bed in his apartment instead of staying on the ship. He could have complained for 7days but instead he made the best of it. The cruise line did offer some compensation and gave each passenger a certificate off of a future cruise.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

we've missed grand cayman 2x because of storms and the fact that the tenders can't hook up to the ship. One time was on a MLB cruise on the Dream (or the Wind?) in November and this late season hurricane was going all weird paths through the Caribbean.....rough but fun!!!

We ran into some people on our past cruise that must have been on the same cruise as Cruiseone2003's friends. It was a Carnival Cruise and at the first port (Cabo) they were given the option of staying on board, go with the Pacific coastal itinerary, $200 onboard credit and a discount for 50% off another cruise. The other option was to disembark in Cabo, full cruise reimbursement and airline fare back to LA.

They stayed on the ship and had a fabulous time. About half of the people left-grumbling and complaining about how Carnival ruined their vacation. Cabo was hit by the hurricane later that day, shutting down the airport, no electricity, closing hotels, etc. Those that got off the ship were STUCK with no way out.

Last year here in Hawaii - we had a hurricane and guess what - it was right in our way to go down to Fanning Island......about everything was done except the trip to Fanning.

 

Emi

That brings up a question. Since Fanning is the foreign port that the Jones Act requires of non-USA-registered ships, what does NCL do to satisfy it? I wouldn't think that the feds would allow missing a foreign port; they are not known for making allowances, even for a hurricane! Anybody know?

From what I remember reading in a thread, I think they end up paying a $200 pp fine.

You can request that a hearing officer remit the fine. Sometimes they do sometimes they don't NCL paid 1,000,000 in such fines last year.