New predictions for upcoming hurricane season

[Golfgrl1911]

Just curious, for anyone who's booked a cruise during this years hurricane season, are you fearful of the horrendous predictions they've given for this year? 7 hurricanes, 3 of them major and 13 tropical storms!! A bunch of us cruisers went through a tremendous amount of stress last season....and never imagining it happening again we went ahead and booked (again) for September......I realize this is the nature of the beast at this time of the year, but having grown up in Florida we never experienced anything like the past year was. What do you all think the chances are of having a repeat of last year? Nancy

[Vic The Parrot]

Who knows what will happen?

 

Some of these people can't get the local forecast right, and they're trying to scare us with a bad hurricane season??

 

I say bring em on.......

 

 

;)

[Sage]

Vic, I appreciate your attitude, but sitting here in Florida, may I add "bring them on" some where other than Florida. May they stay out to sea and bother no one.

[Tarkus]

Vic, I appreciate your attitude, but sitting here in Florida, may I add "bring them on" some where other than Florida. May they stay out to sea and bother no one.

amen! in late february i moved about 30 miles south of punta gorda / port charlotte (ground zero for hurricane charley)... and eventhough they just finished my hurricane shutters - and i've already bought a generator and a myriad of supplies - i am praying i don't need any of them for many years to come!

 

but i fear my prudence may well have been justified, based on current predictions...

[spcl4cs_gal]

No fear here...already booked and ready to go in August. If it's cancelled, forced out to sea, or I'm stranded in a hotel, so be it. As was the case with the 9-11 hijackers thing, if you let fear rule your life and you stop flying/cruising you might as well live in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. ;)

[Time2sail]

We don't live in fear but we respect Mother Nature; a hurricane is not something we ask to "bring on." The panhandle is still recovering and rebuilding.

 

I hope none of your cruises is interrupted by a hurricane and that the mainland of Florida will be spared the destruction and death that even a Category 1 brings with it.

 

We love living here--it is paradise until the hard winds blow and our riverbanks overflow:)

[TT]

Sage I agree with you. Since I live in Port Charlotte and have 80,000 in damage and still our home is not done and here it comes again. We booked Europe for Oct. and are having friends look after the house while we are gone. Since our slider will not come in till July and duct tape is holding the door in place we are praying for no high winds. Good luck to all this year and watch yourself booking. Don't forget we were also supposed to be on the 9/4 cruise on the O.

 

Good luck all.

 

Toma

[Splatitudes]

don't they predict that EVERY year?

[jhannah]

.. if you let fear rule your life and you stop flying/cruising you might as well live in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. ;)

I totally agree with your point as it relates to terrorists. But I don't believe it is applicable in this case. Terrorism targets are not that predictable. We know, however, with a fair degree of certainty when devistating weather conditions are most likely. Just as I'd choose to not travel to the Middle East right now, I would choose to not travel in the Caribbean during hurricane season. It's not a matter of fear on my part. I simply prefer to not take the unnecessary risk.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Living in West Palm Beach and going through 2 horrendous hurricanes in rapid succession last year, I certainly am very concerned about the upcoming hurricane season.

 

On the other hand, as they say every year, it isn't how many there are ... it's where they hit ... or whether they die out to sea or simply head north into the Atlantic. In the end, it only takes one. The amount of hurricanes each season do not vary that much ... what varies is the number that will hit somewhere along the East coast. From my perspective, I hope it's somewhere other than here. But no place is good ... so let them all die out in the huge Atlantic.

As far as cruising during hurricane season, I would not recommend someone choosing August and September (the peak of the season) to cruise unless they are very flexible with their schedule, don't mind cancellations and are amenable to a change of itinerary. Otherwise, try to stay on the tail ends of the season or avoid it altogether.

[sail7seas]

Of course no one can know in advance where/how many/how bad hurricanes may be this year.

 

For many years, we have cruised every summer in the Caribbean. Never have we had any problems because of hurricanes. We've cruised June, July, August, September, October and November.

I've been moaning and groaning that HAL is taking all ships out of the Caribbean spring, summer and fall 2006......WE wanted to book at least one set of b-to-b's for spring/summer.

What will be and we won't know until it happens. Fingers and toes crossed that no hurricanes hit land anywhere this season.

Remember........it isn't just Florida that is threatened by hurricanes. It's just that Florida had such a horrible year 2004. All the way up the east coast is vulnerable to the wrath of hurricanes. We've had some pretty bad ones in Boston through the years. The Carolinas certainly have suffered devastation from hurricanes as have many other locations.

[bepsf]

...and folks wonder how we could ever live here in the West because of all the earthquakes! :cool:

[sail7seas]

...and folks wonder how we could ever live here in the West because of all the earthquakes! :cool:

And how do folks live in the heartland with all those tornados?

Every reagion has Mother Nature threats in one form or another.

[Vic The Parrot]

To my fellow cruise mates in FL.

 

 

I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers regarding my comment.

These storms are unpredictable, and vile .. no one knows what will happen til the last minute.

 

Looking back now, 2004 was a bad year.

It's just like any other meteoroligical prediction ... sometimes yes, sometimes no.

 

I'm sorry about my post. I'll be more careful in my choice of words next time.

[Time2sail]

Thanks. We are all still a little on edge from last year; it does get on one's nerves after a few of those hurricanes pass through.:) Tornadoes did a lot of damage as well as flooding from days and days of rain.

[iluvcruzin]

You will all think this is a crazy comment. but I hope Sylvia Browne is not correct in her prediction of this being a bad year for Hurricanes. No matter where folks live on the coast line, I sure hope she's wrong on this one. (ok.. call me a TV goof as I watch her on Montel)

[spcl4cs_gal]

I definitely did not intend to insult any of the Florida people on here with my remarks about hurricanes. I sympathize with you totally. However I fully intend to cruise during the summer regardless of the possible risks. Everything is insured so there is no risk of losing money. Last summer I cruised once in July and once in August and had no encounters with storms. No one can predict when they will hit so cruisers just have to take their chances.

[kryos]

I was on the Zuiderdam during last year's hurricane season ... never again.

 

While I never felt any discomfort (the captain kept us well out of harm's way), we did miss a lot of ports and had most of the water-related shore excursions cancelled. Also, the first half of my b2b was extended by 2.5 days because Port Everglades was closed. While this didn't affect me (I was scheduled to be on the ship the following week anyway), it meant a lot of sea days that the ship wasn't set up to handle. A Caribbean cruise generally does not have a very extensive daily program since there are not a lot of sea days. The cruise director's staff had to really scramble to come up with added activities ... and they did well in this regard, in my opinion.

 

The cruise was a great experience ... we got to see/do some things that normally wouldn't be available (for example, a tour of the crew areas of the ship), and I got some nice onboard credits and a future cruise credit, but I think I would have had a much better cruise experience if we had made all of our ports, and had the full range of shore excursions to participate in.

 

So, I would never trust sailing during hurricane season again, and from all indications I'm hearing, this year's hurricane season is expected to be just as bad, if not worse, than last summer's.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[oliviaonthe beach]

Victhe Parrot,

I am impressed with your willingness to apologize for what was an unintentionally offensive use of words. Hope nobody gave you too hard a time about it. Here in Virginia Beach we are not quite as vulnerable as the Floridians but many folks here are always waiting for the "big one". We just pack up and head west (dogs, kids, and all)!

[Tarkus]

vic, at least for me no apology needed. i was able to read between the lines that "bring it on" referred to hurricanes and how they relate to cruising - and in no way were you suggesting to "bring it on" for further damage to life and property for those of us who live in vulnerable areas.

 

that said, i'm sure the apology will engender a lot of good will. kudos! :)

[cruzingqueen]

I definitely did not intend to insult any of the Florida people on here with my remarks about hurricanes. I sympathize with you totally. However I fully intend to cruise during the summer regardless of the possible risks. Everything is insured so there is no risk of losing money. Last summer I cruised once in July and once in August and had no encounters with storms. No one can predict when they will hit so cruisers just have to take their chances.

 

I was one of the fortunate ones who was due back from my 7 day cruise and then on the last night, the Captain came on and said Port Everglades was closed due to a hurricane being between us and Florida and we could not return until Monday morning (rather than Sat AM). He promised sunny skies and calm seas and we had just that sitting five miles off the coast of Cuba with about 15 other cruise ships. We ran out of lettuce and olives but that was it! HAL was amazing getting last minute agendas and activities planned. Imagine my bosses reaction when I called and said "I'm stuck on my cruise and can't come back as planned".

[Cracker Ken]

I live here in Polk County, FL where 3 of those 2004 hurricanes crossed paths. Charley was small, compact, and fast moving, and the center was far enough away to keep the winds down to about 60 (that doesn't sound too bad until you are in it). The eye of Frances and Jeanne passed over us. Not fun. We have a newer house, and the storms had fizzled to some extent (highest gusts in Jeanne were about 90 here) when they passed, and we didn't have damage (we don't have any trees to fall on us).

 

The scientist have a lot of data and trends they utilize when making the predictions. They certainly aren't exact with the science, but they are accurate enough to get my attention. We are said to be in a cycle where we will probably experience the same frequency of storms we had last year, maybe even a little worse, for a period of years. Still, they don't know where the storms will go once they form. So, even though there may be a lot of them, it leaves us wondering where they will go.

 

One of the worst things I find with hurricanes (I've lived here in Central FL all my life, 52 yrs), is the misery of watching them heading your way. I'm fully aware of what the hurricanes are, how they act, and what they can do to me, and knowing for days that one is pointing at you is a really bad feeling.

 

It's certainly a gamble to book during cruise season, but we have done it. We were booked on a cruise out of Ft Lauderdale the weekend that Hurricane Frances hit (the cruise line, Princess, let us cancel with full refund). On the 8/30/04 sailing of the Zuiderdam, a very severe hurricane (as bad as Ivan), was out in the Atlantic heading for the US Virgin Islands. We were heading that way too. I was worrying about how bad my car would be damaged back in Ft Lauderdale when the storm hit (that's where it was heading). Well, we went out to sea and barely knew a hurricane was out there. We missed St. Maarten because they closed the port, but that's all. The Capt took us out to sea and we still had a great time. The bad storm (I think it was called Fabian) turned to the NW, then N and died a slow death somewhere in the N Atlantic. You just never know, but Aug/Sep are the worst months.

 

Go for it! (If you are the gambling type). :)

 

Ken

[Vic The Parrot]

that said, i'm sure the apology will engender a lot of good will. kudos! :)

 

 

 

Aaaawwwwwww.... you guys!

 

 

I feel a group hug coming on!

 

 

:)

[TT]

Ken, we liked you so much we took the direct hit for you. Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda took a direct hit with a cat 4 hurricane. We had winds that were double what you mentioned and close to triple. We got to see an amazing site that we never want to see again and that is our family room glass slider bowed. I never knew glass can bend.

 

As you said, it doesn't seem bad until you live threw it and to tell you the truth I hope I never go threw this again or you and your family or anyone else.

 

The only thing I really regret is missing my cruise on 9/4 and the great people I would have been with. Rita being one of them if I remember right. Would I book a cruise again in this time frame. Yes!.....and we did for 10/7 but in Aug. or Sept. NO! I quess were are still scared to leave at that time. I do think people should book cruises at that time because you never know. For the last 10 years of living in Florida we have always booked Aug. or Sept. for the prices and loved it. Book away and if you get stuck remember your CC friends is you need a place to stay.

 

 

Vic, I have a biggggggg hug for you.

 

Toma

[HeatherInFlorida]

Our Group Hug for Vic:D