WL56

Hi all,

I live in Fort Lauderdale and have done nothing for the last week but prepare for Irma and listen to the news obsessively including what has been happening two hours east of us in the Virgin Islands.. St. Thomas and St. Maarten are completely devastated. It went through as a Category 5. It will be a very long time before they are ready to receive tourists. I have been through many hurricanes in 18 years, but this was the most frightening. We thought this was going to hit us in Fort Lauderdale as a Category 5, we have hurricane windows, hurricane shutters to put over the windows (so they don't get scratched up) concrete block first floor, hurricane rated doors and straps on our roof. Despite all that, we honestly thought we would lose the roof and second floor if a Cat 5 hit us dead on (the way it did in the USVI). Our home was built to the hurricane codes after Andrew. If a Cat 5 could take out our second floor I feel so sad for the people on the islands. I have been to these islands many times and I did this itinerary 10 months ago and trust me when I say that these unfortunate people do not have the type of homes that can withstand this level of destruction. So anyone saying that it will be fine in a few months, may not know about how bad a Cat 5 is, or how the homes are built in the Caribbean or how long it takes for building projects to finish in the Islands. I hope you know I say this with much compassion toward the good people in the Caribbean, but after spending the day taking down our shutters, the power out in over half of Florida and widespread flooding I honestly do not believe that St. Maarten or St. Thomas will be ready before December. If you chose your cruise based on the ports then you may want to reschedule to a different date. The people in St. Maarten and St. Thomas will gladly appreciate your business in 6-12 months when they can benefit from your tourist dollars, bu they cannot benefit now when no ships are going. See links below to recent news on the devastation. By the way, I'm going on the Escape again in October (I won the free cruise in Bingo a year ago and the voucher is about to expire) then I'm going again on the Escape in November my son is coming home from being deployed and we're doing a family vacation. I have no idea which ports we will be routed to but wherever we go will probably have very busy ports as all the ships (with all the cruise lines) will need to reroute to different ports in the Caribbean.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/world/americas/irma-caribbean-st-martin.html?mcubz=0

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/11/americas/caribbean-reacts-hurricane-irma/index.html

Wow! Thank you so much! I usually check above and below but I must have missed this. We are in 9126 in our upcoming cruise so I'll check to see where we are in relation to this. I once had a cruise balcony ruined on a different ship when our room was directly above a Promenade deck and they did BBQ's on Sea days. Between the smoky BBQ and the hot tub below it was loud and smoky

Yes, book what you can ahead of time. We did this cruise last October and are doing the same ship/itinerary again this November. I really enjoyed the Brat Pack show. There is free seating and there is reserved seating for an extra charge. This is new from last year because I don't remember that being an option October 2016. I reserved the free seats for our upcoming cruise because I've already seen the show, but want to see it again. It was a lot of fun. The "Wine the musical" was a lot of fun and worth the extra money money. You have to book the comedy club when you get there. Some of the comedy shows repeat on different nights so be careful not to reserve for an identical show.

Thank you for the pictures. Was this an "over the water" cabana or a "hillside" cabana? I tried to get an over the water one but they were all booked so I got a hillside one. I'm hoping I can get to the water from the "hillside" one. Could you also tell us if bar/waiter service comes to the cabanas? Thanks again!!