Taking A Cruise During Hurricane Season

Usually, summer is not a time I personally entertain a cruise, I usually prefer the winter escape cruises. Due to schedule reasons with a friend, we are considering a cruise in the end of August out of Port Canaveral on a Western Caribbean cruise. I know weather is obviously not predictable, but how bad does it have to be for a cruise to be cancelled due to a impending hurricane. If a cruise gets cancelled due to weather, do you receive a refund?

My ship was to depart the day Irma was to hit Port Everglades. We were issued a credit not refund on a future cruise date.

I cruise in October and usually the ship avoids the storm when possible. If the cruise is cancelled you will get a future cruise credit in most cases.

Following. We have cruise booked for same time.

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A named Tropical Storm can cause about the same problems when it's hitting your embarkation/ disembarkation port as a Hurricane! :(

Take out insurance!

Thanks for the input everyone. Is Port Canaveral safer from weather being more north than lets say Port Everglades or is that completely irrelevant?

Insurance for sure, not a bad idea on all trips.

Thanks for the input everyone. Is Port Canaveral safer from weather being more north than lets say Port Everglades or is that completely irrelevant?

Irrelevant. We get hurricanes all up and down the East Coast!

Thanks for the input everyone. Is Port Canaveral safer from weather being more north than lets say Port Everglades or is that completely irrelevant?

As a lifelong Floridian who has lived all over the state and experienced many of these storms in my 40 years, I think for your purposes this is probably irrelevant. Statistically speaking, South Florida is probably more vulnerable, but I’ve seen just as many storms impact Central Florida in the past 20 years. In your shoes, I would choose the better port based on normal trip planning factors (cost, itinerary, convenience). Hurricane season is wildly unpredictable unfortunately.

The good news is 37 of my 40 years, August has been a great time to go outside and enjoy the heat and water with no major hurricane concerns! And even during the 3 Augusts when my family wasn’t so fortunate, I suspect most cruise ports in Florida were operational for most of the month.

Long winded way of saying there’s a good chance your cruise will go as planned, but there is a risk and it’s so difficult to predict.

Best of luck whatever you decide!

As a lifelong Floridian who has lived all over the state and experienced many of these storms in my 40 years, I think for your purposes this is probably irrelevant. Statistically speaking, South Florida is probably more vulnerable, but I’ve seen just as many storms impact Central Florida in the past 20 years. In your shoes, I would choose the better port based on normal trip planning factors (cost, itinerary, convenience). Hurricane season is wildly unpredictable unfortunately.

 

The good news is 37 of my 40 years, August has been a great time to go outside and enjoy the heat and water with no major hurricane concerns! And even during the 3 Augusts when my family wasn’t so fortunate, I suspect most cruise ports in Florida were operational for most of the month.

 

Long winded way of saying there’s a good chance your cruise will go as planned, but there is a risk and it’s so difficult to predict.

 

Best of luck whatever you decide!

Thank you so much for your input :)

Hurricane Season simply means that conditions are warm enough for storms to form. There is no way to predict if one will...or if it will affect you. If a cruise has to be canceled, you will be refunded...but they seldom cancel...they simply "re-route". When you buy fare on a cruise, you agreed to go anywhere, or nowhere....the cruise lines cover their ass pretty well.

Hurricane Season simply means that conditions are warm enough for storms to form. There is no way to predict if one will...or if it will affect you. If a cruise has to be canceled, you will be refunded...but they seldom cancel...they simply "re-route". When you buy fare on a cruise, you agreed to go anywhere, or nowhere....the cruise lines cover their ass pretty well.

Having been to all these places numerous times, I frankly am not too concerned where we do or do not go. :)

Thanks for the input everyone. Is Port Canaveral safer from weather being more north than lets say Port Everglades or is that completely irrelevant?

No difference.

No difference.

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My ship was to depart the day Irma was to hit Port Everglades. We were issued a credit not refund on a future cruise date.

We cruise all times of the year and have often cruised during the summer/fall hurricane season. We’ve only had two issues in the past 30 years of cruising.

A few years ago, our summer eastern Caribbean cruise became a Western Caribbean cruise.

Last year we were on the Oasis (September ) last year when Irma hit. Our cruise could not return to Port Canaveral and we were delayed three days in returning. The seven night trip that was to follow ours was shortened to a four night cruise.

It really is somewhat rare that a cruise is canceled or shortened. It is only an issue when the storm is approaching the actual embarkation or debarkation port. Otherwise, the ships will change itinerary and avoid the storm.

No need to stress.

Enjoy

M

The biggest issue is often getting to the actual port, if you have to fly then you may find yourself contemplating driving to port the night before sailing because there’s no flights but RC hasn’t canceled the cruise. If you live close enough to port that it’s not an issue (ie you drive and it’s not a drive that requires hours on a major highway), then I wouldn’t worry about it.

Insurance will help you with the costs of being stranded somewhere, ie if the cruise starts or ends late, but get trip insurance, not just cruise insurance from RC. If the cruise is canceled, RC cancels your insurance with it. One cruiser got stranded in Houston during Harvey and was unable to claim their extensive expenses because RC canceled their coverage. If you get a policy that covers port changes too (like Nationwide), then even better.

If you feel like you are a person would want to cancel if there was a named storm threat, then get good cancel for any reason coverage too. Regular insurance won’t help you if the cruise is still sailing.

Even in spite of time of year I would not hesitate to book a cruise.

Keith

Me either, we fly from UK and twice had an Eastern changed to a Western, we have also twice been rerouted to the A,B,C'S ..Aruba, Bonnaire and Cracao, those turned out to be our best cruises ever, only you can decide, but make sure you have insurance

Having been to all these places numerous times, I frankly am not too concerned where we do or do not go. :)

Us too. A cruise for us is more about the ship than the ports. Our biggest worry is getting there, or missing our flight coming home. Plus rough seas.

If you’d like to read a bit about hurricanes, here is a noaa page with lots of figures and info, including by month.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/

When we sailed last September our Oasis cruise got shortened from 7 days to 4. We didn't mind at all since we drive to the port and the cruise ended up just costing taxes and fees as they reimbursed 1/2 the cruise fare as refundable OBC and 1/2 as a FCC- a Win Win situation for us

I live in the area. Last year we had one come up right through the middle of state. We are a peninsula, nowhere is safe. We got detoured from a 7 day Eastern to a western Caribbean last year. During this upcoming hurricane season we found a fool proof way around it. We booked an Alaskan cruise!

 

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Foolproof as long as your flight gets out! [emoji3] We’re going to Alaska also. Flying out of Orlando. Early July so should be fine. Have a great time!

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Best answer maybe, DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY, you may go the eastern Caribbean instead, of the western Caribbean but most likely you will go some where, unless it is a direct land fall on PC within a day or two.

We were on the Liberty of the Seas Hurricane Harvey Western Route, departing August 20 from Galveston. We were in Cozumel on Friday the 25th, then the Hurricane gained speed and hit. We were actually outside the port of Galveston on the 27th, but the port was closed, and the town and all roads and Houston were horribly flooded. We left and had to head to Miami as no ports in between had docks large enough for Liberty. We arrived in Miami on Day 10, got provisions and new entertainers, and half the passengers got off and flew home from there.

We had a car in Galveston, high and dry, so we stayed on and headed back. We arrived back in port on Day 13, but much was still flooded north of Houston. We were allowed to stay onboard 2 more nights and we headed home the day Liberty embarked the next group on Sept 3. The folks who were scheduled for August 27 were not notified until late on the 26th or early the morning of the 27th that their cruise had been cancelled. Many had trekked to Houston and Galveston early, and found themselves in the midst of flooding.

RC did better with the Irma cruises not long after that, after not cancelling in Galveston at an appropriate time.

If you are traveling at that time, these are the errors many made those weeks.

1. Have travel insurance. For those on the ship until Miami on Day 10,trip insurance paid for their flight home. For those on the ship with additional expenses, many of those were covered.

2. Have a passport. Traveling on a birth certificate and an ID make it harder to get processed when your closed loop cruise ends up not being closed loop.

3. Be sure you have plenty of cash or credit cards that aren’t maxed out in case you end up on a ship five days more than you planned. There was constant calling of names to come to guest services and for many it was for them to add cash funds or give an alternate pay method as their card was over the limit. Drink packages were for a 7 night cruise, and RC did offer buying a day at a time for half the usual cost, for the additional days.

4. Be sure you take plenty of meds with you. It was a 7 day cruise. We had 11 days worth on us. We were part of about 500 folks who got off in Miami on Day 10 to go and get additional meds before heading back to Galveston. That meant wrangling getting prescriptions to a Miami pharmacy, and some just went to the ship’s doctor but many meds weren’t onboard. Only after we left Miami, did they announce that they were not charging for the office visit, $90 I think. Just charged for the meds.

We always take our bottles with a couple of months meds when we do TA’s but it had not occurred to me to take more than 11 days for a seven night cruise. Mistake we won’t make again!

The worst one was a Mom who didn’t bring enough seizure meds for her child, and it wasn’t something you could get at Walgreens by prescription. She had to get a cab (not sure why she didn’t uber) to go to a Children’s hospital pharmacy to get it. The result was $400 out of pocket. Ironically, she was also one of the ones that had run out of money and credit line, but she was so happy because her husband won $1000 the night before in the casino, so she could pay for the meds and the $100 RT cab fare to get it. I don’t know if she knew how lucky she was for them to be strapped for cash and him win that much on a cruise ship.

So, keep those things in mind in Hurricane season, but honestly, all year round for travel. They will go around a storm, change ports, or take you to a port like Miami, so you’ll be safe, but lots of other issues can come along, and customs and immigration happened in Miami. We couldn’t disembark until EVERYONE (4000 passengers) made it through immigration and that was with immigration coming onboard to process. We couldn’t get off the ship until almost 5 pm and we sailed again at 11.

Many people said, wow you got a free cruise. Not really, unless you are made of stone and have no emotions. There were people onboard after Miami who knew their home was damaged beyond repair, some that didn’t know how bad it was, some missing their children’s first day of school (left them at home). You wouldvjust find people crying. There were people who didn’t have trip insurance and were forced to stay onboard until the Galveston return on Day 13. They weren’t happy.

The upside was that we got a skip with 2000 on it, they must have gotten enough lobster for 4000, as it was everywhere. Lobster paella by the pool, lobster in the windjammer, lobster twice in the MDR. You hit the elevator button and counted to 5 and the elevator was there and not full. The last afternoon evening we were on the ship there were 60 onboard. Hubby and I had the Solarium pool to ourselves. Just kind of strange.