How do hurricanes affect port Everglades departures

[Optotronics]

I'm pretty new to cruising.

Our first cruise was in January so no issues there, but our next is on November 5th on the royal and since this is towards the end of the hurricane season I thought I would ask.

 

Has your cruise ever been cancelled or delayed by a hurricane hitting near ft. Lauderdale? How does princess handle it? Does the cruise get cancelled? Or does it leave a day or two late and the cruise is shortened?

[Pam in CA]

Cruises are rarely canceled, if ever. If a hurricane will affect Port Everglades, the port will close and ships will stay at sea, as far from the path of the storm as possible.

 

Depending on weather, cruises will be either lengthened or shortened. It all depends.

[gingersvp]

While November is technically the end of hurricane season, they are so very rare at that time of year. I'm native Floridian and only recall one year having storms past September and they were all pretty weak.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sometimes they avoid areas/ports/change itinerary etc.

Sometimes they stay at the dock longer.

Very rarely canceled.

[Roberto256]

While November is technically the end of hurricane season, they are so very rare at that time of year. I'm native Floridian and only recall one year having storms past September and they were all pretty weak.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Wilma

 

I was living in florida, and I forget which storm is was, but the cruise we were to embark was delayed

2-3 days. Port Everglades was closed. Ships stayed at sea.

 

They offered us a discount price to come for the shortened cruise.

 

As I had not power in my home, and hotel rooms everywhere were sold out, I was

happy to go on a ship that has air conditioning and hot water.

 

The funniest part -- all my windows had hurricane shutters -- so I was packing

in the dark to go to the ship.

 

For the people who were already on board, they offered them huge discounts to stay on

the the shortened cruise.

[gingersvp]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Wilma

 

I was living in florida, and I forget which storm is was, but the cruise we were to embark was delayed

2-3 days. Port Everglades was closed. Ships stayed at sea.

 

They offered us a discount price to come for the shortened cruise.

 

As I had not power in my home, and hotel rooms everywhere were sold out, I was

happy to go on a ship that has air conditioning and hot water.

 

The funniest part -- all my windows had hurricane shutters -- so I was packing

in the dark to go to the ship.

 

For the people who were already on board, they offered them huge discounts to stay on

the the shortened cruise.

 

That was actually the one year I had in my memory and Wilma was an October storm. Wilma got me out of a very yucky jury duty for a child murder case, so it's quite vivid. That year we actually had storms into December! But in the other 39 years I've lived here, November has been in the all clear.

[Coral]

Realize also that your cruise may switch itineraries. We went over Thanksgiving once and were supposed to go Eastern Caribbean and ended up going Western Caribbean.

[caribill]

a) I had a relative on a cruise that could not return to Port Everglades because of a hurricane going there. Instead the ship went to Cozumel and returned to Port Everglades two days late without charging the passengers for the extra days on the ship. Obviously the following cruise was shortened by two days.

 

b) Once met a woman on a cruise who lived in Fort Lauderdale. A hurricane had come through and her condo had no power. She called her Travel Agent and asked for a cabin on the next Princess ship to leave Port Everglades. After a week at sea she returned home to a condo with electricity restored. (There were plenty of cabins available on the ship since many who had been booked were unable to fly to Fort Lauderdale due to the storm.)

[long cruiser]

Please don't even talk about a hurricane.

long cruiser

[floridalover5623]

a) I had a relative on a cruise that could not return to Port Everglades because of a hurricane going there. Instead the ship went to Cozumel and returned to Port Everglades two days late without charging the passengers for the extra days on the ship. Obviously the following cruise was shortened by two days.

 

b) Once met a woman on a cruise who lived in Fort Lauderdale. A hurricane had come through and her condo had no power. She called her Travel Agent and asked for a cabin on the next Princess ship to leave Port Everglades. After a week at sea she returned home to a condo with electricity restored. (There were plenty of cabins available on the ship since many who had been booked were unable to fly to Fort Lauderdale due to the storm.)

The only problem with being away & losing electricity for a long time is the items in the refrigerator. You better have someone to call so they can get in your place to empty everything out otherwise you might as well throw the refrigerator out when you get home. You'll never get the stench of rotted meat out.

[framer]

I was on the Star Princess for Wilma. We were todo a western cruise out of FLL but went to the eastern Caribbean instead. We called it the cruise to nowhere. Then as we were returning Wilma was now forecast to come across Florida to FLL. We came in to port, were rushed off the ship faster than I've ever seen. I don't know when the ship left but were told when we were leaving that the ship would be leaving at 2PM not 5PM to get out of the storms path. We had a 5PM flight out that evening and it was one of the last flight out before they closed the airport. The plane was almost empty.

 

Great cruise...

[rbt001]

While November is technically the end of hurricane season, they are so very rare at that time of year. I'm native Floridian and only recall one year having storms past September and they were all pretty weak.

 

I'm a Native Floridian, let me say that the official hurricane season is six months: June 1 through November 30th.

 

Meteorologists often have to remind viewers that the season goes through the end of November as they're describing a potential storm. Another poster has already pointed out Wilma.

 

Also, it doesn't take hurricane force winds to threaten a cruise: consider what happened to Anthem of the Seas 02/2016. Any severe weather in the forecast could influence the captain's decision on itinerary, as the captain considers the safety of passengers and the vessel.

 

It used to be, from what I can remember, that hurricane worries were confined to mid-August through mid-October; the beginning and end of the six month season were "less likely" to see notable activity. But I'm not so sure we can count on that to be accurate any more. Just eight days into this year's season, South Florida saw flooding, tornado warnings, and many canceled flights [MIA (150) & FLL (50)] as a result.

[GloriaF]

I was on the Star Princess for Wilma. We were todo a western cruise out of FLL but went to the eastern Caribbean instead. We called it the cruise to nowhere. Then as we were returning Wilma was now forecast to come across Florida to FLL. We came in to port, were rushed off the ship faster than I've ever seen. I don't know when the ship left but were told when we were leaving that the ship would be leaving at 2PM not 5PM to get out of the storms path. We had a 5PM flight out that evening and it was one of the last flight out before they closed the airport. The plane was almost empty.

 

Great cruise...

 

I was on a cruise during Wilma, too. ( October, 2005 I think). There was talk of the ship docking in San Juan for a couple days, then the storm stalled and we were able to get into FLL on date scheduled. As noted, it was a rush to get everyone off quickly. It was raining like crazy. I 'heard' that the next cruisers were boarding early, but that would be an awful inconvenience with travel to the port already arranged, so doubt it worked out for everyone. The ship definitely headed out of FLL early to avoid the worst of the storm.

 

I've lived in FL for 30+ years, and November storms are very rare -- but not unheard of, as Coral pointed out.

[EightFurryPaws]

Storms don't only delay cruises in Lauderdale.

 

We were on a second leg of a b2b leaving Southampton heading to a trans-atlantic back to Lauderdale. A hugh storm, Jude, hit the UK.

 

We were in port in Southampton for 3 days. Princess moved the ship to a more secure port, one which they own called Mayflower.

 

Out of 16 days, we had two ports so the ship could get back to Florida on time for the next cruise. Although it wasn't a fault of Princess, we were credited the entire 16 days.

[Roberto256]

Wilma got me out of a very yucky jury duty for a child murder case, so it's quite vivid.

 

Jury duty or 14 days without power. Hard choice... :) :)

[MCC retired]

It has been 11 years since a hurricane came ashore in all of Florida .

Worry more about something happening to your flight schedule all year round .

[cb at sea]

You never know if and when or where a hurricane might hit....IF one were to come ashore at Ft. Laud, it certainly would affect sailings out of there....with enough time, they could change the departure port....or delay until the storm has passed....

[Coral]

It has been 11 years since a hurricane came ashore in all of Florida .

Worry more about something happening to your flight schedule all year round .

 

Yes - far more likely to affect the ports you are going to! :evilsmile:

[dickinson]

We were affected by Hurricane Frances in Sept 2004. We were going on a 15 day Panama Canal repositioning cruise. Frances was slowly working her way up to FLL at about 4 or 5 mph. We were to sail on a Sunday (I think). The hurricane hit Florida on Saturday. We changed our flight from Friday to Saturday night. This was about 2 days in advance. Had to guess when it might be safe to fly. We left home with FLL still closed but expected to open. Changed planes in Cincinnati to fly non stop to FLL. Pilot spoke to us in the boarding area explaining that hopefully the a/p would be open by the time we got there. If not he would fly down by the Gulf side of FL and around the bottom to kill a little time. Worst case we fly back to Cincinnati. We were able to fly directly to FLL. It was eerie as most gates had no planes there. Hardly anyone inside the a/p either so it all echoed.

 

Carnival had allowed people to cancel. We also sailed one day late. They gave us OBC for the day we lost. 500 people didn't show up. It was a wonderful cruise but because of losing one day we lost Aruba which was our only port in the Caribbean. We had to be at the Canal on time.

[rp23g7]

we left the day before Wilma hit Ft.Lauderdale, it was a beautiful morning, you wouldn't have known a huge storm was coming.

 

The day before Princess called and said to be at the port early, because the ship would probably leave early.

 

We did, at 5am, before anyone was there, CP had just arrived, dock workers got there at 6, and wondered why we were there so early, we ended up leaving at the normal time.