Waiting it out?

[Mr & Mrs Happy]

We're due to set sail in 47 days. Leaving Fort Lauderdale on the Conquest. Ports: Nassau, Grand Turk, Amber Cove and Half Moon Cay.

 

I live here in Florida (panhandle) and of course preparing for Irma. Now another tropical depression has formed; Jose. This is my first time (first time for everything right?) in dealing with a hurricane since I've started cruising. I know that's a chance you take when cruising during hurricane season.

 

I've never been to GT, AC and HMC but of course would understand if we aren't able to visit due to storm damage. At this point, do you just wait to see what happens the closer you get to your cruise? I'd take a $500 hit cancelling now. Does Carnival make it sea days in the event they're unable to dock at a port? Plus my sis'n'law and her hubby are flying in from New York to cruise with us, which would be their very first cruise.

[bingomamma19]

We're due to set sail in 47 days. Leaving Fort Lauderdale on the Conquest. Ports: Nassau, Grand Turk, Amber Cove and Half Moon Cay.

 

I live here in Florida (panhandle) and of course preparing for Irma. Now another tropical depression has formed; Jose. This is my first time (first time for everything right?) in dealing with a hurricane since I've started cruising. I know that's a chance you take when cruising during hurricane season.

 

I've never been to GT, AC and HMC but of course would understand if we aren't able to visit due to storm damage. At this point, do you just wait to see what happens the closer you get to your cruise? I'd take a $500 hit cancelling now. Does Carnival make it sea days in the event they're unable to dock at a port? Plus my sis'n'law and her hubby are flying in from New York to cruise with us, which would be their very first cruise.

 

They either find other ports (if the original ports are not usable or make more sea days). I would not even think about it being 47 days out.

 

I sail on the Allure 10/1--out of FLL...I am not worried. We are going to Nassau, san juan and st Thomas. If they are damaged, we will be somewhere for 7 days :)...(hoping no damage happens to any of the ports of course)

[A&Jfamily]

We're due to set sail in 47 days. Leaving Fort Lauderdale on the Conquest. Ports: Nassau, Grand Turk, Amber Cove and Half Moon Cay.

 

 

 

I live here in Florida (panhandle) and of course preparing for Irma. Now another tropical depression has formed; Jose. This is my first time (first time for everything right?) in dealing with a hurricane since I've started cruising. I know that's a chance you take when cruising during hurricane season.

 

 

 

I've never been to GT, AC and HMC but of course would understand if we aren't able to visit due to storm damage. At this point, do you just wait to see what happens the closer you get to your cruise? I'd take a $500 hit cancelling now. Does Carnival make it sea days in the event they're unable to dock at a port? Plus my sis'n'law and her hubby are flying in from New York to cruise with us, which would be their very first cruise.

 

 

 

Take a look at some of the changes for the current cruises - pretty much they are going Western instead of Eastern. Carnival will improvise adapt and overcome all while keeping you safe.

 

I would not cancel - in fact if I didn't have cancel for any reason, I would not cancel unless my flights were. It's easy enough to tell a few days out the likelihood of serious alterations....and then I would just go with the flow.

 

 

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[wemjam]

In all my cruises I have never been re-routed... come really close a few times. One in particular was when we were boarding they were handing everyone letters saying due to weather our itinerary was changing and they had our new itinerary. They were what I would say are "less exciting ports" and we had already been there numerous times. Needless to say there were A LOT of unhappy passengers, I was a bit bummed we weren't going to a new port we had planned on but didn't make a big deal out of it.

As a very nice older gentleman (Carnival worker) was escorting us to the Platinum lounge and apologized for the itinerary change, obviously he had heard a bunch of unhappy people already! I looked at him and smiled and my exact words were, "I am on vacation, on a cruise, not at work... I don't care if you take this boat 100 feet out of port and drive this boat around in circles."

 

As we were leaving port the Captain came on and said the weather had changed and our cruise would proceed under our original itinerary! All those people, all that anger, and all the workers that had to deal with it and for what?

 

Point is, vacation is like any other time in life, got to make the best of it when things don't go as planned. It will be what it will be. Go and enjoy yourself! Life is about the journey, not just the destination - and the hiccups make for the best stories!

 

We are taking a cruise in October too and going on an itinerary I have wanted to do for several years now and just never got a chance too... might make it, might not, either way I am still not at work ;)

 

Do feel bad for all those that are stranded our cancelled though, that is a hard way to go!

[riclop]

Keep your fingers crossed.

[LouisianaCruiser4200]

In all my cruises I have never been re-routed... come really close a few times. One in particular was when we were boarding they were handing everyone letters saying due to weather our itinerary was changing and they had our new itinerary. They were what I would say are "less exciting ports" and we had already been there numerous times. Needless to say there were A LOT of unhappy passengers, I was a bit bummed we weren't going to a new port we had planned on but didn't make a big deal out of it.

As a very nice older gentleman (Carnival worker) was escorting us to the Platinum lounge and apologized for the itinerary change, obviously he had heard a bunch of unhappy people already! I looked at him and smiled and my exact words were, "I am on vacation, on a cruise, not at work... I don't care if you take this boat 100 feet out of port and drive this boat around in circles."

 

As we were leaving port the Captain came on and said the weather had changed and our cruise would proceed under our original itinerary! All those people, all that anger, and all the workers that had to deal with it and for what?

 

Point is, vacation is like any other time in life, got to make the best of it when things don't go as planned. It will be what it will be. Go and enjoy yourself! Life is about the journey, not just the destination - and the hiccups make for the best stories!

 

We are taking a cruise in October too and going on an itinerary I have wanted to do for several years now and just never got a chance too... might make it, might not, either way I am still not at work ;)

 

Do feel bad for all those that are stranded our cancelled though, that is a hard way to go!

 

Which port did you end up going to and what port was almost substituted?

[easyboy]

As long as you are able to embark, the Captain will find a safe path to get to the port or its substitute.

[bUU]

Point is, vacation is like any other time in life, got to make the best of it when things don't go as planned. It will be what it will be. Go and enjoy yourself! Life is about the journey, not just the destination - and the hiccups make for the best stories!

This. Cruising in the Caribbean this time of year calls on us to be flexible and resilient in the face of changes. In return, we get lower prices.

[RHilla619]

Being 47 days out I really wouldn't worry about it, or cancel and take a $500 hit. If you were 4 days out, different story.

 

The ports you are supposed to be visiting may suffer some damage from Irma, hopefully not to the point where they have to turn away cruise ships. Being 47 days out, if this happens Carnival will make any needed changes to your itinerary by changing ports, very unlikely to have a "cruise to nowhere" with all seadays this far out.

[evandbob]

I had an eastern/western B2B booked back in Oct 2014. Because of a small hurricane aroung St Thomas and San Juan, this cruise turned into a western/western.

The Captain made his decision prior to the 1st leg and between 400 and 600 cruisers decided to leave the ship prior to sailing out of Miami. I stayed on board and had a great cruise(s).

[JawjaFatBoy]

We were scheduled to leave out of Port Canaveral Oct 9 last year which was just a couple of days after Matthew hit. We were on pins and needles up until they reopened the port on the 8th. The day before the cruise! There was a lot of debris on the sides of the roads and lots of closed gas stations on the way down, but we made it there and got on board with no problems at all.

 

Nassau had reopened their port, but downtown was still a mess with debris all around and not all of the stores had power. Freeport wasn't so lucky and couldn't reopen so we wound up staying overnight in Nassau which turned out great as we had a balcony room, port side, and the captain docked at the farthest slip so we had a gorgeous ocean view!

 

At this point, I wouldn't really worry if I were you. I certainly wouldn't cancel! These ports are big revenue sources for these islands and they will work very hard to get them open and cleaned up as quickly as possible in the event of storm damage. Just relax and wait until you're lots closer to sailing time to make drastic decisions.