September Cruise - Hurricane Season

[Busygirl100]

Can anyone share experiences of cruising during hurricane season. We are currently looking at cruising at the end of September. What happens in the event of a storm and how are ports handled. Can they change or if the port is inaccessible will there just be extra sea days.

[mom x4,grandma x4]

I had friends who were cruising during one of the hurricanes and the ship of course avoided the storm and had extra sea days. She said they had extra new fun events just for those days.

 

I have read of others who did actually go to a different port during storms, so I guess it depends on where you are and where the storm is at.

 

Luckily I havent had to experience that yet!!

 

mom x4,grandma x4

[LuVtHeMoUsE]

There are pros and cons to cruising during hurricane season. One of the pros is that there is a possibility that a hurricane will get close and you can recive and extra day on the ship. But if a hurricane is close but not too close then there is possiblity that you could go to a different island where you don's have any excursion plans.

[gambit57]

It depends on the location of the storm vs. the ship. And how bad any damage is. You might rearrange ports to avoid the storm. If that's not possible, you might just skip a port and have an extra sea day. I hate sea days so it's something I seriously considered when booking my last Carib cruise.

[Dandy8]

Make sure you have trip insurance!!

[gatour]

Depending on timing, you can either go to another island, have an extra sea day or even a completely different intenary. For the last an eastern Caribbean Cruise could turn into a western Caribbean cruise or vice versa. I personally like sea days, and I have already been to most of the islands in the Caribbean, so if the intenary changes I won't be upset.

 

The worse case for me is what happened a couple of years ago when the hurricanes hit florida on the weekends, which is the primary embarkation/disembarkation days. Cruises already underway were extended by a day or two, and of course the following cruises were either shortened or cancelled outright). The first case I would have no problem with, but the latter would be irksome.

 

The recommendation I give to someone contemplating a cruise during Hurricane season is that you have your heart set on seeing a particular port (or group of ports) do not schedule during hurricane season. If you don't mind if things change then go ahead and book

[NHLady]

Which was a very active hurricane season. There were 4 hurricanres in late August and early September, and two during our cruise week.

 

We missed St. Thomas and St. Martin entirely. We went to Martinique and Barbados, but it was raining both places. They brought us to Trinidad and Ponce, PR and while I enjoyed it (mainly since I didn't have any other cruises to compare them to), I have chosen not to cruise during hurricaine season since. I don't get seasick and tend to just sleep more during bad weather, but there were many people who were sick on our cruise for a good portion of the week.

 

It'd have to be a REALLY good deal for me to cruise again in September or October which are the most likely to have the bad weather. I might risk August or November, but it'd be tough to convince me to go in September again.

 

JMHO

[lagbunch8]

DH and I really liked the double dip cruise to Costa Maya and Cozumel and wanted to book it but, it is only offered in the fall. We live in FL and will not cruise during "the season". I couldn't leave my house alone during that time. I wouldn't mind the sea days but, I wouldn't want to go to another port if it was just going to rain. Bummer.