Oct 28 - Nov 7 - anybody cruised the Carib around this time?

[bobbygirl]

Thinking of doing the NCL Jewel repo cruise from NYC.

 

Ports visited:

 

DR (Samana)

Aruba

Curacao

Roatan

Belize

 

We love the itinerary & the ship, wondering about the weather. Any thoughts?

[keyguide]

Thinking of doing the NCL Jewel repo cruise from NYC.

 

Ports visited:

 

DR (Samana)

Aruba

Curacao

Roatan

Belize

 

We love the itinerary & the ship, wondering about the weather. Any thoughts?

If the cold fronts come early you will probably have a worse go of it in the Atlantic coming down than in the Carib. You see they can change the itenerary in the Carib. but cannot replace the Altantic.

[powelweb]

We did a similar sailing on RCCL's Jewel in 10/04.

 

The only rough seas we hit were on the first night, and I'm guessing it's because we were hauling buns without the stabilizers out to get past the Atlantic and into the much calmer Caribbean sea.

 

I'd do it again in a minute.

 

have a great trip

wendy

[abitaturbodog]

I wouldn't do it -- that's prime hurricane season in the Atlantic.

[blindrid]

We've done it and the weather was good. It is hurricane season but the way I look at it is once I get on the ship, all is good. The ship will avoid bad weather if there is some.

[pathiggy]

We have cruised many times in October. It is a great time to go and the fares are usually cheaper.

[katier825]

We've cruised several times late Oct, early Nov and always had great weather. You can get really good deals that time of year too.

 

Yes, it is hurricane season, but peaks around Aug/Sept. By the way, hurricane season is 6 months long. Many, many cruises take place during huricane season and most are uneventful. If there was a storm, the captain would re-route the ship, both for passenger safety and to prevent damage to a 1/2 billion dollar ship! For instance, eastern would probably go west and vice versa.

 

Good news for you ~ Aruba and Curacao rarely get affected by hurricanes!

[sabba]

We are also cruising 10/28 to 11/7, but on the RCI Jewel repositioning from Boston to Miami. I bought the insurance in case bad weather affects the trip. Worst case, I figured we'd just go to bed early the first night and sleep through most of the travel through the Atlantic.

 

Have fun!

 

Carrie :)

[sabba]

We are also cruising 10/28 to 11/7, but on the RCI Jewel repositioning from Boston to Miami. I bought the insurance in case bad weather affects the trip. Worst case, I figured we'd just go to bed early the first night and sleep through most of the travel through the Atlantic.

 

Have fun!

 

Carrie :)

[cv322]

Any positive or negative suggestions you may read here should be taken with a grain of salt anyway...Ocean patterns or storms will vary from year to year therefore skewing a definitive prognostication. You need to trust that the captain will make the correct decision for the safety of the pax and the good of the ship.

 

We've cruised many times out of NYC, often in the fall, most recently on the beautiful HAL Noordam on October 20th. It was 11 days, roundtrip NY-southern caribbean-NY...and the southbound voyage on 10/20-10/22 in the Atlantic, and returning northbound on 10/29-10/31 was just as calm as can be. While in the caribbean we had on & off rain and light seas in Barbados, St.Maarten & San Juan....but as another poster suggested...your itinerary lends itself to non-hurricane weather.

 

Have a great time!

 

PS-Sabba posted that she bought cruise insurance to cover for bad weather. Cruise insurance, to the best of my knowledge, does not cover bad weather or lost ports, etc. due to bad weather. If Sabba has found an insurance company that does then I'd love to know who it is.

[cv322]

duplicate post...sorry.

[sabba]

CV322, I'm new to cruising and when I bought my insurance, I specifically asked for insurance coverage that would cover for hurricanes..... aka bad weather. Maybe I should have written "hurricane". I guess I was trying to avoid "jinxing" myself by actually talking about the possibility of a hurricane on my cruise! :) I'm glad you pointed that out because while I know that it won't cover for every day bad weather others reading it may not know what I meant.

 

If you meant that it won't cover me for a hurricane, then that is a different story......

 

I'll have to check with my agent again, but any info you can share would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

Sabba

[cv322]

CV322, I'm new to cruising and when I bought my insurance, I specifically asked for insurance coverage that would cover for hurricanes..... aka bad weather. Maybe I should have written "hurricane". I guess I was trying to avoid "jinxing" myself by actually talking about the possibility of a hurricane on my cruise! :) I'm glad you pointed that out because while I know that it won't cover for every day bad weather others reading it may not know what I meant. If you meant that it won't cover me for a hurricane, then that is a different story......

I'll have to check with my agent again, but any info you can share would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

Sabba

 

Sabba, I don't want to mislead you in any way....please read your policy for specifics...BUT, generally speaking, insurance may cover trip delay or cancellation when you are the one cancelling. For example, due to illness or your plane to the ship is delayed (& you booked it yourself) so you miss the embarkation. Or, let's say your luggage is lost...it'll cover that. Or if, god forbid, there was a health issue and someone had to be medivac'd off the ship by helicopter & be treated at a land hospital. Those are the kind of things I know are covered. I may be wrong, heaven knows I'm not perfect :p, but I've never heard of reimbursement for weather-related issues once you're on board the ship. The only thing I've ever experienced is the crediting of my onboard account for a missed port's fees and taxes. That's it.

 

If anyone has experienced a refund due to bad weather I'd love to hear about it. :D

 

Sabba, I'm sure you'll have a wonderful wonderful cruise & don't worry too much about the weather. These ships are so well prepared for anything...no joke. In fact we recently experienced very severe weather on our New Year's Eve cruise....but it was still a fun cruise. If interested, see the review at:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=36573

 

Best Regards,

Chris

[sabba]

Thanks again, I will definitely read my insurance to make sure I totally understand what is and is not covered. I truly thought I had asked all the right questions, but I must have missed one or two. That is one of the best things about this group, there is a lot of great information.

 

Oh, and I read your trip report..... very nice. Sorry the weather was so bad. I really hope we don't have that kind of weather because if we do, I know I'll never get my husband on another cruise.

[cv322]

......Sorry the weather was so bad. I really hope we don't have that kind of weather because if we do, I know I'll never get my husband on another cruise.

 

I hope your cruise is smooth sailing also. If you have reason to think he may get seasick then encourage him to get the patch that goes behind the ear (scopolamine ?) ...alot of people use them.

 

By the way, we were anchored near your ship in Grand Cayman, and our tender passed immediately to the Jewel's port side. Very, very pretty ship! I took a cool picture of it early in the morning with the sun rising behind it and it's all in silhouette. Pretty neat!

 

Enjoy your cruise & I hope your DH gets hooked on cruising like the rest of us!

[sabba]

I can't wait to see the Jewel..... everything I read about her is that she is, like you said, a pretty ship.

 

She will be docking in Portland Maine this fall for the Canada/New England cruises. Part of me wants to go see her before and part of me wants to wait to see her for the first time in Boston.

 

Since Portland is only 20 minutes away, I probably won't be able to stay away and will opt to see her docked in Portland. Will help with the excitement to know that I will be on her in a few weeks later.

 

Thanks again!