When a cruise ship is in the path of a hurricane.

[Karen Knowlton]

Tom & Mary, I'm so glad you are ok and that you had relatively minimal damage at home! Let's hopt Ivan settles down a bit and isn't such a big nasty storm. I heard it did quite some damage on Jamaica - they missed the eye but still got most of the highest winds.

Regarding an earlier question about what cruise lines do when a hurricane threatens the port of embarkation - they do keep the ships out at sea longer. The ones who benefit are the ones whose cruise is just ending, as they get an extra day or two of the cruise; those scheduled to leave at the time the storm hits have their cruises either shortened or cancelled. (With compensation from most cruise lines, I would add.)

Despite the discomfort of rough seas, ships are generally better off out to sea (and of course not in the teeth of the storm, just far on the outskirts.) Frances did some damage to Port Canaveral facilities, apparently, so most of the cruises in & out of there have been moved to either Ft Lauderdale or Miami, with the cruise line providing transportation to those ports from the Orlando area.

[Tom]

We got back last Monday night (9/6) after taking a cruise on the Carnival Paradise. Our itinerary was supposed to take us to Nassau, La Ramona, DR and finally to St. Thomas. Well, Hurricane Frances changed those plans. We ended up going to Nassau (prior to Frances' arrival), Ocho Rios, Jamaica and finally to Cozumel. On our way back to Miami, Frances delayed our arrival and we received one more free day at sea. The port of Miami finally opened back up sometime early Monday morning and we sailed in (along with half the world's cruise ships!). We ran into several people at the airport that day that had their intineraries changed and/or extended due to Frances. One couple, who was on a 4-day RCL Majesty of the Seas cruise ended up getting it extended to 7 days, but didn't port anywhere (they briefly went to Key West, were boarded by Customs officials and then set back out to sea again).

I have to say that Carnival did a fantastic job keeping us in the loop. Throughout the cruise, they even got feeds from the Weather Channel so that we could see what was going on. They also posted a satellite picture showing the progress of the storm, as well as our position relative to it.

This was quite the adventure! Now, my wife and I are holding our breath as we prepare to go on another cruise (the Caribbean Princess) next week (embarks 9/18) to celebrate our 40th birthdays--don't tell anyone

[thomas stanton]

Tom and MARY
I am glad to hear that you are ok.I am fully aware of Charley and Frances . I live about 15 miles south of where Charley made land fall as a CAT 4 storm.I know what you mean when you say frieghtening.The winds were 135 here and up to 178 in Port Charlotte.Frances was just alot of wind and rain for us not to bad after being through Charley. How bad did DAYTONA BEACH get it? The shores area is what i'm most concerned about we have friends there but have not been able to get a hold of them.Good luck.
Tom