september in caribbean

[lippy]

Hi we are booking for western Carribean in september and have been told that it is the hurricane season, does this affect the ports of call does anyone know id hate to have my holiday spoilt???

[Cruise Fanatic]

I have cruised many times during hurricane season. There is absolutely no way to tell what the 2006 hurrincane season will be like. 2005 was very unusual. Being on a ship is actually safer than being on land during a hurricane. The Captain can change the itinerary and sail out of the way of the hurricane. One year I was scheduled to sail out of Houston to Cancun, Cozumel, and Honduras. The Captain reversed the itinerary and we were able to make every port and had no problems. Although sometimes you may have to miss a port. The seas could also be a little rougher. There is no way to predict the weather.

[Cruise Specialist]

Actually the official hurricane season starts in May and ends in November, so anytime during those months you can be watching for a hurricane. I agree with the above poster, you are definetely safer on a ship than on land during a hurricane. Most of our cruises are during the fall and winter months. In fact we were on a ship in the Western Caribbean while Katrina was coming in, NEVER FELT IT, the only way we knew what was going on was watching the television in our cabin. Again we were on a cruise while Wilma was coming in...never felt it.

The worse that can happen is your itenirary could get reversed, you could skip a port or if a hurricane hits close to your port of embarkation, you might loose a day or more of your trip, but the cruiselines are very accomadating about refunds or credits...then again the absolute worse case is if you are on a ship while a hurricane is going on you might get a couple extra days at sea.

I always recommend that my clients purchase the travel insurance, this way no matter what happens you are protected.