Still staying off the US Coast, Hurricane Earl, the most powerful storm to threaten the US in years and the most powerful storm on the planet right now, is altering cruise ship itineraries and closing land-based vacation destinations.
Cruise vacation passengers are faring better than land vacation guests who are finding evacuation orders in place along the coast
The 30,000 residents of a North Carolina barrier island have been told to move inland to avoid Earl's sustained winds up to 145 mph. A mandatory evacuation order is in place for Hatteras Island. Forecasters say the storm is predicted to remain at sea but could pose a threat anywhere between North Carolina to New England.
Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Lines have all altered itineraries on some ships sailing from Florida. While no sailings have been canceled, many are sailing modified itineraries. Some have substituted ports, others have run scheduled itineraries backwards or had extra days at sea to insure a safe vacation for their guests. A side-effect of itinerary modifications has been a huge influx of business in Nassau, a safe port unaffected by the storm.
As far north as New York and Boston, cruise lines are considering the effect of the massive storm as the Fall Foliage season just begins. With tropical force winds extending hundreds of miles from the storm, special moves are being made to specific ships including Holland America's Maasdam which will end the current sailing two days early and return to Boston today. Guests are welcome to stay on the ship for the duration of their paid sailing.
As this storm continues its march to the North, stay up with all the current information by visiting our 5 sources of hurricane information for cruise passengers
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Comments
I guess that is the risk customers take when they book a Caribbean cruise during hurricane season but having seen the prices on http://www.cruise.co.uk they are very cheap so i can understand why people might be tempted. Although at leadt you know you will be safe as cruise ships can move to a different place unlike the islands with tourists onboard.
We were in Nassau last week with no troubles. You can't worry about hurricane season especially if you are only able to travel at certain times of the year.
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