Tropical Storm Chantal Forces Carnival Ships to Alter Itineraries

Both Carnival Liberty and Carnival Victory Skip Ports Due to Tropical Storm

Carnival Liberty

The line says the 2,974-passenger Carnival Liberty today skipped a visit to St. Thomas due to the storm's approach and instead made a stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico that originally had been scheduled for Wednesday.

The Miami-based ship, which is on a seven-night Eastern Caribbean sailing that began on Saturday, and will visit Grand Turk on Wednesday - a day ahead of schedule, and will add a stop in Nassau, Bahamas on Friday.

Also altering course today was the 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory, which dropped a sea day to instead call in Nassau - a port it wasn't supposed to visit until Friday. In addition, the ship will flip-flop calls scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. 

As of 2:00 pm AST, Chantal was 335 miles southeast of San Juan and moving to the west-northwest at 29 miles per hour. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour.

The National Hurricane Center says Chantal is expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours as it heads towards the Dominican Republic. 

Forecasters expect that wind shear and interaction with the mountains of Hispaniola and Cuba then will cause the storm to weaken, and it is expected to be a tropical depression Friday while over the Bahamas.

Source: USA Today

Cruise Lines Access Private Island Hurricane Damage

Norwegian Cruise Lines, Princess Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean and Holland America have reported damage to their private islands in the Bahamas. 

Norwegian Cruise Line's Great Stirrup Cay will reopen next week after accessing damage to structures, landscasping as well as beach erosion. Visits to Great Stirrup Cay by cruise ships Norwegian Jewel, Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Pearl were cancelled this week.

Princess Cruises private beach report Princess Cays on Eleuthera, Bahamas experienced beach erosion, roof damage to structures and landscaping, and also the observation pier was lost in the storm. Princess Cays is expected to be open for visits by November 11th.

Holland America's Half Moon Cay located off the Southeast coast of Nassau sustained minor damage to structures, beach erosion and landscaping.

Royal Caribbean's CocoCay suffered minor damage to facilities and the beach area. RCL reports the island will be open for cruise guests.

Disney Cruise Line is still assessing damage on its island, Castaway Cay. The big story this past week was the damage on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship.

Cruise passengers reported being terrified aboard the Disney Fantasy as it sailed back to Port Canaveral last week during Hurricane Sandy. Other cruise lines managed to stay out of harms way during Hurricane Sandy, and one Norwegian cruise was extended due to not being able to get into port.

I personally cannot imagine why the cruise line decided to return to Florida in dangerous high seas. The video taken by one passenger has over 600,000 views - and it's pretty scary. Disney is known for being family friendly, and this particular cruise was a really bad PR nightmare.

New York Cruises On Hold In Wake Of Sandy

The closure of the Port of New York this week in the wake of Super Storm Sandy is wreaking havoc with cruises scheduled to begin and end in the city.

Norwegian Cruise Line says the New York-based Norwegian Gem will make an unscheduled stop in Boston today for several hours to take on supplies and fuel before returning to sea to await the New York port's reopening. The 2,394-passenger ship was scheduled to return to New York on Monday after a nine-night cruise to the Caribbean but has been stuck at sea for the past two days.

Princess says the Caribbean Princess sailing scheduled to begin today in New York is being delayed for an indeterminate period.

"The Brooklyn port is closed to all vessels until the weekend," Princess notes in a statement. "We are researching other ports and are hopeful we can secure a berth in Manhattan on Friday if the area is approved for sailing by the U.S. Coast Guard."

The Crystal Symphony sailing to Los Angeles that was scheduled to begin today in New York now will begin on Friday in Charleston.

Read full article - Cruises from New York on hold in wake of Sandy

Hurricane Sandy Strands Cruise Passengers at Sea

Passengers on a cruise ship headed for New York City will have to remain at sea for at least another day and possibly more.

Norwegian Cruise Line's Gem was on a nine-day eastern Caribbean cruise sailing round-trip from New York. The ship departed New York Oct. 20 and was scheduled to return today, but can't because all area ports are closed.

"All passengers on the ship are comfortable and we have opened up phone lines and Internet so passengers can make complimentary calls and emails as needed," Vanessa Lane, a spokeswoman for the cruise line, told ABC News.


"What makes this situation unusual," she said, "is the size of the storm. Usually a ship would just head to another port -- but that's not possible."

She added that while some passengers might see the extra sea days as an inconvenience, others would see it as an extended vacation.


Read full article
Hurricane Sandy Strands Cruise Passengers at Sea - ABC News