Paradise Lost

Paradise  Lost is the famous poem by John Milton, the 17th Century English poet, which is actually 20 books telling of mans disobedience and therefore the loss of Paradise. Today for many of the Caribbean Islands the words mean much, much more.

Hurricane season in this part of the world runs from late July through to October, and this year has been the worst for many years. The two storms Irma and Maria have left a trail of death, destruction and devastation to many of these beautiful, tropical islands. The British Virgin Islands have been particularly badly hit, especially as the peak season for Caribbean cruises and holidays is about to start.

I visited Tortola and Virgin Gorda on a cruise a few years ago and they were stunning Islands. Virgin Gorda especially is like a tropical paradise with white beaches and coconut palms.

The question we are being asked hundreds of times at the moment is ” will our cruise still be going ahead as planned ” ? As far as we are aware all the future Caribbean cruise are going ahead, but will there be itinerary changes ? Yes definitely for some ports of call there will be alterations.

The British Virgin Islands are the scenes of some of the worst destruction but I think we will be quite surprised as to how quickly they start to recover. At the moment the ports of Charlotte Ammalie, St. Thomas – Phillipsburg, St Maarten – Gustavia, St Johns – Grand Turk –  Puerto Rico – Roseau , Dominica & Key West are all closed, some for many weeks or months to come.

However most of the other ports are open and ready for business even in places like Basseterre, St Kitts which was also badly damaged.

Celebrity Cruise have already started making alterations to their schedules replacing St. Maarten and St. Thomas with St. Kitts, St. Croix, Labadee or Nassau in the Bahamas. Good news for Cuba as Havana is up and running as normal, with all port facilities and tour taking place.

So in the coming weeks we will see the Caribbean Islands return to the tropical paradise that is so much loved.