Hurricane Irma – What Now For Caribbean Cruising?

We’ve all see the terrible devastation Hurricane Irma has ravaged upon some of the most beautiful Islands in the Caribbean. Leaving some virtually uninhabitable, and others levelled to the ground, with peoples homes reduced to debris.
Its hard to get my head around actually, the extent of the damage and the loss of life, that nature at its fiercest can unleash. Its overwhelming to witness from the safety of my home miles away, the sheer extent of the aftermath.
How do people pick themselves up from this the worse tropical storm to have hit the Caribbean in decades? Quite apart from rebuilding their homes, hospitals, schools etc. What about their livelihoods?
The Caribbean is the most popular cruise destination and the islanders rely on the income the cruise lines and their passengers bring.
We have seen fantastic rescue missions from Royal Caribbean who have sent 2 of their ships The Adventure & Majesty of the Seas to Puerto Rico and St Thomas on humanitarian missions to help the victims, together with Enchantment Of the Seas deployed to Miami to help the victims escape the storm. NCL Sky has also been sent to St Thomas to assist where it can.

But what of the future? Cruise Lines have had to cancel sailings to help with the aftermath, and have thousands of passengers booked due to sail within the coming weeks.  At the moment passengers are being offered full refunds and money off a future cruise.  But what about those due to travel next month or the month after?  Who wants to visit a disaster area?

How are they going to cope? How will your cruise be affected? Are you due to fly to the Caribbean soon? How do you feel about witnessing first hand the devastation and aftermath of Irma?

I’m due to visit Puerto Rico & St Thomas in March 18 and hoping  that it will be business as usual and Irma will be a distance memory.