Very Latest Hurricane Update

Greetings Cruisers

I hope everyone is safe and well and still booking those cruises.

As I’m sure you are all very well aware a mighty large hurricane ripped through part of the Caribbean and left devastation across a few of the most popular Caribbean Islands. I know many of my customers are very sad to have heard and still plan on taking their Caribbean cruise. These islands depend on the big cruise lines arriving each and everyday and will be very busy repairing and planning to accept cruise ships as quickly as possible, unfortunately 3 of the most popular Islands, St Thomas, St Maarten and Tortola were hit very badly and will be out of action for sometime. I myself have quite a few friends on these islands and they have told me things are looking very bad, BUT once over the original shock will be out and about clearing and rebuilding.

As many of you are looking forward to your winter cruise in the Caribbean, I have added the latest news coming out of the islands.

St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Tortola, Key West: All four ports are closed indefinitely.  St. Thomas and St Maarten could be closed to cruise ships for weeks, and possibly for months NCL has replaced all Eastern Caribbean itineraries until November with Western Caribbean ones and Royal Caribbean has ships that will be stopping in St. Kitts and St. Croix instead of St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

San Juan: The eye of Hurricane Irma passed 50 miles to the north of San Juan.  As a result, the area received just minimal damage and the port has reopened.  The shops in Old San Juan began to reopen two days after the storm.

Grand Turk: Grand Turk reopened on Tuesday September 12.

Nassau and Freeport Bahamas: The ports are operating as normal.

Half Moon Cay: Holland America Line sent out a statement saying that Half Moon Cay was not damaged and is fully operational.

Great Stirrup Cay: Norwegian Cruise Line said that their private island in the Bahamas was unaffected by the hurricane.

Labadee, Haiti: Labadee remains open and received no damage.

Amber Cove: Amber Cove received no damage and remains open.

Private Islands: All visits to the private islands in the Bahamas are currently on schedule.

Note: Hurricane Irma did not affect any of the Western Caribbean ports including those in Mexico, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Belize, or Roatan.

Also, all departure ports in Florida are open and this weekend, cruises are back to being 100% on schedule.

Until next time, keep on cruising.