Hurricanes and Riots

What a weekend for the end of August and the Start of September has been already in the world of travel.

Florida has been on high alert and lockdown as Hurricane Dorian makes her way angrily across from the Atlantic and towards the Bahamas and has recently been upgraded to a Category 5 with wind speeds of 160 mph. She could hit the coast of Florida by Monday 02nd September in the afternoon and if they are lucky to escape the fierce hurricane damage they are still expected to get a backlash of potential storms and flash flooding. The Hurricane seems to be moving towards the east coast of the USA and if Florida takes a miss this time then she could still hit coastal areas of Georgia and the Carolinas.

I do hope that the damage is not as fierce as the devastation caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria back in 2017. Unfortunately for the Caribbean and Southen USA this is a part of life for the months of August through to October.

Earlier in the week most cruise lines that depart from the ports of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando (Port Canaveral) have adjusted itineraries and had to make unexpected schedule changes to keep all passengers and crew safe. Not ideal but having been caught in a Hurricane before I can tell you it is not a pleasant experience and for the sake of a missed port or a delay in travel, it is better to be safe than sorry.

So, if our amazing after-sales team didn’t have enough to cope with helping our guests get re-arranged for travel due to Hurricane Dorian, across the other side of the world, guests have been left stranded at Hong Kong International airport!

Weekend pro-democracy riots have been occurring in Hong Kong over the last 3 months and this weekend the rioters took it one step further and barricaded all routes into and out of Hong Kongs international airport. They blocked the main roads and somehow also managed to halt all train services that link the airport to the islands.

Thankfully the police were able to get things under control but it took some time with plenty of arrests. With road blockages being the first cleared it was then time to get the trains back up and running. Not fun for those tourists caught up in the political protests just trying to get their flight home or get to their next destination.

By all accounts in the news, things did start to get out of hand with some hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs!

Some protesters have now even apologised for the disruption caused and many were seen to catch the bus or get on the trains once they had all finished rioting! I suppose most have to get back up for work on Monday Morning!

Dawn

x