Hurricane September!

Well my last blog was a welcome to Autumn and the 1st September with visions of the beautiful Autumn colours, days becoming shorter, great things on TV and nice Winter dinners in front of the fire. Little did we know what storms were brewing across the Pond!

First there was Harvey that brought devastation to Texas, closely followed by the dreaded Irma, well she has wrecked the Eastern Caribbean and the Florida Keys. I feel so sad for the poor residents that have lost their homes, livelihoods and in some cases loved ones too. St Maarten and Barbuda are almost inhabitable.

It goes without saying that cruises were massively impacted and will be disrupted for weeks and months to come. Some of you lost your long awaited dream trips. Cruise lines are pulling out all the stops to get things back to normal as soon as possible, but if you have a Caribbean cruise booked in the next 6 months expect some changes. The worst affected islands that are popular cruise ports, St Maarten, St Thomas and Tortola, will be replaced with calls to St Croix and St Kitts. One cruise line has substituted it’s Eastern Caribbean for Western Caribbean itineraries until the end of October.

Here is a summary

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.

So this vision we all have of the beautiful blue sea and sky in the Caribbean is still available in parts and I hope that with all the aid being offered and the determination of the locals those ravaged islands will recover soon and be open to visitors again.

Dee