Hurricane Ian is the next storm wreaking havoc on residents and cruisers sailing this week. The new storm formed just as Hurricane Fiona was making its way northward past Bermuda and into Canada.
As Eastern Caribbean islands like Grand Turk, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, Hurricane Ian is building strength with Florida as its target.
The hurricane is expected to produce severe weather for Grand Cayman, western Cuba, and the west coast of Florida. The United States Coast Guard has already issued port condition Yankee (see chart below) for Key West and Port Tampa Bay, and Port Canaveral now has an X-Ray port condition designation. Jacksonville’s JAXPORT is expected to issue a similar port condition over the coming days.
South Florida’s PortMiami and Port Everglades are currently in the clear and outside the cone of uncertainty. However, sailings from those ports to the Caribbean could be impacted.
Directed by fleet operations and meteorologists shoreside, the cruise lines are taking no chances with Hurricane Ian and are already starting to divert cruise ships to different regions and ports of call to avoid the storm.
Here’s what we are seeing so far.
Hurricane Ian Cruise Changes
MSC Cruises
The September 24th seven-night sailing of MSC Seashore from PortMiami will now overnight in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, from Wednesday into Thursday afternoon.
Royal Caribbean
The September 24th sailing of Mariner of the Seas from Port Canaveral has swapped the order of its two destinations. Instead of calling to Labadee and then Perfect Day at CocoCay, it’ll call to Perfect Day first.
Allure of the Seas has dropped Roatán to avoid Hurricane Ian and is picking up another sea day on its current voyage.
Liberty of the Seas is dropping Cozumel, Mexico, and adding another sea day, then hanging in the Gulf of Mexico before heading to Grand Cayman and Falmouth, Jamaica.
Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Ecstasy, which departs Mobile, Alabama today (September 26) for a six-day sailing, will visit Progreso, Mexico on Wednesday before visiting Cozumel, Mexico on Thursday. This change re-orders the visits, as the ship’s initial itinerary was set for a visit to Cozumel before Progreso.
Carnival Glory, which departed from New Orleans on Sunday, September 25 for an eight-day sailing, will now visit Mahogany Bay, Roatán, Belize, and Cozumel, Mexico. The ship had been scheduled to visit Key West, Florida, as well as Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas.
Carnival Cruise Line is monitoring whether there will be a change to the current sailing as well as the September 29 sailing on Carnival Paradise, which homeports in Tampa. In an email to booked guests, the line said that although it has not made any changes yet, “there is a possibility that Carnival Paradise‘s return to Tampa could be delayed due to the storm.”
Cruise Lines Taking Wait-and-See Approach
Regarding some ports such as Jacksonville, cruise lines are taking a wait-and-see approach until a clearer path is defined before making any decisions. This also varies on port conditions issued by the U.S. Coast Guard and local port authorities.
Royal Caribbean’s Chief Meteorologist James Van Fleet said “Ships coming in Thursday through this weekend in Port Canaveral, I need another day to line up the center of Ian, so we will be able to lean in to exactly what the Port will get this week.”
Grand Turk Port Closed Still
Aside from Hurricane Ian diversions, the Grand Turk Cruise Center still remains closed after the pier sustained damage when the category three Hurricane Fiona hit on Tuesday. Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras, Carnival Freedom, and Carnival Sunrise will all skip the port this upcoming week in exchange for a day in either Nassau or Bimini, Bahamas.
As always, monitor your emails and text alerts from your cruise line for the most up-to-date information.
You can keep up with the latest track of Hurricane Ian on the National Hurricane Center website.
Are you currently sailing? Submit any itinerary changes to [email protected]
Updated: Monday, September 26, 2022 at 5:25 PM EST
