The official Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30. Hurricane season is not a reason to cancel cruise plans or to slip into panic mode. Here's why a cruise may be a better choice than an island destination during hurricane season:
Suppose you have chosen a lovely Eastern Caribbean island on which to vacation in say, September. To your regret this lovely Eastern Caribbean island winds up in the direct path of a hurricane while you are enjoying your week in a tropical paradise. Unfortunately, resorts and islands tend to remain fixed objects (at least prior to the hurricane) and can not pick up and move to a safer location. Two things may, and probably will, occur:
- You will be evacuated home - end of room service and frothy drinks with pineapple slices, umbrellas, fancy glasses, maraschino cherries and little plastic swords or
- Your resort will batten down the hatches, usually the island will lose electricity, experience coastal flooding and sustain significant wind damage.You will enjoy the remainder of your vacation without air conditioning, hot meals, icy drinks and running water. The roof of your room may leak.
On the other hand, rather than limit your vacation to one island, for your vacation you choose to take a week long cruise to the Easter Caribbean, visiting several islands. Once again, that nasty old hurricane comes barreling towards the Eastern Caribbean, presenting an unsettling forecast for your itinerary. In this case, ships having a tendency not to stay rooted where they are, the captain and cruise line will make a decision to change the itinerary to avoid the storm. You'll still be on board a beautiful luxury cruise, the drinks will continue to pour, the a/c to work and wonderful meals will be served in the dining rooms. You will have top class entertainment, the casinos will remain open, shops will be selling souvenirs and sunblock and the ship will function as usual. True, you may not get to visit the islands on your original itinerary, you may spend an additional day or two at sea rather than in port. But 99% of the time your vacation will not be cancelled, you will not be evacuated home and you will not spend the remainder of your holiday wearing a garbage bag that has been re-purposed as a rain slicker.
Now let's say you've made your choice to cruise but you can't get to your cruise or island destination, (which it turns out was not in the way of the storm, but the storm is heading for your home state of New York or North Carolina) because your airline or cruise line stops offering service for at least 24 consecutive hours due to severe weather. This is very similar to Newark Airport shutting down at Christmas because of a blizzard - but that was soooo last year. THAT'S WHY YOU BUY INSURANCE WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR BOOKING.
To maximize vacation protection from storms and hurricanes, travelers should buy insurance when they make their travel plans and before a storm or hurricane is announced. Once the National Weather Service issues a warning for a storm or hurricane, it is considered a foreseeable event. Policies purchased on or after the warning date do not cover losses related to that event.
So continue to book, continue to travel, take advantage of some extremely good pricing available RIGHT NOW for this fall, winter and even next spring. Don't panic. Don't hide in the closet.
And if the above still doesn't reassure you, book a European River Cruise - the Danube is lovely this time of year!
