Norwegian Breakaway Sailing Early

Tropical Storm Hermine is heading up the East Coast and it is causing a change in Norwegian Breakaway's turnaround at New York on Sunday (September 4).

The ship will depart at 1:30pm, and Norwegian Cruise Line is asking passengers to begin checking in at 9:30am on Sunday. With the new sailing time, passengers are required to be aboard by 12:30pm.

The early departure should allow Norwegian Breakaway to sail ahead of the storm's arrival in the area. At this point, no other changes to the itinerary are planned.

Other Things You'll Want to Know - September 2, 2016

CND subscribers also read about:

• Pride of America sailing early to avoid Hurricane Lester
• Costa Luminosa's round the world cruise
• The first Transatlantic Fashion Week aboard Queen Mary 2
• The final voyage of Costa Concordia

Details appeared in the September 2 edition of Cruise News Daily.

Fasten Your Seatbelts - It's Going to Be a Bumpy Night

It sounds almost like Margo Channing was planning to sail aboard Pride of America from Honolulu Saturday night.

Hurricane Lester is taking a more northerly path than Madeline just did, and it appears as if all of the Hawaiian Islands are going to be getting some wind and rain from Lester. Oahu is now under a hurricane watch, and the latest advisory from the National Weather Service says the wind and rain from Lester should reach Oahu on Saturday evening.

The complete story appeared in the September 1 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

A Further Minor Adjustment

Pride of America is still dealing with Hurricane Madeline in Hawaii, and Norwegian Cruise Line says they will keep the ship at sea on Thursday (after cruising off the Na Pali coast today, Wednesday).

The line said Pride of America will now have an extended port call at Nawiliwili (Kauai) on Friday, not leaving 6pm instead of the normal 2pm from that port. 

Details appeared in the August 31 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Aloha, Madeline

It's not getting much coverage on the Mainland, but there are two hurricanes headed toward Hawaii, and Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America is there year round, so you know what that means.

Hurricane Madeline is approaching from the west and will pass south of the islands, so Norwegian is moving the ship to the west.

Details appeared in the August 30 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Cruise News Daily Headlines for December 3, 2014

* Where to Find the Best of British Art
When P&O’s Britannia enters service in March, it is going to be filled with everything British and represent the best of Britain. That includes the art that will be included in the collection aboard. Actually, it will be Britain’s largest floating art collection.

* Did You Miss It?
The 2014 Atlantic hurricane season officially ended last Sunday. It did so without seeing much activity.

* Schettino Testimony Continues
Francesco Schettino, the captain of Costa Concordia, continued testimony in his trial in Grosseto, Italy today, in much the same way as it did yesterday.

The complete articles appeared in the e-mail edition of Cruise News Daily delivered to our subscribers.

Cruise News Daily Headlines for October 17, 2014

* Ebola Hysteria Affects Carnival MagicCarnival Cruise Lines advised passengers aboard Carnival Magic last night that one of their fellow passengers was a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where two ebola patients had been treated, and the CDC had requested the woman be isolated from other passengers, although it said other passengers and crew members were not at risk.
   As usual, there was more to the story, but the story seems to be growing out of proportion due to news media and governmental hysteria.

* Hurricane Gonzalo Closes Bermuda
Bermuda is experiencing a near-direct hit by Hurricane Gonzalo tonight, and the government has asked visitors (and cruise lines) to give them a few days for clean up before arriving on the island. That has prompted two cruise ships to change course for next week.

* Surprise! We’re in Bremerhaven
If you’ve been wondering why you haven’t heard anything about Quantum of the Seas, it’s because it has been out on a second set of sea trials in the North Sea.
   The plan had been to bring it to Blohm + Voss on Sunday for some final adjustments, but that’s not going to happen due to the low water level in the Elbe River.

The complete articles appeared in the e-mail edition of Cruise News Daily delivered to our subscribers.

Cruise News Daily Headlines for November 27, 2013

* Silver Wind Returns
Silversea’s Silver Wind has returned to service following a two-week dry dock in Palermo partially remodeled, but everywhere freshened up.

* Did You Miss Something?
In case you hadn’t realized it, this is hurricane season, and it wraps up on Saturday.

Contrary to all the predictions of above-average storm activity this year, the Atlantic hurricane season was easy to miss because it had the fewest hurricanes in three decades.

* Engines Sold Separately
If you buy a car, it comes with an engine. You might have a couple of options to upgrade it, but it’s a given that some engine comes with the car. Most cruisers never think about it, but when a cruise line builds a ship, the engines are ordered separately and are chosen in conjunction with engineers from the shipyard.

What brings this up is that Carnival has just chosen the engines that will power Carnival Vista, the 135,500-ton ship that Fincantieri will deliver in the spring of 2016. More

The complete articles appeared in the e-mail edition of Cruise News Daily delivered to our subscribers.

Hurricane Isaac Delays Carnival Valor Turnaround at Miami

The Port of Miami is expected to close by 11:00pm on Saturday night. Carnival Valor was scheduled to turn around at Miami on Sunday, August 26 (2012). It will, instead, remain at sea until the port reopens, which is expected at noon on Monday.

Sunday's scheduled sailing will be delay until Monday, August 27 and operate as a 5-day cruise. The call at Key West will be canceled. The new 5-day itinerary call at Grand Cayman and Montego Bay. Departure time on Monday is expected to be at 8:00pm.

Passengers are being offered the option to either cancel with a full refund, or if they choose to sail on the 5-day cruise on Monday, they will receive a one-day prorated refund of their cruise fare, and they will also receive a $50 per person shipboard credit.

Hurricane Isaac Relocates Carnival Legend Turnaround

The Port of Tampa will close at 3am Sunday until Hurricane Isaac passes in the Gulf. Carnival Legend was scheduled to turnaround at Tampa, but will turnaround at Port Canaveral instead.

Carnival Legend will arrive at Port Canaveral on Sunday, August 26 (2012) at 8:00am. Carnival will provide complimentary motorcoach service for passengers from the port to the Port of Tampa and Tampa International Airport. It is an approximately two and a half hour drive.

For passengers who were scheduled to on embark on Carnival Legend on Sunday, August 26, Carnival will be providing complimentary motorcoach service from Tampa to Port Canaveral. At this point, Carnival Legend will operate its scheduled itinerary as planned. The ship will return to Tampa on Sunday, September 3 as scheduled.

Hurricane Isaac Reschedules Allure of the Seas Turnaround

Even though Hurricane Isaac will not be hitting South Florida directly, tropical storm force winds are currently extending out 205 miles from the center, so they will be affecting operations at Port Everglades. Royal Caribbean has, therefore, rescheduled next week's sailing of Allure of the Seas.

Sunday's turnaround has been delayed until Tuesday, August 28.

Passengers on that sailing are asked not to arrive at Port Everglades until 11:30am on Tuesday. Check-in and boarding will be between 11:30am and 4:00pm.

The shortened cruise length will necessitate a change of itinerary. Allure of the Seas will spend Wednesday at sea, and call at Cozumel on Thursday, August 30. Friday will be another sea day, and on Saturday, September 1, Allure will visit Nassau. Allure of the Seas will then return to Port Everglades as scheduled on Sunday.

Customers who are on the shortened cruise will receive an onboard credit, the amount of which will be based on their stateroom category. (The amount will cover both the refund for the shortened cruise and provide a small compensation for the inconvenience.) They will also receive a future cruise credit of 10% of the price they paid for the August 26 cruise. The details of the offers will be explained in a letter delivered to the stateroom.

Passengers who are currently aboard Allure for the current cruise which departed Port Everglades on Sunday, August 19, will remain aboard the ship for a couple bonus days and arrive in Port Everglades Tuesday morning, August 28.

Royal Caribbean is automatically adjusting return air flights for passengers who purchased air arrangements from them. The line is also opening their phone and internet lines to other passengers who need to contact airlines to adjust their return flights.

Last update Saturday, August 25, 2012, 12:10pm

Hurricane Paula Changes Itineraries

Hurricane Paula formed in the western Caribbean and this week is affecting ships planning midweek calls at Yucatan ports.

Carnival, Celebrity and Holland America are all reporting itinerary changes to avoid the storm.


Details appeared in the October 13, 2010, issue of Cruise News Daily.

Alex Has Little Impact on Cruise Industry

Tropical Storm Alex (who also occasionally has become Hurricane Alex) is again over the Gulf of Mexico, now between the Yucatan Peninsula and the Mexican mainland. As of 5pm, it is now expected to make landfall slightly south of the border just after midnight on Thursday, so it appears its effects on the cruise industry are finished.

The impact on cruise ships has been minimal, with only three ships having to change itineraries. The only ships reporting changes were Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas (June 24 sailing), Carnival Ecstasy (June 26 sailing) and Carnival Triumph (June 26 sailing).

Details were in the June 29, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Whose Hurricane Forecast Is More Accurate?

Two or three times each year before hurricane season, some "expert" group issues their prediction for the season, and no matter what it is, "highly active" or "quiet," the news media gets all excited and jumps all over it. These predictions are really of no value, other than giving the news media something to use to boost readership or viewership and try to whip them into a frenzy. We point this out at least once a year.

We say these long range predictions have no value for three reasons. (1) They aren't accurate. Historically their records are dismal. (2) They don't predict where they will go. The area they cover is vast, covering the entire Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the far western Atlantic ocean all the way up the eastern coast of the US and Canada. What happens one place has no affect on a location a couple hundred miles away, so saying there will be eight named storms this year is so generalized, it's meaningless. (3) It makes no difference how many storms there will be. You can't prepare any differently. You must be prepared each year to watch storms as they form, and then take appropriate action if the current one heads toward you.

To our audience of cruisers, the numbers of predicted storms are even more meaningless. Cruise lines monitor the storms from the moment they form, and move their ships out of the way. They don't want their half-billion-dollar assets anywhere close to harms way. Now that may mean your cruise will not follow the exact itinerary as you planned (or it could even be completely changed), but it does almost guarantee that your vacation will happen - as opposed if you plan a land-based vacation that happens to be in the projected path of the storm. Occasionally, very occasionally, it does affect your port of embarkation (or disembarkation) on turnaround day, and that does create some turmoil, but generally, it means things operate a day late, and the cruise line assists in some way getting you there at the proper time.

Finally, someone seems to be agreeing with us. Our friends at the National Center for Public Policy Research are taking National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to task for the lack of accuracy of their long-range forecasts of hurricane seasons, because they too have discovered they really aren't very accurate - especially considering the time and money spent on them because, according to the Center, we as humans just don't know enough about our atmosphere yet.

So the National Center for Public Policy Research published the video below that will pit their expert's forecast (which was much less costly to produce) against NOAA's forecast.



As the Center says in their press release, the intent of the video isn't to needle NOAA for their erroneous forecasts, but to make the point about how little we understand about our climate. NOAA does provide a vital service in tracking the storms once they form and then predicting their paths in the short term, and we wouldn't want to do without them there.

The Center does make an interesting offer to NOAA however. "If, at the end of the hurricane season, Dr. Hansimian's forecast turns out to be more accurate than NOAA's, we challenge the agency to make him an honorary member of NOAA's hurricane specialists unit," said David Ridenour of the Center. "In return, if NOAA's forecast is more accurate, we'll include a prominently-displayed mea culpa on our website." They are still waiting to hear back from NOAA.