Cruising during hurricane season: What to know and should you go?

Table Of Content

• The 1-item upgrade you need for a better cruise ship cabin experience (it’s already in your house)
• When is hurricane season for cruises?
• Read Next: Park & Cruise Hotels for Every Port in America
• What happens if my flight is canceled and I can't get to the port because of the storm?
• Am I entitled to compensation if my itinerary is altered by a storm?

Cruise lines can simply change the itinerary, route, or departure port in order to avoid a storm instead of canceling a cruise. They can also just delay your trip so that it won’t be impacted by the hurricane in question. It is important to know how much money you can save if you're able to cruise during hurricane season. To compare, let's look at two sailings onboard Carnival Celebration, one of Carnival Cruise Line's newest ships. Cruise lines are aware that changes in the itinerary can also affect other travel aspects such as flights, rental cars, et cetera.

The 1-item upgrade you need for a better cruise ship cabin experience (it’s already in your house)

Jodi Grundig is a writer for our sister site Cruise.Blog (and she has her own blog at Family Travel Magazine) was on the Disney Wish when the sailing had to be extended by a couple days. It was supposed to be a 4-night cruise, but at the time of writing will end up being 6-nights. There were definitely some guests upset we would not be able to visit Roatan, and that's to be expected because no one wants to be disappointed. In speaking with crew members, a few shared anecdotally some guests actually question why the ship doesn't simply sail into the storm to make the scheduled port on time. Finally, make sure that you purchase the travel insurance as soon as possible, as to file any claims under a travel insurance policy, you have to have bought the policy before the storm was formed and named. If you purchase the policy afterward, you will not be entitled to any compensation.

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When is hurricane season for cruises?

If a hurricane does impact your cruise, it’s essential to have a backup plan for travel. Cruise ships have extensive emergency procedures in place in the event of an emergency. All passengers must participate in a safety drill at the beginning of the trip, which includes instructions on evacuating the ship in an emergency. Crew members are also trained to handle various emergencies, from medical emergencies to fires and floods. During my cruise, our ship went around Cuba, and by the time we made our way westward again, the ship stayed far enough away from Hurricane Ian to keep everything quite calm.

Read Next: Park & Cruise Hotels for Every Port in America

They are exceptionally considerate by offering passengers free benefits such as Wi-Fi to make any necessary changes to travel plans in the event of shortened or extended trips. Cruise lines will sometimes make a decision to make a cruise shorter, or even longer by adding days, to avoid bringing a cruise ship into a storm. Princess has expertise, longevity and access to some of the best tools in the industry. Our team is constantly monitoring safety conditions for guests to make sure that you can cruise with comfort and peace of mind.

You won't get a refund if you cancel a cruise to avoid a storm

If attractively priced fall Caribbean cruises have piqued your interest, make sure you’re going into your vacation planning process fully informed with your eyes wide open. Fall is hurricane season in the Caribbean and South Florida, where many Caribbean cruises depart from. That’s why we personally let hurricane season have no effect in planning on when to take a cruise. There is a greater chance it could cause a change to the itinerary, but even that chance is small and impossible to know.

What happens if my flight is canceled and I can't get to the port because of the storm?

By keeping an eye on the weather forecasts, purchasing travel insurance, and understanding the procedures of the cruise line, you can ensure a safe and enjoyable cruise vacation. Hurricane season is the time of the year when tropical storms and hurricanes are most likely to occur because of mild weather. So, if bad weather forces you to miss or reroute a flight, miss part of a cruise because of a travel delay or get stuck unexpectedly in a city overnight, you should be covered under a travel insurance plan. Cruise ships can typically "outrun" a hurricane -- storms tend to move about 8 to 10 knots, while ships can attain speeds of up to 22 knots and beyond. Passengers might experience rough seas as their ship skirts the edges of a storm. A good attitude is also important, as frustrations can run high when a Caribbean cruise turns into a Bahamas and Florida (or even a Canada and New England) cruise.

But, just because your ship may not feel the direct impacts of a hurricane doesn’t mean it can’t have an impact on your vacation. In fact, the most common impact hurricanes have on cruises are impacts to itineraries. Occasionally, a ship does get caught in a sudden thunderstorm, and the video and pictures can be dramatic. While cruise ships are some of the largest ocean-going vessels, they are still no match for the power of Mother Nature.

Am I entitled to compensation if my itinerary is altered by a storm?

To avoid remorse, my advice is to go into any hurricane-season booking assuming you will not be compensated for storm-caused itinerary changes and not be able to get a refund if you cancel the trip at the last minute. One problem that cruisers encounter in these (relatively rare) situations where a cruise line cancels a sailing due to a storm is that the cancellation usually comes at the last minute. That could leave you in limbo in the days leading up to your cruise, wondering whether your cruise is on or not. This happened in 2017 when some lines delayed departures out of Florida as Hurricane Irma approached. The lines that delayed departures allowed passengers to cancel for a refund in the form of a cruise credit. Alternatively, passengers could proceed with the shortened trips and receive a prorated refund for the missed days.

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Just as important, you should purchase your travel insurance immediately after booking your cruise. Most insurance companies set time limits on purchasing policies that include hurricane coverage. Generally, you must have purchased a travel insurance policy before the hurricane is named in order to be covered. There are also travel insurance policies that require you to purchase within a certain timeframe (usually 14 to 21 days) of making your initial trip deposit.

The fine print in your cruise contract gives lines the right to substitute and/or eliminate ports if and when necessary. However, you may be entitled to refunds on prepaid port taxes or fees when ports are missed. Although the exact paths and initial development of individual hurricanes are hard to predict, the season is generally busiest between mid-August and mid-September.

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There’s simply no telling when or where a storm will pop up, nor which direction it may take. If you don’t want to sail at all during the season — which runs from June through November — you’re excluding literally half the year from your schedule. If you notice a storm pop up a few days before your cruise, keep a close eye on your email, so you don't miss any important information from your cruise line. It is also a great time to try a southern itinerary to destinations that rarely experience hurricanes, such as the ABC Islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire. We were nervous wrecks in the days leading up to the cruise, but we honestly had a great time (and have done more than 20 cruises since lol).

It’s important to check with the cruise line to see what compensation options are available. For one thing, the latter part of the hurricane season falls when most kids are back in school. You still have the tail-end of summer, meaning cruising out of ports like New York City in still-gorgeous weather but with fewer families. Given that many clans try to fit four or five people into a stateroom, the fewer families on any sailing, the lower the overall number of people aboard.

It’s important to remember that if there is an itinerary change, the cruise lines are doing this to keep everyone safe. If you’re thinking about cruising in hurricane season, there are a few things you should know before setting sail. While these storms occur throughout the world, you likely hear about them parading through the waters of the northern Atlantic — most often the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. But weather reports don’t always mean that you can’t still relax on board and get a taste of Caribbean culture.

During the cruise, we got information about what the storm was doing and how our ship was dealing with track changes. Cruise ships can sail faster than hurricanes can move, which gives them the ability to out run the changing path of any storm. Per the cruise contract that you agreed to when you booked the cruise, no compensation is required to be given if your itinerary changes. That means that if your cruise changes from an Eastern Caribbean cruise to a Western one, you will not be compensated for the change.