Hurricane Ian Forces Cruise Ships to Alter Course

With Hurricane Ian bearing down on Florida’s west coast and the U.S. Coast Guard setting port X-Ray conditions (winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour are expected within the next 48 hours) for Tampa, several cruise lines have already been forced to reroute ships. 

Here are the changes announced so far.

Carnival
Carnival Ecstasy, which departed on a six-day cruise on September 26 from Mobile, will reorder its scheduled port calls, switching Progreso, Mexico to Wednesday and Cozumel to Thursday instead of vice versa.

Carnival Elation, which is currently on a five-day itinerary out of Jacksonville, replaced a scheduled visit to Princess Cay with a sea day today, September 27, due to adverse weather. Additionally, the ship will now visit Freeport on September 28, instead of a scheduled sea day. 

Carnival Glory, which departed September 25 from New Orleans for an eight-day sailing, will be visiting Mahogany Bay (Roatan), Belize and Cozumel, instead of its previously scheduled port calls to Key West, Freeport and Nassau.

Carnival Paradise, which is currently at sea but is homeported out of Tampa is due back on Thursday, September 29. Today’s (September 27) visit to Cozmel has been extended overnight. It is unclear at this time whether the ship will be able to return to port on Thursday or not. Cruisers on the sailing scheduled to depart on the 29th have been told not to come to the terminal unless they receive confirmation from Carnival that it is okay to do so.

Celebrity Cruises
Celebrity Infinity, which departed Port Everglades on September 24, replaced stops in Belize and Cozumel with ports calls to Nassau and Labadee (Haiti).

MSC Cruises
MSC Seashore, which departed Miami on September 24, has swapped out its scheduled Western Caribbean itinerary for an Eastern Caribbean one. The ship is now visiting Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic), as well as Ocean Cay and Nassau, both in The Bahamas.

MSC Divina, which is currently at sea, is homeported out of Orlando’s Port Canaveral. While its itinerary remains out of the hurricane’s projected path, guests were advised before sailing that conditions along Florida’s west coast may prevent the ship from returning to Port Canaveral on the morning of September 29. Guests were given the option to cancel for a full refund or rebook on another date/ship. 

Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Sky, which departed Miami on September 25, has swapped out its scheduled Western Caribbean itinerary. Instead of visiting Grand Cayman, Roatan, Harvest Caye (Belize) and Cozumel, the ship is stopping at San Juan, Saint Thomas, Tortola and Nassau.

Royal Caribbean
Allure of the Seas, which departed from Port Everglades on September 25, is skipping its port stop in Roatan, scheduled for today.

Liberty of the Seas, which departed from Galveston on September 25, is skipping its port stop in Cozumel, also scheduled for today.

Mariner of the Seas, which departed for a five-night sailing from Port Canaveral on September 24, skipped its scheduled stop at Labadee on September 26.