Hurricane Sandy Alters Cruise Ship Courses

Hurricane Sandy is causing chaos across the Caribbean and the Southern states of North America. The storm is affecting cruise ship itineraries.

As the storm picks up strength just South of the island of Jamaica, cruise lines are adjusting their Caribbean cruise itineraries to avoid Sandy, who has now been upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 2 hurricane.

Royal Caribbean International’s Allure of the Seas along with Carnival Valor, Carnival Glory and Carnival Pride, have all taken action to try and avoid the storm

Carnival Spokesman, Vance Gulliksen noted that the Carnival Valor itinerary had been adjusted to bypass Montego Bay, Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Instead the ship will sail to Costa Maya, Mexico on Wednesday and call at Cozumel on Thursday.

Carnival Pride will skip calls at Half Moon Cay and Freeport in the Bahamas and will instead call at Port Canaveral, Florida.

Carnival Glory will also avoid Freeport, doing a shortened call at Nassau then heading towards Port Canaveral.

Allure of the Seas will skip Falmouth and instead stay at sea.

Hurricane Sandy is currently moving across Cuba

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm hit Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 114 mph. The Miami center said that Sandy, which had strengthened to a category 2 hurricane, was located just inland over south-eastern Cuba and moving north, northeast at 15 mph, and is expected to remain a hurricane as it moves through the Bahamas.