Tropical Storm Ida reroutes cruise ships

While tropical storm Ida has been scaled down from hurricane status, she’s still causing some havoc to cruise ships sailing out of the USA.

Carnival Cruise line has had to delay the sailing of two ships in the Gulf and they are both inaugural sailings. The first is the maiden sailing of Carnival Fantasy out of Mobile, which we reported on yesterday – that’s been rescheduled to be a five day cruise leaving on Wednesday instead of today.

The second is Carnival Triumph’s inaugural sailing out of New Orleans, the 2,758-passenger ship will now offer a truncated three rather than five day cruise from her new home port.

People who’d booked for that first Carnival Fantasy cruise will be given a pro-rata refund of the cruise fare that they paid to compensate them for the missing day, and passengers on the reduced Carnival Triumph cruise will be offered a 50% refund. Passengers on both voyages have also been told that they have an option of cancelling their cruise booking and receiving either a full refund or booking on a later cruise. Carnival has also had to alter the itineraries of other ships sailing in the area, as has Princess cruises.

If you have a cruise booked in hurricane season, expect to miss port calls and find itineraries changed to cope with the turbulent weather conditions – and check your insurance to find out what you’re entitled to if your cruise is cancelled or rerouted.